BUSY, BUSY, BUSY IN SACRAMENTO

I keep thinking that I’ll suddenly find myself with time on my hands one of these days… but it hasn’t happened yet! 

We took advantage of the balmy fall weather on Sunday to take a wine-tasting trip in the foothills of the Sierra, east of Sacramento, picking up my Mom and Dad on the way.  The wineries of El Dorado and Amador counties tend to specialize in red wines, particularly Zinfandel, a favorite of mine.  Unlike the Napa and Sonoma valleys to the west, these wineries are tucked into hilly countryside, hidden in folds along winding, often narrow, two lane roads.  Very few (if any?) charge for tasting, and the tasting rooms are frequently staffed by someone very involved with the winemaking.

Our target on Sunday was Sierra Vista Winery, where they were hosting a special event: wine, chili, and chocolate!  I’m not sure of the proper wine-and-chili pairing, but the chili sure tasted good on a cool fall day – as did the chocolate and wine.  We left empty-handed, heading on visit an old favorite of mine, Fitzpatrick Winery.  Their hilltop location is a great spot to drink wine and take in sweeping vistas of the vineyards, now cloaked in fall colors.  They make dynamite red wines and very special ports, several of which we purchased for consumption on cold winter nights. 

Monday held a trip back to “Gold Country”, for lunch with my Dad and sister Nancy in Placerville.  This cute, bustling little town has quite a history and I always enjoy a visit there.  After lunch, we took a short stroll so Nancy and I could pop into a favorite store or two.  It was really nice to have some quiet time with my dad and sister… we all enjoyed each other’s company.

Today was “catch-up” day, nibbling away at the long list of “things I haven’t gotten to yet”.  Finances to get caught up.  The Boomer mail arrived and needed attention.  A trip to Trader Joes with Thanksgiving in the back of my mind.  Back home for lunch, then a walk over to the mall to the Teavana store to replenish my stock of teas with old favorites and a couple new blends. 

Teas is “the new coffee” for me, since my doctor recommended cutting out coffee (and increasingly frequent heartburn) a couple years ago.  Since then, I discovered several teas I LOVE, and I usually get small amounts of three or four new blends when I’m near a Teavana store. 

I’ve suffered a bit of insomnia recently, so today I was particularly interested in their Tranquil Dream herbal tea, which I am sipping as I write.  I’d forgotten how much I enjoy chamomile… it’s so sixties!  In Tranquil Dream, chamomile is blended with mint and and who knows what all else, very soothing. With the light rain falling, a warm cup of tea with honey, and Luna already sleeping beside me, I think tonight might be quite restful.

Tomorrow I have a date with my friend Becky for breakfast, a date with the mammogram machine at 11:30, and plans with our RV’ing friends Jim and Ellie for dinner.  An appointment with our financial planner on Thursday and on Friday: nothing!  Nada!  Huh, we’ll see about that.  :)

WHAT THE HECK HAVE I BEEN DOING? NOT BLOGGING, FOR SURE!

Today’s email from my sister Sydney told me that Halloween was over and it was time for the blog to move on.  Has it been THAT long??  I checked: Yes.

When we lived in a sticks-n-bricks home, I did the normal, post-middle-aged female medical routine: a couple visits per year to the dentist, annual OB/GYN, annual mammogram, annual physical checkup with blood work.  How’s that cholesterol?  How about blood sugar, and blood pressure? Osteoporosis yet?  A visit to the dermatologist (skin cancer in the family) every couple years.  And each year of the past nine years, my doctor has recommended (increasingly strongly) a colonoscopy, which I had no intention of pursuing.

As full-timers who return to our ex-hometown for a month each year, we condense those annual visits into the first two weeks after we hit town.  My personal schedule for the past two weeks in Sacramento went: pick up the lab slip for required blood work, visit lab for blood work, visit OB/GYN, visit dermatologist, visit dentist, go for colonoscopy consultation (watch a video!), cleanse my colon of even the memory of food, have colonoscopy (!), annual physical checkup, annual mammogram.  It feels a little bit like being a science animal… something poking you almost every day.  Except for my ears, each orifice has been thoroughly examined.

