Randy & Darlene's World of Adventure & not so much...: Autumn of the year and careers…

September 2015

Dar’s recovery continues as she regains all the strength she once had in her legs and knees. She remains diligent on her physical therapy with CoCoa helping her (actually just an observer). At this point the cane is only used occasionally and when she’s tired. She’s increased the amount of weight that she’s strapping to her ankles and at the rate she’s recovering, the cane will be a distant memory soon.

Randy’s decided to heed the advice of his doctors and family. He’s discussed his intention to retire with his manager at work. Friday, October 2nd will be the end of his 43 year career in Information Technology. This does not sit well with him and he’s got a great degree of anxiety over the decision. Coupling this anxiety with a huge dip in the stock market which has devalued his 401k substantially – well – let’s just say he’s not a happy camper. He’s working a lot of hours trying to create and update all the documentation possible in order to help his manager and anyone taking on his many roles. The hours are taking their toll on him and he knows it.. If you know Randy, you know he’s passionate about his work.

September is our Anniversary month! 39 Years ago – September 11, 1976 we were married at Fort Snelling Chapel. If you spin back to the beginning of this blog you’ll see one of our favorite pictures.. Here are a couple more.. These are cell phone pics from our album. Not the greatest quality. Randy thinks the pics make him look fat. Probably the tuxedo and maybe a couple of beers did that..

Randy’s manager arraigned a Retirement Gathering for him at the office. Many people came to congratulate him on the work he had done both here and over his entire career. He was deeply moved by the outpouring of notes, well wishes and most particularly by some of the gifts. One gift was that of a custom made quilt by a couple of very sweet ladies on his team. They solicited pictures and notes from people Randy worked with, printed them on cloth (we didn’t know you could do that) and sewed them into the quilt! Both of us have tears in our eyes as we look at the beautiful work and the nice things his friends and managers said about him. Clicking the pictures makes them bigger

Camper update!

Early this month, Randy finally slayed the Boogey-Man that has managed to keep him off of roofs for the last 51 years. As you may recall reading earlier, Randy had fallen from the roof of his house while helping his Dad back when he was 11 and has not been able to transition from ladder to roof since. He’s not really afraid of heights, just roofs! With a very strong ladder borrowed from a friend, Randy did it. He got up the ladder and onto the roof where he was able to take care of all the roof repairs, cleaning, sealing and new vent covers. YAY!!!

13’ up!

Before and after pictures above – you can see the cracking in the caulking. This can lead to water leaks – the #1 enemy of all campers. All cracked caulk has been removed and/or re-sealed with Butyl Caulk and Dicor Lap Sealant. There were a lot of hours spent on the roof in the sun.

The Living-Room/Dining-Room Slide before and after.. The booth seating was terrible and the hide-a-bed really smelled bad, was a bit worn and was not comfortable. We replaced the booth seating with IKEA chairs with Dar’s Custom Dye job that matches the mottling of the new automatic reclining theater love-seat. That’s CoCoa’s spot in the center! We also recovered the ceiling of the slides here and in the bedroom. We took on a little more weight with this setup and hope it is worth it!