Win-Win

What a nice afternoon! I got outside and put a couple of flights on the little helicopter. We watched the Canada vs USA Gold Hockey game today. It was a great game! It is a win win situation for me. Dad was Canadian, Mom was Finn and I live in the US. I came out of the Olympic Hockey with 3 medals, doesn't get much better than that. Sunday is a day of rest, so I rested the knee today and skipped the exercises. I talked to Barry this afternoon, he is off to AZ again tomorrow for 3 weeks. No much else happened around here except a nap. Hope you had a good Sunday!

Must be getting better!

Well, I must be getting better as I started looking for things to do today. The handles on my walker were leaving a smell on my hands. I had Vera go with me out to the shop to get some tape. While we were there, I loaded her up with a helicopter, transmitter and charger. On the way back I was looking for something to take a picture of and spotted the Azalea's. Looks like spring is trying to arrive. After taking the picture, Vera suggested a walk around the house. I worked up a sweat doing that as the walker need a fair amount of pushing in the soft grass. I charged up the heli while taping up the handles and flew it around the living room this afternoon. Elevating my leg has really helped with the swelling and discoloration. It was a good day, my hands smell good again, I had some fun playing and so far today only 2 pain pills. Hope you are having a good weekend.

Staples

More backseat time for me today. I can remember seeing the Weyerhaeuser bridge as a kid riding with the folks. They used to dump logs into the river at Rock Point and I would always be hoping to see it happen. The spray would fly half way across the river. Vera took me down to get the staples out of my knee this morning. My first time with staples, I have had 300 plus stitches but never staples. I was a little nervous about it, but turns out they did not hurt one bit. I was watching and could not feel them.


This afternoon Vera and I went down and picked up James after school.

We had a good time hearing about his Olympic experience. We hit Burger King and then settled in for a quiet evening at home. I showed James my technicolor leg and he took it pretty well. Nice to start having a little more normal days. My next check up is in 3 weeks and they will take Xrays then. I am curious to see what it looks like. Hopefully we can get a picture for here. We were going to take one of the staple pulling, had the camera along but both of us forgot as we were watching it done.

Hope you have a nice weekend.

View from the back

After all these years for driving the family around, I am finding out what the view from the back seat is like. There is not quite enough room in front for my knee to get comfortable so I have been riding in back. You can see my security blanket (walker) riding up there. We had to make a quick run for another blood test this morning so I tried riding in front on the way down, but was never very comfortable. Sitting across the back seat I can really check out the right side of the road as we ride along. I noticed things that just not possible when driving. Saw some deer and features of peoples places I was not aware of. When we got back to Castle Rock we stopped at the grocery store so I got to get a little exercise walking the isles. After we got home it was sunny out so Vera said we should take a walk. I made it over to Dianne's to see the twins. Boy are they cute! They react to you so well, returning smiles and reaching for hands or fingers. After we got back from there it was exercise time for the knee. It is getting easier, but after a full set and cleaning up it was time for a nice nap. Now I am all refreshed to watch the Olympics tonight. Staples come out tomorrow and I can hardly wait as they are itchy! Hope you had a nice day!

Slowly!

That's how I do everything, Slowly! I am getting there, less pain and sleeping better. This weather sure has been great. Yesterday we had to go into Kaiser so I could get a blood test. They want to test it every couple of days since I am on Warfarin to prevent blood clots. Afterwards we ran a couple of errands and headed home. A 2 hour nap was in order after that big adventure. We went for a walk later and noticed there were Bumble Bees in the heather. I always like watching them so I sat and did that while Vera got the camera to take a couple of pictures of them. I don't remember seeing them this early before.

Getting there!

What a nice day out, Vera and I went for a short walk to the driveway. It really felt good to get outside. I also went out on the back porch and sat for a while watching traffic and soaking up some sunshine. I had a pretty good day pain wise, I did the exercises this morning and will probably get in another set before bed. I watched some TV, napped and had a nice phone conversation with an Internet friend Ron from CO. It was snowing there! Had a real dinner, fried potatoes, corn and a hamburger pattie. It sure tasted better than the hospital, but they can not season it like we do. Kind of nice at the hospital, there is a menu by your bed and you call down and order just like at a restaurant. Now I am off to put ice on the knee and watch bull riding.

