MrsT's Adventures

GIANT RAYS AND GIANT PILLOWS

The editor is happy to report that Mrs.T decided to compose this newsletter.  As you know the editor did the last couple of issues while Rebecca has been recovering from her cancer treatments and her stroke.  With the cancer cured rehabilitation from the stroke is ongoing. While she has progressed significantly in physical aspects, other issues still remain and there will be long-term challenges.  She has improved sufficiently to put this piece together, a nice milestone.

One activity that Rebecca has been able to resume is scuba diving, something she has been doing for about twenty years.  She greatly enjoys diving at our winter residence in Mexico near Puerto Vallarta especially as it is not an option in Ohio; diving in the Muskingum River is not recommended.  Doctor Oscar, her excellent rehab doctor here, had a good discussion with Alex about easing her into diving with short shallow dives. She has made great progress and by the end of the season will be nearing normal dive activities.  So she was quite enthusiastic as described below.  

Memory is one of the challenges Rebecca faces.  That is one of the reasons events are in reverse chronology.  And although she refers to 'Saturday' that could be the last Saturday in February or the first Friday in March; she dove both days and the experiences were quite similar.  On to some recent events:

Saturday the bay was quite cool which appeared to cause a plankton bloom.  These tiny sea creatures are one of the basics of sea life. All kinds of life depend on eating plankton.  We were driving the boat along when we saw two giant mantas gliding along the surface. They were turning and diving in a graceful dance.  "What are they doing?" I asked Alex. "They are eating," he replied. It must be a challenge for mantas to eat because their eyes are on the top of their heads but their mouths are on the bottom.  They glide along scooping up things they saw before, but somehow they manage. Fascinated, we watched them for several minutes, taking pictures.

We proceeded to our dive site when we saw three more mantas.  These mantas can grow to be 22 feet or more across. (Mrs.T reported that some were bigger than the boat. -dt) They were swooping and jumping around the boat.  We were not afraid; we were enthralled. Alex convinced his son Manuel to jump in and swim with them trying to take their pictures. The thing is they swim quickly and he couldn't keep up with the mantas,  Manuel would hold on to the side of the boat while Alex would drive close so Manuel could paddle over to take their picture.

As we drove across the bay we saw mantas everywhere.  I had to wonder where they were when they were not flying about on top of the ocean.  We also passed two large pods of dolphins. I don't think that they are filter feeders but maybe they were trying to chase other animals who were.  (Dolphins eat fish. -dt) Or maybe they liked the cold water.

We saw lots of interesting fish but the diving was VERY COLD.  I had on a 3mm wetsuit and my shark pajamas. My shark PJs, so called by Alex, is a dive skin with pictures of sharks all over it.  Alex thinks it is pretty funny. These are available online from divegoddess.com The cold current is either El Nino or La Nina which has to do with winter in Canada and the US. (No comment on MrsT's understanding of meteorology. -dt) But even with two layers I was still very cold. 

(An excellent article about the giant mantas can be found here:  http://www.vallartasource.com/eco_manta_ray.php  -dt)

My Sister Rita and her daughter Sarah came down to visit and I went diving with them.  Rita goes diving every year but it was the first time Sarah went with us. Because of my stroke Alex is very careful with me and he is always careful with Rita who, although quite enthusiastic, is inexperienced.  Sarah is a certified diver but has not dived for several years. So poor Alex was holding me with one hand and Rita with the other. We each saw lots of things we wanted to check out and show to each other and Sarah.  I tried to behave and follow Alex but sometimes he had to give me a little jerk to tell me to keep me in line.

One of our favorite animals was the jawfish.  The fish makes a hole in the sand and backs into it so that only its head is sticking out.  It looks like a little dwarf with big eyes and a huge mouth with sharp teeth.  After we went home we used my fish book to try to identify the fish we had seen.  I knew quite a few of the common ones but there are zillions.

Going backwards in time, when I had my stent removed they told me I should sleep propped up in bed.  Okay, no problema. (Mrs.T still recalls much of her Spanish. -dt) I piled two king size pillows on my side of the bed and a whole lot of little pillows on top of them.  A pillow mountain! I plopped down on top to try it out. Whoops! Maybe plopping was a bad idea. Pillows were slip sliding everywhere. I rearranged everything to try again.  I gently eased myself into position on top. First one little pillow escaped then the second one. I grabbed a pillow with each hand but too late - a veritable pillow avalanche and they were all on the floor but the last two.  Sigh! 

