Paul's Update - 09/06/07

I had a little computer glitch Thursday night so this is a little late........

Dear Friends:

We are having a great time on our vacation. Tuesday morning we were still in Columbia SC. We had spent the night in a new Microtel Hotel. The beds were a bit hard but we all slept OK. Paul had some trouble falling asleep ...he isn't use to having so many people in his room!! Carl went to the lobby and got some coffee for us as we were getting up. We all got our showers (including Paul) so we could get ready for our day. The shower was set up for a wheelchair to roll into since it was a Handicap room. Dad had carried our new bath chair that has an electric motor that lowers Paul into a bathtub. He was able to sit on it and shower. We went to the lobby and had the continental breakfast that they offered and were ready to head out shortly after that. We met with Sarah & Lizzie at Starbucks for coffee & chatting! We spent about an hour with them. Unfortunately when I left the hotel ... I forgot to take my cell phone with me!! By the time we went back to the hotel (20 minutes later) it was already gone!! I had to spend some time after we had coffee talking to Verizon to get a replacement phone. On the way back to Conway we took the back roads instead of the interstate. It was a beautiful day. We stopped and had lunch at Arby's. Paul had a roast beef sandwich. He has a little trouble holding the sandwich but he managed to eat it all by himself. We headed home and met up with Nana (who didn't go with us) for dinner at Ann's house. We spent the evening relaxing and watching TV.

Wednesday morning we got up and Ann had made Pancakes for breakfast ... yumm!! Mom headed over to take Ann's trash to the dump. As Mom headed past the window Ann said "here come the trash lady"! Paul must have gotten a giggle out of that because he got a smile on his face! It WAS funny. I rode with Nana to the post office and the dump while Carl & Ann stayed with Paul. Ann has a very nice screened in porch on the back of the house and we spend a lot of time out there. Paul mostly wanted to stay in the house but he traveled around and tried out a couple of new places to sit. He went into the sun room again ... and sat there for quite a while. He also decided to go into the bedroom where Dad & I are sleeping and layed down on our bed! He took a little nap in his bed later in the day. Ann's bathroom is smaller than ours but Paul has figured out ways to get his walker in there. Dad doesn't like him doing that since it gets pretty crowded in there! Ann had to work later in the day so I went with her and hung out at the store. She works at a little gift store at the beach and was scheduled to work by herself so I went and helped out!! It was fun talking to the customers and we found that lots of them were from Virginia. I was able to converse with several folks ... and the cool thing is ... they are ALL on VACATION just like us!! Dad stayed at Ann's house with Paul & Nana. Nana made pizza for dinner and visited with Dad & Paul. Ann & I got home around 10:30 and Paul was already in bed. I have been sporting a cold and it looks like Paul may be coming down with something too.

Thursday morning Paul got up feeling very chipper. He had a shower and was at the table having breakfast when I got up. He was talkative and walked really good this morning. We were planning to head to Litchfield SC to a local Fish Restaurant. We had the BEST lunch. All of us had the same meal ... it was one of the specials for the day. There was so much food that we were stuffed ... five of us ate for less than $40!! After we were done we went to Captain Dick's in Myrtle Beach to check on taking a bay cruise that they run daily. It is something we might do on Friday. Next we headed to the beach. We were able to get a Handicap Wheelchair. It was a chair made from PVC pipe with a chair attached. It had large balloon tires on it. It was useable for going onto the beach but it was hard to push and Dad got quite a workout. Paul was able to take off his shoes and get his feet wet but he didn't really go into the water. The tide was very rough today and it wouldn't be good for any of us anyway!! I don't know that we will repeat this activity ... at least not this trip! We headed home and had a dinner of leftovers. One of Ann's neighbors came over and we visited for a bit. Mom & I headed to her house (just up the road) and I worked on getting her internet working. It appears that we finally got something to work for her!! YAHOO!! She hasn't been able to use the internet for the last two years (or at least MOST of that time)! After I finished getting her interned set up she and I sat and visited at her house over coffee. It was nice to be able to visit with her! Carl, Ann & Paul stayed at Ann's house and watched TV. Paul is feeling poorly tonight ... it appears he has gotten my cold. Actually I think it is BILL's cold ... that I caught ... and now Paul has!! Oh well!! He headed off to bed around 11pm. We will see what Friday brings!

Have a great day, Lynne & Carl