The middle of October already!

This growing older is weird.  There are some things you kind of expect:  slower walking, pains here and there, memory lapses.  But there are weird things too:  I used to have hair on my legs; no more!  I have a few hairs on my forearm that are 3-4 inches long!  I have unexplainable bad moments; the other day I suddenly wanted to vomit.  It's not like I'd been drinking or I'd had bad food or anything else.  Actually I was brushing my teeth getting ready for bed and suddenly I was ready to vomit.  The next morning everything was normal.  Weird stuff!

Aside from that weirdness things are going along ok.  We have finally gotten out of the 100+ degree days and we actually took a drive this morning with the car windows down.  OMG!  We had a bunch of stuff from a case sale at the local grocery that I'd purchased for the local VFW food bank.  Then we drove around the area a bit checking out a few places we'd never seen.  Our 'town' is about 10 miles long (north to south) and about 4 miles wide (east to west).  We come pretty close to the California border but no one wants to live out in the middle of nowhere (our town) and have to pay California taxes!  Our 'town' used to have a town council and employees.  Then 6 or 8 years ago they decided that being a town was expensive so they canceled all that and we became an unincorporated town.  I suspect all the town employees just became county employees but who knows.  Anyway, things seem to be looking up for the 'town'.  There is quite a lot of building going on.  We have five new houses being built within 6 or 8 blocks of our house.  We are talking about maybe 3 new houses built in the previous 10 years so it's quite a rush.  I'm talking about regular houses; probably 50% of our town is manufactured housing but it looks like that percentage is going down.

 

I was talking about the local government.  Here's something you don't see every day.  Zoom zoom!

I'm spending WAY too much time worrying about the election.  I can't stand some of the things Mr. Trump is saying.  I mean immigrants eating cats and dogs!  Not being able to pronounce words like 'Midwestern' and 'evangelical'.  And he keeps claiming 100,000's of people at his rallies.  Jeez!  What an asshole!  And did I forget he's a felon, draft-dodging womanizer?  

Have a good one and for God's sake vote for Harris.  Take care!

Hot and cool!

Well, we are having high temps in the 105 F (40C) range and the lows in the 50 F (10C).  Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but that's where we live!  Crazyville!  Just to prove it we are expected to overwhelmingly want to re-elect Donald Trump for President!  Oh shit, I sure hope the rest of the country is smarter.  I mean we are talking about a draft dodger, woman assulting, self-aggrandizing felon.  Hmmm, do you get what I think of the man?  

We haven't had heat like this so late in the year that we can remember.  It's usually like 80F (26C) for a high and that's pretty nice.  Oh well, we didn't get torn apart like North Carolina.  That was awful!  Looking at people's houses just torn apart, their vehicles crushed, it's just awful.  I feel for them.  We have so many memories in our houses:  family members, things from them, pieces from places we've been, people we've known.  Losing all that has to be just crushing; not to mention the loss of the buildings!  And having to clean all that loss.  

Meanwhile in Nevada we are just crying about the heat.  Yeah, it's nasty but shit oh dear!  It makes me feel pretty petty for sure.  Anyway, I recently got to the great old age of 76.  Nothing earthshaking but it's another year.  So I bought a new PC.  My current one is getting old so I guess it's time for Windows 11.  Unfortunately nothing works the way it used to!  I can't get the notebook app to work properly; there are a couple of internet apps that are just crazy; transfering data from the old machine to the new one is just a joke.  Grrrr!  No photos for my blog because I can't upload them!  Grrrr!  Yeah, I know I'm older but only a few days ago I could do this stuff!  Just another day in paradise.  Take care & keep away from those sick folk.

Life in the slow lane

Things are just perking along here about 20 mph under the speed limit; well, unless the limit is 20!  I got a message the other day from a guy I've known since I was about 4; his wife of 56 years just passed away from cancer.  Damn, I'm such an idiot.  I can't figure out how to tell him how sorry I am for him.  But it's got to have been a year and a half of hell watching the woman he loved going down hill.  Actually, he invited me to be in their wedding; it's the only church wedding I've ever even seen much less being a part of!  She was a lovely woman who loved her husband, her community, her country.  You just can't say enough good things about her.  

In other news, our town is having a fall festival this weekend.  They have a parade planned for this morning; we are going to be hiding in our house!  The street department started putting out signs a couple of days ago and I'm sure visitors were wondering why there were detour signs all over the place beside the road but not IN the road.  Well, they will be IN the road in a couple of hours.  We got .03 inches of rain yesterday afternoon; I'm sure everyone is hoping it won't happen again this afternoon!  Who wants to go to a rodeo or a carnival or just a parade in the rain.  But, after all, it is Nevada; they'll be safe from the rain.

These days the news is totally full of the election.  We have quite a number of people around here with Trump flags and signs.  I cannot imagine why any normal, somewhat conservative, person could support that lying draft dodger/felon for president of the United States.  But what really scares me is that he is even older than me and I think my mental faculties are declining; his have to be even worse from the way he acts and what he says.  I mean he thinks there was an audience at the debate with Kamala?  And that leads me to his vice presidental choice; really?  OMG, what a weirdo.  And if Mr. Trump were president and his doctors declared him incompetent we'd have this Vance guy in his place!  Well, heaven help us.

