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Spring and Summer 2007 |
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| As I may
have mentioned before, this Spring (May) Mary and I purchased a
double-wide mobile home in Safety Harbor Florida. The purchase was
a real estate transaction in the category of a condo which means we also
have ownership of the land. This hopefully mitigates against
unexpected and greed based lot rent increase or the worst case scenario
being given notice that the property had been sold and the home had to
be moved. This is not a completely unusual event. Since the owner who was most pleasant requested a June 29 closing, it was necessary that it be done by what is called a mail-away. The paperwork was sent Fed-Ex and we signed, got notarized what needed to be notarized and sent it back. Kathi did the walk-thru with our agent and Kathi got one set of keys and our agent sent us the other. Fast forward to the middle of July. We went to Florida. It was the big 40 for Kathi and David arranged an unbelievable surprise party. The menu was to be typically Chicago and included Portillos Italian beef which he had shipped in for the occasion Mary (alias Grandma B) made Mostacolli and we were amazed at the number of people whose reaction was "This is good- what is it?" in both cases. Kathi's two best high school 'sisters'. Mary and Karen were charged with the responsibility of keeping her out of he house while things were set up. That included Mary's husband Tim who built a stage over the jacuzzi for the band. In addition, a group of people were brought in to run a party type casino night, with nobody losing money. The final touch was the addition of the bar maid and waitress to handle beverage service. All-in-all quite an undertaking. Of course another reason we went down was to take a look at what we now owned and we did that once the party weekend was over. It looked a lot better when decorated with the owners stuff. Now, in the light of day we realized that it was an 80's museum We should have realized that since it was obvious that nothing had been updated since then. Mary went right to work. We added a bed to the one we brought over from Kathi's, added some living room furniture and some TVs and Dave, Mary and Kathi went to work ripping up carpet and putting down Pergo in the former family room which will now be more of a sun porch. We also added cable TV and a few TVs which will be supplemented on the next visit. The most important item was that Internet access was established so the Southern Command of the St Julie Web Team is operational. Arriving home on Aug 3rd, I had my third and final spinal epidural on Aug 6th. At the follow-up on Aug 31, the physician who had administered the injections was at a loss to explain why I still had upper leg and hip pain, suggesting that I follow-up with the back specialist who had ordered the series in a month or two. That appointment will be made shortly. In the meantime, I am working on my walking gait which seems to have deteriorated. A consultation with my regular physician resulted in agreement with me that it could be a combination of the spinal stenosis, arthritis in the back and hips as well as a bit of return of the stroke symptoms of 7 years ago. My Internet research on the steroid epidurals reveals that they can aggravate arthritis which could account for the hip pain. Mon Oct 8th I see my Cardiologist which may help pin down part of the problem. While all this is going on I continue to work once a week with a personal trainer at the Sportsplex hoping to strengthen particularly leg muscles. I then visit two or three more times a week to repeat what I learn. |