More dull Don.....

We are having a quiet spring out here in the dessert.  We have those horrible weeds that I've been complaining about.  One of these days I'm going to have to hire someone to fix that problem!  We pull a few but are tired out after an hour (and probably 50 lb of weeds).  That isn't getting the work done.  

We do have a couple nice weeds on the side of the road.  I like them because they aren't in our yard.  But they are pretty too.

We had a local guy pass away last week.  His name was Ray "Flagman" Mielzynski.  He was called Flagman because he had a habit of spending quite a bit of time out on the highway that comes from California carrying a US flag.  He also carried a copy of the Constitution and two holstered revolvers.  Folks from California often called 911 thinking he was a danger.  He was far from that.  He just believed in the Constitution and the right to carry arms.  When he wasn't waving the flag he liked to go in and listen to court cases.  I was kind of surprised to learn that he was only 3 years older than myself.  That's too early for a good guy to go!  

We have had some lights on the walk up to our front door since we moved in and, after 10 plus years, they were long gone.  A couple years ago I bought new ones but never installed them.   Lazy bugger, I know.  Anyway, I did finally install them and I'm kind of getting a kick out of the beams they project.  They won't be as helpful as the old ones but we don't get many nighttime visitors anyway.

I'm pretty much afraid that's all the news that fit to print from around here.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and try to keep healthy!

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.

Still poking along

This seems to be the quiet before the holiday storm so I don't have much to report.  It is Veteran's Day so 'thank you' to all who served and those family members whose support is so important to the service member.

When we lived in Europe flowers seemed very inexpensive and easy to find.  Not so here; I'm sure that is partially because this is a desert.  But one of the stores had some flowers on sale last week so we perked the place up with a couple bundles. 

The vase is one that we bought in Delft.  We went through the factory where people were making all different plates, vases, etc. then into the sales room.  We walked around the whole place individually and both chose this as our favorite.  Strange but it works for us. 

We did have a little visitor this week:  the burrowing owl decided to make the culvert under our driveway his or her temporary home.  The first I knew was when I was driving out the drive and there was our visitor giving us the eye.  I've read they are not afraid of cars and this guy was just standing there checking us out.  That can't be good for their survival rate!

The next day a group of people were driving past and all of a sudden backed up and started taking photos of the owl.  Again, it was just standing there.  Blends in with the rock and dirt pretty well doesn't it. 

That's about it from me.  Happy Veteran's Day to all.