The morning today started out nasty. More wind and rain. With our roof problem we really didn't need rain. Didn't last long though. By afternoon it was just cloudy and cold. Wind is hopefully gone for a while. The insurance adjuster will be back here Monday morning. Lots of crews out working in the neighborhood removing the downed porch and carport roofs. We went out for a bit, brrr. I even wore a jacket! Bill's Nook died so a trip to Barnes and Nobel for a new one for him too. So now we both have new phones and new Nooks. Unexpected expenses. It was so cool in here this a.m. we had the furnace running. And I baked peanut butter cookies to warm up. Haven't made them in years. Taste pretty good. And now I have a roast and potatoes and carrots in the oven. By tomorrow afternoon we'll probably have the AC running. Just some of the trash and shingle pieces on the patio. Luckily we had some people coming today to clean up the back yard. Mainly to get rid of the pine needles. Good timing on our part.
In this back corner under one of the pine trees the needles were so thick I thought we'd need to get new rock. They were a solid cover on the ground.
More needles, trash and shingles.
Just some of the pine needles as they were cleaning them up from the yard.
More shingles in front of the house. This is where the dead Cyprus tree was. Glad they got it down before the winds. But now it needs some kind of landscaping. The new house so close next door.
Clean patio and yard.
The same picture as above without the pine needles. Now HOA get your inspector down here!
Looking at the house. We have a big rock yard. We have 3 pine trees and one palm tree out there. Needs some color! But I don't want to take care of anything.
All those bags are full of pine needles from the back.
They also trimmed this little tree and moved some rock around to fill in the bare spaces. Yesterday we were chasing the plants from the window boxes all over the neighborhood.
We can't park any thing in the street. Luckily Willie fits sideways in the driveway. My car and our hobbies are in the garage.
So nice and neat and clean. You can see our four trees. No weeds either.
So for a couple of days things will look nice. Until next wind. Hopefully we don't get any more rain until we get the roof fixed. The RV is still at the dealers getting things done - I hope. I'm glad it wasn't here yesterday. Tomorrow is RC airplane field swap meet and I have racing to watch.
Well this has been one very interesting day for us here in the Vegas valley. But first. Last nights sunset. I don't have as good a view of the sunsets as I do of the sunrises. But did manage to capture a little of it.
And this morning I was up early enough to watch the beautiful sunrise over the desert.
The weather forecast was for sever weather today but this morning was beautiful. Not a whisper of wind. So I took a walk around the complex. I forgot to put on my Fitbit but according to the map I did about 1 1/3rd miles. Very nice out. Sun was warm and sky was blue. I don't think I mentioned it but yesterday the gardeners came over and cut down a very brown dead Cyprus tree in our side back yard. Good thing they did it yesterday. When we met the new manager of the park right after we got home we mentioned to him the tree was dead and needed to come down. I was afraid of fire. Bill has a really stiff neck so he didn't want to get involved in doing much of anything so we went out to breakfast. Saw this truck in the parking lot. I like the name "Sit means Sit. "
But had to laugh when I saw the back of the truck.
After eating we headed way across town [18 miles] to the hobby shop. By then the wind was starting to pick up a little bit.
But first we had to stop at the Argentine Market/Restaurant to pick up a few things. One thing we got was a box of Alfahores for our daughter-in-law who just had bunion surgery. OUCH.
Then we had to stop and drop them off with our son at his office, she is still not working because of the surgery. We warned him he had better not open the box and eat the cookies before giving it to her. From there to the hobby shop and then I took Bill into the wonderful quilt shop in the same complex. Every time I go in there I'm more impressed. Here is another one of the 3-D quilting projects. They teach a class in how to do it. Will try to take it sometime during the summer.
By the time we got home the wind had really started to pick up. Lasted the whole afternoon. We were without power for about an hour and a half. As of now - 6:00 p.m. there are over 45,000 people without power. Several streets are blocked because of downed power poles and trees. The I-15 is closed northbound because of a turned over semi. Around the area there were 4 overturned semis. This is our roof. The corner was already peeled back and we've had the insurance adjuster here for it already. Well see the section behind it. The more wind the bigger the section that was lifting up got.
But we were lucky here are two of our next door neighbors. He has lost his carport.
They have lost the entire cover for the front of their house. Their porch. I was looking out the window when it came down.
More and more of it pulling up. Have left a message for the insurance adjuster. Notice the color of the sky in the photos.
