April 16th-24th

I thought it was time to catch-up on our doings, although it seems like we're just living life on the day to day and there's nothing much to tell. We've been working with Sugar's diet to find a dry food that she'll readily eat without the addition of canned food. She had lost weight, but we've got her bulked back up, and eliminated the canned food. We still have a ways to go, but we're making headway. She's made two advances emotionally. She will now sit on the couch with us, and she let me take this picture without running to hide! She looks pretty worried in this picture, but she just accomplished these skills in the last few days.

I'm also working on my health. I quit drinking coffee on Friday, April 16th. I've been trying to quit for about a year! Maybe it's a change in me or a change in the growing or processing of coffee, but it seems to have begun affecting me negatively. My head has been in a fog for a week, but I'm feeling better overall without it. I'm still waiting for my back to heal from my previous physical fitness attempts. Roy has been working out playing golf with my brother. Roy and I have tried about nine restaurants in the area.

Besides working on health issues, we have been doing some projects. I have prepped some cloth and webbing for making cat hammocks. I want to get several made for donation to animal shelters. Roy has improved our camper organization by building 6 shelves into a closet that only had a bar for hanging clothes. Hanging clothes, as opposed to folding them sure wastes a lot of space. All we wear anymore are jeans, shorts, and tee shirts!

On April 17th Roy was at Wal-Mart shopping and came out to find that someone had scraped the front passenger side bumper, light, and fender. Thank goodness for a witness who called the police and had the person who hit the truck report their information! With a parking lot fender bender, it would have been so easy for them just to drive away. It ends up it was a 15 year old boy with a learners permit driving with his mom. They seem like real nice people. The truck is going in to be repaired April 27th & 28th. The family has offered to loan us a vehicle to drive. As minor as the damages look, the estimate for repair is $586. The plastic bumper can be painted. You can kind of see the long strip where the paint was gouged. The dealership says that if a bumper needed replaced that they come to them unpainted. The light cover was scuffed in the yellow area. It can be mostly buffed out. That will lower the repair cost by $200. Roy says he will go with that, otherwise, the whole light unit has to be replaced! There is a minor dent and scuffing to the left of the light on the fender. I guess now we're seeing what it's like to deal with vehicle accident repairs on the road. It's only been a minor inconvenience. The Dodge dealership is just across the creek from our camping site.

April 17th was also the kick-off to Kentucky Derby festivities. It starts with "Thunder Over Louisville" a military airshow and fireworks display. The fireworks show is one of the biggest in the United States. About 700,000 people were expected to attend. Below is the crowd on the Indiana side of the Ohio River looking toward Louisville.

The hill the folks below are sitting on is the levee along the river.

We had a prime viewing spot from the parking lot of my nephew's mother-in-law's workplace. It had the advantage of limiting the crowd in the parking lot, and easy entry and exit from the event. It was a big tailgate party. The temperature that evening got down into the 40s, but Roy and I stayed warm and cozy in our reclining lawn chairs.

My pictures don't show it, but the fireworks are launched in two places along the river and are syncronized. There is also music on the radio syncronized to the firework displays.

They go all out like one grand finale for about a half hour!!!

There are lots of events all week in Louisville prior to the big race!