Home sure feels good!

All ready for surgery! The white hose at the foot of the bed feeds warm air into a special blanket, it feels really good.

The last picture before heading home.

Boy was it nice to get home from the hospital last night. Mik and James helped me get home and settled. Mik provided pizza which really made it seem like a home coming. I had a few missed calls with birthday wishes, so the first order of business was to return them. I had a nice visit with Pam and a quick one with Dianne and Cathy. I did not last long before settling in for night.

Today was great, I got caught up on my emails and reading everyone's blogs. Now I am wondering if Steve is out of the doghouse for the magic oven bit? I had visits from Barry, Cathy, Steve, Rielee, Laury and the little cookie maker Auna. I did my exercises twice and took a nap after each session, well maybe the nap kind of snuck up on me.

The knee felt better today and I hope it continues to improve.

Boys trip to the bridge

Before we went to the creek, I had James pose with my B-36 fuselage. I put the picture on the forum where I am showing the build so the guys can get an idea how big it is.

James and Parker just North of the bridge. It was a first today, James didn't get any water in his boots.

Nice and peaceful down there, I zoomed up on the this area that looked interesting.

James loves to roam up and down the creek.

James crosses the creek every chance he gets.

Boys trip to the creek

Looking down from where we parked the 4 wheeler at the end of the new trail. You can see the trees that beaver have fallen in the lower part of the picture.

Two stumps the beavers have done, One fairly fresh and one that looks like last years.

Lots they can plink at down there with the BB gun.

Parker did not have boots, so James gave him a piggyback ride each time they crossed the creek.

The worst part was the final climb back up to the 4 wheeler. James drove back, so we made a lot better time than my driving on the way down.

Saturday Flying

Saturday the 6th, I went flying at Toledo. It turned out to be a great day, there were a bunch of other flyers there and I got in 16 flights.

Sunday was pretty much all Super Bowl. Mik, Michelle, Debbie and Josh came up to watch it with us. Lots of good food, still eating on that! I never picked up a camera all day.

Every time we drive the back way to Chehalis, I see this area South of Mary's Corner. Today after we had been up visiting Vera's sister and doing a couple of things at her house we came home that way and I decided to stop and take some pictures.

They have a walkway made into an Old Growth tree. Kind of neat that we have them this close to home.

We have went through here many times in the evening and it is kind of eerie! Today the sun was out and it was real pleasant drive through the area.

Feeling better

I am starting to feel better today after a couple of days with a head cold. I did get the Income Taxes done yesterday. It was easier this year, the At Home software imported all the information from last years return so all I had to do was put in dollar amounts from this years 1099's and answer a few questions. We also made a run to get rid of the recycling and pick up the mail, that may have been the high point of the day.

Today I went out and worked on my plane. It got pretty nice out at times, so I got my helicopter out and put in a couple of flights. I quit and came in for the night when I discovered that I had made 3 of 7 fuselage formers wrong. At least they are the easiest ones to make, an hour or so when I am fresh. Only 11 more days until I get my knee fixed!

Only 12 days to go!

Scanned this picture in tonight from my first operation on my knee in 1956. I had that cast on for 9 days. This time it is out patient surgery for a knee replacement. Only 12 more days to go.

Monday was pretty laid back except for an emergency run to Longview. We were out of Pepsi and Bananas, there is no Pepsi One in this town. Plus, it is 3.66 a case down there compared to 5.97 or more here if they had it. Well, we had a few other things we needed to get in Longview so maybe the pop was just an extra. The rest of the day was mostly spent taking it easy on the knee.

Today, Vera went up to see her sister. She is getting better and they went for a walk in the halls. I spent most of the morning with the heat pad on my knee. That plus some time in here on the computer is about all I did.