I got a kick out of Kamala Harris talking with Oprah Winfrey and saying that if someone broke into her house she would shoot them.  In our house it would be a race to see if my wife shot the idiot first or if I beat her to it.  I got my first pistol from my dad when I think I was 16.  We had a store and sold almost anything except food and one time dad ordered this pistol and I thought it was so cool!  And then it disappeared from the counter, apparently sold.  And then it showed up as a birthday gift!  Wow, and I've still got it and I still know how to use it.

To end all this rambling I've got a photo of the full moon disappearing into the mountains west of us the other day.  Take care & be careful with all those sick folks out there!

 

Have I mentioned it's still warm?

 Jeez!  This warm weather thing is getting old but what ya gonna do?  Yeah, not much!  And it's only gotten up to 105F here (40.5C) so that's not an unheard of temp.  Of course the a/c in our car has decided to take a break.  That's unpleasant!  Especially since we had it repaired to the tune of $2,400 in April.  Needless to say the garage is going to be helping us with that. 

I've just gotten a new PC.  It's an HP with an i7 core and a couple of TB of storage.  It's been a long while since I've had to deal with a new PC and boy is it a giant pain in the ass!  I'm used to various pieces of software and now I'm learning I was using antiques.  I was using this office software that was last updated in 2011 for heaven's sake.  Well, that's dead.  And I go to copy my photographs to a flash drive and it turns out 128GB isn't enough room.  I've got nearly 45,000 photos on the darn computer.  Well, that's why I wanted the 2 TB hard drive on the new one.  

On the health front we are all screwed up.  My wife's two broken toes have mended but now they are cramping when she walks.  My sciatica is still a pain in the butt (sorry, I should have resisted that).  And our dog's right front paw is still growing cysts between the toes.  This growing old does have disadvantages.  I had to go to the DMV yesterday to get my driver's license renewed.  They have an online method for doing that but it wouldn't work for me so I asked the clerk about it.  She just smiled.  "You're over 70 and we want people that age to come in and be tested."  Shit!  But I can't blame them either.  You want to be sure they are still breathing and all that.

One of the things we really like is the mountains that surround us.  Here is a sunrise from last month.  It's fun watching the sun move from one end of the mountains to the other.

And we do feed the local birds.  Here I haven't filled the feeder but the thistle is still pretty popular!

It's ok.  I'll get the other one filled too!  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and staying away from the sick folks.

Well, it's still warm.

Yep, summer in the great desert is still warm.  But that's not to say it can't be pretty.  Especially in the early morning when it's not too hot!

I'm always saying that looking at those mountains is one of the reasons we like living here and it's certainly true.  Driving around and seeing people with Trump 2024 flags is certainly NOT one of the good things but I guess they get to have their opinions too.  

A few weeks ago I posted a photo of our front door with tons of dead crickets on the floor.  A few days later I saw this series of photos posted from northern Nevada.

At least we aren't the only ones with the problem!  I'm hearing one of our neighbors using a blower almost every day going around his house blowing the darned things away.  However the bug population at our house has dropped to almost zero so I'm hoping that the problem is going/has gone away.  

Our outside temps are dropping a bit but I'm sure that's just a momentary thing.  Still, there is quite a difference between 104F and 112F (40C and 44.4C).  It will be another month or so before the drop is to the point where you want to be outside!  

A couple of years ago we contacted our local electricity company (Valley Electric aka VEA) and asked about solar panels for generating electricity.  They have a subsidiary that they want you to use (gee!) so we ended up spending about $25,000 on solar panels.  Our house faces north so the panels, mounted on the south side, aren't visible when you look at the house.  And, do they work, you ask.  Yep.  Here's the usage info from the bill covering 6/23 to 7/23 of this year.  It's stupid I think but the power from the panels is sent to the company and then the company sends out power to our house.  It turns out that the panels are almost covering our electric needs even when the a/c is on 24/7 (actually our house is all electric; no gas at all).  In fact, over the year we end up with about 3 months of extra energy created vs energy used.  Of course they take that and sell it to others but that's the way things work when there is no competition.

I'm being obsessed the the Presidential election.  I'm not sure why; I never had any idea that Kamala Harris was alive until she became President Biden's VP.  Never heard of Tim Walz or JD Vance either.  Still a couple of those people are going to be running our country in something under 6 months.  I was worried that President Biden was getting a little old to be running the country but Mr. Trump isn't any spring chicken either!  Actually, him having Vance as his VP makes me a little afraid because there is at least say a 20% chance that some illness might happen to Mr. Trump.  And then Mr. Vance would be acting President/the next President.  Yeah, that does worry me.  I've been following a blog that is pretty anti-Trump and it makes some really good points quoting printed articles and sharing cartoons from all over the place.  For sure it's not a pro-Trump site but I like it!

