Life on the road

Oh, Please, Make It Stop!!!!!

At the risk of permanently labeling myself as the kid on the playground who has cooties, I have to say it again–I am itching. And I know if I ever meet any of y’all in person, you won’t want to hug me or shake hands. I’ll understand. I know it can be considered TMI, and that I have talked about it here, and here, but this is getting to be just plain ridiculous. I have been dealing with this for over a year now. I have been to three doctors, one of them twice, and I still have the problem with whatever it is. I have used every over the counter itch remedy known to wo-man, three different prescription medications, and even painted some areas with nail polish to try and make it stop. I’m seriously considering bathing in household ammonia just to see if that works.

The main reason I keep talking about itching is because I have found this to be very curious, that when I talk to other women my age face to face one one on one, almost every single one of them tells me, “Oh, yeah, I had something like that before. Well, then why haven’t I heard about it? Why is it, in 2010, still such a taboo subject that we don’t communicate about things that can make us itch. Why do each one of us still have to suffer in silence, scratching the night away, searching the internet for information when we don’t even have a clue where to start?? I know it is embarrassing, because I have been embarrassed. But I want answers. I want a remedy that will work, that will somehow, magically, cause me to stop itching.

I went to the pharmacy today and got a refill of the prescription ointment that was prescribed for me in Flagstaff. I talked for a bit with the pharmacist, who told me that the medication was most often prescribed to treat a fungal infection. She suggested that I take off all my clothes and walk around in the buff some to “air it out”. So, if you come to visit, it’ll take me a minute to open the door, okay?

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Payne Lake In Winter

Karen · 2 Comments

Just some photos for your viewing pleasure:

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Ah, The Perks Of Volunteering!

Karen · 5 Comments

This is our second season volunteering at Payne Lake Campground. Payne Lake is in the Talledega National Forest, south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We liked it so much last year that we decided to come back. The forest service really knows how to make us volunteers feel welcome and appreciated!

our site at payne lake — Our campsite at Payne Lake

Our duties here include staffing the entrance station on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are two camphost spots, one on each side of the lake, so we agreed with the other couple that we would staff the booth all day every other weekend. During the week, we drive around the campground a couple of times a day, doing the site checks, and checking the bathrooms to make sure they are stocked with toilet paper, and that the heaters are working.

payne lake road — Payne Lake is gorgeous!

We also pick up litter and clean out the fire rings on the campsites. Theyask for a total of 32 hours a week of work. We don’t have to do anything that is really hard, and we don’t have to clean any bathrooms. It really is a good volunteer gig.

PC140002 — Me, Fabgrandpa, and Joe, the resource manager (our boss)

In exchange for the work that we do, we are given a full hook up campsite, propane, and satellite internet service. (Verizon Mi-fi also gets a good signal here) They have also put a washer and dryer and a small freezer in the maintenance shop on the property for us to use. AND, several times during the winter, someone comes by and puts venison in the freezer for us to eat. Last year, they gave us some very nice jackets with a “Forest Service Volunteer” patch on them. Then when it was time to leave last year, they had a cook out and gave us more presents!

PC140007 — Forest Service Christmas Luncheon

Today they had a Christmas luncheon at the work center. It was a very nice party with lots of food, and time to talk and get to know many of the forest service employees. They were all so nice!

Oh, and did I mention that they give us this nice truck to drive while we are on forest service business? Classy! There is a golf cart, too. Because we have business we need to take care of next winter in Georgia, we have already confirmed our volunteer job at a Georgia State Park. That means that Joe is looking for someone to replace us next winter. So, if anyone is interested in taking this spot, we’ll be leaving around April 10 to head back west for the summer. He needs someone during the summer, too.

Payne Lake Recreation Area has two campgrounds–one on the west side (which is the one we ae assigned to) and one on the east side. The West Side Campground has 18 campsites, 8 of which have electric and water, and 10 that have just water connections. The East Side Campground has 35 primitive sites. There is a day use area, a nature trail, a boat ramp, and a dump station. There aren’t many campers during the week, but on weekends during hunting season, it is full much of the time. You don’t take any money–the visitors fill out their own passes and drop the money in a pipe safe. We are here pretty much to prevent theft and vandalism in the area.

If you’d like more info, you can email me at fabgrandma @ gmail.com and I can send you Joe’s phone number and email address.

