Slowly coming along

 Kind of like the rest of the country things are slowly coming along here in Nevada.  People are gradually going out more and some places have given up on requiring masks.  Tables are even being brought back into restaurants!  What a thrill.

For us the big thing that is going on is that we are getting solar panels placed on our roof.  This house is all electric and some of the things are pretty hungry for power.  We run the a/c a LOT in the summer and heat in the winter.  The bill can be in the $300 range but that's not the real problem.  My wife and I both feel that we are in a prime area for solar power so why aren't we using it???  So we ordered a setup back at the beginning of April and just today the crew showed up to install things.  They are thinking they will be done on Monday or Tuesday of next week but that simply means we'll be ready to be inspected by two or three different interested parties.  We should be good to go by early June if everything goes according to plan.

For excitement we are enjoying watching our cactus as they flower.  We have 2 plants in the entire yard:  both cactus.  There is a short one.

And a tall one.

I'm pretty sure that the shorter one isn't getting enough water especially during the winter.  It turns red in the winter then turns green when I'm watering it.  A hint, maybe.  Sorry but I don't know the botanical names of either of them.  

We've also purchased a new refrigerator.

Yes, they are almost identical on the outside.  The old one is in front with the white magnetic dry erase board that we bought to cover a couple of scratches.  Now we couldn't live without it!  The old one is 11 years old but the real reason it is being replaced is because the ice maker/water dispenser leaks.  We are hoping to find some charity kitchen that might like it since the rest works just fine.  

Obviously it's pretty quiet around here so we are making our own excitement.  Too bad it costs so much money but if we can't take a trip to Europe we may as well fix things up around home.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and keeping away from sick people!

Exciting stuff!

 Today we received our mail-in ballots for the election!  Ok!  Here's hoping we can Dump Trump big time.

We have been doing our usual thing:  walking in the morning; going to one of the local restaurants for lunch; cooking dinner at home.  All very normal stuff except for extra hand washing; antiseptic in the car glove box; and wearing masks.  My wife made 5 or 6 masks way back when this stuff started but eventually I bowed to reality and bought extras for us.  Most people are pretty good about wearing their masks but there are a few who either can't manage it or wear them like over the mouth only.  Dumb shits!  

We do like to walk in the morning and sometimes we see something special.  A neighbor has a large cactus in their yard and once in a long while it flowers.  Late last month was it's time.

A few weeks ago we managed a road trip and stayed in a couple motels.  Part of the trip was just to see how our dog would manage travel; turned out he did great!  But there was this one motel that had added a little humor to their decor.  Found on the bathroom wall.

And a rather interesting shower curtain.

Yeah, some people have too much time on their hands!  Really it was interesting traveling during the pandemic.  Restaurants seemed to all have reduced menus and not a good number of employees.  (That isn't happening here in the Valley; you can order anything on the menu and it is as good as ever.)  We had no real trouble finding pet-friendly motels.  We ordinarily don't stop for lunch unless it is something like a sandwich so that was no problem.  (It was way too hot to leave the dog in the truck!)  

Anyway, that's it for me today.  I've gotta go cook dinner:  Choucroute Garni complete with some skinny little pork chops that I smoked for an hour or so the other day.  It should be good.  Take care and be careful out there!

Enjoying Spring!

This time of year is often pretty good around here.  It has been windy this year but reasonably warm.  When we haven't been out spraying weeds in our yard we've gotten out and about a bit.

Week before last we visited Death Valley National Park.  The park is absolutely huge and we'd never seen the other side; specifically over by Panamint Springs.  We decided to just drive over and check out the roads.  With the over-62 senior pass it is free to visit so why not?  I was surprised by the number of visitors though I guess I shouldn't have been.  Even in early April the high was going to be 97F (36C) so waiting until later would make it a bit warm.  We ended up taking no photos worth sharing but we did discover that the roads are excellent and wouldn't be a problem at all if we were towing our trailer.  I'm not a huge fan of high and windy roads but this was just fine even if there were places that we were happy they had installed a guard rail.

