Last few weeks in the US
Vacation is
over, its time to get to work! I got
back to my RV and got down to business.
I spoke to a consignment place in Ocala and made arrangements to get my
RV to them the next day. I cleaned it
from stem to stern, including shampooing the carpet. The guy I hired to do it before I left for
Costa Rica never showed up. Next I had
to decide what to do about the chairs.
Since I had thrown away the base, the chairs were much too low. I decided to go to Lowes and look for
inspiration. I found some really cool
tops for wooden fencing. They were big round
balls and looked similar to the legs on the couch. I got home, stained
them to match the couch and installed them; they look great. No one will ever know the difference. I drove over to the consignment place and
went in my RV for one last look. OMG, I
had set the newly stained (but dry) chair legs on the still wet carpet. Now there was a nasty brown stain! I looked around for something to clean
it up with. I had just defrosted the freezer
and there was still a bit of ice so I had put a towel in there to soak up the
water. I quickly rang out the towel and
got down on my hands and knees and worked on the stain. Lucky for me it came
right up. Whew!
After doing
all the paperwork, I headed to my mom’s house in Kissimmee. She was going to an out of town conference
the following day, so I had a few days to myself. I sorted out the rest of my belongings and
reorganized my storage unit to accommodate the last of my stuff. I thought I had gotten rid of almost
everything, but apparently I had more then I realized. Mom really liked my giant recliners, so I took them to her house. That left more room in the storage unit. Now I had to
whittle down what to take with me. It all had to fit into a suitcase and carry on bag.
Mom
came back from her conference and complained of shortness of breath. Of course
I suggested she go to the Dr, but she convinced herself it was nothing. A few
days later her shortness of breath was worse and she finally agreed to go to
Urgent Care on Sunday. After a brief exam, we were told to go to the ER, because they thought it was a pulmonary embolism. Once there, I put her in a wheel chair,
told them what Urgent Care said and we were waiting our turn when suddenly she
started gasping for breath. I jumped up and got the nurses attention and they
quickly wheeled her back. After some testing, the doctor said it was a giant
blood clot (or many smaller clots, I heard both) in the arteries leading to her
lung. Had she not been in the ER, she would have died. Well that scared the
shit out of both of us! They got her on blood thinners and took her to
surgery. They were going to insert a catheter directly into the clot and
bombard it with heparin. She was in the ICU for a few days and then moved to a
regular room. She was in the hospital for a total of 8 days, but the blood clot
was gone and she received daily breathing treatments to help her lungs recover.
She'll be on coumadin for a while, but she's doing great. She was discharged with oxygen, against her wishes. She didn't think she needed it, but her Dr. told her a story about a man with a different problem, but who was also on oxygen that he didn't think he needed. He explained that being very short of breath put a big strain on your heart. The man refused to use his H2O and basically his heart exploded. If mom tried to leave the house with out her tank, I told her if her heart exploded, she was on her own. Honestly though, after about 2 weeks at home, she was back to normal and didn't need it anymore.
Mom has some amazing friends, her neighbor Eva and two
other ladies Pattie and Joan. There is a bigger group, I just can't remember all their names, but they are all so sweet! These girls are a hoot; I love going out with
them. A week after Mom got out of the hosp, Pattie was admitted for a stroke.
She was really lucky that she didn't suffer any debilitating
symptoms, just an
annoying blind spot in her vision. She is also on blood thinners and I hope,
makes a full recovery soon. While we were visiting her in the hosp, we got to meet her son.
He was also in the military and stationed in Alaska. I'm afraid we dominated the
conversation reminiscing. Her friends were so kind, they took me out to dinner the night before I left. Both my brother and I are happy she has such good friends, if for no other reason, because we don't have to worry about her.
While Mom was in the hospital, I started my English as
a Second Language (ESL) instructor course. There were 9 of us and I couldn't
have asked for a better group of classmates. We all bonded from the first day,
which was a lucky break, since we would be stuck together for the next 3
weekends. I made 2 friends who I know I'll stay in touch with over the long
haul; Victoria and Mariam. Victoria and I were late to class together the first
day; not a good start. Our instructions said to park in a parking garage across
from the college. I found that, but then got disoriented and couldn't find the
building where class was held. I asked a young lady hurrying by who looked like
a college student. As luck would have it, she was in my class and we rushed in,
out of breath and 15 min late. It was a bonding experience. Apparently the
rest of the class parked in the parking lot right next door. So much for
following instructions! During the first ice breaker we quickly got to know
each other. Victoria graduated from the police academy, but decided not to go
into law enforcement. She already had a teaching job lined up for Korea. She
reminded me of myself at her age, but she was much more together then I was.
