Updates - Gold Sox - Prep

Well, since I am beat I will make this fast:

Mom comes home from the hospital tomorrow. Her recovery speed is nothing short of a miracle.  Both my siblings have returned home. Still need your prayers.  While we are on tour, local friends, fans, and family help them out if you can OK?!

Miles and I refitted the RV with new curtains and finished preparing the new (no more carpet) floor today.

Jim had to go to the Yuba Sutter Mall today to promote tonight's show at the ball game. (He stilted for 2 hours).

We performed all nine innings at the Gold Sox with 4 or 5 on field acts between innings.  I screwed up the timing (top of the inning, mid inning, etc...all confusing.) But we made it up in another inning so all went well and both the sponsor and the owners were happy.  Apparently we have lots of fans in the Marysville Yuba City area as many many many folks came over to tell us the time they saw us at one place or the other.  Awesome.

 End of the night Ollie.

Wish we took more pictures but we were constantly on the go. It would have made good reality TV!

Near the end I got a call from Mami...the water heater was leaking.   When I came home I discovered the cold water inlet hose was leaking in the exact place the hot water hose was leaking last year.  The hose is only 2 years old. UGH! I know what I am doing.

By the way the Gold Sox beat the SF team.   In your face Pelosi!

Miles Grad Mom Improves Life

Mom was moved from ICU less than a day after her open heart surgery. As you can see Dad is so happy the love of his life is looking well. Thank you for the prayers.

The Graduate!
While Dad and my siblings from San Diego went off to visit mom I went off for a new MRI for my back. Those of you who follow our blog know of my back issues. SO today they stuck me in the tunnel and I had a relaxing scan.  I even got a CD so I could look at the scan at home.
Lots of prep for the graduation and for our up coming tour and for our show for this Saturday at the Gold Sox Baseball Game. They are a small pro team in Marysville, CA. and we are the in between innings and strolling acts.
Like every graduation in this town the entire stadium area of town gets filled with every type of vehicle as thousands came out to see 266 kids graduate from Las Plumas HS.  It was nice.   Uncle JC, in spite of his troublesome afib problems came bearing gifts...almost 17lbs of  treasures. He hauled that around the streets to the stadium.  To top off his kindness, before coming to the graduation he went to the hospital and visited my mother and even brought her a beautiful juicy peach.  What a guy.

Family First Day

Readers of this blog know that recently we have not talked much about the show. It has been about family. We have a graduation coming up and have had the awards and ceremonies that have been leading up to it. We have also had a major illness in the family. Readers know my mother had surgery today to replace a heart valve.  The surgeons at Enloe Hospital, as well as the staff, have been stellar. 

There was one moment today that was particularly touching to me; the main contact nurse for my mother who came out from time to time during the 2.5 hour surgery came out at one point to update us and then she talked about how she got to know my mom the day before and how impressed she was with her attitude and all. My father shared his deep love and connection to mom and the nurse pointed out how she could see that in my mother and in the family.  I mentioned to her at that point that my brother and sister had drove all night just so they could be here for the surgery. I said that to make the point that she raised her kids right and they love her so much that they would drive so long and sacrifice sleep and comfort to be there. Truly, they are far better kids than I for I can't count the number of family gatherings I have missed over the years because of distance and time. 

In fact, I nearly missed seeing her before surgery today and I live 25 minutes away. I was told initially things would start at noon, then 11:45. I got to the hospital at 11:25 and they were already beginning to wheel her down to surgery.   I met them right outside the elevator just as they came down.  2 minutes later and I would have missed hugging her before going in all together.

The surgery went well and after a little more waiting we were allowed to see her in the ICU. She was asleep but at least we had a chance to see her. It is amazing how many tubes and wires one person could have hooked up to them.   Meeting the staff I believe she is in good hands. 

