Blog Makeover

Hi there, Dan here. If you had been a reader of this blog for some time, you knew that it was about time for a makeover. Mom recently migrated her blog to the new version of Blogger, and what you now see are the fruits of some of my efforts, with her input, of course. What else will you find here? Be sure to check back to find out.

One thing that I am liking a lot are the Labels, which, if you click, will take you to a page with posts related to that particular label. Of course it's only as rich as we make the previous posts, which takes a bit of time.

A couple other things that I like are the sections for Oroville and San Francisco, underneath which you will find some pictures from the area.

Comments are open so go ahead and leave some feedback!

Updates

It happened again this morning. I told you we are turning into old people.We were outside looking into the backyard. I was looking at the bird feeders.I thought Bob said "no way, it's time to fill the feeders". In fact, what he said was "No way. it's time to read the meters". He saw the PGE meter reader reader at the neighbors house in the back.

Melissa came up for the long holiday weekend.She hadn't been up since Thanksgiving weekend. We enjoyed her visit and as usual it went too fast.
One of the the things we did was to go visit Marty. She hadn't seen Marty since they scattered Bob's Mom's ashes back in the middle 90's. Marty is the family historian so it was good for Mel to hear some of the stories passed down to the next generation.

On Valentine's Day Bob took Marty and I to the Depot, a local restaurant here in Oroville for lunch. Marty is still in a wheelchair from breaking her hip before Christmas. She sure enjoyed getting out for awhile. I enjoy going to the Depot because it is a historical landmark here in Oroville. it is the train station that folks used coming in from Nevada back during and after the gold rush days on their way to San Fransisco.It still has some of the same gardens it had way back then.The building is much like it was back then and the railroad tracks still run along outside the building.There is a bank of windows on the one side and if you are eating when a train passes you can imagine the early times when passengers would disembark; this was the first stop coming out of Nevada.

I had to take a 24 pee test(TMI) and return it to the lab this morning first thing and then have some blood work done. At my doc visit last week previous lab work showed something was up with my kidney function. I don't understand it but I guess as time progresses I'll be made to understand it if it pans out to be something important.
I also had a cervical back Xray done and it showed a severe narrowing of my neck vertebrae and the discs are shot. I am being referred to a neurosurgeon. Don't know what he will be able to do. I have to wait at least 2 weeks to get an appointment. At this point almost anything has to be better than living with this chronic pain. I can't hardly sleep anymore. I get maybe 3-4 hours sleep a night and that's not consecutive.

I am getting excited about making plans to go to Texas in May to see Mandy and have Dan and his family meet up with us.We are hoping PJ will be able to join us.

Not much else is happening from here.I'll report again soon.

Congratulations,Mandy and Alfred!

I can't believe it's this far into the new year and I am first posting again.Of course,I've been real busy doing basically nothing!

I've decided Bob and I are officially turning into old people.This past week at least three times one of us had to say "what did you say"? to the other one when something didn't make any sense.The hearing is starting to go.

I am going to start classes at the nd of the month at the Lake Oroville Visitors Center to be a volunteer.This is through the Califonia Parks and Wildlife Department and the Bidwell Bar Association.
I'm not exactly sure what all my duties will be but I think generally they will be to greet visitors to the center and assist them with touring the area,supplying them with information and material about the history of Lake Oroville and the Lake Oroville Dam(the tallest earthen dam in the US and second tallest in the world),the history and geography of the Oroville,Butte County and northern California area.
here is a link to the Oroville home page:
http://www.oroville-city.com/

We finally received a few days of much needed rain.We went 37 days without.This was one of the driest January's in recent history.

I am in the process of planning a trip back to Texas in May.
Mandy needs me to come to Ft.Worth to help with James when she has Jacob,Since I'm going to be back there we are trying to put together a family reunion.It looks like Dan,Jennie and Keisha are going to get come down from Ohio and we are trying to see if PJ will be able to make it from Houston.We contacted Steph and she won't be able to make to make it.
We haven't all been together since 1999.
I'm really looking forward to seeing my kids.

Today at 3PM Central time Mandy becomes Mrs. Alfred Ramirez. It is low key since it's her second marriage.
She and Alfred have come a long way since they first got together.They've been through some real struggles.
I've seen Alfred really grow under Mandy's love and seen Mandy blossom under his.
I wish them all the best.It isn't about the wedding day;it's about the marriage.
Congratulations,Mandy and Alfred.