 

Well when we moved into our condo many years ago I made two large stuffed geckos, each about four feet long, one for each bed in our guest room.  I named them Eliizardbeth Taylor and Richard Burttongue. (Burton and Taylor resided in PV while he was filming "Night of the Iguana". -dt) So I took Liz and Dick and curled them around each other in a large gecko lump.  Did you know they are called kissing geckos because they make smoochie sounds? I thought I finally solved the sleeping problem; well no. I slept pretty well in a semi-reclining position but Dan reported he hardly slept at all.  "How can I sleep when I am being watched by four large reptilian eyes?" he asked. Well I could see his point and I didn't have the heart to tell him I believe that geckos were amphibians; still I could be mistaken. (They are reptiles. -dt) This was easily solved by throwing a blanket over Liz and Dick.  I must report that I spotted Dick peeking out to see what was happening.

Just a few pictures.  Thanks to Sarah for several of them. :  https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ar_LTkWEqhbYnwdIc4Tt60DFvJLj?e=A8MciN

Hope you enjoyed those vignettes.  It was quite an effort for Rebecca to put them together and marks another step in her stroke recovery.  As we return to our northern home we anticipate further improvements. Perhaps she will be able to compose a couple of newsletters over the summer.  We have lots of events and travels planned. Mostly she wants to visit her favorite horse Jewel and resume riding.

 

See some of you in April and May.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

We invite you to share our newsletter with friends and visit our blogspot to see previous postings.  

Sent from Outlook

At Last

FINALE

This will be a very brief newsletter.  It is Valentine's Day and Rebecca has had her stent removed last Friday!  The operation was done by Dr. Carlos at Clinica Santa Rosa and went without a hitch.  She was home later the same evening. You can see a picture of the gizmo below.

After a few days of soft food Mrs. T is back to essentially a normal diet and on the road to recovery for this phase of illness.  As stated last newsletter the cancer is gone. She will need to return in April for a routine exam and probably treatment for her Barrett's.  We still need to work on rehabilitation for her stroke; she is improving each day.

The stent:  

Well, that is it.  Maybe Mrs.T will get inspired enough to write the next newsletter.

A special thanks to Kathleen and Rita for helping make the Buckeyes.  Yum!

Stay warm and dry.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

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FREE!

 GREAT NEWS!!

This has been quite an eventful last six months for us as Rebecca's health has been in question.  As you are aware she had a stroke and has been challenged with esophageal cancer. We have some great news which I will get to below; you can scroll to the end to read it.  But first I thought I would recapitulate the events of the past several months, especially for those of you who may have been just added to or missed an edition of our newsletter due to my error.

In the middle of the summer Rebecca had a routine endoscopy by her local GI specialist.  He spotted something that he thought was not quite right in her esophagus and referred her to a specialist at the OSU Wexner Center.  When we finally saw him in August a biopsy revealed carcinomic cells. This was not totally unexpected as she has suffered from the pre-cancer condition called Barrett's Esophagus for a number of years due to her GERD.  But it still was jarring news. The GI / cancer doctor at OSU scheduled her for another treatment with radiofrequency ablation in mid-October.

At his second treatment in October the doctor removed more cancerous cells but was unable to get all of them due partially to Rebecca going into Afid during the procedure.  The pathology report showed that some cancer was left. Yet another session was scheduled for mid-January.

 We knew this would be an inconvenience for our stay at the winter home in Mexico but we were certain we could handle it with minimum difficulty.  It would be a quick week back up to Columbus and return to the sunshine. We don't have many winter clothes at the condo but enough for a short trip.  We had prepared for our departure to the condo at the normal end-of-October time shortly after the procedure but the doctor said it would not be a problem.  

Then unexpected events intervened.  First Rebecca complained of pain around her neck as if she had mumps.  A trip to the ER in Zanesville and an overnight stay showed she did not have mumps - they were not certain what caused the problem - but that she had some ventricular arrhythmia; a small pill seems to have taken care of that.  The reason for the neck pain, perhaps some swollen glands?, was never determined but seemed to subside. So off we went to the airport for our annual trip south.

   

At the hotel the night before our flight I needed to arouse Mrs.T for some medications.  For a few seconds I thought she was not awakening from her nap quite normally. After trying to get her to respond and her falling down I realized that something was really wrong.  I went to the hotel desk and they summoned the airport EMTs who took her to the nearby Mt. Carmel Hospital. Indeed she had had a stroke.  

