Staying the Course: Merry Month of May 2021 Edition

[Superbob]

Greetings, fellow Coursers, wherever you may be. Been a while. Wonder if my bright idea of doing a starter post just once a month might be having the unintended effect of causing STC to wither on the vine. Maybe if there is interest, I will try to refresh semi-weekly or perhaps weekly.

April showers bring May flowers, huh? Well, we fell into drought conditions hereabouts this April. Hope thunderstorms next week bring some relief. Yards look like they are in July stress already. Of course, hurricane season begins in a few weeks, but that is a harsh way to get the water tables caught up. Twenty or 30 inches of rain in a day or two is no help to anyone.

Much of my time lately has been consumed in dealing with a family crisis. Can't provide details online. Suffice to say that retirement does not always bring a life of ease, free from refereeing or moderating. Things do seem to be heading toward a better place now.

Today the local farmers market opened up and DW and I bought tomatoes, corn, green beans, squash, baby potatoes, cucumbers and such. One farm-family trucks in the veggies and berries (oh yeah we got strawberries too) and melons, and we've gotten to be good friends with them over the past 10 years. So between now and October, we'll happily go to market every Saturday and then go a favorite restaurant like the Mexican one we enjoyed today.

Okay, we have some medical stuff on our calendar but I'll spare details for now. A Facebook friend was about to have her fourth open-heart surgery, only to have doctors discover after she had been prepped for surgery that her valve is working okay after all. Wow and whew! Maybe she'll write something about this remarkable adventure and if so I'll ask her permission to post it here.

Well, let's hear what you're up to and what's going on. I have missed your company.

Cheers,
Superbob

 

[Superman]

Can’t believe you’ve already got farmers markets opening up down your way. Also, how does one get all the way to surgery prep and hear, “Just kidding!”? We’re they scheduled for April 1st? If so - that joke wins!

Just the beginnings of blossoms up here. We have tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and other early spring flowers. Flowering trees are underway as well.

Spent the weekend getting our little backyard pond summer ready. We rebuilt it last year and I’ve got all the filtration going and the waterfall. Still clearing out the water (a little dark from leaves and other debris). The frogs have moved in for their spring orgy. But today I say a 2 ft garter snake in the pond. Huge for these parts. Hope it takes care of the frogs and not our fish. Not easy to catch. Also got the lawn irrigation fired up. Had to free up three sprinkler heads that were sodded over. Looks like two others need replacing. One doesn’t rotate. The other doesn’t spray at all.

The class I teach is done for the term so it’s nice to be down to one job. But soccer is in full swing. AP exams for my older kids. My oldest has two weeks left of school then well move him back home.

Just busy times. Still trying to workout. We’ve been able to run outdoors in the nice weather. This is the season it’d be nice to suspend the Peloton, but then it rains or the hips don’t like running, and it’s good to have.

Hope we hear from a lot of folks. Thanks for always starting the conversation!

 

[Beach77]

Thank you Superbob for starting this! Yikes for your friend with the prep for her surgery, then having them cancel it! That will be interesting to hear about!

It was a sunny morning but turned a little cloudy/chilly in the afternoon here. The first part of the week was in the 90’s, then today only 60’s. It was my 2nd full week into retirement, and it’s been a busy 2 weeks!

At the end of the week, we’ll be going camping to the eastern Sierra’s. I’m super excited to see how I do on our hikes! I’m post-op 5 mo for my BAV replacement.

Have a great month everyone!

 

[skeptic49]

Good to see this thread again Superbob. This time of the year we're transitioning from the city home to the beach cottage. There is lots of work to do at the cottage to get it ready to enjoy during the summer months. We also have returned to indoor dining at a few select favorite restaurants where the number of diners is limited and the servers wear masks. It feels good to start to return to some of our pre-pandemic routines. Lets hope society can continue to progress in our battle against Covid.

 

[MartinF]

Checking in, still working at home when I have nothing to do in the lab. Only 8 weeks to go until they lay me off.
Not getting as much exercise as I need due to working on our rental house. It's almost finished and hopefully it's done this weekend. Last Friday I was working on the house and it was over 100 degrees out. This weekend will be cooler.
Here in Orange County we're doing well with the virus. I think we're over the hump. It's starting to get "normal" around here.
Happy Cinco de Mayo today!

 

[Luckyguy17]

thanks for the posting superbob, nice to read about AVR folks living normal lives and going about their business.
we become so self centred when undergoing surgery and procedures.
Finally a sunny day here, even though still cool. Awfully good for morale Today after 3 cool morose days

 

[MartinF]

Beach77, saw you're hiking in the eastern Sierras. My wife and I go up every year for our anniversary and do hikes in Lone Pine, Bishop and Mammoth. I hope to make some trips soon. We used to run races in Lone Pine (marathon) and Bishop (50K) in our younger days. Martin

 

[Beach77]

Beach77, saw you're hiking in the eastern Sierras. My wife and I go up every year for our anniversary and do hikes in Lone Pine, Bishop and Mammoth. I hope to make some trips soon. We used to run races in Lone Pine (marathon) and Bishop (50K) in our younger days. Martin

That's cool you did the runs up there! Beautiful place to celebrate your anniversary! We lived in Bishop for 5 years (1995). We've done quite a few hikes but no races. Lone Pine area has some pretty wonderful hikes! We'll have a day trip or two down there! We'll be camping on Silver Lake, June Lake loop.

 

[Superman]

Good weekend up here. The pond filtration is working as it should. Water is clear as glass and our backyard oasis is summer ready. Hopefully done with the last of our frosts up here. Still happening as of late last week though.

