December 15
While this isn’t really an “adventure”, per se, it certainly was a pretty amazing day.
To The U
At my last follow up appointment on November 2, I was scheduled for another set of x-rays and a follow up with the surgeon on December 15.
Since this is, of course, taking place in Iowa City, it required a whole day off – 3 hours for driving plus another couple of hours at the actual appointment, we’re looking at five hours, might as well take the whole day off. I am out of sick time at my job so I would have had to take the day unpaid, but my manager was willing to let me work four tens during the week and taking Friday off.
My appointment was scheduled for 10:00 am, with the expectation that I would arrive 15 minutes early to check in. With an hour and a half drive ahead of us, plus a stop for gas, we left at 7:45.
After an unplanned bio break just outside of Iowa City, we got into town a little early. Brandy’s co-worker had sent Brandy a Christmas gift but sent it to our old address in Coralville. We had the time so we swung by and grabbed it off Andrew’s porch, then headed to the hospital.
Brandy dropped me at the front door then headed to the Coral Ridge Mall, where we’d just been, to do some shopping.
I got through my appointments pretty quickly and smoothly. I was seen by one of Dr. Hogue’s residents, who did some preliminary range of motion and strength tests, then went and got Dr. Hogue. They, together, reviewed my x-rays and progress and were pleased with what they saw. He asked if I felt I needed physical therapy, I said no, I’m happy with the progress I’ve made without it and am confident I can make a near-full recovery without it. Dr. Hogue concurred and said he wanted to see me once more in three months (March) so as I checked out, I made one more appointment.
Post-Appointment Shenanigans
Brandy came and picked me up and we headed to a nearby Chinese buffet for lunch, after which we headed to a nearby Trader Joe’s. Brandy had been asked by Hilary to swing by for something specific. Brandy found what she needed, we picked up a couple more things and headed out.
We made our way into Coralville back to the mall where we parked near Target. We “ran in for a couple of things.” Three hundred and fifty dollars later, we packed up our bounty into the car then headed to JC Penney. We grabbed a few shirts for me and Brandy picked up some more decorative doo-dads for herself and Hilary.
We headed out of the mall parking lot and headed to our final stop of the trip: Costco.
Parking at Costco on a Friday in mid-December promised to be a Challenge but it turned out to not be nearly as bad as we’d anticipated. We parked relatively close to the doors and made our way in.
The store itself was as crowded as to be expected though. We made our way to the electronics department where I’d wanted to scope out the prices on a laptop.
See, come spring when Brandy and I are ready to venture out on months-long travels in the travel trailer we expect to buy, I would be left without any way to post here on the blog. Well, except for my phone, but that’s just nonsense. I’m sure I could use my work computer to do it but I really don’t want to use my work computer for ANY personal use, ESPECIALLY to hold massive amounts of pictures. My personal computer is a desktop that, sure, I could unhook and take with us, but toting around to and fro would be a hassle, AND I’d like to have access to a computer while I’m upstairs rather than having to go down to the basement to use the desktop.
Anyway, I was looking around and we saw a cheap-o with like 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSDHD for a few hundred bucks, and we saw some with large hard drives, lots of RAM and i7 and i9 processors for over $1,000.
Then, I happened upon a 17″ HP model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB hard drive for $600, and $200 taken off at the register, so $400. Now, it does have an older i5 processor, but I’m not gaming with this thing. I’m planning on installing Photoshop on it and will primarily using it to blog and keep detailed stats about our travels (yeah, the spreadsheet nerd in me is geeking out about how much tracking there is to do… miles traveled, fuel economy, vehicle and trailer maintenance schedules… I’m drooling here!)
So, anyway, we picked up the laptop and then made the hour and a half drive home. I got the initial setup done on it and let it sit while Brandy and I had some drinks last night.
I opened it up this morning and am making this post from it. I am happy with it, it’s a standard 17″ laptop with a 10 key (always a plus for me!) and it’s just like every other HP laptop I’ve used. The fact that it doesn’t have the newest, shiniest processor in it means nothing to me, again, I’m using it for very, very basic stuff, MAYBE some light photo manipulation, but I’m not using it to edit videos or anything like that. I think this will do just fine, thank you very much.
Up Next
I’m not sure if I mentioned it in my last post, but we’re planning on a 2 week trip to Colorado for the end of February-beginning of March for Brandy’s birthday. I got myself a small, USB-C powered external monitor to plug into my work laptop while on trips (until we get our trailer, in which I will be installing a full dual monitor setup identical to what I’m using at home.) Having this laptop with me will be great and will let me blog on the fly and hopefully get pictures up as they’re taken (pictures, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, are the reason I’m typically super late with my posts.) And even if I don’t get pictures up while on this trip, I’ll be more inclined to do it from the living room instead of waiting until I’m in the basement with time to do it.
I don’t think I’ll have another post up before Christmas, so in the event I don’t, I hope anyone that manages to read this has a wonderful holiday, and we will see you in the new year!
-Phil