In case you haven't seen enough Prairie Dogs lately

 

 

 

 

 

Fried Friday

 

A block-party at Becky and Brian’s house tonight.  It was a lot like being in South Texas.  Deep-fried corn dogs, onion rings, Mexican rolls, mushrooms, won-tons, sweet potato chips, French fries, cheese, and more.  Everything deep-fried.

 

(Nevermind that it’s Saturday.)

 

 

Fall is in the air

 

 

…and in the leaves.

 

 

Update

 

Not much vision out of my left eye last night.  By this morning, it could see almost as well as before the surgery.  At the follow-up visit today, it tested at 20/40.  Not as good as the right eye, but that was less than 24 hours since the surgery.  There is an improvement in close-up vision.  The left eye already sees better at reading distance than the right eye does.  That kind of screws up using reading glasses.  Putting them on makes the right eye better and the left eye worse.  The doctor declares we’re on track.  We won’t see him again until the middle of next week.  The vision will have settled down some by then.  A month after the surgery is when we determine how the treatment really turned out.  We can see then what remains to be done with vision correction until we get the other eye done.

 

In the meantime, we have a regimen of eye-drops to follow.

 

 

I have an implant!

 

It’s just a multifocal intraocular lens in my left eye, but that’s one more implant than Judy has.  She doesn’t have any.  I’m winning.

 

The operation was as smooth as they said it was going to be.  An hour and a half of preparation, ten minutes of surgery, and twenty minutes of recovery.  The doctor made a small incision, destroyed the old lens with ultrasound, sucked out the rubble, and popped a new lens in; a new lens manufactured with just the right correction for me.  We chatted all the way through the procedure, but I don’t remember now what we talked about.  They fed a little mood enhancer into my veins while I was in there.  Judy and Becky were on hand to escort me out to the car and drive me home.

 

My eye is still a bit of a mess from all the stuff they put in it.  I’m hoping to see more than just light and dark and the occasional shape out of it by tomorrow.

 

 

 

Today

 

 

…was a Bald Eagle Day.

 

 

 

And at Walden Ponds

 

…. Nature’s art.

 

 

 

Loveland Sculpture Garden

 

Took a walk in the Sculpture Garden.  There must be a hundred sculptures scattered about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s an amazing place.

 

Boyd Lake State Park

 

Nice enough park for a short stay.

 

Electric-only hookups.  Not much water in the lake.  Starting to get a little color in the foliage.

 

 

Sometimes

 

Sometimes at an intersection, the road going left has a different name than the road going right.  At an intersection in New Mexico, before we got on the Interstate, the road to the left was Singing Wind Trail.  I want to live on that road.  Singing Wind Trail.  The unfortunate road to the right was named Landfill Road.

 

 

It's a nice hotel

 

At the edge of town.  Right up against the foothills.

 

Hiking trails close by.

 

 

A roomy room.

 

Annie found a cave to sleep in.

 

She is such a cave-dweller.

 

 

And Henry remains confused by packing and unpacking.

 

 

But it was time today to get the bus back.  Did the test drive.  Flawless.  Paid the bill.  The warranty picked up most of it.  Drove 50 miles back to Chatfield.  Still flawless.  They got it.  The motorhome motor is perfect again!

 

Life on the road.

 

Matt and Lindsay's House

 

In Highlands Ranch (Littleton)(South edge of Denver).

It looks out over open space in the back, with a view of the Continental Divide.

 

They got to move in last March.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a nice house.

 

Oh yeah

 

I forgot to mention the part about Alex getting recruited for the elite gymnastics team.  It’s sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee.  He’s training for the 2020 Olympics!

 

Practicing his handstand (in the middle).

 

Perfecting the splits.

 

…and the parallel bars handstand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsBAq0VA8yQ

 

 

Tuesday

 

We got the pre-op physical done on Monday.  Saw Dr. Becky, who has been our family physician in Colorado for years.  Got the pre-surgery appointments done in Longmont today.  They measured and mapped both eyes.  Now they have the information they need to create the corrective lens they’ll implant next week.

 

Update on the bus.  They figured it out!  There are metal bits in the HEUI system for the injectors.  (Hydraulic/electronic unit injection)  (It’s a high-pressure oil/hydraulic system that controls the low pressure flow of fuel to the injectors; a Common Rail injection system.  The fuel rails are pressurized to 30,000 psi to activate the injectors.  The actual fuel pressure is only 45-75 psi.  We don’t know how the system got contaminated with metal bits, but replacing parts and flushing the system should take care of it.

 

We got Judy back to the ear doctor yesterday too.  Her ruptured eardrum appears to have healed slightly.  Progress is slow, but it is progress.

 

Gymnastics practice with Alex tonight.  What a difference from a year ago.

 

We're at the Holiday Inn

 

They ran injector cut-out tests and didn’t like the results.  They ordered six new injectors.  They’ll try them out one at a time to determine if one of them is the culprit.  Got confirmation from our guy at Caterpillar that he is in contact with the shop; working directly with them.  I think we have the right resources involved this time.

 

Meanwhile, we moved out of the bus.  It will take more than one day to do what they need to do.

 

Monday

 

We’re out of here early tomorrow morning.  We have an appointment at Wagner Equipment in Aurora at 7am.  We want to beat the Denver traffic.

 

When MHC Kenworth rebuilt our engine last year, we ended up with a low rpm shudder under load.  It’s still there.  We took it to Holt Cat in Edinburg.  They couldn’t fix it either.  We’ve been talking with Caterpillar America.  They found us a facility with a dynamometer for big rigs.  Wagner Equipment.  They’ll be able to diagnose our problem.

 

We’re leaving Chatfield to drive to the shop in Aurora.  We don’t know where we’ll spend Monday night; it depends on what they find.  We might be in their parking lot.  We might be in a hotel.  We might be back here at Chatfield.

 

RE: Girl Power!

Correction:

 

From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2012 10:25 PM
To: Bill Taylor (Bill Taylor); David Taylor (David Taylor); Tom Taylor (Tom Taylor)
Subject: Girl Power!

 

 

Henry pees *like* Annie; all four feet planted firmly on the ground.  Judy told me the other day that he walked up to a tree, lifted his leg, looked up at Judy shocked, then lost his balance and fell over.  It’s like his leg had a mind of its own and lifted, but Henry didn’t know why!

 

Since then, Judy tells me, he has actually peed on a couple trees and rocks, but it always seems to surprise him, and he can barely balance.  Keep working on it Henry.  Someday you’ll pee like a man.