Rodeo Saturday Night!

I went to the Ruston Peach Festival Rodeo Saturday night. Saw the whole thing. I was there later than some of the regular rodeo fans. I was up until eleven. Saturday morning I walked at the park and then in the afternoon I walked the whole Peach Festival downtown. I walked 7500 steps. Twice my previous best of the year. Sorry about the photo quality. They do give the feeling of the rodeo.

This cowboy was riding the mechanical bull. He was off right after this photo.

Family singing in a pickup before the rodeo.

They sang good.

Color guard.

More opening ceremonies.

Wild horse riding.

Looks like a fun ride.

Have you ever heard of Skip Riussell? 

Lots of kids chasing a little cow.

Barrel race.

Wild bull riding.

2014 Ruston Peach Festival

Nice parade. No bands or horses however.

Hope they never need this swat car!

Corner of Alabama and Trenton.

Nice Tee shirt.

Sons of the Confederate Army still marching.

Drummers too.

They fired a volley. See the smoke?

Inside of City Hall.

Bless the Beta Sigma Phi

Crafts outside the City Hall

Gourmet food.

Classic Woody!

Car Show.

Free Concert at the Dixie.

My annual dish of peach ice cream. They put lots of fresh peach bites in it!

(Widower 1) Being a widower was new to me.

I knew that I had to get busy. I had a strong feeling that when Jackie passed away that I was worthless and did not have a job or function. There did not seem to be any reason for my existence. I so missed the daily routine of caring for Jackie. I missed Jackie.

The first and easiest way to busyness was to become a sports fan. I went to Louisiana Tech and signed up for aqua-exercise classes.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for an hour. It cost $54 per quarter.  I have not missed a quarter since the first class I went to in 2007. It is the best $54 that I spend. I get three units a quarter, I estimate that I will graduate in 17 years. I have a picture id student body card that gets me into all Tech sports events for free. The events; football, basketball (men and women). volleyball. baseball, softball, track, and soccer are all within 15 minutes of my home. It gives me access to a large room full of exercise machines. And an indoor track. I am still studying to be a sports fan but in the meantime I am having a fun time.

I got into genealogy. I wish that I had done this years ago. I have learned all sorts of things about my grandparents.  Jackie and I drove our RV through New Haven, Connecticut several times. The grave of my 8th great grandfather is located there.

There were other spots that we were that figure in our ancestry. To me, it is very interesting and satisfying to know about your ancestors. I have slowed up on my genealogy study but it is there and is something that you can do sitting at a computer.

I have made many trips (a notable trip was to England and France, courtesy of my daughter Nancy)

I have made four driving trips to the West Coast and three to the East Coast. I have made many stops of interest on these trips. Such as; petrified forest, meteor crater in Arizona. Big Bend, TX, White Sands, Reagan Library, Nixon Library, Bush Library, and the Peabody Museum of Natural History to name a few.

I will cover some items in more detail in the next few blogs on my years (they are not over yet, some one will let you know when they are) as a widower.

(RV 42) The end of RVing for Jackie and I was when her health failed.

Jackie Ireton Monson. My wife lived 1925 to 2007. Her last three years was a  battle with failing health. Jackie had good health for 78 years. Then a lot of things went wrong. She was so brave and suffered quietly. She was always that way. God Bless You, Honey. RIP.

We were in the middle of our 2003 four-month winter trip. We had been in Vegas for three weeks. We had plans to visit Nancy in Dana Point. But Jackie decided that she should go home. On January 1, 2004 we headed home. We were camped at the Thousand Trails Park in Morgan Hill when Jackie’s heart acted up. We went to the Gilroy Hospital. Jackie stayed there two days.

We made it home. Jackie's health and her kidneys failed and she was eventually forced to use a walker and a wheel chair. The night before her last trip to the hospital John and I built a ramp for her. She came out of the trailer and saw this sight.

She was impressed and said "oh my".

We pushed her in her wheel chair down the ramp. She did not come home again and did not get to ride the ramp going up. For Jackie it was a one way ramp.

Date	Action	Where	Remarks
1/2/04	Emerg. Rm, Admit	Gilroy Hospital. (2 days)	A-fib.
1/24/04	Emerg. Rm	Jefferson Hosp	Heart plus ?
2/20/04	Emerg. Rm	Jefferson Hosp	Heart plus ?
12/13/04	Emerg. Rm. Admit	Harrison Hosp. (4 days)	Kidney biopsy
12/18/04	Emerg. Rm Admit	Harrison (4 days)	Blood creatine was 3.3. Normal is 1.
1/7/05	Emerg. Rm	Jefferson Hosp	?
1/24/05	Emerg. Rm Admit	Harrison (2 days)	Weak
3/22/05	Emerg. Rm Admit	ILM Hosp (2 days)	?
10/5/05`	Admit	Harrison (8 days)	Start dialysis on Oct 9, 2005. First of 219 dialysis treatments before Jackie passed away.
12/29/05	Emerg. Rm	Jefferson	?
1/1/06	Emerg. Rm	Jefferson to Harrison (7 days)	X rays, scans, install a catheter in artery.
2/20/06	Fell. Broke left hip	Amb to Harrison (3 days) plus (12 days) in Port Orchard rehab.	Repair hip
3/9/06	Admit	Amb to Harrison (11 days) plus (10 days) in rehab	Pnuemonia
4/2//06	Fell	Broke T-9 vertebrae.
4/23/06	Bleeding	Harrison emergency
10/1/06`	Fly to Ruston, LA
11/8/06	Heart cauterization	Green Surgery, Dr Billy Smith
11/14//06	Emerg Rm (My notes say this was the 4th Emerg Rm trip to Lincoln)	Lincoln Gen Hosp	Short of breath. Pain in left side
11/24/06	Emerg. Rm	Lincoln Gen Hosp
11/25/06	Emerg.	Lincoln Gen Hosp	Weak
1/13/07	Emerg. Rm	Lincoln Gen Hosp
1/24/07		Lincoln Gen Hosp	Bone scan
1/11/07	Samstown Casino	Shreveport	Jackie got Royal Flush. Last casino trip.
2/14/07	Emerg Rm Admit	Lincoln Gen Hosp. (17 days)	Found lungs are bleeding!
3/9/07	Amb to Emerg	Lincoln Gen Hosp	Weak, impacted bowel.
3/10/07	Jackie checked herself in after dialysis.	Jackie thought she should be in the hospital. She did not come home again.	There was no obvious emergency.
3/14/07	Called me in the middle of night	In great pain	Nurse could not help.
3/17/07	Pass away at 00:26. The doctor reported the cause of her death was Acute myoc infarction. (Heart failure)