July'05--Aug'05

After Branson we went to B&D's house for a week. Had a couple of get togethers with them and their friends--Ron, CJ, Justice (grandson), Lee & Dotty. Helped Bob fix a couple of things. Then on to Rantoul, Il to be there in case my brother, Tony, needed any help with his daughter's (Alllison) wedding. About the time we got there (thur) they had done more tests on John and decided to operate. Tony lent Kay his second car and she drove to Springfield to be there for the surgery. They ended up removing part of his lung. That evening he ended up back in the OR for additional surgery to correct something from the first one. Next day he started swelling up so bad they said he looked like the Michelin Man or Martin Short's character, Jeremy Glick. Kay came back to Rantoul for a day  and we went to Champaign to buy me a suit for the wedding. Since this wedding was a pretty formal deal and it was for my niece I said I would buy one.  AND THEN--they told me they expected me to wear it!!!!!  Kay went back to Springfield that evening. The following wed they operated on John again. I think this time it was for the swelling. Everything started to settle down for John so Kay came back to Rantoul.

Next was the wedding. On thur Tony had a bunch of people over to his house for a cookout. On fri was the rehearsal dinner, sat (23rd) was the wedding and sun was a brunch. This was going to be a busy weekend!

Thur--Relatives started coming in.  Cousin Pete & his wife, Carolyn, cousin Bob, our sister Jean and her family & my daughter, Sherry, who was staying in Bloomington with her mom and drove over for the events, all arrived on thur. The food was good & we enjoyed meeting the groom's family.

Fri--Due to extenuating circumstances which I won't go into here, we had lost track of our sister MaryAnn. I hadn't seen her since '66. MaryAnn & her husband Rusty made it in this afternoon. It was wonderful to see her again. She had grown into a beautiful woman and a very nice person. Last time I saw her was when I returned from Vietnam and she was only about 6 or 7 yrs old.

That evening, at the rehearsal dinner, cousin Pete's daughter, Lisa, arrived with her 2 beautiful daughters, Jessica & Sabrina. I hadn't seen Lisa since about '76 and had never met her daughters. Very polite young ladies. The rest of the evening there was spent getting to know everybody. Then some of us left and went to Julians. This was the old Coca-Cola factory in Champaign and is now a sports bar.

Sat--The wedding--When we arrived I had to endure all the wise remarks about me being in a suit. The wedding went great. Lots of people, string quartet, seven bridesmaids, etc. Then on to the country club for the reception. Ever since Allison was a little girl she had been telling Tony that she wanted her reception to be at the country club. And thats what she got. Beautiful setting. Small wedding cake for the ceremonial cutting and then everybody was served wedding cupcakes, which were delicious. Dinner was great, they had a band and the evening lasted until very late.

Sun--I really wasn't feeling like going to a brunch this morning. Must have eaten a bad potato chip or something. But, I went since it was for Allison. We didn't stay long. I had brought my camera but didn't get any pictures of the brunch. That damn chip!

Mon--We went to Bloomington, Il to visit Sherry, her mom Linda & Linda's husband Dave. Enjoyable visit and they have a great house.

When we were at B&D's house in Mo, the headlights on my truck quit working. Since I was towing it to Rantoul I decided to wait until then to fix them. I couldn't find what was wrong after checking the wiring, connections, etc. Made an appt at the dealers and when I got there the headlights started working again before it was even looked at. So went back to the campground. Next day they quit again. Took it to the dealer again and this time they told me it was a switch in the steering column that went bad. There went $600.00. A couple of other small things were also acting up and we got to thinking about trading up fro the '97. It was still a good looking truck but had 120,000 driving miles + 50,000 towing miles. I started checking the internet and discovered that we could buy a new '05 cheaper than a used '03/'04 due to the big discounts going on at the time. So, thanks to Tony's help & influence at the dealership where he has been buying his vehicles for many years, we now have an '05 GMC Sierra Crewcab pickup truck. And with decent payments. Before we bought the truck we checked with the driveshaft disconnect co. (for towing behind the MH) to make sure they were making the disconnects for the vehicle. Sure! Let us know if it is a one piece or 2 piece driveshaft. And gave us prices for each type.

Some high winds came up and I ended up with a broken awning spring on the slideout. I taped it up and will fix in Effingham.

With all that settled we headed to Effingham. Kay was going to drive her dad, John & Linda to Savannah to visit Mike & Clara. John still couldn't drive because of his surgery. I stayed in Effingham and dog watched. Or he watched me, I'm not sure.

After they get back we start getting the truck prepared for towing. The closest dealer was in Terre Haute, In, about 70 miles away. Drove over so they could measure the driveshaft and then order it. Got the measurements, called the driveshaft co and they said they don't make a unit for this model truck. Now wait a minute--you told us you did before we bought the truck! Now what? They also make an external pump for the transmission that would circulate tranny fluid while towing. It would be wired to the MH elec system. No choice--so we have an appt in sept to get this done. Sure hope it works as they claim. And they said it would not void the warranty.

Rest of August we spent helping John & Linda get some projects done around the house. Sprayed the deck with John's new pressure washer, then sealed it, washed down the garage & house, sealed the driveway. Plus little things that always are there to be done.

John started his first chemo treatment last week and he seemed to handle it well but it did make him tired.

Until next update--

Later                                      Pictures