As far as the actual celebration I didn’t do too much since I’m not supposed to be very active yet. There were plenty of activities to do but all of them were motorcycle riding related so that left me out. We did swing by the clubhouse and helped out with the 4th of July parade float.
This evening we had a most excellent BBQ with some old friends. I had a great time and it was long overdue.
It’s going to be a scorcher today, somewhere near 106-107 degrees. Wearing this goofy neck brace will definitely have me staying in doors. Harley chillin’ inside, too hot to be laying out in the shaded backyard. Mallory came by tonight for some battered fish and rice. She’s going to be heading back to NOLA tomorrow. It’s always sad when she leaves but I know that she’s found her home in New Orleans.
I had surgery today to remove a damaged cervical disc and fuse my C6/C7 vertebrae’s together. Everything went great and man did I have a lot of family and club support! I was originally scheduled to spend 3 days in the hospital and ended up spending only one night. Once I knew what the requirements were for me to leave the hospital I was on it. I have noticed that the numbness in my left side is all but gone and the pain in my back is not noticeable. The only discomfort I have is my throat where the jammed a breathing tube down inside my throat and shoved all my vital organs to the side. I also feel some discomfort in the back of the neck area where the actual surgery occurred. I’m sure that will go away in time.
Bugs taking care of me! She even snuck in a french fry during my first night a few hours after surgery. I know I asked for it but it wasn’t such a good idea as I had a hard time trying to get anything down.
I’ve been looking for a pet dog for some time now. Everyday I would check out the local newspapers and online ads. I came across this ad of a Siberian Husky and Boxer mix. What got me was the photo of a dog with a 3 year old laying on his belly and the dog didn’t seem to mind at all. After a few exchanges with the current owner Lorraine and I went and paid a visit. We both new “Harley” was going to be part of the family immediately. He is so calm and the temperament is absolutely amazing.
Lorraine and did some shopping today at the local Food 4 Less and she spotted these packages of New Orleans Mix so she decided to make a new dish for this Memorial Day. She cooked up red beans and rice, fried chicken and Jambalaya! I really like this combination while were in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago and once again Lorraine hooked me up 🙂
I went for a short ride today to Sears. Even that short distance I can feel my back starting to strain. Oh well, at least I was able to get out for a minute and ride.
Chit! It has been a long time since I’ve been able to work. My pooking highlight of the day was fixing the backyard screen door that I learned how from watching a youtube video, now that sucks. I’m going to have to start doing some projects around the house to keep sane just as long as they are not physically demanding. That sucks again.
To top it off, I had a spinal cervical vertebrae epidural injection shot last Monday that was supposed to relieve pain in about 3-5 days. It is now day 7 and I don’t feel any difference. The numbness on my left side and pain in my back has not improved. The only thing that will work i believe is surgery and I’m waiting for my date.
We got up early this morning to head off to the airport, Mallory and Andrew took us. It was hard saying goodbye to Mallory the first time now I have the additional sadness of saying goodbye to my youngest, Andrew.
I’m not going to blog what I felt at the time, I will keep that to myself. We took off from New Orleans and landed in Denver Colorado where we had a 3 hour lay over, nothing much to say but I damned near gagged when we found a smoking lounge. I guess it was better than leaving the security area and having to recheck in.
Our flight from Denver to Sacramento was really uneventful. Lorraine and I couldn’t get seats together again but we sat on the same row a few seats apart.
Upon landing a club brother/friend picked us up in our non-air conditioned car. The temperature was somewhere near 104-108 degrees. Yeah, welcome back to sunny California! Chilled out the rest of the day/evening, watched the Rockets lose to the Lakers and Celtics lose to Orlando Magic.
Check the interior temperature of the Vue before I took off to grab some pizza! Yes, that’s right 122 degrees!!!
This morning we woke up and said our goodbye’s to Judi as her flight was this afternoon. The anticipated thunderstorm came finally and man did it pour! I spent most of the day looking at the photos I took the past few days and entering blog info. We’ll be heading back to the French Quarters in a bit…
Andrew took the street car to meet up with at the hotel so we could head down to the French Quarters and hit up my chicken restaurant called Mama Fiarellos. I had the southern fried chicken and red beans and rice, Lorraine had seafood gumbo and a salad. Well, the soup was cold and there was hardly any seafood to be seen. Lorraine ended up having a piece of chicken 🙂
On the way back to the hotel we grabbed a few more beignets at the Cafe Du Monde. On our way back to the hotel we saw one of those marching mardi gras type bands going down the street so we joined in!
Back at the hotel, Bugs got everything ironed and packed up ready for tomorrow!
Lorraine and I woke up early this morning to head to the French Quarters with Judi. We took the cable car to avoid the long walk in which my left side would probably would not have been able to handle. We had a few hours to do the major points that Judi had listed out. It turned out great since we haven’t gone to the places before on our first trip.
Our first stop was The Cafe Du Monde World famous for its cafe’ au lait, beignets! A funny story here, when we arrived the line was super long! It would take about an hour to get seated. As we stood in line a lady came and “I want to help you” after a little confusion we understood that she wanted to get us a table in the patio! We went from the end of the line straight to our table. How funny was that? Out of all the customers waiting she picked us! We had the cafe’s special menu and enjoyed it laughing about how fortunate we were.
After our snack we went on a walk up and down the French Quarters taking in the sites. There is so much to see in the little time we had. We stopped and had a few craw fish samples by a nice cook in front of the restaurant. It was the first time for me! spicy and delicious!
The next stop was to find the Central Grocer Store Company, they are famous for a Muffeletta sandwich. They are known for the original recipe, we bought one and split it three ways to get a taste of unique classic.
It was pretty good I’ll admit I wasn’t into the different vegetables added and seasoning but it was a good experience to try out the different taste New Orleans has to offer. One thing about visiting NO you will try dishes just to try it out!
After checking out the open market a place to get your souvenirs at a discounted price we took the cable car back towards hotel but not before stopping at Mother’s again for some more Jambalaya and fried chicken!!! Yeah, that’s probably one of my dishes, good fried chicken and Louisiana knows how to cook it real good!
We went back to the hotel and rested up a bit and started to get ready for the reason of this whole adventure Mallory’s Graduation!
Mallory came and picked us up at the hotel and she was completely nervous! I held off messing with her since she was already frazzled. The traffic in town was slow and to top it off there was an accident on the freeway that delayed travel even more. Even after the not so smooth ride over to UNO’s indoor stadium we made it with plenty of time to spare. I helped Mal put on her cap and gown and all the while thinking how it was an amazing event that I will remember for the rest of my life. Looking at her with the cap and gown attire made me so proud!
There were 800 students that were to be graduating this evening and I cherished each minute as I sat there anticipating the moment they would call out Mallory’s name. All her family was there and when they announced her name through the P.A. system we all yelled together “We love you Mallory!”. Another huge milestone had arrived and it was the beginning of a new chapter in her life.
After the ceremony we headed off to Mallory’s place so she could change into her party dress and then take off to the bar she works at. She wanted to introduce her family to her friends at “Cheers”.
This whole trip was based on Mallory’s graduation the other part was saying goodbye to my “Big man” Drewber’s. This is especially hard for me, Andrew and I have never been apart this far away and for any long duration. I’m going to miss him so much but I know he’s making a move to experience life. I’m proud of him for wanting to look further then the comforts of Stockton but at the same time I can’t believe he won’t be near by his daddy. I know life has changes and the family you love must move on to their lives, it’s just hard when that day is actually here.
