Surprise!

Friday May 18 & Saturday May 19, 2012
Lithia Springs Site 40, Lithia, Florida

 

I go out running this morning leaving David sleeping.  He gets up while I’m gone and after my shower, we have breakfast.  This morning is another Velcade shot for David and another Dex.   He feels well enough to drive himself to the clinic.  Good sign.   I spend the later morning on the river front.  His appointment isn’t until late in the morning so he isn’t back by the time I come up to make some lunch.

 

I am just finishing eating when I hear what sounds like a woodpecker tapping on the front of the coach.  I get up and look out the window.   Don’t see anything.   Sit back down.  Tap-tap-tap again.  This time I see someone right outside in front up by the passenger’s window but I can’t tell who it is.   With so few people in the park I assume it is the ranger and wonder what he can want.  I go outside and look in that direction.   There stands Gin and next to her with a camera pointed right at me is Syl.   See their blog for that surprised picture.

 

And it was…..WHAT A SURPRISE!   I thought they were at Cedar Point in North Carolina.  Their calendar said they were there through Tuesday the 15th but then was strangely silent.  I thought they just didn’t know where they were going.  But they knew all right and were trying to surprise us just like they did a couple of years ago bringing Howard and Linda Payne to our door when we were in North Carolina.

 

I get great big hugs from them and we sit down to talk about their being in Florida again for some necessary ‘Tawanda returns to Lazy Days’ work.  I think the only difference between buying a new coach and a used one is that the warranty covers the cost of work on the former but it still is just as much time and aggravation.   I keep expecting David and when he didn’t show up and it is way past his lunch time – remember David needs to eat 5 or 6 meals a day not just 3 – I call him up and tell him I need him to come home, I have something to show him. He knows something is up.

 

The Dex gives him enough rare energy that he goes to price tires for Ruby.  Later he admits he knew someone must have come to visit but he couldn’t think who.

He pulls up, they hide behind the coach.  He gets out trying to figure out whose car and then he gets it.  Even without the kayak racks, the North Carolina Plates give them away.

Big hugs for him too.  They give the best hugs.  I’m too busy enjoying all this to even think of getting my camera.

 

It is so nice to just sit back and chat and with friends.  And these great friends bring their own chairs, their own water, their own food.  There wasn’t anything we could do for them so we took them on a tour of the park.

First stop the spring where the water is low but nice for wading on a hot day.

 

Hmmm….maybe not quite so low as we thought.

 

They are both watching me walk on and get my shorts wet up to my waist.  That’s what they are smiling about.  But I don’t care, they’ll dry and the water was a wonderful 72 degrees.  But aren’t good friends supposed to laugh with you and not at you?  Guess they are leaving me behind since they know I won’t drown.

 

 

As we walk over to the natural spring, Gin picks up a tree frog hitch hiker who hops up her arm and over onto her shirt.

 

After we’ve all enjoyed him, she drops him off on a tree near the spring.  It’s pretty warm this afternoon so we soon return to the shade of the patio. 

 

Here’s what Gin and David do when they get together.  Gin knows all.  Yes it’s true she does.  So she’s figuring out what’s going on with my laptop and its sudden refusal to log onto the wireless router.  She figures it out, it’s too stupid to put on a blog.

 

 

Happily they agree to stay for a vegan pasta dinner of which I have no pictures unfortunately.   The bugs started biting and they needed to get back.  We were sorry to see them leave but grateful that they came over.  They sure picked up our afternoon.  Hope they will be around long enough for us to meet up again before they head out to meet Nancy and Bill at Frieghtliner school.  Gin said they’d have to sit at two different tables or they’d laugh their way through it.  Now that I know is for sure true.

 

Saturday pales by comparison.

I’m back out on the riverbank this morning.  Nothing is happening.  I’m reading a book by David Gessner when a white Ibis flies in.  I  look up to watch him but he immediately flies off and I soon see why.

Here comes an armada.  This is the beginning of warriors going up and down the river in canoe and kayaks all day long.  They are standing, sitting,

 

 

with dogs and fishing poles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One group goes by and a paddler asks if I’m the one who’s going to be serving the pancakes when they come back.  I tell him he must have heard it wrong but if he can remember where it is really happening he should let me know when he comes back by.   He tells me if I see a curly headed guy named Jason to say Hi.  Tell him you know him from Greece”.  Ok I say.

 

 

So in just a bit when a couple come by and the guy has curly hair….
”Aren’t you Jason”
…shocked look….”Yes, do I know you”???
He has passed me when I say
”Greece Right?”
He looks back,
”yes”???
He is clearly bamboozled.
The looks on his face are priceless. 