She remembers very little of her time at the hospital.  Initially she was somewhat disoriented and could not recall many basic things, especially with dates, birthdays, etc.  She isn't always too clear about those things but this was obviously abnormal. I could tell that, although understandable, her speech patterns were not quite the same.  And she struggled for words more than normal. Worst of all she could not swallow properly. An MRI confirmed that the stroke focused on the part of the brain associated with speech and related actions.  The right side of her body was somewhat weaker. They started physical, occupational, and speech therapy. But swallowing was still the big issue. If that reflex did not develop properly there could be major consequences.  But overall she was recovering quickly.

Initially they installed a feeding tube down her throat but it did not work properly.  They attempted to insert throat tubes multiple times without success. And there was worry that they might further exacerbate her cancer.  Other alternatives were considered, mostly unpleasant ones involving outside feeding tubes and so forth. Finally her swallowing started and discharge from the hospital was possible.  

 

Unfortunately there is no good inpatient rehabilitation facility in or about Zanesville.  And the nearest such place was full. So Mrs.T was placed at one of the Ohio Health hospitals in Columbus. There she received the full range of intense rehab services.  She continued to progress rapidly, but not completely, physically. Her 'occupational' skills also progressed nicely. Finally her swallowing and eating went from a diet of soft / mushy food to almost regular fare.  After two weeks she was discharged with recommendations for additional outpatient therapy - which is available in Zanesville.

 While we were still in the north we thought it might be possible to do the third cancer procedure so we would not need to make another trip.  However stroke protocol directs a three month wait until a significant medical procedure. The anaesthesiologists in particular declined to authorize Mrs.T's procedure short of that timeframe.  So we were back to the original schedule. Rebecca was distressed that we would need to wait.

We arrived at the condo mid-December about two months later than normal and all was well.  We prepared for our return to Columbus in mid-January. We found a great doctor and therapist in Bucerias for Rebecca to continue work on her post-stroke problems.  She has continued to make steady progress to the point that she was able to scuba one day although essentially as a beginner. She is working on her balance so she can return to horse riding.

We returned in mid-January, a week before this newsletter, and  Rebecca's treatment went fine with one hitch. She had an excess of scar tissue which made it somewhat more difficult for the doctor to remove the remaining cancerous area.  He was not sure he removed everything and said we would need to wait for the pathology report. We started thinking about what other types of treatment might be in the offing.  And the doctor inserted a stent to keep her constricted esophagus open. This put her back on a soft / mushy diet again for a month. And unfortunately scuba is out until the stent is removed.  We scheduled another trip back to Columbus to remove the stent in February.

THE NEWS:  The pathology report came back negative; Rebecca is cancer free and does not need any more treatments at this time.  And we can have the stent removed in Bucerias saving time, money, and lots of stress. She will go back for another exam when we return in early April.  We will continue to work on stroke therapy which is still a long-term situation. 

That should bring you up-to-date regarding Mrs.T's health issues.  We are grateful that everything is turning out very well. Perhaps this was a bit more information than you needed but many folks have been asking about her and I thought too much would be better than too little.

We want to thank everyone for their support and prayers.  The folks here at Jacarandas have been especially helpful.  Most special is fellow Pool Princess Brenda - a big thanks for the mashed potato 'Cancer Free Cake'  (R, Luis, Brenda)

Hope you all are in good health and enjoying your winter.

Greetings from sunny Bucerias.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

Sent from Outlook

THANKFUL

BEING THANKFUL

We have heard from several of you inquiring as to Rebecca's status.  She has been most appreciative of your concerns. She currently is not capable of putting together a newsletter so the Editor has taken on this issue.  By the time you read it American Thanksgiving will probably have come and gone. We will most likely have gone to a local eatery that will have prepared its version of a holiday meal and we will have unfortunately missed the sumptuous feast at Sandrina's, especially the pie.

Mrs.T is doing well actually.  After spending two weeks at inpatient rehabilitation in Columbus she has been in outpatient rehabilitation in Zanesville for about two weeks.  She has two or three sessions each week about one and a half hours each, a half hour for each type of rehab. She has made a lot of progress but still has quite a ways to go.  Recovery from a stroke is a long-term project. The big thing is that her ability to swallow and eat is just about normal although there are certain foods she has not yet attempted.  But she can eat popcorn if she takes it slowly.

