Walking the Dog

So much is happening that I had a hard time deciding what to write about today. 

First three subjects to bring you up to date. 

1) Pat has a meeting with his city hall folks today (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) with his ongoing problem with his drug selling squatter neighbors. That situation has gotten worse. The motorcycle gang showed up when Pat was visiting me here in Delaware last week.

2) I saw my cardiologist on Wednesday. My driving privileges haven't been restored yet. They want to do one more test, an ultra sound of my carotid neck artery. That is scheduled for July 8th. On July 22nd, I have an appointment to go over those results. Originally they made that appoint in late August but I told them I can't go that long without driving privileges. I sent in my heart monitor today that I wore for the past ten days. I believe that I passed out from a combination of being dehydrated from my colonoscopy the previous two days and staying up late playing board games and traipsing around all day in the sun in Rehoboth Beach and environs being the host with the most. 

3) Then there was the Biden-Trump Presidential Debate last night. I was sicken to watch Biden stumble through his answers. He missed so many opportunities to call Trump out for his outrageous lies. Trump lobbed one huge softball lie after another and Biden just stood there looking gapped mouth looking incredulous.  Biden clearly was over prepared and obviously way too old. I'm a year older than Biden and yet I could have performed one hundred percent better than Old Joe. Time to retire Joe! How about Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro for the Democratic nominee for president? Of course the Democrats won't do that, they have a knack for choosing the worst presidential candidates. More on this subject in a later blog post.......maybe. But I was sicken by last night's horror show of a "debate."

Instead I will post this video that my friend Glenn took of me and Pat in my neighbor's garage to get his Australian Cattle Poodle dog mis "Cleo" and take her out for her walk whilst my neighbor is fishing. I often walk my neighbor's dog. She loves me and I love her. I wish I could have a dog or cat but it is not to be at my age. That point is aptly proved by my recent medical incident. I was so lucky that Pat and Glenn were visiting me when my body decided to take a dive in the Rehoboth Beach parking lot on Sunday, June 16th.

Sunset Evening Cruise June 15, 2024

Last Saturday evening (June 15, 2024, before my fall in the Walmart parking lot); Pat, Glenn and I went on an evening cruise. It was wonderful.

Glen and I chatting as the sun sets on our evening cruise out of Lewes, Delaware

I have been on this evening cruise once before with my friend Bob C. in 2009.At that time I was much younger and healthier, I could stand up straight. As you can see in the current picture of me the arthritis in my neck has changed my stance. I'm not an old man. There is getting around that fact now. But be that as it may, there was a long time between evening cruises.

Me and Bob C. Whale Watch cruise 20009 (we didn't see any whales)

This cruise leaves Lewes, Delaware out the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal to the Broadkill River to the Atlantic Ocean and back. The cruise leaves about seven PM and returns approximately two hours later, at nine PM or just about when the summertime evening begins to darken. It is a lovely cruise.

The last time I took it with my friend Bob C. (the picture of us is one of the daytime cruises which I also took) the cruise was booked solid. There was a large Russian contingent, most of those folks were young foreign workers in the town of Lewes, Rehoboth and thereabouts for summertime employment. Even though I enjoyed that cruise I didn't have a chance to stand by the railing and enjoy the warm summertime evening breeze off the water.

When the cruise boat leaves the Fishing Wharf Dock, the captain blows the horn and folks around the canal know the drill, wave at the tourists going out on the boat to see the dolphins. Sure, it's hokey but it's fun. Especially when you're with friends and Pat and Glenn are just the perfect friends for a summertime holiday! Two delightful men who I am very fortunate to have as my friends.

This is the Sunset Cruise and the sun didn't let us down. Glenn and I took advantage of the beautiful sunset on the water to take some great pictures. 

Glenn taking that iconic sunset picture of the lighthouse

Glenn and Pat were here for ten days. Every day the weather was perfect summertime weather. Of course the sun and warm temperatures probably contributed to me collapsing the next day in the Walmart parking lot but that's on me. I should have gotten more rest. 

My lighthouse sunset picture - good enough for a calendar?

With Glenn I was able to get some pictures of me and Pat that weren't selfies. I have a couple pictures that strangers took when they saw me trying to take a selfie of me and Pat in whatever city we were in at that time. Glenn took some candid pictures of me and Pat. That was so considerate of him. Just how lucky am I to have such friends? 

Here is an interesting fact. I met both Pat and Glenn through my blog but neither one of them reads my blog. Even now they don't read it or follow it. Pat saw my photo on the Internet when I testifying before the Delaware State Legislature in 2013 for Marriage Equality. He was wondering who that handsome guy (me?) was and did some Internet sleuthing and found my blog. That's how he contacted me in the summer of 2013 and the rest is history. He occasionally reads my blog when there is something special but I doubt if he will even see this posting like most of my blog postings. That's all right. We're friends now, and that's all that counts.

