Out and about today

Finally, this morning, we managed to get out of the house for a bit. Real exciting, we went to the grocery store.  I actually feel almost normal, Bill is a day or two behind me but still felt good enough to get out for a bit. You don't really appreciate feeling good until you don't. Little by little I'll get caught up with things that need to be done - cleaning, laundry etc. But in no rush. Sat down yesterday afternoon to watch TV and woke up a couple of hours later. And am finally starting to sleep really good at night. Bill said he poked me to make sure I was breathing last night cause I hadn't moved since I laid down. 
We had a wild and woolly day yesterday. Temperatures dropped about 24 degrees and places around town had over an inch of rain. And, of course, the winds. Along with hail, thunder and lightening. Just before the heavens opened. Looking out towards the east over the Wetlands. Still some blue sky in places. The lump on the lower left is the Jeep all covered up.

 Doesn't look so good looking out front. Lots of thunder coming from the west. 

Then we got the rain and some hail. Kind of off and on all afternoon. Smelled so good out after the rain. 

Today everything is so clean looking. Our Palo Verde trees is full of little yellow blooms. 

 Bill's Jasmine has so many flowers, we can smell the blooms even with the door closed. 

 The Palo Verde again, it is next to one of the big pine trees. The neighbors white picket fence behind it. 

 Under it are a couple of pretty plants that have come back to life. Eventually the tree will be high enough that the plants will show again. 

 In our front/side yard. All the lantanas are happy.

 And all the bougainvilleas have come back and are starting to get colored leaves. It just felt good to go outside and enjoy the fresh smells, nice weather and blue sky. Still in the 70s for a few more days. My kind of weather. 

Haven't used the crock pot again, will wait until my appetite returns.The end of another month already. Got to remember to back up my computer, try to do it the end of every month.

And the flu continues

Well it has been a week for me with the flu and I am staring to feel human again. No more laying in bed sick. But I sure can't do much before being exhausted. Made the bed and was out of breath. Bill is a couple of days behind me, so he is still feeling kind of crappy. Both of us feel like wet noodles, just floppy. Guess it takes a while to recover. Heard on the news this morning that 3 people died of the flu here in Clark County just this last week. So guess we are doing well to start recovering.
Today is a sports watching day - the only thing we have the energy for. both soccer and NASCAR.
I started writing this yesterday - didn't get very far.  I had a good night last night woke up rested but it is only 8:30 and all I've done is watch some TV and cleaned out the refrigerator and I'm pooped. Bill got up before me and is already back in bed.
Weather has been in the high 90's for several days now so wouldn't have been out and about much anyway. Cooling down tomorrow to the 70's with the possibility of rain. That would be nice.
All our plants have recovered nicely from winter, most of them are blooming.
Oh yeh, we did go to our regular doctor during the week. Appointments were scheduled since last fall. Over the winter with the surgery etc Bill lost 24 pounds. Which is good as he was a lot overweight. Just not a diet plan I would recommend. Me, not so lucky, but at least I didn't gain.
I had just started walking again when this flu hit.
So that's it for now. Just wanted to let everyone know we're still around and kicking.

Unexpected Sunday field trip

Kind of been a do nothing week. We did splurge on a Crock Pot. Haven't had one in years so thought I'd give it a try. Only used in once so far. Chicken with potatoes, carrots and onions. Pretty good. Very basic one High, Low and Warm. I do like the fact that now the ceramic pot comes out and can be put in dishwasher. My old ones all had to be washed by hand while trying to keep the electrical connection dry.

 Have taken a couple of short walks earlier this week. All the new houses they are bringing in here are the same color. Reminds me of the Stepford Wives. 

 Lots of the bushes around the park are starting to bloom. The roses this year are spectacular. Bill's jasmine is full of flowers and smells so good. 

 On Friday after my walk I ended up taking a nap. Got up from the nap feeling crappy. No real complaint just ugh. Well by yesterday I was really feeling crappy. I did take a walk in the morning thinking it would get my get up and go working. Turned out my get up and go got up and went. By afternoon I felt terrible. Coughing and feverish. Spent most of the day right here. 

Had a terrible night last night bad enough we headed for emergency early this morning. Diagnosed with a case of the flu. I have never had the flu before. Don't like it one bit. The doctors told me it would last about a week. To drink lots of fluids and take naps. I sure hope Bill doesn't catch it. 

