Bored and Ready to Get back to Life

A week later and I'm ready to go play golf or lift weights or do something worthwhile. I even saw some protestors of Trump clamoring and waving signs on Saturday here in Roseville and thought it would be nice to be out in the sun getting some exercise. (Exercising your right to protest?). I was kind of surprised to see them in Roseville as this is an enclave of conservative truth in the cesspool of liberal whackoism in California. Governor Brown came out this week and cut funding to middle class families for low cost educational loans, but kept funding for illegals as he said, "The undocumented need further education more". So, he cut funding to US Citizens, but kept in funding for illegals? Somehow the left always manages to make it sound plausible, but it is completely nuts and makes no sense no matter what plane of logic you try to use. The protestors were out to protest Trump as an illegitimate President and to cry for the illegal immigrants being blocked and sent back home. Boo Hoo.

 

I am ready to get back to work tomorrow. I worked from home Wednesday to Friday/ Gail picked me up Wednesday and took me to an Association luncheon here in Roseville for the annual golf tournament with the Insurance Agents Association. It was just nice to get out of the house and be active for an hour and a half. Funny, though. It wore me out and I had to get a nap in that afternoon. Pete came by on Thursday and we went out to lunch here in Roseville. I also had a committee meeting with the golf group on Friday night and had one of the guys pick me up and take me over. He was supposed to pick me up at 4:45 and there I was outside in my sling and coat waiting for him to come and get me, like a senior waiting for the bus. That was the hardest one of the week as I saw the guys and they are all playing in a qualifier this weekend. One of the guys on the committee had a full shoulder replacement on November 30th and he played golf for the first time on that Friday. Wait. I have rotator cuff arthroscopic surgery and have to wait four to six months to play golf. He has full open surgery where he is in the hospital overnight and is playing in less than three months? I should have had them completely redo the shoulder. Maybe not

 

It was difficult knowing the guys were out playing golf this weekend. I was going to go over and help out either yesterday or today, but chose not to. It's too hard for me right now. I will get over and help with the scoring and skins in a future tournament. The course is still really soggy, but we had a nice sunny weekend. One of the discussion points was postponing the tournament until March and I was strong on playing this weekend. It was sunny and everyone has to play the same conditions. If you want to stay out of the mud, don't hit it in the rough. I'm glad we decided to play as it was a bright sunny weekend and the membership would have come unglued if we didn't play.

 

I added a picture of Jennifer and McKenny with their Bob Marley shirts we bought them in Nine Mile. Also a picture of Sam with her new guitar. I guess Jennifer and McKenny took her out shopping for a musical instrument this weekend and she chose a guitar. Lessons are coming for her. McKenny will be a good influence for her as he is a music hound. Finally, a picture of the protestors and one of the fruitless cherry tree in our front yard that promises that Spring is coming. I put down the crabgrass preventer last weekend and will wait until late March to over seed the lawn after we rototill.

 

Darla and I are planning to have the kitchen cabinets redone this Spring and trying to decide on a color now. We will have the company redo the two guest bathrooms, the hall cabinets and the laundry room. They will come out to give us an estimate and set the date for the job in early April.

 

Darla and I went out yesterday and watched Luke's basketball game in Folsom and then went out to lunch at an Italian deli/tavern in Granite Bay. We had Panini's and Darla had a great Italian wedding soup that was so good we bought a quart to take home for dinner to pair with the second half of our sandwiches that we had left over from lunch. We got home and both took naps. We decided to watch some Netflix while we had dinner and the service is pushing the show "The Santa Clarita Diet" a sitcom produced for Netflix and starring Drew Barrymore. We knew nothing about it and got into the middle of it while enjoying our dinner. Little did we know that Drew Barrymore plays a housewife that is also a zombie. There is a scene where she is projectile vomiting and then one where she eats the guy that played the lead in the television show "Castle". I didn't finish my soup or sandwich. What is the matter with Hollywood? We did settle down and watch the movie "Boyhood", which is a long study of a young boy growing up over a 12 year period. The fascinating part of the movie is that it was filmed over 12 years and uses the same kids as they grow from elementary school kids to college students. It was well done and worth your time if you have three hours to burn.

