A Busy Couple Of Days

I don't know how it happens but you can get pretty busy in a day of retirement and before you know it, it's already past 6pm and dinner isn't ready. I didn't have a lot planned for Monday except ride my bike, walk the hounds and do some reading. That all changed after my first phone call to Sierra Vista Medical Group billing department. Like all other companies I wasn't talking to anyone that was working in Arizona, let alone in the town my doctor is located. This time it was a girl in Colorado. I had her confused in no time.  LOL

She promised to make the adjustment to my balance due for a payment I had proof I made November 21st but she did not see it anywhere on my account. Yeah, I know holidays get in the way of work but come on ... 11 days??? She also told me she would send me a confirmation of her adjustment so I asked "how, in what manner are you going to send it?" ... the word "manner" threw her off, she didn't answer so to make it easy for her I suggested EMAIL !!!! What a concept. When she did NOT ask for my email address I gave it to her because I'm such a nice guy after 45 minutes of confusion on the phone just after 8:30am. See where I'm going with this?  HaHa ... thought so.

I decided I'd give her a chance to process all that she was going to do ... a simple posting of my payment 11 days prior making the balance due ZERO. I had another cup of coffee to calm down, discussed philosophy with Stella as she stared back at me ... then called again. I knew I'd get another billing trained professional that could tell me if it was posted on my account or not. After all it is 2020 and most financial transactions can post in a fraction of a second as long as you are doing your job.

Why did it not surprise me that he didn't see anything that I told him about. Nor did I receive an email confirmation. The pieces to this puzzle was coming together fast and the final piece was to get some kind of warm clothes on, get in my car and head out to the local doctor's office so they could fix what their billing department could not. I knew the process and so did they ... you know how?

I'VE HAD TO DO THIS ONCE PER MONTH EVERY MONTHY SINCE MY SURGERY AND FIRST BILL.

Let's just say things turned out the way they should with some guidance from yours truly. I felt like I was working a job again, enough to know that I don't want to work any job again.  LOL

The best thing to relieve stress in my case is to ride a bicycle. It was a perfect time when I got back, almost 60°, sunny and very little wind. You can read about that ride if you want on my bicycle blog located on the sidebar.

I knew by the time I got back a few hours later, FedEx would have delivered my rock rails ordered for the 2007 FJ Cruiser. I am slowly building this to what I had in 2014, my first FJ Cruiser.

When the sunshine disappeared today, Stella was somewhat irritated. You can see she is upset and can't find a spot to lay done to sleep. She likes to sunbath not sleep on rocks in the shade.

Heidi may not look like it in this picture but the past week I have not seen as much energy from her in years as I have the last 4-5 days. She barks, sprints around the house faster than any camera can catch her, sleeps all through the night without waking me up and eats her kibble in half the time it takes Stella to finish.  She is also going on every morning walk that Stella and I take. She has walked more here in her new home than she did in years back in 'the tropics'.

The rock rails had arrived when I got home. They are in the boxes on the right. Shelving on the left is still waiting for my friend to come and get them. He told me again last week he would be over and wanted them for sure ... it's been two months now.

I had this vision I could do this job myself. 6 bolts on each side, can't be that hard. I didn't realize how heavy that rail was and with the brackets already welded to the rails, made the job even harder. Especially when I am laying on my back doing a bench press on the rail and trying to get it up and over one of the bolts so it can slide down in place. My hip was screaming louder than I was, although it was not cussing, like I was. It did not take long to decide to load everything up in the cargo area and call Toyota for an appointment to install them.

It took them a little under an hour to install them and pull the FJ around to be picked up. Another good thing about having them do it, as they applied the brakes I noticed I had a left brake light out. So while I paid the bill for installing the rock rails, they replaced the light bulb at no charge.

Right before I bought this, the previous owner bought and installed brand new stock Toyota wheels that come with the FJ. They look great but I prefer black wheels like my first Voodoo Blue had. I'll sleep on that question a few nights and see what kind of vibes I get.

This FJ is in awful good shape for a 2007 and only 97,xxx miles on it. If I was told I could only have two cars, I'd keep this FJ and my Mini Cooper S ... the same combo I had a few years ago.

Here's a picture of that first FJ I had ... rock rails, same color with black wheels.

