Quote:
Originally Posted by mrblaine
No worries Darrell. How have you and Annie been?
How far along on the Jeep are you and do you have any plans to finish it up if you haven't yet?
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Annie and I are doing fine, Blaine. However, there for a while I wasn't so sure, which is why our participation at JV and on this forum was scarce. I needed to stay physically and mentally close to home.
If you recall, on our last wheeling trip, Annie was having some difficulties with balance, and using walking sticks. We attributed this to her chronic, and gradually worsening, back problem. After we got home, things got worse. She started having headaches, decreased hearing in her left ear, and she started falling. I know enough about medicine to realize something else was up.
Short story: after a couple trips to the doctor, firing that doctor, and a few tests, we got the diagnosis: brain tumor, left side, deep behind the ear and growing on the 8th cranial nerve. I think she took the news better than I did. Local neurosurgeon stated: "I won't touch this, you need a specialist". Choices for intervention: gamma knife radiation or surgery. End result: 9 hours of neurosurgery at UCSF, a final diagnosis of Acoustic Neuroma (benign - no cancer) and several months of rehab, she's now back at work. Of course, all this started after finding out I was loosing my job due to county budget cutbacks (they layed off middle management), and prolonged out of work time for her medical problem caused her to loose her job.
But...persevere we did. We managed to keep the house, barely, and find new work. Physically, emotionally, and financially, we're starting to get our feet back under us. We talked about our JV trips the other day, and how we miss it.
I never did carry out the plans for the 609 axles under the jeep, money became scarce as you can imagine...and it just wasn't the priority at that point. The jeep is pretty much the same as the last time you saw it. We'd like to do the axle swap, but were not fiscally there yet. So, our plans are to get the jeep into the best shape we can before this fall, and head down later this year for some wheeling...maybe over the Thanksgiving week. Priorities for the rig are better brakes and steering, move the control arm axle mounting points up even with the axle, triangulate the rear uppers and dump the track bar, etc. We'll only get new axles if a windfall hits us...which given our luck over the last couple years is not real likely
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Wow...didn't realized I carried on so about the recent past.
I hope Kat has been well. BTW, I tried calling you this last weekend. Same cell number??
Darrell