Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Breaking news

 The rest of the pictures from my last good walk in Wetlands. Another pond where there are beavers. But haven't seen them. 

They are starting to make a dam. Soon the maintenance people will clear it out. 
There is a lady who feeds these abandoned ducks, so when they hear someone coming they swim right over. When it's not her they turn around and leave. 
Like the sun on the light colored branches of this big tree.
I took this dirt path and ended up getting turned around, went a completely different direction than I thought it did. One reason I got in three miles that day. 
Just like the scenery and wispy clouds.
The tall building is a closed casino on Boulder Highway. Closed during Covid and never reopened. All the snow is gone off the mountain. 
A sign about the desert mistletoe. Lots of it around in the trees.
It is a parasite and guess eventually killed this tree. It is full of it. 
Another one of the serene ponds. This one has a lot of turtles in it. 
Just noticed this. Guess they came to trim our palm tree one day that we weren't home. It looks so ugly now!
Some good news, Bill is able to read on this Nook e-reader again. We had to enlarge the letters quite a bit, but at least he can see good enough to read again. And my blood pressure has returned to normal. Hopefully most of the stress with the bank is over. Got up 6:15 thought about walking it was already over 70. Too hot for me. 

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Long walk in Wetlands.

 Guess summer is really on its way. Come Saturday we are in for lots of heat. And the end of my walking - unless it cools down at night to very low 70's it is too hot for me to walk even at 6 a.m. Need to go up to the club house and investigate the treadmills there. 

Doing laundry this morning. Pretty much did nothing over the weekend except jigsaw puzzles and watching NASCAR and soccer on TV. Not sure if my blood pressure went down a little or not. Hopefully it did. Yes, I can check, just don't want to. And watering and moving those darn plants on the patio. 
The community is on a real SAVE WATER campaign, No new house can have grass yard, has to be stone and desert landscaping. Also They are removing all the not essential grass in the center mediums of the main road. Replacing with rocks. However around both club houses there is a lot of nice grass - mainly for walking dogs. Well they water the heck out of it. The lawn is two blocks away from this area and this puddle is here every morning. Lots of complaints about it. There is only one water bill for the entire community - both clubhouses, common areas and all homes. They pay a certain percentage then the rest is divided by however many home are occupied. And of course all the leaks of old lines is included in bills. Residents complain a lot. (That is the gate into the Wetlands.)
These pictures are from the day I got in three miles out there. Started at 6:10. Don't know what they are but they were sure making a lot of noise. 
Bunnies all over the place. So cute. They mostly just sit still and watch me go by. 
This area is still blocked off due to maintenance, Now the sign says it is unsafe. Sure wish they would get it open again. A very pretty area. 
A couple more bunnies. I think I mentioned that someone released over 100 bunnies meant to be pets out here a month or so. Lots have been killed by the coyotes and many were captured by the staff. This guy so far has evaded both. Looks like he has made friends with a local. Hope he survives.
Interesting about the "desert snow". From a distance it really does look like a dusting of snow. 
Lots of it on this trail. 

And along side another trail. 

I was out early so took a detour to the "Hidden Pond" - people have mentioned seeing beavers there. And by golly I did see a beaver. He heard me and was taking off. All I could get were pictures of his head as he swam by.
Coming back towards me. Then he disappeared. 
It made my day. There are supposed to be over 80 beavers scattered throughout all the ponds. Only way to see them out and about is to get out very early. I was so excited about seeing one.  Will save rest of pictures till next blog. 
I'm trying to figure out a new project to start. Too hot in garage to work on the stained glass lamp shade. 
We now have all of our medical lab work and heart testing done. Just waiting to see the cardiologist in a couple of weeks. Then the eye doctor again in August. Our calendar this month looked like it had a bad case of chicken pox with every thing written down on it.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Two adults one Mayonnaise jar - guess who won...

Didn't get this posted yesterday. I got out this a.m but by 6:30 it was already too hot to get in a very long walk. Did make 1.6 miles before deciding it was time to go home. Yesterday I ended up with 10,688 steps. Spent most of afternoon sitting on couch watching NASCAR.

Saturday morning quarter to 11 and I have in 9,722 steps already. I got up early and it was nice and cool out so went for walk in Wetlands. It was an interesting walk. Did three miles before I got home. Pictures later. Then we went to to gas up car and to grocery store. So guess I'll make the magic 10,000 even if I don't do much more.  I am taking this weekend to unwind. Last week was so stressful - more of the mind than anything else. Imagine new computer problems. Then appointment with testing at heart doctor for both of us. My goal this weekend is to lower BP. By doing only things I enjoy. 

