Rain!

 Yep, out here in the middle of the desert we've been getting rain.  I haven't had to add water to the birdbath all week!  And, we got a rainbow!

 Not bad at all!  It didn't last long but they don't do they.  Have a good one.  Keep washing those hands and stay away from the sickos.

Quiet times

 We've been having some quiet times out here in rural Nevada.  Not to say nothing's happening.  It was a tad windy the other day.

 That's the flag outside our largest casino and getting it flat out like that is pretty unusual.  It takes some real wind.  The casino across the street has another flag about the same size but I couldn't get them both in one photo.  

We've also had some weird weather.

 That is the view to the east; towards the mountains.  And, yes, we got a little rain and some snow up on the mountain peaks.  I think we got up to 65F (18C) that day.

That was the view to the west.  These photos were taken about 30 seconds apart so you either get cloudy and nasty or pretty blue and sunny depending on which direction you are looking.  By tomorrow we should be in the low 80's (28C).  Who knows what's going to happen next!
 

We do donate to the VFW Food Bank about once a month.  A store was having a case sale so I got a couple of cases for the vets.  It was something over $300 but, well, why not? 

 I know I've mentioned it before but my dad (and me, of course) and all the men in my wife's family served in the military.  We both want to help those folks who served our country and need help.  

My wife's ankle is still giving her trouble.  She had it fused almost 3 months ago and it is still very painful.  She had a women coming around giving her PT advice and now she is going to a local PT office but walking is pretty much out of the question.  We did go out to lunch the other day and she used her walker but around the house or if we are going someplace with lots of walking; it's a wheelchair day.  She certainly hasn't been in a grocery store since the surgery!  Oh, and I'm doing most of the cooking so you can guess it's been pretty second rate!

So that's what's going on around here.  The place is about 90% Republican so you still see some Trump signs but not nearly as many as six months ago!  I'm pretty sure that within a year we'll be almost free of those signs.  Not free of the President nor the idiots he has in the cabinet but people will be noticing the decline in their lives; freedom; savings and I don't know what else.  I am a little worried that we might have a President J. D. Vance  but we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there.  Talk a life in the crap lane!

Have a good one and try to get all the vaccines you need and keep washing those hands!

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!

Getting close to no daylight savings time!

We are close to the end of daylight savings time.  I don't really care about it but my wife hates it!  She wants her hour back!  I'm not sure why she's so against it but she'll be happier in a couple of days.  I guess we could move to Arizona where the whole state doesn't want it but, yeah, not worth it!  Anyway, we are doing our usual fumbling around trying not to screw things up too much.  I had fun going to the grocery this afternoon and spending $100 on mostly candy, ice cream, wine and beer.  Hey, that's what happens when an old guy who's had 2 glasses of wine gets to go to the store on his own.

Actually the temps are getting better around here; like 80 F (26C) as a high.  That is a very nice situation!   It is a bit chilly at night too so we are happy campers.  Well, not campers; we gave that to the American Legion.  I still think they were ripped off by the company who was 'helping' them but at least they got something.  

I know I've talked before about my family's military history and my wife's family's history but I just can't get over having a convicted felon and draft dodger running for President!  Jeez!  And we live in a very Republican area with lots of Trump signs.  What are those people thinking???  We actually joined the Republican party when we moved here because it's not unusual for there to be 4 Republicans running for an office and 1 other person either Democrat or no party.  If you want to have any choice you have to be in the party.  Of course, being from Iowa, I started out as a Republican.  I don't think I've ever joined another party but I've never been a big supporter of either party.  I've got better things to do with my time:  like pet the dog or the cat back when we had one!  Do I need to say that my wife and I both mailed in our ballots a few days ago voting for Harris?  Duh!

I'm sure I've complained about how my phone isn't connecting to either my new laptop or the old one.  It's still happening so I've got no new photos so share.  Of course there aren't many anyway because it's kind of dull out here but still!  Maybe next lifetime!  Take care and keep up with the vaccinations. 

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!

 

Nothing very exciting here.

 Well, it's been right around 3 weeks since I've updated the old blog.  I have an excuse though; my laptop just spent 4 days in the repair shop!  I'm not really sure what it's problem was; things just weren't working right but they did figure out that the battery was deader than anything so I imagine that was it.  It was a $40 part and a $50 install but let me tell you being without a computer for that long was a terrible experience!  I wasn't aware how much of my life is tied to this little thing.  Well, now things are back to normal and I can even update the blog.

