Surgery went well

For those following and not knowing...

Robert's dad had back surgery yesterday (10/30). We knew about it for a while, but just weren't sure how it was going to go. As of last night, he came out of the surgery well, and is still in the hospital. He's supposed to come home Sunday, (11/2).

It started with numerous back problems over the years, but it finally resulted in him having some of his vertebrae (lumbar) fused together. He had a degenerating disk and a bulging disk, which were pressing on some nerves causing problems thoughout his legs. To go with that, they discovered that he also had a pin hole in the spinal column, that was leaking spinal fluid. This could have come from many of the previous treatments, or just from the damage from the disk. Nobody knows. For now, everything is fixed. We just hope it stays that way.

From the surgeon, they placed metal rods horizontally through his vertebrae, then two (one on either side of the spinal column) vertical rods intersecting to clamp everything in place. In theory, this will help keep the disks from moving around, free up the pinched nerve, and get him back on his feet, again. The coolest thing is that he gets a note from the hospital explaining the occurance of him tripping a metal detectors at airports or courthouses. It's all titanium, but "just in case". Take that TSA!

The downside is that he will be in a brace for a good while (approx 3mo), will have a weight limit to lift, and currently is confined to laying down. He cannot rise more that 30* above the horizon. Try eating something while laying down....it's tough.

For those that said prayers for him, thank you. For those wishing to see him, let us know and we'll direct you to him. Again, thank you everyone.

One more day....

Woohoo!! One more day till Robert is home. Too bad it is only for a few days. I have sooo much stuff at the house to get done though. I decided to do a few home improvements while Robert has been in Iowa, and I'm not so sure I'll get them all done by the time he gets home. I'll have to update after he gets here because I haven't really told him what I've been doing :).

Rough Weather & First Snow

Today had some very interesting weather. Several of the proposed plans were cancelled due to the weather too.

First, the state of Iowa was under a high wind warning. Sustained winds were 25-30mph with gusts reaching 50-60mph. Street crews came out and removed some traffic signs, some traffic signs were blown over, and at most doorways, corn husks were piled about 3ft high.

Speaking of corn husks, on the way to lunch, I found some husks stuck in the rims of my tires.
After the high winds, I looked out the window and noticed the winds wasn't the only thing. It was snowing. Yep. The first snow up here. Of course it wasn't sticking, but it was blowing sideways due to the high winds. The temps were in the low 40*'s and with the wind, the wind chill was right at 30*. Not cold enough to stick, but cold enough to snow.

Looking out the hotel window. It was just as grey, but there was plenty of snow coming down.

Right behind that red line is the interstate (I-35). The only problem is that you can't see it from the snow. Sadly, it's only about 250yrds away from the hotel.

Due to the high winds coming through, the power was actually interrupted at the hotel for roughly 4-4.5hrs. Several blocks from the interstate to the west, the power was out and the temperatures were dropping. The hotel was actually delivering extra blankets and flashlights to the rooms, preparing for the night.

Now, at 1700, it's snowing again. The bad part is that the temps are now 34* with the chill making it 20*. The winds are sustained at 31mph with gust at 44mph. Tonight's low is 29*. That's cold.

I'm just hoping it'll be a little warmer when I come home for my "vacation".

I hit 100 miles

That's right. 100miles since Sept 1. Not bad.

It just keeps falling

Gas Prices that is. We've determined that it's safer to wait until the evenings to buy, just because the sign changes almost every day now.
It's hard to read it in the photo, but the $2.31 is for Super Unleaded. Surprisingly, that is the cheapest blend available. The less ethenol, the more expensive.

I'm getting spoiled

The tough part about being in Iowa....golf every Sunday. We've found a local course that has decided to help us out with a deal and only charges $20 for all day golf with cart and clubs. We figured with that price, why not. We had the luxury of playing today, so I figured, while fall was in the air, I'd share some with everyone. Here's hole 1 par 4.
On the backside of the course, the trees were really in full color and the course couldn't look much better. Granted, it's not a Robert Trent, but it's still pretty nice. Hole 4, par 3.
We were playing to beat the night and cold. By the time we were on hole 8, it was just about too dark to be playing. Same hole 4.

The worst part about the golfing is that I don't see myself being able to play every weekend. Guess I need to enjoy it while I can!

Where have you been?

Where have you been in the US? Amazing at where I haven't been, more so than where I have been.

Where I've been

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Sadly, I still have lots more places to visit before I cover them all.

So, what states have you visited? And airport changes don't count.

It's getting cold

Yesterday :
High - 56*, Low - 28*, Mostly Sunny

Today:
High - 54*, Low - 32* Cloudy, 20% precipitation

It's getting cold. Real Cold.

Sharing some photos...

The Clear Lake Gardens are just a mile or so down the road, so I've been trying to take some photos and see what I can find. Here's what I've found...
alpha, 50mm, +6, f/10, 1/200

alpha, 50mm, +2, f/16, 1/80
alpha, 50mm, +2, f/8, 1/200

The weather has been nice to get out and take some photos, and hopefully it will stay that way!

Signs don't last

Apparently, road signs don't last too long. Especially the "No Hunting" signs. Rubber tires come in quite handy for that case. It's not uncommon to see these throughout the backwoods of Iowa.

