Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

Over the past several months (almost a year?) we have been talking with Jason about him needing to get out and get some exercise at a gym. Well, yesterday he went to the gym ... the gym on Camp Pendleton that is connected with the Wounded Warrior Battalion. It was very good in that it gave him the chance to do some specific exercises, on specific equipment, that was designed to help him with his shoulders and back. He also worked on his core muscle group, and was very pleased with himself afterward. When he was finished with the gym he went over to see some of his friends at the EOD Company and even brought them a gift - a large bottle of his mead. Unfortunately the mead didn't make it. As he was entering the building he hit a bump and the bottle, which was resting on the power chair, fell off and broke. Needless to say, he was disappointed - as were the guys at the EOD company. He still had a good visit and will be bringing some mead again on the next visit (probably tomorrow). ...

Over these past several days, our household has been very busy, to say the least. Amazingly it all came together and we were able to get up to Livermore to pay our respects to the Ferea family, as they had to deal with the death of Ron, the head of the family. Jason was able to get some time with one of his closest friends, Matt, and I think it was really good for both of them. We also spent a little time with Margie, Ron's wife, and their daughter Megan. Linda and I (mostly Linda) had a special relationship with the family, as both the kids, Matt and Megan, were in Linda's child care, and then Megan even worked for Linda for a couple of years. Matt and Jason were in Scouts together, so that was another connection and we seemed to always have things going on with them. Ron will be missed by many. We flew up to Livermore, courtesy of Veteran Airlift Command (VAC), in a Pilatus aircraft, and it was a very smooth flight. After we landed, Jason made the comment that it was much ...

It looks like things are coming together so that we will be able to head up to Livermore, again, this weekend - Sunday to be specific. We will be returning on Monday, in the afternoon or early evening, so this is simply going to be a fast trip. The reason for the trip is so that we can pay our last respects to a friend of ours, Ron Ferea, who passed away a couple of days ago, and his funeral is going to take place on Monday. It was important for Jason to be there. Ron and Margie were married for almost 40 years, and they have two children, Matt and Megan. Matt and Jason basically grew up together, and whenever you found one of them, you found the other. Ron and I even took the boys to Japan to hike up Mt. Fuji - it was a part of a Boy Scout adventure (High Adventure at that), and just one of the many times we all did something together. I even had the pleasure of working with Ron on a construction project (Vacaville Kaiser Hospital), where he was one of the contractors working on the...

I remember when we were in a drought, wait, that was just a couple of months ago. We are coming up on the 25th day of this year, and it has rained, here in San Diego County, 22 days. The "average" rain fall for this area is about 10.45 inches, over the year. Last year we had 10.25, and this year we've already had about 6 inches (much higher than normal). I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that we are going to have a wet year... ;-) Things are going well, though, and we have not had any down time due to lost power, or flooding of the roads. Sometimes the network has dropped and the phones are not always working, but those are the only signs that the weather is a little more harsh than normal. Heck, we even had hail, and when that happened the girls were very excited. They were hoping it would continue and turn into snow... it wasn't that cold. Overall, the girls, and the dogs, loved the rain. The rest of us just had to deal with it and clean up the mud bei...

It is already the 10th day of the year and it seems to have gone by so very fast. On top of that it has rained nearly every day, and for this part of California, that's a bunch... we do need the rain, though. Jason is doing well, and we continue to work on better ways to make him comfortable, as well as continue to work with all the medical teams. His one wound is being particularly stubborn, and just as it looks like it is going to be closing up it starts to open up a little. When I say open up, what is really happening is that the immediate skin around the wound site starts to break down and goes away. The BIGGEST challenge is blood flow to that area. This is something we've been aware of for a few years now, and we are constantly looking for ways of making improvements. One of the ways was the new prosthetic he received from Aspen/Ride Design (also known as the "wearable"), and it helped greatly. The only issue with that though, is that we have kind of hit a limi...

Actually, I guess I should say, "Happy Old Year" since the new one doesn't begin until tomorrow. Actually, Google pointed out that on the Gregorian calendar, December 31st is also known as the Old Year Day... but I digress, as that isn't what I intended to cover with this post, but it is kind of interesting. Anyway, we have had a few busy days recently. We have a new grandson, born on December 28, at 4:00 in the morning. He weighed in at 8lbs 5oz., and his name is Noah Alexander Ross and he is the third son of our 2nd son, David and his wife Miriam. That makes five grand kids now, and we're very happy. Both Mom and Dad are doing well, as well as their other two sons, Dylan and Ethan. Linda and I spent a couple of days up in the lovely city of Glendale, so we could be close to them, and to celebrate a "second" Christmas with the boys, Dylan and Ethan. We actually got home yesterday evening and found that Jason was doing well, and all was as it should be...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Well, actually, I had planned on making this post yesterday but I was just too warn out, so I'm getting it in today (tonight). We have had a very good and exciting past several days. First with George, our oldest son, coming out for a visit. I think this was a good visit for him, and a very good visit for us. It was good to see the brothers get some time together again, and even tomorrow they're planning on a movie outing, in the morning. The reason for the early showing is that George will be headed home in the evening. Something about the need to get back to work... ;-) The family has enjoyed the Christmas celebration, and we even had a double Christmas dinner. First it was Linda's parents who came, on Christmas Eve, and we had a more traditional turkey dinner. It was an exciting and fun time for the girls, as well as the adults, as they always like to see their Nana and Tata. They stayed well past dinner and we even asked them if t...