The rehabilitation has three parts:  physical, occupational, and speech. She is somewhat weaker and less coordinated on her right side - the stroke was on the left side of her brain.  Her balance is questionable. At the rehab center they put her through several machines as well as different exercises to strengthen her. We do some followup physical exercises twice a day at home.  She is sufficiently okay physically to manage everyday activities.

On the 'occupational' side she is improving with normal chores.  She can use the microwave okay but we are still staying away from the stove.  I count out her pills and remind her about her medication schedule. I also help keep her calendar straight.  I perform most of the home chores as I have for quite some time. She cannot drive; coordination and reaction times are not adequate.  Horse riding and scuba diving are likewise off the table for now, although she has clearance from the neurologist.

She still has some speech problems however.  Generally it is easy to understand her. Mostly she has aphasia; this is an inability to bring out words even though they may be inside your head, a common consequence of a stroke.  That connects to problems with processing thoughts and visual items. We have several puzzle books and some simple jigsaw puzzles. With work she has been able to do the jigsaw puzzles that previously would not have been at all challenging; she finished some 100 piece puzzles with big pieces.  She is about to try some 300 piece puzzles and maybe a 500. Very easy sudoku puzzles are now very difficult. Word search games are quite challenging. Her number skills are very low; she is not ready to handle cash. Dates are elusive as is telling time with an analog clock. We have some exercises for those items as well.   And she has been tackling some books from the library with mixed results. Not surprisingly her memory is vague. And she tires easily.

  

Another treatment for her esophageal cancer is scheduled for 11 December.  This will be a repeat of the same radio frequency ablation that she had in October.  The prediction is that the remaining areas of cancer will be eradicated with this treatment.  However, she will need to return for followup in the spring. Examinations will continue every few months for at least a year.  The overall prognosis is very good. Recovery from these treatments is generally fairly quick. 

The Editor is a rather stern nurse and is trying to keep everything on track.  Sometimes the patient finds him to be too demanding. But generally we have reached compromises that continues rehabilitation at a steady pace.  Our current plan is to be in Bucerias in time for the posada. We will then talk to Dr.V about obtaining some rehabilitation services which should not be a problem.  We both feel that rehab will be just as successful in the more pleasant weather of the condo. And the Editor is tired of scraping ice from windshields.

So what are we thankful for this year?  We could talk in glowing generalities about the freedoms we enjoy - although there is a lot of turbulence in the US at the moment.  No, we will mention our more personal blessings. We are thankful that Mrs.T is with us. Although her health is a bit impaired there is every hope that she will, with time, enjoy a full recovery from her stroke and return to her jolly self.  We are happy that her cancer was discovered at a very early stage and expect that treatment will yield fully positive results.

May all of you have enjoyed a peaceful Thanksgiving, even our many non-US friends.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

Sent from Outlook

Why we are not in Mexico

Golly Those Travels

About a month ago I got some rather distressing news that I had intramucosal esophageal carcinomas or something like that - in a word cancer.  Well I was darn near hysterical. But I could not mope too much because I had a week travel with Dan in Charleston, Oregon with a one day stopover in Seattle on the way home.  And then one day to wash clothes for two weeks travel with Rita in Italy. Sigh!! This probably was a good distraction,

In Oregon Dan was taking a nature printing workshop.  This is where you take things like leaves and put ink on them and press another thing on top of them to make prints.  There were more advanced things like fish or octopus, dead of course. Still it takes a lot of skills to get ink on them and rub it off to look like the original.  Dan made me a very nice octopus tee shirt. Dan also made some prints from tree rings that were pretty interesting.  

On the day off we traveled along the coast.  We saw a whole lot of seals sitting on the rocks and barking loudly.  I saw a large field of cranberries just ready to scoop up. The next week was the cranberry festival.  The hills along the coast were covered with very tall evergreens. We read in their local museum in Bandon it seems that every 30 or 40 years they have a bad drought and then the evergreens catch fire and burn everything to the ground.  It seemed to me that building everything out of cedar might have been a poor choice. I'm sure it is very cheap but brick or stone might have been better in the long run. At the place where they had the workshop, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, there was a marine museum, Charleston Marine Life Center. I liked going there to look in the big aquariums.  They had lots of big anemones and nudibranchs, two octopuses, some jellyfish, and so on.

