Staggering around

Soon I will be a Post Toastie...the term used for the walking irradiated. This should be a new and most interesting experience. Today I visited the mall to look at some furniture and get exercise in the air conditioned comfort of the concrete palace. I saw myself in a shop window, disheveled, staggering and had to laugh at how bad I can get. I'm surprised anyone approaches me to ask what I'd like in the stores. With some luck, the staggering may be lessened post irradiation.

A memorial service for my ex-boss was held on Thursday. It was a wonderful opportunity to see many old friends and remember how truly special it was to work at Lawry's when I did. Now, the grey heads outnumber the "naturals" and much of the talk is about retirement plans, grandchildren and health issues. Time marches on.

Will the picking of stuff never end? Today, more plumbing picks and selection of bathroom mirrors and storage cabinets. All nextweek will be selecting things and playing "fetch" for the installers on the job.

Richard The Imposter in photo posing as an avocado picker.

Picked up the results of my MRI and discovered that my AN is growing at an incredible rate. The tumor is usually very slow growing but mine has doubled. I'm sure my neurologist will recommend treatment and I'm predicting that she will recommend the cyberknife or gammaknife - basically radiation. Tuesday I'll see her and get a plan together.

I feel extra urgency to get everything finished in both houses in case I'm incapacitated for a while. Although with radiation, it looks like the downtime would be minimal.

Ordering toilets through the mail has an odd feeling, but we were able to save a couple of hundred dollars by doing do. Certainly we saved an $80.00 delivery charge from Home Depot. After they get here, we'll still have to muscle them up to the house from the gate - not an easy job. We also ordered a bidet seat - Richard tried one at a friends house and liked it- so we thought we'd add one.

We should move forward with the irrigation bid we get from Bob Butler. Hopefully he will be able to do the work next week which means we could do our concrete by the next week, thereby finishing the pool by mid July. Cabinets should be arriving by 1st of August. If plumbing is installed shortly after that we can move in and get Stage Coach rented.

Our paint job is now complete and it is excellent. We're very pleased.

MRI

I had my second MRI yesterday and this time took 1 mg of lorazepam in advance. Boy does that stuff help. I think I actually fell asleep in the machine despite the clanging and banging. Time passed quickly and it was not unpleasant at all. I won't be dreading it so much next time.

After the procedure, we went to the Escondido Farmers Market and enjoyed seeing all the wonderful fruit and veggies coming out of small farms around here. One vendor was selling Reed avocados which look like Canadian bowling balls. We bought fresh picked strawberries, apricots and patty pan squash. An olive oil vendor had blood orange flavored, unfiltered olive oil which was very delicious. We couldn't resist a bottle. The seller came from Delphi in Greece and expresses a few interesting opinions about religion leaving us with the Socratic directive, "Know thyself". He was 86 and looked 46.

Although it was rather early for dinner, we stopped at the French Bakery and had a light meal....the picnic plate for me which consisted of brie, copious amounts of fresh bread, salami, pate and slice of ham and one of turkey served with black olives, cornichon and pickled onions. Richard ordered a chicken tart but got some kind of meat tart which they took back and gave him the chicken version. Sadly, it was nothing more than a pizza which was disappointing. The owner invited us to pick out a dessert for free because of the confusion - we declined - they insisted, so we brought home a slice of gooey chocolate cake.

A benefit of the window shopping was a find on Richard's part - a mirrored door which just might work for our huge picture frame. I'll go down and take another look at it to see.

An ordinary Sunday

A beautiful day in Fallbrook today. Bright sunny skies with an all day sea breeze - just cool enough for working hard. I carried a lot of wood to the dumpster and generally cleaned up. As I am having balance problems the challenge of walking and carrying seems to help - if nothing else it tires me out so I can sleep. All day, I felt grateful for the pleasure of being able to work hard and accomplish something. Very satisfying.

A good Chinese dinner preceded the movie, Taking of Pelham 123, which we really enjoyed. The movie did not get great ratings but we found it entertaining. By the end of the movie I was exhausted which happens after a full day. Effort involved with balance seems to be very tiring. Richard says I should try napping and perhaps I will.

