Talk about quiet!

 I haven't updated this in some time but there is a simple reason:  nothing to say!  We haven't even had a special sunset lately and no way am I getting up early enough for sunrise!  

We are surrounded by Republicans around here but at least there was a "No Kings" demonstration here along with the rest of the country.  I simply cannot imagine how these Republicans think Mr. Trump is doing anything for them.  Things are getting more expensive by the minute and governmental help is disappearing just as fast.  I'm waiting on ICE to come into town and drag off 10-15% of the population sending them back to Mexico or pretty much any South American country.  Most of our medical professionals are from overseas as well (mostly Asian countries) but I've got to think that even Trump isn't stupid enough to send them back to their country of origin.

 The thing that bothers me most about Mr. Trump is his mental state.  He is clearly not all there!  Every speech has statements that not only are weird but they have nothing to do with what he's talking about.  Getting the Republican's to see he has to go to the sidelines is going to be difficult unless he does something completely crazy.  And then I'm worried about his Vice President and Cabinet officials.  They seem even crazier than he is so without him who knows what they will be trying to do.  My guess is that we'll be finding out before too long.

Meanwhile, our personal days are full of fun.  My wife has Physical Therapy twice a week and one or the other of us needs to have blood drawn or an MRI or some scan done every couple of weeks.  Otherwise it's just living life.  Of course my wife can't do much of anything so I'm doing the shopping; cooking; laundry; cleaning; feeding the dog and the wild birds; pretty much everything and that's a lot for an old fart like me!  She is getting better with using a walker and the PT people have her using some specialized kind of cane but she does still need plenty of rides in the wheelchair.   I did have my 77th birthday last month so now I'm on my way to 78.  I'm really happy that I can do all that stuff and help her get around as well.  The fact that I see some movie star or someone dying when they are 5 or 10 years younger than I am does make me feel kind of weird.  Of course who knows what kind of life they were living!  Maybe they were living in the fast lane and God knows I'm pretty much in the slow lane!

I guess that's it for tonight.  Take care of yourself and your loved ones.  Keep keeping clean and stay away from the idiots!

Life in the slow lane!

 Well, it's been a while but I really don't have much of interest to talk about.  We are still hitting the doctors way too much and they still aren't doing much to help either of us.  My wife's ankle fusion surgery just keeps getting farther and farther away.  My doctor and the ER people just don't have a clue what's going on with me so that's kind of dull too.  My wife has been going to the gym and meeting with a personal trainer trying to build up some muscle since after the surgery she is going to be confined to a wheelchair for a month or two.  I've been going with her and using the treadmill and the back strengthening exercises.  Helping her in and out of that chair, bed and everywhere else isn't going to be fun for either of us!

I did come up with my own version of excitement.  I was walking over to the window to close the window blind at night and managed to kick the leg of a chair with the little toe on my left foot!  Talk about fun!  Well, it slowed me down some but not all that much.  I had a doctor's visit a couple days later so I asked him to look at it and he doesn't think it's broken or anything so it's just hobble around for a bit.

Yesterday we got up to 105 F so if you want to be outside you do it early!  We've had some weeds growing in our front yard so I decided to work on removing them.  I can only do about an hour a morning so it's taken me 3 mornings and I've still got some little stuff right next to the street.  Now it's time for me to work on the back yard but I need to wait until next week; our trash can is full of weeds with no room for trash!  LOL  This pile is about 20% of what I did yesterday a.m.  This bending over and pulling weeds at 76 years of age is no fun!

 There was one fun thing I got to see.  This guy was thinking of landing his balloon.

 I don't have any idea why but he decided that he needed a different spot so he moved on to the right (south) in the photo.

 He's not really landing in those trees.  He's in a place about 2 blocks past (west) them.  That whole lot is a weird thing.  It is an acre just like ours.  When we moved in there was a hole dug like someone was going to lay gravel and put in a foundation for a house.  The trees were MUCH smaller.  There is a well on the property and it's been pumping water to those trees for the 16 years we've lived here but there has been absolutely nothing done about building a house.  Weird.  

Anyway, that's all that's fit to print about life out here right now.  We can't go anywhere because of the constant doctor visits so if I manage any more photos they will probably be either weeds or balloons!  Take care and have a good time!

We got rain!

We get a reasonable number of storm warnings around here.  They are usually nothing.  But this time we got rain!  AND the mountains got snow!  That is really important because the snow will melt and end up in our aquifer meaning that we have water to drink!  I know lots of local folks grow trees and have lawns full of grass but my wife and I are pretty aware of living in the desert.  We have TWO cactus plants and that's it on our 1 acre home site.  We and our dog drink water and we (people!) shower every couple of days and that's our water usage.  We still worry about the aquifer.  What can I say?  Old farts worry about everything.

We managed to visit our dermatologist last week.  My wife just basically has dry skin that bothers her.  I had one episode of skin cancer that ended up in a Mohs operation.  They just basically scrape off the skin until they don't see any cancer there any more.  Fun?  No.  Effective?  Yes.  And I've got a nice little dent in the skin on my head to prove it.  This time the dermatologist found some spots on my skin that he didn't like so he pulled out the freezing spray and knocked out 13 spots!  They will go away but for now I've got nasty little spots all over my body.

Of course when I open up my phone or computer I immediately find some stupid thing our new President or his incompetent staff has done.  I mean the "Gulf of America"?  What an asshole!  Now "Gulf of the Americas" would at least make a little sense but it's been what it is for hundreds of years.  Taking over Greenland?  I mean I'm sure there are valuable minerals in those mountains; and it makes flying over Russia a much shorter trip; but you don't just go take what you want in this world.  I like my neighbor's car but I'm not going to go steal it!  I like the waitress in the casino but I don't just get to jump on her!  No, asshole is too mild a term for Mr. Trump and his cronies.  I can only hope that we and the rest of the world will manage to remain calm and peaceful for the next four years.  

I read several blogs where people are visiting Mexico and South America.  I see trucks full of bananas and wood and meat.  I know a certain amount of those things are headed for the USA.  Don't worry, those tariffs the idiot wants to impose will only make everything you buy more expensive!  Look at the fish in your grocery store:  product of Chile.  Look at almost anything you buy from Amazon:  product of China.  Don't worry; another 20% tariff will only be passed on to you by every retailer.

Life in the fun lane, huh?  Well, the good news is that it is warming up and we are going out to lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant.  They haven't raised their prices in a year or so.  Next year will probably see the $10 lunch be $13 but we are here now.  It was 23 F ( -5C) this morning and now we are up to 45 F (7 C) so that's a good thing.  Gas and diesel are in the low $3 range; who knows what will happen there?  Nevada fuel taxes are kinda nasty.  We've been talking about an electric vehicle because it's only at most a 150 mile round trip to Las Vegas.  We could charge the thing here at home basically for free because of our solar panels.  But driving to Oklahoma City to visit our daughter would cost a bit - both money and time!  It's over 1,100 miles so that would be 4 days of full charge on most of them.  We'll see.

So take care & try to stay away from the sick folks.