Just warming up....

 My wife came home a week or so ago and told me that the a/c in the car isn't working.  Well, it's had a whole winter to sit around and leak but, no, that's not acceptable.  Then yesterday I went somewhere and, yep, she sure was right.  So I'll be communing with a local mechanic to see what we can do about that.  Of course we are in that time of year when one day the high temp is 71 F (21 C) and then a day or two later it's 92 F (33 C).  You've got to choose the day to have the a/c worked on so they can test it properly.  I'll manage it but I sure wish someone could  fix that thing so it would just work.

Other than whining I don't have much to say today.  My wife and I were both going to Physical Training (PT) and I'm thinking I will be joining her again pretty soon.  Getting isurance approval is always a pain in the ass.  I did get a "Juror Qualification Questionnaire" in the mail.  If you are over 70 years old you can just request an exemption.  I'm going to do that mostly because I imagine I'll be doing PT a couple days a week and you can't be two places at once.

I've only taken a couple of photos worth sharing lately.  This one is via my phone about 02:30 in the morning out the bathroom window.  I really liked the setting moon.

The other one I just took this morning using my Nikon with it's 200 mm lens.  I talk about the balloons that we see flying about.  Well, these two are coming close to landing.  That mountain is about 20 miles north of here.

Can't see much?  I don't blame you!  But here's a hint.  Just above the tree line about an inch from each side.  The balloon on the left is orange; the one on the right is green.  

That's enough BS for today.  Gotta go do something even if it is wrong.

It's a funny old world!

One week I can't imagine what to post here; the next week there is a total diversity of things to share.  I don't know; maybe I just can't see things sometimes.  Anyway, here's what's going on out here in Nevada.  I ordered a chair mat, a plastic thing that will smooth out the bumps under something you want to move.  In our case it is a refrigerator that can't be moved over our tile floor.  It came with instructions.

You've got to assume it wasn't written by a person for whom English was not his first language.  The other side had drawings showing how you roll out the mat and put weights on it to get it totally flat before using.

The next thing I wanted to share was a photo my wife took of the foothills just north of Mt. Charleston.  This was taken on the last day of March at about sunset.

 I've got to tell you those hills and mountains surrounding us are a large part of the reason we've been living here for over 15 years!  

The final thing is a little surprise I got just this morning.  We have a couple bird feeders and have a fair number of birdies that show up to dine.  This morning I found a little gift from one of them.

Yep, it's a egg!  We are thinking it is a pigeon egg but, trust me, we aren't experts!  Here is another photo with a tea spoon next to it to show it's size.

What a deal!  Of course my wife wanted to know if I wanted breakfast as soon as I showed it to her.  No, not this time!  Anyway, that's our excitement around here lately.  I hope you are having as much or more fun.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

OK!

I found this quote from Dan Rather this morning regarding Mr. Trump.

“A few people have asked why I vehemently oppose Trump,” Rather wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. “Let me make this perfectly clear. It’s not about politics. I’ve voted for both parties.”

“It’s about me, as a patriot, rejecting a cheating, lying, racist, treasonous, fascist and vile man who attacks the free press, and wants to lead the country I love,” he continued. “It’s really that simple.”

I couldn't have said it better!  

Jeez! It's been almost a month!

No, I don't know how I managed to not update this for a month.  I mean things take more time when you are getting old but this is just silly.  Of course, there isn't much going on around here.  My wife and I are both going to PT to try and gain some more mobility.  And, no, it isn't doing much for either of us.  We do manage to go out to have lunch most days.  I mean cooking at home is SO DIFFICULT!

The weather is mostly warming up but every now and then California shares some of their rain and snow with us.  Nice of them, huh?  Last Saturday we actually got .69 inches so considering we usually get about 4 inches a year; that's a lot!  In February we had 2.6 inches so this summer is probably going to be pretty dry.

We were out to lunch a week or so ago and this young lady was sitting at the next table with a couple of older women; I assumed relatives.  But she was really involved in whatever was on her headphones.

Another time we were out I saw this.  You've got to assume the owner of this car is a cat lover.