A busy week ahead - medical things, more subs to see and perhaps our irrigation to start. I'm ready to see the end of the dirt piles which we have to climb over to get anywhere. At the moment we are buried in trash and need a day's clean-up to get ahead a bit. August is starting to seem too ambitious for completion so I'm hoping now to be in by Thanksgiving.

Tiling

Our new tiler, Manny did a great job finishing up the tile. Our master bathroom shower is called "100 bottles of beer" because the glass tiles are made of recycled beer bottles. Our guest shower, Richard calls the clown shower because of the colored glass.
It all worked out and we are happy with it. Manny will be doing the outdoor tile work on the patios also. Bottom picture is the outdoor tile and Mexican accent tiles which will be mixed in. Tile in the arch is Italian tile and is now surrounded by bright blue paint. Fireplace is now painted an earth brown color and the mosaic looks much better against this color. Painters are going to paint it black inside.

House PROGRESS

The exterior of the house seems to be just sitting still. Inside the new paint job is almost complete and looks so much
better. Now there is a cozy "casa" look to the place, like old Spanish haciendas which is what we wanted. Today the painters wrap up and we make a decision on irrigation redo. If this is underway next week, by next weekend they can start the hardscape. Meanwhile I can get the cabinets started and am starting to shop for plumbing stuff. Yesterday our electrician began installing lights and light switches. We found we need an 18" access panel from the closet upstairs to our tub. Another detail we overlooked.

Richard's Roof

With the new spark arrestors on the roof, it is finally finished. Richard worked hard to get the roof the way he envisioned it. It's
5 tile colors, some of them antiqued. The design on the roof is somewhat like a shopping center in town and something like roofs
we've seen in Italy and Spain. Richard actually piled the roof guys into the car and drove them around looking at roofs in the neighborhood before he finally got them on the same page as he was.

The spark arrestors also took us some time. We make our final choice with some trepidation thinking they might look a bit Moorish. Funny thing about these decisions. Once they are made, you hardly think of them again. Or even notice the item...overall I'd say we are pleased with the way it turned out.

Today we have another irrigation person up to the job. The sprinkler system is about 1/2 complete and has to be tied together and much has to be added to it. Domingo, Mr. Sunday will give his bid.

I will start wrapping the house in plastic to protect it during the concrete work which will be taking place soon. I'm also
picking glass off the hillside where the solar panels used to be located. When they were removed, many of the panels broke and the shards went everywhere. As we'd like to put some bedding plants on that slope, we have to get the dangerous glass out of the way.

Sharon and I picked out the front lights and post lights yesterday so I'll go over to Lamps Are Us later on and pick them up. Meanwhile, I'm ordering the sinks and faucets.

My mosaic fireplace treatment turned out better than I thought. One picture shows me composing the design and the other picture shows it actually installed on the fireplace. Now I want to do the stair risers going to the garden with the same "cracked
up" design.

Pool Face Lift

Although not in our immediate plans, it turned out we had to rush to redo the pool. The pipes run under where the patios are
going and so this all had to be installed. New coping and water line tiles had to be chosen. Once more I was given a big book with
100 options. We looked at a rock yard and liked the look of three rivers stone, very colorful and variegated. I thought it might
be too much but after looking at a neighbors pool created with the same stone, we decided to go ahead. Now that it's complete
I'm glad we chose it as it looks very good from the deck above.

Before photo show plain Jane coping...just white cement. The tile was pretty and we might have kept it, but when you remove
coping, the tile goes too.

The stone masons were excellent - clean and neat. They came in and did the work and left quickly and efficiently. Very pleasant young mormon men.

New Paint

I chose a light gold paint as the main color for the house - Laura Ashley pale gold and had it cut down 25%. The color was terrible and actually made my eyeballs jitter. The whole house felt like the inside of an egg yolk, plus the painter we hired was just awful. He smeared paint all over the place, didn't cover things properly and generally made a terrible mess. I hired an interior decorator who spent two hours with me, going from room to room and a new painter who is doing a wonderful job. Now the house is a light beige with a darker accent color. We have one bright blue wall and the master bedroom is a kind of terra cotta which looks good (see picture). The swatch on the wall kind of scared me because it is bold, but once the whole room was painted it resulted in a kind of glow and made the room feel cozy.

