And I thought last month was bad!

 Jeez, now I'm getting down to 1 post a month.  Well, what can I say?  We've been doing pretty good about taking our morning walks.  We have 3 different walks:  a 1 mile, a 1.5 miles and a 2.5 miles.  We've been going on one of the longer walks pretty consistantly for the last month or so; it often depends on the temperature outside.  When it is 75F (24C) and the sun is just rising you just don't want to head out on an hour's walk.  It will be 85F (29C) by the time you get home.  

A week or so ago we had a nice rainbow over the mountains in the west.  We didn't have any rain but maybe they got some over in California. 

When the moon was full I had to take a photo of it just before it went down.  This is looking off to the west as well.

However, we do get some polution and this morning it was BAD!  Here's a shot of that same area.

It's just nasty!  It doesn't smell bad but the mountains are all just hidden away.  

We live in an area where each home has it's own water well and septic system.  I looked out in the back yard the other night and saw a small lake where there isn't supposed to be one!

I went out and discovered that the pipe leading from the well towards the house had a crack in it.  Happily there was a shutoff valve handy so I was able to stop the flow of water.  Of course that meant that we had no water.  Happily it was only out for a day but that's a long time for no dish washing, no cleaning up, no toilet.  Hmmm, now I'm thinking of emergency supplies!

Anyway, that's the news from this area.  Hope things are going well wherever you might be.  Keep washing those hands!

Wow, 2 posts a month!

Yeah, I'm at a new low in posting I think but I've got an excuse....  Talk about a dull life!  I used to have a dull enough life but recently I've been sitting around taking pain pills that make me sleepy.  Now, if that isn't a recipe for dull I don't know what would be.  

However, recently I've gotten off the pills and I've even tried driving.  The driving isn't going too well though because I'm having trouble turning my head and sometimes you've just got to do that in traffic.  Happily my wife is an excellent driver so our local restaurants haven't missed out on too much of our business.  I have a nap in the morning then we go out to lunch then we come home and I have a nap in the afternoon.  Now that I'm off the pills I'm hoping to go back to a mere 8 hours of sleep every 24.  

Recently I've been reading about people who don't want to be vaccinated for COVID or even wear a mask to prevent the spread and some of the reasons they give.  The big one is always that it is a violation of their rights.  Bah, humbug!  We have laws that you must wear a seatbelt in your car; there's a violation of your right to get thrown clear of the accident.  We have laws that you must have a driver's license; a clear violation of your right to endanger others.  We have laws regarding ownership of property; another clear violation of your right to take what you can.  As Arnold Schwarzenegger pointed out 'with freedom comes rights and responsibilities' including caring about your fellow citizens.  He also pointed out that 'freedom and duty have always gone hand in hand'.  Yea, Arnie!

As some of you may remember, we had solar panels placed on our roof a couple months ago.  It's early still but so far things seem to be working well.  Our electric bill has gone down to the $20 minimum payment that our electric coop requires.  That means we are generating more power than we are using.  We'll see how things are going in six months when it is cold and there are fewer hours of sunlight.  There were a few hiccups along the line with the electronic tracking but they seem to have been worked out.

Anyway, that's all the news from dullsville.  Keep safe and keep washing those hands! 

Quite times have become even more quiet!

 I've written several times about how it's pretty quiet around here.  Well, this is a new high in quiet!  This morning I went in to the grocery store with my wife; almost the first time I've left the house since coming home late last Saturday night.  We've had a nurse from Home Health come by; she said she didn't see a lot for her to do but she would come once a week for a couple weeks just to check on me.  We had a trainer from Home Health come by; he said I didn't need him at all and he wouldn't return unless we requested it.  We went to visit my local doctor; he had nothing to say except to suggest that I should give up drinking.  

