Thrill a minute!

 Well things are going just as exciting around here as usual.  My wife and I are both bothering doctors or should I say they are bothering us?  Her primary care doctor keeps writing up orders for weird tests.  My wife's foot surgeon just seems so 'sometime' in the future.  He seems like a really nice guy but he keeps going somewhere else.  The April surgery is now more like a June surgery but that isn't even set up so it could be August if things keep sliding away.

Back in April my doctor asked for a blood test and found my platelets were low:  they should be around 150K and were measured as 11K.  But no one around here wanted to do anything about it.  Then a week or so ago they thought about it again and sent me back to the ER.  The ER decided they didn't have any specialist who could look at me so they sent me to Las Vegas.  They kept me for about 24 hours, took at least 15 or 20 blood samples and told me I could go home.  Grrr!  At least I got a couple prescriptions this time.  We'll see how all this works out.  The screwy thing is that I feel just fine.  But the doctors keep saying I could die at any moment.  

Other than all the medical crap it's being a typical spring.  One day 4 mph (6 kph) breeze and the next a 24 mph (38 kph) breeze.  Fun in the desert doesn't always mean wearing shorts!  Our house is turning 20 years old this year and when we get those 45 mph (72 kph) gusts it really shakes the windows!  But, no, we aren't buying new windows!

The new cable internet system is supposed to be installed tomorrow.  I have to admit to looking forward to that if only for the less 'twitchy' system.  Well, let's hope it's an improvement!  When some idiot takes out a telephone pole we might be out for a couple of days. 

That's all the news fit to print.  My latest photos are just dull so I won't inflict them on you.  Take care and stay away from all those sick people!

We had a good time!

 After the fun with our uninvited porch guest we were actually looking forward to some invited guests:  our son and his wife visiting from San Diego.  We often go down there about this time of year to celebrate their birthdays; they are about 2 weeks apart.  Unfortunately, right now you can only go quarantine yourself for 2 weeks if you are on a non-business trip to California.  That just wasn't going to work!  We might stay with them but they live in a two-story house and there was no way our dog could manage the stairs.  So, even though they are busy, they managed to get a few days off to spend with the old folks in Pahrump.

We had a good time.  We ate out quite a bit and they managed to go check out our local casinos.  She likes to gamble so it worked out well.  We could take them to various local sights but actually this area (and the drive to get here) are quite well known to them.  So it was lots of talk and eating.  What's wrong with that?  Our son is an IT guy so he was able to help my wife with her computer which has been slowing down.  That was a good deal!

They left on Sunday then on Tuesday our daughter came to visit.  Well, actually she was in Las Vegas but we managed to get over and have lunch with her.  We just saw her when we visited her in Texas so it hasn't been a long time but it was fun.  She had lived in Las Vegas for something over 12 years so Texas is quite a change.  Of course, Texas in the pandemic is nothing like it will be in normal times so we are hoping she will get to start enjoying her new town and state.  It is funny.  When she lived in Las Vegas we would just go into town to buy a few things and we never thought to stop and see her.  Now that she has moved my wife cannot go into the city without remarking on how strange it feels now that she isn't around any more.   

We got our second COVID vaccination yesterday (the Moderna variety).  Our local Walgreen's was doing us old folks so my wife got us in line.  It was quite easy and painless (in spite of the really long needle they used).  We both have a sore arm today but it really isn't bad so we are just perking along.  We won't be abandoning our masks any time soon but we want everything on our side that we can get!  We've noticed that some restaurant staff have a pretty poor track record with using masks correctly but we have continued to patronize the restaurants.  In our town there isn't much work except hospitality so those folks need customers if they aren't going to be on the poverty rolls.

