Still quiet!

Between being older and it being a really hot summer there really isn't much going on around here.  Back in April I posted this photo of the empty lots across the street.  They were really green for Nevada!

At the time, I said it was way too green for this area.  Well, here's what it looks like today.

Just a bit browner isn't it.  Sorry the photos aren't a closer match but you should be able to get the idea.

Otherwise things are just perking along.  My wife's ankle injury is taking it's own sweet time getting better; she can walk in her boot but after about 50 feet the boot is irritating the remaining injuries and she has to give it up.  Her birthday is next month and the kids are coming to celebrate with her.  I'm thinking they will be pretty shocked at these two slow moving old folks.  They are in their early 50's so don't know what fun is in their future.  

Our local Smith's grocery (Kroger) has started carrying some alcoholic products from Four Freedoms.  I'd never heard of the brand and it sounded like it meant something so I had to look it up.  (Well, after I bought some of their vodka!)  It turns out that the Four Freedoms comes from a speech by FDR, his 1941 State of the Union address before we were involved in WWII, where he named four freedoms he wanted for every person in the world.

Freedom of speech.

Freedom of worship.

Freedom from want.

Freedom from fear.

He was talking about a world where Germany was trying to take over Europe; and what he thought we should be doing about that.  But isn't the idea cool?  Wouldn't it be great if everyone had those four freedoms?  Here in the U.S. we mostly have the first two and lots of us have all four.  I'm pretty sure that isn't the case in much of the world.  

Well, that's it for today.  I'm going to go push my wife around (in her wheelchair, no intimidation!).  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Quiet times!

It's nice and warm these days but what do you expect of summer in the Nevada desert?  Duh!  So far it isn't being too rude.  I think it has topped out at 115F (46C) according to our instruments.  Here it was 93F (34C) but in the small print you can see it was 01:19 in the middle of the night! Isn't that a bit much?

 

 

The heat sure isn't bothering the birds and their hunger.

That photo was taken mid-afternoon and you can see the regular seed is pretty much gone.  The thistle is now under attack with a couple birds waiting for their turns.  

Like I said, it's pretty quiet around here.  Keep washing those hands and keep safe!

Just weirdness....

My wife and I aren't political.  We've joined both the Democratic and the Republican parties when we lived in areas where one party was dominant.  Here, for example, you will have 3 or 4 Republican candidates for a position and either 0 or 1 Democrat.  If you want to help chose a candidate you feel will support things you personally prefer you'd better be a Republican.

For example, we both strongly feel that a woman's body is her own and her decision to have an abortion should be hers.  If she is married or in a long term relationship of course she should take the father's opinion into account but in the end it is her body.  My wife donated to a couple what you might call feminist causes last year and that is about the only reason we can imagine for a piece of mail we received today.

The front of the card shows some happy Democrats (President Biden was way over on the right and I didn't bother to include him.

 

So when you turn the card over you learn the supposed reason.

Apparently the folks sending the card think that if Mr. Trump is the candidate the Democrats will win control of the government.  You can't read it on the photos but the card was sent out by Americans for Prosperity Action - www.afpaction.com.  I don't have a clue if any of the things they claim are true and I certainly can't even guess who the Republican nominee will be.  But I must say I did enjoy the wild claims!  (And I can't help wondering if Mr. DeSantis is associated with the card.)

I have to admit that I don't like the idea of re-electing an 84 year old President but I don't care for any of the alternative candidates either.  I like my President to be in the 50's or 60's; moderate in politics and not entirely oblivious to the dangers of war.  I would have thought that finding such people wouldn't be difficult but clearly I'm wrong.  Anyway, that's our exciting mail for the day!

Otherwise we are having a quiet day.  My wife trying to mend and I am trying to help her.  We have another doctor's appointment a week from tomorrow so we'll see then.  No one is expecting her to walk on her 'boot' then but it would be great to have all the wounds finally closed!

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Talk about fun and games!