 

I am having trouble staying sedentary and I went out and mowed the lawn on Friday. I protected my arm, but it did open up one of the stitches and I had some discharge. Not the smartest move I've ever made, but proof positive that I am Art Lyon' son. I did call the doctor's office and they told ne to put a dressing over the shoulder and that was "normal". OK. I went out again today and edged the lawn and my neighbor, who saw me in the sling Friday was amazed/ I told him that I wasn't in a cast or anything and the sling is simply to keep my arm against my side so I don't disturb the staples in my shoulder. He kept staring at me like I had two heads.

 

We were supposed to have company on Saturday as Darla's niece, Taylor, is engaged to her girlfriend and she was coming up from Willets to introduce her to Darla's parents and the family. Daniel was coming up from San Jose with Becky and .Don and Alicia were going to come up after his game. That changed Thursday when Frances had to go into the Emergency room because of breathing difficulties. She was coming down with pneumonia and was put on bed rest. We will meet the fiancé at a later date.

 

I will see the doctor on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to getting started on rehab. I'm sure I won't do much before the four weeks that I'm supposed to keep wearing the sling, but I'm sure there are a few exercises I can start on to help keep my arm from wasting away. I'd like to do some of the exercises while on the cruise as well.

 

Darla and I were off to church this morning and it was nice to see everyone and share in the good news. We missed last week as I was recovering from surgery. I have not used any pain meds since last Sunday and I'm feeling really good. Darla is amazed, but as I told her "the arm hurt before surgery and it has some residual pain now, nothing has changed". I wasn't on meds before surgery and I'm not on meds now.

 

I talked to Darryl last week. He called to see how I was doing and we had a nice visit. I guess they have sold their enormous home in Kansas City and Darryl plans to downsize to a house about 4,000-5,000 square feet. We are in 2100 square feet and thrilled. I told him he should downsize to a Normal house and bank the rest for his retirement. He said downsizing IS going to 4000 square feet. He's in a 850 square foot apartment now. A 2100 square foot 4 bedroom home would seem huge after that. I'm happy for them as I know the house was a burden for them after he took the job in Dallas.

 

I made the mistake about two weeks ago of making a comment about teachers on a Facebook post by Cheryl. It was about how they spend their own money and put in untold hours on their job that they are never paid for. She had tagged Janelle. My comment was simply: "At least they get summers off." Oh my God, you would have thought the world had ended. I had Cheryl and Cake all over me about how teachers work longer hours than me and work harder. Randy was dying laughing as I was attacked. He was texting me back and forth as the barrage hit and I told him that I wish the hardest part of my day was some kid not having a pencil during an exam. Randy got a big kick out of it. Darla and I were in a life group a few years back with a group of teachers and you have never heard a group of people complain so much about their jobs. The complaint were: "The parents are horrible, the kids have no respect, the school districts are broke", etc., etc. I wanted to ask them who was holding a gun to their heads and making them do this horrible job? Darla and I started showing up late just to not have to listen to the verbal diarrhea of complaints. I guess my reaction to the post was experienced based and took me back to a bad place. At least I offered Randy some yuks that night.

 

I have my CEO coming into town on the week of March 27th. He is coming in that week and will spend the first part of the week in San Francisco and the last part of the week in Los Angeles. He hasn't decided if he is coming in to see us or going to Fresno on Wednesday. I know that I will be heading into San Francisco to spend a day with him if he decides to go to Fresno, or we will be putting on the dog in my office. He hasn't been to Sacramento since April of 2015, so he is due. We'll see how it goes.

 

Well, I'm getting tired and ready to take it easy, so I will tell all of you to have a good week. I will have one more blog entry next week and then, believe it or not, we will be off on the cruise. Until then, ciao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living on OxyCodone and a dream

 

Just a fog of pain and medication over the last 48 hours. I am starting to come out of it a little bit and using less of the Oxy and therefore less of the Colace, which is a stool softener used because the Oxy really plugs you up. I gave out a whoop today when I finally had a moment of silent contemplation in the rest room after three days.  

