Living on the Road

with Jim and Gayle

July, 2014

The focus this month continued to be Jim's prostate cancer.  He is dealing with the known side effects from the surgery (incontinence and impotence) but the incontinence is a lot less than he expected and is improving daily.  Jim had his 4 week post-op checkup at City of Hope.  His bloodwork showed that his PSA level was below detectable limits.  That is great news!  He will have his next PSA test done in November.

With Jim limited in what he could do following his surgery, I trimmed our ficus hedges.  It was a lot more work without his help!

My shoulder continues to be a bit tight.  My doctor recommended swimming.  I hate swimming and have never learned to breath while swimming.  But, in hopes of improving my shoulder, I bought a snorkle and tried swimming.  It didn't work.  I kept getting water in the snorkle and worse yet, water in my ears, requiring, the first time, a visit to the doctor to flush my ears.  I think I will try something else.

I am still playing pickleball early in the mornings but it is HOT.

The rod in the ignition switch of our truck broke.  We would have been stranded but Jim figured out how to hot wire it (a first for him) so we could get home.  He then took apart the ignition mechanism, figured out what was wrong with it and located a replacement part at a local junk yard.  He had to buy the entire steering column (way cheaper than a new part from Toyota).  He removed the piece he needed and installed it in our truck.  It is sort of like magic living with someone like him!

Jim spends most of his time working on a diagnostic tool to read the engine and transmission parameters in the motorhome.  He could buy an expensive system to do this but he's having much more fun figuring it out himself.  In working on this, he figured out what was wrong with the built in transmission temperature monitor and was able to fix that.

The palm trees were finally trimmed.  They are about a month late in getting them trimmed.  The debris dropping off the trees has been a constant source of trash so it is good to finally have them trimmed.

Max continues to do well.

With Jim "all clear" we will finally leave the heat of the desert and head north for cooler climes!