#224 Nomad Diary. 1-7 February 2025. 2nd Week of 6 1/2 Weeks in Athens, Alabama. Next to Madison and Huntsville, Alabama. A Familiar Place for Us.

Another Gorgeous View from Our Airbnb Near Athens, Alabama

3 Years + 5 Months, Sweet Owen with Curls

Me with Granddaughter Esther, 1 Year + 6 Months

On One of Our Favorite Local Trails. Elkmont, Alabama Rails to Trails.

Saturday. 1. There’s sunshine! We decided to go for a mid-morning walk at Elkmont, Alabama after visiting Esther and Owen. At 3pm we need to be heading to Huntsville where we are meeting up with our two sons, Wes and Samuel for a “Linner”: late lunch/early dinner at Hildegard’s German restaurant. Once we were on the trail the sun was blocked by a cloudy sky and the weather was cooler than expected, but still an enjoyable 55 degrees. We had a huge dinner and a nice visit with our sons at the restaurant. I brought home half of my dinner as left-overs. 

Our Airbnb Front Hallway with Our Truck Crates
Laid Out for a New Model of Organization

'A' and 'B' Labels for Priority Organization for Packing Our Truck for Our Upcoming Road Trip

Beautiful Horizon View

Sunday. 2. We enjoyed our time at Capshaw church! The current class on Ezekiel and the preaching and singing are well done and encouraging. Many people have been sick with the flu and announced over these 2 Sundays of our attendance. I’m meeting new people who I have read their interview bios on our church update. Owen and Esther were sick today so we didn’t see them as planned. During our afternoon at our house we took a couple of walks around our neighborhood to get out in the sunshine and enjoy the 60 degree weather. We also came up with a concept for organizing our things and began going through everything we have and designating it with an ABC, trash, donate, store at Samuel’s house. We are using our hallway at our roomy house to begin our reorganization. 

Monday. 3. This morning Darrell had a fasting doc appointment but it got canceled to be rescheduled. We have grocery shopping to do. I’m babysitting in the afternoon while Eric goes to his dental appointment. I had my lowest weight this morning at 136, I’m 10 pounds below my long time average. I’ve also lived years of my life as high as 186, 165 and 155. I’m 5’8” with large bones. I think I’m part Viking as my Dad was 6’6” and all his family I called the Land of the Giants!

Tuesday. 4. Today Darrell had his eye doctor appointment. Specifically his retina doctor. I went with him and it turned out good that I did. The doctor called me back with the diagnosis in his right eye. It’s complicated with a lot of damage and is aging rapidly. The condition is called: Retinal Vein Occlusion. The current treatment is shots into the eye every 5 weeks until they might be able to be extended with more weeks between, and drops at bedtime. He got his first shot today. He went through a lot while sitting in the treatment room electronic chair. Norah, the doc’s assistant, talked to us as she prepped him for the procedure and his first shot into his eye. She numbed up his eye. They had to get slowed down because of trying to get an okay from our insurance. Then when they heard that next month Darrell is covered by Medicare, they said that will be much easier to work with. Our issue is getting through the transition to medicare, but Darrell had started the process. The eye doc’s office is also doing a computer system transition in the next month. It could be a bit slower and more complicated while so many moving parts are transitioning at the same time. As far as Darrell’s doctor, Dr. Talalight in Huntsville, Alabama, in our opinions he is world class and amazing! Darrell is in great care with him. We are praying for all good to come through all of this as we know that God already knows our details and is caring for us along the way.

Wednesday. 5. Up at 5:30am and feeling rested. Darrell had a good night and is also awake. We do our morning pre-breakfast workout while watching the sunrise over our pondview out our big picture window in our living room. It’s gorgeous. We decided on left-over pancakes for breakfast. We are both thinking about our newish, since August, higher protein diet. I want to focus on 30 plus grams per meal. I fell short in two meals yesterday and trying to piece together snacks or mini-meals was frustrating. We are both getting better at counting protein and fiber. After breakfast we get to our 2025 calendar and how and what we need to change for Darrell’s 5 week recurring eye appointments. We discuss his stress and what he wants to do versus what we would like to do and how we can work around and with our situation now. 