 

After all this printing we stopped to say hello to Dan's brother John and his wife Suzy. In Seattle.  We really enjoy seeing them and as they are far away, we do not see them as often as we would like. We brought them some cranberry cookies.,  We had a low key drive around the city looking at the new gentrification. The area of West Seattle has picturesque small houses on small lots which are landscaped beautifully like Suzy has done with their place.  The flippers and floppers are trying to make the houses as large as possible or condos but the results are often less than ideal. Sometimes less is more.

 After we returned home I had frantic day washing and repacking with Dan's help and advice.The next day I was off to meet my sister Rita in New York for a t!ip to Italy.  The things is, several relatives were worried about Rita, who is seventy and apt to wander off on impulse and physically challenged with breathing issues, being let loose in Italy.  So I who am - 69 and physically challenged in terms of knees, eyes, and ears and general condition - was sent along as a chaperone. Neither of us knew more than a few words of Italian but I knew a little Spanish and Rita knew a little French.  And when in doubt Rita looked charming and I looked piteous. However I was in Italy last year with Dan so I know the ropes. I was to fly from Columbus to JFK airport in New York. Now these airports keep getting bigger. I swear one of these days you will get on one of these little airport trains in one place and get off on another airport train somewhere else and you won't need planes anymore. 

 Be that as it may, I had ordered a wheelchair because I did not think I could deal with JFK.  When I got in the chair I could tell the pusher had an attitude.  "Where do you want to go?" she growled.  " To the shuttles, " I replied; I was supposed to meet Rita there.  "You can't get to the shuttles in a wheelchair," she replied triumphantly.. This confused me, "Why not?" I asked.  "You are not allowed,'' she told me. "Do the best you can," I told her. Usually I am a pretty good tipper but this woman was getting less and less in  my mind; little did I know! She wheeled me around for quite a while stopped at a little train pushed me in and shoved my bags in after and dashed out with the chair.  "No chairs on the train!" she shouted, "get off at Bri…" In my return trip through JFK I discovered that there are in fact buses that take wheelchairs around; whether the grumpy pusher knew this or not I have no idea but she did not get a tip! HE HE HE!

The train rushed off and I began to fall.  Luckily I was caught by two kind ladies who attached my hand to a pole and told me to hold on.  They rescued my luggage which was careening about the car and put it in my other hand. "Where are you supposed to get off?' the ladies asked.  "The shuttles," I answered. Then commenced a carwide discussion as to which stop I should take. Meanwhile the train is rushing around stopping here and there.  I hoped a decision was reached before I passed my stop. "Brighton," was the decision. It is two stops more." The kind ladies arranged me near the door with my bags. "You have to get off as soon as it stops", they advised, "Then just follow the signs." The train stopped and someone pushed me off.  As I stumbled to my feet my bags plopped down beside me. The train took off and I looked up and saw a green arrow "shuttles." I felt like Blanche Dubois, always depending on the kindness of strangers.

I began slowly toddling off down one side walk after another dragging my luggage behind me following the green arrows.  I had three cases, one rollie stuffed quite full of clothes, one case holding the CPAP machine for night breathing, and a small backpack full of small but necessary items, according to the prepared travelers list.  These would have to last me two weeks. According to Dan I had far too many clothes. It turned out he was partially right; no duchess asked me to tea but you never know. After about a half hour of toddeling I found Rita.  We were both very excited and a little relieved. We never really admitted any accuracy of the others reservations about our adventures but we did understand their reasoning, even if it was flawed.

FROM THE EDITOR:

Here is where Mrs.T stopped writing this current newsletter with the intention of finishing it at the condo; the editor has had on the briefest look at it.  However, on Sunday, 20 October, while at the hotel in Columbus getting ready to leave for the condo Rebecca suffered a stroke. She had laid down to try to get some sleep.  When I attempted to rouse her to take some nighttime medicine she was unresponsive even after a couple of slaps and some cold water on her face. I went to the hotel desk and asked them to call a squad.  The airport EMTs came and took her to Mt. Carmel East hospital where the diagnosis was made. An MRI showed that only her speech center had been impacted.

It has been about a week and she is substantially improved.  Physically she is about normal with perhaps a bit more wobble than usual when walking.  The other major initial problem was that she could not swallow. That was heading towards some sort of feeding tube.  However, that has resolved itself and she has a good appetite - no tubes necessary. But she can only eat mushed up food.

