05-25-12

Ok, it’s time for an update.

On Wednesday May 16th I took the first interferon injection. I did it around 6:00am and later did some work in the back yard. Around 1:00 in the afternoon I came down with chills and upset stomach. It was down hill from there, with about 24 hours of flu like symptoms.

Thursday afternoon I headed up to the cabin. Dave came up Friday morning and Bob arrived Saturday afternoon. Bob brought some steaks and shrimps for the barbi.

I am not operating at 100% so we didn’t do much work. I did however get some mowing done.

Dave put up his wall tent while he was there.

While he was straightening up his wood pile he came across several large scorpions. They are very common in our forest.

Dave and Bob left on Sunday. Dave went home and Bob went up the coast to do some kayaking. Bob stopped back at the cabin Monday evening.

I came home from the cabin on Tuesday.
I talked with a friend of Bobs who may be interested in doing the engine swap on the jeep.

Wednesday I took my second shot of interferon. This time I thought that I would wait until later in the day so that hopefully I could get most of the reaction in the evening so I could sleep it off. As it turned out I wasn’t sick at all on Wednesday. Thursday morning I woke up with an upset stomach and felt like crap for the rest of the day.

Today isn’t bad I feel just a little week and tired.

The biggest problem I have is that my hemorrhoids are flaring up. I guess it is a reaction to all the drugs.

This afternoon Patti and I are heading up to cabin for the Memorial Day weekend. Dave and Joanne are also coming up this evening.

Ok, that’s all for now.

05-16-12

Okay, I guess its time for me to post something. I know it has been a long time but there really isn’t much going on.

Patti went to the River Rock casino but didn’t make any money.

Patti also had jury duty but the case was settled out of court. She’s good for at least a year.

I have been working in the back yard getting it all cleaned up after the winter. Harvey helped me one day last week. He pulled out a lot of stuff that had become over grown. The peach tree looks real bad. When we got home the whole thing was covered with “curly leaf”. The leaves are coming back slowly and there are a few small peaches on the tree so I am hopeful that we will get at least one Peach cobbler this season.

I started the treatment for my Hep C, this morning. The therapy consists of two oral drugs taken daily, ribavirin and telaprevir and one self injected drug peginterferon once-a-week. The treatment lasts six months. After what the insurance pays, the cost to me is about $3400 per month. The actual cost of the teleprevir alone is around $49000 for a three month course. I’m glad I have insurance, 
there is no way I could afford to do this without it.

I was planning to do some upgrades on Clifford the big red Jeep. There are some things that I can build myself that won’t cost much. 
The major stuff will have to be put on hold for a while except for the engine. I will have to do something about that.
I talked to a guy the other day that is pulling an engine, transmission and transfer case out of a 1994 Wrangler but I am not sure if I want to go through all the trouble to take an old engine out and put another old engine back in. Although if I can get the whole works cheap enough, it might be good to have an extra transmission and transfer case and other parts. 
I am leaning toward buying a rebuilt engine and swapping it myself.

Tomorrow I am planning to go to the cabin. I am waiting to see if I notice any side effects from the medicines before I take off for the mountains.

Well, all right then. I guess that about does it for now.
Maybe I’ll put some pictures from the cabin in the next post.

05-03-12

I went to the cabin on Monday morning. It was beautiful up there and the weather was good the whole time.

I got moved in had lunch and did a little mowing. Mostly I just wandered around checking out the place. Dave and Joanne did a good job of keeping the place cleaned up. I want to thank Dave and Peter for splitting and stacking the fire wood.

 

Dave came up on Tuesday and we got the mowing done.

We took a walk up the road to the slag heap and cleared some branches from the road.  Moved this log of the road and found these mushrooms hanging from the underside.

Under another piece of wood this centipede was hiding with hundreds of eggs or larva stuck to her belly.

We also saw some Wild Iris’s.

It was hard to come home on Wednesday. Today it is raining lightly in Santa Rosa

04-30-12

Well Its Monday, we have been home for four days. We emptied and cleaned the motor-home and put it in storage on Saturday.

I replaced the alternator in the van on Friday.

Today, I am heading up to the Cabin for a couple of days. I’ll be back Wednesday. Maybe I’ll have some pictures.

04-27-12

The day before we left Quartzsite the temperature got into the 100’s.

and the Saguaro's were beginning to bloom.

It’s time to head home.

We left Quartzsite just as the sun was peeking over the Plomosa Mountains

and arrived in Bakersfield at the River Run RV Park at around 1:30. in the afternoon, about seven-and-a-half hours later.

Becky and Dennis arrived at the RV Park around 7:00pm.

The next morning we left Bakersfield at 8:30 and got to Beautiful Sonoma County around 4:00. While we were on Highway 12 just east of town we noticed a vineyard that had poppies growing between the rows of vines.

We couldn’t stop to get a picture of it at the time so this morning we drove out there to try again. The flowers didn’t look as vibrant as they did two days ago but we got some pictures any way.

 

Anyway we are home safe and sound and have been unloading Plan “B” in preparation for putting it in storage, probably next week.

04-21-12

I haven’t done any blogs lately because we haven’t really done that much. About the only thing of note was a farewell spaghetti dinner with the Wednesday jeep group at Cheryl and Dennis’s.

It is nearing the end of our stay here and we will be leaving Quartzsite on Tuesday morning.

Here are just a few of the more than 3000 pictures that were taken of our adventures over the last six months.

The back yard;

Some birds;

Back yard flowers;

Shelob;

Toads';

Coach whip at the pond’

Flowers in the desert;

Dennis’s birthday;

 

Eh! Day,

Suzanne and Roy’s anniversary and deportation party;

Desert wildlife;

Camping trips;

 

Kayaking;

Mines;

And of course Jeep rides;

And many many more. Wow! What a season! And that doesn’t even include the stock car races and the fair and things that I forgot to include.

It all went by so fast and now it is time to go home.

Stay tuned because the adventure will continue.