You really can't go home again

Here's me, oh and that's Chris, and we're in Reno - my new haircut for your viewing pleasure. We were heading for Boca and I had said to Chris I want to get my hair cut...he did the paper thing and showed me how much time effort and money I'd save if I'd cut off that 2 feet of hair that I wash and braid and put up in clips. So - I did it. Last time I cut my hair was about 4 years ago, but this is THE shortest I've ever cut it.

I was wafting nostalgic when I was going on about getting to go HOME to Reno for a few days: stomp my old stomping grounds, be a kid again for a while, re-live those bye gone days of way back when.

Then I got there, and it's all so darn different, I don't know anyone, don't recognize old places I was when I was young, didn't see anyone I knew!! When I lived there and grew up there I couldn't walk down any street or go in a business without seeing someone I knew. Where is everybody anyway??


Taking my dad's ashes up to Boca was quite an experience. I was alone for this. I talked to this bag of ashes. I said that I have fulfilled the promise that I made, and it's finished now. I threw several handfulls of ashes into the air, and left the rest on the shore of Boca reservoir, with the wind and the water carrying them away up the river. The shoreline and fishing areas of my childhood are gone now. I think I picked the right place and my dad is happy knowing the earthly part of him is where he was happiest on this earth. I did meet finally with a classmate of my mom's...it was great to meet Marilyn in person. She shared her home, and we visited for a couple hours, then Chris and I went to the Peppermill for dinner and of course had to gamble a bit.
Used to be different, you'd buy change, put money into the machine, pull a handle, and winnings would come plunking out into a tray at the bottom of the machine. Now you put in cash, the machine keeps track of your "credits", you push a bet button, having no handles to pull or buttons to push. The machine tells you what is a win, and you get to sit and stare blindly at the screen - sort of like TV or computers, a placid existence. You print out a voucher for your winnings, feed it into a cash machine, and walk away (hopefully) with more than you put into the other machine. We didn't drink, Chris did have a beer with pizza one night. He almost bought a bottle of Tequila he said, but I thanked him for not, because I don't like the person I become when I drink - and Tequila is the worst of all when inside me.


Anyway...back to the trip. We went out to the middle (literally) of nowhere in Moab Utah and spent a day wandering in the beautiful excellent country that abounds there - you can look up the site if you care to see some amazing stuff. This trip was spent in canyon lands - we hiked out to the very tip of a peninsula called the Island in the Sky - about a 2 1/2 mile walk and we could see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles...........BUT... the freaking wind was blowing from the second we left our driveway last Friday until we pulled into our driveway this Friday night. It was cold, blowy, miserable. There was no camping because it was too cold blowy and miserable. The motels we stayed in were NOT home. The food we ate was NOT our normal food, and I was HOPPING happy to get home and eat my own food in my own house cooked with my own hands.

We left Salt Lake City on Friday morning and drove home - it took 13 hours, but we made it. Chris said lets go home, I said OKEY DOKE lets go home, so we did. We got home about midnight, Chris went to bed, I stayed up till about 3:30, too much coffee. I called the family members this morning that care that we made it home, and so here we are .... Home.


However...Chris and I reconnected, we had a very good time together, companionship and amicable co-existence. We communicated, cooperated, didn't fight for an entire week!!! Not one snarly comment, no rude responses, no judgement or bickering at all. WOW it was such a great trip! Today we worked in the yard, I offered to help work in the yard and work on the garden, so we did. We actually worked together quite well, accomplishing nearly everything that needed to get done, but there is tomorrow to work out there too, and we'll get some planting done then. The bed is tilled, fertilized, steer manured and peet mossed. Oh - and I told him about the speeding ticket I got in February, and about the waiver I paid for so I didn't lose points on my license or lose my preferred insurance. He wondered aloud if there's anything else that was put on the need-to-know basis.... well.........there is ONE thing... =-).

Oh - and Buddy the cat-man's ashes are scattered under the lilac bushes finally. He'd be happy to know his earthly remains are in the place where he was happiest on this earth.

It's ALMOST Vacation Time!!!

Well, we're leaving on the 18th and will be gone for a week. First stop is at Chris's parents in Tri-Cities for the night, then straight to Reno. We have reservations for Saturday and Sunday night there. While we're in Reno we're going to take my dad's ashes up to Boca Reservior and leave them at his favorite fishing hole. Although it's been some 25 years since I've been to Boca, I'm hoping it hasn't changed much and that I can find that river and find those rocks. He was able to find them to take my mom's ashes there in 2003, so I think I can manage. There's a couple of people I hope to meet up with while I'm home, and then we're heading East.
The first stop East is the town of my birth - Ely, Nevada. I hope to have the weather and the time to wander around the hotel where my parents met, and maybe to the hospital where I was born. Then out to the canyons of Utah for some long drives through the wonders of nature, a few short hikes and lots of picture-taking.
We'll be doing some camping this time to save money. Both of us are broke, but we're going anyway. Oh - we have credit cards and plent of available credit on them, but was sure nice when we went on vacation last year and we both had CASH for the trips. This year I've had to spend a bunch on taxes, and Chris has been paying off bills. I don't mind a few nights camping as long as its not freezing outside. We have excellent sleeping bags and all that, but it doesn't beat a bed with sheets and a heater and a TV and a hot shower in the room!!
Otherwise, he's got our packing lists made out, figuring out how much square footage we have to work with in the Kia, and he's going to buy one of those french press coffee pots (ooooh cool!) so we don't bring the espresso machine and all the parafinalia that goes along with it. Heck I might decide Ilike that thing better and quit making Latte's all the time... who knows what might happen?
I remember that smart little chicken on the OLD cartoons. The cartoon had the big souther-voiced chicken and the dog and those two were always beating the hell out of each other. Anyway, the older chicken was dating this widow hen that had a son - the intelligent little kid that was always figuring out tragectory and weight and all that for some stunt or another for the chicken to pull on the dog..... MY POINT???!!! Well, that little smart chicken with his graphs and pencils and super smarts??? Sure reminds me of Chris. Sigh.....

