The Aluminum Asylum

The Aluminum Asylum
Our home on wheels

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Anyone who is not a liberal stop reading now....
The earth revolves around the sun.
The earth is billions, not thousands of years old.
Fox News is neither fair, nor balanced - nor news.
Evolution happened and is happening.
Torture does not work.
Bush did not keep us safe.
Markets do not regulate themselves.
Fascism is not the same as socialism.
The world was not with us with regards to the Iraq War.
Iraq never attacked us and was never a threat.
Trickle-down economics is extremely insulting on its face. More so if examined.
Obama is not a socialist, or a communist.
A weak public option for a fraction of the country does not spell doom.
Prayers in school did not avert any wrong doings. Nor are prayers prohibited now.
There is no correlation between religiosity and morality.
The world can be and is over-populated.
Supply-side economics makes no sense, period.
Lying to soldiers about why they are fighting is not equivalent to support.
Supporting any war for any reason is not equivalent to patriotism.
Tax cuts for the rich are not a fix-all. In fact they hurt after a certain point.
Gays are not asking for special rights. They are asking for human rights.
An economist from Exxon does not equal the entire peer reviewed data from the world’s climatologists.
We really don’t have the #1 healthcare system in the world, and pretending we do only hurts our chances of improvement.
The fact is, now there really is a Northwest Passage for the first time in human history.
Facts are facts and do not have an ideology. Pretending that an impassioned denial is equal to established facts is extremely harmful. And the number of people sharing your particular delusion is irrelevant to its status as a fact.

STILL sicky.  No posties today.  Sorry dee

Thursday, October 29, 2009


Still feeling lousy...did manage to get a quick snapshot of Lucy on my camera...and no, geez I wasn't choking her, she wouldn't stop wiggleworming all over the place.


She does have a tear in in her eye...but it's NOT from my hand around her neck HONEST!  She is part POODLE, yanno they have real tears...so does Mack...

more to follow, with my camera, not the phone camers

dennise

Wednesday, October 28, 2009


Pictures of Lucy will have to wait...I have been deathly sick.

 Paul took Lucy to the vet and he is concerned that she may have distemper.  Asked Paul if we got a health guarantee...um, no, we live in Mexico, dufus. The seller indicated that she had had her first  "shot" (distemper) and three wormings.   She does have a wet nose, and a bit of tears in her eyes, but nothing else I found on line that would appear to be distempter symptons...no fever, no lethary, no diarrhea (see my problem below.)

Now here is my story...have lived in the bathroom for like 36 hours
Here is the Uban Dictionary decription of my malady...

"Explosive Diarrhea



Not always from eating too much of the wrong foods which is usually relieved and ends with 1 incident of it.

Can be a prolonged horrid condition that usually comes about from a bad bacterial stomach/intestional virus. A violent exploding stream of liquid that feels like hot foamy lava shooting from your poor tush along with mild to severe abdominal cramping. A frothy water that will range from shades of dark brown to a pale yellow. Depending on the cause it can last from just one incident where you get immediate relief, to 3 to 4 days until a doctor has to give you an RX to stop the awful stuff. The stream is so forceful it blasts against the toilet water forcefully causing a violent splash sending the soiled stinky water up all over your poor butt cheeks, and underside of toilet seat. Usually always accompanied by a very putrid pungent odor that you feel the need to grab the nearest towel while you are still stranded on the toilet bowl, or if not available, a wad of toilet paper to cover your nose until you can hurridly leave the bathroom.


The (danger) of this condition is DEHYDRATION. It is important to not let it run on and to sip on water thru-out the day until a couple of days after it subsides. Also accompanied by noisy bowels sounds as if a war is going on inside your poor lower abdominal area along with excessive very LOUD blasting explosive gassed up farts, queasy stomach discomfort, and severe weakness if it goes on for over 24 hours.


Gosh! While I was sick I had that awful exploding diarrhea that left me feeling so weak I could hardly move!


by Cathie Feb 27, 2004 share this "

So, now you know and I gotta run back to the throne.

More on Lucy and some pictures of her and Mack soon I hope.

dennise

Monday, October 26, 2009


Hmmm, my Friday post just appeared.  I know not what the universe has against me, but I musta' done something horrible in my past.  Well, we won't go there.

It is now Monday, and we have sold the mobile home in Weslaco.  The couple from Houston visited twice today, the second trip were the "negoations".  I always make myself scarce during this intense Paulie thing...don't want to be around when he gets down to brass tacks as they say.

We have a new family member...her name is Lucy. Lucy is a yorkiepoo just like Mack.  She was born on September 1st so that makes her 8 weeks old tomorrow.  As soon as I can find my camera, I will shoot a few photos and post them. Lucy's parents are almost identical to Mack's. 5 lb mommy poodle and 3.5 lb daddy Yorkie. She is coal black and at night you can't see her at all. We will have to get a blinking or glow in the dark collar. There were two males and two females.  Figured I wanted a female not to have dueling alpha males...and I loved her color(which may actually change...) so she will look great in pink!

We had a buzy weekend.  Saturday night Paul's cousin Maryann and her husband Russ came over for dinner.  Paul made some pretty wicked bbq chicken(normally he makes burnt offering...).  I made a salad and opened a can of pork and beans.  Mary and Russ are here for only a few days, taking some of her dad's stuff back to St. Louis.  So on Sunday, we went to their place and had Uncle Ben's special recipe for red sauce and pasta.  Delish!  The sausage was "imported" from St Louis and was really really good.

