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We got back from a seven-day cruise on the Norwegian Sun yesterday. I’m still digging out from under all the emails, snail mails, Facebook posts, and golf group changes.
The cruise was great, as always. We’ve never been on a bad one. This one was particularly fun as we cruised with ten neighbors. While we rarely saw each other during the day, we met each evening before dinner for a drink and to share dinner. On the second night we joined a progressive trivia challenge. We missed the first night, but still came in second.
In the week I was gone, we had seven new guys sign up to play in our Thursday golf group. I’m the “Commissioner” of the group. I arrange the tee times, make up the foursomes, keep the statistics, and handle all the details of what is involved in maintaining the group. Thus, I’ve been scrambling to revise the schedule and add tee times for next Thursday. Fortunately, Royal Oaks, where we’re playing, was very accommodating in adding players.
NOTE: This will be the last post that will be using my old subscription method for notifying readers of new posts. Be sure to sign up at the top of the left sidebar. (If you don’t see a sidebar, click on the sidebar tab to show it.)
© 2012, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.
So I finally made the leap to a new theme. The old one was called Simplicity, but was kind of boring. This one is called Ahimsa by Ravi Sarma. It’s a tad more colorful and has these neat rounded corners on everything. The theme is skinable, so I’ll be able to change the color scheme, if necessary. Now the only thing left to do is to revamp the Now Reading library to display properly under this theme.
I hope you enjoy the new eye candy.
By the way, if you don’t see the sidebars, there is a tab on each side labeled sidebar which when clicked will reveal them. Conversely, if they’re shown, you can hide each one by clicking on its sidebar tab.
When we selected the features for our current home seven and a half years ago, we elected not to have the ceiling fixtures reinforced in the two spare bedrooms as we didn’t plan to hang ceiling fans there. The Villages wanted to charge us $100 each, so we opted out.
Fast forward a few years. The front bedroom became Mrs. Major’s sewing/hobby room and the back bedroom became my “study”. Now, Mrs. Major, who is almost always hot, ended up in the warmest room in the house. She usually has a portable fan or two blowing up a storm while she is in there.
Fast forward to last Friday. After seven and a half years, being the loving, yet procrastinating, husband that I am, I suggested we hang fans in both bedrooms. (I figured as long as I’m going to hang one, I might as well do two.) So we went to Lowes and picked out a couple of fans. Since there was still light left after we had visited a friend who is in a rehab facility near Lowes, I decided I would go up in the attic and reinforce the existing fixture mount by screwing it into a 2×4 placed above it.
Since it was about 40 feet of twists, turns, and contortions from the attic above the garage, which has a plywood floor and a drop-down ladder installed, to the light fixture site, I decided to get into the attic using the hatch in the hallway, about 10 feet from the fixture. It was still a little over, under, and around, but at least it was closer. Our attic has about a foot of blown in fiberglass insulation. You can imagine what happened when I opened the hatch. I spent the next 10 minutes collecting insulation.
Up I finally went. Unfortunately, once I located the fixture and uncovered it, I discovered the electrical box was a flimsy plastic one that would never support a ceiling fan. I was barely strong enough to hole the light fixture.
So back to Lowes…actually I think it was Home Depot this time. I bought two Saf-T-Braces and a couple of masks to minimize my coughing. By then I called it a day.
Saturday we had an event at 10:30 that would last until around 1:30 and another we had to leave for at 5:00. So, between the two, I finally got the Saf-T-Brace and fan installed. So much for the first fan.
The next day, Sunday, I removed the fixture in the study in preparation for the installation of the second Saf-T-Brace and discovered that the box was metal and was screwed directly into a stud. No need for reinforcement. The installation of the second ceiling fan went smoothly.
So tomorrow, I take the second Saf-T-Brace back to Home Depot.
Old Dad, I hope you enjoy this post.
© 2011, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.
Turns out there was enough of the #8 tooth (right front upper incisor) to save after it had broken off. So the dentist did a root canal, added a post and the assistant created a temp…much too white, but they said the permanent crown would match #9. The finished crown gets installed on July 13.
Yesterday, they stabilized #8 by gluing it to #7. It just broke loose, now #8 is wobbling around in my face.
I’m about back to 100% from my ulcer incident. But…
Yesterday, I cracked my right front incisor (tooth also called #8). It’s one of the two that I had crowned in December ’09 because #9 was off colored as a result of a collision with my brother, Dan, when we were but children. My dentist and Mrs. Major had been after me for years to take care of the unsightly tooth, so I finally did. Now #8 is broken…not only just the crown but also the tooth. I’m scheduled for a root canal and a re-crown on Monday to the tune of about $1100 (my share after insurance). Sigh.
If I’m lucky, that’s what will happen. If the tooth is cracked into the root, the tooth is not restorable and I’ll probably have to have a bridge or a gap. I’m sure the gap will be the cheapest…the bridge costing an arm, torso, and first born child.
Some say bad things happen in threes. Hopefully, the third thing will happen to someone else…someone on a different planet.
Just got cleared to go home. It will probably be an hour an a half before we’re out of here. They have lot’s of meds on the wing to dispense and paperwork to do. I’ll have some medicine to take and have a couple of follow-up visits, but I think we’re done.
Thanks for all of your prayers.
They gave me 2 more units of blood last night. When I came in Monday night my hemoglobin was 5.9 (extremely low). Male normal is 10-14. After Tuesday’s 3 units of blood and the EGD ulcer repair it was 8.2 so they wanted to get me up higher, thus the 2 extra units. This morning my hemo was 10.2. We’re all pleased.
Depending on what the noon reading is and what the doctors say, I may get to go home later this afternoon/evening.
Other than the cold soup and warm popsicles, I’m doing fine.
I appreciate all the prayers and well wishes. Thank you.
Mrs. Major is feeling better today. Still very tired and still has some cramping. I think she is on the mend.
© 2010, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.
The weather gave us a break. The rain abated for our 1.5 hour drive to Sanford, the 3.0 hour cruise1, and the 1.5 hour return drive.
The cruise turned out to be fun. The first deck of the boat was the dining room, filled with red leather booths that tightly fit six or four people. The food was pretty good, not outstanding, but not bad. The company was good. We sat at a six-top where the other two BILs had served in the Navy…not career like I did…and had several sea stories.2 The ladies at our table, including Mrs. Major, were outgoing, lively, funny, and lovely.
The second deck had a bar and small lounge area, another lounge-dance area with a guy singing lots of dance songs, and an outside observation deck. If it weren’t so cold, the outside would have been the place to gather after dinner. The poor smokers had to go out on deck to smoke…no smoking inside.
We got home at around 12:30 am.
The only unfortunate thing about the whole trip is that today Mrs. Major is suffering pretty bad cramps. We’re speculating that he had food poisoning. We’ll have to find other PEOs who had the chicken breast to see if they had any ill effects. Mrs. Major said the chicken was dry, so it was probably cooked properly. Perhaps the contamination was from the sauce or from the handling. She’s still in bed.
My pork tenderloin was very good and, so far, I’m fine.
Heat Lightning (Virgil Flowers, No. 2) by John Sandford
Reliquary (Pendergast, Book 2) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
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