 

You never know where today’s fun might come from.  This was mine!

 

Less fun is that we have to leave this great site tomorrow having stayed the maximum 14 days.  But we have no where to go at this point.  We can’t find anything to reserve for over the Memorial Day week-end, next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.   I’ve been trying daily to see if any thing opens up at a State Park within 125 miles of us or less.  I don’t want David to have to come back any further than that at the end of what may not be a good “vacation week”.

So today we call Oscar Scherer.  I know they are completely booked for the week-end, all 104 sites, but have lots of spaces open during the week.  From having been there before I also know they have more than one “walk in” site.   On the phone, they can’t tell us FOR SURE but right now they have walk in spots.   Ok then….we’ll take a chance and if worst comes to worst we’ll have to leave early on Thursday and high tail it back to Hillsborough County and spend the week-end at one of their other first come first served parks.   Not all the week-enders can come on Thursday I think.  Only a few will have a 4 day week-end. 

So that’s the plan.

Since David still has some dex energy left from yesterday, we do a lot of our packing up for the move tomorrow.  Bike rack on car, bikes on rack, kayaks on car.  Chairs, tables, patio mat, table cloth in the basement.  I get up on the roof and sweep it down, clear off the awning and the slide toppers of tree debris, wash some stains off of the slide toppers. 

We’ll be traveling tomorrow back down south of Sarasota where there is a beach, drumming and ice cream.  Hope we can stay the entire 8 days of this “vacation” from doctors.

Rains

Wednesday May 17 and Thursday May 18, 2012
Lithia Springs Site 40, Lithia, Florida

 

Finally it rains.

I wake up to rain on the roof Wednesday morning. It sounds like a good hard rain but I know from experience that the RV magnifies the sound of rain quite a bit so I’ll need to go outside to really assess the situation.

 

I love rain on the roof but I love early mornings on the river bank too.  True to form, my mind is working on how to have both.  So I get the TIBU and put it to a new use as a rain umbrella.  The rain is light.  The perfect kind to soak into the ground.  I enjoy watching the drops hit the water and make overlapping circles.  Doesn’t take much to entertain me.  :-)  

 

 

 

 

When David wakes up, he takes these pictures of me from dinette window.  The rain comes and goes all day long and then picks up in earnest about 7:00 in the evening and pounds down all night long.  We think we might watch a Red Box DVD I picked up entitled W.E. written and directed by Madonna about a modern day young woman named Wallis after Wallis Simpson who is obsessed with the life of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when Christies auctions off many of their household possessions.  But the rain on the roof is so loud, we can’t even hear each other without screaming.  So that idea is scrapped.  But this rain is so needed, it’s been so long since there has been any real rain.  It is great sleeping music so we read some and go to bed early.  I’m anxious to see how our jungle looks tomorrow morning with this infusion of water.

 

I’m up and out early on Thursday to see how things look. 

 

Everything is SO green.  The resurrection ferns growing on the live oak that shades our campsite are totally awake and alive.  But try as I might I am unable to take a good picture of them over my head.   The sun foils every attempt.  So it’s either too bright or later in the day, too dark in the shade.

 

 

I start to go down to the river bank to see how much the river has risen. 

But when I get to the fence, I stop abruptly when I notice someone has arrived before me.   Can you see him on  a low waterside branch just to the left of where I was sitting yesterday??

 

 

This is a resident red shouldered hawk whose kee-aah kee-aah kee-aah I hear all around the park.  I’ve seen him flying up and down the river, over at the spring and to and from various trees in the camp sites.  But this is the best view I’ve had and for the longest time.  I stand frozen watching him watch the river and then fly across to the other side and land in a tree with his back to the water.  In the lower right of the picture below you can see the resurrection ferns on the tree branch.  They have been brown and dead looking for months.  Today they are green and shining as the hawk looks over his shoulder.

 

The river doesn’t actually look like it has risen any so I decide to walk over to the spring and see what has happened there. 

 

Site 40 is the last site in the campground and there is a trail that comes from it to the boat dock.

 

 

 

Unfortunately the trail isn’t marked at the boat dock end saying this does not go to the general campground area so we get folks thinking they are going on a hike along the river but end up in short order at our fire ring. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a pretty trail along the water.  Though short, it feels like walking through the jungle.  Seeing the river beside me as I walk along, makes me think of Casablanca.  I keep an eye out as I go looking to see if Rick and Ilsa are coming up the Alafia.

 

 

 

 

The spring is crystal clear and inviting.

