Back to Cottonwood, AZ

Time to get caught up again; it’s been a week since I last wrote.
I forgot to mention in my “Welcome back to Bakersfield” blog besides the other good news I wrote about, Kim in hospital, Valley with heart murmur, and having to take Chelsea in to have her put to sleep, I had forgotten to mention that we got a notice that they are thinking about putting in a Freeway right where are house is in Bakersfield. They were having a neighborhood meeting Tuesday night and we couldn’t go to it, so someone that Danny works with lives in the neighborhood and was going to keep us informed on the outcome. The meeting turned out to be nothing so far, so we didn’t miss anything yet, Kim and Danny will just have to keep their eyes and ears open for what is going on.
Last Tuesday, late afternoon, Dave and I drove to Ontario to stay at a hotel so we would be near the church for my brother’s funeral the next day. David Jr. drove in late that night and stayed in our room too. Kim had called earlier and said she was feeling better and was done with the IV’s at the hospital and asked if she could come to the funeral and we told her NO she had to stay home and rest.
Wednesday was totally amazing to us, my brother had over 1,000 people who attended his funeral. There were fire engines, fire trucks, fire service trucks, hotshot trucks, you name it and it was there. Governor Arnold couldn’t make it but he sent a representative to come and speak on his behalf. They had so many Fire Chiefs speaking and everyone else that spoke, the church was packed. The service itself was over 2 hours long then the family had to wait for all the service personal to leave the church so they could all line up and we then walked single file thru that line, very interesting. They had another small service outside, with bagpipes playing, then a service guy playing the trumpet, and then they did a helicopter fly by, where one veers off for a fallen firefighter. The highway patrol blocked off the streets and closed the 10 freeway for the funeral procession, which was probably 3 miles long. Once we got to the cemetery the family lined up and they had every fire engine, trucks ect. Drive by for us to see. I am just so very sorry I didn’t know how important my brother was to the community, it’s too bad our communication was basically cut off years ago, but we all still did love each other even though we weren’t close. He is a lucky man now because he gets to be with our parents now.
Because they listed his death as a stroke, work comp is now not going to pay the hospital bill, which is about 235,000.00. They pay for everything else just not a stroke, so the fire department top guns have drafted up a bill which was being presented to Governor Arnold last week to have the Work Comp wording changed so strokes are covered, the bill is called the “Tomaselli Bill”. Let’s hope everything goes well with that, after all he was driving to a fire when the stroke happened, it work didn’t cause it I don’t know what else would. After the funeral on Wednesday, Dave and I went to my nephew’s house, Jimmy, to eat then we headed back up to Bakersfield. Once we got to Bakersfield my brother, Mike, called and said my 94 year old uncle, who had just gotten out of the hospital the day before, he had a pace maker put in, had fallen and broken his hip, great more good news. Then Mike called again on Thursday and said that my brother, Vance’s, house was broken into probably the police said when the funeral was going on, please can’t this family get a break. Speaking of break, my niece’s husband, Shawn, was playing soccer and broke his ankle right before they were moving to Colorado. Enough of the bad news.
Dave, Valley and I drove back to Cottonwood on Friday morning; it took another 8 hours to drive it. Saturday, we went walking in the morning, played a little pickle ball then went to Costco. That afternoon we did bike riding for awhile, it just feels so good to be able to get out and exercise again. Sunday was cleaning the rig again, this time Dave emptied out the underneath and vacuumed and I emptied out the inside cupboards and cleaned them all up. Finally getting all the dirt from Mexico out of the RV, what a mess it had gotten. Monday, Valley and I walked our 5 miles, I think it was a bit long for her, and Dave took the car to the dealership because the “Service Engine Soon” light starting coming on again. Well it was due for 90,000 mile check-up, the car has 98,000 miles on it, plus they said the warning light means the fan clutch is bad. We had to have that fan clutch replaced while we were in Canada last September, and the work was done by a GM Dealer in Canada but Canada’s computer doesn’t talk to the US computer so it doesn’t show the work being done. I couldn’t find our receipt from Canada so Dave called the dealership there and they faxed the work order over. Thank goodness too because now the new fan clutch they put in is under warranty, so it only cost us $450 for the rest of the work that needed to be done. When the car was done Dave and I decided to walk over and pick up the car, which was only about 2 1/2 miles away, the only bad thing was it was all uphill to get out of the 1000 Trails RV park, then at 3pm we rode out bikes over and played pickle ball again.
This morning Dave had cramps in his legs, his sides are sore, shoulder hurts, me, my legs are sore because I must have walked 10 miles yesterday and my sides are a little sore. I did take Valley out for a 5 mile walk then I dropped her off and walked another few miles, no pain no gain, right? At 11am Dave and I went over and got pickle ball lessons, at 4pm tonight another couple that is learning how to play we will meet them and practice together.
Go to Goggle and put in Vance Tomaselli and all the articles should show up
or go to www.vancetomaselli.blogspot.com and watch the video