So what happened today ... besides the appointment to Toyota, I was too busy for grocery shopping so I ordered online and they will be here between 5pm-6pm and it's 4:49pm as I type this. The biggest thing was my 3 month followup with the surgeon this morning. Again the hip and femur look fantastic, he is thrilled I am back to riding my bike like I was before my crash. I should feel completely normal in 8 months and he finished by telling me to come back and see him a year from now.  December 3rd, 2020.

Fry's is on the way ... that's all for tonight.

A Busy Monday

This is their pose asking me to serve them breakfast. Today turned out to be a really busy day. I got a couple of walks in, and have my 6 week followup appointment tomorrow. I am anxious to hear what he tells me. I am at a loss for words tonight, running late and in the middle of cooking dinner. So with that I am just going to leave you with a few photos.

The blanket was flat when we turned out the lights on Sunday night.  :)

Another good day in the Wild West.

Beautiful Day Today

After a few days of bad weather only starting in the early afternoon, the rain finally showed up at the house last night with strong winds. I watched a little of it, it wasn't anything major compared to what I saw this past spring in Indiana. With that rain, the temps dropped from 94° to 62° just like that. It wasn't even 7pm yet and the cool breeze felt fantastic. Stella is getting use to the loud thunder and only looks at it to analyze instead of whine.

The mornings were the typical sky show and great weather but if I did not get home from my morning bike ride by 10am, it was already up to 90°. A couple of mornings I didn't get back before then. After the snake by the garage door last week I aways look at the base of the garage door now when I pull in with the car or the bicycle. These storms would show up around between 1pm-2pm, after bright sunny skies just a few hours earlier.

No hiking this week. There were to days this week where I was set to go but a final check on the weather radar and looking outside cancelled them. These storms were moving in fast and covered all of the mountains in any direction. I've seen photos on Facebook of flooded streets in Bisbee, Douglas and Benson.

For those that are into bike riding, I added my bike blog on the side bar. I had been keeping a training journal on my computer but once again decided a blog format was better at retrieving past information instead of looking through Apple Pages for information I may want a year from now. Plus there might be something I write about that will help someone over 65 years old wanting to get back into cycling or just starting.

I have never felt better and rode 5 days this week with plans of getting my 6th day of riding in tomorrow on a week ending easy ride. Plus my Strava app uploads my rides automatically on the new blog on the left side. You can click the map for a more detailed view, along with a scale below the map, showing how much I rode 'up and down.

This morning's sunrise was fantastic. Stella and I were on the walk barely after sunrise and it was a little dark. Cold at 64° but great weather.

The moon was still there when we got back ... it was time for coffee and 32 miles of bike riding.

With the cooler temps Heidi spent more time than she ever had since moving, exploring the backyard. With the cooler temps those stones are not too hot to walk on like they were before this morning.

For the first time that I can remember she sat on the patio while we were all outside enjoying mid-day sunshine.

Besides her walk, this is all Stella did today. All these photos were taken within 10 minutes ... that's all it took for her to decide it was too hot to sunbath any longer. Time to head inside and enjoy the AC. The temp had just crawled above 80°.

Her tongue hanging out of her mouth means she needs or wants air conditioning.

College Football 2019 has started today with only two games that I am interested in watching. With all the things to do outside my days of watching 13 straight hours of college football on Saturdays like in past years are over ... you've heard it here first. I'll watch only a few different teams and will put a lot of them on DVD to watch later when I am not outside enjoying the day. IF the fall weather is like today ... I'll never be home.  LOL

My neighbor brought over a baby rat snake he found in his garage ... so that vent in the lower garage wall for ventilation will be their entry way.  One thing strange I have noticed, on two separate occasions I have had birds banging their beaks on my windows as if they are trying to get inside. They are very loud and almost as active as a woodpecker. Once I tapped the window or pulled the blinds back, they flew away.

I continue to lose weight daily and feeling stronger riding the bike. Yet, the best new thing may be the massage bar and massage roller I bought a week or so ago. That takes away a lot of after riding pain, moves the bad stuff out of the muscles. All good stuff. Is it a coincidence that I have slept every night since using the bar and roller, through the night and do not get up?

A great Saturday here in the Wild West.