Thursday May 29, 2014 Verdi, NV

It got cool enough in the early morning that covers were needed.  Great sleeping weather.  It was 60 in the bedroom when I got up.  It wasn't cold enough to turn on a heater.

I fixed the coffee and while we were drinking that we caught up on computer time and talked about Gerri's visit with Kathleen and the girls last night.

I don't know if I have written about it before, but we have several friends here in the Reno area.  One of those friends, Don Damitz, was active in the community when I was the Downtown Area Captain.  Don lived in the Meadows Village area behind the Stratosphere Tower.  Also known as the Naked City. The area was overrun with prostitution, drugs and gang activity.  Don was a great help in our police planning and activities.  We became fast friends.  Don was confined to a wheelchair, he had lost a leg and wasn't a candidate for a prosthesis. His only family is a nephew and his wife who live in Susanville, CA.  When we returned from our cruise at the end of April I was unable to get him on the phone.  I finally called the manager of the apartment complex where he lived.  I was told that Don was at St. Mary's Medical Center and had been for over a month.  After several calls to St. Mary's they finally located him in the long term care unit. They tried connecting my call but there was no answer. Yesterday I had called St. Mary's to make sure he was still there.  I asked if I could be connected to his room and was told that it was difficult for Don to communicate.  We went to the hospital.  As it turns out Don had originally been being treated for an ulcerated pressure sore and had a stroke this past Sunday. Don has an advanced medical directive, Do Not Resuscitate, so the hospital isn't doing any heroic type treatment.  Don seemed to recognize us but was only able to squeeze my hand and make a few noises.  Since we are leaving the area next week I left our contact information with with the charge nurse and she left a message to have Don's cousin, Gary Tofoya, asking him to call me.  Gary drives a truck for a water company and his run is from Susanville to Reno several times a week.

After our visit with Don we had lunch at the Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant.  This is where we were having lunch in March when I passed out and ended up in St. Mary's having a pacemaker implanted. You know that if a horse throws you, you have to cowboy up and ride him again.  We were able to finish our meal without incident.  We probably won't be back, the food wasn't all that good.

After returning to the coach I went out geocaching.  Leaving Gerri to her computer and a possible nap. I found two, didn't find one and passed on hunting one.  The area I was caching in isn't far from the RV Park but it is across the Interstate and on the opposite side of the Truckee River, so it is a drive of several miles.  The one cache I didn't find was on an island formed by the Truckee River on one side and a large irrigation canal on the other.  There was a footbridge across the irrigation canal and ground zero for the cache was at a gate control.  Like I said I didn't find it.  What I didn't know was that the next closest cache was on the island about a quarter mile upstream.  I found that out after walking another quarter mile in the opposite direction to get back to the Jeep.

Along the banks of the Truckee River were several large expensively landscaped homes.  They were built very near the river level.  I don't think they would survive a 3 to 4 foot rise of the river.  Oh well, that's not my problem and they have beautiful surroundings while it lasts.

Our evening plans were to go to Kathleen's for the evening and have pizza.  We did that arriving about five.  Sean arrived in Reno on a flight from Seattle at 2:30.  He will live with Kathleen for an indefinite period due to some problems between him and his father in Seattle.  After having our fill of pizza we played a game of Phase 10.  Gerri won.  After that Kathleen, Sean, Shannon and I took a walk with their dog Todd. Before the walk I had told Sean I would play World of Warcraft with him.  He had set up the game on two computers. One upstairs and one down.  He gave up on my clumsy play after about 20 minutes and wanted to play on his own.  That worked out pretty well because it was 9 and time to go home.

We weren't back at the coach long before Gerri was in bed with her Sudoku book and then to sleep.  I think it was a little before 10:30 when I called it a night.