Thursday. 6. On this day I drove 2 hours to Manchester, Tennessee. I went to visit for a couple hours with my long time and best friend Laura. We enjoyed a good conversation over lunch. I arrived early enough to attend Laura’s women’s Bible class at her congregation's building. Laura’s class is every week except some select times off during the year. The topic during this season is prayer. It was a deep and amazing class with scripture and practical ideas on the subject for self-reflection and improvement. Laura and I are friends because of our shared love for the Lord and our study of the Bible. We have discussed topics as they arise in our lives over decades. It’s an amazing friendship that I cherish. The day is cloudy with scattered showers. I got back home around 3:30. I was exhausted and happy too! Hopefully I can go again in two weeks and get another visit together.

In Our Airbnb. Darrell, Owen, Erin Our Daughter-in-Law and Esther

Friday. 7. I called my friend Dawn for a catch up talk. We enjoyed our chat and passed some information back and forth that was helpful. She needs someone to watch her animals for a possible vacation later in the year. I told her about us doing that through trustedhousesitters.com. She was pretty excited and had never heard of it. We went through some of her questions and sent her a link as a possible host. I told her that if they go in August, then we can probably house sit for them, and that was fun to think about too! Dawn is a watercolor artist and was telling me about beginning a class for some young girls at her church. It’s her first time teaching in this way. I asked if I could come and be a student too, and the answer was ‘yes’! So next Friday I hope to be in Dawn’s first watercolor class! Yay! We walked over to Eric’s house mid-morning. He had taken Owen and Esther to a playground for an hour and got them ready for lunch and naps! The walk was about a mile. We found a bit shorter return path. We had lunch and then took our old computers to donation sites. We also went grocery shopping. At 6pm we have company coming for dinner. A couple from Capshaw church are coming over. We are all looking forward to our visit and getting to know each other better. We are getting Valentina’s pizza and bringing to our house. Valentina’s is a really good pizza restaurant and less than 2 miles from us. I saw this restaurant listed on a top 10 list of restaurants for Alabama! 

Nomad Notes. 

Settling in: I’ve rounded the corner with living here just over a week now! Feels like home and I’m so happy that we have 4 more weeks in this beautiful airbnb that we are renting close to Eric and Erin’s house in Athens, Alabama. This morning I have activities on my mind to get busy with and engage me with friends and family. I also know that I’m writing about all these doings and people yet I have not taken as many pictures as I often do. I’ve also turned down AI’s attempt to let it rewrite my words so that they look perfect! 

Darrell’s Eye Treatments: Life gave us a curveball this week and we are looking at how and what we will do with Darrell’s ‘tether’ to his 5 week recurring eye treatments. We are working on looking at our current calendar, notifying our pet sits with our plan to keep them and Darrell flying back to Huntsville for his treatments. They could back out of using us if they choose. So far, this idea is working. We were able to extend our current airbnb by 10 days through mid-March. This will get Darrell through his 2nd eye treatment before having the next 5 week interval. Our pet sit hosts have been okay with me being there and Darrell leaving for 2-3 days for his treatment. We kept all but one in England in September which we canceled. 

Meeting and Remembering New People: I’m meeting new people who I have read their interview bios on our church update. I’ve decided that I want to remember people’s names and I’ve got to up my practice by going over the online photo directory to get better with remembering. In this week I have met Linda, Glennis, Vickie and Tyler. One of our elders has been doing a personal article about members and they are incredible at getting to know people and getting conversations going. He’s way over 50 articles. There are over 200 members and new people coming often to keep this get to know you activity up for a while. I’m really grateful for him showing me how it’s done!

Our Timeline: We are in our 5th year of Nomad life. This year we will be in and out of our truck and driving in the US and Canada for several months. So we get to reorganize and then see how it works out in real life. We also get to clean the boxes as we are going and that feels great too!

Diet since Fall 2024: The calories pretty much take care of themselves, but it’s also a consideration. Since beginning this way of eating way more protein, I have dropped about 10 pounds. I’ve had a left eyelid thick place and it looks like it’s getting better after more than a decade of being there. I’m suspending my judgments on how much meat and dairy I’m eating. I’m looking at the pros and cons of protein supplements and trying to opt for foods.