The news is all about the election and I've got to admit that I'm spending way too much time reading about it.  There isn't a thing I can do about it until I vote on Election Day and reading all the guesses about what the various courts are going to say about Mr. Trump and his legal problems are just a waste of time.  I have been looking at https://jobsanger.blogspot.com/.  He posts a lot of very insightful comments about Mr. Trump.  I try to find other things to read but, darn it, there doesn't seem to be a lot of other news except the stupid crimes (including bad driving) that people are committing.  I'll tell you, I wish people could suddenly start being nicer to one another!  And not just in this country; those wars going on in other countries are not making my days any brighter either.

I did get a nice sunset photo a few days ago.

And here is a shot of the moon going down behind the mountains.

We have transitioned into summer around here.  Our days are in the 104F - 107F range (40C - 42C); the nights getting down to 65F - 75F (18C - 24C).  Humidity is in the 10-15% range.  Going outside and remaining in the shade is possible but I cannot imagine how the people who have to work out in the sun manage it.  I'd be sweating buckets.  I am thinking about those folks because for the first time in a very long time we are having houses built in our neighborhood.  There is one that has roofing on it already and the wallboard is up.  There is one that only just has it's foundation and there are two that are just holes in the ground.  Around here you dig a hole about 3 feet deep then fill that with gravel or something similiar for the foundation to sit upon.  We have areas in the valley where if you don't do that your foundation will be breaking up in a couple of years.  And that would be nasty for the builder, the realtor, the plumber, the purchaser and anyone else involved in the thing.  Houses in our area also have to have a well dug (ours is 200 feet deep per our well guy - around 60M) and a septic tank/field installed.  It's all very nice but far from cheap.  Houses that are on the re-sale market are in the $450-600 thousand area.  Of course there are some that go way higher!  Needless to say, when we bought this house 16 years ago things were a lot cheaper.

I've been having a lot of trouble standing up and walking is pretty nasty as well.  After all kinds of medical fooling around I finally got an MRI of the lumbar region of my spine.  There are 7 bones down in that area and the doctor looking at the results found something wrong with almost every one.  Now I'm scheduled for some sort of spinal injection to ease the impact of my spinal stenosis.  If that doesn't work then we'll be looking at more surgery and I'd sure love to avoid that.  I've got to admit that while the doctors have all been pretty nice, they sure take their time about scheduling you for care.  That injection is scheduled for August 1st!  I wonder how many patients that doctor has waiting for care.

That's probably all the news that's fit to print.  Take care and try avoiding all the sick people out there.

Ok time for photos!

 Well, if you look at this blog you'll notice that I do like to include photos.  I've been taking pictures since back in the dark ages!  And I'll probably continue until my darkest age comes.  Anyway, I have a couple of photos to share today.  So first of all is a little cup sized vessel.  It is standing on little legs but the sun on it makes it's shadow totally different. 

You can see how the little cup is standing on the glass counter and is reflected below it but the part I love is the shadow on the wall behind it that is just the upside down portion.  Those stupid wires screw things up but our tv management hasn't allowed us to get rid of them!

To add to the shadow photo locker I'll post this guy.  We bought this in Paris about 24 or 25 years ago.  We like it but adding the shadow version makes it special.

 

Next up is a late evening view of the moon.  This is NOT a full moon even though my photo might make it look like that.

Our car decided to be stupid and killed one of the, I'm sure, many computer chips working away all the time.  This one controlled the SYNC3 and backup camera and a few other things.   Anyway I had to spend HOURS at the dealership in Las Vegas waiting for them to get the thing working again.  I think they did but during my sitting around they had to manually move this 1930 van so they could put up a Christmas tree.  It took 4 guys at least an hour to push this thing around.  And their paychecks are attached to the money I'm spending there!  Grrr!

And one final thing.  We often go out to lunch.  Yesterday we hit our favorite Thai place for lunch and got a table next to the window.  We had mostly finished our meal but I still had some beer.  I've never seen the carbonatization display itself like this.  It's short but amazing!

So, have a Great Thanksgiving if you are in the U.S.  Otherwise have a great few days.  Keep washing those hands and take care!