Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

Yesterday was a good day, though it was kind of busy. We had many of the regular things we do, as well as taking care of Stacy (she is supposed to be with her mother on Wednesday and Jason was asked to keep her with him, while Jackie went to her preschool). Stacy was with us until late afternoon, about 15:30, when she was picked up. Jason didn't get over to the gym, like he planned, but perhaps that was a good thing, and allowed him some time to just lay back in his bed. Anthony came over and visited with us, and now that I am working the QuickBooks for him, and Stand Up USA, he wanted to discuss some of the things going on. The good news is that more and more of the paramobiles are being purchased and given to the guys who need them. The bad news is that more and more of the paramobiles are being purchased and that means there is a bunch more paper work to be handled and information (data) to be handled. Once we were finally caught up with most of the items and issues that we need...

Another day in beautiful San Diego, and now Linda is up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Heck, with her up there maybe the Giants can start winning again. I have no idea what has gotten into those guys. I really thought they were going to be doing great this year, and now they can't seem to win a game - but that's another story and I have other, more important things to cover in this blog. Like I said Linda left this morning and flew up to San Francisco, to spend almost two weeks up there. When she arrived, only half her luggage came with her. Southwest managed to split the two pieces and the second one came up on the following flight. I have really become disappointed in airline travel, anymore. They used to show some customer service, and now you're lucky to end up in a shorter line that seems to be moving. Anyway, Linda made the trip safely and won't have to deal with them again until her next flight. Linda will be driving back down with our friend Karen Ryan, and th...

Not much to report today, other than everybody is doing well and that Jason did go in to Balboa for an appointment with PT. When we got there we discovered that the appointment hadn't been made, and so Mike, one of the therapists there, stepped up to fill in the time for Jason. Actually, Mike is pretty good and knows Jason pretty well, so it wasn't too difficult for him, and Jason was comfortable working with him. A short while after getting there the woman who basically runs the shop came up to Jason and apologized that it happened and immediately set up appointments through to the end of August, and now Jason has a print out of all the dates. Linda will be heading back up to Livermore, well, to the San Francisco Bay Area, and will be up there for about 11 days. She is going up to do some things with the Blue Star Moms in San Francisco, and then head over to Livermore to spend a few days with some friends and take care of more personal business. She will be then driving back...

A wonderful start to a good day. We took the girls to church this morning, but not until I had gone to the gym and did a couple of miles on the treadmill (I wanted to get my cardio in, since I wasn't able to go for a bike ride). They also had breakfast and a bath, and fortunate for me, Linda helped with that, so that I would get a chance to cool down a bit. We were planning on heading up to see Linda's parents, and the girls were very excited to be able to go see Nana and Tata. Jason did not go with us, as we were also going up to see just how we could arrange for him to get into their home, as it is not ADA friendly. I brought up a ramp with me, and found that it wouldn't work on their steps, so I talked with Linda's dad, Joe, and we think we can easily build a ramp next time we're up, we just have to do it while we're there. What we figure is that there is a community club house that everyone, including Jason, can go to while the ramp is built, and then Jaso...

I hope all are doing well, and that you didn't mind not having a posting yesterday. At the end of the day I was kind of tired and just went to bed, rather than do my normal blog entry. On top of that I realized I left out an important item from Thursday post, so I'll simply start today's blog post with that one entry from Thursday. On Thursday, we all went to the Library. Well, actually, Linda had taken Stacy to the Library while Jason and I were over at the hospital. I called her when we were done and she asked if we would be able to come over to the library, and Jason was up for that. We got to the library and Stacy was very excited to see us, especially Daddy. She took him around and showed him some of the things she was involved with (they have a reading program for the summer and she is attempting to get 100 books, in this case, since she doesn't read much yet, she gets us to read the books to her). She has won several of the prizes already, and today picked up a...