I'm trying to pick out the colors for the stamped concrete outside which is proving somewhat difficult. My neighbor Sharon is helping a lot - she has a good eye and enjoys giving her opinion and helping out. She has good, practical suggestions.

The final big decision is the cabinet color which I am still wrestling with. White or wood or BLUE stained wood which the interior designer recommended. I might be able to do a door or two in blue but not the whole kitchen. She likes the bottom cabinets one color and the top another. A "furniture" look is really the in thing now.

Kim getting married

People have good years and bad years. As a family, we're enjoying a good year. Two weeks ago, Ashley graduated with her B.S. in Nursing. Ashley is Chris' fiancee. Last Saturday, Kim graduated with her AA degree - a real accomplishment for such a busy person. This Saturday Chris gets his BS in Engineering. August 4th Chris and Ashley get married.

Kim called last night to tell me that Mark, her wonderful boyfriend, proposed to her after the graduation on Saturday. He presented her with a beautiful diamond that he had made specially with lowered prongs and a setting that won't "rip her rubber gloves" - so she can wear it while collecting evidence. She is in her own words, floating between Cloud 9 and a state of shock. They had never really discussed marriage, even after four years so it was a complete surprise to her. Mark's daughter gets married August 1st. Mark has one grandchild and his other daughter is expecting twins so Mark and Kim will have six grand-children between them. That should keep them busy.

So, it's a good year - if only Jim's eye would recover, everything would be good!!

Richard's 70th

We spent from April to May 13th in Singapore and Bali to celebrate Richard's birthday. Singapore does not look like it is suffering from the recession although people we talked with said they were. First and foremost, they were terrified that the swine flu would appear there and discourage tourism. They can't survive that - they absolutely live on tourism.

On our way in, we stayed at the Carlton Hotel which is centrally located. First morning, I left Richard lounging around and went to shop in the stalls around the corner. I ran into a long corridor of people doing demonstrations so I enjoyed watching the chopper/slicer/dicer guy, a demo of a device that saves cooking gas, a fabulous mop (i amost bought one), a great pen that
allows one to make fancy writing and designs. Business seemed to be good and people were buying. After Richard got moving we went to the big shopping center and visited Yes! eyewear with the idea of getting more glasses but prices seemed too high. We went to the food court and had one of the Indian pancakes that we like and admired the Vietnamese Food Stall which we hadn't see before. We ate at a pseudo fast food place in the mall where we had a version of Cereal Shrimp and potstickers. Food was good but we were very tired and jet lagged so went back to the hotel to bed. Next day, in a light rain, we visited the Botanical Gardens for the third time and once again really enjoyed the orchids. When it stopped raining later, we walked to Jumbo Seafood for the "real" Cereal Shrimp - delicious. Up early to catch our Garuda flight to Jakarta and on to Denpasar. Garuda had changed the way they operate these flights and we had to collect our luggage in Jakarta and re-check in for the second flight. Turned out to be good because we bought our visas at the airportand Jakarta is much more efficient and easier than Bali. Once in Denpasar, we caught a cab to Prime Villas which turned out to be lovely.

While in Seminyak we spent one day with Toya and visited furniture manufacturers and his uncles carving place. Designed a few items and Toya has sent us prices. Day two we spent with Ayu who ran us around to a few places..she was sort of helpful but mostly just nice company. Married to an Australian, she is very worldly for a Balinese. A fan of Gordon Brown's cooking - she's lived in many places and is quite sophisticated.

Ate well at Gado Gado for Richard's birthday. We had an oceanside seat and perfect weather. Just great food and even a great wine by the glass - a Hugel Gewurztraminer, something I've never seen served by the glass. Had a rather poor meal at Ku De Ta but the setting was glorious and it was interesting to see how many people were there for the sunset, a tradition. We ate two meals in Kuta at the cafe down from Matahari's and both meals were good and perfect for our mood.