One last photo:  we had a weather station mounted on a 2x4 post out in the back yard.  A couple of the bolts gave up and it fell back hitting the ground and breaking.  We have a new one on order but I wanted to go out and see what was wrong with that 2x4 so I took a photo.  Just as I did so a gust of wind came along and shoved the hood of my coat over my eyes.  Here's looking at you.

Well, that's all the news from the back of beyond Nevada.  Thanks for stopping by.  Take care and keep washing those hands.

Just going along for the ride....

Things are just being pretty much the same as my last post; except the good news is that my wife seems quite a bit better.  Her heart rate is back to normal and her blood pressure is also normal.  She has a bunch of pills to take every day and who knows how long that will last but it's miles better than being in a hospital bed with IVs all over your arms!  And we get to visit our favorite restaurants which I'm told is a lot better than the hospital food.

My leg is still bothering me and I walk like I'm about 90.  Both of the medical people I've talked with say I'm having sciatica pain.  It is a nerve that starts in your lower spine and continues down the leg all the way to the foot.  In my case the pain stops at the knee so I guess I'm half lucky.  Both my regular doctor and the specialist took x-rays and while I have some deterioration of my spine it's nothing unusual for an old fart like me.  At any rate the first level of treatment is Physical Therapy.  I was interviewed by one of the PT doctors and my first PT appointment is next Wednesday.  Until then I've got a couple medications that are supposed to loosen things up and tyenol for the pain.  None of them are working as far as I can tell!

The storms that have been hitting California have brought some more snow to our local mountains but nothing down here.  That's ok.  Our aquifer gets it's water from those mountains and we sure need it.  Death Valley has been actually getting rain and it has formed up into a giant puddle called Lake Manly.  It is draining away now and boats are no longer allowed but I'll bet it was fun for a couple of days!  We are getting a fair amount of gusty wind which knocks the bird feeders around but we can't make it too easy for them.  Every now and then a large crow or raven decides coasting in the wind over our house is fun and sets off the RING camera.  At least they aren't trying to land on the darned thing!

No new photos to share today.  Maybe next time.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and keep your sneezes to yourself!

29 February - who can resist posting?

 It's been quite a month.  I'm ok if we don't have another like it for a LONG time!  My back/hip pain is still with me.  The doctor prescribed some medication but it's not working.  The next thing was PT and I'm scheduled to meet with them today.  We'll see how that works!  

The other nasty news is that my wife has been slowing down a lot.  Eventually her doctor suggested going to the ER!  Well, hell!  So we go over there and they immediately put her on some drips and in a couple of hours had her airlifted over to Las Vegas!  Talk about a fun afternoon.  Here's the machine showing her 128 heartbeat while she was lying in the bed.

She's been in the hospital in Vegas for a week now.  They said she had excess fluid in her lungs and worked to drain that.  That took two or three days; then they finally got her to a place where they could address her real problem:  atrial fibrillation or AFib.  It is when your heartbeat is either racing or flashing back and forth between normal and superfast.  She has had a procedure for that and we are hoping she can come home today.  Our daughter came out to see her and is going to bring her home if she gets released.  

All that makes for a fun month.  However, I've been driving into Vegas every day to see her.  It's a lovely drive, going in through the pass over the mountains and coming down is just great going either way.  I'm kind of a close-to-the-speed-limit guy so I mostly stay in the right lane and let the speeders have the left.  There are plenty of speeders for sure.  And plenty of way-too-loud motorcycles.  I did even once get passed by a state patrol cruiser - not blue lights just wanting to get home I guess.  

Here's a photo of a slightly overcast sky.

See, it's not always sunny in Nevada!  No rain of course.  But then we also get views like this.

 Gotta go.  Can't see wifie come home to the mess I've made of the house!  Take care.  Thanks for stopping by and keep washing those hands!

We made it to February!