 

I wade into the spring.  Its water is a cool 72 degrees. Lots of fish around my toes.  They look almost clear too.

 

 

 

But the water level doesn’t seem to be much higher here at the spring than at the river.  I guess it takes more than one over night pounding rain to make a difference in the water levels. 

 

When I walk down the spring run I find a visitor I haven’t seen here before.

 

The spoon bill is pink but not the bright red of breeding plumage.
Still he’s striking and that is definitely some bill.

 

 

Naturally I take zillions of pictures of the visitor and stay forever.  However I know the rules, don’t post TOO many pictures.  And especially not of the same thing. But it’s sure hard to choose.

Who knows how long I might have stayed to watch him if he hadn’t he flown off over the spring and toward the river.

 

What makes him fly off is the official ATV being driven by the spring flow monitors who zoom from the main spring, down along the spring run and over to the 2nd totally natural spring.   Not sure if their arrival has anything to do with the rain or if they just monitor the flow of the springs on a regular basis.  But they are the only lucky ones who ever get to go over into this beautiful spring any more.

 

  By now it is past lunch time and I am hungry so I take the jungle path back to Winnona.   What a great morning!

 

David is taking it easy, paying close attention to how he feels.

His back is not bothering him as much so we are cautiously optimistic but he still has some insomnia and the post dex fatigue has returned early it seems.

He doesn’t do much these two days.  He works on some minor repairs which he enjoys.  Things that don’t require a lot of energy.  He fixes both breakfast and dinner.  I offer to do the dishes but he’d rather do them and have me read aloud from Peter Matthiessen's Shadow Country.  This link is a bare bones wiki discussion of this award winning book.  The book is anything but dull and is beautifully written.  During many weeks of dinner dishes, we’ve done nearly 600 of 900 pages of this story about the history of south Florida and E.J. Watson.  The only days we don’t read are those when he is just too tired to cook or clean up.

 

 

After lunch it is time to try out my new screened room. 

David offers to help me in this set up effort but I decline although the label on the screen case clearly says in all capital letters at the bottom of this photo…..

 

However, the reason I bought this one was the manufacturer Coleman said “easy 5 minute set up”.  So it is time to try it out and find out whether I can do this by myself.  That has now become a necessary criteria for anything purchased.   If I can’t and they are right about this BOLD STATEMENT, then the room will have to go back 

 

Here are the results. 

TA DA!!! 

I guess we’ll keep it at least long enough to test drive it with mosquitoes.  But no need to encourage them to show up any time soon.

 

My only regret is that I don’t look more smug in this picture.

Otters, Aggravation and FINALLY

Monday May 14 & Tuesday May 15, 2012
Lithia Springs Park Site 40, Lithia Florida

 

I am rewarded for getting out early on Monday.

I tip toe past David who is asleep on the floor.  I’m often awake before sunrise but seldom get out.  In our previous life, I was always the early riser, David not so much but now I am very concerned about waking him in case he is in the midst of a rare good sleep.   Today he is snoring so I take that for a good omen and slip out.  Boy am I glad I did. 

 

I am sitting silently in my regular spot on the river bank when I notice a sound in the water and look up to see a river otter swimming by me.  Then I notice there are two.   They swim on up the river so I move up to a better vantage point as one brings a fish up on a small sandy spit just across from where I stand beside the cypress tree.  Then the other otter comes up and takes the fish or perhaps the fisherman give it up.  There isn’t really a scuffle.  As if that isn’t enough, a third smaller otter comes up but the current fish owner isn’t feeling generous.  There is no sharing.  The fisherman goes back in the water and in a flash comes back with another fish which the youngster carries up the bank and disappears.  The Otter with the fish is ripping it apart and eating while the fisherman goes back into the water.  I’m thinking he’s off to get his own breakfast.  But I never see him again.  The remaining adult sits across from me eating the fish.  I’m afraid to move so I can’t use my binoculars or camera.  And then the breakfaster slips into the water leaving half the fish on the small sandy spit which was the breakfast table.   You can see the small spit across the river from me in the picture above.  It’s the sandy looking spot on the left just above half way up the picture.

 

I go back to my chair and sit watching for a long time thinking one of them will return to finish eating the fish.  But they do not and soon it is time for my own breakfast.   So the only picture is this one of the fish abandoned on the sand. 

 

But what a great experience.  Just me, watching Otters on the banks of the Alafia River on an early May morning.  Those of you who know my feelings about River Otters know just how spectacular this was for me.

