Wait and See

Sunday June 3 – Wednesday June 6, 2012
Lithia Springs Park Site 40 Lithia, Florida

 

SUNDAY

 

 

It is a lovely rare cool morning down on the river front. There is always something to enjoy.  The flowers along the water, the lovely cypress and its knees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canoes are coming down by 8am. Probably the earliest I’ve seen them. Birds are singing all over. Wish I were a good enough birder to recognize them by ear. In this jungle it is very hard to ever get a sighting.

 

This has been a very quiet week-end. I suspect everyone came out for Memorial Day Weekend last week-end and they don’t do two in a row. It’s been nice. Just the sounds of nature. Few voices, no radios.

 

 

I’m not only reading Peter Matthiessen’s Shadow Country aloud in the evenings but in the mornings in addition to my journal I’m reading Lili Wright’s Learning to Float. It’s a memoire which seems a lot like a blog written after the fact.  It recounts a trip she takes down the East Coast from Rockport Maine to Key West. One of the characters she meets is an older woman who when asked her age says  “Too old to start over, too young to settle for this”.  I ponder.

 

 

 

MONDAY

 

Go running this morning. The temperature is 65 which lately is about the coolest one can expect at sunrise.

Today starts our second week of this stay in Site 40. We plan to leave Sunday and go probably to Oscar Scherer again although rain is predicted steadily for the next 10 days. Doesn’t make much sense to pay $50 more a week to stay there if I can’t use the beach.  I guess we’ll see.

 

 

As I reported in the last blog, we seem to have low voltage problems in site 40 every time someone moves into site 39.  It happened on Saturday.  Those folks moved out on Sunday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it happened again this afternoon,  just for curiosity, I walked up the driveway to see who it was this time.  Site 39 is just at the top of our drive and across the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turns out to be a distant cousin of Winnona.  A Winnebago Brave vintage 1977.  No AC, and they were plugged into a 110 volt outlet.  Things sure have changed with the Brave.  Winnona has two air conditioners. But it’s difficult to understand how such a low draw as 110 could affect our voltage.  There must be more than meets the eye.

 

Later that day, we are told that they will be closing the Lithia Springs campground this summer to upgrade all the electricity. The close down date hasn’t been announced although they plan to reopen September 1^st so it will have to be soon.  Possibly this will  be our last stay at Lithia Springs whether we want it to be or not.  We still have time on our meter but they may not be accepting anyone’s money.  We had thought we would come back here for another 8 days before taking a last vacation prior to moving into the long term stay park on July 1^st.  I guess we’ll wait and see.

 

 

Since we have to stay inside anyway, I decide to do something that has been on “the list” since last fall.  We’d been told by the Winnebago technician in Forest City when we had work done there in the fall that there is no need to buy the special product for preserving and protecting your rubber slide seals.  He said just coat them with corn starch.  Great we think.  Until we try to do it tonight.  Even my small hands have a hard time getting to those seals. 

 

 

The pictures David takes are of the easy part, the bedroom slide sides.  He does not get me trying to put my hand between the living room slide and the pantry or standing on top of the sofa to reach up and back to get the top seals.  Not sure how much all this rain is going to affect our efforts here.  Not sure this was the smartest time to do it but it’s when we had the time.  Guess we’ll see.

 

 

 

 

Tonight is the full moon. I love to watch it rise over the water. Here in our jungle campsite at best I can catch a glimpse of it through an opening in the trees. Prior to the current situation, I always tried to do a full moon hike. It’s great being out in the dark when it isn’t really dark.

 

 

 

TUESDAY

It never got below 75 last night. I find that pretty muggy for sleeping so I have to run the fan. I’m wondering if others have a problem leaving the AC on all night with its noise waking them up when it comes on and off. Do some RV’s have quiet air conditioners?
Never thought it would matter that much as, like everyone, I intended to follow the weather and for the most part be where I needed neither heat nor air or at least not much.

 

I am sitting down on the river at sunrise this morning. Of course I can’t see the sun rise from there with jungle on both sides but the changes in the light are wonderful.

David’s next to last Velcade shot is scheduled for 9:45 so we get in the car. Drive down the road and before we even leave the park the “check engine” light comes on. I need NO MORE problems at this point so I insist that we stop and see what that could mean. If we are late then we are late.  I read in the manual that it means you need to go directly to the shop and don’t do any fast starts or high speed driving on the way.

Well now, what is high speed driving?? 50?? 60?? 70?? I decide 45 is good and since these are county roads all 10 miles to Brandon we are able to do that. We pull into Precision Auto Parts who rescued us when we had the problem leak in the fuel line back in March. Mike comes out with his electronic code reader and says it’s a pre heat on the emission control system and not to worry.  Bring it back at the end of next week and he’ll fix it. OK then. Wonder what that will cost?   I guess we’ll wait and see.