My wife's ankle has now been broken for 40 days.  That is a long time to be confined to a recliner and a wheelchair and it is getting pretty tough on her.  She is doing everything she can to remain positive but pain every day when you are just sitting in a recliner has to be tough on anyone.  We have another 10 days before we see her surgeon again; that will be 6 weeks from the operation and we are hoping that she will be ok'd for more regular life.  She still has 2 open sores from the operation so they need care at least once a day.

I am learning about all the things she does on a regular basis from preping meals to cutting flowers for the table.  AND I'm getting to learn to do some of those things myself.  That's where the 'fun and games' come in.  I've always done a certain amount of the cooking but 100% is a different experience.  And I've always bought the flowers but never had to cut them.  Grrr!  That is a pain in the ass!

The funniest thing is that our dog just doesn't know what's happened.  My wife is his favorite person but now all she is doing is touching him a few times a day with her fingertips.  No treats, no fondling, no feeding, no throwing his toys for him to chase:  he just doesn't understand.  He just curls up on his place and sulks.

Gotta go.  Take care & keep washing those hands!

What was that about "Time Flies When You Are Having Fun"?

 Humph!  Of course we aren't really having all that much fun these days!  My wife's ankle surgery went well enough but, oh boy, it ain't pretty.  This x-ray shows both the long screws in one area and the plate in the other.

The outside is pretty nasty too.  This long incision is the plate.  The nurses who have come to help have both said that this is looking really good.

The other side, where the big screws were placed isn't so great.

The doctor's assistant covered the nasty part there with a bandaid.  It was a 2" x 4" bandaid that we are changing once a day.  What fun.  And then we got a boot which I neglected to photograph.  I would imagine most people have seen someone wearing one.  It's not comfortable so my wife is avoiding it as much as possible!

So now I've got a new job.  I'm the cook, housekeeper and wheelchair attendant just about 24 hours a day.  Happily we almost always have leftovers from a meal so that cuts the cooking down but it is still quite a day's work.  Of course I'm happy to do it but it is very different from when there were two of us splitting the chores.  This house was designed for older people and we really see how much difference that makes now that we are wheeling around.  It is one story with a tiny bump to go over to get into the garage.  The doors and halls are all wide. There aren't any grab bars but you can bet we'll be installing a couple in the near future. 

Sometimes we talk about moving from our home here to some place more temperate.  But we do have mountains on almost all sides here.  This is the sun rising on one of the mountains to the West just over the line in California.

Watching that every morning is pretty special.  And we get to see the sun go down on the mountains in the East.  It doesn't get old and makes us reconsider ideas about moving.  

Gotta go check on my patient.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Happy Juneteenth!

Juneteenth is an official US holiday celebrating the date two years after the end of the civil war when slaves in Texas were notified that they were free. It is celebrated in 28 states and the District of Columbia.  It strikes me as odd that we have a federal holiday that isn't celebrated in all states.  Isn't that odd?  Well, to be honest, I don't know how many states OFFICIALLY celebrate the 4th of July.  Anyway, obviously the end of slavery is certainly something to be celebrated even if it was 2 years after it ended in the rest of the country.  It would be great if slavery did not exist anywhere in the world!

Personally we are having another trial:  just after we returned from our trip to San Simeon my wife slipped in the shower and broke her right ankle in at least two places.  Well, gee, that gives you a new way of life!  Our local EMT's did a fantastic job of getting her out of the shower and off to the hospital. Then the hospital took a couple x-rays and wrapped her ankle up.  Unfortunately there was a problem somewhere and it was a full week before we got to see a surgeon!  We drove into Las Vegas to see him and he said it should have been set immediately.  So he managed to work us into his schedule the next afternoon.  What a bunch of idiots we have here in Pahrump!