Well, we've been home for 3 1/2 weeks; pretty much back in the groove and then I did something that caused a pain in my left leg.  I've no idea what happened.  The only thing I did that was unusual was to clean the 4 mirrors in our bathrooms.  They are about 7 feet tall so it is a bit of a stretch to clean them.  Anyway I went to the Urgent Care place and they suggested it was either Radicular pain or Sacroliac joint pain.  I don't know but I'm sure ready for it to be gone!  Saw my doctor yesterday; he was no help at all.  Had a xray taken of my hips.  That was WAY painful; since my injury, whatever it is, my back does not like being straight.  We'll see what else we can do; the doctor suggested Physical Therapy.  That could be torture!

In the rest of our lives; we have a well to provide us with water.  It was leaking somehow before we left on our trip but I figured there would be more time to get it fixed after the trip and that turns out to have been a good decision.  The well guy came out and, yep, found a leak right away.  

 

The well has a concrete foundation that was badly cracked so the well guy put in a new pressure tank away from the foundation so it could be replaced.  It took a few days but a local concrete guy came out and replaced the foundation and now we've had the well guy come back and put the pressure tank where it used to be.  It's just all fun; $1,900 worth of fun but fun.  

California has been getting hit by some storms coming in from the ocean so, of course, we get some too.  In our case it is small amounts of rain; except that this is a desert and we don't get a lot of rain.  When we do get rain weird stuff happens.  Day before yesterday we got 1.14" of rain; yesterday we got .55".  That's about half of our yearly average.  Right here in our part of town we just have wet roads; in other parts they have small lakes on the side of the road and, of course, in the road.  It's funny; we are in a 'flood zone' so our mortgage lender requires that we have flood insurance.  Across the street isn't in the 'flood zone' so they don't need flood insurance.  I'm sure to have whined about that in the past!  When I went to the doctor the fun part was seeing the wild horses visiting our county offices across the street from the doctor.  In the photos you can also see water down at the bottom of the photo.  That's not a river, it's the road full of water in front of the office!

Oh, and we've had a few birds coming through on their migration to somewhere.  That bird feeder isn't going to do it for all those guys!

That's all that's going on here in the fast lane.  Take care & keep washing those hands!

Well, two weeks in....

 How is 2024 treating you?  

We've had an interesting start for sure.  On December 28 we got on a Viking cruise ship in Los Angeles and headed for Hawaii!  Yeah, it's not like visiting Columbia or the Sudan or Pakistan but, well, it's not sitting around in the house either!

It was a fine trip.  My wife and I like being out at sea and Viking did everything it could to make our trip a SEA trip.  We took 5 days to get to Hawaii and the first two were really kind of rough.  It doesn't bother us but there were plenty of seasickness wrist bands and behind the ear plasters to be seen.  We did celebrate the New Year onboard.  I'm pretty sure we've never had little hat things for the New Year before!

 

Then we got to visit Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii.  On each island there were tours  and we planned on taking one of them on each island.  Ok, with that lead in, do I have to say it didn't work out?  Kaua'i worked out just fine.  The only problem was that much of it was at a 'plantation' which has become a tourist town with lots of small buisnesses to sell stuff to tourists.  Unfortunately many of them were closed!  Duh!  You have 400-500 tourists coming by and you are closed???  Retail has changed a lot since I worked in it!  We did manage to find this Christmas ornament.  It is glass and is painted on the inside; not the outside.  It has chickens because many years ago chickens became wild on Kaua'i and they still are!  You are driving somewhere and here are 6 or 8 chickens just pecking around by the side of the road!  It's amazing!  And fun if you like chickens.  I was trying to take a photo of this rooster trying to have his way with out of the ladies but it just didn't work.  Darn!

The next day we were on Oahu in Honolulu.  We were getting dressed to go out and my wife remembered she wanted something from the bathroom; she turned, caught her foot in some bedclothes that were hanging down and fell!  Oh shit!  Of course she's been recovering from her broken ankle and now she was down again.  Slowly I got her up and we headed down to see the ship's doctor.  The good news is that there was nothing broken; the bad news is that she really couldn't walk and her toes, arm and ribs hurt and were bruised where she had fallen on them.  SO, back in the wheelchair for wifie!  

 

The staff were really quite nice.  They would find us places to sit and places to hide the chair.  The bar staff got to know us better than usually since we did have more time on board and alcohol helps the pain go away.  But really that was only for that first day.  Then I left my wife.