This was 4:30 in the afternoon. The temperature dropped from 81 to 59 in about 20 minutes. Some parts of the valley got rain, we didn't. Just clouds of dust.
Some of our roof shingles on the patio. The wind put lots of debris there too.
Looking towards the south east as the storm moved through.
Wind gusts up to 82 miles per hour were recorded. It was quiet a day. And the warning has been extended until 11:00 p.m. though it seems quiet out now. The sun is even up. And we can see the mountains behind us again.
Up early again but the sunrise wasn't worth taking a picture of. We met friends who we hang out with in Mazatlan for breakfast here in Vegas. They are on their way driving home to Toronto, Canada. Small world. After breakfast we went to pick up the Jeep from the mechanic. Bill had offered to take him lunch, tacos. So we stopped at Pepe's Tacos on Boulder Highway. We'd been past it many times but I'd never noticed the murals. They are quite nice.
A lot of detail, and I only took pictures of parts of the mural. It is on the outside of the restaurant.
I went inside while Bill was waiting for the order. One of the murals on the inside walls.
Mechanic was very happy with his lunch. And Willie the Jeep is now home and has brand new shocks, springs and whatever else makes up that assembly, on his front end. No more clunks when going over bumps. Meanwhile I have started three new projects. Polar fleece to make a snuggie. To the far left is a large piece of yellow glass for the window I want to make. And standing up in the middle is a project that I am stenciling. Had to buy new paint as all my stencil paint had dried up. Hadn't used it for several years.
A look at the glass with part of the pattern for one big flower marked on it. Next step is cutting it out.
Later we went to Barnes and Nobel where I got a new Nook and Bill had his serviced. Also to pharmacy to pick up rest of our prescriptions that weren't ready yesterday. Still waiting for one more that had to be special ordered. The insurance agent came over and checked out the roof. Declared part of it damaged and gave us a settlement check to get that part repaired. I was hoping we could get a new roof. But that will have to wait. At least we'll get it repaired before it gets more damage. We're supposed to have winds up to 60 mph Thursday night. I've even managed to do some driving myself the last two days. To the RV dealer yesterday and from the mechanic to home today. Forgot how much I enjoy driving my car. Had to believe I've had it almost 20 years. I remember when I bought it like it was not too long ago. Will probably get new tires on it soon. The ones on it are at least 13 years old. And they still look new as far as wear goes. Only about 12,000 miles on them. But they are cracking.
A very windy and in places wet day here in Las Vegas. Winds are supposed to really pick up tonight. So we brought the new parrot - paper mache - inside. Don't want him to get blown over. Speaking of the wind. Our neighbor said right after we left there was a violent wind storm. We came home to one corner of our roof peeled up. Called the insurance company today, an adjuster will be here tomorrow. Be nice if we can get a whole new roof. Lots of shingles are missing. And more blowing off today. I muttered some about the planes on the dining room table and now they have a new home in the garage, along with the drone.
Fixed corned beef and cabbage and potatoes and carrots for dinner last night. YUM. Turned our really good. Only problem too much of it. We'll be eating left overs for a while. In fact that is what I'm going to have for dinner tonight.
Finally got my hummingbird feeders out again with nectar in them. Was surprised to see a little bird all ready this morning.
We were out and about for a while today. Picking a few things up when I saw these Peeps. I'm sorry but there is just something not right about turquoise peeps. I can see the pink ones, but Turquoise? Not right!
Lots of excitement in the city today. It is official the Raiders will be coming here. So now there is a hockey and a football team. Guess sit will bring a lot of money to town. Lots of construction will be going on. The Jeep is still at the mechanics. The RV is at the dealers. When we get it back it needs a very good cleaning. Went to CVS this morning to pick up our prescriptions - wow - always sticker shock even with insurance. I talked to our son who had the brain aneurysm. He sounds good, says he is doing fine. But has not had any follow up care. Waiting for paper work to go through. He is keeping busy and getting around fine. But says every once in a while he will do something weird. Like trying to put the milk away in the microwave. It kind of worries him. but heck I've been doing stupid stuff like that for years. He probably did too but didn't wonder about it before.
