I was kidnapped for an afternoon date - Mon., July 25, 2016

Bob's been having a tough time of it health-wise lately. For the past week, he has had gout in his right foot which is so swollen and painful it's hard for him to get his shoes on. He hasn't been able to run on it either.

Plus, the basal cell carcinoma he had removed from his neck has returned. There is a hard nodule in the exact site where from whence it was removed last year. He will be going in next week to have it excised again. The problem is that when he had it removed last year, it was down to the nerve that supplies feeling to his face. They were able to work around the nerve, but he still had pins and needles sensations in part of his lower face for months after the surgery. (Those sensations finally went away.) If they have to cut into the nerve, it's possible he will lose feeling in part of his face for good.

On a positive note, the recent catheter ablation Bob had done for his atrial fibrillation is giving him relief. On his follow-up exam, they didn't find any sign of the A-fib. Bob has been feeling healthier and more energetic. When he runs now, he isn't getting tired like he used to.

Bob and I at Random a couple of weeks ago

Last week Bob mentioned taking this Monday afternoon off work so we could go on a date. Apparently he reminded me of it when he left for work Monday morning. However, I was still asleep and it didn't register.

I planned my day to go see "Star Trek: Beyond" at 12:45 p.m. As soon as the movie started (not even five minutes into it) my phone started buzzing. My first thought was, "OMG, I bet that's Bob calling me about our date." I had forgotten about it. Oops. A half hour later my phone buzzed again. He will just have to wait.

"Star Trek: Beyond" was excellent, way better than the critics made it out to be. I loved the action, the acting, the interplay between characters, the humor, the new uniforms, the sets, the surprises, the traps and the tricks. I think I have to see it again, because the one thing that was difficult to understand was the dialogue, especially when an alien was talking and there was a spoken translation at the same time, one layered on top of the other.

When the movie was over I listened to my voicemail from Bob. He thought he'd be home about 2:15 p.m. It was 3:00 when the movie finished, so I called him and told him I'd be right home. He gave me a whole list of activities to choose from, one of them being to see "Star Trek: Beyond." I went to see it without him because he doesn't like sci-fi, but he was willing to go see it with me. He also mentioned going to the Museum of Modern Art, going to look at 5th wheels at Camping World, and going to eat and play games at Dave & Buster's.

Geeky me got excited about going to eat and play games at Dave & Buster's. We had only been to Dave & Buster's in Hawaii and that was over five years ago. That was my choice. We had an excellent meal to which we each added $10 game play cards.

In the arcade part of Dave & Buster's it was sensory overload. Loud music was playing, video games were making all kinds of racket, and this is at 4:00 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. I'm so happy there weren't hundreds of people there so we could take our time and check out all the machines to see what to play.

Both of us chose to play Trivia and we did horribly. LOL. That's not like us. Then we wandered around the arcade checking out the games.

I told Bob I really wanted to do the H20verdrive boat races. So we both played (against each other). What fun! I loved it! I want to go back and play some more. The graphics are awesome and it is so fun to make the boat jump and do tricks. You collect gems and smash other boats along the way. What is so cool is that there are about eight courses to choose from and the graphics are beautiful. See the link above to watch a YouTube review that shows the graphics. The best thing about this game is each race is completed on your one turn.

After we finished two boat races, Bob went off to play Galaga and I chose a game where I directed a runner across raised platforms past all kinds of obstacles. You could make your runner turn right, turn left, jump, and slide. It was fun to figure out how to make this game work. If you move the rollerball forward, the guy jumps over obstacles. Rollerball right, guy turns right, rollerball left, the guy turns left. If you make the rollerball go backward, the guy slides down stuff. Obstacles include tree roots, gaps in the path, fire, and quick turns. You can collect energy diamonds along the way. The game was fun, but you had to keep putting credits in the machine to keep the game going. I never did finish it.

What a fun afternoon! I want to go back to do the boat races again.

When we came out of Dave & Buster's, raindrops were falling on our heads. As we drove home, we left the rain behind. By 9:30 p.m., however, the thunderstorms came in earnest. The thunder was rocking the RV and lightning lit up the sky. What impressed us the most, though, was the downpour of rain! Whee! Around 9:45 pm we had a power outage that lasted about ten minutes.

Tuesday: By morning, our site was flooded. About six inches of water surrounded our 5th wheel. (This is typical because we're in a low spot in the park.) After not having rain for a long time, the ground was so dry the water didn't soak in. By 1 p.m. the water was gone.

This morning, I wanted to see "The Karate Kid," which was showing for free at 10:00 a.m.  I hadn't seen it for a long time and I love the movie, so the price was right and I went. I got there pretty early thinking the theater would be full. Not so. They put us in one of the biggest theaters in the complex.

Usually this theater runs trivia and advertising for 20 minutes before they show the previews. However, 15 minutes before the movie was to start, all that was on the screen was what looked like the front page of a computer sign-on page. It said "Music, Videos, Live TV," etc. at the bottom of the screen, with clouds filling the top 2/3rds of the screen. I went and reported to one of the employees that there was nothing playing on the screen. She told me the previews would come on at 10 a.m.  Well, 10 a.m. came and went, I went and asked another employee about the movie. He actually seemed interested in helping me. Soon, a couple of employees were coming into the theater to check the status. Nothing.

After about 15 more minutes the theater manager came in to say they were having technical difficulties and they would give us free refills on popcorn and beverages. Say no more, I had a senior (small) popcorn and went out for a refill. That was nice.

Another ten minutes went by and the manager came back in to tell us they wouldn't be able to show "The Karate Kid" due to technical difficulties, but they would substitute the new "Ice Age: Collision Course," or "The Secret Life of Pets." Everyone wanted "Ice Age," so that was what they played for us. But not without further difficulties. They got the sound going, but all we could see on the screen was the front page of the computer with the clouds. After about five minutes of that, they finally got the movie visuals working and they re-started the movie for us. It was okay. I really would have rather seen "The Karate Kid."

After the movie, I went shopping at Costco for fruit, eggs, almond milk, and protein powder. Thankfully, Costco wasn't super crowded. I'm home now, have washed and frozen the strawberries and blueberries, and written my blog. Now I'm going to watch a movie from Netflix.

TravelBug out.