With Glenn, it was his late partner Michael who followed my blog. Glenn never read my blog but was aware that his partner liked my blog  and eagerly looked forward to my postings. Can you imagine anyone looking forward to my postings? Not fishing for compliments here folks but my blog is mainly about my self therapy. I just have to write. Glenn knew of me. When his partner Michael died, he sent me a note telling me of Michael's passing. I was wondering why Michael never commented on my blog anymore. As I wrote before in this blog, I received Glenn's note of Michael's passing the evening Bill was airlifted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia with a traumatic brain injury in January 2021. I was so distraught that night, thinking that I would never see Bill alive again. I managed to find Glenn's phone number and FaceTimed him and we've been friends ever since. This was Glenn's second visit to Casa Tipton-Kelly. He is always welcome to visit.

I'll post more this week about Pat and Glenn's visit. Their visit was one of the delightful times of my life in spite of the three day hospital stay I had when I over extended myself. Thank goodness they were with me when I fell and provided support for me. I am so fortunate to have such friends. 

Company Has Gone!

Glenn and Pat with me in my hospital bed Sunday June 16 2024

 My company left this morning around nine thirty AM. 

Pat and Glenn were here for ten days but what a ten days we had!

I am just briefly writing about their visit now because I am still recovering. Not only from their fabulous ten dat visit to Casa Tipton-Kelly and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware but also their visit to me in the hospital where I had a two night three day stay. Yes folks, I ended up in the hospital for three days!

What happened? You'll never believe it but when we were exiting the Rehoboth Beach Walmart after purchasing a game of Clue, and while I was walking like an old man behind Pat and Glenn who were heavily involved in a discussion about a row of two rubber decks on the dashboard of a Jeep in the parking lot, I crumple up like a piece of paper and passed out backwards on the heat infused black macadam parking lot. Pat and Glenn didn't even know I was on my back, totally passed out until a car beeped its horn to get their attention that their friend (me) was unconscious on his back in the parking lot, blocking cars trying to make an exit out of the parking lot. 

Pat told me he rushed to my body to get me up along with Glenn. I don't even remember passing out, only slowly coming to by Pat asking me "Are you all right Ron" over and over again. 

I remember nothing about passing out except thinking about the rubber duckie Jeep story then an image of steel doors with vertical teeth coming together and be trying to get through those doors before they closed. Yes, what did THAT image come from?

As Pat and Glenn helped me up I felt the back of my head and it was sticky with my blood. And my head hurt. Later I found out I had a brush burn on my left elbow and low left back. 

I was woozy. I felt like I was drunk. Just the day before I had my colonoscopy (which came out fine, only two small polyps). The sun was hot. We were up late the previous night. I wasn't getting my daily naps.

Pat and Glenn kept asking me is I was all right. I was going to go home but then I thought of the incident with Liam Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson when she fell backwards after a skiing accident (Death. On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury when she fell while taking a beginner skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) from Montreal. At first, Richardson refused any medical help but complained of a severe headache about two hours after the accident.) and thought she was all right but ended up dying about twenty-four hours later because she had a brain hemorrhage  that was slowly bleeding in her skull and she was unaware that it was bleeding. I decided to go to the nearest walk-in clinic.

At the walk-in clinic they checked my bloody head and decided to send me to the Emergency Room. There I went and spent the next two nights and three days going through a series of tests including a brain Cat-scan, stress test both on the treadmill and nuclear. Echo gram and some other tests which I can't remember now. I pretty much ran the gamut of tests. The blood on the back of my head was superficial. It still hurts but it doesn't look like I caused any serious internal injuries in my brain with my collapse in the Walmart parking. Oh the embarrassment, collapsing in the Walmart parking lot? Well, I guess it could have been IN Walmart itself of even at The Nook where we had breakfast earlier. 

They found nothing but I am wearing an heart monitor for the next ten days and I have had my driving privileges suspended indefinitely. I see my cardiologist next week for further evaluation and hopefully have my driving privileges returned. I HOPE!

I was so thankful to get out of the hospital yesterday even though they treated me very well. I don't like hospitals. I've spent too much time in them in my lifetime. 

I'm taking it easy now. Pat Glenn and I did play "Clue" (first time for me, I loved it and actually won my first game!) We went out to dinner last night at the Tequila Real in Milton. A lovely summer evening. 

Pat and Glenn left this morning. In spite of all my drama in collapsing after trying to act like the 27 year old I think I am in my mind but in actually I'm an 82 year old man trying to cram too much in a short period of time on a hot and humid summer day one day after a body cleansing colonoscopy. 