When the pain pills wear off, the throbbing starts

Well, turns out I'm infected... yipeee!!! I knew it was likely to happen because this tooth was up against my sinus cavity. So when it was all pulled loose the infection went right into my sinuses, and oh boy isn't that fun?? Now tomorrow I'm going to see the MD to get a prescription for anti-biotics. GAWD I hate taking those things- it never fails I'll get a yeast infection from then, and have trouble digesting food for about a month, get lots of lower GI issues too. Just what you wanted to hear, I'll betcha??!!!! Plain yogurt doesn't work for me, I have to drink that nasty acidophilus goop, which works great, if I can gag it down and keep it down.
SO, I'm taking a couple of vicodin's at a time, and swimming around in the fog waiting till I go to the dentist in the morning. I did work today, it wasn't that bad, working stoned on vicodin isn't that hard. I can't use my headphones though, the echo in my head is just too much to bear.
I miss hard food, looking SO forward to a big plate of nacho's or some taco's or something crunchy and stiff! Chris made macaroni and cheese last night, his version is kindof crunchy from the oven, and it was really tasty. We used rice pasta and olives and garlic and onions plus about a pound of 4 different kinds of cheeses -it was so yummy.
Otherwise, I'm starting to do some reading about titanium implants, the dentist that pulled my tooth does them for about $2,000 per tooth, then someone else (A prosthedontist) does the crown. I could end up having more money in my mouth than my car is worth!! God forbid anybody hits me in the mouth.
Amanda had a great time her first class - she wants volunteers to learn to floss other people's teeth, and as part of the class experience, anybody in her family can come in and have dental work done -assisted by the students for learning experience - at next to no cost. I won't be healed up enough to get this implant done by then, darn it, but I could go for a cleaning and her ex-boyfriend needs some teeth pulled and they'll set him up with those inviline braces for COST!!! He's 31 years old and has snarfy ugly teeth...Now he can have pretty teeth finally. Chris will probably go for a cleaning, but he's not going to let anyone do much on his teeth - chicken.

Vicodin is my new friend

Thursday morning I finally had this damn absessed tooth pulled out. Since then I've been eating 750mg Vicodin every 3 hours and stumbling and mumbling around here like a stoned idiot. Well, actually, I am a stoned idiot. I haven't even tried to work in fact. I cancelled the rest of Thursday after I got out of the dentist chair and I was bleeding and numb. I hate that numb feeling, I looked like I'd had a stroke or something, and this lady at the store said I looked really tired - maybe I should go home and get some sleep? So, I told her I'd just had a tooth pulled and was doing some soft-food shopping and waiting for my perscription, then I was going HOME and going to bed. Friday I got up swollen, black-and-blue and really sore, so I took more pain pills, cancelled my day and spent the entire day on the couch laying on an ice pack.
This little forey cost me almost $300 in lost income, plus the $300 to have the tooth pulled, plus the prescription and the soft -foods. I hated to have that petty little deposit, but Chris said it's better than no deposit - well not really...
Otherwise, today I woke up sore and with some swelling, but the worst appears to be over now. I don't have that constant drain of infection into my sinuses, and miraculously I'm not coughing anymore. I was coughing almost constantly from what I now know what the infection irritating my sinuses. Chris will be happy if the snoring goes away too, which I think it will.
All my molars are now gone on the upper left side, so I have no chewing platform there. I'm going to look into titanium implants after I'm healed up from this tooth-pull. The dentist said their part is around $2,000 per implant. Then the porcelain tops are done by a different dentist and no telling what that might cost. In the search for the ability to chew on the left side, and have something for my lower teeth to bump up against besides air, I'm thinking I'll probably do it. Heck the one lousy crown I had done was $1,000 by itself, and that was only shaping the tooth base to take the crown and then making the crown and attaching it.
So - for at least the rest of the weekend I'll be eating baked potato's and pudding and taking Vicodin. I don't think I ever had a better narcotic high before these, and I can understand how that guy on "House" is addicted to them. I couldn't function or work on them though, I just want to sit around and smile....duhhhhh.
Amanda is finishing up her first day in Dental Assistant school. I was able to show her in her books which tooth was pulled, and where the big old nasty absess was, she was grossed out. I think she's going to do great in the dental business - she's really social and happy to work with adults. PLUS she's decided she's going to have to quit smoking - yes, I agree. She needs to find a doctor that will prescribe some anti-smoking drug for her, there's something called Chantix (I think that's it) and that's what she wants. I think what she'll do is go to this little walk-in clinic here and get the prescription from them.
Speaking of that - the pain pill is wearing off so I'm going to go take another one and go wander around some more. Hello to my blog friends- sorry I haven't been "here" lately, but you're all in my thoughts - when I'm not foggy from the Vicodin! Talk to you soon!!