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.

Nope, not dead quite yet!

Ok, it's been a long while since I've managed a post.  Some things have been happening but then again I'm being kind of lazy too.  In early March we managed a 4 balloon morning.  That's always special.

 

Then our daughter was diagnosed with a growth on her liver that needed surgery.  Hmmm, not good huh.  She isn't married so her mom and I headed off to Oklahoma to be with her while she was going through all that.  Our first night was spent in Flagstaff, AZ then a night in Santa Rosa, NM finally ending up in a suburb of Oklahoma City, OK.  There are some really pretty areas along I-40 but we were kind of intent on getting there.

We were going to be there for about a week so our daughter rented us an AirBnB that was in her neighborhood!  That was different!  For example, here were some of the neighbors.

Yep, looking outside there were goats and cattle in fields right by these homes!  The house was really quite nice.  It had a weird flooring but three nice bedrooms, a huge closet and all the comforts of home. 

The other neighbors were a bit more normal but they did have something to celebrate.

Well, as it turns out our daughter's liver was fine and the tumor was benign but they removed her gall bladder just in case.  We stayed there a total of a week to see her through the start of her recovery.  She should be just fine and back to her usual running around in a month or so.  And then we managed three days driving to get home.

 

 

It was a bit cool but we didn't have any nasty weather so that worked out ok.  Then we got home and I've started a new phase in my life.  I've got Invisalign braces on my teeth!

 

 

Do I have to mention that the darned things are expensive?  Jeez!  But I'm at a point now where I cannot eat a chicken sandwich.  I can eat ground meat but I just cannot bite through a piece of meat.  One of the things we liked about these were that an orthodontist is actually overseeing the process.  Some competing braces are 'do it yourself'.  We'll see.  It should be better in a couple of years!  In the mean time I've got these things to wear all the time I'm not actually eating.  Life in the fast lane. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Take care and keep washing those hands.

Well, another month gap! Lazy fool!

 I have to admit that I don't have a lot to share in this blog but not making it every couple weeks or so is just criminal.  Sorry.  Mostly we have been transitioning to cooler weather.  We even got some precipitation in the last couple days so we have snow on Mount Charleston.  That's the re-fill for our aquafier so we are always happy to see that.  Seeing 10 feet would be great but I imagine it is only a couple feet.  I actually looked the snow level up and apparently it varies between 8 inches and 160 inches!  Well, we can but hope.

Our dog, Gus, has had a problem with his right front paw since we got him in February.  He's had 8 or 10 different medications, both oral and applied to the paw.  We finally asked our vet to operate on his paw and see what is going on.  She didn't find anything specific but there were some poorly healed scars and some crud in his foot all of which she cleaned out.  Of course we had more salve and bandages which did not make him a happy camper.

I'm  happy to say that this seems to have done the trick.  He is still receiving medication but he's lost the cone and generally is just ignoring his foot just like a dog should do.  

Our town had it's annual Balloon Festival.  It was a bit too windy for much ballooning though.  I did get a couple of shots but usually you will get a shot with 4 or 5 balloons fairly close together.

We have also decided that we may as well get rid of our 31' travel trailer.  It is 12 years old and moving it around isn't as easy for us as it was back in the day.  (There is quite a difference between 62 and 74!)  Anyway, rather than fool around trying to sell it we've decided to donate it to the American Legion Vehicle Donation operation.  So far it is still in the back yard but we are hoping that it will be gone before Xmas.  It is still in good shape so we are hoping that they will get a nice amount for it.  We'll see.  This afternoon we will be going out and taking photos of it for them and unloading all the 'stuff':  plates, glasses, cooking utensiles and who knows what else.  There is even a certain amount of canned food that we'll probably just pitch since it is at least 2 years old!  Fun and games.

I'll end with a photo of something someone put on the back window of their car.  You can tell me what it means!

Take care.  Keep that social distancing and washing those hands.  Hopefully I'll get back here fairly soon but if I don't; have a Merry Christmas and may 2023 be a great year for us all!