On day four, we moved up to Ubud an dour cab driver had quite a time finding the villa. As it turns out, the Villa Sarna was just a bit closer to Ubud than Villa Uma, where we were married. The room was up a couple of flights of stairs, a bit difficult for me with my dizziness, especially in the rain, especially in the dark. I think the staff, who helped me up the stairs, thought I was drunk!! Our bedroom was a little small and the whole thing a bit of a letdown after Prime Villas but it was OK - the outdoor bale for reading was great. Staff was excellent and the overgrown, jungly grounds were fantastic. We saw some new villas built by the owner of one of the big design companies. Next time, we might stay there for a real splurge.

Ate well twice at Ira Burgis (whose cremation we attended), at Lamat (wonderful meal) and at Mosaic. All very fine eating. We shopped at the market as usual for cheap watches and earrings, always fun. Other than that, we did a lot of resting. Enjoyed breakfast at the villa with a view over the jungle. Banana pancakes were great.

Our ride home was easy - all Northwest flights were just fine; customs was empty and our luggage was out in about 15 minutes. Almost like Singapore!!

Back at home and work

Busy interviewing painters this week. The one we hired did not work out - he tried his best, but he was older and recovering from a stroke. He tried to return to work too soon and we paid the price. The whole house has to be re-painted and we will change the color in the living room to something less yellow. A designer is coming up on Friday to help with color picking...I've just run out of the ability to tell one from the other.

The pool was gutted on Monday in record time. A crew came up and jack hammered it in just a couple of hours. Tomorrow, the 21st they will begin the stone work on the coping and then place the tile. A plumber has been installing heaters, pumps etc. We will have a new pool once they are done.

I had a hearing test this week - a six month check. From what I could see it didn't look like it had changed much by the graphs. The tester told me the left ear was pretty bad but that my right ear was very good. We discussed hearing aids and there isn't anything that helps my kind of hearing loss..most promising is a device that picks up signals on the left and then sends them via a radio signal to the right ear. Eventually the brain learns that the squawky sound coming in is from noise on the left side and processes accordingly. Maybe I'll try it. Now I need to get the blood work so that they can schedule a MRI, probably next week.

Spinning head, dizziness, numbness on left side of face and full ear with pain behind the ear in an arc, wonky head. Those are the current symptoms and they are absolutely typical from what I read about An's of my size. The small ones cause the most symptoms. I'm hoping that some ofthese symptoms subside...apparently they often do.

Jorge Redux

Our tiler Jorge, with wife and young child, has gone to VeraCruz to live for a few months. I met his wife whle returning his tiling equipment to her. Jorge was dumped off in Mexico by the INS and they decided to make the most of it and go to VC where they own a couple of houses. They're going to fix them up and iin the interim, get Jorge's papers in order so that he can come back in the country with a better status. His wife is American.

The tile aspect of the house is surely cursed. First there was Jorge and his disaster. Ours too as 1000 dollars worth of tile disappeared. Then we started having problem after problem with UGMC. I've made at least 20 trips there picking up tiles in dribs and drabs. Each time it's been a hassle. I made 8 or 9 trips regarding one tile and when they finally got it in, it was the wrong stuff. I gave up and substituted something I could buy at HD.

Happily we have a good tile setter now who seems to be competent and is completing the job and doing it well.

We are terribly unhappy with our plumber too. He never returns phone calls. A nice enough guy but the lousiest business man I've ever seen. I'd never recommend him to anyone.

Enough carping.

Painting Glitch

The "bargain" painter we hired turned out to be anything but. He came recommended but did sloppy and incompetent work. He did manage to get a coat of paint on the walls but had thinned the paint down so much, it didn't cover much. When he pulled the masking tape off, he took the paint along with it. The place is a mess and it will require quite an effort to get it straightened out. I should know better having once before been shellacked (ha) by a painter.

We are also having problems with the outside sprinklers. Installation is not going as Richard had hoped.

So what are we doing about all of this? We're taking off on a trip. Last time we were overwhelmed, Richard insisted we take off and once again this is his rx. I'm reluctant to go as I'd like to get this whole ordeal over with, but I guess we'll drag it out another couple of months. Now, I'm looking at Christmas as a deadline for moving..but how do you rent a house that time of year??

