What Is This Man Doing On The Floor? –Again!

Oh, fixing the plumbing in the bathroom sink in the 2 bedroom condo.  What else?

Seems every time we are in Seattle there is a Project (with a capital P) to do, either in a condo or at the kids’ house.  But, that’s what we want to do: help out where we can.  Unfortunately (?) that means Ron is usually on his back on the floor!

    The bathroom sink was draining so slowly.  He took it apart and found a ball of hair45 inches in diameter (Ick!)  Must have been in there a L O N G time! 

   Then he saw that the water valves were leaking, so he changed them.  Unfortunately, since the water shut-offs were not individual by uni , and he didn’t want to disturb others in the building with a water shut-off and he thought he could get the new washer/valve on in time…….but, NO!  Joan heard a loud noise and came into the bathroom to see water spurting out, onto Ron, onto the floor, everywhere, and no way to stop it! Such force!  She ran to the manager to turn off the water, which he RAN to do, too!  What a mess!  Water everywhere.  Fortunately we had the [nice clean] towels for the condo to use to make dams to stop the water and then to sop it up.  It was a nightmare and not something we wanted or needed!

Joan’s Dad’s 95th Birthday Party in Oak Harbor

From I-5

We are always in the Seattle area in March, so that we can celebrate Joan’s Dad’s birthdays.  Driving up I-5 to Mt Vernon and then over to Oak Harbor was beautiful with all the snowcapped Cascade Mountains showing up beautifully. 

     His birthday was on Saturday and we had a nice meal at the retirement center where he lives (Regency on Whidbey) with Joan’s brother David and wife Linda and stepmother’s Betty’s children and spouses also. Then we went to the activity room for cake and PARTY.  Many people came in to celebrate and our son Andy and family arrived later from Seattle and  ordered pizza in for a supper and it worked out GREAT – ate in activity room, and everyone stayed and talked a long time!

…So Joan’s dad had a FULL DAY of partying!  We spent the night at the Whidbey Naval Air Station and enjoyed hearing the planes again.  We went to pick him up for church and he had overslept.  We arrived at the 8:30 a.m. time to pick him up for the 9 a.m. service, and he was just then getting up!  But…. he got ready right away and we made it to church by 9:10!!!. he enjoyed meeting all the people afterwards as they greeted him with Happy Birthday!

Full-time Timesharing: Getting Sick

People have asked what we would do it we get sick.  If you have followed this BLOG, you will remember that Ron got pancreatitis in September 2010 in Illinois and we went to the regional hospital (in Ottawa), where we got excellent care, but then needed to get blood tests every few weeks. Our family doctors were in Ohio and it became more and more difficult as we did not go then and were not returning to Ohio that often.  We, thus, changed our medical care to a clinic in Seattle last March, since we go there regularly and have been very happy with the care there since then. 

     However, this month in Puerto Vallarta, Ron started out the visit with a cough which kept getting worse and Joan began to get sick a week later.  After a week back, Joan  is totally better and Ron is almost  normal.   We are only hoping that our medical insurance will reimbursed us, not only the doctor visit charges, which were not too bad, but the prescription medications, which were VERY expensive.

     Our new health care in Seattle is actually like an HMO (no, it’s not Group Health, but Pacific Medical-PACMED) and so far, it has covered everything when we go to the clinic here, with a small co-pay for medications.  You need to call for permission to go somewhere else when you are out of town, so I emailed from PV and they answered right back: out- of -country procedures are  1) Go to the doctor, 2) Save all receipts and 3)  Submit when you return.  We read the booklet more carefully when we got back, and it said, submit within 7 days of your return.  People have asked what we would do it we get sick.  If you have followed this BLOG, you willremember that Ron got pancreatitis in September 2010 in Illinois and we went tothe regional hospital (in Ottawa), where we got excellent care, but then neededto get blood tests every few weeks. Our family doctors were in Ohio and itbecame more and more difficult as we did not go then and were not returning toOhio that often.  We, thus, changed ourmedical care to a clinic in Seattle last March, since we go there regularly andhave been very happy with the care there since then.





