Today we made our final visit to the doctor(s) and it appears that all is well if not completely without blemish. I apparently have stones of steel, kidney stones that is, and the one that had the lithotripsy treatments has retreated to a defensive position from where the urologist tells me that unless I hang by my heels for a week it is unlikely to cause me any problems. I am to call him when we get back in June and we'll decide if we need to do anything at that point. Meanwhile I have his go ahead to head on down for the three and a half months to bring Nelleke home. Poor Barb still has a colonoscopy to look forward to on Wednesday with Tuesday a day of preparation (water diet followed by something really icky to drink that is supposed to clean everything out). Oh Joy!

I have finally gotten the StormTreader Drogue project completed and published at lulu.com. Anyone interested go on out there and have a look. At this point it is only in e-booklet format but I am also going to set it up as a hard copy but that might take a couple more days. I have set up about 7 pages for the casual viewer to preview, but in the meantime I am considerably excited hence my jumping of the gun. Frankly the e-booklet is more likely the better deal since you should be able to download it and print it off to make your own hard copy and have that happen immediately although Lulu Publishing claims that they will have a hard copy out the door with 48 hours of it being ordered, but even then you are at the mercies of the postal system. One thing about the booklet and how easy it has been to get it out is that it has rekindled my goal to get the Son of a Sea Cook Cookbook out there too.

I'm probably in the minority in that I didn't watch the Super Bowl last night, but this morning Barb and I did watch the ads that ran as well as the ones that didn't. Although the game yesterday was pretty good (so I've heard) the ads are always the best part in my humble opinion. I particularly like the Bridgestone Tire ad with the beaver at the bridge. If you don't know what I'm talking about go Google the ads on the I-net and check that one out.

We have also discovered the means of getting our medical plan to allow us to buy six months of the various flavours of pills and ointments that age has dictated that we carry with us wherever wee go. All it needed was Barb calling the carrier and asking politely with a small catch in her voice. Amazing what a woman can accomplish by just asking! So far we have had free dock space at a prestigious yacht club in South Carolina, an extension on our drug plan, and don't even get me started on traffic tickets....!

FROM BARB:
Ooooo, this time El Capitan has gone too far - I have never used the catch in the voice thing when asking for things - ever - and no, I have never weaseled my way out of a parking ticket.

Our relationship has survived the "Barb, please take a look at this document and make sure it is readable and makes sense" task. Mike handed me the 27 page how to make the drogue document and after an hour or so I passed it back marked up with spelling corrections and clarifications and the request for the addition of a Bill of Materials table. He made the changes and zip-zam-zowie he published it on Lulu - this is the nifty publishing website that our friend Marcia Talley told us about last year.

I had a few more experiences of what it is like to be retired today. We went to see the GP and for the first time I took an appointment that was not the first of the day - I used to take those early ones as I always had to rush to the office. It seemed odd to be leisurely waiting for the appointment instead of fretting about time away from work. Later on in the afternoon Mike and I went to see a movie - now this was really odd - it smacked a little of playing truant from work as well - the theatre was empty but for us and when we emerged from the theatre it was still daylight. There is another part of being retired that I have not been able to get used to - Mike swears by the virtues of an afternoon nap. I have tried, but there is something in my makeup that that is just not ready, it seems wrong, weak, and a waste of time. When I have tried my brain can just not stop with the messages about all of the "stuff" I could be doing - a few more rows on the latest knitting project, emailing the kids, reading the current novel or magazine, cleaning something, cooking/baking - whatever. It is going to take a while but I suppose I will eventually relax into this luxury of time - time to do what I want, when I want, and the realization that it is really OK to not be doing anything at all.

I have just read the text above to Mike and he got oh so defensive - apparently his reason for the napping is because I keep him awake at night with my tossing, turning and snoring - so sorry, sweetie.

And now a question for you folks. When I received my instructions for preparing for the dreaded colonoscopy I was told that I can have only liquids tomorrow. Apparently jello is OK - except for the red variety - I couldn't tell you when I bought or ate jello last but what is so noxious about red jello anyway?