Monthly Archives: June 2017

They made it to Grand Island and camped a single night on the island.  The weather was unusually cold, they got lots of rain overnight and a couple of the boys got soaked.  But Jonny said the worse part was the mosquitoes.  They have never experiences such big mosquitoes and and the relentless attack and volume of the biting bugs in all their lives.  One of the boys said it was way worse than camping in the Everglades.  They took the first ferry back to the mainland the next morning and tried to warm up and dry out.  They camped on the main land for the next several days while battling some of the heaviest rainfall and thunderstorms the area has seen in years every night.  They got wet a few more times and where able to find a laundry mat where they could dry out, but they continued camping and Jonny commented they had some very low miserable times as well as some of the greatest best times on this trip.  It will definitely be a trip they will all remember and share and have many stories for rest of their lives to share with each other.

Jonny, Dustin Braden, Thomas Patton and Barry Bait are all taking a vacation to Grand Island located just off the shore in Lake Superior.  They are tent camping and hiking in a location where cell service is non existent and we have no way of communicating with him to make sure everything is OK.  He has been camping in the scouts before and does have some experience, so he knows how to primitive camp.  We are looking forward to hearing from him after he makes it back to civilization.

So far the recovery from the total knee replacement is slow and gradual.  The swelling has lasted for weeks and the bruising was nothing I have ever experienced before in my life.  I am making progress though and the pain has been severe at times but never excruciating and the pain meds seem to take effect in 15-25 minutes so I haven’t had to be in total discomfort for a very long time.  I have started home physical therapy and have tried to get up as often as a I can even if it’s just for a couple of minutes.  I can feel myself getting stronger every day and recently progressed from using a walker to using a cane after my 2 week post op visit today where they told me I was slightly ahead of where they expected me to be.  I am using the pain meds less often and hopefully wont require a refill.  Nikki has been good at taking care of me while allowing me to do simple things on my own to help keep me a little active.  I have noticed that all the sitting and laying down have made my rear end numb more times in the last couple of weeks that in the last year!

After our trip to San Francisco in February and me being unable to explore the city on footafter walking a short bit the first day, I decided it was time for me to get a total knee replacement in my left knee.  I set up an appointment back in March to get the ball rolling.  We are finally here after surgery was just completed on June 7, 2017.  They have me on pretty good pain meds and they are taking pretty good care of me so far.  This time through I didn’t wake up in the recovery room with immediate dry heaves like my back surgery last year, so that was a major improvement over my last surgery.

We held Jonny’s graduation party over at the Price’s house for both him and Natalie.  We had the Pizza Cottage truck serving fresh pizza. The party was well attended and everyone enjoyed the live band, drinks, cake and conversation even though it rained on and off several times.

Jonny earned his way into the State Championship track meet today held at Jessie Owens Stadium on the Ohio State University campus.  He was one of two athletes from Granville who made it to the State Championship meet.  He didn’t even make it all the way to the line before the gone went off and the race was on.  For the most part he positioned himself fairly well and at 400 meters he was in 5th place and with the pack.  At about the 600 meter mark he had fallen to 6th place.  It wasn’t until only 100 meters left that he really turned it on and he passed everyone but the leader he was catching as he just ran out of meters to run.  He took second place with a time of 1:53.48 and two tenths of a second from first place.

He was asked to represent the State of Ohio in next weeks Midwest Meet of Champions against the best that Michigan and Indiana have to offer.

Here is the video I took:

800 Meter Run