Hi

Been a while since I have posted, No reason just haven’t had much to say. I have been working very hard on the wood pile in the back yard. I have decided that I will have split and stacked before fall. I know it is a lofty goal but since my buddy Nate went got a job we don’t go fishing that much. I told him he was going to ruin a good thing, and he did. Way to go buddy!

I have had a very hard time walking any distance at all without the help of walking sticks. If I try and walk my back tightens up and bends me over. The bride finally got me to go to the doctor’s the other day and he found that I have 3 crushed vertebras. We figured that it happened about 3 years ago when I rolled my ATV.

Thinking back that is about the time I started to have trouble with my back. I may be a little slow on the up take but I get things figure out sooner or later.
Mom is doing alright but she fell the other day and broke her nose. She is very bruised but none the worse for wear.

Update on my new gun. I went back to CAL Ranch and talked with the manager (Jake) explaining the situation showing him some a copy of Impacts web page with the price they had listed. Jake said they do not match prices and he was not sure that the gun was the same that I bought. We talked a little more when Jake said "I will take care of you". He refunded the $40 plus tax and gave me a CaL ranch ball cap and a Mossy Oaks fanny pack. I will be a CAL ranch customer for life.

Impulse buys can be a bad thing. I went to the new Cal-Ranch store here in my home town. Walk up to the gun counter and saw a Henry Repeating Arms lever action 22cal calling my name. I held the gun in my hands like it was a new born baby. I had planned to come back in the morning and buy it. However my bride was standing behind me saying if you want it just buy it, so I did. I am very happy with the new gun even though I may have to buy an additional gun safe. But I did check on line with one of my favorite gun stores "Impact Arms" and found they had the same gun $40 cheaper. I would love to say lesson learned, but I have done this before and I will probably do it agian. In the words of the late great John Wayne " Life is hard and it is harder when you are stupid". I just want to go shoot it, maybe Monday morning would be good.

I take mom to the doctors tomorrow. She is pretty much confined to her wheel chair but is hanging in there. I moved mom out of the rehab facility and back to assisted living a couple of weeks ago. Mom seemed happy to be back at Applevillage.

I am headed off to Flaming Gorge next Wednesday. Plans are to stay until Saturday, so I am hoping my buddies and I have a boat load of fish.

Home safe and sound. I had wonderful time with my buddy. Talked him into buying another gun (Ruger GP 100 357 Mag). After the purchase of the gun he decided there should be a gun safe in the house, so off we went. We ended up wrestling a 24 gun fire rated safe into the house. Another responsible gun owner is born.

In my opinion mom is not doing well. It is hard to watch her fade away, but I guess that is life. This part of life sucks..

Weather forecast is maybe we will get some spring like weather for a few days. Hope it is true.

I leave for Pennsylvania in the morning. The bride and I are headed out to visit my buddy and his wife. Should be nothing but a good time. I have family coming over and they will take care of the dogs while we are gone.

Mom continues to work on her recovery, but for the most part I think she is slipping away. She is being well cared for at the rehabilitation facility so I can go on vacation with little worry.

Now that brings up a question, can a man who is retired really go on vacation, or is it just retirement at another location I am sure my buddy and I will spend hours discussing this next week.

Mom went to the Dr this morning. X rays show that the fracture has not started to heal, and there is a chance that it will not heal. The screws should hold the bone together either way. Mom has to start putting weight on the leg in hopes that she will be able to walk again. Time will tell.

I am tried of snow. Over this past weekend a foot of snow fell in my yard. It is time for spring and I want it now. I want to fish, and go to the desert with more guns then I can shoot in one day. I want to go for my walks around the neighborhood in my shorts scaring small children with the sight of my legs. I want to be warm!!!!!

It looks like I will be heading to my son's around the 20Th of May. As I understand it he is to receive a medal for valor from the police department he works for. This has to do with the shooting he was involed in last year. The boy makes me proud.

Mom is in the rehab facility and seems to be adjusting. The facility is very nice and the staff is very attentive to mom's needs. I am leaving in few minutes to see how she is doing. The surgeon told us before the surgery that 40% of people in mom's demographics pass away within 4 months the surgery. I guess that is still better then a 50/50 odds. It sucks to get old.

My mom fell and broke her hip yesterday, she had surgery last night and seem to come through it well. She will spend a few days in the hospital then go to a rehab facility.

Yesterday was my mom’s 90th birthday. We had a very nice party for her Saturday night. Mom was the best I have seen her in months, and she seemed to enjoy herself. My sister came to visit for the birthday. Mom did not know who she was at first, but after I assured mom it was her daughter it all came together. My sister heads home Friday morning, and as always the visit is too short.