Today started out with a message that let us know that Stacy was not coming over to the house, as she was going to be taken to the doctor - she wasn't feeling well. We didn't hear anything else, so we can only assume that she is okay, and we'll find out tomorrow morning what happened. She and Jackie will be coming back to the house tomorrow, as it is Jason's time with the girls, beginning tomorrow. We were just going to be taking care of Stacy today, to help out, while her mom was at work. As it was, I was able to go for a longer bike ride and at about the 20 mile mark I got a flat tire. It was the front tire, and there was still a couple of miles to go, to get back to the house - actually it was almost 3 miles. I had done a few good hills today and was feeling kind of tired, so I decided to give Linda a call and have her come pick me up. I think it was faster doing it this way, anyway. Once I got home I cooled down a little bit and then took a shower. Jason had com...

Jason didn't have anything going on at the hospital until later this morning so I took off for a quick bike ride. I am starting to feel like I'm finding my stride again, and did a quick 12 miles. I call it quick because it took me well under an hour to do - of course the hills were limited, so that allowed me to move along pretty good, and there were only about six traffic stops along the way. I might have to put a little more focus on these short trips and put in longer ones as I can. The appointments at the hospital were good, with a particular focus on the Wound Care meeting. They are happy with how Jason is doing and with the planned laser treatment. We all are hopeful that things will continue in a positive direction, and that is pretty much what we expect most of the time. The real point of excitement today wasn't about his care though, it was about his hair cut. He received a bunch of complements about how good he looked. He got a hair cut yesterday, and left the b...

Jason and I took off relatively early this morning, first to drop Jackie off at the day care, and then for Jason to go on to his dental appointment. Jason has a cavity, well, I guess it is "had" a cavity now. Actually a small one, but still it was something they wanted to fix, so it was done. When he was done he was scheduled for another follow up appointment, for six months from now. If we have fortune on our side it will be prior to our move to Jason's new home, as I think that will happen close to that same time, otherwise we'll be driving back down for another appointment. Not much else going on, other than catching up on some of my email and getting some relax time in, and did my best to make Linda a little more comfortable. She picked up some sort of bug and wasn't feeling to good this afternoon. She didn't finish her dinner so I basically told her to go lay down and relax, while I took care of the rest of the evening (cleaning up after dinner and gett...

Not much to blog about today. Jason rested most of the day and Linda and I pretty much took care of a few of the things we've been wanting to do with some of the stuff in the garage. I did get to head out for a short bike ride, and I got a chance to read Oliver North and Bob Hamer's new book, Counterfeit Lies. I recommend the book if you enjoy the old cloak and dagger type stories. I did have to put it down a couple of times to take care of other things, but it is a great read and I went back to it just as soon as I could. I also put a few hours in with Stand Up and Play, as I am doing their QuickBooks now, and I think Anthony Netto (the founder) is happy with what I have accomplished so far. The cool thing is that more and more people are becoming aware of the paramobile and understand just how helpful it is, in the recovery of those who can no longer get around like they used to. I recommend that you check it out, when you get a chance, and I think you'll be surprised. ...

Today was a good day, with Jason heading up to Oceanside and taking Gracie to her training. She has gotten a bit lacks in her "service dog" duties, and the trainers noticed. They said it would take a few sessions and then she should be back to where she was. While we were there Gracie got a very nice pedicure and it looked like she really enjoyed it. The lady doing the work on Gracie's feet is Alley, and she offers to all the folks there, this same treatment for their animals. We also met up with Anthony Netto and Angelica, and then went to have lunch with them after the training session ended. We met up with a friend of Anthony, Steve, who is a retired Navy Seal. He talked about getting Jason out in the water, and possibly doing some diving with him, maybe even this year! Jason is open to the idea, so we'll see what happens. Jason and I then headed on back to the house, where Linda had been all day. She took advantage of being the only one at home, and played t...