So that is my new excitement:  having someone tell me not to drink.  You can imagine how that goes over!  Of course I've got lots of drugs to help me through all this:  NOT.  I have acetaminophen 650mg and methocarbamol 500mg FOUR times a day but that's it.  The methocarbamol is a muscle relaxant but the dosage is only 1/3rd of what I saw on the Mayo Clinic website.   The acetaminophen is a pain reliever, of course, and if you are sitting around in a cervical collar all day; yeah, you'll probably have some pains so I'm not unhappy about having it prescribed.  Still, in my mind these are pretty minor drugs to be taking given that someone just put a big old screw in my neck to hold it together.  At any rate, things seem to be all fixed up and I'm hopeful that I'll be out of this collar soon!  I've got an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday, the 10th, so I may get some answers then.  

We have been continuing in the Southern Nevada heat wave with most days being around 115F (46C).  While I was having fun in the hospital we had severe RAIN storms here!  There was a fair amount of damage to homes and businesses caused both by the amount of water and the strength of the accompanying winds.  Gee, and I missed it!  At least our two cactus plants got some water while I was laid up.  

We have a street called Lost Creek Drive.  Every two or three years there will be an eruption of water just downhill from Lost Creek Drive.  I have to admit that I'd be a bit uncomfortable if I lived on that street.  That creek is clearly NOT lost forever.  

That's all I've got to whine about today.  Hope you are having great times.  But keep washing those hands and mask up if you need to.  Take care.

NOT my idea of a good time!

 Back on Friday, 7/23 we decided we would need more alcohol than we had in the house to get through to our Malta trip.  So, it's off to Vegas getting home about 15:30.  We sat down with a couple of glasses and proceeded to relax by watching some of the mindless stuff now found on television near you. 

At some point, I have no memory of the next couple of hours, I got up, most probably to get another drink, and fell headfirst on the floor.  My wife must have given me a quick checkover then called 911.  Our Ring doorbell camera have two strong slim guys carrying an old fat one out of his house at 19:47.  We went to our local hospital emergency care unit then where loaded onto a helicopter for a quick trip to UMC in Las Vegas.  I woke for a couple minute while in the copter but didn't really wake until I'd been at UMC Trauma for quite a while.

In the morning I was told that I'd broken both the C-1 and C-2 vertebra and was taken to another unit for 'storage'.  My wife showed up and we talked about things with various people.  It turned out the most positive outcome for a situation like this is to use a large screw to attach C-1 to C-2 then let them grow together forever more.  So that was our plan.  

To make a long and aggravating story short, it was 23:00 hours on 7/29 before the screw was installed!  During this entire time I was confined to my bunk.  If I needed the lavatory, it was via a bedpan or a drip that was installed on my penis.  Food was delivered, medication was delivered OFTEN and blood pressure checks, etc were also applied every 2 or 3 hours.  The procedure itself took 6 hours from the time I was picked up until I was released to Post-Op. 

Friday the 30th was full of some 'meetings' where we were taught about broken vertibrea, etc.  We started talking loudly about leaving and finally about 14:00 on the 31st were given permission to go home.  It was 18:00 before they got their paperwork done but at least we made it home and I celebrated the beginning of August in my own bed!

So,  the first thing is that I've got several doctor's appointments in the next couple of weeks.  I've also got a shiny, new walker so that if I feel uncomfortable I can use that for support.  We've canceled our Malta trip hoping to reschedule at some point but have no idea just now.  

I've got to get out and take some photos!  Thanks for stopping by; keep washing those hands!

I've gotta change my passwords!

I was looking at a magazine and they were talking about the need to make passwords a bit more difficult to reduce hacking.  So they had this nice little illustration of how long it would take a computer to hack your password.  For example, an 8 number password would not take any time at all, a few microseconds.  On the other hand if it were 8 upper case and lower case letters, they said it would take 22 minutes.  Make that 10 letters and you are looking at 1 month.  Make that numbers, upper case & lower case letters and symbols and you go out to 5 years!  I don't know about you but I can't imagine anyone trying that hard to get past one of my passwords.  The article said the data was from www.howsecureismypassword.net.

That site was fun.  It is also a motivator to change a few passwords!  Of course, I've got passwords for American Airlines or Duolingo; maybe I can leave those quite simple.  Or flickr; what are you going to do, delete the pictures?  No one looks at them anyway!  