Then last week we took a bus tour on the Nevada National Security Site.  This is where the majority of our nuclear weapons testing was done back in the day.  Today the site is used for a variety of things where security, space and even nuclear debris is useful.  (They train police and fire fighters on dealing with accidents that include a nuclear component; like the stuff your dentist uses to xray your teeth.)  Public tours are available but they are few and far between, like once a month.  If you are interested in visiting you should sign up around a year in advance!  Really, all remaining tours being offered in 2019 are full.  They are pretty rigorous about security and two of the things you can't bring are cameras and cellphones.  You also need to pass a paperwork security check but after all that you get a 250 mile bus ride.

Anyway, I managed to get onto a board that is supposed to advice the site management on how local people think they are doing.  I've been on the board for several years and we usually get a special tour about once a year.  This year we went to a part of the site I've never visited before where some of the larger underground tests were conducted.  One of the concerns with underground testing is that the ground water can be contaminated with nuclear debris.  The Dept. of Energy has drilled many wells around the test areas to test the ground water.  There are also wells on other federal land outside the site.  Happily the ground water doesn't move a lot out here and testing has shown that the water has traveled off the site but won't reach private lands for several hundred years by which time the radiation danger will be well past.  (The primary traveling nuclide is Trinium which has a half-life of 12+ years; it isn't something that has a half-life of 500 years or anything.)

Finally I drove into Las Vegas the other day to buy a couple things.  On the way there and back I go past Red Rock Canyon which is really quite a beautifully impressive place.  There were zillions of tourists!  There is a sign where people like to stop and take selfies with the sign.  This time a tour bus had stopped there!  Anyway, the rock is really very beautiful and a real attraction for rock climbers.  This photo is from 2010.

On the way home I stopped to get a couple photos of the cactus.  They are having their moment and have lovely blooms.

So we haven't been just sitting around home but have gotten a few miles on the car if nothing else.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

Busy busy - for me anyway!

We are just back from a quick trip up to Washington state.  The occasion was a memorial for my wife's late step-father who passed away last February.  It was his birthday and the family just got together to say a couple things.  It was quite touching at times.  At other times it was kind of painful.  Life goes on I guess.

We flew up on Thursday and came home on Sunday; not exactly a long visit but we had things to do.  We haven't been doing much flying lately and it was a pretty good experience.  We flew Alaska Airways where we've always had pretty good treatment and this was no exception.  The flight attendant managed to drop something out of an overhead onto me so decided she needed to buy me a drink to make up for it.  I've got to figure out how to make that happen more often!  The landing back here in Vegas was the smoothest I've ever felt.  It was so amazing I had to compliment the pilot.  Vegas is surrounded by mountains and often is kind of gusty but this time you literally couldn't tell when you actually touched down.

I did visit the surgeon who did my discectomy on a followup last monday and got official permission to go do things.  Good thing because we were just back from Washington!  Still, it's good to know he thinks I'll live.  Unfortunately I'm still an old crock so all my aches and pains won't be going away.  As they say though at least I'm on the right side of the grass.

We got home and now have a painter in fixing a couple cracks in the ceiling.  One especially is being a bit of a challenge.  The topsoil around here is pretty flimsy stuff so the builder will dig a hole 3 or 4 feet deep and fill it with compacted gravel trying to start the foundation on something stable.  Of course, stuff happens and a few cracks happen.  (There are homes in the valley that were not built on a gravel base and are in the process of collapse.)  Anyway, these cracks were in the living room and my wife wanted them fixed and she was sure she didn't want an amateur job.  From all the work, I'm thinking that was a great idea!  The guy had to take out a section of drywall about 3 inches by 30 inches; replace it and then resurface it.  He says part of the problem is that the builder didn't install the drywall in same direction as the joists.  I never knew it mattered but what do I know.  He is doing lots of fooling around to get it looking good.  My wife and I will get to take care of the ones in the spare bedroom but those are much smaller and won't require the drywall work.

We got home in time to find our cactus in bloom.  Well, one bloom.

You can probably imagine why we have always considered the cactus to be male.

And a very proud boy he is!

