I figured out what is wrong with the motorhome.  It is possessed.  By demons.  Or, maybe gremlins. The electricity came back on some time in the night. But then everything went out again about nine in the morning. I made another appointment at the RV repair place in Indiana for Monday.  We are planning to hit the road on Saturday morning.

Here’s the big news.  Maybe.  I called Hugo House editor, Patricia.  She said Big Creek is ready for a copy editor.  They had not called me since I submitted the last draft.  “What?  George didn’t call you?  He must have thought I did.” She said she had a meeting in six minutes, but would call me back later in the day.  She never did. I wasn’t surprised. I call her Dr. Ditz.

Since I changed the dosage on my Vancomycin, I am getting better again.  Now THAT is good news. I have a complicated regimen, changing the dosage and timing gradually over the next several weeks. If that doesn’t do the trick, the next step is “fecal transplant”.  Yep. it’s just what it sounds like.

And, speaking of transplants, my friend Sharon sent me an interesting link:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gastroenterology_hepatology/clinical_services/advanced_endoscopy/fecal_transplantation.html

When I read about the obese donor and then the recipient becoming obese, I wondered what other traits and maladies are a result of germs in our guts.  Then Sharon responded:

“My two year-old granddaughter spent the first 18 months of life with severe, open wounds, eczema. After seeing a dozen doctors they determined it was stomach bacteria causing the chronic condition.

Once they got on top of that, she has been so much better and a completely different joyful child.”

I don’t know about you, but I find this fascinating. I hope there is some serious research going on somewhere.  As I told Sharon, it is apparently not all about our genes, but also about our germs.

Daughter Kathy came for another visit.  She brought a Kabocha Squash with her.  She has a plot in a community garden and her next-plot neighbor, and older Asian man, gave it to her.

Kathy wanted to smash it onto the driveway, but Andy thought chopping it with a hatchet would be neater. Then, Kathy and I picked out the seeds for planting. It tasted a bit like pumpkin to me.

Andy and I had another exotic (to us) fruit adventure too.  There was a pile of Dragon Fruit just inside the door of the grocery store.  They were so strange and beautiful; we had to try one. Wikepedia has a nice description. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya I never would have guessed that it is a cactus!As I mentioned in my last post, I had to Google how to eat it.  First, you slice it in half.

The tiny seeds are like those in a kiwi.  I scooped out the flesh with a large spoon, cut it into small chunks, and put it them in the shell for serving.

Andy and I were both disappointed.  It was juicy, but very bland.  Hardly any taste at all, certainly not enough for me to describe.

Here is another petunia picture from Sister Barbara’s back deck.