Speaking of photos: I was outside last night cooking on the bbq.  I've been talking about how warm it has been and late yesterday afternoon it was around 113F(45C) out there.  I saw this little hummingbird sitting on a rack we have out there IN THE SHADE.  He was just panting away and just sat there even though I was only a 4 or 5 feet(1.25m) away.

Well, that's the excitement for today.  Keep washing those hands.

Happy Birthday to the US of A!

 

It's been a weird year already but we've just got to keep working on it trying to improve things.  Who would have thought that the year would start out with a bunch of idiots breaking into the Capital?  On the health front heaven only knows what the Delta variation of Covid is going to become.  I'm hoping not so much but that is based on hope not knowledge!  And there is the Black Lives Matter movement; it looked for a time that there might be a bit more racial equality coming to our country; now all I'm hearing is how state legislatures are making it more difficult to vote.  They aren't doing that with old white guys like myself in mind.  All this racism, fear and negativity is depressing.  I have always thought that this was a country that was "conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".  Bah, humbug!

I'll change gears here.  My wife and I bought a few extra things at the grocery store last week so we could just stay home on the weekend of the 4th.  Fireworks are legal in our county and we have three stores that sell nothing else.  Of course this is their big day but apparently they do just fine all year long.  They sell plenty of fireworks to out-of-town folks who want to make a big noise elsewhere.  We don't hear or see much around town.  A couple years ago I drove over to Las Vegas, where fireworks are limited to sparklers, etc., and saw 4 highway patrol motorcycle cops each with a car pulled over with illegal fireworks visible in the back seat.  Like most towns we have a fireworks display every year to celebrate the 4th; we watch it from our front yard.  That's plenty of excitement for us.

We've been working on taking a walk 1st thing every morning.  These days it is 75F (25C) when we set out; waiting for it to get warmer just doesn't make sense!  I liked this view of the mountains west of us when we set out.  The sun was being blocked by some clouds and it almost looked like snow.

Since those mountains are only about 4,000 ft (1,200m) and it is getting to 110F (43C) down here at 2,500 feet (760m); I'm pretty sure it's not snow!  

Well, thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Well, that was quick!

 We've been planning on a quick trip up to Washington state to see the family but it kind of got shaken up when we had to put Ollie down.  However, we finally hit the road.  My wife has a brother, sister and her birth-mother all living on the Olympic Peninsula in Western Washington so once we get there it is easy enough to visit everyone.  That's pretty much what we did.  Just a quick 2,500 mile journey.  Don't all crazy people do that?

Of course those folks live very differently than we do here!  My wife's sister and her husband have this to look at every day.

Yes, that's Mt. Rainier across the water there.

My wife's brother has to look at this.

That would be Vancouver Island across the straits.  Of course they don't want us visiting these days but maybe we'll get cleaned up in a few years!

He also has neighbors with infants.

That last little one was born while we were visiting!  It was a good trip and it was great to see everyone.  My only problem is that I'd really like to do the trip over again but taking my camera and stopping about 20 times a day to take photos!  

Now we are sitting around home, going out to eat at our favorite restaurants and dreaming up another trip.  This one should be even shorter; just a few days over in California to see No. 1 Son and his wife.  It won't be a long trip but you've got to check up on these people once in a while.

Thanks for stopping by and keep washing those hands!

The laughing has stopped!

Right now we are going through a rough patch.  We had to put our dog, Ollie, down on Monday.  Ollie was only with us for about 18 months but he was a good old guy.  He started out (with us) with a nasty hair cut that our vet thinks could have injured a bunch of hair follicles

.  

He was only about 55 lb too which seemed a lot skinny!  He'd been found by Animal Control out in the desert and taken to our local animal shelter which seems to be run by a bunch of idiots!  They told us he was 18 minths old!  We (and our vet) believe he was well over 10 years old.

It took a few months but he was soon stable at about 75 lb and his fur did grow back mostly!