In the next few days she probably will be discharged from the hospital and transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility where she will be given several hours a day of speech and physical therapy.  That should last a couple of weeks. At her current rate of improvement she should be nearly normal fairly quickly.

That brings us back to the very first sentence.  We found out about the esophageal cancer through her routine screening in the spring.  She has had Barrett's for a number of years and needs to have routine endoscopies. The one in the spring looked abnormal to our local GI doctor who referred her to a specialist at OSU.  The examination by The OSU GI doctor in August just before the trips found the cancer when he removed a couple of nodes for biopsy.  

The early detection means that the chances of recovery are quite high.  Mrs.T had virtually no symptoms so the initial scope was quite valuable. She is scheduled for additional treatments about every three months starting after the second treatment in October which showed that the cancer is still there.  However, it has not metastasized, which is also a good sign. They are using a newer treatment, radio frequency ablation, that does not involve radiation, chemo, or surgery. After her recovery from the stroke we will be speaking with her OSU GI doctor to see if he wants to treat her earlier as we are still in Ohio.

Many thanks to Rita for coming to visit for a week.  Daily visits by daughter Marla have of course been appreciated.  And the visits by Tori, Waverly, Cheryl, and John T-L (#johnsbeercapart) were most welcome.  The many flowers have brightened Mrs.T's stay. 

That brings you up-to-date in the world of Casa de Terrible.  Fortunately we will not need our urns yet; check out the picture of those.

Some results from Oregon:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsmHdH5fV

Just two nice pictures:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJ2EKw

Love to everyone.  See you soon.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible@blogspot.com

News Flash:  Rebecca is being transferred to the Ohio Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Columbus for at least two weeks of intensive work starting 28 October.  For those familiar with Columbus that is the old Doctor's Hospital in the Short North / Victoria Village area.

Sent from Outlook

Summer Wind

THE SHINGLE SINGULARITY

Those of you who have followed our irregular newsletter for a while know that in the summer we go into a nice quiet routine at our northern home in Ohio.  Actually our life in Mexico has become more routine as the years pass. But generally the emphasis is on quiet - summer is a time to be studiously lazy about things.  It would be incorrect to say 'not much happens', but as it is a house rather than a condo we attend to more maintenance and repairs ourselves. And Mrs.T prefers to stay close at home to work her little forest garden - she is currently planning a labyrinth there.  This summer we have concentrated on a lot of large-scale landscaping. Occasionally we have an interruption in the routine as related below.

One day the wind was blowing quite smartly and it was spitting rain.  From inside our patio I was watching the trees swaying. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning. I was laughing at the National Weather Service computer mispronouncing the names of local towns.  (Foul ups on Native American and foreign names are common. -dt) Dan was in his office doing something or other. When suddenly the wind picked up and blew wildly, I was a little nervous because we live in the middle of a forest, sometimes trees blow down around our house. (Remember the crunched car from last year?  -dt) I could see the trees waving and then CRACK, THUD, BOOM. A huge black shape whirled out of the sky, thudded onto and bounced off the roof where it materialized into a pile of shingles in the grass behind the house. 

"What was that??!!" Dan shouted.

"It was the roof blowing off," I shouted back.

"Are you sure?"  Dan sometimes thinks that I exaggerate.  (Indeed! -dt)

"Well at least it was shingles," I replied. 

At this point the wind increased until it was howling and the rain started pouring buckets.  Dan came back and looked out the window and examined the pile of shingles.

"Why don't you go out …" Dan stopped in the middle of his silly suggestion realizing from the look on my face that there was no way he could persuade me to go outside.  "I guess there is nothing we can do now," Dan concluded.

When the storm was over we went outside and walked completely around our house and could find no bare spots on the roof, although there was another pile of shingles.  I went down to the storage shed and it was okay too. We emailed our neighbor about ¼ of a mile away. He had all his shingles too. (Short of a tornado virtually impossible for his shingles to reach us - dt)  It was a conundrum.

Our friend Jamey who was putting gravel on our driveway came to look. "It is nothing to worry about; the shingles came from your ...  an unfamiliar word that means a roof part,,,," he said.

"Oh," I said trying to look intelligent.  Evidently I was not too successful because he immediately explained that it was a thing that covered vents so that rain would not leak in there.  Jamey said he would fix it in a day or two - not to worry.