Replaced a couple sprinkler heads so the irrigation is up and running. My wife and kids did all the planting of annuals as well. Even got taxes done at the deadline. A lot less painful than I expected because apparently college expenses count for something. But those are very painful. My son is pre-med, so if all goes as planned, Uncle Sam should reap the benefits of a couple tax breaks today.

Good weekend around here. Hope everyone is having a good May coming out of a long winter and maybe even seeing the light at the end of a longer pandemic tunnel.

 

[MartinF]

We just finished working on our house near Palm Springs. It's been 2 1/2 months of working there on weekends and during the week. So hope to get back to a normal life soon.
My exercise has suffered but weight still stable. Walking only a couple days a week and trying to golf the short 9-hole course once a week.
The weather still is cool, May Gray and June Gloom to follow. June Gloom burns off by mid-day and is caused by the ocean and air temps. Had some rain over the weekend, much needed.
Going in to work 2-3 days a week lately. The COVID-19 numbers are very low here still but work is still keeping our mask policy the same. I did notice they have now returned the stairwells to both direction travel.

 

[dornole]

We're doing great here in Minnesota - grateful for a cool spring thus far, especially since our AC is broken -- a dead AC turned into a landscaping project to replace the retaining wall the AC sits on, delaying installation. But it goes in tomorrow which is great. Two youngest are graduating high school in a couple weeks, daughter is graduating college and has a full-time job lined up in her field, middle son just started an internship, and oldest is at least mowing the lawn, washing the cars and changing the oil on the regular. We're going to have to figure out where all the "offices" go in the house this summer as daughter, son and I will all be remote at least part-time. Lots to figure out.

 

[Duffey]

It’s been a crazy spring. Hubby was due to retire on April 23 after 41 years at our local hospital. He came home on April 19 after his usual 8 hour shift, limping. He hadn’t suffered an injury, but his knee was very sore. As the evening progressed, it swelled to such a degree that we went to the ER. After a long night, he was admitted with a septic knee and underwent surgery a few hours later. To add insult to injury, he was also in A-flutter. He spent his final week of work in the hospital and our plans to take off for our place in Wisconsin were thrown into disarray. Such a mess! His employee health insurance coverage ended on April 30, but we transitioned to Medicare with no problems. Superbob previously posted about his own experience securing a Medigap supplement and we took his advice and followed suit. Thank goodness! As for me, I had my Medicare preventive health exam yesterday and the doctor pronounced me a “very healthy lady”! Good to hear as I approach my 16th year with my bovine aortic valve.

 

[Superbob]

It’s been a crazy spring. Hubby was due to retire on April 23 after 41 years at our local hospital. He came home on April 19 after his usual 8 hour shift, limping. He hadn’t suffered an injury, but his knee was very sore. As the evening progressed, it swelled to such a degree that we went to the ER. After a long night, he was admitted with a septic knee and underwent surgery a few hours later. To add insult to injury, he was also in A-flutter. He spent his final week of work in the hospital and our plans to take off for our place in Wisconsin were thrown into disarray. Such a mess! His employee health insurance coverage ended on April 30, but we transitioned to Medicare with no problems. Superbob previously posted about his own experience securing a Medigap supplement and we took his advice and followed suit. Thank goodness! As for me, I had my Medicare preventive health exam yesterday and the doctor pronounced me a “very healthy lady”! Good to hear as I approach my 16th year with my bovine aortic valve.

Oh goodness, Duffey, so sorry about Bob's unexpected knee surgery and A-flutter. Makes me happy though to know that my advice about Medigap insurance proved to have a timely and beneficial impact. With my incisional hernia surgery coming up June 9, I am glad to have the security of still having our Plan F Medigap.

And really good "very healthy lady" news! Glad to be on team bovine with you now after a 15-year run on team porcine.

Also does my heart good to read all the reports from fellow Coursers since my Merry Month of May starter -- lots of positivity about happenings.

Unfortunately, these are difficult days within my family right now because of legal proceedings involving son and ex-wife, allegations back and forth, child custody/visitation, all that. I cannot go into details here, obviously, but my wife of 55 years (who will celebrate her 87th birthday a week after my surgery) and I are distressed by all this stress and strife.

In addition, my loyal walking dawg, Ellie, is rapidly declining. She's had a chronic cough that meds don't seem to help, and she pants heavily when we walk just a few blocks on a cool day. Sometimes she pants when she's just being still in an air-conditioned house. (She still does insist on a walk though, brief though it may be.) A rescue dog, she's about 13. If she makes it through another South Carolina summer, it will be amazing. Not sure about my own odds.

Wish I had happier news to report. I look forward to hearing from more Coursers!

 

[Superbob]

Talk about an inspiring happening along sundry courses this merry month of May, how about Phil Mickelson's unlikely winning of the PGA championship at age 50 (oldest ever) at the ultra-challenging course on Kiawah Island down south of here a bit? Ten years ago, when he was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, it looked like his golf career at an elite level was done. But with great medical help, and total dedication to fitness pursuit and healthy nutrition, Phil accomplished what no one else has done. Ought to be additional motivation and encouragement for us as we strive to stay our courses, and go beyond what many friends and family thought possible.

 

[Superman]

Closing out the month of May. Things are blooming and the bees are out! Beautiful weekend here.

Hold still!

Picked up a couple filters for our planned August vacation. Getting some shooting practice in the yard.

 

[dornole]

So sorry to hear about Ellie, Superbob. Definitely thinking of you and of her and wishing her comfort.