He was a good dog but had his odd spots just like we all.  He didn't mind if you put a collar on his neck but he HATED having a slip lead put around his neck.  Then, after all that fuss, he walked very gently never pulling or hesitating.  Someone did some very weird stuff to him on a slip lead!  He could only just manage a couple of stairs so we bought a ramp so he could get into and out of our truck and RV without falling.

Unfortunately he had a limp which gradually became worse and worse.  He would sometimes even fall when he walked.  Then he started pooping while he walked; it was as though he didn't know it was happening!  The vet suggested that he had a problem with his spine and it was not signaling his brain properly.  You couldn't really correct him for something he didn't know was going on.  At the end we were giving him two pain medications twice a day and he still limped; at least he seemed to know when not to poop.  Finally he stopped finishing his meals and he'd certainly never had that problem!  He was also sleeping all day and all night which was probably the pain medication but he was still limping with every step.  Finally we all decided it must just be his time.  RIP Ollie.

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

A laugh a day

 Well, we can hope it will keep the doctor away!  

I think my county has some kind of dumb commissioners but at least I'm not living here!  I mean, really?  At least it makes the rest of the country look better.  And it makes me want to go out and buy more Coca Cola not that I need the sugar. 

Here in Nevada we have an official mystery.  The body of a young boy was found by the road between here and Las Vegas.  At first the authorities thought they knew his identity but later that boy was found alive and well in Utah.  So now we have an unknown child dead and abandoned.  So sad.  The FBI has been looking at missing children from all over the country for heaven's sake.

I've got a few blogs that I read almost every day and here I found one that refers to my town!  It was published quite a while ago.  Here is a link to the not unfair review.  I must say that not a lot has changed in the last 11 years so I guess he doesn't need to return.  I really liked the comments though especially where one woman started in on 'fortification' at our local brothels.  I get the idea she has a problem or three.  Actually I've never visited any of our local sex businesses but I doubt if there is much fortification going on in them.  Per my earlier comment on dumb commissioners, the owner of one of the local brothels was a commissioner who was elected to the state legislature a few years ago but he died before he could take office.  Apparently that bothel has gone out of business.  Check out the photos. 

Weatherwise, we are in the 105F range most days.  Yep, welcome to summer even if we aren't quite there yet according to the calendar.  Our solar array is slaving away most of the time.  We had to laugh at yesterday's production.  We had a bit of a cloud problem about midday.

This morning we did have a lovely almost-a-sunrise.

We got down to 79F last night.  What would we do without air conditioning?  Have a good one and keep washing those hands.

Memorial Day 2021

 Happy Memorial Day 2021!

We are planning a quiet day but you never know.  There are a few clouds over in the east but we aren't likely to get either rain or cold!  Our cactus is still pretty happy.

I said the local utility had installed our solar array.  What I didn't show was the additional electronics that was needed.  The stuff in the (rather lousy) line is all new.

And the round dial to the right was replaced as well.  Now it goes backwards if it must!  

Of course there is a reason for all this.  It's warm here!

Yes, over 100F  (37.7C) in May!  It makes a/c a real friend.  

And to celebrate all this, we are leaving!  Well, for a bit.  That should give me the opportunity to take a couple of photos.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands & keeping safe.

We did it!

 It is totally amazing to me but last Thursday we had a group of four technicians from our local power coop start climbing around on our roof and yesterday we actually started producing our own electricity!  Amazing stuff.  Also I haven't had to write a check that large in some time!  But this is this morning.

It's kind of hard to see but somewhere around 06:00 the cells started generating electricity.  It should be doing it's all by now. 

We have plenty of south-facing roof so that's where the solar array is mounted.

The original design was a bit different but the foreman of the installation crew could see where we would get a lot of shadow from the chimney so got permission to place the array as you see it.  It will be interesting to see our electric bills this year compared to last year.  

I couldn't find a food bank who wanted/needed our old refrigerator so I put it on the Marketplace on Facebook.  Sure enough, we had a person who was happy to come get it the next day.  So that's another bother removed.  Gee, I'm going to have to get to work on finding more projects.