So now we have a walker that was forced upon me back when I fell.  We have crutches that were forced on my wife at the local hospital.  And we have a wheelchair that I went out and bought because my wife's foot hurt too much when she tried using the crutches or walker.  What a deal!  Now we have a followup visit with the surgeon later this week.  Here is what we've seen of my wife's injury so far.

The outline shows the major fracture.  There are also some parts in the interior that are broken but they don't really show up well on the x-rays.  On the outside it's a little different. 

We were told that she shouldn't put any weight on it for at least 2 weeks.  It hurts enough that she didn't need to be told twice.  Anyway, that's been our month of June and it won't be speeding up as far as I know.  Talk about life in the fast lane!  

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

A little trip to San Simeon!

 Last week, before the holiday, my wife and I took a little trip to San Simeon, CA.  It is a very small place on the coast about half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  It's main claim to fame, of course, is the Hearst Castle.  William Randolph Hearst's parents lived in this area and became quite wealthy when gold was discovered in the area.  Then Hearst managed to make a couple bucks himself and he decided to buy land around the California coast that he loved and to build a little country place.  

These days the Hearst Castle has been turned over to the state of California.  There are various tours you can take and we took the simplest, the Grand Rooms tour.  Most of the tours are 70 minutes long and cost $30.  Our tour started outside then we got to view the swimming pool, a main room, a dining room and a pool room.  The visit starts at the visitor center down at the bottom of the mountain.  You park your car and are loaded into a bus and driven the 5 miles up the mountain.  Then you get out and meet your guide.

You start with a nice little climb up various stairs to get to the front door.  On the way you pass a couple of 2-3,000 square foot guest cabins that have been used for various visitors back in the day.  Here's the front entrance.

Looking the other direction you see they had a pretty fine view of the world!

This is a closer view of the front door.  The photo doesn't do the gold color of the door justice.

We didn't get to try the front door though, we went through a little side entrance.  They don't want people touching things and that door would be getting a lot of handprints if it were used!  We headed directly for a room that was just a 'living room'.

That's our guide on the far right.  There were modern carpets on the floors that we were supposed to stand on and there were a couple of guide helpers to keep an eye on us visitors.  The next photo shows the inside of the front entrance; all gold leaf.

The picture above is of the stone work above the fireplace.  Of course there was a fireplace in every room.  The smallest one we saw was about 6 feet wide by 4 feet tall.  With stone work all around, of course.  

This is the dining room.

I was standing in front of a fireplace and, though you cannot see it, there was another at the other end of the room.  We also got to see the outdoor swimming pool.

There was also an indoor pool for those cold winter days.  So that was our tour of the Castle.  

We were staying in a motel that was right on the beach so that was fun.  It is a dog friendly place and at least 50% of the visitors had a dog!  It was pretty amazing.  The only unfortunate thing was that the shore has about a 10 foot drop to the beach and both of the safe paths to the beach were closed!  So getting beach time was going to be difficult.  There were many stops along the road, CA-1, where you could get a good vista but again no beach access.  

We did eventually find beach access at the William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach.  My wife even got to walk the dog in the water.  We were told that Chinese Shar-Pei dogs didn't really like water but our guy took it in his stride.  He did kind of hop a bit but he was fine with it.

There is one other thing that is really interesting around San Simeon and that is the Elephant Seal Vista Point.  Apparently the female elephant seals come down here with their young about now to moult.  Apparently they do not eat while moulting.  The males stay up in Alaska eating and getting fatter.  Then they come down and moult.  Anyway, we got to see the females and the young.

Nope, they aren't dead, they are just losing their fur and some skin.  I thought this one posed very nicely.  

And this one shows the moult in process!

So that was our four days in California.  We did go down to Morro Bay mostly to see the Rock!  And we hit Paso Robles for lunch.  We managed to avoid all the wineries though!  This was taken on the road back from Paso Robles to San Simeon; in the distance you can see Morro Rock.  It's an amazing area.

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Memorial Day!