So that's most of the news from around here.  Hopefully I'll get back to nothing to say soon.  All this activity is quite tiring.  Thanks for stopping by though.  Have a good one.

YES! MRI

After much fooling around I did finally manage to get my MRI.  (See this Wikipedia article about MRI's if you are uncertain what they are.)  If you haven't had one it's not too strenuous but it isn't that much fun either.  Conventional MRI machines are built in a cylinder form and you are placed on a sort of plank and are slid into the machine.  I had an MRI in a machine like that many years ago and I discovered I'm kind of claustrophobic.  That makes it a very unpleasant experience.  Since then I've required what is called an 'open' MRI.  It's better but not great.  Here's a photo I took of the machine.

You lie down on the surface on the right.  It is raised up and you are slid into the main portion of the machine.  I told my wife it is like you are the meat in a hamburger and the machine is the bun.  So you are in this thing but can see with your peripheral vision and, not a small thing, there is better air flow than in the conventional machines.  Then it starts up making all kinds of bangs and clangs; it is just part of the process.  I was told it would take 19 minutes - I guess so.  I was certainly happy for it to end! 

Then Monday I got to meet with my specialist who told me I have a problem with the C6-C7 vertebrae.  I'm told I have three options:  live with it; get a cortisone shot that relieves the pain for about 6 months or surgery to remove the disk.  Hmmm.  So I'm headed for the operating room one of these days.  It will probably be a while but I'm sure you'll be hearing about it after it happens!

Back at the ranch, the cactus are happy.  We've been getting rain, more than usual, so the desert is perky.  We even had a rainbow - kind of.

Our cactus plants are happy.  These photos were taken a couple days apart.

The cactus flowers will be disappearing soon though.  Our 'spring' is definitely ending with temps expected to be in the high 90's (35C give or take) in the next few days.  Well, that's why we have those expensive air conditioners!  It is also why we don't have trees and lawns.  It's just not the right part of the world for those things.

IKEA is opening a new store in Las Vegas next week.  It is big news for locals, our Fox channel has a reporter out there this morning!  Don't get me wrong, I buy things at IKEA, I enjoy going to IKEA.  In the Netherlands I went there quite often for little things for our home.  I'm sure we'll be visiting the new store before it's a month old.  But putting it on the 'news'?  Really? 

Well, that's the news from this corner of the planet.  Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Back to dull

I promised to get back to more normal stuff but we had one of those special things happen the other day.  This is when the cactus gets buds and sometimes blooms.  I've been watching them and they have just been hanging out.  Then we came home from the store and found FLOWERS!

We have two plants in our yard - that we put there - weeds aren't counted!  Both cacti have had buds but this one decided to bloom.  You have to keep an eye on it.  Within two days they were dried up.  What you can't see in the photo is a bee that was busy with the flowers.  That bee must have one heck of a sense of smell because there just aren't many places for the little guy to live around here.  I imagine he was even happier to see the flowers than I was.

I had to take this photo of our bird feeder.  It shows most of the birds we get on a regular basis.  Pigeon, dove and finch.  There are a couple varieties of dove and finch but that's it.  Cowbirds come through twice a year and kind of take over the place but they don't live here.  There are black birds but they don't really care about the feeder.  And we have hawks - they like the feeder for the hunting opportunities.  We have seen a burrowing owl on a couple occasions but it's been a couple years since we have seen them.

It's funny but if you would have told me 20 years ago that I'd like watching pigeons I wouldn't have believed it for a minute.  Funny how things work out sometimes.

I get to go into Las Vegas next week for an MRI.  My left arm has been bothering me for about four months.  It seems like it should be a pinched nerve and working through the local doctor-xray-specialist hoops I'll get my neck tested to see if in fact that's the problem.  Of course then we get to decide what to do about it.  We've been making plans for the summer but I'll probably want to put them off if I can get back to feeling good.  Since the first of the year I've gotten a full nights sleep maybe twice.  Sleeping three hours then wandering around for a while then getting three more stinks!  Of course getting up in the middle of the night and wandering around sometimes wakes my wife so her sleep in screwed up as well.  (A motivational factor that every husband will recognize!)  It does make one thankful for some of the wonders of modern medicine. 

