October 31, 2010

Despite their horrific experience, Nicky and Nate are on the mend. I've been amazed at their positive attitudes and drive to get things done despite crutches and casts. The only complaint I heard was that they were bored to death at home....they had enough TV and Farmville for a lifetime. My sudden plummet back into work at the home seemed totally exhausting. Fortunately, Spencer, the daughter of one of our long time employees and my niece, Jaimie, both had their CNA certifications and came to my rescue; our regular staff also pitched in by picking up extra shifts. They were terrific.

Initially, we stayed at a nice RV park in Mukwonago; later we moved to State Fair Park RV in West Allis. Not as nice but closer to Chateau. We did have a late night visitor there once - begging for beer - but it was otherwise uneventful. A small, dimly-lit bar just 1/2 block from the RV park on 76th, called "Liquid Johnny's," triggered my curiosity. We decided to check it out. Over the next couple of weeks, it became our favorite Friday night hangout. Chuck enjoyed their fish fry and I loved the "Johnny Burger" served on a delicious pretzel roll. Yumm. Watching "Cash Cab" on TV with the rest of the locals completed the experience.

One of the highlights of our time at home was a get together of 6 grade school girlfriends. I hadn't seen a couple of them for 45 years.....yikes! We had so much fun that my face was stiff from laughing by the time we left. Dianne, Cheryl, Sandy, Carol and Bonnie - it was fantastic to see all of them again. Thanks to Barbara, who hosted a wonderful get-together,I also saw a lot of my 2-20's friends. Barb always says it's going to be "very simple" but it always ends up looking elegant - like it was a lot of work.

The one totally indulgent thing I did when I was home was to meet John Stahler in Chicago to continue my remote viewing training. In one of the sessions, I felt that there was land, water and structure....kind of unusual to have all three. Early analytical overlays were "buoy," "BGB," "ship masts," and "partially immersed." BGB was a term I heard from an Army guy at Mayport Naval Station who knew almost as little about the huge ships as I did; "I just call 'em BGB - Big Gray Boats", he explained. I described complicated gauges, a long center cylinder sitting on a hard flat surface, stairs, an acrid smell, clanging sound,and a warning label. I drew a diver under a large ship. When the session ended, John showed me the target - a picture of the Battleship Texas. Interestingly, on the upper right of the page was a label titled "Protection" with an explanation of the use of Camouflage - which I took to be the warning label.

I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with John; the rest of the day didn't go so well. While I was doing sessions, what I should have remote viewed was the low-life that was stealing our laptop and GPS from the car. The first thing I did after discovering the theft was to call my sister to see if I could stay at her house if need be. Then I called Chuck to give him the dire news. Even I didn't realize what a huge loss this was. The computer was the least of it. We had thousands of dollars of software on the computer - some of it essentially irreplaceable. Chuck handled it better than I thought he would although the next few days, as he recalled additional programs that we lost, were kind of dicey.

With Nicky back to work, we needed to head out again before the snow started flying. Currently we're back in Moab, UT - doing some fun things which will be the subject of the next blog.

Love, Vicki and Chuck