So on to the mayonnaise jar. It is a squeeze bottle. Here it sits in all its glory. How could we possibly have a problem getting the mayonnaise to come out.

Well the first problem was getting the seal off. Pulled up the tab and yanked on it. Nope wouldn't pull the seal off. Yanked several times more. Bill tried. Nope. So he got pliers to pull it off. Nope all the pliers did was tear pieces off the tab. Well cr** - so we got a knife poked a hole in it and pulled it off. SO THERE! We finally won. See the top next to it on the counter. It goes back on the bottle and has the hole the mayonnaise comes out of. 
Back on the jar. Now to open it. Looks like it should open here. There are lines dashed in the upper part above the bowtie looking thing. Nope it doesn't break break off or open. Hum.....
After more inspecting saw this little semi circle thing. Pushed and poked at it and by golly it opened the lid. 
Success! Finally we can get mayonnaise out, but what were we going to use the mayo for? Not hungry any longer. Both of us felt pretty dumb after this. 
After having to get rid of our pretty artificial flowers and buying lots of living geraniums...we are not doing so good.  This is all that is left of one plant, don't know if it will make it or not. It is trying. I think we will have to pull them back further onto the patio to keep them out of all the sun. Especially now that it will be in the 100's daily.
This one not looking too good either. Will keep talking to them and telling them I'll be good to them, see if it works. 
These next ones are more or less okay. But...

Been doing puzzles again. Just finished this 300 piece one. They aren't as easy as I thought they would be. That's good though, takes me longer to finish them. 
So that is it for today. Washed the bedding and went for gas and to the market. 

Friday, June 23, 2023

Been an interesting week.

 This past week was interesting. Some good, some not so good. I hate new computers...

But - on Tuesday The early morning weather was nice and Bill was feeling pretty good. So we went for a walk in the Wetlands. Managed 1.3 miles. I've seen lots of turtles over there but never one just walking down the road.

Every time I go over there I see something different that is growing or blooming. Weird green clusters on one bush. 
Bill stopping to check them out. No idea what kind of bush it is. Wonder if it is native to the area or an interloper. 
Took Bill to check out The Hidden Pond. Beavers live in it, but have never seen one. There was no wind, water was very still. 
Just looking up at the pretty blue sky and trees. Formed kind of a tunnel over the trail. Every time I see a "tree tunnel" I remember our friend and fellow RVer "Tioga George. Miss his blogs. 
Part of the children's play ground, the fish swimming up stream. 
Another different bush or tree. Looks like it is growing peas. See these in Mazatlan a lot. Or something a lot like them. 
Bill stopping again to check out a weird tree. It has two completely different types of leaves growing on it. Both kinds of leaves are coming out of the same branch. 
Wonder if the skinny ones are a parasite of some sorts. 
Yesterday and today we had appointments with at the heart doctors. Testing both days. See him in July for results. We - mostly me, cause I had to do all the computer work and calling - stressful week. And all because of a stupid mistake I made with Bill's new computer. More about that later. My blood pressure was up to 180 over 70. Need to watch it over the weekend. Going to do nothing but watch racing. And work puzzles. Got a box set of five different ones. This one is 500 pieces. It took a while to finish. The shades of the locators are very close. Also the wrong pieces fit in the wrong places, until you go to add another piece and it won't go there. 
And wait until I tell you about the mayonnaise jar. Next time. 

Monday, June 19, 2023

Getting through the days

Weather is really warming up, so no more walking unless I get out there at 5:30. Not that dedicated. Also the wind is blowing like crazy, had to run an errand and almost got blown over in the parking lot. 

Bill got his third eye shot and doctor says his eye is progressing well. Next shot won't be until six weeks. 

Father's Day our two sons who live out of town gave their Dad a call. Both are doing good. And son who lives here came over for a visit and took us out for lunch. While here he took down the light on the kitchen ceiling that had the huge "thing" in it and cleaned it out. Turned out there was a dead lizard in it. UGH. And I'm glad I never tried to get it down, would have probably broke myself or the light. He also put a towel rack back up for us. Bill still can't see well enough to do it. AND he helped get Bill's new computer set up more to Bill's liking. So many thanks Gil. But it kind of made us feel old. Never thought about having our kids have to do such simple things for us. 

We've also been enjoying all the excitement of the Golden Knight hockey teams Championship win. Their first game here ever was a few days after the horrid October 1st shooting. And their team really rallied around the city doing many, many things for people here. So lots of celebrating. 

