Hi,
welcome back. Our last chapter concluded
on September 30th, with us just chilling in Pahrump. Tuesday, October 1st, I had an
appointment with my dermatologist at 10:00 to discuss how to proceed with a
small skin cancer on the side of my neck.
I had gone for a regular appointment at the end of August and the doc
had done a shave biopsy on a spot on my neck.
While we were on the cruise last month they called and told me that it
came back as a very early squamous cell cancer and I needed to have it removed. The appointment today was quick, I just said
let’s get it out and they set me up for a MOHS procedure on Thursday. I have had MOHS procedures several times in
the past. They basically very thin
layers of tissue where the cancer is, have it analyzed right away by means of a
portable lab they set up in the office. Once
they get a layer that has no cancer cells they stich you up and send you on
your way. Only once have they had to go
beyond the first slice, and then it was OK on the second. While I was gone the cleaning lady came and
cleaned the house. After I got home we
just did some chores around the house.
We went to happy hour and then came home for dinner and TV for the
remainder of the evening.
Wednesday,
October 2
nd, We went to the clubhouse at 11:00 for a MASA
presentation. Regular readers know that
MASA is basically insurance for any emergency medical transport, whether by
ground or air. We have had MASA since
2007, but they encourage members to come to the presentations and, since they
always provide lunch, most members attend.
We had Panda Express takeout after the presentation. After lunch I went to guitar practice with my
group of friends, and Jackie went to Pokeno with her friends. At 5:00, right after happy hour, some of the
younger members of the park put on a Cake Walk event. Everyone who wanted to participate brought
some kind of snack food and then we played a modified game of musical chairs,
except that once everyone sat they would call a number and the person in that
numbered chair would have to complete a “task” of some sort. Silly stuff, but we had a good time. After that we went home, had dinner and then
spent the rest of the night with the TV.
Thursday,
October 3
rd, I was up, showered and in the dermatologists office at
7:00 for my MOHS procedure. Luckily my
first cut was clear of cancer cells, so I was stitched up and out of the office
by 10:00 with a big bandage on the side of my neck. We spent the rest of the day just doing stuff
around the house. We didn’t go to happy
hour, so we had dinner and spent the rest of the evening with the TV. Friday, I was up early again for a 9:00
appointment with the Peace Officers Advisory Review Board. The POARB is a volunteer board for Nye County
that is charged with reviewing internal affairs investigations from the Nye
County Sheriff's Office. I have been on
the Board for a couple of years and this is only my third Board. They have 12 members on the Board and for
each review they randomly select three people to be the review board. It was a pretty cut and dried case that was
unfounded, meaning the alleged wrong didn’t occur, so the deputy was
cleared. After looking at the paperwork
and watching the body cam footage we agreed with the findings. I was done by lunch time. We went out to lunch and ran some errands
after I got home. We went to happy hour
and then had dinner. We then watched TV
until bedtime.
Saturday,
October 5th, Jackie had a 10:00 haircut. I stayed home and did some chores. We spent most of the day at home doing the
usual stuff. Sunday was also a stay at
home day. We went to the ice cream
social at 2:00 then did stuff around the house for the rest of the day. Monday I had guitar practice with my
group. We changed from Wednesday because
I was not able to be there on Wednesday.
After I got home we went to happy hour, had dinner and watched TV until
bedtime.
Tuesday,
October 8th, we had a Silver Seekers workshop meeting at 1:00. We spent most of the meeting putting together
the tentative calendar for November.
After the meeting we went out and ran some errands. After we got home we had dinner and were
going to spend the rest of the night with the TV. Not too long after dinner Jackie was
complaining that she had pains in her stomach area. She finally went to bed a little early
because it hurt. When I came to bed
around 10:00 she was saying that it really hurt and was getting worse. We decided that she needed to go into the
emergency room to get checked out. By
10:30 or so we were in the emergency room at the Pahrump hospital. It was not real busy so she got checked out
fairly quickly. By 12:30 or so in the
morning, after a CT scan, the doctor told us that Jackie had appendicitis and
needed to have her appendix removed.
They also said that they would be calling an ambulance to take her to
Summerlin Hospital in Las Vegas for the surgery. The ambulance came about 1:30 and took Jackie
to Summerlin Hospital. Since I couldn’t
do anything for her at this point, I went home and went to bed. She called me about 4:00 in the morning and
told me that she was in a room and would have the surgery sometime today,
meaning on Wednesday.