The stucco job is complete and looks great. It's called cat's paw and was applied entirely by hand. About 8 people were working at any given time applying a total of three coats to the house. The look is very Spanish and we are pleased with both the cat's paw look and the bright white color.

Our floors have now been scraped and sanded and a coat of sticky goo has been applied which will provide moisture vapor barrier protection. Ken and Jerry applied the goo with trowels and killed their backs and their hands. Blisters erupted all over the hands, backs were aching from bending at the waist to do it and both of them have goo stuck on their skin - knees and hands. It wasn't an easy job. I worked just ahead of them cleaning the floors with brooms and a string mop. We had a long day on Saturday.

Today, I spread straw out under the eaves, under the drip line so that if we have rain, splashes don't bounce up and stain the stucco. I also applied the moisture protective paint to the unprotected fascia around the roof, on the deck and on spots round the house. We called a number of people to come out and give us landscaping bids and contacted the iron men to come and
and adjust our Bali railings so we can install them on the deck and on the stairs.

We decided to go ahead and use the "faux slate" tiles instead of the real thing. The faux slate does not require sealing, doesn't lake and cause other problems. The look is close to slate - in fact, I had to tell the tile man that it was porcelain..he thought it was slate.

Tomorrow will be busy with roof guys, painters and we are having the grove picked - a size pick which will keep Richard busy all day. I'll be handlin the construction stuff - Ken will be laying down more goo and working on the remainder of the finish carpentry...the base boards and trim.

JORGE LIVES

Our tiler is alive! We hired a young man to do the tilework and he turned out to be wonderful. Creative, a hard worker and a genuinely nice man. Last Thursday he was supposed to show up for work and didn't. His wife called on Saturday to ask if we had seen him and we were shocked to hear he was missing. Today we were relieved to find out that he had been arrested because of having an illegal in his car. That would be his assistant.

Many of the construction workers were/are illegals and we haven't been checking them. I think I have sympathy because of having been an alien myself, albeit a legal one. I sympathize with their eagerness to work hard and make a living. I have yet to meet an immigrant that wasn't interested in the freedom to work hard and succeed. Jorge - the tile man - included. All they really want is a chance and when I think of the attitudes of most of the young people in this country, who all want to be rock stars and fashion models and who are encouraged to follow this dream - I'd put my money on the illegals to be the ones who make the wheels turn, the crops grow and to build the future. From their children will come the great new ideas! Not from the dopes worrying about their eighty dollar haircuts, fancy cars and European spring breaks - all provided to them by stupid or unwitting parents too undisciplined themselves to take the time to teach their kids about work.

Maybe Jorge will be able to continue on the job after all.

Decorative accents were added to the exterior - imitation clay pipes, window trim, door trim, a band across the big blank side wall and bands around the deck supports. Everything was given it's brown coat and now sits, curing and waiting for the final coat which will likely have to wait now that we are having rain. 5 days of pretty steady rain, including one exciting hail storm, is a welcome wetting to the grove. The fresh rain washes out the alkali and other deposits that build up from using well water and the county water.

The dry wallers have completed hanging the sheets and are almost finished with taping and mud. The bullnose has been applied and while the walls look nice, the house is a total mess of goopy dry wall clumps on the floors, garbage everywhere. Our dumpster is sorely undersized for this part of the job and we have to fill it and then wait a week to have it emptied. Tomorrow our floors will be scraped to remove residual grout from the old tile. By the end of the week the dry wall will be done and the guys will start installing the finish carpentry.

Today at Trader Joe's I dropped a glass jar of enchilada sauce. I placed it in the cart but the child gizmo was up leaving big holes in the cart through which the jar slid, crashing on the floor. All I heard was a thud but when I looked around I saw that 5 or 6 people were looking at the floor and the spreading pool of red. The experience was telling about how much I'm really hearing.

After spending two hours with the kitchen designer at DixieLine I went on to the Mexican Tile Store where I discussed our quest for a particular design with the owner. He was helpful but tried to steer me to a matte finish tile which I didn't like but had to agree was an almost-match for the tile in the book I'm trying to copy. I brought home 3 samples which we are assessing.