We also watched on TV the soccer Concacaf finals Canada vs USA. It was played here in Vegas at the football stadium.  USA won.  Now if only the Raider's would have a decent year. 

Made some of the delicious chocolate chip cookies again, might as well forget losing any weight. And tonight for dinner going to make Bill's favorite Paella. Didn't make it yesterday 'cause we had a big lunch.   Have two medical testing appointments this week. That is about all the excitement for us.

Saturday, June 17, 2023

Remembering Dennis

Yesterday was a hard day. Dennis would have been 65. He has been gone two years and ten days. I remember the night he was born. I spent part of the afternoon scrubbing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees and we had spaghetti for dinner. He was born just before midnight. I had never held a baby before, never changed a diaper or fixed a bottle. Love at first sight. Every once in a while his birthday would coincide with Father's Day.

He loved living in the desert or small towns. Him with his wind sailer. 

Senior picture day. He'd gone to school in overalls and a t shirt. Suddenly he was home again - changed clothes and fixed his hair for the picture. So many years ago. 
We miss him. 

Thursday, June 15, 2023

We took a walk in the wetlands

We've managed to keep kind of busy the last few days. Bill had nine really good days in a row. One of those nine days we had to go get blood work done. Glad that is over for a while. Then two days that weren't so good. But not as bad as they used to be. And to add to our good times. His computer crashed. No fixing it. So had to get him a new one...WINDOWS 11...Oh my, not a friendly program to us old fogies that were running Windows 7. He's had it about five days and we are still trying to replace some of his favorite programs. Mostly the games i.e., chess, backgammon, solitaire and Risk. Of course we no longer had the disks. And the games that came with this version of Windows he didn't like. Finally found them, Hoyle Puzzle and Board Games,  on line and of course had to buy them. All the games he was used to playing. Worth it at any price. Still working on trying to get Risk II. Also have to reinstall his printer. It has been a challenge for both of us. 

I like the variations of the colors on the Lantana plants. One plant can have two different colors of flowers. And the flowers themselves are different. 

We have one plant that has bright yellow flowers and redish orange flowers. Yes, that is one plant. 
Last Friday our son called and told me he had a couple of ladies in the neighborhood who had time to clean our home. Of course I said SEND THEM. They do such a good job. Had to smile when I saw this . A bow made from a paper towel.
The weekend was quiet for Bill and I had races to watch. Monday morning he was feeling fine so we took a short (one mile) walk in the Wetlands. 
Perfect walking weather, in the high 60's and overcast. Thought we might get rained on, but we didn't. 
This piece of sidewalk is in the children's playground. Don't remember seeing it before. Hard to read in photo, but it says, "How far can you leap?" Then says start here. Next line is 2 feet and Jumping Spider. Next line 4 feet and Kit Fox. 
The next line 6 feet - Kangaroo Rat, next 8 feet - Bobcat then 10 feet - coyote.  Thought this was very interesting. 
Clouds were getting darker looking north.
But blue sky to the south. 
Serene pond. This area is closed for maintenance but there was also a sign posted on the plywood closing it off that said that 120 pet bunnies had been dropped off here in the Wetlands and the coyotes were killing them. Carcasses were found in many places. The maintenance workers and park people were trying to catch as many of them as they could. They are reminding people, domesticated animals cannot survive here. Hope they figure out who did it and prosecute them.
A big Jack rabbit. I first saw his rear end through the bushes and thought it was a coyote.Then got a better look at him. 
He decided to sit in the road and ignore us. 
Almost at the end of our walk. Looking at all the different bushes and trees out there. 
Thank you readers for letting me know what this plant is. Would have never thought it was a Bird of Paradise. 

 Caesalpinia pulcherrima, sometimes known as red bird of paradise, pride of Barbados, or peacock flower is a fast-growing, broad-leaved evergreen shrub native to arid regions of tropical Americas. It blooms repeatedly with red-orange flowers. At the northern end of its range (zone 9), this bird of paradise plant can be deciduous. Its prickly stems make it useful as a barrier plant. This plant and Caesalpinia species have much smaller flowers than the Strelitzia bird of paradise plants. The blooms somewhat resemble azaleas, appearing in clusters. The red bird of paradise—which prefers a desert-like environment—belongs to the legume (pea) family, which is evident from the shape and arrangement of the leaves.

Also have gone to see our primary doctor. All is well. Nothing can be done about the long covid except wait it out. Other than that we are both fine. And we went to the mall to get a new battery put in my watch. Had to go to three different jewelers to get it done.  Tomorrow Bill goes for another shot in his eye.  And the doctor will be at a different office, clear across town. Need to look up the directions before we go.