And, yes, I finally did the colonscopy.  Why?  Well, Odel had one done before his radiation treatments began a year ago, so I felt somewhat wimpy.  Then I read Dave Barry’s HILARIOUS column about getting a colonoscopy, “A Journey Into My Colon – And Yours”.  It didn’t seem so bad when I was laughing so hard.   While I was still in good humor, I called my doctor for a referral and – next thing I knew – I had made the commitment.

For you undecideds who know you SHOULD have a colonoscopy but haven’t so far: it was not NEARLY as horrible as I imagined.  I’ve never worried about the procedure; like most people, I worried about the preparation and cleansing.  Yes, it tastes icky and yes, the effects are dramatic – but it is do-able with the focused application of willpower (oh, so easy to say this when I don’t need another one for 10 years).

I was mostly out through the procedure, but did awaken enough to watch 10 minutes or so of my colon’s exploration on TV, and I have a portfolio of 12 photographs (each labeled with the name of the particular area of the colon: cecum, appendix opening, IC Valve, etc. – very educational) to admire.  I wonder how long it will be before they begin providing a full, narrated video on DVD?

So, that all ate up some of my usual blogging time.  And then there were the computers…

A couple weeks ago, I wrote that I was over the hump on setting up the new computer.  In the midst of all the medical stuff, Odel and I visited a nearby Best Buy one day to “think about” buying a second computer… we didn’t want to share any longer.  On that particular day, a laptop that was PERFECT as a second machine was on sale, ONE DAY ONLY, $100 off the usual price.  We bought it… so between medical appointments and worrying about the colonoscopy, I worked on computers some more.  Most of the setup went smoothly, but occasionally the thought of sitting in the dentist’s chair listening to a drill sounded like a relaxing alternative. 

Now both computers are working (and I have found Windows 7 to be very easy to use, with some great features), we have a router set up for our own little wireless network, the worst of the medical appointments are over, and we’re getting into the fun, social aspects of our month-long visit.  This morning, our day began with breakfast at a new restaurant with my sister Nancy and her family, then she and I took off for shopping at a holiday arts and crafts show, followed by pedicures – an excellent antidote to the last two weeks!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

Once again, we’re settled in Cal Expo RV Park (click here to read our prior review) in Sacramento, staying through Thanksgiving.   Sacramento was our “hometown” before hitting the road on April Fool’s Day, 2003, so we know our way around.  As usual during stays in Sacramento, blogging will be sporadic… we don’t do much touring around here. 

This month, our calendar is unusually jammed.  Since we didn’t return last November (unlike all other years of travel), I have EIGHT medical appointments scheduled!  It sounds as though I am barely dragging along, doesn’t it?  But no, they all are “preventative maintenance”, along with a follow up on last spring’s cataract surgery.  Of course, the fun part of the stay is visiting family and friends!

Our new neighbors were horrified yesterday afternoon when we showed up, backing into the space immediately adjacent to their “door” side.  They apologetically informed us that they would be hosting a big, loud, wild party tonight, now unfortunately jammed into the small space between their rig and ours.  If we hadn’t been staying for a month, we would have moved over a few spaces – but this particular site works well for us and we had reserved it weeks ago.

Tonight, party they did!  These people are at least our age, as were all the guests - and they knew how to have fun, whooping over stories from their many years of friendship.  The hosts set up the well-stocked bar between our rig and theirs, but moved the dinner table around to the other side of their rig – a smart and thoughtful arrangement.  We were invited over for drinks, but were content to simply stick our heads out our windows, joking with the guests partying below us, acting generally tolerant and sociable.  When they moved around to the other side of the rig, the noise level lessened considerably.

A short time later, in a backwards twist on “Trick or Treat”, a knock on our door turned out to be the tipsy guest of honor, a husband celebrating 45 years of marriage, with a huge, loopy smile on his face and two glasses of champagne in his hands – for us!  Thirty minutes later, another knock: our neighbor, with a HUGE piece of homemade pound cake in her hands – for us!  Now, that’s the kind of trick or treating I like – stay home in stretchy pants with shoes off and have the goodies come to us. 

Happy Halloween, all!  I’m off to change the clocks and regain that lost hour of sleep.

