A ROUTINE WEEK IN LOMA LINDA

Settled... back in Scoopy, clothes, kitchenware, books, food and kitty box, condo and toys all stashed back in their usual places. We turned in the keys to the mobile home yesterday.

Settled... back into the rhythm of life and treatment in Loma Linda. Odel plays golf on Wednesday, we join the other proton beam patients on Thursday nights for the "restaurant tour", which resumes tonight at Clara's Restaurant in Redlands.

Every weekday, Odel gets his treatment (34 down, only 11 more to go). We exercise, admire Scoopy's new skin, run errands, do the laundry, read, watch TV, play on the computer, pet Luna... it is a predictable routine, not unpleasant but getting old! More and more frequently, we get out the atlas, check the calendar to see if we are still on schedule to make it to the big Boomerang of the year in Quartzsite. If all continues as planned, we will leave here on 1/23. YAY! Urban living isn't for us.

While we ARE in the urban environment, we have a few entertainment options that we don't find out in the boondocks. Redlands has a wonderful, luxurious movie theater complex, and we have seen four movies while we have been here: Quantum of Solace (loud, fast, fun, and Daniel Craig is a worthy new James Bond); Milk (don't miss it, Sean Penn is amazing); Seven Pounds (morbid and depressing); and Frost/Nixon (great acting and amazingly suspenseful even though you know the outcome).

Loma Linda and adjacent Redlands must have the best grocery shopping in the country (though people coming here from other states think the prices are outrageous). Look at these ORGANIC carrots - light orange, yellow, dark orange and purple with a yellow center - that I got at Clarke's Nutrition, the best organic grocery store I've ever seen - conveniently located between here and LLUMC.

Now that all other parts of the country are deeply into winter, RV'ers are moving south. We had several visits with friends passing through the area - which stoke our desire to get moving again, of course. Fortunately, it won't be long now.

WE ARE BACK HOME, AT LAST

It has been a long weekend, back and forth, back and forth... but we are back home. YAY!

When was the last time you moved? I don't mean turned the key and moved to your next campsite - I mean moved your posessions and yourselves from one household to the next?

When was the last time you emptied your refrigerator until all that was left were the onion skins and a withered lemon in the produce bin, a mis-shapen blob of melted and rehardened butter in the bin on the door, and circular "footprints" of every oily or sticky condiment jar you have stored over the past few years?

When did you last remove all the items from the cupboard under your kitchen sink, including the damp sponge you use to soak up that maddening slow leak you haven't fixed, and the bazillion twist ties that mysteriously multiply in the corner? Taken all the clothes AND shoes AND miscellanous assorted items out of your closet, all the way to the very back of the very top shelf?

If you have done it recently, you probably haven't forgotten how even your house, your house that looks reasonably clean to the casual eye, is incredibly, mind-bogglingly filthy! Or, is that just US??

We got Scoopy back on Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, I had four areas I planned to clean thoroughly before we began moving back in:

Our full-sized closet in the bedroom, home to hanging clothing, shoes, two file boxes, remnants of gift wrapping paper, a portable propane heater, a portable 12 v. fan, our full-sized vacuum cleaner, our carpet cleaner, and a shelf-load of miscellanous "stuff": hats, gloves, packs, bags and boxes. Also home to much accumulated DUST. Cleaning/dusting/vacuuming the rest of the bedroom was going to be the icing on the cake.

The "kitty-litter" cabinet, the space under the bathroom that is Luna's private domain - basically, 5 years of accumlated dust in the corners, thankfully contained in a small space.

The refrigerator and freezer. Gag me. It looks so appealing filled with food, yet distinctly unhygenic when emptied.

The area under the kitchen sink. Unlike those of you in houses, we actually make good use of this area, keeping it quite packed with bulk and canned food items, even some books and files, always maintaining a 2 inch margin of error around a plastic bowl holding a sponge designed to catch the intermittent, but regular, under-sink drip that we had repaired along with the other improvements to Scoopy.

We started first thing on Saturday and worked all day. My four jobs morphed into 40, or was it 400? We started vacuuming the insides of drawers! We were scrubbing countertops with baking soda, and bleaching the sinks! Around 4 pm, we both collapsed and I felt like I had been hit by a truck - but wow, was Scoopy clean inside! We had moved about half of our stuff back in.

After one more night in the mobile home, we started in again this morning and had everything back home in a couple of hours. At my request - but without much arm-twisting - Odel went off to the gym while I put everything back in its proper place. I let Luna out, and crossed the street to bring her home when I saw her meowing at the door of the mobile home.

We had a break in the work this afternoon when we drove about 45 miles south to meet in person a couple we have previously met only online, Bill Joyce and Diane Melde. It was a beautiful day for a drive, and we were happy to take a break. We had a nice visit with them and their gorgeous cat Evita. Bill took this photo of us before we headed back home, unusual in that we both like it. :) Thanks, Bill.

Now, at 9 pm, after shoveling out dirt all weekend, our earthly possessions have been squeezed back into their appointed spots. Scoopy is clean, inside and out. Luna in asleep on her chair, contented. It feels good!

Oh, that top photo? I took that on 1/2/2007, almost exactly 2 years ago, in the desert near Yuma where we were boondocking over New Years. I had left a window cracked open during the night, and a duststorm blew in. Judging from what I found when we moved, 1/2/2007 was the last time we really, really, really cleaned!

WOO-HOO, SCOOPY IS BACK, AND BEAUTIFUL

We got an exciting call on Wednesday: Scoopy would be finished and ready to pick up on Friday. We didn't quite believe it (we thought we'd get her back next Tuesday or Wednesday), but today was indeed the day. Here she is back in her site, with the new electric awning extended. I've put it in and out about a dozen times so far. :)

This shows the faded, pre-treatment stripes (top) and the shiny new post-treatment stripes. It is hard to see the difference here on the blog, but it is sure noticeable to us!

Here Odel is admiring the great job they did on the script Travel Supreme logo on the side, and feeling up the smooth, shiny exterior skin. What looks like variation in the color on each stripe is actually a reflection in the shine.

Tomorrow we will clean the inside and begin moving back in, a job that should be complete by the end of the weekend. What a worthwhile project!