 Wow!  Just a couple more days in May and we'll be in June.  This year is really speeding along.  I've got some stuff that we've been doing but first I'd like to talk about veterans in my family.  I'm not big on waving the flag and all that.  But I don't vote for draft dodgers either (you do remember Mr. Trump don't you).  Just so you know.

My grandfather served in the Army during the Spanish-American War.  He is the earliest veteran I know about.  My father served in the Navy during WWII.  He was divorced so even though he was 36 years old he was going to be drafted.  He joined the Navy because they agreed to give him a couple of months to get things arranged.  He started as a helmman, steering the ship, but then went to OCS and eventually was a lieutenant managing chow halls in the San Francisco area.  He ended up serving 5 or 6 years.

My wife's father and her step-father and both her uncles were all senior enlisted men in the Navy.  They all also retired from the Navy after 20+ years.  That was from the Korean War era through early nuclear weapon testing and into the 1960's and 70's.  Her brother went to Annapolis and went on to spend 20+ years roaming the world on various Navy ships before resigning his commission.

I'm the light-weight.  I joined Army ROTC in college and in 1970 graduated with the gold bar of a lieutenant in the Army.  I spent 2 years on active duty at Fort Bliss, TX.  I served as the XO of a unit that kept records for people working at the Air Defense School that is located there.  I went into the reserve but never actually served in a reserve unit.  I requested a discharge in 1984 - I had to look that up just now!  I had no idea it was so late.

This world needs people to work for others.  Doctors and nurses to help the sick.  Police to keep the peace.  Firefighters to help save people and their belongings.  And military folks to keep our society safe from some of the other societies out there.  I feel like I personally have not done enough for others but at least I did serve my country.  I'm hoping to add to that area here soon.  We'll see.

A week or so ago I was out and found some of our local wild ponies having dinner by the side of the road.

And, of course, when the cactus blooms you HAVE to take a photo of it!

Two happy cacti, what more could one want?  Thanks for stopping by.  Take care and keep washing those hands!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers. What is wrong with us?

I started reading a Yahoo article on this being the 1 year anniversary of the mass shooting in a Buffalo, NY grocery store.  There were 10 people killed and 3 injured in that shooting.  In the article there is a claim that in this country, this year, 2023, there have been 213 mass shootings.  What the hell?  This is only the 134th day of the year!  

The number of mass shootings comes from the Gun Violence Archive and they define a mass shooting as one in which 4 or more people are shot or killed.  Of course in 2022 they identified 647 mass shootings; so are we simply on track for a normal year?  They also claim 336 mass shootings in all of 2018 so that's quite a change in the past couple of years.  

One of the facts about the Buffalo mass shooting is that 11 of the 13 people were Black.  And the shooter said he was shooting people because they were Black.  Really?  WTF?  I mean I just cannot imagine shooting someone because they were a different color or nationality or couldn't speak English.  If I visit Angola am I going to be shot for being White?  Or not speaking Portuguese?   

I have trouble imagining being a victim in a mass shooting but I do admit that once in a while in the local grocery or casino I wonder how I would react if someone started shooting.  I don't carry a weapon and haven't even applied for a Concealed Weapons Permit so shooting back isn't really in the cards.  And my Swiss Army knife isn't much of a weapon.  It sounds like hide or run away are the options unless you want to become one of those people in the statistics.  

I don't really think that gun control is the answer.  If your plan is to go kill a bunch of people you can certainly find an illegal weapon.  I've read that there are over 400 million guns in the U.S.  That's more guns than there are people!  Of course that includes guns like we have in our household, several of which I was using to shoot tin cans when I was a teen ager half a century ago.  More to the point they claimed there are almost 20 million AR style guns.  Those are way different from the ones we had when I was a kid.  

I sure don't have any answers.  I guess being aware of how people feel and trying to get them some help is about the only way to help.  I mean the kid in the Buffalo shooting was 18 years old!  OK, teenagers often get all hopped up about some idea or another.  But going out and killing people because they are Black is just so wrong.