 

Actually there is one otter picture.  I love otters as I said and have my own otter who travels with me and my big buddy Winnie the Pooh, a veritable sage.  They have consented to be on this post.  Yes it is a well educated reasonably articulate adult in the second half of her life traveling with stuffed animals.  Is this more than you want to know about me???

 

Less than 24 hours ahead you want to reschedule?

It was a good thing something so great happens in the morning since I spend the afternoon arguing with Moffitt about changing David’s Steroid shot for tomorrow.  They call the day before the appointment and say it would be more convenient for them if he could come at 7AM which would mean he’d have to get up at 5AM.  David of course feels he has no choice since he has to have this shot.  He’s about to agree when I interfere.  I’m not so sure this is really “necessary”.  So I begin my questions and around and around I go with them about their need for efficiency and my need for this man to have as much sleep as he can get and not to be rushed.  No, we don’t want to reschedule.  He’s the patient.  He’s the person who is sick.  He’s waited 3 weeks to get this as it is.  In the end, after having discussions with 3 levels of appointment administration, I reach the supervisor.  Result: there is no change but it took WAY too much time and irritation on my part. 

 

Tuesday is the day FINALLY.

We are up and on the road to fight the Tampa going to work traffic.  We arrive at Moffitt at 9am.  We are sent to the 2nd floor.  Yesterday the head of scheduling distinctly told me 5th floor.  So while David waits in the Radiation waiting room, I go up to the 5th floor Neurosurgery Pre Op area to see if this is really correct.   It’s not.  We get him up to the right place, checked in with girl A, moved down to Guy B, where he has to sign papers saying he has a living will and someone with power of attorney.  I’m getting worried.  I thought this was just a shot.

 

They take him off to the surgery pre-op room right away.  After the signing, I’m thinking this is going swimmingly. 

They get him in a cute little purple gown with bear paws on it, opening in the back of course.  He puts knee length support hose on both legs and over that purple sox which match his gown.  I had no idea they had a fashion consultant at Moffitt.  I hadn’t taken my camera since this didn’t seem like a photo op type event but I’m sorry now I don’t have him in the purple gown, the matching purple sox and what the nurse referred to as his “party hat”.  A mesh shower cap looking sort of thing.  He described it as one of those snood type things cafeteria workers wear.  I really liked the sox and hinted that they should give me a pair but no one took the hint.  Later David agreed to model the Bair Paws for the above shot.

 

Now we wait and the stream of people begins.

They all step into his cubicle and ask the same questions about allergies and metal things in your body.  They all sign the chart.  Some introduce themselves, some don’t.   Are we paying all these people for asking the same questions and signing their names???

 

Those who come in include the anesthesiologist and the anesthesiologist fellow and the anesthesiologist medical student, two neurosurgery fellows, one of whom drew a bulls eye on David’s lower back and a big X below that.  The other came to draw the pictures and was surprised someone else had done it.  Add to those 5, 3 surgical nurses, all asking questions and signing the chart.  Both a neurosurgery fellow and a surgical nurse, in answer to a question from David about when he can expect relief,  deliver the not so welcome news that sometimes it takes more than one of these shots to eliminate or mitigate the pain.  This is the first we have heard this.  SIGH…..

 

We have now been here waiting for 2 hours when they pull up the bed’s bars and whisk him off to the operating room for the shot.   I go back to the waiting room and wait some more.

 

About 90 minutes later he is in recovery and has awakened from the “twilight anesthetic” he was given.  He says they had him turn over on his stomach and that’s the last thing he remembers until he woke in post op.   We hang around for another hour to make sure he can stand and walk.  Since he hasn’t had anything to eat since 10PM Monday night and it is now 2PM Tuesday, he asks for some food and they bring him chicken soup and crackers.

 

He goes down to the parking area in a wheel chair.  I drive him directly over to the Florida Cancer Specialists in Brandon.  He is able to walk into the clinic where they take blood and give him both a velcade shot and a 30 minute drip of zometa for bone maintenance therapy.  Multiple Myeloma often causes lesions and weakening of the skeleton.  Luckily, so far, he has not had any of that.  So this is preventative.   I slip out and go down the block to Campbell’s Dairyland for a shot of coconut almond fudge.  I return to the waiting room and wait.

 

While in the infusion room he finds that the revlimid pharmacy has not delivered his medication to the clinic as they agreed to do.  He has to have it by tomorrow.  Another argument.  This has happened before.  Their fault then, their fault now.  They will overnight it to be delivered tomorrow morning.   SIGH………..

 

Finally a Full 9 hours after we had left in the morning, he is home with all the multiple doctorings over for at least today.   Now we cross our fingers that this one shot will take care of the back pain.