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I Think I Am ADD

Karen · 3 Comments

I have so many plans of things to do in my head and written down on paper in lists, but I just can’t get anything accomplished. I sit down to compose a letter, an email, or a blog post, but when I start to write, “A” becomes “AN” which becomes “AND” which becomes “ANDES” and then I think,” oooo, ANDIES CANDIES”, and then “ooooo, I like CANDY”, and then I get up and start looking through the pantry for whatever candy there might be in there. And then I think, “OH, I was supposed to be writing about that pantry challenge.” Crap.

I wake up with so many ideas running through my head that I will not ever possibly have time for. Someone told me that all of this distraction is only a part of getting older, but I have been this way for most of my life, which explains why I never did well in school. I used to keep a notebook and pen on my bedside table, so I could write things down when I woke up in the middle of the night. That only encouraged me to plan more stuff. I still wake up in the night with ideas, but I refuse to write them down anymore, because it only makes me crazy that I can’t do all the things I think of.

All of the above is one of the reasons I have been a little quiet here. I have been working on some “ideas”, not necessarily putting them into words yet. One of those ideas is an expansion of my little place here in the internetz. If you think of FabGrandma.com as a physical space, then it started out as a one room cabin. Last winter, I moved into a two room cabin, and now I am adding two more rooms. I have to have a place to put all these ideas I have, and it is taking me a while to get them all sorted out and filed away.

One of the first things you might notice is that I have updated the header up there at the top, making it a little easier to read and a little bit nicer, I think. I have sorted out the menu links a little better, and made a page where I can show you pictures of my grandchildren. The two new room, or pages, are “Shopping With FabGrandma” and “FabGrandma’s Gluten Free News”. Neither one of those pages has much on them yet, but like I said, the ideas are about to make my head pop open. I would appreciate it very much if you would click around on the links, and let me know what you think so far. I am open to suggestions for improvement. And content.

And that brings me to yet another idea I had. Is there anyone out there who would like to be a part of FabGrandma. Someone who has some writing skillz, who would like to write occasionally for either the gluten free page or the shopping page? If so, email me and let me know what your ideas are. Let’s talk.

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Where Does The Time Go?

Karen · 6 Comments

Like I don’t know…We had just returned from our whirlwind trip to Georgia, then it was Thanksgiving Day. Our friends, Belinda and Rob, who are camphosts on the other side of the lake from us, came over to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. I cooked a small ham, potato salad, some rutabagas, and a home made gluten free pumpkin pie. Then for the next three days, FabGrandpa and I worked at the entrance gate to the campground.

PC010006 — The Lost Realm of The Black Warrior

On Monday of last week, we drove up to Tuscaloosa to try and return the crappy cellphone that I got in Georgia at Best Buy. But, in order to return my phone, I had to have the old one with me so they could reactivate it and reverse my “New Every Two” from Verizon. Sigh. Why does everything have to be so dang complicated. So, we came back home with the same phone that couldn’t get a signal if I was standing under the tower. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store and picked up a few things, because we knew Charlie and Lynda were coming to visit. The trip took all day, and then it was Tuesday.

Tuesday it rained buckets–but Charlie and Lynda got here with no problems. They are traveling in a customized van, so they parked it in our yard and plugged in a drop cord for a space heater. We had SO MUCH FUN with them. We haven’t seen them in about two years, but it seemed like just yesterday. We stayed up talking til the wee hours of the morning, and got up bright and early and started all over again.

On Wednesday, we drove over to Moundville to go to the Indian Mounds there. FabGrandpa and I went there last year, but the museum was closed for renovations. It is now open, so we went in and looked around. The Black Warrior Indians made some amazing pottery.

PC010017 — Intricately Carved Pottery Disc

There was a lot of information about the history of the people–I didn’t know for instance that they were some of the native Americans who were forced out of the area on the Trail Of Tears.

After the museum, we all went to Pam’s Diner in Moundville for lunch. FabGrandpa and I had never been to that particular restaurant last year, but we were quite impressed with it. It is one of those southern places that serves a plate of a “meat and two” or a “meat and three”. They had things like fried okra, turnip greens, red beans and rice, purple hull peas, and scalloped potatoes on the menu. We will definitely go back.

Charlie and Lynda stayed one more night, but all too soon they had to be on their way. I just feel so special that they came all the way here to see us, going out of their way to get here. Tuscaloosa is not just “in the neighborhood” between upstate New York and Missouri. I hope it is not another two years before we see them again.

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A Visit From Friends Makes Me Soooo Happy!