Sunday was reorganize and first pack up day. We were up at 7 am vaccuming and moping floors. I cleaned the Texas Room.  It was packed with "stuff" like tubs of photos, all my caking supplies and just a whole lot of junk that went into the trash.  It was so dusty all I could do was sneeze.  Worked our tushies off.  We are both exhausted.  I think Grandpa must be exhusted too...he hasn't shut up for four four days!  Get's on MY nerves...jeesh, and I have only been back two weeks!

More tomorrow.

dee

Friday, October 23, 2009


Thursday, October 22, 2009


News from the Valley


As promised, I have big news. Grandpa has visited the John Knox Retirement Village here in Weslaco and loves the place. He has signed up for a medium sized one bedroom apartment. Knox is a unique type of retirement village that includes independent living facilities, such as apartments, townhomes and cottages; personal care or an assisted living wing; and a nursing facility. Once the resident buys in (prices range from $30k way up to $200K) they are assured of care until they pass on. Each unit that is part of the buy in has different monthly “fees” which cover the gamut of things such as meal(s), cable TV, all utilities except land line phone and other amenities. The main meal is dinner, actually lunch. It is the largest meal of the day and has the greatest variety. Supper is a soup and sandwich type menu, but the residents do get to enjoy a glass of wine with supper! Gene was most impressed with the ratio of ladies to men…like 5 to 1! At almost 93, he still believes he is a real Romeo. He was able to pick out his carpeting and the apartment is almost completely renovated. New wiring and light fixtures, new ceramic tile in the bath and kitchen, new appliances. He has tons of storage space and both the living room and bedroom are light and bright. The pool and Jacuzzi have just been revamped. There is a library, wood working shop, computer lab, arts and crafts room, exercise classes, dancing, cocktail parties, karaoke, and countless other activities.

We will need to get him a small microwave, he wants a lift recliner, a bed, small dresser and some end and night stand tables. He can’t decide if he just wants two recliners or a loveseat and recliner. Paul promised him a LCD wall mounted TV and he will need to pick out some curtains and a bedspread. He has plenty of towels and sheets and we can take whatever kitchen stuff he needs from the house. Yep, the mobile home is for sale. We have a potential buyer coming down from Houston on Monday, and another lady from the park looked at it. However, her husband is recovering from a serious infection that necessitated a replacement of an earlier knee replacement.  Gene still feels that he wants his car, however the Village has shopping trips to the grocery store, WalMart and other shopping places. 

Well, I am falling asleep and my mind was racing with all we have to do.  Once again we will be getting rid of personal stuff we parked down here in the house.  I believe we will need a storage space, as we have stuff that I am not ready to part with just now.  And, I just got all my cake decorating stuff purchased and organized...NOT willing to give that up yet either.Perhaps in a year we will reconsider, and maybe by then Zack will be a bit more settled and we can have him take some of our "treasures".  Needless to say, this is the best possible solution to the problems Gene faces as he becomes more dependent, and it gives us peace of mind while traveling.  We still plan to spend several months in the RGV in the winter to escape the cold, but now there won't be as much worry and guilt leaving him. 

hugs

dee


Here are a couple of things that made me laugh...
YMMV


Grandpa and I voted Paulie out of the kitchen.  He lost interest in doing decent dinners so goodby lousy chef!

gee for Jr. things never change...he said he took this picture so I could see the name of a really good beer....suuuurrrreeee Zack....



This may offend some of my readers....hmmm, and do I care?????


this is for one of my favorite sisters.....


whomever snapped this photo during last years debate should get a "gee whiz, when did this happen?" award.  I still get the giggles when I see this photo...and I really really admire Sen. McCain.  This just tickles my funny bone...no offense intended to the Honorable Senator!

Here is!
Here is!


When our son Zack was just learning to talk and put together sentences, he would respond to our asking where he was with “Here is! Here is!"

So my title today answers the question so many of you have asked. I’m here, just been off the web “grid” for awhile. Well, it’s been 10 months which is really scary that so much time has passed without posting my glib and self-centered musings.





We left the RGV mid-June, heading for St Louis, Springfield, Illinois and then Muskegon, Michigan to spend the summer months in a cooler environment. The Texas RGV is a killer in the late spring and summer with the heat and everlasting UV rays from the sun. We were escaping temps in the 95 to 105 degree range that we had borne since mid April. We spent two wonderful months in Michigan, enjoying not only Lake Michigan but the local eateries and the abundant farmers markets. From Michigan we returned to Illinois to see friends in Chicago and our remaining family there. We had a wonderful visit, having not been up north in several years! We traveled back to Central Illinois to see Mom and Cecil, and our FMCA local chapter, Cenois Prairielanders for a great rally in the Champaign area. We were also able to visit with a cousin in Danville before we were off to Celina Ohio for the Escapees Class Reunion and the Gypsy Journal Rally immediately following. Another great time, visiting friends and meeting new ones. We left a day early as we needed to hustle down to Kerrville Texas for the RV Dreams Rally, the last leg of our summer travels. We were able to visit one of Paul’s FedEx co-workers who has also retired and moved to the Austin area. Jackie was so very sweet to make us a hearty breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausages for our trip into Kerrville. The RV Dreams Rally was great…good people, good food and entertainment and the best seminars on the full-timer lifestyle. Paul went into San Antonio to have his hip rechecked at the VA as he is still experiencing some problems since his surgery at the beginning of the year. Nothing found, just to keep up walking and doing some exercise. After the rally, we stayed an extra day at the RV resort to gather our thoughts and ready ourselves for what we needed to face getting back to Weslaco and Paul’s dad.

Before anyone becomes alarmed, we just needed to visit with Grandpa and tell him our concerns about him remaining in this big home in Weslaco when he is starting to feel his age. More on that in tomorrow’s blog. Good news all around. Lots to do and lots to think about in the next few weeks.

Hugs,

dennise