Another good day here, in San Diego. We all got up, early enough - and there really wasn't much going on in the morning. We had talked about taking Stacy to to see the new Planes movie, and that wasn't showing until 10:10, that means I had time to go for a bike ride - so I did. Actually it only gave me a little more than an hour to go, so I made it a short ride, 12 miles, and I made it in 59 minutes, and that's including the stop lights I had to contend with. I was pretty happy with the ride, and I was also pretty sweaty. I cooled down and took a quick shower, then we all went to go see the new Pixar movie. It was done well, and Stacy had a great time. There was some "adult" humor thrown in there, but it didn't detract from the movie. After the movie we brought Linda and Stacy back to the house, then Jason and I headed back over to Balboa, to meet with his primary, and urology. As it turned out they are concerned with the recent infection that Jason had to d...

Yesterday and today were both kind of quiet, and there really wasn't much going on. The girls swim lessons ended today, and Stacy was particularly excited about how much she has been able to accomplish. She can not only hold her breath much longer than before, she announced she can now do flips under water. Jackie on the other hand  was very happy to have the swim lessons come to an end. I think she was getting tired of being in the pool and forever having to get her face wet and sometimes under water. Perhaps in another year, or two, she will be better with the water, and it will become much more fun. There were a couple of appointments for Jason, with one of them being with the Wound Care folks. That one was a little more exciting than usual, as we were able to get with the doctors (there were 3 of them there this time), and we discussed some of the future steps that we would like to explore, and it was agreed that we would see another treatment of lasing the wound and seeing i...

It occurred to me that I made a comment in my posting, last night, that left a bit of a question, just hanging out there; so, here is the answer... Linda found her wallet a couple of hours later, and as some may have guessed, it was in her purse. Jason slept a large portion of today, and I really don't know why, other than he was tired. Actually, that's the part that puzzles me, because we didn't do much yesterday, and I thought he went to sleep last night at a reasonable hour. Be that as it may, when he woke and began moving around and talking he seemed very much normal and regular old Jason. Then again, 31 isn't very old... ;-) We got up and got the girls fed, and then we were off to swim lessons. Stacy is doing very well, and Jackie is still getting used to the water. They have been working on holding your breath more and Jackie tends to want to close her mouth after she is already under water. She's getting better at it, and I would guess that by tomorrow sh...

"Just another manic Monday..." Okay, maybe not that crazy, but it was kind of busy to get started this morning. We had planned that, because I wanted to get out for a 20+ mile ride that Linda would do the driving to the swim lessons. Basically it meant that they were going to go to the swim lessons; drop Jackie off at the Child Development Center; and, then come back to the house. This would have given me a generally good early start on the ride. It didn't happen that way... Just as we were getting ready to get the van loaded up, Linda couldn't find her wallet, which contains her I.D. (very important for getting on a military base, even if it is just a hospital). We all got involved in the search, and because of the time (didn't want the girls to be late for their lessons) I said I would take them to the base and not go on the ride. We got to the base, and the lessons went off very well. Stacy is doing great and Jackie seems to have lost most of her fear of the ...

Wow, July 13 already, and that means that half the month is almost gone... already. I can still see and almost feel this past Christmas and New Year. I guess time flies when you're having a busy life and enjoying things around you. We took the girls to church this morning, thought Jason remained back at the house. He wasn't feeling up to being up anymore than he absolutely needed to be; so, it was okay by me that he stay down and rest. It looks like we might be making some headway on those two wounds again, finally, and being down is contributing to the healing. At church the service was out on the huge lawn, in front of the Library, right across the street, from the church. It was different and actually kind of fun. Many of the folks were saying that we should have done this long ago, and that they hoped it would be done again. There was a BBQ after the services were over, so the girls were more than happy to head back over and get a couple of hamburgers. The rest of the d...

A nice day for Jason, and for the Ross family. The day was relaxed, and though we did do a couple of things, it was one of those days where we should have done more, but just didn't want to. Linda had a meeting today with the Blue Star Moms, and other than that, we all stayed home - well, there was a trip to Costco, and that was it. About the same time that Linda went to her meeting I took the girls to the local park, so they could run and have some fun. There were a couple of other small children there and they all immediately got into simply chasing each other around, with no particular target other than to simply run. We stayed there for a little while and then they all basically decided to leave at about the same time. With that, we walked back down, towards the house, where there is yet another smaller park. We stopped there this time and the girls (just the two of them this time) had more fun and when they got a little tired we walked the rest of the way home. The timing ...