Wednesday,
October 9
th, I was up and on my way to Las Vegas about 10:00. Jackie had told me that the surgery was
scheduled for 1:00 this afternoon. I
stopped for a quick lunch and was in Jackie’s hospital room about 11:30. They came and took her down to the pre-op
area about 12:30 and I was able to stay with her. I left about 12:45 to go to Costco to pick up
my new hearing aids. We were going to be
coming to Vegas today anyway, it just worked out that Jackie came early. I figured she would be going into surgery
shortly, so I went and picked up my hearing aids. Because they had to do some more testing, the
appointment went until almost 3:00. I
headed back to the hospital and went right up to Jackie’s room, figuring she
would be in it already, but she wasn’t.
I went to the nurses station and asked them to check on her. They finally told me that she was just now
(3:15) going into surgery and it would be a while. About two hours later they
finally rolled her back into her room and got her in bed. She was in quite a bit of pain at the
incision sites. They did the
laparoscopic surgery where they make several small incisions and use tools to
do the surgery. About 4:30 the doctor
came in and said that Jackie was going to spend the night and would be released
sometime tomorrow unless something happened. Jackie was kind of sleepy so we agreed that I
would go ahead and drive back home tonight.
I headed back to Pahrump and when I got to the park I went to another
event put on by members, this one called PickleFest. Everyone brought something pickled for
everyone to try. It was basically a
social gathering and was a lot of fun.
By 8:00 I was home and I was in bed shortly thereafter because it was a
busy, tiring day.
Thursday,
October 10th, I was supposed to have a couple of meetings today, one
at 9:00 and one at 1:00, but I was back on the road again, headed to Vegas
about 10:00. I got to the hospital
around 1l:30 and we just sat in the room and waited for her to be
discharged. About 12:30 or so they had
her sign the discharge papers and we were headed back home. We stopped at In and Out for lunch, eating in
the car as Jackie was still in the nightshirt she arrived in two nights
ago. We then went back home and spent
the rest of the day and evening relaxing.
Jackie was still hurting pretty bad.
Friday I had a Board Meeting at 11:00 regarding the budget, and had to
attend since I am on the Budget Committee.
Jackie watched from home on Zoom.
Then at 2:30 we participated in a virtual home health care visit from a
nurse at United Healthcare, which is our health insurance company. After we just relaxed the rest of the evening. Jackie slept on the couch tonight because
getting in and out of bed was aggravating her surgical sites and causing pain.
Saturday,
October 12
th, we just had a stay at home day. Jackie spent the day just resting and taking
care of herself. I did a few chores
around the house and ran some errands. I
did go to a 4:00 Celebration of Life for one of the long time members of the
Co-op. Linda Moody passed away a month
or so back and her husband wanted to have a memorial in the park for all their
friends and family. Jackie slept on the
couch again tonight. Sunday was much the
same, just staying around the house while Jackie relaxed and tried not to do
things that hurt. After dinner I did go
to the clubhouse for another member generated activity that was basically music
trivia. It was well done and had a good time.
Jackie was on the couch again.
Monday,
October 14
th, happy Columbus Day.
Back in the old days this was an official holiday, but Columbus has been
beat up on by the younger generations so it is not so big a holiday
anymore.
Jackie was feeling a little
better and decided that we would go the Lucky Rollers dine-out in Las
Vegas.
The Lucky Rollers is the Co-op’s
camping club as well as the official Escapees Chapter (#14) for the State of
Nevada.
Today we went to the Blueberry
Hill restaurant in Las Vegas.
They have
excellent food and service and we had a good time.
Most dine-outs are in Pahrump, but because we
have several member of the camping club that live in Las Vegas, we try to have
one there at least once a year.
After
the dine out we went home and relaxed for the rest of the day and evening.
Jackie was hurting a little from being up and
around today.
I did my first tour of
security duty tonight.
Jackie was
finally able to go back to sleeping in our bed tonight.
Yay!
Tuesday,
October 15
th, Jackie was feeling OK enough to drive herself to her
manicure appointment at 10:30. She made
it back in time to come to the Silver Seekers lunch, which today was burritos,
rice and beans. We had a nice meal and
Jackie was able to visit with people for a while. After lunch we went home and Jackie rested
while I did some office work. We skipped
happy hour because Jackie had been up and about all day and was tired. We had dinner, watched TV and went to bed,
although I did have to go out at 8:00 for my second night of security
duty. Wednesday, was a fairly normal
Wednesday, with Jackie playing Pokeno at 1:00 and me doing guitar
practice. Today it was just Len and I at
our house because our usual hosts were sick.