Well, that's the news from this corner of the desert.  Have a great day and keep washing those hands and staying away from the sick people!

Summer, what fun!

No, not really!  Not in southern Nevada anyway.  Our dog has been limiting himself to one run out to do his bathroom duties; first thing in the morning.  Well, I kind of knew what was going on but this?!?!

Yeah, that's the temp of those rocks that fill the back yard.  That's 160F or 71C.  Well, hell, I wouldn't want to walk on that in my bare feet either!  I was expecting something warm but that is just way warmer than I was expecting.  Good dog!

I got my shot last Thursday which was supposed to help my spinal nerve problems and I have to say it did change things but that's not to say fixed them!  It just kind of moved the pain around a bit.  We'll see what they have to say when I can get in to talk with them again.  

The Presidential election is about all that's on the news these days and I have to say I'm pretty happy about how it is moving along.  I should say I'm originally from Iowa, a Republican state, and even today my wife and I are registered Republicans.  Actually that is simply so we can have some voice here.  There will be 4 people running for a position in the county government, all Republican, so whoever wins the primary will automatically get the position.  There just won't be a Democratic or Independent candidate.  It says something about the number of Democrats in the county for sure!  ANYWAY, we will certainly be voting for Kamala Harris for President and are, so far, pretty happy with the choice of Tim Walz for VP.  

One of my HUGE problems with Mr. Trump is the whole Project 2025 thing.  There is some serious crap in that.  Things like purging civil servants, pardon everyone in the Jan. 6 invasion of the capital, enact an abortion ban, reverse student debt forgiveness, cut social security, cut Medicare, abolish the Dept. of Education, ban books, attack LGBTQ+ people, end climate protections, deregulate corporations and the oil industry, put immigrants in detention camps and more!  OMG!  It makes me think that living in another country might be better!  Well, I guess that is one way to reduce the number of people who want to move to this country.  Shit!

We do have some fun in our lives though.  We were going to a supermarket for something the other day and saw this official vehicle.

Can't you just see it in a speeding chase?  LOL  Well, actually, it was being driven by a couple of the sheriff's civilian helpers.  They were apparently helping the supermarket folks with something or maybe just buying donuts for the real cops.  

Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to type from around here.  Hope you are having as much fun.  Keep washing those hands and staying away from the sick folks.

Just cruising along

 Don't have much to talk about because life is being pretty dull and no photos for the same reason.  That's going to change next week but that's because of doctor visits and stuff like that.  Nothing really big until Thursday when I'm supposed to get some sort of spinal injection for my spinal stinosis.  We'll see how that goes.  I saw this doctor on June 20 and August 1 is the first day he could "fit me in".  What a crap medical system we have in this country!

Yesterday we couldn't see the mountains in any direction.  That's amazing for us because usually we've got them around us about 300 of the 360 degrees(there aren't any directly east of us).  My wife suggested someone had said it was because of the Chico, CA fire but that's over 400 miles away so I'm kind of doubtful.  Anyway, it did clear up by the afternoon and this morning is quite nice.  Heck, it's only 76F (24C) outside so that's great!  No fear, we'll still get over 100F (38C) before the day is over.

I said it was nice and clear in the morning but then about 10:00 the mountains started to disappear into cloud or dust or whatever.  That only lasted for a couple hours though and now, at about 3 pm it's nice and clear again.  Weirdness for sure!   

My wife's toes are getting better and she is able to walk about a bit now.  It's obviouly not comfortable but she doesn't need the wheelchair any more so that's good!  We are still spending a lot of time in our recliners.  It's not very good for your health but it isn't painful!  We like to give to the local VFW Food Bank so we bought some stuff via Smith's Food and Drug's pickup service the other day and this morning she went out to inventory what we received.  We think it's all there but we had trouble finding 2 small packets of tuna.  But, really, if the picker was that hungry, well, maybe it would have gone to them anyway.  While she was having that fun, I was working on cleaning the front porch again.  Talk about life in the fast lane!  We've still got zillions of bugs out there.  We keep killing them but they seem to still re-produce.  Who knows?  We got a UPS delivery the other day and the guy said our porch wasn't the worst he's seen.  Now that's hard to believe but I'd like to!  

I don't like to talk about politics here but I have to admit that I'm happy that President Biden has taken himself out of the race for another term.  And I admire him for the graceful way he is doing it.  It's not because I don't like what he's done or that I'm worried about his abilities but I just don't see 75-85 year old people as appropriate leaders.  I'm 75 and I have to say I have trouble remembering words sometimes; my balance isn't what it was 20 years ago; making an even 20 minute speech WITH a teleprompter would be problematic.  Of course, I've got those same worries about Mr. Trump because he too is even older than me.  But with him I've got other problems:  draft dodger; convicted felon; molestor of women; and those are the easy to remember/prove things.  Our daughter was here a few days ago and I had to tell her I'd much rather be choosing to vote for someone her age (50's) than someone my age.  It's time for a new generation to take over.

Anyway, have a good one and try to stay away from those sick people!