We’ve Moved!!

After nearly 7 weeks at Paula and Tom’s place in Glendale, we moved on Saturday to our next project site near Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport.  For the next three weeks, we will be working at UMOM New Day Centers (see http://www.umom.org/ ).  This is the largest shelter for homeless families in this area.  We have come here for meetings in the past but have not worked here yet.

Since the eye problems prevented us for working at the camp in Indiana, this will be our first project in quite some time.  It is also the first time in awhile that we will be working with other new-to-us couples.  Our family of Nomads friends keeps getting larger all the time.  By late afternoon all 6 rigs were parked and we had brief hellos as we got settled.  We will all go to church services, have lunch together, and begin to get to know one another soon. 

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving was spent putting up outside lights at Paula’s.  She “recruited” us to help.  It took us two days!  Here is Bob doing surgery on a broken Santa.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving and our niece, Tomie, was home for the long weekend.  There were 7 of us at Paula’s for the holiday, and enough food for the whole neighborhood.  Some of Tom’s kids and grandkids stopped for a visit later in the day.   

Glendale has a festival in the original downtown area at this time of year which they call “Glendale Glitters”.  Many decorative lights are hung throughout a park near city hall and the park is filled with food and craft tents.  Many dance schools perform there as well, including one that one of Tom’s granddaughters is part of.  One of the activities was an area set up to play in the snow for $2.  Food for thought you Minnesotans!

  

A Week of Ups and Downs

We know that a number of our regular blog readers are involved with medical aid in some respect or another (EMT, First Responders, etc).  For you, what’s your response to a green wristband like this:

Bob has been wearing one for over a month and last week we learned, at an Urgent Care and at a hospital ER, that a lot of medical people were not familiar with this warning.  At the Opthomologist appointment earlier this week we learned that it is intended to warn against air transport, like helicopters and airplanes, and also to restrict some anesthesiology procedures.

The eye exam went well.  The recuperation is very slow, but everything is about on schedule.  The gas bubble in Bob’s eye is slowly getting smaller; to the point now where he is comfortable driving (giving Paige a break).  The bubble sits high in the eyeball, which is low in his line of sight.  Now that it is less than half, he can see distance and TV pretty well, but newspapers and books have to be held high.  He will remain restricted from flying until the bubble is all gone, so we are not planning a return to Minnesota for the holidays.  Maybe in January or February, instead.

Also last week, there was a horrible traffic accident about 2 blocks from here.  Two single-occupant vehicles met nearly head-on.  One driver died at the hospital later, and the other (who is Paula and Tom’s estimator and office manager) was taken into custody and charged with manslaughter due to a high blood alcohol level.  He has been in jail since then and went for arraignment today.  So many lives were changed by one stupid decision!

On a lighter note, Thanksgiving is coming soon and we got busy making the family’s recipe for lefse – about 10 lb of potatoes yielded enough to last through New Year’s. 

 

We’ll spend Thanksgiving here at the Shaw Compound with Uncle Phil and Elsie.  Tomie will also be home from LA.  We’ll miss the Minnesota family but enjoy being here with Paula and gang.

On Tuesday nights one of our favorite restaurants, Valle Luna, has a special for seniors.  It’s very busy but we like to go then.  Here’s the Shaw Compound folks having dinner there last week.

Never Boring Around Here

We have been taking turns: after Paula was released from one hospital, Bob went into another.  Part of Thursday’s leftover salmon lunch picked the worst possible place to get “stuck” after swallowing – right where his esophagus was weakened after surgery many years ago.  Situations like this have happened once in awhile, but they usually pass within a couple of minutes.  This time, it only got worse.  The Urgent Care we visited didn’t have the equipment to help; they sent us to a local hospital.  We got there early in the evening, and they wanted to wait until Friday morning when the full staff were available for an endoscopy.   Bob was admitted to the Observation Unit.  Not a pleasant way to spend a night. The endoscopy was done early in the morning and we were home by 11 a.m. with Bob feeling much better. 

Meanwhile, Paula was feeling well enough to get some work done at the office, and to go out to the theater with some friends on Friday night, but that might have been a little too much too soon.  She is hurting again on Saturday. 

Bob’s eye is continuing to improve.  He still cannot see totally out of the left eye but sight is almost 50% now.  Due to his hospital visit, we missed the eye doctor checkup on Friday morning.  We now have to wait until the 16^th to see the eye doc again for a status check. 

Haven’t heard much about Paige?  She is functioning as the chief nurse, chauffeur, and cook around here.  Thankfully, her health is good currently! 

Not many opportunities to do much around here recently.  However, the weather has improved immensely!  This weekend is sunny and in the 80’s.  Perfect!