More.....much more in future blog posts about Pat and Glenn's visit. They were wonderful and in spite of the brief stint in the hospital by yours truly we all had a wonderful time. Actually, we had a FABULOUS time!

Company Is Coming!

 

Tracking Pat on Find My iPhone on his bus trip. Pat is pooped!

As I type this blog entry Pat is at the Philadelphia International Airport waiting to meet my friend Glenn for the first time in person!

Glenn flew in from Palm Springs via Phoenix early this morning. His plane landed in Philadelphia about a half an hour ago but he's still sitting on the tarmac waiting to exit the plane. For those of you who fly, you know what I'm talking about. Why always that delay? 

Pat left Toronto last night via Trailways bus via New York City and arrived in Philadelphia about 12:30 this afternoon. He spent the next several hours roaming around center city Philly which he loves so much. I wish I was with him.

One Pat and Glenn hook up at the airport, Glenn is going to get his car rental and then both of these wonderful fellows, my good friends, will head on down here to Casa Tipton-Kelly for the next week. Next Tuesday we will all go back to Philly to spend a few days with our other friend Don. 

I don't know how much time I will have to post this blog but I will try to keep up. 

Tomorrow I begin my fast for my colonoscopy scheduled for 8:30 AM Wednesday morning. Oh how I hate the prep for the colonoscopy but I do look forward to the anesthesia. Hey, just telling you all like it is.

Nice to have friends folks! Life is good.

Please Sign This Petition To Have Pat's Squatter Neighbors Evicted

Pat's neighbor Samantha who lives on the other side of his squatter neighbor has started a petition to get the Hamilton, Ontario City government to DO SOMETHING to remove his squatter neighbors. 

Even though readers of my blog don't live in Pat's neighborhood of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada I'm sure they can sympathize with Pat and his neighbor Samantha who have a squatter neighbor living right in between their two small adorable houses right in downtown Hamilton. The obviously criminal activity that their squatter neighbors are engaged in is bad enough but the eyesore of their property is the stuff of nightmares of having someone like that for a neighbor. 

Pat's neighbor Samantha is trying to gather enough signatures on her petition to get the attention of the Hamilton City government. Please consider signing this petition. Click HERE. 

That Pat and his neighbor Samantha and the rest of the neighborhood have to live with squatters in their midst and obvious illegal activity (drugs, stolen goods, noise in the middle of the night) is a damn shame. One would think that the city government of Hamilton's responsibility would be to at least enforce their laws. Pat and his neighbor Sam have been trying for over a year now to get the Hamilton city government to do something. Perhaps this extra pressure of a petition with finally ignite them into protecting their law abiding tax paying citizens and get those squatters out of there and condemn that property. I know I have an international following on this blog. Help me out folks! Help Pat and his neighbor Samantha.

Thank you!

My Next Big Test

One of the hardest challenges I have yet to meet is when I make my annual return to one of my favorite summertime activities, visiting the fruit and veggie stand in Milton. 

There is no sign outside but I believe it is called "Brittingham's", an well established Sussex County family name. 

I love fresh vegetables and fruit, especially their peaches and corn!

For the last few years one of the employees, "Tara",

"Tara"

always paid special attention to Bill. Of course he was always embarrassed but I believe he appreciated the attention. 

Bill always told me he didn't want the attention but hey, don't we all like to receive special attention?

When I took our daily rides, at least once a week when the peaches and corn were in season (peaches first), I would tease Bill by saying we're going to see your "girlfriend." He would say "Oh no!" but  I think he liked the attention. Besides, he didn't have much choice because he always rode shotgun with me (oh how I miss him riding shotgun these days). 

Tara visiting with Bill

Tara knew Bill didn't have long to live. Each year when we made our fist stop for peaches she look for Bill. Tara was so kind to do that.  If someone else waited on us, she would often interrupt them to see Bill. The last two years, when Bill's health went perceptibly downhill (she could tell by the change in his appearance), she was probably surprised to see Bill make it to another season. 

Tara with Bill on his 95th birthday last September 25, 2023, the last time she and Bill would see each other.

Last year in October when we made our last stop at Brittingham's I had the feeling it would be his last visit. I think the ladies there also felt that it was also Bill's last visit. 

The video above is of them singing "Happy Birthday" to Bill on his September 25th birthday last year. Bill was so embarrassed but I think he secretly appreciated their kind gesture. 

Now here's the hard part. I haven't visited them yet this year. I'm not sure when they're opening but I suspect it is the next week or so.  I've had enlargements printed of the pictures posted on this blog. I am going to present the framed pictures to Tara when I visit. Does anything think I'll be able to do this without getting all choked up and God forbid, crying? I don't think so. This is going to be hard folks. I've been dreading it.