Heading to O

Redmond, WA
We arrived back in Seattle late on Monday night. The Amtrak train was absolutely wonderful and I would recommend it to anyone traveling to Vancouver or back. The train was fairly new and very comfortable. Of course it was raining and getting dark when we left Vancouver, but still a great ride.

Jenn met us at the station with the dogs. Needless to say we had a great reunion with the dogs..however, Schuster won't let me out of his sight...and Beau watches us both like a hawk!

Tuesday was doctor, doctor, doctor appointments. Most of them went okay. Al's alzheimers has progressed, but I knew that. His kidney function is bad, but still at 50% so I guess we can be thankful for that. BP was good, blood glucose count bad, etc.

Tuesday night Al went to his Elk Camp meeting at a local pub and really enjoyed it. I had dinner with my traveling pals, Kathy, Janet and Jenn. Had fun getting caught up.

Wednesday was laundry day and more appointments. Whew...

Thursday was the annual Boeing HR Retiree's lunch and it was good to see old friends. However, we missed a few---Pete and Shirley; Pete and Diane we missed you! After that was yet another doctor appointment. The last of the appointments for this time.

Then we went to see an old friend who is in assisted living in Redmond. Jan is a year older than I am and has been a good friend for many years. In the last few years she has had some real memory problems, leading to her moving into assisted living a couple of years ago. I hadn't seen her in two years and I was really anxious to see her. Boy, was I in for a sad surprise. She has been moved into a locked down area of the facility and didn't know who I was; or for that matter, didn't really remember any of her old friends. So sad to see...the last time we saw her she didn't remember things, but knew who we were and others we talked about. Now she really doesn't remember anyone. The one person she remembered was her son, but as she put it "He is grown up now"; however, knew nothing about if he was married, children, where he was, etc. Dementia/Alzheimers is a cruel, cruel illness. And especially for someone so young (relatively speaking). However, I was very pleased with the facility she is in; everyone was clean, everything was spotless and it didn't smell bad like so many of the nursing homes do. At the attendants were very good. But still very sad to me to see.

Dinner last night was at an excellent Italian restaurant and we met up with good friends Bill and Lorie Lince. It has been a couple of years since we have been able to see them so it was a good visit. Sad tho, their daughter who is Jenn's age has been going through breast cancer...Lorie had gone through it a couple of years ago and now Gina is. We really feel so bad for them. Another terrible disease that should be cured by now. Another reason to contribute to Ric/Janet/Sherrie on the 3 day; 60 mile walk they are doing for breast cancer. If you wish to contribute to a good cause go to Wraspir's Saving Second Base and donate. Remember, some how, some way, breast cancer will enter your life someday.

And now, we are off to Odessa and beyond.