Nevada is slowly abandoning the mask mandate as more people have received their COVID shots.  The 'Mask Required' signs are coming down and more people are not wearing masks.  I'm hopeful that things might return to normal here one day.  Whether it is too soon or the vaccine isn't good enough or whatever; we'll just have to see what happens.

I read an article this morning talking about the large number of Republican's who agree with at least some of the Qanon stories.  The article mentioned Satan-worshiping pedophiles who the Qanon folks believe are running our country.  Really?  OMG!  What kind of idiots are coming up with this crap?  I'm just amazed.

In more amazing news, some people in Eastern Oregon are talking about their area should withdraw from Oregon and unite politically with Idaho to create a Greater Idaho state.  I do understand, a little, what they are on about.  The northwestern portion of Oregon, around Portland, is much more urban and liberal than the eastern portion of the state.  Of course urban equals lots of votes and rural equals not so many votes.  So whenever a vote is taken on a law where urban and rural needs are different, the people in the rural areas don't get their choice.  That's the reason each state has two Senators; so that rural states would have a voice equal to more populous states in the Federal government.  I don't imagine that Greater Idaho will come to be but maybe Oregon can make some changes for it's rural citizens.

I guess that's all the news this morning.  Thanks for stopping by.  And keep washing those hands; at least that is simple hygiene!

Slowly coming along

 Kind of like the rest of the country things are slowly coming along here in Nevada.  People are gradually going out more and some places have given up on requiring masks.  Tables are even being brought back into restaurants!  What a thrill.

For us the big thing that is going on is that we are getting solar panels placed on our roof.  This house is all electric and some of the things are pretty hungry for power.  We run the a/c a LOT in the summer and heat in the winter.  The bill can be in the $300 range but that's not the real problem.  My wife and I both feel that we are in a prime area for solar power so why aren't we using it???  So we ordered a setup back at the beginning of April and just today the crew showed up to install things.  They are thinking they will be done on Monday or Tuesday of next week but that simply means we'll be ready to be inspected by two or three different interested parties.  We should be good to go by early June if everything goes according to plan.

For excitement we are enjoying watching our cactus as they flower.  We have 2 plants in the entire yard:  both cactus.  There is a short one.

And a tall one.

I'm pretty sure that the shorter one isn't getting enough water especially during the winter.  It turns red in the winter then turns green when I'm watering it.  A hint, maybe.  Sorry but I don't know the botanical names of either of them.  

We've also purchased a new refrigerator.

Yes, they are almost identical on the outside.  The old one is in front with the white magnetic dry erase board that we bought to cover a couple of scratches.  Now we couldn't live without it!  The old one is 11 years old but the real reason it is being replaced is because the ice maker/water dispenser leaks.  We are hoping to find some charity kitchen that might like it since the rest works just fine.  

Obviously it's pretty quiet around here so we are making our own excitement.  Too bad it costs so much money but if we can't take a trip to Europe we may as well fix things up around home.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and keeping away from sick people!

Small Town Fun

 Our town is really pretty unusual.  There are about 40,000 people but they are spread across a valley that is almost 300 square miles.  That makes for lots of open space as I'm sure you've seen in some of the photos I've posted.  The 'downtown' is five or six blocks long with little bits here and there that are kind of on their own.  The people are predominantly pretty right wing.  My wife and I registered as Republicans so we could have a vote on our local lawmakers; the Democratic (or Independent) candidate doesn't stand much of a chance.  Open carry of firearms is legal in Nevada and you will usually see two or three people carrying firearms if you visit the grocery store.  Officially it is an unincorporated town and the town board was dissolved a few years ago so we only have a county government.  The county seat is in another, much smaller, unincorporated town that is about 170 miles north of us.  Much of the county is taken up by the Nevada National Security Site where a lot of nuclear tests were conducted.