I came across something amazing the other day.  A nurse in England had been caring for her husband who had Parkinson's Disease.  She noticed he had an odd odor on his body but then she noticed the same odor on another person with the disease.  She got in touch with some university people and talked with them about the possibility of a 'sniff test' for the disease.  And now it looks like that may happen!  Isn't that amazing!  A woman with a really good sense of smell may have discovered something that will help millions of people with a horrible disease.  Now that is good news indeed!  

My mother had dementia for nine years before she died in 2005.  It got to the point where she was unable to move around on her own and was wheelchair bound.  At that point a new doctor was assigned to her and he put her on medication for Parkinson's.  I never learned his reasoning however suddenly she was able to walk again!  It didn't last long, only 5 or 6 months, but it certainly made an improvement in the quality of her life.  It makes me wonder if there might be some similar hint for people with dementia.  Wouldn't that be wonderful.  

Gotta go.  It's my day to cook and I'm doing Shepard's Pie.  It's easy but we both like it so why not?  Have a good one and keep washing those hands and wearing those masks!

Did I mention it's kind of quiet?

 Yep!  It's quiet.  Hell, we don't even have as many airplanes flying over as we used to have!  I used to take the dog out at night and see at least 3 or 4 airplanes taking folks to or from California.  Now if I see 1 it is unusual.  What a change.  We are still going out to lunch quite often.  Yesterday the waitress had to ask two guys to go find masks because they thought they didn't need to wear them.  Today we saw a woman who pulled her shirt up to use as a mask.  People are just so dumb.  The place we visited today was closed for a couple weeks.  It turns out that the owner, who is also the chef, came down with the virus and had to be hospitalized.  Of course the whole staff had to be tested and all that stuff took a couple weeks.  Happily the owner is doing better but he is still using a walker to get around and, of course, hasn't returned to work.

My birthday is coming up and my drivers license expires on that day.  Since I'm so ancient I have to have as optometrist testify as to my eye sight and a doctor testify that I don't have any medical conditions that would make it unsafe for me to drive.  What a pain in the ass!  But, what the heck, it might keep one of two idiots off the road.  Anyway, the doctor has a new assistant and she had a greeting for me.

I thought it was cute even if it's a little strange. 

We like to take our walk early when it is so warm.  It's about 2:30 in the afternoon and it is 102F (39C) now.  Believe me, walking at 06:00 when it is only 75F (24C) or so is a lot more pleasant!  And you get to see the sunrise!

One of the advantages of living here in the valley is that we get to see the sun move as the seasons progress.  On June 21 the sun would be nearly to the far left in the photo above.  By December 21 it will be fairly close to the right edge.  We've never lived anywhere before where the changes were so visible to us.  It's pretty cool!

Well, that's it for today.  Have a good one and be safe.

Something different

We've been doing a lot of international travel since our beloved pets died 6 and 7 years ago.  The dog had a cancer that was operated on several times and it just got to the point where she would still be in recovery at the time a new eruption would be found.  The vets just could not get all of the cancer out of her.  The cat just died of old age.  We took the opportunity and traveled via cruise ship a lot but also just taking a month and visiting Italy or Australia or wherever.  Well, that's over now!

Saturday, Nov. 30,  we went out to lunch then thought we would stop by the local animal shelter to see if they had any new dogs that we hadn't seen before.  Long story short:  we brought home our new dog!  It's a weird dog for sure.  It doesn't pull on the lead much when you are walking it but it is totally untrained.  Of course we don't know what it's previous owners called it so we can't call it by name.  However, it doesn't know any of the common commands:  come, sit, stay....  He doesn't even know how to play.  If you bounce a ball in front of him, he watches you but has no real interest.   We were told that it was found out in the desert abandoned and covered in stickers so it was shaved!  They said they thought it was a year old and starving.  On Wednesday we managed to get in to see our vet and she suggests the dog is more like six or seven years old and we believe her to be correct.  The dog just doesn't act like a young dog.  Also, he weighs something like 57 lb (25kg) and while you can fell his ribs they aren't sticking out as though he was starving.  So anyway, here's a photo of Ollie our new dog.