I can't tell you how grateful we are for the prayers from so many people.  I may have offended some people by asking them not to "think" of her but to pray for her. And I will explain why I did that. In my mind (an you may differ, that is fine) a thought is an inside self or selfish thing to do. To pray means to have faith, sacrifice self, bow to a supreme being, be humble and gracious and grateful to God.  Now, I know some of my friends are not  Christians nor share anything close to my faith. I don't think any less of you as a part of creation for that. But since my faith sees an outward action with prayer and an inward action with a thought, and barely an action at that, for we have thoughts constantly, I prefer prayer.   I might have offended a couple of my Facebook "friends" for I lost a few after making the request for prayer not thought (about 50).  But I suppose that means they were never really friends. 

So thank you all who prayed for my mother and continue to do so. And please if I can pray for you, never hesitate to ask. 

In regards to the show we have been asked by our VA fair booking to expand our show to add T Master Robot Ranger and we have had some inquiries for some open dates so our tour might be expanding. 

Tomorrow will be busy...MRI for my back issues in the morning, visit mom by lunch, try to launch new web pages for the Penny Farthing Bike Attraction and the T Master Robot Ranger Attraction, and then graduation for Miles. Hopefully my siblings will be able to make the graduation ceremony. Miles surrogate Uncle JC will be coming down from Paradise to attend; what a guy. You can't ask for a better friend. 

Somewhere in there business phone calls, emails, and other correspondences will happen. 

Blessed with a good family and friends and a gracious God I wish you a good night. 

Updates:

Ok....where do I start...well, dummy, why not the beginning? Hey great idea.  By the way, who said that? It was me, one of the voices in your head. Oh, OK. I thought I was going crazy there or something.  Tell the other voices goodnight for me. OK.
Well, I was born....uh, um...yeah? That's too far back...Oh....try today.  Oh, I get it.

This morning while Miles was a school Mami and I took James, Olivia, Victor, and Amelia down to the hospital to visit Grandma (my mom).  She is doing great.  Well, great for a person who has an atrial valve that looks like a piece of thread. But in great spirits, talkative, energetic, as long as she doesn't get out of bed, and a bit bored from being stuck in a hospital room.  Her room mate was a nice lady who was to have a similar operation today. Nice lady.   We learned that Grandma (mom) would be moved to Enloe hospital in Chico for an angiogram tomorrow morning (around  9ish) and then the doc will decide when to operate. (Chico is only 20 minutes away so that's a good thing. )  So around 6pm they moved her over there where she is resting comfortably and awaiting the procedure.  There is almost no doubt the operation will happen very very soon.
Since we are the kids who have elected to live nearby (OK, we tried to run away from Cali last year to move to KY but God had other plans and now we know why.) we are the point for the information dissemination.  Thank God for Facebook and this blog since they are helping keeping friends and family informed.
Happily lots of relatives, my siblings,  church siblings, and friends have been calling and visiting her during her stay at the hospitals. It has helped fight that boredom that comes from hospital stays.
One medical thing I noted while there is mom's blood pressure is all over the place and is constantly changing, going up, down and in between at each auto-check the machine does.  Vegas could run a game off the numbers for trying to guess what here systolic rate would be at each test.

Miles got his picture with Grandma yesterday so here are the rest.  Cynthia is still in KY so I may have to Photoshop her into a picture.

After the visit Amelia and I split off from the others to do our annual "June Thirders" birthday lunch....grant it a day late. This year she went for pizza and we hit a local pizza pie shop that had old video games and went all 80s for lunch.

It was a great time and we had a blast.  Watching my waist-line for the tour I resisted and had ONLY one slice....but I did have 4 or 5 small buffalo wings.  Cynthia called about that time and razzed me a bit on eating pizza when I am trying to lose weight. She has been my hardest critic on it...and I appreciate it.  I have reached the point that I no longer serve myself and Mami proportions my meal so I have not temptation to go big.

For those of you interested in my back issues (you know tumor in the spine) I will get a new MRI this week and see why I keep having spasms.

On the business side we are still doing all that get ready stuff, thought recent events have slowed us down. And we are still booking shows for the fall and even the winter. We even did a private family show (mini circus version) up in Chico this past Saturday which was a lot of fun. It was for a very nice family.