Gotta go do something even if it is wrong.  Have a good one and thanks for stopping by.

A few interesting things

Life isn't really in high gear but we do have some interesting things going on here in the boonies.  First an update on our cacti; the new parts are coming along nicely (I can't figure out if they should be called leaves or what!).

At any rate we are glad to see them growing.  When you only have two plants in your life any advance by either is great and happily both ours are doing well.  Here's the staghorn.

We did just observe St. Patrick's Day in our own quiet way, no green beer or drunken parties required!  However we did have a lovely dinner of corned beef, new potatoes and cabbage (two ways).

We found this recipe for a 'sauce' for the potatoes and cabbage so tried it.  It consisted of butter, horseradish and mustard and was about a thrid of the way to a success.  It basically melted off the potatoes leaving them pretty much unchanged.  It did sink into the quarters of cabbage (at 10 o'clock in the photo) and pretty much obscured the flavor of the cabbage.  So if you want to eat cabbage but don't like the flavor; it's made for you.  My wife likes a lightly sauted cabbage (1 o'clock) but not 'well done' so she got the one and  I got both.  My wife did a potato bread that was pretty different.  The recipe called for a mashed potato and a raw one that was grated.  It is both dense and fragile.  Anyway, it was pretty darned good!  Pretty too.

On a sadder note, our cat who would be 20 this summer is not doing well.  He hasn't eaten since last Tuesday and is drinking far less than usual.  Here he is just a couple of weeks ago trying to lick up an ice cube that fell from the ice maker.

He's a skinny little guy who has been running about 7 lb for the past couple of years.  It's not like he can hibernate so I'm thinking he isn't long for this world.  If I give him a 'treat' he'll eat it but the regular kibble just sits there in the bowl.  He's getting weaker every day so the end has to be near.  Since my wife and I both believe in euthanasia for people, it's safe to say that we'll be saying 'goodbye' to our kitty before long.  RIP Scotchie!  And yes, we will undoubtedly hold a wake for the little guy.

Off to do exciting things. 

Not bragging but....

Sorry Boston but I've gotta say our average temperture for this time of year is about 65F (18C).  This year we are about 75F (23C) today and the forecasters are talking 80F (26C) by the weekend.  I've got to admit though that it's not real pretty around here.  The mountains are nice.

That photo was take March 2 from our front yard.  We are at 2,600 ft. (790m) elevation so I imagine the snow level is down to 4,000 ft (1220m) or so.  Sorry I don't remember the temp. that day.  The camera captures a lot of information but not that.  Not yet! 

Has anyone checked out the new cameras with GPS built in?  It might be cool for a professional photographer but as a private citizen I'm not so sure I want that information available on my photos.  Say you post it on a blog like this; you would be giving the location of your home to anyone interested.  So if you are blogging from San Diego all a person would have to do is look at an older photo of your home to have the address of your empty home.  Nah, I'm going to skip the GPS attachment.

The weather has been so nice our cactus have decided it's spring so it's time to bud.  We don't have any other plants in our yard but the neighbor's trees are budding out too.  Here's the staghorn buds.  It's the small red mass in between the spikes!

Our other cactus has had a dry winter too but when it is stressed by the cold and drought, it turns red or purple.  Now that it's spring I'll start watering it regularly and it will return to green.  Here the buds are the little round guys in the lower third of the photo.

To get off the weather for a moment let me show you my latest adventure with the smoker:  pork ribs!

I finally found some decent advice on smoking them and they actually turned out quite well.  I made up a rub that was basically salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder then smoked them for two hours.  After that I read that I should wrap them in foil and cook for another two hours.  I figured that they sure weren't going to get any more smoke through that foil so brought them in to finish in the oven.  The final step was to just cook them for another hour but not in the foil.  In the last half hour I did baste them with just a bit of bbq sauce.  They were really pretty good.  The first time I skipped the foil and just let them ride in the smoker.  They got dry and tough so foil is my new friend!  There is a pork butt in the fridge.  I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.  Hopefully I'll take a photo or two of whatever becomes of it.

