We have arrived at our final destination as of 1:30 p. m. Mountain time today.

More details of the arrival tomorrow. Right now we are enjoying the flickering of our fire in the fireplace and about to wearily tumble into our newly made-up bed.

All is well.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad at the cabin 8,650 feet above sea level

I am taking a short break from blogging. Not sure when I'll be back. I might return in a few days, or a few weeks. Losing Alex has pretty much wiped me out. I need a little time and space to  heal.

We are heading to the cabin on Wednesday, September 18th. I may or not blog publicly from there. I may just blog as a diary for myself. I am just not sure. So, check back often.

Photo: Broken

I found this little guy swimming in the pool today. Another Red Eft.

Ahhhh. The pool is luscious at 82/83 degrees. Now that the water has reached the set temperature the heater barely runs. Helping it along, however, is the oppressive humidity that we have had over the past two days. That and the warm nights. It only loses one degree overnight over the past two days. We really didn’t use that much propane either in bringing it up from 72 degrees.

I am sitting poolside right now looking out on overcast and gray skies. Rain has threatened and been all around us for the better part of the day, but has yet to do anything. It’s kind of an ugly day. It’s like sitting in an outside sauna. But I embrace it because I know that summer always has its last hurrah this time of year and then it settles itself back down.

We just got out of the pool from doing laps (or as Rick would correct me, two lengths make a lap). I did 30 while Rick did 40.

We haven’t been swimming that much for a while now my and body is not as used to it as I would like it to be. I did ten lengths and wondered if I could do more. On my ten to twenty I settled into a rhythm and the peace that only swimming can bring. At least it brings me peace and centers me, but I can’t speak for other people. By my twenty to thirty wind-up I was cruising. The last two lengths I bring it full on and go as fast as I can, ending up at the edge breathing fast. If feels good, like I’ve accomplished something.

Now I am sitting in the cabana accomplishing nothing except drinking a caphairina (THE national Brazilian drink) and writing this blog post. Once we go in I will publish it.

On this Labor Day weekend I really want to watch the movie “Picnic” which is kind of traditional for me since the movie is all about a character study of people at a traditional Labor Day picnic of 1955 starring William Holden and Kim Novak. I have it on a badly dubbed from TV to VHS tape but I was hoping to find it being broadcast on cable. But, alas, no. I might just have to suffer through it.

One thing I did not suffer through was the book I just finished: WOOL by Hugh Howey. Wow, that man can write. It’s post-apocolyptic, with what remains of society living in silos that extend deep underground. I won’t spoil it by saying anymore, but life in the silos is not what it appears to be. I have ordered the two sequels, the first of which goes back to the beginning to explain what took place before life in the silos and why they ended up there, and the third book in the series takes place after Wool. If you like that kind of thing I encourage you to check at least Wool out and see what you think.

Tonight and tomorrow are supposed to bring thunderstorms and more humidity. We shall see. They seem to have trouble predicting the weather this week. It rains when they say it won’t and when they say it will rain, it doesn’t.

We watched Star Trek II Wrath of Khan last night because I think it ties into the latest Star Trek movie which is coming available to rent soon. I had forgotten how good those movies were and the character development of all of the original Star Trek cast.

Live long and prosper.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Well, you know the saying: what goes up, must come down. I'm sorry to say that Alex has relapsed a bit and is no longer in full remission from his lymphoma. One of his lymph nodes has become enlarged again, which isn't horrible considering the other nine nodes are normal. Still, it tells us that the protocol of drugs that he's been getting are not doing the job. So on his Tuesday vet visit we switched gears and will now go down a different path, hoping that we can get him back into remission. At this point, we don't see Alex becoming completely free of his disease, but more like keeping the monster at bay as long as possible with as much quality of life as possible. The original protocol promised the best outcome; this second tier of the protocol not as much.

It's disheartening, I've got to say. But I am trying not to let it get me down. The up side is if this treatment works it only requires one pill every three to four weeks. Since this drug causes anemia at times and can also affect the liver we have to do blood work before each treatment. Right now it's too soon to tell if it's having any effect or not—his lump feels the same to me as it did a couple of days ago. But, he's pretty happy and bringing me "pink bunny," asking to go for rides in the truck and eating pretty well right now. 

We are taking it day by day and doling out lots of love. What else can you do?

I am thinking that I am glad we cancelled our trip to Mexico. The owner of the house that we were going to rent has granted us a grace period in that if we rent the house within six months we can apply the deposit we already paid to the new lease. Same with our airfare, so we still have the chance to go without losing anything. March, maybe?

I have also been giving some thought to this blog. I've been blogging now for seven years and it may be coming to the end of its useful life. I've lost a lot of readers along the way and other than the handful of you that I know read it, I'm not sure it's worth it. I have to think on this some more, but it's not the first time the thought of closing the blog down has come into my head. 

Photo: Up and down awnings in Cartagena.