OVER THE HUMP: MUCH OF THE NEW COMPUTER WORK IS DONE

We’ve been at the Placerville Elks Lodge (click here to read our earlier review and see photos) in Shingle Springs, California, for five days, a whirlwind of New Computer Craziness interspersed with relaxing visits with my (Laurie’s) parents, welcome oases of calm in the chaos of technological upheaval.

Sounds pretty dramatic, doesn’t it?  That’s exactly how it felt to me!  Doing the endless research, making the buying decision, and handing over the credit card was just the beginning.  Switching from our old computer to a new computer, with a new operating system (Windows 7 64 bit vs. Windows XP 32 bit – and no Vista in between) seemed like a daunting task to me – and I was prepared for the worst.

I’m so, so happy to report that everything is coming along excellently, so far.  Maybe my obsessive preparations paid off, or maybe Windows 7 is as spectacular as early reviews promised – whatever the reason, the transition (still happening) is going well.

We’ve received several emails asking for specifics:

We bought our computer (on Monday) at Best Buy, so we can take it back to any Best Buy, anywhere, if we have problems.  This is important to us, since shipping a computer back to the manufacturer can be problematic if we are moving frequently and camping at state parks, COE campgrounds, or in the boondocks of the southwest.

Because our prior Toshiba gave us four years of trouble-free, heavy-duty daily usage, we stuck with Toshiba.  Besides, I feel their pricing is super-competitive in the category of computer we purchase.

The new computer is a Toshiba Satellite A505-S6980.  Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium.  Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor.  4 GB DDR2 RAM.  500 GB hard drive (our old computer has 2 GB memory and 80 GB hard drive and was sufficient for us!).  16 inch widescreen display.  4 USB ports.  And, unusual but important for us: a 12 cell battery, giving us in excess of 5 hours of battery operation.  Wow!

We paid $599.99 for the computer, on “special” at Best Buy this week.  We added a 3 year service plan for $179, a first for us.  The service plan covers one new battery in the 3 year period (any time after the first year).  Since replacing a 12 cell battery is expensive, we decided it was worth the extra money to cover the battery and any other problems that arise. 

We added $70 to have the Geek Squad “optimize” the computer before we took it home: make sure everything worked (including all USB ports and the built-in WiFi connection), removed all the trial software we didn’t want, activated the 30 day free antivirus/antispyware program (Norton), download and install all the Microsoft updates, and make the Restore disks (there are 5 of ‘em).  Yes, yes – I could have done all that myself, but my plate seemed overflowing already.  Those $70 bought me several hours and great peace of mind.

The problem I DIDN’T expect, or plan for: where would we keep an extra computer?  It doesn’t seem like a big deal, does it?  But it was.  We actually need a new, bigger motorhome now, with at least 3 slides.  :)  In lieu of that, I spent all day yesterday (after dropping Odel at the golf course) looking for the new piece of furniture we needed to provide some extra shelf space. 

I started at Ikea (with lunch, to fortify myself) and spent 2 hours examining and measuring every piece of furniture that seemed like a possibility. Everything was TOO BIG.  How disappointing!

Okay – implement plan B.  Off to Target, where I found exactly what we needed within 10 minutes.  As I was loading my cart, Odel called from the 18th hole – 30 minutes until he was ready to go.  Zip, zip – another charge on the credit card (just $60, less than anything at Ikea) and I was off.

Odel is an astute reader of his wife’s moods.  As soon as we got home, we set up the new shelves – then he took himself off to the bar in the lodge for a beer while I bustled around with vacuum and dust cloth, cleaning and rearranging my nook.  I am so pleased with the result!

There is still a lot to be done, but I’ve completed all the priority moves and installations that had me worried:

Microsoft Money 2003 (where I have more than 10 years of financial information stored) works – a total miracle.  Microsoft doesn’t even sell a “Money” product any longer, so I was really worried about this since upgrading to a newer version is not an option. 

My Canon Camera connected with no problems, and I’ve transferred all our photos from the old computer.  I’ve download both Picasa 3.5 and Windows Live Writer, so blogging can resume. 

Our old (at least 8 years) HP printer/copier/scanner works, with drivers included in Windows 7. 

Our Verizon USB aircard works, with new software I downloaded from Verizon with help from the friendly Verizon phone rep.

I need to keep plugging along, but YES, we are over the hump!