Why, you might ask, did I call this the shingle singularity.  Well the other day I heard someone on TV talk about a singularity.  I really have no idea what it means but I thought it was a lovely word. (Astrophysics is not in R's wheelhouse. -dt)  Perhaps it means something that happens only once. At any rate you must admit it has a poetic sound.

Art, the pond guy, came to work on the pond which is once again leaking.  He found a hole in the liner that he fixed with tape. He also held down the top of the liner with stones so that water won't leak out behind it.  He planted water celery around the edge to fasten the pond to the surrounding land. If we want to we can eat the water celery but that has not happened.  (And probably won't. -dt) The pond looks good. We have two different flags - water irises - yellow and blue. And we also have two different water lilies, pink and white.  We have a lot of arrowhead plants but they are not blooming. We have a small floating island which the turtles are supposed to use for basking but so far they refuse to do it.  The water is quite clear.

Five turtles are currently living in the pond:  Myrtle, Yrtle, Shelly, Byron, and Keats. After I named Shelly I wanted to name the next turtle Sands but Dan said that was not funny - sigh.  You see Shelly and Sands is a well-known local construction company. So when that name was vetoed I decided to go with Romantic Poets. We have fish and salamanders and tadpoles too numerous to mention.  We also saw a couple of common eastern water snakes and and a lot of pond insects especially water striders or Jesus bugs - they walk on the water.

It has been incredibly hot here and the pond is drying out.  If we do not get rain soon we will have to get water hauled in a big plastic tank on the back of a truck.  I think I will need three truckloads. (The normal autumn heat/drought just came a bit early this year. -dt)  When it is this hot I cannot run the waterfall because of evaporation. The pond guy and I are planning to build a backup pond so that we won't run out of water as often.  I think Dan is dubious of this plan, but we are ignoring him. (Correct on both counts. -dt) If you don't believe in climate change or global warming the pond guy, the fish, turtles, and I are going to tell you you are just plain wrong.

Do you remember  when we used to do this line dance in phys ed (Gym class -dt) called The Bunny Hop?  Well we have had a lot of bunnies hopping around here. We have three bunnies that live around our yard and we have really enjoyed watching them play.  There is one thing that they do: One rabbit will hop toward another very fast. And just when you are sure he is going to run into the other guy bunny number two makes a great leap straight up in the air and the first  bunny hops under bunny two. Dan was the first to observe this behavior but whenever he called me to look of course the bunnies would stop doing it. Dan is sure it is a mating dance but then his mind tends to run in that direction.  I finally have seen them do it and I have no idea what it means, maybe they are training for the bunny olympics. (I do not have enough patience to try to video this behavior. -dt)

These little guys spend all day munching on our yard.  Since they are one type of critter which doesn't seem to munch on my flowers I am rather fond of them.  Dan has suggested that if I yoke them in a three bunny hitch I can drive them around munching away and then I will not need the lawnmower.  (More likely coral them like a small herd of cattle. -dt)

That was the end of Mrs. T's latest story.  But between the time of writing and editing the events in El Paso and Dayton unfolded.  She felt she should add an additional paragraph:

As most of you know, every fall we go to Mexico where we are welcomed by the kind, caring, open, loving people who live there.  They gladly make us part of their lives and we joyously live among them. (We have become part and parcel of community of Bucerias.  -dt) It is only right that we similarly open our country to Mexicans (And others. -dt) who want to live here. As we have not found a lot of lawlessness down in Mexico likewise we do not expect to find it among the Mexicans who have come north.  Where we live in Ohio there is almost full employment. (Although not throughout the state. -dt) You cannot walk down the street without passing help wanted signs in many business windows. I see no reason why Mexican immigrants should not fill some of these jobs if they are qualified.  Further, if they want to stay here and take the tests to become citizens more power to them. I do not believe it is or ever should be a crime to want to work to feed your family!  We lovingly embrace as friends people who want to be lawful American citizens.  (And especially those fleeing the hardships of their native lands. -dt)

Just a few pictures from this summer, including a visit to the Forest Automobile Rallye down in Vinton County and thereabouts:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmFQP9yq

Hope you all are having a cool summer.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

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Northern Return 2019

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jog

We may have used that phrase before but it has become part of our routine rotation.  It is really quite similar when we move from north to south although our Philo home is a bit more 'home' than Bucerias.  If Mrs.T had control of the garden in Mexico she really would be in heaven. We have been back in Ohio for about one month and things are now quite routine again.  We have attended to several repairs and replacements - see below. Taxes and doctors have received their due. R is back to riding horses - also below. And we have gone to several of our favorite cultural events.  Mrs.T gives some highlights of our return this year:

Well we are home again and we have been Jiggity Jogging all over the place.  We have had lots of medical appointments and tests and have passed most of them with only minor adjustments in medications so far, touch wood, but there are a few visits left to go.