Another Sunday Field Trip

Sunday was a beautiful day. Bright and sunny and warm, some wind but not too bad. So we jumped into the convertible and took another field trip to just south of Las Vegas. 

Passing the airport. Wasn't fast enough to get a picture of a plane landing, just this one taking off. They come in about every 3 minutes.

Just a picture of the desert as we neared our first stop. 

So where were we going - to see the Seven Magic Mountains. A little about them. 

Internationally renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains is a large-scale site-specific public art installation located near Jean Dry Lake and Interstate 15, approximately ten miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada. Comprised of seven towers of colorful, stacked boulders standing more than thirty feet high. A creative expression of human presence in the desert, Seven Magic Mountains punctuates the Mojave with a poetic burst of form and color.

The exhibition opened May 11, 2016. Due to the incredible success of Seven Magic Mountains since its opening, artist Ugo Rondinone has expressed a strong desire to explore ways to keep the artwork on view at its current site. The Producers continue to work on an extension plan that would enable Seven Magic Mountains to remain on view for several years into the future. At the end of 2018, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a three-year permit extension for the artwork, allowing the installation to remain on view through the end of 2021. 

And there they are. It amazes me how many people will drive out to the middle of nowhere to see painted rocks stacked on top of each other. But then, we were there weren't we. 

Because it was a beautiful Sunday there were hordes of people there. Hard to get a picture without someone in it. The colors are so vivid. Last time we were here was summer of 2017. I wonder what kind of paint they used and if they have to be repainted because of wind and sun. 

Bill had his drone with us and took some movies. BUT somehow when I put them ion my computer I lost them! Thought I'd saved them but must have hit wrong button.

This is a video he took in 2017. You can see it full size here.  


Another shot of the Seven. See all the people milling around. Someone else had a drone up too. 

Notice their size - towering over humans. The bottom rocks are around six feet tall. 

For a really interesting web site showing the building of the "mountains" click here.
Since we were here last it looks like a lot of people have built cairns. These are "usually" erected as landmarks to show someone was there or to define a route.

Just some blooms in the desert. 

A big Joshua Tree with lots of blooms. 

For years I've been wanting to go to Goodsprings, NV. We were only about 9 miles from there so Bill indulged me and away we went. Entrance to a casino at Jean, NV.

The road out through the empty desert to Goodsprings. 

I wanted to go to this Saloon. It is famous because Clark Gable spent a few days there waiting to hear about his wife Carole Lombard. Her plane was missing in the area. I know - weird reason, but I heard the food was good too. So why not?

As I mentioned it was a nice Sunday! Everyone with a motorcycle or ATV in Las Vegas was in Goodsprings at the saloon. Also a few of us in cars too. 

Here is some interesting information about the saloon. Worth reading. Even a picture of Clark Gable  All the dining areas were past full. So didn't get many pictures. Guess we'll have to go back on a weekday.

And live music.

Back on the Interstate on our way home. Seven Magic Mountains out there in the distance. They are off of Las Vegas Blvd.

I like the decorations of the interchanges. Metal sculptures.

And colorful designs. 

Mountain goats.

First time this year we've gone by the new Raiders stadium.
Getting a lot done. 

  Off the freeway onto Tropicana by New York, New York. I see Lady Liberty is wearing a Vegas Golden Knights [hockey team] jersey again. As of today they are 2 to 1 games ahead of the Sharks.

And then home - no cooking - ate leftovers. Today is warm and windy, tomorrow will be cold about 67 and maybe rain. Will cook tomorrow - maybe. 

Well that turned into a project.

The wind has let up quite a bit but more coming in a couple of days. Bill made the most of the calm and took up one of his drones. He took it to Mexico but could not get it to fly there. We finally figured out it was something to do with the wifi connection between the controller and the drone. Must have been 'cause no problems with it yesterday. 

