Aaaaah, New Orleans . . .

We made it back from a few days in New Orleans.  Drove down from Weatherford to the city.  We got off on Poydras, went about five blocks, turned right and one more block to the hotel.  That was easy and convenient.

 We met James and Joan and Jacob, Anne and children for a stay in New Orleans.  We stayed at the Old 77 Hotel and Chandlery on Tchoupitolas Street.  Old 77 was a quaint place, newly configured, perhaps a couple of years old at best.  Chopped up old warehouses coupled together to make a hotel, restaurant and art dealership.  It was nice though sort of dated walking around tiled floors, then carpet, then wooden (and noisy) flooring.  The place was well done and the location was convenient.

Then we ate our way through the city.   First night we ate at the Pelican Club, a restaurant off Bienville, across the street from the Monteleone Hotel and down the alley.  The food was great.

The next night we ate a Commander's Palace across from the cemetery in the Garden District.  My great great grandfather is interred the cemetery.  And some of our relatives of later generations are also interred there with him.  Commander's, owned by the Brennan family, was spectacular.  We entered the place, went through the kitchen, passed the bar and patio to another dinning room out back.  The dinning room had a couple of large oak trees in the center.  Our waiter was Peter and he was magnificent.  The food was out of this world including the deserts.

The following night we ate at Emeril's Delmonico's on St. Charles Avenue.  The dinning room was up stairs and we were on time for our reservation.  We had a large round corner table in the front dinning room.  Service was again terrific and the food was excellent.

Friday, we had to get up and drive back to Texas.  Jacob, Anne and children caught the train, the City of New Orleans, for Chicago and James and Joan flew back to Austin, Texas.  We had a great time, drank to much, and ate to much, gained three or four pounds and loved it.

The weather cooperated, it was cool but dry and we walked to the French Quarter to have beignets at Café Du Mode.  Being old hands at it we walked past the long line of tourists wanting to sit outside, or the long line at the "togo" window and went in the small but cramped inside dinning area at got the first available table.  We actually got two tables adjacent to each other and had instant service.  No wait, just coffee and donuts.

We later walked down to the French Market, browsed around, caught the street car on the levee and rode back to Canal Street.  From there is was just a stroll back to the Old 77.

We passed a great time, enjoyed ourselves and the children but we were ready to go home.

Computer Woes . . .

My old Dell Inspiron crashed.  It had to do with loading an update of Windows 10 Pro version 1803.  In the mean time I acquired a new (at least new to me) Dell OptiPlex 890 with an I-5 CPU chip.  It is a much faster machine.

The computer was purchased from Blair Technology which refurbishes computers for Intel.  It came with a one year warranty, a mouse, and key board.  And it was stocked with Windows 10 Pro, 8 Gigabytes of Ram and a two terabyte hard drive.  All of that was $206 delivered to my door step.

Yet the Version 1803 bit me again and got the system up and running again but having lost almost all the software package that came with it.  It was no great loss.  I loaded all my old software and it runs just fine now.

Then I started having start up problems with the new machine.  I found a way to get it going but finally shipped back to Blair Tech under warranty.  I got it back in about 10 days and I figure I got a new power supply.  I added more memory and it now has 12 Megabytes of RAM.  The same hard drive was in place so I did not have to reload software.  I did have to reload my selected pre- addressed URLs like Google, Morning Advocate newspaper, etc.  That is no big issue and all is well now and I have a faster machine.  I did have a problem with the Blog but that is finally resolved for keeps (I hope).

I reformatted the old Inspiron computer and it sits in reserve now.  I plan to give it to my house keeper for her young grandchildren to use but I will have find a cheap monitor for them.  I have the key board and mouse.  I probably will have to get a new Internet connection along with the monitor to make the machine a complete and useful device.  Their children need the machine and I have given them a small lap top but they will soon out grow that machine.

A Long Time . . .

I have been fighting the "Blogger" for at least five months.  At last I broke the code and I am back on the air so to speak.  Much water has gone under the bridge in that time.

The biggest is I had my left shoulder replaced.  I was in constant pain, sometimes harsh, sometimes mild.  The Orthopedic Surgeon said the end of the humerus bone was totally eaten up by Osteoarthritis and had to be replaced.  The operation was conducted in Fort Worth Methodist Harris Hospital on September 18, 2018 by Dr. Curtiss Bush (an graduate of the LSU Medical School).  There was immediate relief, no more pain, period.  Done and gone.

However, recovery was a bit more arduous than desired.  I had to wear an awkward sling that put a lot pressure on my neck.  Apparently that caused my Radii Culopathy to flare up and started problems from my neck down to my right hand.  I have pain that radiates from my neck sometimes very bad but most times just irritable often requiring a couple of Ibuprofen pills up to and including Tylenol 3's (Codeine).   Sometimes the numbness in my fingers is elevated and sometimes it backs off.  But all together indicate my neck problems had returned.

Dr. Bush seemed skeptical about it but I convinced him to require a MRI on my neck and an X-ray of my right shoulder.  I have had the MRI and looked at the results and the 6th vertebrae looks bad on the top and the bottom of that neck bone.  In the past I have had Cortisone shots in the neck that pumped up the disc and totally relieved the pain.  I have an appointment with the same pain doctor and I will give him the MRI and say shoot me up again.

The Cortisone usually results in freedom from pain for at least 5 years and last time it worked for almost 15 years.

Any left shoulder is great, no problems fully recover range of motion, etc.  I am very pleased with the final results.  I breeze through physical therapy and face a follow up appointment a year from my birthday, March 9.

I am getting old and things are wearing out.  The left shoulder being one of them and my neck the other one.  Both are attributed to all the jogging I did in the military.  On the other hand all that jogging has put off my cardio problems.  I do have cardio problems but no heart attacks and mild blockages in the arteries around my heart.  The VA has awarded me service connected disabilities for both the Radii Culopathy and the heart disease.