This morning started a little awkward with a rush to get up and over to the girls swim lesson, and then we found out that they didn't have swim lessons on Friday. Actually it worked out because Stacy and Jackie were there anyway, as their mother brought them; seems she didn't know there were no lesson on Friday either. Stacy looked a little tired, and then we found out the girls didn't go to their swim lesson on Thursday, because they had been up late the night before, with Stacy going to the Cher concert with her mother, Wednesday evening. Jason was not happy about this, but understands when the girls are with their mom she can take them anywhere she wants. The rest of the morning was a little more organized, with Jason needing to take care of a small issue at the base, and then we went to get some breakfast. The girls remained with their mother, as Nana is in town (the other grandmother) and Linda said she understood that if she was in town and leaving, she would want t...

Today was a mixed day - it started out well enough, as I got to go out for a bike ride, and put in 16 miles. After that I came home and made breakfast. I had promised to fix breakfast today, a few days ago, so I needed to fulfill my commitment. It was a simply chorizo with eggs and potato combination, and of course tortillas. Jason's friend Rebekha had never had them, so it was a first for her, and she seemed to enjoy them. I then did some work with Stand Up And Play, and a bit later we, Linda and I, took the Fusion down to get it washed - it was looking pretty bad. That is pretty much how the day went. Nothing outstanding going on, and nothing happening that caused us any hardship. Well, there was one phone call that Jason received from the VA. Apparently there has been some sort of a goof up where he has to go out and test again with the driving, otherwise there isn't going to be much progress with the truck. As you might guess, this kind of irritated Jason, but he soon reg...

For anybody out there still wondering... yes, today is my birthday, and we had a great day together. First we took the girls to their swim lesson, and they were then picked up by their mother, so we won't be seeing them again until Friday. After that, Linda and I headed back to the house to pick up Jason, and Rebehka, to get Jason over to his appointments. Actually, at this point, Linda took off to get her hair done, because we were planning to go have some fun tonight and she wanted to look her best for me (she still does stuff like this for me.) and wouldn't by done until the afternoon. Jason had a couple of appointments, with the big one being his dental appointment - or at least to me it was the big one. He got his teeth cleaned and the tech came out complimenting him on how good his teeth looked and told me we did a great job in getting his teeth taken care of, when he was a child. Jason then told her that he never had braces and she was totally surprised. She then sai...

Today was a very nice day for the Ross household. We took the girls to their swim lesson and then we went to the famous San Diego Zoo. We have memberships and this was our first time to get to exercise those memberships. We all (Stacy, Jackie, Grandma and Grandpa, Jason and his friend Rebehka). The only thing, was that it was a very warm day and the sun was very bright. We did our best to stay in the shade but we were all feeling the affects of being in the sun by the time we left, and that was only a couple of hours later. The girls really enjoyed riding the tour bus - and so did I. Linda and I actually took the girls back to the zoo, later this evening, after dinner and we looked around a little more. Funny part is that they were mostly interested in the baby ducklings running around the park. Not much else going on today, though tomorrow is going to be a little more, on the busy side. We have been invited to go out on a dinner cruise, out on the bay. Linda and I have wanted to get...

Yesterday was an awesome day. We went to see the Giants vs. Padres game at Petco Park and it was a very good game. We again sat in the owner's box and had some of the best seats in the house, and watched the Giants win their second victory over the Padres. The only problem with that is that the Padres had to loose, and I kind of like that team as well. The Padres have been good to Jason and me - heck, the entire family, these past couple of years and so that makes it much more difficult to want to see them loose. I do have to admit that I would like to  see the Giants make another World Series. After the game there was a concert/performance by Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band, and Jason got to go on stage and address the crowd. He was like a natural performer out there. The crowd loved him and he was able to talk with them in total comfort. I think he enjoyed it more than he expected. The band it self was really good to listen to and the people were dancing and jumping. It went o...