 

I did not sleep particularly well the night before surgery as I tossed and turned in contemplation of the process ahead. I had a colonoscopy a few years ago and that is as close as I've come to an operating room. It was raining as we packed up and headed off to the surgery center on Friday morning. Darla, being the sweet wife that she is, complained that I had a bit of halitosis (I hadn't eaten anything since nine the night before and it was 11 AM). She gave me a Trident gum which almost blew the whole procedure. I checked in, signed my life away and was escorted back to pre op about 11:30. There the nurse freaked out about my gum and called the anesthesiologist, Dr. Cook to see if we could proceed. I blamed the whole thing on Darla. He asked how long I'd been chewing the gum (1/2 hour) and if I had eaten or had anything to drink since midnight. Nope. They proceeded to shave my chest and my right underarm. Yeah, I'm looking forward to how this will look on the cruise. Darla came in and they started the IV in my left hand and we met with Dr. Tweet, my surgeon. Apparently the surgery would be in Surgery Room D. So, TweetleDee as I put it. He said he hadn't heard that one. Dr Cook came in and offered me a nerve block on my right chest. Dr Tweet advised to have it, but as Cook went through all of "punctured lung, bile trapped in injection site, possible death" I had pause to rethink, but decided on the block.

 

They brought me in to the surgery suite and covered me in cheesecloth, including over my head. Dr. Cook worked on the injection site for the block as I had trouble breathing. I asked if he was going to put me out, but he had to do the block to make sure I didn't have any side effects. He finally finished, was satisfied with my reaction and told me "bye,bye, Mr. Lyon, see you in recovery" and I was gone.

 

I woke up in Recovery and you can see the picture from pre-op with the "thumbs up" and then the picture in recovery where I am "altered" as they put it. Darla told me that I kept telling the nurse that I like soft stools. I don't know why and I'm not sure that I believe her. I came out of surgery with a sling and a bag of ice on the surgery site. I actually have several steri strips over the surgery holes and a large shoulder cup over my shoulder and held down with surgical tape. This will be short as it is hard to type and my shoulder and neck are sore leaning over the laptop. The first day was actually pretty good, although Darla left and went to a party that night. I was pretty sleepy and slept off and on and got the Oxy going before the block wore off. I think I watched some TV and slept in the recliner in the living room. The doctor had suggested that I should sleep in the recliner over night, but I wanted to be in my bed and sort of built up some pillows to help support my brace and sling.

 

Darla got home about 11 and we went to bed and slept in yesterday. David got tickets to the Disney on ice program at the Golden One Center in Sacramento and he offered to take Luke and Darla to the event. The seats were in his company's box at the arena. My nurse was kind of sleeping on the job and David got to our place with Luke about 5 and they were off to the show by six.

 

I watched some television and slept off and on, still hitting the Oxy and Colace in equal portions. I got a text about 9 that Darla's car would not start in the garage and the garage would not allow AAA in as they were only allowing cars out. David got someone to give her a jump and they got it going and back home by about ten.

 

Darla was up early this morning and played with Luke while I rested in bed. I cannot get the dressing wet for the fist two nights so have been showering with a trash bag over my right arm and tied to my neck. I'm not one that likes to go even a day without bathing and washing my hair. Tomorrow, I will lose the dressing and cover the surgical entries with bandages.

 

Darla needed to take her car into Firestone today and had me driving over to pick her up. I'm not supposed to drive for about 4 weeks. Her car will be tested and if we need a new alternator or battery, so be it.

 

My best guess is that I will be down for about six months of no golf, but that time frame could improve depending on my therapy. I will see the Doctor again on March 1st and then we are off to our cruise on March 11th.

 

Well, that's it. This wore me out more than I thought it would. I hope you are all well and I look forward to seeing the Lyon contingent and the Nowakowski's in three weeks, eh? Ciao.

