RVing With a Purpose

August 3, 2017

Today was another beautiful summer day. Not too hot and we missed almost all the rain that was predicted. We left the house a little after 7am and stopped by Helen’s to check in with today’s Visiting Angel. So far so good. We got the truck hooked up and headed out about 8:00.

As stated yesterday we were in route back to Sherman RV to get a few things repaired on the motor home. We arrived in Sherman, MS without difficulty. We did follow an eighteen wheeler – “Trailer Swift” that must have been impaired or distracted. He couldn’t seem to keep his rig on the road. He came very close to side swiping another big rig. We just tried to stay out of his way. After arriving at Sherman we went over the issues with the coach with the service manager and then headed to Tuscaloosa to see Anne’s Mom.

 

Shortly before we left Sherman Anne’s brother called to say that our precious friend Ralph Krupp had died. Ralph and Anne’s mom became very close friends after each of their spouses died. Ralph became very special to their entire family. Anne, Jimmy and Sonny had so much respect for Ralph. He was 98 years old and a WWII 2 fighter pilot. After he had flown all the combat missions they would allow he volunteered and stayed over seas and flew support missions. Ralph flew all day on D-Day, dropping bombs. He said he was too busy to be afraid he was going to die. After returning from the war Ralph became a well respected and successful business man in Tuscaloosa. We lost another great one today. Rest In Peace, Ralph. We will miss you!

Driving from Sherman to Tuscaloosa, we went through Columbus, MS and drove past Columbus Air Force Base. We saw several jets take off right in front of our truck. Another reminder of Ralph and his service.

We arrived in Tuscaloosa to check on Anne’s mom and offer comfort, sympathy and support to find that members of her church were already there. There was a constant stream of members of her Sunday School class coming by to check on her. We ran errands for Momma Ruby then came on back home since it was obvious that she was going to have lots of people showing her love. Certainly was a comfort to us.

August 2, 2017

Today was another day much like yesterday. After moving Juno, Max’s Mom, to Aunt Helen’s late yesterday, Juno said she had a good night’s rest and seemed to feel pretty good this morning. Surprisingly, we understand Aunt Helen who is usually in bed by about 6:00pm was up until 9:00pm last night but according to David who came over to help with the heavy lifting, she forgot Juno was even in the house. So, thankfully, no fireworks– no need for a referee. YEA!! Today for the most part they seemed to be trying to be considerate of each other. Juno did get aggravated with Helen once when she was standing in front of her waiting for her to finish eating so she could take her plate to the sink. Helen seems to eat faster than Juno. That’s normal since Juno has Parkinson’s Disease. They each seem to be adjusting their schedules somewhat to be considerate of the other. We gave Juno a remote for the TV so they both can control the channels and volume. So far that has not caused any battles. Hopefully, this is all going to work. We worked on moving more of Juno’s things to Helen’s and getting things put away/arranged at Helen’s. Max and Randy installed another cabinet in the bathroom for Juno to use and we got some cleaning done. Of course, there is still a whole lot to be done at the Juno’s house to get things packed away and moved to Helen’s basement. Over time we will get it done.

Anne talked to her Mom at assisted living and she seemed to be doing well, too. She was going to try the facility hair dresser today and was going to go to the exercise class again this morning. Hope this means she is adjusting and making friends. Anne also talked to her brother Jim today and he also seemed to be doing as well as can be expected. He is staying busy and enjoying his work.

After another hard morning of work, Randy, Debra and David left to go back to South Carolina.  We so appreciate all their time and work. Love our family! We then went home to get FRED ready to go back to Sherman RV.  We have an appointment tomorrow to leave FRED at Sherman for a few days to get our punch list worked. We had arranged for this when we picked him up since we knew we would find some little things. We decided to basically empty the refrigerator even though they said they would leave him plugged in. We had a few other things we decided to take out just in case we need them. Now we just have to unplug and head out tomorrow.

Sorry – we didn’t take any pictures today so here are some previous ones. On August 2, 2014 we were hiking in Alaska. That day we hiked the Mount Riley Trail to the summit at 1760 feet, the highest point on the Chilkat Peninsula of Alaska. There are 3 different trail heads for this hike and we chose the Mud Bay route. It is the most direct route and is 5.6 miles round trip. The hike is rated moderate in the trail guide book. Beautiful scenery that is a little different than the typical mountains and glaciers. If you want to see more of our Alaska pictures, follow the link on the side bar to our Alaska Blog.

We will try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a good week.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

It was another pretty summer day in Alabama. Highs in the mid to upper 80’s this week which is so much nicer than those 90’s.

Anne went to Tuscaloosa to take care of business for her Mom – 10:00 am meeting, and then there were errands to run. Mama Ruby is adjusting to assisted living. She has met several people and has some ladies that she has been eating with each meal. She is participating in a number of the activities although she had to miss some of those today because physical therapy started back. She still has a long way to go with her walking and balance. Hopefully that will improve over the next month. She is still not putting much weight on the broken leg. We sure hate to see her in the wheelchair so much of the time. Really praying for continued improvement and that she will be happy. As soon as Anne completed the errands she headed back to Blount County to assist with Juno’s move.

Max, Randy, David and Debra worked all day getting Max’s mom, Juno, moved into Aunt Helen’s house. They all had a tiring day. Do you know how heavy lift chairs can be? The two chairs our ladies have are HEAVY! The guys moved them multiple times today. Helen wanted her lift chair then she didn’t like it. Then she wanted Juno’s and Juno wanted Helen’s. Fun times! Anyway, at the end of the day Juno is now living at Helen’s. Immediately on walking in to the den, Juno started fussing at Helen to get her feet up so the swelling would go down. Well, that was a little discouraging. They started fussing before we even had Juno’s lift chair in the room. Some of us started having second thoughts about this whole move. The move seemed like such a good idea but… Randy and Debra are staying there tonight so they can referee. We are at home in our quiet house. Really, Juno and Helen are very close sisters and we expect this to all work out fine, but Juno is giving up her house and neither are accustomed to having anyone else in their home. Again praying for an easy transition for them both. Bless all the LOL’s hearts. There are all over 91 and life is just hard for them all right now.  Debra did find another treasure today.  A quilt top that we are pretty sure Max’s grandmother pieced together.  Don’t know what the pattern is called.  We are hoping to find some one that can quilt it for us. Debra wants us to put it on Juno’s bed so she can sleep under her Mother’s quilt.  That would be nice.  

Monday, July 31, 2017

Another day of chores and getting ready to move Max’s mother. It started with a follow-up with the oral surgeon for Max and a little shopping. Then we spent a while tracking down another mis-delivered Amazon package.  It’s good to know that when the Postal Service delivers an Amazon package they record the GPS coordinates of the delivery. We have had to use that twice to find our packages. The last time the package was several miles away at a house that did not have the same number as ours or a similar road name.  At least this time the package was at a friend’s house on the same road so we took the opportunity catch up with them on some of their volunteer mission work. When we walked up to their house we saw their house number clearly posted on the side of the house and it is not similar to our number.  We also thought it humorous that it was the same side of the house where the GPS coordinates show the package was delivered.

After that visit we spent the rest of the day getting things ready for the big move tomorrow and ended the day by peeling and chopping and packing peaches until about 9:00pm.  Remember the peaches we bought in South Carolina.  It was a half bushel box and they finally ripened and are now in the freezer.  We will enjoy peach cobblers and ice cream.

Not very interesting for blog readers, but after over 25 years in public safety work we think sometimes boring days are good days.