We went to happy hour, had dinner and spent the night watching Tv.
Thursday,
October 17
th, I was over I the clubhouse by 9:00 for the regular open
Board Meeting. This is the last Board
Meeting for the current Board because November 2
nd is the Annual
Membership Meeting and three new Board members will be elected. There will actually be five new members going
on the Board as two have left the Board, one resigned and one recalled. So next year five of the nine members will be
new. After the Board meeting I set up in
the clubhouse for the big Jam session that I keep trying to do here in the
park. At 3:00 we had the jam and
actually had most of the group I have been practicing with, which gave us five
people. Unfortunately, I was the only
one who was a member of the park. The
jam was fun and we were done by 4:00. I
cleaned up my stuff and went to the last half of happy hour. We then went home, had dinner and relaxed
with the TV the rest of the night.
Friday,
October 18th, I had to go the dermatologist at 10:45 to get my
stiches taken out. That took about 10
minutes. Jackie went with me because we
had some errands to run afterwards. We
went to the bank so she could so some Silver Seekers stuff as she is the acting
Treasurer. We then went to the French
Bakery for lunch and then did a Walmart run.
We went to happy hour and spent the rest of the night relaxing with the
TV. Saturday Jackie was supposed to go
to a ladies luncheon, but she decided to cancel because she was still hurting a
little. We spent the day doing chores
around the house. We did go to happy
hour and then came home for dinner. We
spent the rest of the night with the TV.
Saturday,
October 19th, we had a stay at home day. Jackie was still hurting quite a bit. We did a little office work but mostly
relaxed for the day. Sunday was also a
stay at home day. We did a little bit of
packing for our trip on Monday to Laughlin.
We went to the ice cream social after which we did some chores and
shopping. We spent the rest of the
evening with the TV.
Monday,
October 21
st, we were all packed up and headed south to Laughlin,
Nevada, about 11:00 or so. We are going
there for the Fall Lucky Rollers campout.
This is the camping club here at the Co-op. We don’t have a movable RV anymore, so we
stay in the hotel. On the way we stopped
at Angie’s Lobster House in Las Vegas for a lobster roll. This is a really good and affordable place to
get great seafood. After that we just
drove to Laughlin, getting in around 2:30 or so. We checked into the Riverside Hotel and
Casino, put our stuff in the room, and then drove up to the campground were the
Lucky Rollers were staying. The
campground is part of the Riverside Resort complex and is just across the
street from the hotel. We can see it
from our room. We stayed and visited for
happy hour, then went back to the hotel.
We gambled for a while, then went into the café for dinner. After dinner we gamed some more. Jackie had really good luck, hit four deuces
on a poker machine three times on the same machine. I didn’t do so well, but we had fun. About 10:00 we went up to the room, watched a
little TV and went to bed. Tuesday we had
coffee in the room and relaxed in the morning.
We then left and drove across the river to Bullhead City, Arizona. We had lunch in the IHOP restaurant, then
went to Sam’s Club for some recreational shopping. After Sam’s club we went back across the
river and stopped at the Aquarius Casino for some gaming. That was a bust. At 4:00 we went to the
campground for happy hour. After happy
hour we went over to the Golden Nugget Casino for dinner with Sue and Dale
Vice, some friends from the Co-op who are on the campout. We had a very nice dinner at Bubba Gumps
seafood house. After dinner we gamed at
the Nugget for a while, then went back to the Riverside for the rest of the
evening.
Wednesday,
October 23
rd, we relaxed in the hotel room in the morning. We gamed a little, then went over the
campground around noon. Our friend Max
and his wife Nancy were cooking ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. We had lunch and visited for a while. We then left and went to the Tropicana Casino
to game for a while. Didn’t have much
luck there, so we went back to the Riverside.
About 3:30 we went to the Prime Rib room at the Riverside for dinner
with the group. Jackie had won two free
tickets for the Prime Rib room on her players card, so we ate for free. It was a great dinner with friends and good
food. After dinner we played for a
while, then went up to the room for some TV and bed.
Thursday,
October 24
th, we spent the morning in the room, then went down to
the casino. Jackie had also gotten two
free buffet tickets from her players club account, so we went and had breakfast
in the Riverside buffet. After that we
gamed for a while. About noon we went
over to the campground for the meeting of the Lucky Rollers. We had the meeting, then drew for the various
prizes, goodie bags, 50/50, and door prizes.