I've been in a cooking mode. Have made bread - from frozen loaf, two two layer cakes - one layer white other layer chocolate with dulce de leche as the middle filling. One is in the freezer now. Also been cooking dinner every night. Got so tired of restaurant food over the winter. But I think my domestic side is about to end. 
I did use my new Bissell multi purpose vacuum and scrubber. The two rugs from the RV were in bad shape, especially after all the dust this winter. Well! The scrubber works great. The rugs look new! So lets see, I spend $245 to save buying $150 in new rugs.  But the scrubber will also vacuum and scrub our floors and another area rug we have in the house. 
Have managed to get out and walk a couple of times,  starting out slowly. Longest walk was just over a mile. I know I have to get out there and do more before it gets HOT. The funny thing is when I do walk I feel so much better the rest of the day. Improves my attitude and energy. 
The morning I was walking was a cold gray day, in fact I felt a few sprinkles - more like a mist. 
My saga with Microsoft is over - nothing got fixed. After spending hours on the both here at home and in Mexico I finally got a call from someone at Microsoft who told me - there is no fix - we don't support Streets and Trips any more. End of conversation. So guess I'll  use my back up laptop for that program. 

Another domestic project. One that I thought would be a breeze to do. This is the garage window. I've always hated the way it looks. When we moved in Bill put the plywood up so block people from looking in the window. 

So I decided to put a curtain there. I even had enough of the right colors material and an extra spring rod to do it with. When I told Bill I was going to do it he asked me how I would get it behind the plywood. I smugly replied, "I'll get up on the counter and push the hem down with the yardstick." "Good," He said, "Because I won't move any of my tools or tool boxes." No problem. 
Well problem. No matter how I tried I could not get the hem to the bottom of the window. In one area or another it would hang up.
Finally he told me to stop and the darling that he is he took down his tool boxes and tools and unscrewed the plywood so it would pull out from the window. 

And it still wasn't easy, but finally got it up. Here he is putting all his stuff away again. 

I think it looks a lot better now! Thank you Bill. I even cooked him a good dinner for all his labor. 

Brought the RV over today to put stuff in it and hunt for something we needed and had left in it. Only had it here about an hour. 
Seems strange a Sunday with no soccer games or races. 

UFO, Microsoft, and Wind. Oh MY!

Wind is an understatement more like hurricane. Gusts over 65mph. So much dust in the air we couldn't see the mountains behind us. In some place visibility was only 1/4 mile. Glad we are home and RV is parked. By Wednesday night it is supposed to calm down a little for a couple of days. 

And we had an UFO in our back yard. At least it was there yesterday but it is gone now. 

We did get in a trip to WalMart to pick up a few things. Yep there are our bags - remembered them when we got back to the car with our purchases

I did remember to look to see if the skorts I like were in stock. Got lucky the clerk was just hanging them up. So got a black and white one and a washed denim one. They are so comfortable. They are Lee Riders Midrise Skort. They have mesh shorts underneath and a wide smooth elastic waist band. $17.00 The only problem is to look nice they have to be ironed after washing.

CRAP - this is an expensive month smogging three vehicles, registering all of them and of course insurance is also due. Nevada is very expensive where vehicles are concerned. Also have to get a new battery for the convertible so we can get it running so we can get it smogged so we can park it in the garage if we go somewhere this summer. 

Fooling around with Google Maps I discovered something that is kind of creepy to me anyway. Google maps has been tracking and keeping a record of everywhere we've gone for several year. It tracked our trips back and forth from Indiana to Mexico. The trip we took to Idaho a couple of years ago and the trip we took last summer. I'm assuming it is tracking our phone. I never used Google Maps until recently. I found this by mistake. Was wondering what timeline was - well now I know. 

Went to manage location history and hope I turned it off. But not sure as it just says pause. 

Still struggling with Microsoft to get my Streets and Trips back on my laptop. Spent another hour with them on the phone only to be told call back in three days, our program needs to be reactivated. JUST TELL ME THAT at the beginning of the phone call, not an hour later!

Fixed a strange, but good, dinner last night. For some reason a while back we bought frozen fish sticks. Do you know how hard it is to find a recipe for using bought frozen fish sticks. Finally found one and it turned out good. Use a package of scalloped potatoes, follow mixing directions. Then layer frozen peas over the potatoes. Cook about 20 minutes then top with the fish sticks. I put dill and lemon slices on the fish. Finish cooking in oven another 20/25 minutes. Add a salad and a pretty good dinner. Between us we ate every bit of it. 

Today I think I'll make a loaf of bread. The frozen dough kind. Cleaning out freezer time. 

Just got a call from Microsoft and they tried again to fix the program. Now I have a telephone appointment tomorrow at noon with a higher up tech person. 

At least the wind has stopped for a few days.