According to the animal shelter, Ollie was shaved in late September or early October and his coat is still not growing out.  The vet suggested that the follicles might have been burned and the hair may never recover.  At any rate, he looks like he was shaved last week by a drunk who didn't know what he was doing!  There are little tufts of hair here and there but large portions of his coat has hair that is perhaps 1/16th of an inch (1.5 mm) long.  We'll see.

He is pretty smart and he definitely responds to food!  He's learning his name, sit and come.  He is a long way from perfect but it's coming along.  We have a crate for him to sleep in since he isn't house trained at all.  We put him in the back seat of the truck and took him on a trip to Las Vegas that worked out really well.  There is a restaurant/bar called BJ's that has a small outdoor area and they said having a dog out there was just fine.  He was really good just waiting for us by our feet while we had lunch.  We are already thinking of our first trailer trip with him!

When we flew to Norway to take that North Atlantic cruise something happened to my back and I've had pain ever since.  Before the cruise we would walk around our neighborhood about 2.5 miles (4 km) 5 or 6 times a week.  I still can't walk a tenth of that distance without severe pain.  Just shopping in the grocery store can send me for more ibuprofen.  The doctor sent me to Physical Therapy but after 10 visits I've had only minimal improvement.  They are going to try dry-needling which sounds like a semi-copy of acupuncture.  It would be cool if that worked!  However I'm scheduled to visit a orthopedic specialist the first week of January.  Should be lots of fun too. 

So, that's all the news from around here.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hopefully I'll manage to update this before but if I don't have a Happy Holiday - whichever you celebrate!

Happy Memorial Day!

We don't have a flag pole.  We have a simple bracket on the house for the few days a year that we display the flag.  Our street is a mile long and we are the only ones flying the flag today.  There are a fair number of people in this area who do fly the flag every day.  There are very few of those who light it as they should at night but I guess that is too much like work.  I used to read a column in our local paper written by a guy who must have been some sort of libertarian because he argued that the flag should only be flown in front of government buildings as a sort of identification.  I fly it as a sign of respect for men and women who are serving and who have served.  Of course I respect them every day (!) but save the flag for special days.

Following the news these days is quite strange.  Every day the popular media finds something weird about President Trump.  Some days it is as earth-shaking as whether or not he holds his wife's hand; some days it's a bit more.  His trip to the Middle East and Europe was actually kind of scary.  The guy doesn't seem to know what he is doing and being 'political' doesn't seem to be in his makeup either.   Of course we were living in Europe when Bill Clinton was doing his best to get close to Monica Lewinski so we are used to being embarrassed by the President.  Then there is the whole Russian secret communications channel thing with Kushner.  It is to the point that I looked up some conservative news sources (like Fox News) to see what they are saying.  Well, at least they aren't laying bets on when Mr. Trump will be impeached.  I found an article discussing British and Irish bookies taking bets that he will either be impeached or voluntarily leave office before the end of his term.  My crystal ball is cloudy (hell, it never has worked!) so I guess I'll just keep on keeping on.

We have transitioned into home-bodies quite nicely.  Up about 06:00 to walk, keeping up with the internet in the morning, lunch out at one of the local resturants, some sort of work around the house in the afternoon and a quiet evening.  The bbq gets quite a workout around here.  We both enjoy the grilled taste so I've bbq'd almost anything we drag home from the store.  We have a library of a couple hundred movies so if there isn't anything on television we still have lots to choose from.  If television and movies don't call, then there are the books.  TONS of books.  My wife likes science fiction and fantasy while I prefer mysteries.  I'm sure there would be no objection if I wanted to read one of her books or she read one of mine but in 35 years I don't think it has happened.  LOL

I'll try to keep you all updated with all this excitement but it's going to be tough.  Right now the biggest thing going is a root canal I'm having done next Thursday.  That's life in the fast lane folks.  Take care and thanks for stopping by.