Week Two

Another week down and only minor side affects if any at all. I'm finding myself a little more tired at times, and experiencing some minor gastrointestinal discomfort. I’m told that my treatments will be scheduled in the morning starting Wednesday. That will be nice so I can get it over with and I wont have to worry about it for the rest of the day.

There’s still a lot of time to kill so I try to keep busy.

Jeanette came to town Thursday evening to spend the 4th of July weekend with me. Friday, we decided to go to Seal Beach where we spent the day exploring the quaint little beach community just south of L.A. in between Long Beach and Huntington Beach. It has the second longest pier in California along with several shops and restaurants. It is also home to the U.S. Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.

We hiked about four miles total from Sunset Beach to the pier at Seal Beach and then back to our car that was parked at Sunset Beach. We then drove back to Seal Beach and walked around a bit and had a few micro brews at the local barbecue/bar. We then walked over to Walt’s Wharf and had a fabulous dinner. I had grilled Halibut stuffed with crab and cheese over a bed of black forbidden rice and asparagus. God was it good! I also had a prawn tower appetizer that consisted of grilled prawns over a tower of guacamole with tortilla chips. Very yummy! Since Jeanette is not a fish lover she had a fillet Mignon that was out of this world. It was the best fillet Mignon I had ever tasted. It was so tender it practically melted in my mouth. Jeanette took a bite of my halibut and she actually really liked it and wished she had ordered it. Can you believe that, coming from somebody who hates fish. Now you know it really had to be good if Jeanette liked it.

Saturday afternoon our friends, Darrel and Penny, came by to visit us on their way to San Diego. We all went to San Bernardino and visited the site of the first McDonald’s. The original building was torn down in 1972 and all that remained was the original McDonald's sign. The building that exists now is a small museum with photos and memorabilia depicting the history of McDonald’s. It was interesting and fun, but not what I expected it to be. We then drove to downtown Redland’s and nothing was going on there so we headed over to the Kimberly Crest House & Gardens. By the time we got there, they were closing and an announcement on the intercom was telling people to leave immediately. I guess the gardener really wanted to get home.

That night we drove to downtown Riverside and had dinner at the Gourmet Detective. This is a dinner and mystery show where the waiters are the actors and interact with the audience. The show starts as you check in for dinner and you’re escorted to your table. The stage is set in the 1940’s at the Café Noir. The owner of the café was found murdered that morning and each of the characters/waiters are the suspects. The audience has to guess who did it as clues are given and the plot unravels. It was quite a unique dining experience and we all had a lot of fun. No, I did not guess who did it. I guess I need to brush up on my Detective skills.

The Misadventures of GPS Suzy

My son David who is now stationed at Andrew’s A.F.B., Maryland had recently purchased a Garmin GPS unit to assist him in finding all the local areas of interest in and around Maryland and the Washington D.C. area. He said he loved it and it hasn’t gotten him lost yet.

Since I’m in unfamiliar territory I purchased one of these Garmin GPS units for myself. It’s actually pretty cool and will direct you to wherever you want to go. It even has a voice that tells you when to turn. The voice is of the female gender and kind of gets annoying at times, especially if you miss a turn. While we were driving around town with our friends I had to laugh when Darrel said he could do without another female voice telling him what to do while he‘s driving. Darrel and I were the only ones laughing and I think Penny gave him a little smack after that comment.

Now let’s go back a bit when Jeanette and I went to Seal Beach on Friday the 4th of July. I set my trusty GPS to take us to this beach that I had never been to before and we were off to our destination. I faithfully followed where the calm, but firm female voice of GPS Suzy told me to go, and we arrived at our destination about an hour later. I reset the GPS to guide us to the pier at Seal Beach and placed it in my pocket as we hiked to our destination from Sunset Beach. After our hike I put the GPS back in it’s suction cup holder in the car and drove back to Seal Beach where we had a wonderful time. After dinner we took a walk on the pier, watched the fishermen, and enjoyed the sights. After walking off our dinner we got back into the car and headed back to Grand Terrace.

I reset the GPS and trusted that this new state of the art technology would safely guide us home. I faithfully obeyed the commands of GPS Suzy while Jeanette and I reminisced about our wonderful day at Seal Beach. I noticed that GPS Suzy took me past the freeway we came in on and I thought she was either sending me on a shortcut to the freeway or to a totally different freeway that would get me home quicker. I didn’t have a map in the car because I had a GPS now and didn‘t need a map. Plus it was in the truck back at the RV park, so I kept my faith that Suzy would get me home.

So I’m tooling along in my Toyota Camry, when I finally woke up out of my, “I had such a good time, I’m totally oblivious, dream state”, and realized that Suzy was leading me through residential neighborhoods and surface streets and no freeways were in sight. By this time reality struck and I had to go pee, (since that’s a frequent thing I do now). I finally found a gas station to pee at so I quickly made a turn to the station while Suzy kept telling me that she’s recalculating and for me to turn right then turn left, and so on and so on. I then started to curse at Suzy and told her to shut up because I was turning left whether she liked it or not, because I got to pee.

After relieving myself, I got back into the car and reluctantly followed Suzy’s instructions. There’s no freeway in sight and the estimated time of arrival (ETA) on the GPS says I will arrive at my destination on Saturday 1:30 PM. It is now about 6:30 PM Friday and I‘m approximately 50 miles from the RV park and I have no idea how to get home. I’m thinking, What the Heck! Is there something wrong with this GPS unit! I thought maybe there was a glitch in the GPS unit so I pulled over and turned the GPS off. I turned it back on and off again about two or three more times in hopes that it would fix itself and miraculously give me a new set of directions. Suzy continued to take me through more side streets and neighborhoods in about four different cities east of L.A. when all of a sudden we are driving past Knott’s Berry Farm. Now I’m really getting frustrated and Jeanette could sense my frustration so she remained as quite as possible as I cursed Suzy for getting me LOST. I guess she figured that I didn’t need two women telling me where to go.

I was just about to cap a .40 into that GPS unit and put old Suzy to rest when finally a light went off in my head and I decided to check the settings on it. No wonder Suzy was sending me through all the side streets, she didn’t want me WALKING ON THE FREAKING FREEWAY! Before our hike I set the GPS to pedestrian mode and it seems that I forgot to set it back to automobile mode. DOHHHH! I reset it to automobile mode, apologized to Suzy and she finally led me to the nearest freeway and we were on our way home with an ETA of about 45 minutes. Much better than 1:30 PM the next day. Jeanette and I joked about it a bit and we eventually made it back home about an hour later than we should have been.

I learned a couple of lessons through all this though. First, make sure you always reset your GPS to the correct mode of travel. Second, don’t ever make a wise crack about two women telling you what to do while you’re driving. It could eventually backfire on you and get you in trouble.

Get ready for Week Three, it could get interesting around here as the trail continues. Good Night!