 

 

Back from Jamaica on to Shoulder Surgery

 

It was a tremendous vacation and I thank my beautiful and talented wife for the opportunity. I think this was definitely the nicest room that we have stayed in on all of the incentive trips that we have been on. The resort was beautiful and one of the nicest, but the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas with it's water slides, shark tanks and casino on site was by far the fanciest. The room that we stayed in was priced at $1100 a night and, as you can see above, the place was huge with a large living room a nice sized separate bedroom and a large oversized bathroom with separate bath tub and shower. The large balcony that overlooked the ocean and a private beach behind us had two chaise lounges and a full sized table and chairs. It was a nice home away from home for us.

 

The red eye flight to Charlotte was brutal and I ended up in a middle seat next to a large guy who had no boundary. He had pulled the armrest up and had overflowed into my area. I tried to sleep, but every time I started to drift off, he would shift or blow his nose and it was useless. Darla has a picture from breakfast in Charlotte of us and I look like death warmed over. I was so tired and slept the entire three hour hop over to Montego Bay.

 

We landed in Charlotte at 6:15 and were on the flight to Jamaica by 7:30 and landed in Montego Bay by 10:15. We arrived at the resort at about 11:30 and had a reception and orientation by the hotel staff and Touchstone officials. They had cash for us that worked out to $75 a day for each of us, but didn't go far as the cost of drinks and meals at the resort were high and the country has a 15% GST and the resort charged a 10% service charge on every meal or drink (25% , that's right). We had one meal with Darla's extended teammates and the cost for a dinner buffet was $58 per person and with drinks and tax we spent almost $175 just for dinner and drinks that night. The company sponsored two dinners, a welcome reception and farewell dinner on the last night.

 

We had a ball and took a tour of Bob Marley's hometown and childhood home and his mausoleum in Nine Mile. The trip was about two hours up in the mountains and through several small towns and villages. We drove through Usain Bolt's hometown and saw where he went to high school. We also heard tales of Harry Belafonte and his growth years working on a banana farm. The guide was very good and told the story of Bob Marley and how he came to the world of music. Marley's mother was 14 and his father was a British military man aged 60. Marley was defined by his religion of Rastafarianism and it also lead to his ultimate death. The Rastafarian faith does not allow mutilation, tattoos or amputation. Marley was a soccer player and injured his toe during a game and it soon got much worse. His doctor diagnosed him with melanoma of the big toe and suggested amputation. Marley turned him down and asked to treat the cancer. He finally relented and allowed a skin graft, but by then the cancer had spread and went to his blood stream and to his brain. He became ill in France and tried to get home to Jamaica, but he was rushed to the hospital when his plane stopped in Miami and he died there. He was 35. His boyhood home has been turned into a museum and the compound is now  huge and includes a huge gift shop, bar, restaurant and outdoor pavilion with a stage. It was Bob's birthday when we were there and it was a party with two bands and some of Bob's family on hand.

 

We met a  Canadian couple from Alberta and you can see their picture above with us on the tour. They lived in a town close to Ft. McMurray where they had the huge wild fire last year. It is a blended family and the wife owns what she called a "home hardware store". Their town doubled in size when some of the 88,000 evacuees moved in and her business doubled in size and was getting three rail shipments of goods a week during the worst of the fire and months following the fire. It was interesting to talk to them. Her husband is an industrial equipment mechanic and was wearing a regular shirt with the arms cut off. Interesting look.

 

Darla and I had a great trip and enjoyed the included breakfasts every morning where we could sit and plan our day. We spent one day at the beach and the next on the tour, nursing a sunburn. The temperature was 86 degrees during the day and 77 degrees overnight. The ocean temperature was close to 80 degrees and it was the beautiful green and blue waters and white sands that define that part of the Caribbean.

