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The Adventures of Me & My Shadow # 89 in MD 8/20/2003 1,511 miles this trip. Odometer now 41,152 miles this year 7,690. From Sioux Falls, SD, Hi Everyone! The skin cancer surgery on 21 July was the fastest surgery I have ever had. They had no more than stuck the needle in to deaden the area, I was wondering when he could start cutting, I looked over at my arm and he is sewing it up. If I had blinked my eyes I would have missed the whole thing. I go back on 29 July to get the stitches out. The humidity finally went down and I went to work installing the rebuilt Powermaster Brake system. What a disaster that was, the first problem was my hand vacuum pump that I use to bleed the brakes. It has been several years since I last used it, corrosion has set in and like me, it’s getting old and don’t work like it used to. It took a while to get it working like it used to. Then when I pressurized the pressure accumulator on the unit the fitting where it screws into the unit leaked like a sieve. I took the accumulator off and found the rubber o-ring seal brittle and in pieces. Remember this is a newly rebuilt unit. I went to NAPA and got a new o-ring seal for 52 cents, installed it and now the fitting where the pressure switch screws in was leaking like a sieve. I took it off and found the o-ring seal was missing, went back to NAPA and got another o-ring seal. I reinstalled the pressure switch, turned it on and the electric motor wouldn’t run. I looked at the fuse and it looked OK. I was beginning to regret having turned the old unit in to get the core charge refunded. I could have just taken the pressure switch off the rebuilt unit, put it on the old unit (that is all it needed) with a new o-ring seal and turned the rebuilt unit in for the core charge. The pressure switch is no longer available. I finally put a new fuse in and the motor now runs and I see a slight leak from the forward brake line fitting. It didn’t leak on the old unit. The humidity is back so the slight leak can wait. I went in yesterday to get the stitches from surgery taken out, he informed me that both the spot on my arm and the spot in my ear that I pointed out to him were skin cancer. He told me I could get more of them and he wanted to see me again in January. I informed him that if he saw me in January it would be in Key West, FL. He thought that would be a good idea but I could give him a call when I made it back to MD. My cousin Bessie out in CA always sends some articles that she finds interesting from newspapers and magazines with her letters. I enjoy reading them, in this last batch is a humorous one that I will send as an attachment. I found it to be hilarious when I realized what was really going on. It was apparent to me that the author of the article was unaware of the facts of life. As I think I told you before, when I dropped out of high school to work on a farm I got my education from the dumb animals on the farm. There are some errors in the article, the first was the statement that it was a male mule. There are no male mules, it was a jackass. A mule is a cross-breed between a jackass and a female horse. All mules are female, all mules are sterile (infertile) and all mules are stubborn, that is a fact of life. The second error was the statement that "Jack" hated them. As I see it, he was in love with them. All dumb animals have a very sensitive sense of smell. Jack probably got the odor of a female in heat when one of the girls was menstruating. He thought he had something she needed. The nip on the butt was like a kiss to make the female more receptive, I have seen it played out many times. When she used the liniment, she was masking the odor that had tuned him on. Poor Jack hated to be turned down. Well it looks like I’ll have to make a run to Sioux Falls, SD to get my defibrillator checked. I called out there today and got an appointment for Aug 20, she said she could work me in any time I get there. Every place I called here said it would be at least a month before they could give me a date. One place said they could give me a date in Oct. It is a different world in Sioux Falls than here and in Phoenix where I get the impression that they think of me only as a source of income and they want to fix me so I need to see them every few weeks. They are not concerned about how I feel and they are not interested in anything I have to say, they think they know it all. If you are wondering why I would drive 15 hundred miles just to see a Doctor. I can tell you, Doctors like Doc Olson in Sioux Falls are few and far between. He knows much more than any other Cardiologist I have talked to any were in the USA. The reason he knows more is because he always is interested in what his patients have to say and he remembers what they say. None of the others that I have talked to will do that. I wish I could have brought some of that rain that was constantly falling in MD &VA to SD with me. Since I have been here it has tried to rain a few times but it can’t seam to get the job done. I sure don’t need any rain but I can put up with it, if it is what the farmers need. My Doctors appointment is for 11:00 AM today 8/20/2003 so I’ll get this letter sent as soon as I find out if Doc Olson needs to re-do the surgery that was done in AZ Well the appointment went well. He did adjust a couple of my pills and told me the defibrillator is just along for the ride. It had not done anything since my last appointment. The surgery area still looks bad but he said it should eventually clear up. I invited him to FL for the winter, he said he would like to go but unless I have problems I could wait till next spring to see him again. So it looks like I’ll head for Nebraska to see if I can bum a few meals from those I missed the last time when I was in a hurry. From there I’ll go back to VA & MD to see if it has stopped raining. Till next time, Dallas or Dad if it fits. |
