Set the alarm to get up early after a rainy night where Hubby had some trouble sleeping again. Can’t wait for him to get his sleep cycle back on track! Drove up to Port St. Lucie for his kidney clinic, then stopped for lunch at a great little diner called the Lighthouse Diner in Jupiter because he had a craving for liver & onions, then down to meet his new cardiologist, who seemed to be a very competent young man that will work well for us. A number of quick stops at the gas station, the liquor store (for a spot of brandy, being Christmas and all!), Walmart for a new prescription and finally Publix, to pick up a few things for Christmas dinner, arriving back at the house just as the sun was setting. Managed to get the horses fed before dusk was over, then settled down for the evening, looking forward to a couple of days without gray skies and rain, which is pretty much all we’ve seen since got here. But at least the temperatures have been warmer, thank goodness! Precisely why we come to south Florida in the winter!

With lots of rain in the forecast, and with Hubby feeling particularly low again today, we decided to once again relax today, hoping to recharge our batteries for the holiday week ahead. Had some trouble with his dialysis access again, getting quite frustrated at how much damage they did during his last declot, trying to recover his arterial with a sharp needle, and can’t seem to find his original venous buttonhole at all, though it seems like it’s there, but when I try to access it, I get no flash, darn it. Took nearly half an hour, but finally got a good enough flow to dialyze him, and it was relatively uneventful after that. That was enough excitement for one day, the rest of the day was dedicated Christmas movies and relaxing as much as possible.

As promised, we took most of the day off today. The biggest chore was helping Hubby with a long overdue shower, which we both appreciated when we finished, and spent the rest of the rainy day watching mostly Christmas movies and relaxing for a change.

Slept later than usual (must be the warmer weather), took care of the horses, then started to tackle the job of getting the alternator off. I managed to get it mostly done until I had to remove the serpentine belt, then I enlisted Jeff to help me long enough to remove that. He had an online coupon for Advance Auto, so I ordered the new alternator online and got 20% off, yay! He drove me downtown to get it, but before I was able to put it on, I had to get Hubby on his dialysis session. I had trouble with his access again. After a discussion with one of his nurses, we decided to try to recover his original buttonholes, but I had to use a sharp to find his arterial, it just wasn’t flashing like it should, and I couldn’t even find his old venous buttonhole, so I started a new one which I hope will work out. It took quite a bit of finagling, but I finally managed to get him going, and after that, it was an uneventful session, thank goodness. I was able to finish putting the alternator in (again, the only help I needed was for Jeff to help me get the serpentine belt back on), I got the trailer hooked up with electricity and water and got the awning out, so it’s more like home. I’d like to get the screen room and carpet out, but can’t until we move this pile of cement blocks, which Jeff said he wanted to move anyway, so that’s another chore on our ever-growing list. It’s been cloudy and rainy ever since we got here, I sure hope the weather clears up, I’m looking forward to sitting by the pool some fine afternoon! Meanwhile, we’re trying to get caught up on as much rest as we can, Hubby has been so weak since getting out of the hospital, and I’m still tired from all of the nonstop activity of the past couple of weeks. Didn’t get much today, but maybe tomorrow!

Got up just before 7:00 and started my final packing, and were pulling out of the Goethe State Forest at about 8:45, well ahead of schedule. We stopped once to pick up fuel and breakfast just before getting on I-95, and I noticed my battery light was on and my computer read-out was telling me my battery wasn’t charging. Amazing, it seems like almost every time we head to my brother’s, the last leg of the journey has some mechanical challenge. So we turned off all the electrics and kept an eye on the gauge, but it hardly moved during the rest of the nearly 2-hour journey. Then we got to my brother’s at the respectable time of about 2:00, I had no trouble whatsoever getting down his narrow drive (I’ve had a little more practice on driving this rig since last year!), but then we had some problems in the yard. There’s been a ton of rain here during the last few weeks, and living on the edge of the Everglades, his property half returned to swamp. We had a hard time turning around, and an even harder time trying to back up onto the little bit of high ground where we parked last year, and ended up getting stuck trying to maneuver between a light switch and a light pole that stand directly in the middle of where we were and where we wanted to be. We worked till nearly dark trying to move the trailer into a position that would work, but it was hopeless. We ended up deciding to just stay where we were until we could get someone with a 4-wheel drive (though I’m not sure even that will help!), or call a tow truck or just wait until we have enough dry weather to let us move. The only trouble with the spot, really, is that there’s a pile of cement blocks just outside the door, so I suggested that at some point we move them, which Jeff said he’s been wanting to do anyway, so that’s another chore on my list. Meanwhile, our original plan had been to drive into the parts store and get a new alternator, but after screwing around for 3 hours, my batteries were now dead, so that wasn’t possible. We decided we’d tackle it all in the morning. I ran the generator for a while, then we settled down for the evening, glad to be in warmer weather, at least, albeit raining off and on throughout the evening.

Spent the day getting ready to head out tomorrow, and got in another dialysis session. I had a little trouble getting him hooked up, the arterial needle just couldn’t find a decent flash, so it was a very slow day! Managed to get everything put away, got hooked up, and are ready to go first thing tomorrow!

Ran into Dunnellon to get propane tanks filled, and did some shopping while we were there, including having a nice lunch at The Front Porch Restaurant. Got back to camp and started packing up a few things, as we will be leaving Thursday and heading down to my brother’s in Jupiter.

Hubby ended up having a rough night, not so much because of his breathing, but because his old clavicle break has been acting up lately, probably because we’ve been off our regular routine, which was managing it quite well. I brought him an extra pillow, which helped, but he didn’t get much sleep, his mind was very active for some reason. I suspect he may have slept a bit TOO much during the day yesterday, and no question, his circadian rhythm is off after being in the hospital where they woke him up every hour during the night. Once I got him out of bed, I saddled up Apollo for our final job here, reclaiming the markers on the orange trail. Thankfully, a friend of Jo’s had already picked up all the green trail markers, so I only had the orange trail to do, so off we went to do so. It didn’t take Apollo long to figure out what we were doing, and he was brilliant today at stopping and letting me grab the marker before slow jogging up to the next group. It was a bit longer than I had anticipated, over 11.5 miles, which is nearly twice the longest ride I’ve taken on him in a LONG time, so he was pretty wore out by the time we got back. A nice cold rinse and some hay, and he was all set. Next job was to get Hubby on a dialysis session, and we’re going to have to start new buttonholes, which is a process that will take several weeks, and starts today with me not quite sure about it, but fortunately, both sticks were good, and we were off and running! An error free day, that went on very long because we were told by the dialysis unit that we had to keep our blood flow rate way down, which lengthened the time considerably, but frankly, I thought the more we could clear out his blood after last week’s debacle, the better. Eventually we finished, and settled down for the evening, after a productive day (including two loads of laundry!), and hopes that Hubby will have a better night sleep after staying awake most of the day.

As promised, we did very little today that we didn’t have to, sitting outside in the screen room in the fresh air for a good part of the day, until Jo showed up and asked me to help her pick up water troughs and buckets that were still out on the trail, which I was happy to do. It didn’t take long, and we were back in camp at dusk, perfect timing to feeding the horses and settling down for the evening. Hubby slept in his chair last night, but he’s ready to try sleeping in the bed tonight, hoping he can breathe okay. Fingers crossed!