Pleasant Changes at The Gallery

Wow!   We can hardly believe it's been nearly 10 years in our condo here in North Bethesda.

 

Time for replacing the carpet in all 16 floors of the common areas.  How do you like our new look?  I'm a bit concerned that the color is too light, perhaps prone to show dirt?  I guess time will tell.   I think it looks nice though. 

 

 

Here is the old look: 

 

 

The old carpet had green and gold colors. 

Life in the suburbs

My next health challenge turns out to be dental related. 

One of the crown in my teeth actually broke a couple weeks ago.  The porcelain tooth broke off, or at least one corner of the tooth is gone, presumable I swallowed it, since we couldn't find it in my food.  

Ewwww. 

Dentist declined to fix this.  Says it doesn't need fixed.  What if more breaks off?   Oh well, she shrugged. 

She made this crown, it lasted about a year.   

Now, she says I need a bite guard.  This will protect my dental work and teeth from the pressure of grinding my teeth at night.   OK.    I agree, so she makes one.  It's a lot more than I had expected.  It's like wearing a retainer every night.  Denture cup with Efferdent by my pretty bathroom sink.  Super sad. 

It has wires and is ugly.  

::heavy sigh::   I already have to sleep with a cPap machine and mask.  Now this too.   

I'm pretty much hating this.  

2014 Glacier National Park

This wonderful view from our room is a main reason I wanted to return to GNP.  

I absolutely love this view of Lake McDonald.  There is something lovely, peaceful, and inspiring about this place.  Every single day we were there, the view was different.  This was my favorite one.  

It does the heart good to keep in mind such natural beautiful places exist. I can't get enough of it. 

This panoramic shot was an experiment with my iPhone.  Turned out pretty good I think. 

The Village Inn is really about a 1950's vintage motel.  We requested a first floor room, booked at least a year in advance.  The room had two queen beds, a bath, and full kitchen.  Very clean.  Lots of warm wood paneling.  Front door to the lake, parking in back, and a back door.  Wonderful lodging. 

No TV, very limited WiFi, just in the front office. So restful.  

2014 Yellowstone

We both really highly recommend seeing Yellowstone with a naturalist as your guide.  It was amazing!  

That's Ed and I in the first row of passengers in the antique yellow bus.  This is in the Lamar valley, in north Yellowstone.  Beautiful area. 

The tour was only 9 people, which gave us great flexibility.  Ages ranged from about 17 to 70+.

There were at least two PhDs among us, so it was a pretty erudite group.   What a nice group of people.  We spent a week in pretty close proximity, and there wasn't a jerk in the bunch.  The tour included transportation, some meals, the tour guide, and lodging at all the big lodges.  

We had 2 nights at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, 2 at Old Faithful Snow Lodge, and 2 at Lake Yellowstone Cabins.   We had dinner on my 62nd birthday at Old Faithful Inn.  

Traveling with Sleep Apnea

My problems with feeling exhausted so much of the time have led me to a diagnosis of sleep apnea.

This requires treatment with positive airway pressure, to help me keep my airway open when I sleep.  Hence the little new machine on my nightstand.  And the super ego enhancing lovely sleep gear.

However, It works.
So I continue to do this. 

Even when it means I have to pack this 7lb. machine and needed accessories when I travel, either to conferences or to national parks.  
4 star hotels or campgrounds, doesn't matter.



Heavy Sigh.

Life always Changes

We have so much to juggle in our lives!

Maybe if we tilt our head and look for a different perspective, it'll help?

We can certainly try to make sense of things anyway. 

MLA 2014 in Chicago

The paperweight exhibit in the lower level of the Art Institute of Chicago was a real treat.  This is a American made piece I found fascinating.  

This was my last MLA conference, after more than 20 years of these meetings.  I will miss the opportunities it has provided to see much beauty, such as these pieces.  

I will miss the people too!

Spring 2014

Only 53 more days until our National Parks trip out west!

I haven't blogged for a while, but I want to keep in touch with you, so here we go.   It has been a very difficult year so far.  You all know some of the difficult things we are coping with, so I won't belabor the challenges we are facing.  

I am focusing on the happiness we have thinking about re-visiting Yellowstone, the Tetons and Glacier.  We loved those places, but felt we had a lot more to see and do there.  I'll actaully stay in Old Faithful Inn this time.  We had stayed in Jackson on a previous trip.  We plan to ride the antique buses in Yellowstone, as we enjoyed so much the leisurely bus tour in Glacier. It will be about a 2 week trip.  We'll fly into Spokane and rent an SUV to drive through Idaho and into the north part of Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, near Bozeman, Montana.  First week and weekend will focus on Yellowston and Tetons, but we will drive to Glacier on Monday and stay there till Friday when we'll drive back to Spokane to fly home.  We look forward to this view - see the photo above.  Our little old motel has this view!!  Awesome, we will rest and recover from our busy week, by taking in this serenity.  

Things in Arizona are moving along, Amanda will soon have water in the new pool.  Joey has been on our version of medical lilbrarian's TV - he is a rock star!

These young folks are full of so much energy, strength and fun!  Thank goodness for them, I'd be a bore otherwise.  

We are grateful for November and December 2013, as we got to really enjoy family in a fun and stress free way.  I loved it!!   I wish we could have been able to see the larger family group, all our neices, 

nephews and the little ones too.  Its all a part of who we are and always will be.  

Our lives have meant we often lived in far-flung places, but have not lost our connections to family, where ever they live.  

I'm fighting that battle to decide exactly when to retire.  Ed says I'm driving myself crazy trying to pick the exact "right" time.  Perhaps I'm really driving him crazy.  It is just - so important.  I'm fearful we won't have enough money to be comfortable, but I kow we've both saved and prepared.  And we have long term care insurance.  !!