Karen · 5 Comments

tree lot cuties — Me and Lynda selling Christmas Trees in Phoenix in 2008

A week or so ago I got an email from my friend Lynda. We met Lynda and her husband, Charlie, when we worked at Bethpage Camp Resort back in 2006, in Virginia. They were the kind of people that we just liked immediately–they have so many of the same interests as us, and we got along so well. Although it has been four years since we left there, we have all kept in touch. In the summer of 2007, FabGrandpa and I worked at Granite Hill Campground in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Lynda and Charlie worked at Roundtop Campground in the same area. We spent a lot of our days off traveling around, seeing the scenery, going to the farm markets together, and just plain enjoying our friendship. In the winter of 2008, we all worked together in Phoenix, Arizona, selling Christmas trees. Lynda and Charlie managed the lot and we worked for them. After that Christmas, we all went out to the desert and stayed next door to each other in a campground. So, when Lynda told me they were coming to visit, I was sooooo happy.

They got here this afternoon–and it’s like we just saw them last week. We have made some plans of things to do for the next few days. It is always sooo good to have a visit from a good friend.

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Another Road Trip

Karen · 7 Comments

It seems like we just got here to Alabama, but it was time to jump in the truck and leave again. This time, we went to Georgia to visit some of our family. We drove about 100 miles through the Alabama countryside before we got to I-20:

PB190035 — Across the road from our campsite at Payne Lake

PB200038 — along Hwy 25 in central Alabama

PB200036 — Between Calera and Pell City, Alabama

We saw this chemical lime plant in Calera, Alabama–everything in the area was covered with a thick layer of white dust. I wouldn’t want to live nearby to that:

We made it up to I-20 for the next 100 miles. The fall colors were still hanging on to the trees up there:

PB200045 — Somewhere in Alabama on I-20 headed east

We crossed the Georgia state line:

Then into the Eastern Time Zone:

and finally to our hometown:

I grew up in Douglasville–my family moved there when I was 13. I lived there until we sold our house in August of 2000. The town is nothing like it was back when I was a kid–there are so many people, so many cars, new businesses and a mall. You can’t get out of people’s way in the stores or on the road. If we didn’t have friends and family there we wouldn’t go there at all.

The first night in town, we met up with my daughter Emily, son-in-law Thomas, and grandson, Spencer at Longhorn Steakhouse. Mmmm, we used to go there about once a month. After dinner we went to the mall to walk around and look at stuff. I bought a couple of sweatshirts that I wound up taking back the next day. Emily got some bar stools for her new house that she also wound up taking back.

On Sunday, we went over to Emily’s new house:

PB210073 — A real tire swing for Spencer

PB210072 — Spencer with one of the kittens

They bought this house a few months ago–it has three bedrooms, 2 baths, a huge kitchen and dining room, front porch across the entire front of it, on six acres, with a barn, for $110,000. They got a great deal on it. Spencer loves the big yard and tire swing.

From Emily’s house, we met our daughter, Becky, at her beauty shop and got our hair cut. Then, FabGrandpa and Becky went to a movie, and Emily and I went to my mother’s house. Then, we all met up at Red Lobster for dinner–there was me and FabGrandpa, Emily, Thomas, Spencer, Becky, and our nephew Daniel and his family–Alicia, Brodie, and baby Katherin. We were so glad to see Daniel–we haven’t seen him since before Brodie was born and he is 3 now. Spencer and Brodie got along so well, and the baby was passed around and loved on by all of us!

PB210082 — FabGrandpa lovin up on Katherin

Seems like all we did was eat eat eat, but that is not really true. We drove, ate, visited, slept, and did it all over again for four days. On Monday, we drove up to Cleveland, Georgia to visit FabGrandpa’s Mom and Dad. They live a hundred miles from Douglasville. We had a very nice visit with them–didn’t get any photos there though. We spent the night at the Days Inn in town, then went back for a second short visit before heading back to Douglasville for one last night there.

And it always surprises me that even though I lived there for so many years, went to high school there, and was the service unit director for the Girl Scouts there, I NEVER run into anyone I know anymore. Except–FabGrandpa and I went to dinner on the last night there at our favorite barbecue restaurant. It was very crowded, so we squeezed into a booth. When I sat down, the man sitting at the next table reached over and put his hand on my thigh. I was mortified and couldn’t speak for a moment!! It turned out that he was one of our friends we used to hang out with when we lived in Douglasville, and haven’t seen in 10 years.

