Fred's Minnesota Blog: November 2007

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Knee Surgery Update

What a Knee story.

Before Surgery

After Surgery

The surgery took a lot longer than the Surgeon expected, I remember waking up just about the time his next procedure was to start and saw him mopping the floor. I don't know if he was really mopping the floor or if I was having a hallucination. I was told that the surgery was to take about 25 minutes but the nurse told me it took twice that time. I have a torn ACL that I am too old to fix. I have arthritis and torn cartilage but am too young for a knee replacement. It felt very good today but now that the local anesthetics are wearing off it is really starting to hurt and stiffen up. I talked with the nurse and she was shocked that I had not started taking the pain meds. Live and learn is what I say. I will not take off the bandage till tomorrow. I check from time to time that my toes on that leg are not turning purple. If they did, I would take a picture of them for the blog. More Later.

# posted by Fred @ 4:01 PM 4 comments

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Thanksgiving in Los Angeles 2007

Off to California to see Fritz.

Fritz and Patricia's house in LA. It is in the 'Hills' of Mount Washington in a nice neighborhood. It is like living in a tree house. The stairs are an adventure in themselves.

Thanksgiving Dinner with Patricia's family and friends.

Walking the dog on the trails. The scenery was very nice.

The house work is never ending. I helped Fritz do some tile work in his bathroom. It has not been that long since I was trained myself, see http://fred-hemker.blogspot.com/2007/05/memorial-day-projects.html for me being trained in my bathroom project.

# posted by Fred @ 11:07 AM 1 comments

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Early Thanksgiving, 2007

This year I am going to Fritz's house for Thanksgiving so Kate and Gerardo and I will celebrate Thanksgiving early. This has become a regular event, I will be leaving on Tuesday for California and be home on Saturday morning. this year will be the first time I see Fritz and Patricia's new house. It should be an adventure.

Early Thanksgiving Dinner

Making the pies, one Mincemeat and the other Pecan.

Cooking dinner

This is one of the three Acorn Squash I got from my garden this year.

Relaxing before dinner.

Eating dinner

# posted by Fred @ 6:25 AM 2 comments

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Astro Adventure Part Four

The steering wheel came loose on the Astro, again . To fix it this time I bought some socket head cap screws at the hardware store to replace the standard Torx heads. As they say the third time is the charm.

Taking it apart!! Note... for those who wonder, you can see the new window regulators. I have had some comments recently about recycling pictures, but not this time.

The difference between the standard screws and the socket head cap screws. I could get the socket heads much tighter than the Torx. The hardware store had a nice collection of socket heads, all Grade 8.

Locktite and steering head.

Two other views.

Now what did I do with those screws?

Back together, again.

# posted by Fred @ 4:15 PM 2 comments

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Slow week for blogging.

The cat, Kasin, is taking over the house.

The "stupid" cat thinks he is in charge. He does what he wants and dares me to say anything. Maybe he isn't that stupid after all.

Sleeping on the furniture, what is next?

African Violet in the entry way.

# posted by Fred @ 8:53 AM 3 comments

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

I Love E-bay.

I ordered a distributor from e-bay for the Honda on Friday, it was on my porch when I got home from work on Monday. The cost of distributor in Minneapolis was $180 plus tax. Ordered from e-bay it was $50.99 including delivery.