Nice relaxed day, and change from yesterday. Jason is doing much better and it looks like everything is a go for the ball game tomorrow (Giants vs. Padres). We actually watched the second of the three game series on TV, tonight and the Giants won. Tomorrow will be the last game these two teams play this year, barring any strange playoff shake out. What is difficult about these two teams playing is that I find myself wanting to cheer for both of them. The Giants have always been my team, since I was a young boy, in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've supported them in their worst years and enjoyed the victories of a couple of World Series. With the Padres, Jason and I have been here for a couple of years now and they have been very good to us. They arranged for us to get the Bruce Bochy autograph ball, and all the other contact we've had with the team. I have made a couple of efforts to get in contact with the Giants and have not heard back from them, at all, and that is disappoint...

Happy Birthday to the United States! We're 238 years old today! Gee, I feel pretty good for that age... ;-) This morning started off with a "Bang!" That was because I got up, just a little before 08:00 and got dressed to go for a bike ride. We didn't have any appointments in the morning, or anywhere else to go, as far as I knew. I came down stairs and saw that Jason wasn't looking to good - he had that pained look on his face, and I knew something was wrong. He had gotten another UTI (urinary track infection), and with him they are VERY painful. The bike ride was cancelled and within about 10 minutes we were headed to the ER at the Naval Hospital at Balboa. When we arrived, as you might expect, they were very quiet, and we were only the third vehicle in the upper parking lot. Usually that lot is full, and the lower lot has a bunch of cars. We walked in and got immediate service, and they got Jason in to their medical area (as opposed to the waiting room) and t...

Today began with me going out for an early morning bike ride (about 15 miles), and prior to leaving I checked in with Jason to make sure I had all the schedules and appointments aligned in my head. He told me he had two appointments, with the first to be at 10:00. This was good because it gave me about two hours for the bike ride followed by a cool down. I left the house and just after 08:00 and got back at 09:05. I felt it was a good ride because I did hit mostly green lights, and only three long red lights. Actually, the red lights allowed me to catch my breath a little. I got back into the house and sat down to cool off a little so that I could take a shower. I did this and Jason and I made our way out to the van. Jason went on his way to his first appointment and I went over to the ASYMCA, to talk with the about an up coming fishing trip that Jason and I are signed up for, and also to simply visit with Cherri, the director for a few minutes. While sitting there Jason gave me a ca...

A bit of a busy morning for us, as both Jason and I had appointments, and to make it a bit of a push, we also had to get Jackie to her pre-school, and pick up a friend of Jason's at the airport. My appointment was with the VA, Dermatology wanted to take some pictures of a couple of spots on my back and shoulder, and one behind my left ear. There wasn't too much concern about them, just that because I am so fair skinned that they want to keep an eye on it. That means Linda and Jason have to "monitor" any changes, since I can't see behind my ear, or on my back (funny how that works). After that appointment we took Jackie to her school and then we ran to pick up Rebecca, at the airport. I found out that the USO will validate a parking ticket stub, if you take it to them - and you also have to be military or retired military, so Jason qualifies on two fronts. What this did for us was to allow us to park for free, while we waited. Rebecca is a friend of Jason, and th...

Today was a nice easy day for Jason, and the rest of us. Not too much going on, and honestly, about the biggest thing that happened was that I took the SemperFi Rollx van in to get washed. It looks pretty good now, and I think the folks at the car wash did a good job of getting all of Gracie's hair of the interior area. The only other thing that happened was that I went for a nice bike ride (just over 12 miles) out to the Cabrillo National Monument, and worked the old legs pretty good. Some of those hills are on the steep side and I did feel it. Where I felt it the most was when there were a bunch of other riders out there passing me up, when going up the hill. Now I could pull the "age" card, but the truth be known is that I just haven't gotten into the right workout pattern, and I am still out of shape. Linda and Stacy had a great time, going and doing some shopping, and library time. Stacy loves the library and even came home and wanted to pretend the house was a...