When I posted the blog yesterday morning everything was fine until I tried to post a link on Facebook. Then I got this message from Facebook. "Your message couldn't be sent because it includes content that other on Facebook have reported as abusive." Cannot figure out what was Facebook's problem. My PG blog abusive??? Maybe it didn't like the names of the trucks. Weird. Bill has a flight simulator for his RC planes - he couldn't see the plane when flying it on his computer screen.We had a TV out in the shed so in it came to hook up to his computer. Sounds easy right? Well maybe for you but not for us. First we had to make a trip to Best Buy to buy a HDM1 cable??? But neither end of the cable would go into the computer. So then we had to buy an adapter with a USB connection to plug the cable into. On home. Okay the adapter was in the computer, the HDM1 cable was in the adapter - Oh oh, now it had to be plugged into the TV which was already on the wall. [Getting it on the wall was another story, which also created a need to go to WalMart to get the bracket to hang it- the day before.] So Bill had to get up on the table and take the TV down so we could plug the cable in. Loaded the software - not working. Read instructions again. Reload software. Hum...maybe cable should be plugged into the other HDM port. Ah Ha now we had a picture on the TV. But it was only the screen wallpaper - no way to run the program. Also when it loaded it screwed up Bill's laptop. To make a long story a little shorter. We gave up on the laptop and loaded and plugged into his PC. Now we had wallpaper and sound on the TV. Finally after much fooling with drop down menus it was working. Took all of the morning. Exhausted us both. Oh yes, TV had to go back up on wall. I'm too old for this. Bill finally able to play with his flight simulator.
I watched a race and he played. Then bless him, he fixed a delicious dinner of cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped chicken breasts, potatoes and salad. Quiet evening. Up before the sun again this morning. Kind of pretty sunrise. Very still out, no wind. Another nice day temperature wise too.
This morning I decided I'd better start walking again. Put my shoes on and grabbed my camera. In front of our house. Notice two lots are still empty and the one new house on that side of street is for sale, but has no landscaping.
Bill came out to join me but it was still pretty cool out and I'd forgot to put on my Fitbit so we ended up getting in the car and going out to breakfast. Stuff the walk. After breakfast we went over to the RC airfield. As you can see it was a beautiful day.
Came home and Bill hung up some of the metal sculptures we bought in Mexico. Also put out his parrot. The other day I got some more artificial flowers for the pots. Colorful patio.
I watched NASCAR and he read until end of race which he watched with me. Fixing corned beef, potatoes, carrots and cabbage for dinner since we missed Saint Patrick's Day. Maybe one of these days we'll get our DVD and speakers hooked up to our living room TV. Something else we should have done before hanging the TV on the wall in the living room. Live and learn.
A cloudy cool going to be windy day. Yesterday was cool too. I loved it. Did get a lot done yesterday. I finished the label for the quilt for our 8th great grandbaby. Now just have to get it mailed. It is a Sampler Quilt. All the blocks are different patterns.
I also got the beads to fringe and bead the t-shirt I bought in Mazatlan. This particular shirt was the most popular one in Mazatlan this year,. Saw it every where. At one shop I saw it fringed and beaded but only for children. So I bought a regular one and figured I'd bead it at home. Now it is done. Debating doing the sleeves too.
And I remembered that I had some beautiful frames in the closet so I dug one out - Bill made it years ago and framed my print I bought at the Art Walk. Next year I will get the companion print. Same couple and location, different pose. Guess I should have used the flash . The frame is maple burl.
We had to run out to the store and as we were leaving I remember the Monster Trucks were at Sam Boyd stadium so we drove by to see if we could see any of them. Yep we could. We couldn't get inside the gate but got a few clear pictures. They sure are BIG.
This one has it's back wheels on top of a car.
Stinger.
These are all Grave Digger getting air over a mound of dirt. All attached to the ones in front of and behind them.
Grave Digger being admired.
I like the teeth, tail and ears.
After getting home from store I of course watched NASCAR from California. #18 qualified 9th. Not real good but the car is fast. We also called the handy man over to look at our roof. He suggests calling the insurance company to see if they will repair it. He says a lot of it is wind damage but it is an old roof - but worth a try. Willie, the Jeep, is spending the weekend at the mechanics waiting for his new front shocks to get there [had to be special ordered] and be put in. Sticker Shock! Wish we could have had them done in Mexico. No plans for today - except NASCAR - too windy for Bill to play with his planes. Guess where they are parked - in the dining room... doesn't really go with my spring table setting.
A couple of our boys made the big candle sticks next to the plant when they were in junior high.