We are getting hints of spring and I am ready. I am tired of the snow and cold. Looking forward to fishing with my buddies and bar b ques with all my friends.

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson

Mubarak has stepped down and Obama was excited by what he saw in the streets. Seems funny to me that he mocked the tea party's when they were in the streets. The only difference I can see is there was no violence with the tea parties. Again Obama has proven himself to be a a two faced liar.

"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." --Thomas Jefferson

Very quite day, the bride is taking a nap on the sofa and I am thinking about taking a walk. We have dinner plans with some Friends this evening and that is about it. Life is good and God is great.

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." --Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishment, quoted by Thomas Jefferson in Commonplace Book

They are moving mom into the Alzheimer unit today. This is a secure unit and mom will get a much higher level of care. Mom has been wandering the halls of the assisted living center all hours of the night and walking into rooms of the other residents. Mom has been caught trying all the door knobs in the place. There is a fear that mom may go out side and not be able to get back in, and with temps well below freezing this would be a bad thing. We had mom over for our Christmas eve dinner with the kids, grand kids and great grand kids. When I picked mom up Christmas morning she did not remember any of it. The center is moving her so mom will not connect the move with me. I'll take her clean laundry to her tomorrow and see how she is doing.

I spent a good part of yesterday keeping a friend company while he was in the emergency room. Seems he was having symptoms similar to too when a blocked artery. Intense pain in his back running across the shoulder and down his left arm, and numbness in his fingers. The hospital released him yesterday evening and has scheduled a stress test this morning. Just waiting to hear the results.

The bride is in California, her girlfriend and her spent the weekend at Disneyland and this morning they will board a cruise ship for a 5 day cruise. I am sure they are having a great time.

It is cold and raining this morning so the dogs and I are enjoying a cup of coffee in front of the fire. It is just nice and I do enjoy this time in my life.

In the world of bazaar I think this ranks pretty high. Yesterday my downstairs toilet erupted. I had left the house to take a friend to a doctor’s appointment. When I came home I found water and very small shredded pieces of toilet paper coating every surface of the bathroom. Thank God there was no fecal matter to be found. But this went at least four feet up the walls, all over the vanity, mirror, floors and had blown out into the hallway. I ran down to the basement and found everything was fine then ran up stairs to check the bathrooms up there and nothing was wrong. I flushed and the toilets and it seemed I was good to go (no pun intended). .

Before I left to help out my buddy I had notice a smell coming from the master bath shower drain. I figure maybe some bacteria had grown and I pour a good amount of bleach down the drain. Maybe the bleach reacted with the gas and the downstairs potty was the first place the pressure could release. Anyway I was told I could not put bleach in the drain anymore. I am glad I was not sitting on the pot when it blew. I am sure it would be embarrassing to explain what happened at the emergency room as they pick small pieces of embedded paper out of the backside. I am off to see what adventures await me today. Wish me luck.

It‘s been awhile and I have done a lot. The trip to Yellowstone was wonderful, a good time spent with friends. I did get a call from the assisted living center where mom lives and was told that she was in a lot of pain from a fall she had taken. I was 6 hours away and I was stressed just a little bit. My buddy Jim and his wife Maese were house and dog sitting for us and they were kind enough to go and sit with mom in the emergency room. After many test the staff at the hospital could find nothing wrong with mom. Jim and his bride took mom back to the assisted living center and mom promptly forgot she went to the hospital. Thanks to wonderful friends I was able to relax and finish our long weekend.

The bride and I took a trip to Durango CO. to celebrate our 38th anniversary, again just a great weekend. We rode the Durango-Silverton narrow gage railroad, a seven hour round trip but a lot of fun and beautiful country. I figure out the only way to see the part of the country is to be young and in really good shape or ride the railroad. I choose the latter.


My youngest son wanted me to fly over to Denver for a visit. Again it was a good time (I believe I am beginning to sound redundant). I did make an impulse buy while I was out there. I became the proud owner of a new Smith and Wesson M&P9. I found that it is pretty easy to fly with firearms. At least of southwest Airlines, Just make sure it is unloaded and securely locked in your checked luggage. I declared that I had a firearm and was asked to show that it was unload. I was the escorted with my luggage to the TSA and a simple x-ray and it was done. I picked up my luggage and gun at the other end of my trip.

The bride’s sister is in town for a visit and the girls are out spending money and having fun. I have relegated to keeping the house picked up and doing dishes. But I really don’t mind.

I am still alive,just don't have much to say