     However, thismonth in Puerto Vallarta, Ron started out the visit with a cough which keptgetting worse and Joan began to get sick a week later.  After a week back, Joan  is totally better and Ron is almost  normal.  We are only hoping that our medical insurancewill reimbursed us, not only the doctor visit charges, which were not too bad,but the prescription medications, which were VERY expensive.





     Our new healthcare in Seattle is actually like an HMO (no, it’s not Group Health, but PacificMedical-PACMED) and so far, it has covered everything when we go to the clinichere, with a small co-pay for medications. You need to call for permission to go somewhere else when you are out oftown, so I emailed from PV and they answered right back: out- of -countryprocedures are  1) Go to the doctor, 2) Saveall receipts and 3)  Submit when youreturn.  We read the booklet morecarefully when we got back, and it said, submit within 7 days of yourreturn.  

     So Joan made quite a packet up of receipts, then, and we hand-carried it to the clinic , not trusting the USPS for timing!  The doctor visits were about $62 for each of us, but the medications were so much, especially the antibiotic.  Fortunately, after some phone calls (our family doctors had to pre-approve the Mexican doctor visits, which they did, dating retroactively) and we received almost all the expense back.   We do have a travel plan, the kind where if you get real sick, they will fly you and your family member home, not too expensive at all, and merely a safeguard while we are traveling so much.

     Because we still have three elderly parents (90, 92, and 95) we always buy the flight insurance and some resort insurance if it is an exchange, especially with the exchange companies that are CHEAPER than RCI:  e.g. Platinum, Trading Places.  And if we are gone, like a month, we might just buy one or two weeks, not all of them.  Of course, where we own, we do not have the exchange insurance.  When Joan’s stepmother died in November 2010, we were able to change our flight with no charge and get back a couple of other extra charges we had from the airline insurance.   

Northwest Symphony Concert!

Both our son Andy and granddaughter Natalie are the trumpet players so we went to the concert tonight.  It was wonderful.  It is this Symphony’s 25^th anniversary and they have specialized in performing compositions of contemporary Northwest composers: a total of 125 different ones in the 25 years.  There were three tonight (plus the Brahms 4^th), and one piece was a World Premier.  They were all very creative and beautiful.  http://www.northwestsymphonyorchestra.org/musicians/meettheMusicians.shtml

     It was in West Seattle tonight; Joan had so seldom ever gone to West Seattle, having lived in the north end almost all her life in Seattle and we avoided I-5 (Seattle Sounders game was on….) by driving through Burien, white Center, etc., from where we stay in Renton (south end)  Interesting drive.

Grand Mayan, Nuevo Vallarta

What can we say?  It is gorgeous!  The pools are unbelievable.  And the beach is very wide.   We’d forgotten how big the rooms are.  Very quiet and relaxing. 

   After 3 weeks at Villa del Palmar, we came out here for our last week in PV March 3rd to try out Nuevo and also because our friends would be out here; then, at the last minute they decided to stay in town.  We haven’t wanted to come out to Nuevo before since it was so isolated from the downtown area which we like so well.

   But it’s not as far as we thought nor as isolated as the Mayan properties near Cancun (Maya Riviera). The bus stop is a short walk, although this is definitely a “destination resort” with lots of restaurants and not many cooking utensils.  Of course, we eat almost all meals in the room, so it makes for creativity, and thus, the hardest part is the grocery situation: the on-site store is very expensive.  A short walk, though, is an OXXO store (like a 7-11) which is much cheaper.  To go to the new large Wal-Mart, you really need a taxi, which we decided not to do this time since we had brought so much food from last week.  We can get milk from the OXXO.

the RCI View:
Parking garage

Beautiful view from rooms across the hall

But the wi-fi is too expensive so we found a couple of restaurants at the local marina offering free- wi-fi, so we may use those every other day or so.   Our AC only blows COLD air ALL the time, so we turned it off and wear sweaters.

Unfortunately, our room (3254) overlooks the parking garage so it is quite noisy and also cold since it is the shady side.  We’ll call this view the RCI view, but across the hall and upstairs is beautiful.  (Be sure to ask for an odd-numbered room if you can.)

Our Activities There

Imagine! Joan usually had this pool all to herself for laps!

Ron was well enough just one day
 (out of the month!) to fly his kite!
 Beautiful!