Wednesday morning, we finally loaded up all our stuff and headed west, back to Payne Lake in Alabama. It was a whirlwind trip, four days and nights of rush rush rush–I am glad it is over and we are back home to sleep in our own beds. And the only traffic we see is this, right outside our door:

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10 Years A Survivor!

Karen · 4 Comments

karen and jim — My sweethear, FabGrandpa

As you may already know, FabGrandpa had squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, an oral cancer, back in 2001. In January of 2011, he will be a 10 Year Survivor! Because I am so thankful that he made it through the treatment and has been cancer free for 10 years, I am going to be holding an auction to raise money for The Oral Cancer Foundation.

FabGrandpa has been after me for quite some time to chuck some of the weight we I have accumulated in our RV by getting rid of stuff. I can’t think of a better way to do it than this—he gets happy because I am sending things out the door, I get to raise money for a cause I believe in, and ALL of Y’ALL win because you are now more aware of oral cancers and how to get screened for them. Here are some facts about Oral Cancer:

1. Mouth cancer will be newly diagnosed in about 100 new individuals each day in the US alone

2. A person dies from oral cancer every hour of every day

3. When found at early stages of development, oral cancers have an 80 to 90 % survival rate

4. Of those 36,000 newly diagnosed individuals, only slightly more than half will be alive in 5 years

Oral Cancers are serious business! FabGrandpa and I have been very lucky—his cancer was found quite early because it was on the front part of his tongue and was very visible. He went to the dentist one day for some routine dental work, and was told to go to an oral surgeon immediately for a biopsy. My friend Donna’s husband, Michael H. Yeaw, wasn’t as lucky though.

Donna writes:

“My husband Michael was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma the winter of 2001. He noticed an innocuous swollen lymph node in his neck. No pain, just the swelling. In many cases this is the first sign of head neck cancer and unfortunately the cancer is usually well advanced by then. After it didn’t decrease in size, his surgeon opted to remove it. Cancer of the tonsils…and so our three year journey began.

Surgery followed by radiation gave us two years of remission before it recurred again. Most recurrences of head neck cancer occur in the first two years. The odds were against us. The diagnosis was inoperable, terminal.

Mike continued to live life to the fullest, even taking his only long distance motorcycle trip. http://www.ridemyown.com/articles/personal/froggy_notsogreattrip.shtml

He fought a good fight all the way, always maintaining a positive attitude and reminding me that life is for the living. That is what I continue to do in his honor.

You can read our whole story and see photos of the radiation, feeding tube and prosthetic device he had to use at http://www.myprimeyears.com/hnc/ourjourney1.shtml”

And here is the information about the auction:

1. I’ll be listing an item a week for 10 weeks for my 10 Auctions For 10 Years Of Survival fundraiser for The Oral Cancer Foundation. Each item will be posted here on my blog with a post title of “10 For 10” and the name of the item along with pictures and a description of the item up for bids. Please note, most of these items are gently used, with the exception of the RVQ bbq grill that has never been out of the box, and the backpack that I made.

2. You can bid on the item featured that week by leaving a comment with a dollar amount you are willing to pay for the item.

3. Each item auction will be open for one week. At the end of the week, the highest bidder will be the winner of the item.

4. The winner will pay shipping from Alabama zip code 36744. The auction will be open to international bidders because whoever the winner is will be responsible for the shipping charges to them from me.

5. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to The Oral Cancer Foundation in January, 2011 to commemorate FabGrandpa’s, James M. Eidson, 10 years of survival, and in honor of Michael H. Yeaw.

6. I will accept payment via Paypal, or by money order or personal check. Checks must clear the bank before I ship the item.

7. To see what will be up for auction, click here.

If you’d like to help me out by publicizing my auction, you can tweet it, post about it on your blog, or post it on Facebook. There won’t be any prize for doing that, but it WILL share the awareness of Oral Cancer and could just save someone’s life!

For more information on Oral Cancer:

The Oral Cancer Foundation

Association of Cancer Online Resources

Love Is A Journey—Couples Facing Cancer

National Cancer Institute

American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

Ask for an oral cancer screening

A Video of an Oral Cancer Screening

If you’ve read this far, and would like to receive a button or a sticker to promote Oral Cancer Awareness, I have 20 buttons and 30 stickers, and I will send them out to the first 50 people who ask for them. Just email me at fabgrandma @ gmail.com to get yours.

Want to make a donation? Any amount will be accepted though the paypal button here:

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