One of the attractions here is ballooning.  Las Vegas used to have a company offering balloon rides but running balloon rides in an urban environment wasn't working out so they moved here.  There is also a locally owned ballooning company.  Once a year we even have a Balloon Festival and that was just last weekend.  Unfortunately it was quite windy this year so even though there were lots of balloons around they weren't flying!  However, yesterday was nice and quiet and I saw this guy.

If you think it sounds cool here; you're wrong!

That was on April 30 and 99F is 37C.  Oh my, it might just be getting to shorts and tee shirt weather. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and wearing those masks.

Exciting stuff!

 Well, not really all that hot.  It happens every month or so:  I mean the full moon, of course!  But this time I was out to see it.

It's only from my cell phone camera but I still liked that I went out and took it.  Maybe one of these days I'll get my real camera out and take a few.  

I had a surprise on Monday.  We'd been out to lunch then took our short walk which is only about a mile.  Half way through the walk I started feeling woozy.  I've had vertigo before but not for a long while.  I barely made it home and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in my recliner waiting for the meclizine to kick in.  Then I managed to get to bed without assistance.  In the morning I was fine again.  Believe me, it is times like that when you want a friend.  Happily I've been married to my best friend for darn near 40 years.  

Today we made a trip into Las Vegas.  The last time we were there we bought a couple shirts for me but the changing rooms were closed.  When we get home and I can try them on; they didn't fit.  Grrr!  But it's a great excuse for another trip to the big city.  We go fairly regularly anyway; I always tell people that I can save enough buying 1 bottle of scotch to pay for the trip and it's true.  The difference between buying the scotch here in town vs buying it at Total Wine in Las Vegas is about $17 and the round trip is around 120 miles.  For old retired folks it's a no-brainer.  Besides, we can look at clothes somewhere other than Walmart; food at somewhere other than Kroger or Albertsons; and electronics somewhere other than Walmart.  Talk about life in the fast lane!

Gotta go be nice to the dog.  Funny how he likes to go out every now and then.  Take care and keep washing those hands.

A quiet week here in the country

 Last week I wrote a bit about gun violence so today I thought I'd see what has happened in the last week.  Here is what the gun violence website has to say.  

April 24, New Orleans, LA,  5 injured

April 22, San Diego, CA, 1 killed, 5 injured

April 19, Houston, TX, 2 killed, 2 injured

April 19, Atlanta, GA, 5 injured

April 18, Mongomery, AL, 1 killed, 4 injured

April 18, Detroit, MI, 1 killed, 5 injured

April 18, Shreveport, LA, 6 injured

April 18 Kenosha, WI, 3 killed, 3 injured

Well, jeez, I guess I'm glad to live out here in the boonies.  That is 35 injured and 8 killed in one week.  Of course, there was alcohol involved in at least some of the incidents and most likely various illegal drugs.  No, I don't know what the answer is to these problem.  I don't believe for a moment that laws trying to ban guns would work.  Not to mention the political impossibility of enacting such laws!  Maybe the human race will just have to get clopped on the head by an alien.  (We are pretty close to Area 51 so that sort of possiblility is perhaps more real to us who live here than to regular people!) 

I did read an interesting article on CNN about VP Kamala Harris.  They talked about the relationship between the President and the Vice President as growing closer as they work together.  I think that is a great thing.  I think that one of the President's strong points is his many years of work in the Federal government.  If he can bring the Vice President even some of that knowledge it will make her a much more effective leader.  And Vice Presidents have certainly been known to want the big job when it is vacated.

I'm reading a lot about the tremendous amount that President Biden is trying to spend on infrastructure and I have to say I'm pretty much sold.  A LOT of our traditional infrastructure (roads, bridges, dams, etc) is in pretty sad condition.  Anyone who has driven on the interstate highway system knows it needs help!  But it is also true that those are not the drivers of the future.  Climate change would get money; immigration reform including speeding up naturalization cases; and electric vehicles for appropiate governmental uses.  Those are things that need doing that have been getting ignored for the past few years.  

Finally, just to show you that all the news isn't bad, here's an article about someone doing something nice for some kids.  Enjoy and keep washing those hands!

How can it not be about gun violence?

