Busy Week At The Plantation

I don’t know about all full-timers, but we tend to wait until we know we’re going to be stable for a month or more before we make a bunch of appointments like dentist, eye, exams, dogs’ teeth cleaning, etc.  This was especially true for us this year as we were busy and traveling more than usual over the summer and early fall.

As a result, I’ve been getting things scheduled left and right, and this week has been THE week to get many  of these items accomplished.

I made appointments for myself at a local dentist and hearing specialist this week.  The dentist was good news, even though it’s been almost 2 years since I had my teeth cleaned, I’m doing fine and my teeth are O.K.  The hearing test was a different story.  I thought people were really starting to mumble and speak softer these days, but Jim finally convinced me to get a hearing consult.  As it turned out, I really need some hearing assistance.  I’m now getting used to wearing digital hearing aids.  Big adjustment!  I’ll go back and see the technician every week for awhile to have programming adjustments made as I get used to these things.  My only previous experience or knowledge of hearing aids was my grandmother.  She had a big, clunky-looking device with a big wire that hung from her ear to the battery piece which disappeared somewhere down the bodice of her dress.  I remember it making a horrible squealing noise sometimes, and I’m not sure it helped her hear any better.

Times sure have changed! My devices are tiny little things that sit behind my ears, out of sight. There are itty-bitty pieces that sit in my ears with small, clear wires to connect them to the behind-the-ear piece.  They are not noticeable at all, unless you really look hard for them. 

The other major event for this week was getting Mr. BoJangles checked out to be sure he could be put under anesthesia for teeth cleaning and to get that scheduled for both dogs.  Darrell & Judy recommended a local veterinarian, Julie Cleverdon.  I took Mr. BJ to her for a good check-up and she was very thorough.  I was very impressed by her attitude and attention.  The old boy checked out fine and we made the appointment for the teeth cleaning today.  When we picked them up, she came out and talked to us about her findings.  All went well with Jasmine, but Mr. BJ had some tumors in his mouth.  She asked if we wanted her to send them in for biopsy, which we did.  We’ll get the results from that in a few weeks.  We were very pleased with the whole experience with Julie and her office staff.  One interesting resident in her office is a very small fawn she rescued recently.  It wanders around the office like one of the cats or dogs that are also part of the scene there.  I asked what will happen with she grows up, and found that she’ll be released near the Cleverdon farm which is just down the road from the plantation.

I still need to have my regular blood tests done, and my eyes checked, which I have scheduled for the first part of December.

Meanwhile, I’ve been enjoying my regular activities this week, line dancing and water aerobics, and a few walks around the Plantation.  I went to Weight Watchers last Saturday morning over in Daphne, not sure if I want to make that drive every week.

This afternoon we took a drive while we waited for the dogs to be ready, and ended up, where else, the shore:

There are a lot of Great Blue Herons to be found in this area:

And we got to enjoy a fly-over by the Navy (we think these are the Blue Angels)

In the technology department of our household, we’ve been experiencing more and more trouble with our Cradlepoint router and Verizon air card.  The speed and reliability of our connection has been unpredictable at best and non-existent at worst.  Finally, I called the 3gstore people but didn’t make any decision about getting a new router.  We stopped in at the local Verizon store one day and  I finally gave in and got a MiFi 4G router.  This caused us to give up our unlimited data plan with Verizon, but since we’ve never gone over 5 gigs usage in our entire history of having an air card, I agreed to try it.  What a difference it’s made!  We have great speed and reliability now.  I check our usage frequently, and so far, so good, we are right in line with our usual amount of data use.  Oh, and our bill has gone down $10 a month with this plan. 

Life is great!  (And yes, I can hear you now!)