Thanks for stopping by.  Look out for young people with weapons!

More dull Don.....

We are having a quiet spring out here in the dessert.  We have those horrible weeds that I've been complaining about.  One of these days I'm going to have to hire someone to fix that problem!  We pull a few but are tired out after an hour (and probably 50 lb of weeds).  That isn't getting the work done.  

We do have a couple nice weeds on the side of the road.  I like them because they aren't in our yard.  But they are pretty too.

We had a local guy pass away last week.  His name was Ray "Flagman" Mielzynski.  He was called Flagman because he had a habit of spending quite a bit of time out on the highway that comes from California carrying a US flag.  He also carried a copy of the Constitution and two holstered revolvers.  Folks from California often called 911 thinking he was a danger.  He was far from that.  He just believed in the Constitution and the right to carry arms.  When he wasn't waving the flag he liked to go in and listen to court cases.  I was kind of surprised to learn that he was only 3 years older than myself.  That's too early for a good guy to go!  

We have had some lights on the walk up to our front door since we moved in and, after 10 plus years, they were long gone.  A couple years ago I bought new ones but never installed them.   Lazy bugger, I know.  Anyway, I did finally install them and I'm kind of getting a kick out of the beams they project.  They won't be as helpful as the old ones but we don't get many nighttime visitors anyway.

I'm pretty much afraid that's all the news that fit to print from around here.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and try to keep healthy!

Just trucking along....

I haven't updated the blog lately because, well, I'm just a dullard these days.  We are having the usual doctor and dentist visits; a trip to Vegas for a few things; nothing much.  I must say that the unusual amount of rain we had did have it's consequence:  weeds!

This is what our back yard looked like in February when it was snowing.

This is what it looks like now.

We are going to have to get someone out here to clean this up!  My wife and I have been working for an hour or so each morning in the front yard but at that rate we still have a couple weeks of work in front not to mention the back yard.  It's time to hire somebody.  It is already getting into the 90's (33C) most days. 

It isn't just our yard though.  This is across the street on the desert lots.

See that green tinge all over the place.  That is just not the usual color we see!  Well, it will go away soon enough.  In the mean time we are transitioning in the house from heat to having the house open at night and, soon a/c all the time.  

Just now we don't have any travel plans though we will probably find somewhere to travel in a month or two.  We have our 39th anniversary this year and my 75th birthday later so something will come up that we just have to go see.

Life in the fast lane.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and staying safe.

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, this is different....

 We've been home for almost a month and have been doing the usual stuff:  visiting our favorite restaurants, visiting doctors, talking about our next trip.  My wife tripped and broke 3 ribs back in December.  She is still having cramps when she makes certain movements so she is going to start physical therapy to see if that helps.  I've been having fun with the dermotologist cutting things off my body.  It's all part of that aging thing.  

On a more fun note, we got snow on the mountains!

It is actually quite unusual for the snow to come down that far.  The elevation in the valley here is at about 2,600 feet and that snow is pretty close to that.  It's funny but the snow can excentuate the cliffs in the mountains and make them look taller.  Then a few days later we had this happen.

Snow in our back yard!  Of course it didn't stick but it was fun to see.  That hummingbird trying to have a meal probably wasn't as thrilled but at least he was getting some food.  We did manage a trip into Las Vegas to pick up a few things.  There was snow on the sides of the road and a few flurys but that was it.  

When I went to see my doctor I happened to see this in the park across the road from his office.  These geese decided to pause for a bite to eat.

That same afternoon this was the sunset.

Then the other day my wife and I were wandering around town and found these wild horses having a bite.

There was even a foal with them but it was napping just past that little rise so you can't see it.  That area is part of an abandoned golf course but I guess it is good horse food.  You can see that the snow has melted from the lower parts of the mountain.  It's back to dirt for us soon enough!

Well, that's about all the news from this part of the world.  Take care and keep washing those hands!