We won a couple things. We then
played Pokeno for a while. At 4:00 we had
happy hour and I played guitar and sang for the group, and we did some
sing-a-longs. About 6:00 we were done
there so we packed up our stuff and went back to the hotel. Most of the campers are staying in the
campground until Sunday, but we are leaving tomorrow. We went back and gamed for a while. Tonight was my lucky night, I hit a natural
Royal Flush on a nickel poker machine for $250.
That pretty much made me whole for the trip. Yea!
We went to bed about 10:30.
Friday,
October 25th, we were packed up and out of the room at 11:00. We stopped for lunch at the In and Out in
Laughlin, then head North for home. We
got home about 2:30, unpacked and did some laundry. We went to happy hour at 4:00, came home and
had leftover prime rib for dinner, then spent the rest of the evening with the
TV. Saturday, we spent most of the day
doing chores and catching up on office work.
We did go out and do a Walmart run for supplies in the afternoon. We went to happy hour at 4:00, then spent the
rest of the night watching TV.
Sunday,
October 27
th, we had another stay at home day. We did some office work and a few chores
around the house. We went to the ice
cream social at 2:00, then came back and did a little more work. We had dinner about 6:00, some country ribs
that had been cooking all day, then watched TV until bedtime. Monday the housecleaner came about
10:00. I did a few office jobs in the
shed while she cleaned. At 12:30 we had
a Silver Seekers lunch in the clubhouse with hamburgers and various sides. After lunch we just hung around the house and
did some chores. We went to happy hour
and then came home for dinner. We spent
the rest of the night with the TV.
Tuesday,
October 29th, we had the first real Fall day, windy and cold. Yesterday was the beginning of what we call
“Homecoming Week” which is the week before the Co-op’s annual Membership
Meeting. We were supposed to have a
“meet your neighbor” event this morning, where people just walk around the park
and visit, but with the winds and the cool temps no one went out. We went out about 1:30 to get some taco
salads for lunch and then to look at golf carts to replace our cart which quit
working six months ago and has resisted all efforts to fix it. I finally gave up and decided we would just
replace it. We looked at several new
carts, which were in the $6,500 to $9,500 range, as well as a couple of late
model used carts. One was a three year
old cart that was pretty much what we were looking for for $5,000. We decided to think on it and went back
home. We went to happy hour at 4:00,
then came home and spent the night with the TV.
Wednesday,
October 30
th, I had a meeting of the Nye County Police Officers
Advisory Review Board (POARB) at 9:00.
Another citizen complaint against a Nye County Sheriff’s Deputy that we
had to review. We finished with that
around 11:00 or so. Since I was close I
then went by the golf cart place and did a closer inspection of the three year
old cart we were interested in to make sure I didn’t miss anything the other
day. I then talked to Garry, the owner,
and offered him $4,500 and our old cart.
He accepted the offer, but to avoid additional expenses I needed to pay
in cash. I went home and did some funds
transfers, then went to the bank and got the money. I paid for the cart and he said it would be
delivered tomorrow. Yea! I then stopped at what used to the Pour
House, but is soon to be something else, I don’t recall what. I ordered a pizza for dinner since we have to
be in the clubhouse at 6:00 for the trivia night I am putting on. The pizza was just shy of $25 and while I was
waiting I sat at the bar and played the poker machine. When the pizza came out I cashed out and I
had won $25 over what I started with.
Basically, FREE PIZZA! Yea! I then went home and relaxed for a little
while. We went to happy hour and I got
everything set up and working for the trivia session. We started at 6:00 with four teams, a total
of about 25 players. We went until a
little after 7:30 and it seems everyone had a good time, although the scores
were not very high. I use pretty tough
questions. After we finished I cleaned
up and we went back home and watched TV until bedtime.
Thursday,
October 31
st, Happy Halloween.
After a relaxed morning I went over to the clubhouse after lunch and set
up my sound equipment for tonight’s Halloween Party. At 4:00 we went over for the Halloween pot
luck dinner at the clubhouse. We had about
35 people there and some pretty good food.
A lot of people were already in costume for the party. After the pot luck we cleaned up and then at
6:00 we started the party. We had about 30
people there. I was expecting more, but
the younger crowd, what we call the Xers, (for GenX) didn’t come. They had their own thing going on I guess. We still had a great time. We played dance music, did some karaoke, did
some lip sync and just had a great time.
I know people were having fun because most of the crowd was still there
when I shut down at 8:00, which is late for a crowd in this park. I got everything torn down and cleaned up and
we went home and watched TV until bedtime.
Well,
that is the end of another month here in Paradise. Until next time, stay calm and carry on. Bye.