 

Since it’s the next to last visit to Florida Cancer Specialists and David has been such a good customer I take some pictures to remember them by.  The building and the people inside.  This is a hematology practice so there are lots of various cancers being treat here.  Dr. Wright was David’s hematologist and continues to do his induction therapy since it is closer to us and easier to get to than Moffitt where he would have the same drugs, it would just take longer to do.  He’s been coming here twice a week for 4 months now.

 

 

An hour later we are on our way to finalize the plan for a campsite during the two month transplant period.. On our way. just after we get on the interstate, the skies open up and it pours rain so badly we can hardly see the lane markers. The water is splashing up all over the place. No place to pull off due to the constant work that never seems to end on I 75. No shoulder. White knuckle driving for about 15 miles. Being in Ruby is bad enough. I would have a heart attack if we were in Winnona.

 

We look at the sites available for 2 months beginning on July 1^st, notice that although the park is over 2 miles off of the interstate, the road to it curves back around and I 75 runs right by the back of the park. Those who have read my blog know how very much I enjoy interstate and train noise. Most of the park is full with what look like people into long term stays. They allow year long stays for $270 + electricity a month. So it’s no wonder.  BUT this park is the best I could find within 20 miles of Moffitt.  We put down our $200 deposit and are signed up to move into site 15 at Quail Run RV “Resort” on July 1. 

 

Do those of you who stay mainly or some in private campgrounds find that the web site paints a much better picture of the place than it looks when you get there?  We’ve looked at about 5 private parks now and have found that to be universally true. Some look A LOT different, actually totally different and some only a little. But bear that in mind if you check out the Quail Run website. Were I recommending it, I’d say it would be a fine place for an over night even with the interstate noise especially if you could keep your windows closed or if you were visiting family and friends for up to a week.   Two months?  Guess we’ll see how it all pans out.

 

On our way back to Winnona we stop at Brusters but even they don’t have an ice cream flavor that will cheer up the doldrums. I spend $3.45 for one scoop of chocolate coconut almond that is OK.  I decide I won’t return until they have Jamaica Me Crazy.  I’m signing up on line to have them let me know. David goes around the corner to check tire prices.  Ruby needs two new ones before he goes in for the transplant.

I’m sure this will all make for some great stories Some Day.

 

 

WEDNESDAY

 

 

Out running again this morning before sun up.  The air is full of water, the skies are full of water but the ground has sucked the all day rain from yesterday right down.   The river seems up a bit but not as much as I would have thought.  The resurrection ferns just above the awning on the gorgeous Live Oak by our patio are just loving this moisture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily I return and David is able to do his walk before the rain starts again.  We have tofu scramble and has browns for breakfast.  Because of the rain, it doesn’t make the rig too warm.  Tastes delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It rains all afternoon.   I sit at the dinette and work while watching the rain on the river.  I order a copy of a book entitled Stem Cell Transplants from a Patient’s Perspective by Pat Killingsworth.  Pat had his transplant done at Moffitt and has one of the same doctors David does.  He has pretty much dedicated his life to this disease since he was diagnosed and has made a life out of it.  He does a blog, maintains a website named Help With Cancer, is a columnist for the Myeloma Beacon and a correspondent for the International Multiple Myeloma Foundation.  He may know more about this disease than most doctors and he for sure knows about it from a patient’s point of view.  I hope it will help David to know exactly what will be happening as he begins this enormous assault on his body.

 

We have left over pizza for lunch.  I read blog comments – FUN.  I write and send the regular semi-monthly email “Update on David” to his family and friends.  David reads entries on a list serve from other myeloma patients as well as the latest information on the recent American Society of Oncology Meetings in Chicago this past week.   I do some minor clean up on my laptop whose free space is approaching 25%.  Things run much better if you have enough free space to work with.

 

During a lull in the rain I run up to the grocery for some supplies.  We aren’t close enough to Whole Foods for a quick trip so I go to Sweetbay and try to be careful what I buy.  Once we start our daily visits to Moffitt in Tampa, Whole Foods will be easier to use.  I do greatly prefer my foods without corn syrup, corn oil,  high fructose corn syrup, Monsanto GMO soybeans, potatoes, peanuts and corn.    The only way I know to do that is to shop organic.

 

 

I have finally done it.  I’m all caught up on the blog. That is until tomorrow of course. J I suspect it only happens because of all the rain.  I can’t do much other than feel the jungle growing all around me.  It has rained all day long and is still raining.  I do a final check of the weather sites which again say the rain will continue all day tomorrow and Friday and…….  In fact, the 10 day forecast shows rain every day.  I think the drought may be over.  But it may doom a “vacation” trip to the beach.  Seems lots of things in life at this moment are up in the air.  Guess we’ll wait and see.