Dry wall

This week we had the first coat of stucco applied to the house, the dry wall is going up fast and we picked out the baseboard, window and door casings and crown molding. A lot of time was eaten up picking out tiles and we found one for accents that we particularly like made out of re-cycled beer bottles. The tile is a beautiful goldish orange color and once you know it's beer bottles - the visual clicks into place. We also finished our exterior inspection which meant we could go ahead with dry wall. One tile setter has come up to give us a bid.

Watching the three guys hoisting up the 12 foot dry wall sheets for the ceiling is thrilling. They organize three ladders and each position themselves under a third. They climb up together and yell "turn", then they flip the sheet over so they can nail it to the ceiling.

We've come through three weeks of perfect weather. Warm sunny days, clear air. Rain started to fall on Thursday and the heat
spell is likely broken.

We're thinking about adding beams to our turret ceiling.

Our first cruise together was from Santiago to Rio on a Princess Cruise lines boat. 15 days in duration, it was too long for us and
we found ourselves a little cranky and beset with cabin fever after about 10 days. We did love sailing through the Straits of Magellan and the Beagle Channel and rounding Cape Horn. The glaciers were beautiful and it was thrilling to sit up in the highest lounge and feel ourselves slipping smoothly through the icy water. Of the ports en route, Ushuaia and Montevideo were the most interesting. Stanley on the Falkland Islands was a real dud unless you took a penguin expedition which really didn't interest us too much. 2400 passengers unleashed on a town with 2000 citizens is just too much.

We did like Santiago very much and are now interested in visiting more of Chile. Also Rio was wonderful with our guide Rafi who made the visit most interesting. He took us around to different neighborhoods in Rio, to the park, the lesser known beaches and to his home town of Niteroi , where we enjoyed the most gorgeous views looking back at Sugarloaf and the Cristo. Flying home on Christmas morning was great - flights were surprisingly full but the airports were empty and easy to navigate.

On board the ship we did meet a few interesting people. One was a physician from Napa, Italian born and educated who told us he worked for the movie studios as a financially strapped young medical student. He had the chance to make extra money as an extra on Quo Vadis by jumping from a bridge with his shirt on fire. Even though he was burning up he did not pass up the chance to look behind him as Gina Lollabrigida followed behind him reputedly wearing no panties. His wife obviously bored at hearing this story thousands of times, leaned over to me and whispered that after 30 years together and renting the movie many times, she'd never been able to stay awake long enough to see his "big" scene.

I met a man who was in the business of showing movies outdoors - like beaches and public parks. We met a woman who had assisted a physician do a tracheotomy with a ball point pen. Most of the people however were old hat cruisers and they shared a mentality that we didn't feel part of. Conversations invariably began with the question about how many cruises you'd been on. There was a wide range of ages on the boat but most were in 50's and up. There were about 5 children which most people were grateful for explaining that kids can be a huge nuisance on a boat, riding up the elevators constantly, running around in the dining rooms - generally a noisy, boisterous nuisance. Not so on this trip.

An Irish couple told me about a cruise in the same part of the world that they had taken a few years ago. When they came into the harbor at Montevideo, their captain drove through a bow line, overturning a freighter loaded with cars. The freighter sank in a couple of minutes and the harbor was closed for three days. All hell broke loose as people were missing trains, planes, important events. The Irish couple was already highly upgraded and just enjoyed being even further treated kindly by the cruise line. The captain was taken away almost in irons and the company had hell to pay to the passengers. Because of the delay and the increasingly bad weather (this was the last cruise of the season), they couldn't land in Stanley. One family had taken the cruise primarily so they could go to Stanley and pay their respects at their son's grave - he was a British soldier who died in the war with Argentina.

Our cruise was several hours late arriving in Rio. The Brazilian government took the opportunity to be uncooperative about finding a berth. We disembarked hours late after standing in line for hours. 2000 people were waiting to get on and 2000 people waiting to get off. Chaos ruled. We finally got a cab to our hotel and away from the mess at the port.