Son Jason Called

Jason called us this morning while he was ice fishing on Don Williams Lake near Ogden IA and since we did not have anything in particular going on we talked for 3 hours or thereabouts. I learned that the ice is more than a foot thick. It was 6 degrees when we started talking and up to 11 degrees later.

He caught 4 fish before he called and 1 after. All catch and release. Sometimes he saves them but not always. We talked about many, many things.
He has sonar and knows when fish are in the area. He says they come and go very quickly. We talked about retirement and a book he is reading. His job and Laura's job and the list goes on. He used to call us frequently but it is hard to guess what our schedule holds so now he calls less frequently but for longer if he finds us not too busy.

Sinus Situation

I have been getting inquiries into the state my sinus situation so in writing an answer to one friend decided I had better get it on the blog for all to see. 

I feel like a prisoner and that it has been a wasted season in Sunny South Texas. For me anyway. My sinus issue is entirely on the left side. When I go outside and the mystery conditions are wrong I seize up on that side and get a raging headache. And I mean RAGING. Some of the worst headaches of my life. That is what sent me to the South Texas Sinus Institute. The complication is my heart, AFIB and taking blood thinner. They want me off of it for 10 days prior to the procedure and 10 days after and they want a heart doctor to sign off on that. My heart doctor in Iowa will not because it has been more than 30 days since I had an EKG. So then I had to find a heart doctor down here, go for tests and pass them. I am in the process of that now. Doctor Himly, a cardiologist in Harlingen, has ordered an ECHO (Monday) and a Stress(Tuesday) and then see him on Wednesday and get the verdict. If all is well and I expect it will be I am scheduled for the procedure on Feb 28th.

To complicate things further I had a bad infection in my sinus. I wonder about it yet. Became allergic to amoxicillin after 6 days and broke out in hives. That produced a trip to ER. So now I am back to taking only my original meds and hoping like hell I can hang together enough to get this taken care of and recover some of the benefits of being here before we head back north. The problem in the meantime are these headaches; what causes them and getting rid of them. And that is a daily issue.

My biggest frustration is not getting my walks in. I feel they are critical to my overall well being and a big part of what has kept me healthy to this point. 

Tie Dye

Krist invited me up to do some tie dye. Since I am not a fan I instead took the opportunity to take some photos instead. That was fun!

Our Elise and her new Kindle

Saturday and Sunday

The weather on Thursday, the 7th made it up to 87 degrees in the South Texas town of Alamo and then a cold front made its way down here.
Yup, they start out in the arctic regions and make it all the way down to the fat part of the globe. And what is even more amazing is the fact the cold air can still pack a wallop. So at 6:00pm on Thursday evening, it was a hot and humid 87 degrees and 6:00AM Friday morning it was 49 degrees. And it never got any warmer. Then at 6:00AM on Saturday morning it was 39 degrees! And it never exceeded 44 degrees all day! Oh yes, add a drizzly all day rain to the mix too.
This business plays absolute havoc with my sinuses. Thus my hermit status.
This morning a trip to the grocery store was absolutely necessary. I returned home with groceries and a rip-roaring pounding headache.
I certainly hope this surgical procedure helps this condition.
Enough of my troubles.

We invited Dave and Liz to go with us to Gonzales Burgers for lunch. We usually make at least one stop there each season. Located on Silver Ave in Donna Texas the Gonzales family makes up a given number of pounds of hamburger each day. One burger is more than enough to feed two people. Their fries are very crispy and their onion rings are big and the very best an onion ring can be. You must go to the counter to order your burger because they do not start grilling your burger until you order it. They open at 10:45AM Tuesday through Saturday. They stay open until they run out of hamburger or 3:00 PM whichever comes first. We had a great tasty burger and it is more than enough food to last for all day.

Butch and I played in the mixed doubles pool today. They play every Sunday but this Sunday was a smaller crowd. It is a great way to meet and make friends. Elmer and I had a good time despite the fact we were on the lower part of the leader board. Butch played with Rainy and that is indeed her given name and they too had a great time.

One of my trivia people, Frank, asked me to look up "putting English on the ball" and where the phrase comes from. And this is what I found:

Where does the term putting English on the ball come from?

"spin imparted to a ball" (as in billiards), 1860, from Fr. anglé "angled," which is similar to Anglais "English." From all this, we can fairly safely say that this sense of the word "English" has been around since before 1900. 

Love my trivia people!