That's the quiet life for now.  We didn't go out to lunch yesterday so I'm thinking my wife will have plans.  Take care!

Water Works Wonders!

We planted a couple cacti in the yard about a year ago.  They weren't dying but weren't doing much living until recently.  We visited a place called Cactus Jack's over by Las Vegas.  You can guess their speciality.  The woman offered us some advice about how much to water our cactus.  Hmmm, they are lots happier now!  We may have to go buy some more now.

The other day we were out sitting on the back patio enjoying some nice weather.  Had a little friend visit.

I've got to say I'm pretty happy about our Canon SX210 IS cameras.  They were fairly inexpensive ($250), they have 14x optical zoom and are image stabilized.  The hummer was about 30 feet away; not bad for a point and shoot!  The only think I really dislike is that there is no viewfinder.  Seeing that screen is difficult enough for old fogies like myself but in the sun it is almost impossible.  Grrr! 

I've been trying to clean up my desk for days.  Why do I hate doing this?  A place for everything and everything is it's place means absolutely nothing to me.  I sure couldn't live in a van!  I can manage it in our trailer but nothing smaller.  I like reading about van living but I'd be lost in no time. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

Marathon

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a tv watcher.  I don't watch the news except for the weather.  I seldom read the newspaper.  I've even given up looking at most movies.  Instead I waste too much time on the internet.  But I've gotta tell you, I've been glued to the tv coverage of the Boston Marathon bomber chase.  What an amazing thing. 

Here is this young guy who seems to be an absolutely great kid who for some reason apparently participated is this horrible and pointless bombing.  What the hell?  I sure hope he can be captured alive so we can learn more about what goes on in his head. 

Personally it's been a quiet week - well since I'm glued to the tv obviously I'm not doing much!  This morning we had 40F (4C).  Darn.  That is just not right.  We ought to be at 80F (26C) during the day.  Well, maybe tomorrow.  I may notice it if I can pry myself off the tv. 

Yep, ice from the bird bath this morning.  Brrrr!

I did start watering the cactus last month & it is doing what it's supposed to do.  We have growth!  All that green stuff is new in the last month or so.

Well, I guess I'm off to glue myself back to the tv.  Have a good one!

Life in the slow lane!

The visiting family wandered off last Sunday so I'm finally catching up with the blogs I read.  It's really amazing how much time I can spend reading about other people’s lives.  You’d think I didn’t have one of my own; life that is.  As it is I’m driving myself nuts trying to figure out what to do with some of our mutual funds.  I know I want to move more into index funds; it’s just that there are so many to choose from!

I can see why some people prefer to have a professional manage their money.  It’s a lot like work.  Fortunately I enjoy it.  Yahoo Finance is my friend.  Our brokers, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade, each have research available as well so if Yahoo doesn’t have the information I want there are other sources I can use.  One of the things I like to check is what companies are owned by the fund.  For example, we own Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX).  One might think that they would hold stocks that might be out of favor with the intent of making lots on them when they recovered.  Well, you’d be wrong.  They own Apple, Google, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney – how much more mainstream can you be?  It gets really fun when you go into the ‘Basic Tech. Analysis’ section and compare the last years price chart of FCNTX vs SPY (an index fund for the S&P 500).  That is when you find that FCNTX sometimes tracks the S&P 500 really closely and sometimes, like now, it falls behind.  So now I’m paying extra for a managed fund that isn’t doing as well as an index.  Grrrrr!

When I’m not grinding my teeth over stuff like that I sometimes get out to work in our yard.  This is weed time in the desert so pulling the big ones and spraying the little ones is my lot these days.  At least it is good exercise.  It’s not very satisfying because they seem to spread faster then you can get rid of them.  There are a couple of guys in our yard that we like:  two cacti that we actually planted.  I’ve started watering them; you are supposed to let them be over the winter.  Here is a photo of the results; new growth.  I’ll try to get more photos after the growth becomes something more.

I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print.  Thanks for reading.  Have a good one.