Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Family Emergency (update 6). Good News, Good Visits, Bad News

Location: Highway 509 RV Park (El. 275 ft); Mansfield, Louisiana

Today is Day 39 since Brandon had his stroke. He is going to Physical/Occupational Therapy 6 hours per week. He supplements that official therapy with his own exercises and movements. Improvement is still being seen daily. An example of that improvement is 
this picture. I took it after a nice lunch with my two youngest children, X-wife and granddaughter.
Notice Brandon raising his right arm to give his niece, Olivia, a hug. Just a week ago, he could not raise it nearly as high. This lunch date was last Saturday (3 days ago). Since then he is able to get his arm above his head for the first time since the stroke.  
On the left is my daughter Brittanie, who is the mother of Olivia. On the right, is my son Brandon.


X-wife, Olivia and Me
My oldest son, who lives about 3 hours south of here, came up 2 weekends ago with his girlfriend to visit and mow the yard. I forgot to take any pictures. I'll make it a point to get some next time I see them. I would have mowed it, but I don't want to get in trouble with the "retiree's union". 

Brandon's improvement was the Good News.
Time with the family was the Good Visits. 

Now the Bad News:

Freedom is in the shop. Something is wrong with her electrical/electronic parts and the mechanics are trying to track it down. This situation is so bad that she puts herself in "limp mode" whenever it happens. Afterwards, she will only start intermittently. Last Saturday, while she was just parked, I tried starting her 4 times. She started on the 2nd and 4th time. 

I can't travel with an unreliable truck. If they cannot find out exactly what is exactly causing the problem and correct it, I will have no choice but to trade her off for another truck. The question then will be either another Ford or something else. I'm not partial to any particular brand and chose a Ford this last time because of the extended cab, the factory installed fifth wheel hitch prep and a couple other things. 

When traveling alone, some people get attached to their vehicles and RV's. Some people even name them, geeez. Not me of course (ignore the names on the header picture). But if I were one of those types, I could understand it. After all, Freedom, Liberty and I have been places where it was just us and no one else around for miles and miles. It is a comfortable feeling after hiking walking alone and getting back to the parking area to see Freedom the truck parked there just waiting. I'm tempted to say "with the light left on for me" but that would be silly,,,,, because that would just run the battery down. :) 

I really hope they can fix her.

I may be traveling again around the first part of September. Time and situation will tell.    

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road.

4 comments:

  1. Good news is indeed good news. Keep on pluggin Darrell..................

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    1. Thanks Al, Have fun on your trip preparations. They are the next best thing to traveling. All that excitement building. :)

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  2. Even if they "fix" your truck, you will never have complete confidence in it again. Every time you shut it off out in the middle of nowhere, you will always wonder if it will start again, and pretty soon, that will affect the places you go and the things that you do. To me, not worth it. I would trade it in and move on. I have had Chevy Silverados since they started making them, and only had to do regular maintenance on them, very reliable, at least for me. Probably a good time to look for trucks as they will be looking to move the 2015's to make room for the 2016's.

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    1. I understand and agree. I will be shopping if the mechanics can't prove to me they fixed the problem.

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