 Jeez, I came across a site that tracks gun violence and it's hard to imagine that this is normal for anyone.  I liked the site because they aren't preaching anything; they are just tracking the story.  We here in Nevada have our flags at half-mast because of the latest Indianapolis FedEx shootings.  Those people, just like George Floyd and Daunte Wright, were killed just because they were there.  Or was it because half of them were members of the local Sikh community?  I honestly do not know and since the killer (in Indianapolis) is dead I'm pretty sure we'll never really KNOW.  Floyd's killer, in my opinion, knew he was being too violent but I'm not sure he intended to kill.  Wright's killer really seems to have made a mistake in my opinion.  It's hard to believe that a cop with 20+ years experience would do that but it is so stupid a killing that I vote for mistake.  That is not to say that both cops shouldn't be punished for it!  I mean if I let my car drift over and I hit a pedestrian; I should be punished.  It was a mistake but that's not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

My brother-in-law dropped his NRA life membership a few years ago when they started supporting people having just any type of firearm. He'd been a hunter for many years but never needed a fully automatic weapon to kill a deer.  I liked him for that.  

I have a gun that was given to me by my parents when I was 11.  That's over 60 years ago.  (OMG!)  But I haven't killed anyone or anything with it.  I've bought a few more over the years but nothing crazy.  On the other hand, if you break into my home and threaten my wife and myself, I doubt seriously if you will leave here alive before the police show up to save your ass.  (An aside:  my wife's first husband joined the police; it did their relationship no good when she repeatedly shot better with his service weapon than he did.)  

All of this is really close to my heart right now.  My wife and I are very fortunate to be comfortably retired; reasonably healthy and happy together.  On the other hand, those other things:  pandemic, the markets, the general state of the United States; those things are bothering me.  The last is bothering me most of all.  There seems to be some sort of stupid thing happening every day!  There are plenty of shootings:  both by citizens and by police.  The former President who STILL maintains that he won re-election; and there are actually people who believe him!  Cryptocurrency is going crazy.  I have to say that chronic stress seems to be kind of the new normal.

I was reading about applying yourself to a hobby as a way to reduce stress.  I'd love to do that but my photographic hobby is being difficult just now.  How about I share a couple photos I took when we lived in the Netherlands something over 20 years ago?

They had balloons even way back then!

And this is what the local community college parking lot looked like.

Have a good one.  Keep washing those hands!

The heat is coming!

 We've had our winter and now we get a couple weeks that might be mistaken for spring before the heat of summer arrives.  This time of year it is really great to be outside.  It's not too warm, not too cool and it isn't humid.  Of course it isn't a long time before the heat really hits but you've gotta live in the moment.  A couple days ago I wandered around the valley looking for something new to show the world.  

Here's a balloon floating along in the spring air.  We have two balloon companies in the valley:  one run by local people and another that is run by people who came over from Las Vegas.  This is one of the local company's balloons.

Mt. Charleston kind of rules the eastern views.  It's kind of funny because it is really hard to spot from Las Vegas but over here it's right there!  You can see that the snow cover is going fast.  The photo was take from the local Chief Tecopa Cemetery.  It's kind of a funny combination of rockery and greenery with lots of military thrown in. 

 

This next photo reminds us that we aren't in Kansas anymore!  We have wild horses and burros roaming the desert and especially at night when it is cooler.  But at night they can be hard to spot.  Some nice people have put a few signs up to remind drivers to be careful.

Our city/county government building is situated in a kind of park area.  There is a small pool, trees and grass.  This attracted 3 wild horses that you can see in this photo.  Unfortunately some local idiots started coming over and trying to pet them, etc.  Then they had to be removed to a less comfortable area for their safety and that of the idiots who thought these wild animals were just like pets.

There are a few photos of this corner of Nevada.  It's different but we call it home.  BTW, if you would like to see more of my photos you can follow this link to Flickr to check them out.  Please don't mis-use anything you see there but do enjoy.  I sure enjoyed taking them. 

Take care and keep washing those hands!