NO, not for ever, just for the Maui tour.  We decided that I'd go do that and she would just relax in our cabin.  Well, actually, she could have come with me except for climbing onto the bus and out of it.  However I did go on the tour.  The first part of the tour was up to a tourist shopping area in Lahaina.  Well, shit!

 

Here you are driving through residential neighborhoods where everything is burned down and then you are in the Hyatt, Hilton & whatever neighborhood with their pristine buildings and lovely golf courses.  Oh, and in the middle was our destination:  the Whaler's Village (Mall).  Well, shit!  Just what I wanted to see:  Louis Vuitton, Sephora Cosmetics, Tommy Bahama clothing, Lululemon sportswear,  Keani Hawaii jewelry, Maui Divers Jewelry.  Really???  The folks who lived there are still working on finding places to live.  There are tents on every beach where people are trying to live.  Of course there are vans parked along the road as well.  It was nasty!  These tents were probably 30 feet from condos that are worth $700K on a bad day!  Oh, and the people in the background are tourists getting on their sailing trimarans for the morning.

Anyway, the second part of the tour was up to a crazy little river, oh, and a rock!  Where you got to climb 147 steps (or something like that) to see the river falls and a weird rock.  The rock is the Iao Needle; it just sticks up there in the middle of a canyon like it was meant to be there.  Weird but photogenic.  The steps were just awful!  They didn't even have hand rails on both sides!

Our last day in Hawaii was on Hawaii, the big island.  We checked with the tour people and they said that going while using a wheelchair was fine so we decided to do it.  Our tour started with viewing the Rainbow Falls.  That was ok; my wife couldn't view them being in the wheelchair but I got a couple nice photos.  This is the falls.

 

Then we wandered off to the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo.  That would probably have been ok too but it was really raining in the rainforest!  And my wife was in a wheelchair and, well, it was pretty wet for her!  So we were definitely first back on the bus!  

THEN came the thing we wanted most from Hawaii.  My wife's sister and her husband sold their huge, fantastic home in Washington a year or two ago and are building a smaller place there; however she hates the winters up there so they have purchased a condo on the island of Hawaii for winters (also golf which is a passion).  We were hoping to meet them for lunch.  Their condo is across the island and it is about a 2 hour drive to get there so visiting at their place was out of the question - so we had lunch together in a local restaurant near the ship.  That was fun.  We'll be back to visit them when we can rent a car and enjoy the island.  No photos, we just all forgot!

And then we were on the way back east!  It was another 5 days of 18 knot speeds and we landed in Ensenada, Mexico.  Apparently there is an old law saying that foreign vessels can't go between US ports exclusively; they have to go somewhere like Canada or Mexico too!  Ensenada is close; Carnival Cruise Lines likes it too!

 

Anyway, we had a nice day in Ensenada; well, except for the tour!  There is a blowhole, La Bufadora, that is pretty impressive with seawater spouting up through this hole in the rock.  That was really nice; the 2/3rds of a mile of trash and trinket sellers on the way there and back was kind of a pain in the ass!  Or, in my wife's case, in the foot!  But we managed it, two + hours of walking may not have been what she wanted but it worked out ok.  There was a nice musical party going on a mile or so from the boat but we just crashed!

And then there is an overnight very quiet ride to LA. and hop off!  Well, it was kind of screwed up since they didn't bother announcing that we were cleared to go but we managed to get off about 08:40 - probably an hour later than we had hoped.  Zoomed through customs; a nice guy named Cassady spent way too much time checking out our passports and then we were in the taxi line.  Amazingly there were no taxi's waiting but a guy showed up and took us to the hotel where we'd left the car and ZOOM!  

I've got to admit that I haven't driven that fast in a while.  We were doing 80-85mph most of the way across California.  Not that we were passing anyone but still!  We got to the kennel about 13:45 - and they want the dogs out by 14:00!  So we just made it; the clock showed 14:00 (2 p.m.) as we drove into the yard.  The house was just the way we'd left it; didn't clean itself or anything.  But, we were happy to be here.  And we had a lovely sunset.  What's not to like?

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and be safe!