The Year - 1967

Found this old class photo of me from high school in Pierre, SD in 1967. What a dorky hairdo!

Flying Control Line Model Airplanes

Since becoming involved with Burt, I have come to share a hobby that he has a real passion for . . . control line model airplanes, not to be confused with remote control model planes. These are an older form of model planes that are controlled with long lines and fly in a big circle. I started learning to fly a couple of years ago and darn, it's not as easy as it looks. I've crashed a new of trainers, as much as I hate to admit. Here is a photo of our Tucson group of fliers. I'm in the middle, just underneath the guy holding the orange and white plane. I'm holding the little trainer plane I built - building them is harder than it looks too.

Tim's lake cabin

Since I mentioned that I hurt my foot while visiting my Brother Tim and his wife, Karen at their lake cabin in South Dakota, I thought I'd share a couple fo photos of the lake and their cabin. I try to get there once a year (in the summer, of course) as it's such a beautiful relaxing sport and the hospitality is tops! The first photo is the view of the lake from their front deck and the next photo is of the cabin itself.

Friend's empathy . . . .

I received an email replyto my blog from Rebecca Paul-Fields (Becky), a friend of mine from many years ago. We were close friends in my Woming era and shared many wild times back then. Anyway, I wanted to share Becky's experience:



"Last April I had surgery on my big toe (they fused the joint & put a screw in) and I was on a little scooter for 5 weeks. I know what you mean about putting your foot down for the first time.....wow does that hurt. When I came home still groggy from surgery that day on my crutches (which I had not practiced on) I had to go to the bathroom. Somehow, the crutches went out from under me and I fell hitting my head on the toilet bowl, bouncing off of it and hitting the wall with my head. I didn't hurt my foot, but I did get a headache."



I had a similar experience before I got a scooter but when I fell I only hit the floor with my butt, and since there's plenty of padding on my butt, nothing got hurt. I had to laugh thinking of Becky falling and hitting her head on the toilet, as there were nights she would do that type of thing when we were doing the bar scene in WY . . . but the reason wasn't cuz of crutches . . . .

For a laugh, read fellow blogger . . .

'Random thought not by Jack Handy'. Colleen is pregnant with twins but manages to keep her keen sense of humor and it always lightens my day to read her comments.

The 6 weeks went by all too fast and now I'm back at work. The pins were taken out last week and whoa, that was a painful experience! A couple of the pins came out with some of my flesh still attached to them - and no pain killer! Ouchie! The surgeon said I could start walking on it and I have the black walking boot that you see in the photo. I tried just touching my foot to the ground and it was like dozens of knives tearing thru my foot. Guess it's going to take longer than we thought. I just keep taking pain pills and hope it gets better.

The never ending saga of my foot injury . . .

While on vacation at my brother, Tim's, lake cabin in Madison, SD, I fell off his bike. Seems like a pretty simple accident - maybe a skinned knee? Oh, not me! I managed to tear up tendons and ligaments and whatever in my left foot. I thought it would heal itself after a few days, but I was wrong. On August 28th, I had surgery and received three ugly, painful pins in the foot. Fortunately, my company, Pearson, offered Short Term Disability so I could be out of work, at full pay, for 6 weeks while it healed. I couldn't drive my car (standard transmission = clutch) and I have a raised area in my home which prevented me from going from the kitchen & living room area to the bedrooms and bathrooms with out going up a step, across a 'platform' and down another step. Not an easy feat with crutches (or my knee scooter). Life became much easier when I rented my knee scooter (see photo). Anyway, to uncomplicate my healing time, I moved in with my fiancé, Burt. His large, one-story, open home in Tucson was the perfect place for my recovery and Burt was the perfect care-giver.