Not exactly quiet....

 We've been staying home mostly after all the excitement of Zion but we have been doing one thing that is pretty exciting:  we are investigating adding solar power to our house.  We live in the desert probably 25 miles from Death Valley.  If you aren't going to use solar here, where the heck would you?  So we've been talking with a couple companies about it.  

To my surprise, there are limits to the amount you can install.  I guess the local utility doesn't want to be paying everyone in the valley to generate power; they would rather sell power to us.  Hmmm.  Well, I guess they have to make money too.  They do have a tremendous amount of infrastructure to support and I'm not really talking about our house being off the grid.  Still, we are talking about $25-40K depending on whether we install it on the roof or in the back yard.  At the end of the day I think we'll be going for roof mounted because there is nothing to stop our neighbors from planting a bunch of trees that would block the sun to a ground mounted array.  (I know trees in the desert sounds dumb but there are lots of people with small forests on their property around us.)

I've been following the blog of a fellow who is thinking of living in a slide-in pickup camper.  Now, I've got to say it would be better than nothing but, whew, I think I'm too old for that sort of thing.  Of course, I'm married so it isn't like a single person doing it alone!  Still, I don't think I could manage it just because of the size of the camper.  We are happy traveling in our trailer but we have comfortable chairs, a sofa, a shower.  I sure wish him all the luck in the world and I hope to read how happy he is in his new rig.

It's time to get moving.  We donate to our local VFW's Food Bank and since Easter is coming up they have some extra needs.  Time to go hit the grocery stores!  Take care & keep being careful.

What's happening? We had MORE of a good time!

 My wife and I decided that we needed a little time out; this hanging around home all the time is so exhausting!  So we decided to check out the area around St. George, Utah.  St. George is slightly under 200 miles away so it's not a tremendous journey.  We've driven through St. George many times since it is on the I-15 but we had never stayed there.  It is also of interest because it is fairly close to Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and even the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  So, off we went!

We took the dog mostly because we haven't found a kennel for him yet.  He spent some nasty time in the local animal shelter and we don't want to make him think those days are returning.  So we had to find a pet friendly motel and, because he is a nitwit and barks when he is left alone, we got to eat more take-out food.  Hmmm, sounds a lot like home!  Anyway, we drove up on Tuesday being careful to stop in Las Vegas at a restaurant that has some outdoor seating where we could eat with the dog by our side.  Driving up through Nevada is a lot like home except that the elevations are higher.  

Then I-15 cuts through a corner of Arizona.  This is stolen from Google Maps.  It gives you a hint of the Virgin River Gorge in Arizona.

It is a short part of the journey but very nice.  Unfortunately there are few places to stop along side the road.  There is actually a Virgin River that is running next to the highway; down maybe 100 feet but it's there.  

So we got to St. George and spent a quiet night having Thai takeout for dinner.  Tuesday we wanted to make a loop through Zion and on to Kanab, UT which we were hoping to use sometime in the future as a place to park the trailer while visiting the North Rim.  Zion was crowded!  I wasn't expecting crowds in the middle of the week; maybe they were Spring Break people but it was busy.  The roads were clean but there was snow on the mountain sides.

We just drove through the park.  We aren't really back country hikers and the dog certainly isn't!  Anyway, we got to see a bit of that beautiful park then went on to Kanab which wasn't quite as wonderful as we'd hoped but it will probably do for a couple nights.  We ended up back in St. George in time for some takeout Mexican food from a nearby restaurant.  

Thursday we found our way back home; amazingly enough timing it so we got lunch in Las Vegas again.  That night I noticed that our heatpump was cycling on and off a lot.  So Friday we got to have a visit from a local repair person.  He spent a LOT of time checking things then, hoping he found the problem, he recharged the system and we'll just see how that works.  So far it is working but if there is a very small leak I'm sure we'll find it given a bit of time!

I can certainly recommend spending some time in Zion even if it is full of people.  St. George seemed like a nice little town.  So we had fun.  I hope you did as well.  Take care and keep washing those hands!

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!