New bed...

Jerry, my neighbor from San Jose, came by Saturday and we had a really nice visit. I was just getting ready to go to bed so he just went in the living room and watched basketball until I was ready. We didn’t get to visit very long but he’s going to try to come back soon, I really miss him and his girl Liz.

When I went to buy this house about two years ago it said on my credit report that I cosigned for a van so I almost did not get this place. My caregiver that had worked for me for eight years introduced me to her sister who worked for me for about a year. Her sister called me up one day and asked me if I would do a verification of employment and of course I said I would, I found out later that I had cosigned for her new van and her sister, who had worked for me all those years, signed for me. I put her on my accounts so she could help me do the payroll checks.

Before I moved to Santa Cruz I had a Roomba irobot, one of those little round vacuum cleaners that maneuvers around the floor picking up dirt and dog hair. For some reason when I moved over here it quit working and nobody wanted to fix it so I ended up getting rid of it and getting a new one. I got it all set up in the first day that we tried it it went missing. I noticed that the front door was open, somebody accidentally hit the automatic door opener, so my first thought was that it went outside and was cruising around the neighborhood... I don’t think that it could get too far from the dock but you never know. After searching the neighborhood we found it in the spare bedroom bathroom, apparently it went into the bathroom and close the door on itself.

I found a new hospital bed on Craig’s list and the guy delivered it yesterday. I know that I’m really going to like it but I always have a problem with new equipment, as uncomfortable as my old bed is I found myself missing it a little bit last night. It’s a lot narrower, my new bed is 84” x 35” and my old bed is the same length but about twice the width. Now I just need to find a couple of big guys to get my old bed out of my room, it will make my room look a lot smaller and it has a bunch of cool features.

Next Sunday my mum and my aunt are going to take off for their trip, they will be gone for approximately 2 weeks. They are going to visit their aunts and get them together for a little family reunion. They’re really nervous about taking off but I know that they will have a really good time and for all we know it might be the last time everybody can get together so I’m sure that it will be bittersweet.

A beautiful day for a cruise through the lagoon...

Whenever I see something on TV that happened a while back I always wonder if I could pick a year and go back, and know what I know now, what year when I go back to. Most of the time I think that it would be before my injury but not all the time. I really do have a great life right now and I’m not sure that I would have if I hadn’t broken my neck and my ex didn’t ask me to leave.

Last Wednesday I went to go pick up my brace from Dominican. I told him all I wanted was a modest brace to help me set up in my chair straight... apparently he wasn’t listening. I came back home with this big plastic dome on either side of my body that restricted me from doing EVERYTHING. I’m supposed to go back next Friday to cut some of it away so it’s more comfortable and he’s going to look at my leg braces and see if he can come up with something better for that, my braces are about six years old and I’m sure that they have something new and improved.

I love cruising around Santa Cruz in the morning but I haven’t for a few days, I’m going to try to make up for it today. The weather is cooling down and even though the sun is out it’s still really windy and the wind seems to go right down to my bones.

Heather came by day before yesterday and set me up for a couple of days. She made chicken, she always gets dark meat because that is my favorite, with enchilada sauce and bell peppers, quinoa that she squirted orange into... one of my new favorites. She found his teriyaki marinaded skirt steak that is also one of my new favorites, it pretty much melts in your mouth. She also made some pasta with shrimp and Langastino scampi, another one of her awesome creations.

Today Heather, Linda and I took Yoda over to the lagoon and cruised around. I always get a little nervous when we go over the part of the boardwalk that is over the water because it’s on pontoons and it squeaks and wobbles a lot but it sure is a beautiful stroll and I got Heather to take some pictures for me. Hopefully we will do that more often.

Greek Festival in downtown Santa Cruz...

Yesterday my uncle was busy so I decided to take a trip down to natural Bridges Beach on Seacliff Drive. It's the first time that I have gone down that far and it was such a beautiful trip. I notice that a lot of people stop along the beach to stare at the view and smoke marijuana, I practically get a contact high just driving by.

I have been taking care of the neighbors dog while they're having their house remodeled. His name is Yoda and he is a golden lab. He is a very smart dog but I'm thinking that nobody worked with him a lot. Unfortunately when I go for a cruise I cannot take him with me because he freaks out when he sees the other animals, both him and I would LOVE to cruise around Santa Cruz together.

My sister-in-law and her son David are supposed to come by today to spend the night and enjoy the peace and quiet from their busy teenage home.

My cousin's wife has her family visiting from out of town so we are all going to get together and have dinner at my uncle's house, I have only met him once at the wedding will be really nice to see them again.

Today is the Greek Festival in downtown Santa Cruz and I was going to wait for somebody to show up but I think I'm just going to cruise down there before it gets too warm. There's an artichoke festival in Castroville and that is really where I would like to be, I LOVE artichokes.

Cruising around the wharf...

My uncle and I have been cruising, him on his bike and me in my chair, to the wharf and yesterday we stopped at Gildas for some clam chowder. I had an appointment with Claudia to get my hair cut, manicure, pedicure and wax. After that I cruised down to the wharf again to check out all of the new baby seals, there must have been about 50 of them all cuddled up on the dock below the wharf. I heard the waitress at Gildas tell one of the tourists and I didn't have time to check it out before my appointment.

Today I cruised around the boardwalk and then the wharf. My uncle had an appointment and I'm always afraid if I get out of the routine I will stop going, it is such a beautiful ride I could never get tired of it.

It's been a while...

It has been such a long time since I have written anything I don't even know where to start. it has been really busy around here with baby showers, birthday parties, Easter, Mother's Day... it is so cool to have my new house and friends and family visiting a lot. A couple of weekends ago was my nephews 18th birthday so he wanted to bring about eight of his friends here to hang out in Santa Cruz and everybody had such a good time.

Last night Heather made eggplant, zucchini and artichoke heart Parmesan, it was awesome. She also made chicken enchiladas with her homemade enchilada sauce. Tonight she made some kind of Hawaiian fish with a coconut cream sauce, I did not want to stop eating it. Her cooking just seems to get better all the time.

My cousin Rich had his new baby and she is gorgeous. They named her Melia Kathryn after his mom. I got to go over and see their baby on the way home, everybody looked exhausted.