Good night and God Bless.

You caNNot make this day up!

You can't make a day like this up.  In fact, this whole year has been weird...but that is a whole other story I will share later. 

Today started , for me, with Mami waking me up. My father called and told us my mother was at the hospital.  He on going heart valve problem had brought about intense pain and discomfort. She has been told a new valve surgery will be needed soon. It may be sooner than we expected. The scans showed a pretty useless valve and her blood pressure is all over the charts. The call was a little after six and shortly afterwards I was on  my way to the hospital. They had stabilized her and by 10:30AM they moved her from the ER to a regular hospital room.  I headed home about then and started preparing for Amelia's Birthday party.  We decided not to tell the little kids about grandma until later in the evening.  

So while the kids were at Church Mami and I prepared the house for a gaggle of kids expected later on.   The day before Amelia and Mami baked the cake. It turned out beautifully.  The kids showed up, in fact more than we expected. And it was a ton of fun. I did some magic, Jim jugggled, and Miles did some bullwhipping.   I even demonstrated the Big Wheel Penny Farthing bike.  The kids ran through the sprinklers, decorated their own gift bags, had a water balloon fight and toss, and had a blast. We sugared them up with cake and ice cream and sent them home. 

By 4:10pm everyone was gone and we started to prepare for Miles baccalaureate at our church.  Our church family celebrates the graduating kids and their achievement and we pray for them and their future endeavors.  Lots of hugs, tears, advice and love.   On our way home we stopped by the hospital  to visit Grandma and got a picture of Miles and her together. 

At home we finally celebrated my birthday with rhubarb pie...I don't eat cake. 

That was the day in a nut shell....and just a very thin nutshell.  

Mish Mash

We are just about two weeks until we hit the open highways and in spite of Oil prices falling below $90 California continues to raise it's gas prices.  These rates didn't even exist when oil was over $150.  I am thinking someone is getting very rich as we hoofers are getting poorer.

As a nice send off our good friend Dean and JC came down from the hills of Paradise to sup with Mami and I at Tong Fong Lows. As always the meal was fantastic and the company even better.  JC and I have lunches together quite often when we are not on the road so this was our last hurrah before we drive off to bring smiles to families across America. Thank you guys!

Like a ghost from the past the evil name of David Lee Jackson from the Los Angelas Spring Fair (Faith Festivals, West Coast Festivals, from Victorville, Ontario, Hesperia, and Huntington Beach. ) reappeared in my life today.  Seems a legal group has gone after him.  One of the major acts from last year's Spring Fair, where he ran off without paying anyone, has already won a suit that allows the courts to put a lean on any property of Mr Jackson's in one of the southern Counties. However, the gentleman I spoke with today is going for the rest, so to speak. David Jackson and his wife Lisa Forsythe Jackson have been, in a manner, hiding from their creditors for over a year now.  I can tell you that any one looking for him he has listed himself as COO of Discovery Agency, inc., an insurance referral company in either Victorville or Ontario.  If any of you still looking for him finds him. Please remind him he owes us several thousand dollars and would love to be paid for services rendered.

As for other avenues of our life all are doing well. Most of our time is focused on graduation and show prep. I can't wait for that road!

Memorial Day

First...thank you to all those who gave their lives, limb, family member, anything and everything for the freedoms we enjoy today.  There is no greater love than someone giving their life for another, especially when that other is someone they don't even know or who have ever met.  Thank you.

Second...It was my hope to attend a ceremony today here in Oroville today but things going on here kept me from going and I regret that.

Third...later in the day (just a few minutes ago) Nick and Olivia modeled their costumes for their new duo act:

They also practiced a bit on the trapeze.  We had the opportunity to meet Nick's new girlfriend. Very lovely young lady.  I know they look superhero-ish but for us that is whimsical and fun. We try to keep the modesty.
In violent protest from Mami (OK, it was really violent...unless looks could kill) I rode the Penny Farthing to keep in practice.  I also showed Nick how to do it. And yes it is all on video.