Mariam was a Fulbright Scholar from Kuwait, teaching Arabic at another college
near by. Jacqueline was a really sweet girl sitting next to me. She was kind
of quiet compared to the rest of us; I would have liked to get to know her a
little better. Jennifer was also a teacher. I really liked her style, I hope I
can be as professional and competent as she is when I begin teaching. Mark was
a really fun IT guy who was also a college student. He'll do a great job
teaching if his final presentation is any indication. He had the whole class
in stitches playing a game describing modes of transportation. Those are the pictures in the link below. The one with 2 girls in the floor was a space ship, the one with me and George was a airplane. George was the flight attendant. The one with 3 shots of the girls prancing across the front of the room was Santa's sled I think. Callie was a very
interesting girl who was studying Russian. She spent a summer there and has
plans to go back. Tim was one of my favorite classmates, and also a really
fun guy. He was working 2 jobs and still found time to do volunteer work. He
has a beautiful daughter in Peru and had spent quite a bit of time down there.
The last student was the most interesting; George. He was the next oldest
student to me, I think around 45. He was very vague about what he did other
then volunteering as a clown for kids in local hospitals. He looked like Mario
from Mario brothers and played that up at all times, even dressing like him. To
say he was 'out there' would be putting it mildly, but he was part of the group
and kept us entertained. We were all surprised that he did so well with his
presentation skills, but the content was all him. We had no idea what he was
trying to teach since he was all over the map. He started with a George Carlin
skit about hair, then went to some pictures of wigs, then to a manic white board
lesson on homonyms. In any event, he did keep us entertained. One big lesson
I got out of the class; I really need to relearn English grammar. I bought a
basic grammar book and will be studying that before I even think about
teaching. One thing that impressed me about these young people, they were very
well traveled and very adventurous. I really hope to run into them down the
road.
Mariam and I decided to go to Universal Studios and
she brought along her roommate Pascaline. She was a delightful girl from
France. She grew up in a town near the German boarder and sometimes talked with
a German accent. She had a PhD in Sociology, and was living in the Czech
Republic doing research on video game playing. I didn't think it wise to ask
her about someone who played bubbles as much as I did; I might not like the
answer. The 3 of us had a great time but I only did a few rides. I get a
little motion sickness and the rides were too much for me. The Harry Potter one
would have been amazing had I been able to keep my eyes open more. It was very
cool; the chairs twist, turn, and drop like a roller coaster, but you
never really move. There is a movie screen all around and you feel as if you
are flying around Hogwarts, playing Quidditch, being chased by dementors,
droping through a hole in the floor, getting hit by the Whomping Willow and
much, much more. Its 10 times better then any 3D movie you can imagine, but the
constant moving images were making me sick. There is a very accurate
description on Wikipedia under Harry Potter and the Forbidden
Journey.
We decided to have a girls night at my moms house and
color our hair. I invited all the girls from class, but only 2 could make
it. (Mom wisely decided to vacate the premises and went to play Bingo) Mariam
was trying to bleach her roots to match the rest of her hair and Victoria was
undecided on the color, but finally settled on blue. I opted for my regular
red. We had so much fun just being silly girls. We made flat bread pizza, did
our hair, Mariam gave me a makeover and laughed and talked until 2 am. While I
would never color my hair blue (at least not at my age) I gotta say, I loved the
way Victoria's hair came out. We beached part of it first, so there were
several different shades. I also loved Mariam's, which had several different
shades as well, but she wanted one color so she and Pascaline redid it a few
days later.
Mariam, Pascaline and I were supposed to go kayaking
in Titusville. Victoria was going to join us, but had to work. Too bad, we
were really looking forward to spending the day with her. After we drove up
there, it turns out we didn't give them enough notice so we had to find
something else to do. We discussed it over lunch and decided on a different
type of boat trip. We took a boat tour of the Banana River in Cocoa Beach. It
turned out to be a lot more interesting then I thought. In the narrow part of
the river we saw your typical Florida birds. When we hit more open water, we
could see dolphins in the distance. Once we got out in the widest part, (like a
bay) we saw several groups of dolphins. The river empties out into the ocean,
and these were Atlantic Bottle Nose Dolphins. One group of 4 or 5 swam back and
forth under the boat for about 20 minutes. It's a good thing we didn't tip over
with everyone running from one side to the other like we were. They were
also jumping out of the water right next to us. In addition to the show they
were putting on, there were 2 black hawk helicopters flying wide circles around
us. We couldn't figure out why until we saw a C-130 headed toward us,
then about a dozen para-shoots opening. There are several Army and Air Force
bases in the area; looks like they were doing some training. Next we saw the
black hawks lined up to do some refueling, but by then they were too far away to
really see. It turned out to be a great little trip.
The 5 weeks between Costa Rica and Malta went by way
too fast. I made some new friends, but sadly didn't have time to visit any of
my other friends. I really worried about this but then realized, none of them
made the effort to come see me, so it was OK. I sold my truck, for a lot less
then I initially (and still) thought it was worth but I was happy with the
deal. My RV didn't sell yet, but it's still early in the RV winter season.
Hopefully it will sell soon. All my remaining worldly possessions are stored
in my storage unit, all my other business is taken care of and my bags are
packed. It took me all night, but I got my checked bag down to 48.5 lbs, (just
under the 50 lb limit). My carry on and backpack are ready to go. I had to
pack a few heavy things in a small box that my mom will mail to me as soon as I
have an address. Next stop, Malta.
Link to pictures from Banana River boat ride
Link to Pictures from ESL class
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