 

We came home to more rain and some flooding. The Dam up at Lake Oroville is threatening to overflow tonight as the spillway has a crack in it and the earthen spillway is now handling the runoff and is threatening to collapse and flood towns downstream, including Oroville, Yuba City and Marysville. This state is absolutely ridiculous with billions spent on some high speed rail system from Northern to Southern California. The infrastructure of roads, hospitals, airports and (yes) dams and levees have gone without needed updating and maintenance. The Oroville spillway was found to have cracks in it last year, but we were in the middle of a drought and no one worried. Until now. The main spillway is cracking and may give way at any time. The lake flowed over into the auxiliary spillway yesterday and it is an earthen dam that may give way. There are 100's of thousands of gallons a minute flowing over the spillway. Currently 130,000 people have been asked to evacuate their homes.

 

I have my Personal Lines underwriter already headed up to the area to bring her elderly parents to her home in Lincoln as they are being evacuated. Her mother has Parkinson's and her father has Alzheimer's. There will be a lot of stories coming from this.

Pete and I hosted a couple of our agents at the AT&T Pebble Beach national Pro Am Golf Tournament on Friday. I picked Ron up at his house at 6 AM and we picked up Tabb from Woodland in Sacramento at 6:30. We drove to Pete's and he drove from Elk Grove to Monterey. We took a shuttle from CSU Monterey Bay, which is located at the Old Fort Ord facility. It was raining most of the trip up, but quit short of Hollister. We got a few spritz during the day, but it was cold and dry mostly. I got the tickets at will call and they were provided by Jimmy Walker. We picked up the tickets at Will Call at Pebble Beach and took the shuttle over to Spyglass Hill. We wanted to meet Webb Simpson, the newest brand ambassador for Burns and Wilcox. He was playing with Peyton Manning, his amateur partner. The group behind them had Phil Mickelson and the group behind them was Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson. We spent the morning moving between all three groups. Webb came over and gave his wife a bottle of water and we met him then. His wife thanked us for "helping them pay their bills". Webb said that he'd meet us after the round, but he ended up blowing us off as he went in to sign his scorecard and left in one of the courtesy cars right after. Too bad, I had hoped to have him meet our agents. Peyton was very accommodating to us and everyone around him. He signed Pete's hat and posed for pictures with everyone. What a great guy. We had lunch on the course and walked the entire course, front and back nine. We stayed until all three groups finished their rounds.  I got quite a few pictures and we finally headed back to the car and then to dinner. We ate at the Tides Hotel in Sand City. The drive home was great until we got back to the Sacramento area and then the Cosumnes River went over it's banks and flooded Highway 99. We got stuck in an hour long backlog of traffic and the roadway was down to one lane that was flooded. We finally got home at 11 PM.

 

 

I played my last game of golf on Saturday and really struggled with my arm. I shot 50+43=93 and know that I need this surgery on Friday. John Parola, Rico and Paul all were there to send me off to my 4 month hiatus from golf. We had a good time, but the course was soaked. The number 15 par three is now an island green as the water is pooled up around the raised green. Camille (John's wife) came over and had lunch with us afterward. I invited Darla to join us, but she had plans with another girlfriend and suggested we all go to dinner. They have been raving about the Tokyo House restaurant and wanted us to go. Unfortunately, the restaurant was booked and we couldn't get in. Apparently it is Valentines Day this week. We met them today after church and went to the restaurant. They opened at 11 and we got there at noon and there was a ninety minute wait. John and I sat at the bar and had a big Asahi and watched the golf tournament. The girls went shopping and met us back at 1 PM. They were able to seat us earlier and we had a great Teppanyaki meal and enjoyed their company. They are good Christians and good friends.

 

 

Well, that is about it for this week. lots of pictures and a fun couple of weeks. I have surgery on Friday and check in at 11 AM and go under the knife at 1 PM. Darla has a party that night, so I guess she dumps me back at home and off she goes. I expect to be off work for a couple of days and may work from home until a week from Friday. I won't be able to drive as I'll be in a sling and not able to use my right hand for four weeks. The surgery is orthoscopic and they will reattach the supraspinatus tendon to my humerus on my right arm. Wish me well and I will be hunting and pecking away next weekend and will update the blog. Be well. Ciao.