One exciting change in our lives is Dan has a new car.(Replacement for the one that was squished by the tree branch last October. -dt)   It is a KIA Soul. It has many, many new gadgets and improvements. (Those of you with newer vehicles probably are familiar with these. -dt) For one thing it has no key.  For another it shows you if a car is in your blind spot it goes BEEP!!BEEP!! If you take your hands off the steering wheel it flashes you a message, "Driver must have hands on the wheel at all times."  When I used to tell Dan that I was nagging, but when the car says it it is safety technology. When you drift out of your lane the car goes BEEP!!BEEP!! I think all these beeps could get on your nerves but I'm just guessing because although we have had the car about 1000 miles I have driven exactly 0. (She has backed it up to get the mower out of the garage. -dt) One thing I do think is interesting is that it has automatic windshield wipers.  If it starts rain they come on; if it rains harder they go faster. Isn't technology grand? Dan is very excited. (These are good features for older drivers. -dt)

Speaking of Souls, Dan has decided we will no longer go to church! (Only up north; could be temporary. -dt) For years we had gone to the 9:30 mass.  Well our church changed the schedule so there is an 8:15 mass, too early, and a 10:45 mass, too late. Dan feels very strongly that these are not the right times.  Evidently Dan is strictly a 9:30 Catholic. (Any time between 9 and 10 would be okay. -dt) I suggested we could be Lutherans but he didn't want to do that. Dan didn't want to be a Presbyterian or Methodist either, although he did admit Methodists had the best food based on their booths at the county fair.

I don't feel strongly about one church or another but there is something comforting about singing, and sitting quietly and thinking thoughts.  I am also very fond of the angels painted on the ceiling at St. Nicholas. To fulfill these needs I have decided to build a meditation labyrinth in my wildflower woods.  When I explained it to the stones man (Landscaper -dt) he was a little doubtful but when I showed him the pictures on the computer he began to get more enthused.

I was happy to get back to riding.  Jewel, the horse I ride, snuffled at me which is the horse way of saying 'hello'.  Of course all the horses like me because I bring them carrots. Tori said I was riding well.  Alas I was not mounting so well. Last week when I was trying to get on Jewel I fell off the barrel.  Jewel is quite tall (A Belgian. -dt) so I have to climb some steps and then get on a barrel to mount her, at least that is the theory.  I suppose if someone told me not to get on my high horse I could take it literally, He! He! He! At first I was pretty sore but now it only hurts when I breathe.  Hmm. Jewel stepped back politely and looked down at me as if to say "What are you doing down there?" After I recovered for about five minutes I was able to get on and ride slowly for about an hour.  I loved it nonetheless. (Yes, she was on her high horse -dt)

When we got to Ohio the spring wildflowers were in bloom.  We had white and purple violets. We had trilliums and bluebells.  Forget-me-nots floated like a blue cloud above the grass, After a couple of weeks the pond guy came and fixed the waterfall.  We had four turtles, loads of fish, and salamanders. The turtles are named Yurtle, Myrtle, Shelly, and Byron. We look out our windows and watch all kinds of birds and animals wandering by.  I dug forty holes to spruce up our wildflower woods even more with new and different flowers. (Rule: If she buys them, she must plant them. -dt) In fact my heart was singing.

Then there was the fire in Notre Dame.  I had gone there fifty years ago. The place was special. I remembered the great tall silences, the rose windows, the carved wooden stalls.  The sacredness of a thousand years was burning, burning, My joy was gone. Slowly I am recovering but there is a quiet place behind my heart that still grieves.  The green things are growing still. And life goes on.

Here are some pictures:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsmD89vNt  We thought we would include a small nod to motherhood - Rachel, with son Willie, just turned 97!  And nephew Phil and wife Shakiyah are expecting Journi and Marli in July. We hope all you mothers had a grand celebration on your day.

Best wishes for a great summer.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com  

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