Soybean Farming

As I went out to meet an applicant and take some photos for our files, I found that the farmers were out gathering the soybeans, so I shot some pictures to share.

Remember the combines? Well this one is fitted with a soybean blade. The blade on the front rapidly spins, pulling the soybeans from the field. On the bottom is a series of teeth that seperate the pods from the plant itself. Then it gets shaken, jarred, and vibrated around to try to seperate the individual bean from the pod.
In this case, the hopper was full. The driver lifts the blades, and heads to the storage hopper at the end of the field. As the beans pile up out of the top of the combine hopper, the onboard computers tell him when he's full and when to unload. Notice the unloading arm coming out.
This particular farmer has two hoppers at the end of his field. At some point, when these hoppers fill up, he'll hook his truck or tractor up and haul them off to the storage plant, silos, or some other distributor.
Seeing that the first field hopper is full, he's using the second. And the beans go flowing from the combine to the hopper.
And from the front. I'm still wondering what the farmer was thinking when he saw someone get out of the car on the side of a dirt road, taking photos...
Once the farmer empties the combine, he goes right back to cutting. Basically, it's a cut, dump, cut cycle, and some of these guys are out there all day.

Most of the soybeans have been gathered as of the weekend. These guys have been going 12-15 hrs days for the last two weeks. Now, they just need to wait a little longer, trade the cutting blades out for corn, then repeat the whole process. The corn just needs a little bit longer to dry and they'll start soon.

Amanda's Birthday Wish

This morning my mom asked Amanda what she wanted to do today because it is her birthday, and Amanda promptly replied that she wanted to visit the pumpkin patch. This afternoon, we decided to try the pumpkin patch in Clanton. It was kind of empty since all the kids were in school, but we had a good time. It was actually a pretty nice place with lots of inflatable toys, pony rides and cotton candy vendors. There were also a variety of pumpkins around the gift shop....some were huge and some were green :).




Since the pumpkin patch is one of Amanda's favorite things to do, she was pretty anxious to share her excitement with Mooney.

We all hopped on the hay ride to get out to the actual pumpkin patch. Because it is early in the season for the pumpkin patch, we had a pretty good selection of pumpkins. We couldn't decide which ones we wanted to take home because they were all so perfectly round.

After finally deciding on which pumpkins to take home, we hopped back on the hayride to get back to the car.

Amanda picked up a friend along the way in the pumpkin patch.

On our way out, we thought about trading one of our pumpkins for one of their GIANT pumpkins......but we wouldn't have been able to carry it. And I'm not so sure I'd want to clean one of those out to carve it :). Well...we had a great afternoon, but I wish Robert could have shared the day with us. Amanda's birthday wish was granted.

Just one of those days

Ever have those days, where it seems nothing really goes right? Yea, I thought so.

1. I wake up this morning at 0630 to go running. I figured I would have plenty of time to get my 10miles in, eat and be ready for my noon tee time. Well, the thunderstorms and rain decided to disrupt those plans. So, I slept a little longer, got ready, went to breakfast, and guess what? The skies were clearing up and it was turning nice for a good run. Too bad I was at breakfast, right?

2. I had nothing better to do while waiting for the tee time, so I did some work (not really supposed to work on Sundays though). That's when I found a few mistakes on a couple of my reports, that will need to be corrected before I turn them in. Great. Now that's going to bother me all day while playing golf.

3. I developed one heck of a headache. It merely laughed at the Excedrin.

4. I make it to the golf course, only to realize that I'm having horrible luck swinging my driver (the rental). Really bad luck. If I wasn't slicing it, I was topping it. If I wasn't topping it, I wasn't getting distance out of it. Not good. I then went to driving with my 3wood, and guess what? Yea, I wasn't swinging that one very good either. By the 4th hole, I gave up and started swinging irons off the tee box. Go ahead and add 4shots to every hole! I shot 25over par!

5. After 18holes, the weather finally cooperated for a run. I change and decide to go for my long run. Turns out, it wasn't much of a long run. About 2mi in, the battery died in my mp3 player. About 3.5mi in, the cramp in my left leg hadn't loosed up. At 4mi in, my right hip flared up and stopped me dead in my tracks. I quit running and walked home. Now, I'm sore.

6. I didn't realize I was out of yogurts in the fridge. I refused to buy an overpriced yogurt from downstairs, so I'm doing without.

Now, I'm going to veg out, watch a tv show and go to bed! Hopefully things will improve tomorrow.

My hotel likes me

I guess when you become a "long term" guest in a hotel, the staff gets to know you pretty well. Today, one of the nice hotel staff members knocked on the door to bring me a gift! Apparently, the long term guests received a littel gift box filled w/ all sorts of goodies, chocolate, crackers, chips, can koozies, pens, a notepad, and a thank you card. How cool!

Pretty neat how a little gift box like that can make your day.... now, if it's only warm up just a little for my evening run, I'd be set!

Two Years

Hey you,
Just thought I'd tell you Happy Two Year Anniversary! Wish I were there in person to share it with you too.

It's been a great two years so far and I'm looking forward to many more!

Love,

Your Husband