Came across these photos from South American trip

Well I lived through the treadmill test - actually with flying colors. I managed to finish the entire test. Just puffing hard at the end. 
Bill goes in for his angioplasty and stenting first of next week - September 4th at 8 in the morning. Will be glad when that is over too. 
I was going through lots of old photos on my computer and came across these from our drive to South America in 1978. This was when they put our 1972 Pace Arrow motorhome into the hold of a freighter to transport it from Panama to Colombia. Took them a while to figure out how to do it as we were the first Class A motorhome ever to go to South America. 

Every one was holding their breath, hoping that this would work and that the nets didn't break. And that it didn't swing too much. Notice the motorhome was painted red, white and blue. 

 Inside the hold of the ship. And then it had to be taken out when it reached Colombia. No pictures of that.

 Looking back down the highway going up the Andes in Chile to the border of Argentina. No banking or guard rails on the highway.

The road down into Argentina was even worse.
Parked on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We stayed there for a week. Three of our sons in this picture, Randy in denim shirt [today is Randy's birthday he is ow 58!], behind him Gil, who was 7 and Paul who was 9.

We spent thirteen months on the trip. If you'd like to read about it our book "All The Way To Argentina is available in hard copy and as an ebook. It was an amazing trip.
Also came across this picture of a necklace I made when I was fooling around with beaded jewelry. Thought this one was really pretty.

The weather here is beautiful, blue, blue sky, some clouds and ONLY going to be 100 and no wind. Except for the no wind it will stay like this for at least a week. Also low humidity. But winds will start up again tomorrow.

The pest control people will be here this afternoon. I still shudder when I think of it. 

Been an interesting few days.

Saturday was one of the first cool 102 days in a long time so we decided to make some empanadas. I had bought the dough some time ago and froze it. We ended up making  four dozen and have enough filling to make four dozen more. When we went to the market this morning they didn't have the prepackaged/made dough. So put the rest of the filling in the freezer until we make it across town to the Argentine market to buy some.

Saturday night was another spectacular moon night. Luckily I looked out in time to see it. To the west there was no sunset, but these clouds to the east were nice and pink. 

The moon as it was coming up. It was oranger - more orange - than it looks here. 

Coming up over the desert behind us. 

The desert - closest to us are The Wetlands, a protected area. 

Very early Sunday morning I was laying in bed wondering if I should get up, it was still dark out. It felt like something was crawling on my back, but I decided it was just my nightgown moving from the air from the ceiling fan. So I shifted my position a little. More movement, hum...it kept up. So I rolled over on my back -AND GOT BIT! - WHAT THE HECK? I jumped out of bed. Pulled my nightgown tight around my waist and ran into the bathroom. By now whatever it was was moving again. Yanked my nightgown off and shook it. Something fell on my foot. AGGGG! Looked down got a glimpse of it. About 2 1/2 to 3 inches long - a transparent color centipede - I think. Before I could catch/kill it it disappeared under the vanity. Bill can see what looks like a bite on my back so no, I wasn't imagining it. IT WAS IN OUR BED!!!! Ripped the sheets off and threw them and my night gown in HOT water laundry. Sprayed bug spray all over bedroom and bathroom.  Used a can of bug spray in bedroom and bathroom. At least I didn't scream. Perfect end to a not great week. Also called pest control company they will be here Wednesday. Bill thinks it might be because of all the construction going on around us.

I went to doctor early in week because for some reason my blood pressure has taken a jump. So I have an appointment for a Tread Mill Test Tuesday. I hate treadmills!  I cannot stay on one for over a minute before I am bright red and soaking wet and having trouble breathing. [and the last time I was on one was 20 years ago] Should be interesting if I live through it. 

Bill saw same doctor end of week. We are now waiting to hear when he will be going into hospital for angioplasty and stenting. Though the doctor says if the vessels are too deteriorated he might not be able to put in stents. Kind of wait and see. A few other thing going on too with family members. Stress? What stress?

Moon rise and sun set.

Still thinking about how to finish rooster, this would continue the collage look. But thought better of it and ordered some chicken wire print fabric to put the rooster on. Then I'll do something around it. What ever I do it is going to be big. I have empty spaces on the wall in both the sewing and computer rooms where it will fit. OR maybe in the living room...depends on how it ends up looking. 

Now that it is cooler out I was walking around the back yard, noticed these baby palm trees growing. Was reaching to pull them out when Bill said to leave them. So guess we'll have a couple more palm trees in the back. I know they grow pretty fast from past experience. 

We can actually see the mountains again, still a little smoke/haze in the air but not like it was. Our lantana plants are growing like crazy, so pretty full of flowers. 

The guys working on the garage roof replacing the turbine fan. Had to replace the roofing around it too. So that is done. Hopefully no more 60/70 mph winds come up. Sure makes a difference in the temperature in the garage!

Happened to look out the back window Friday night and saw the almost full moon. So pretty.

A cloud moved over it as I was watching. 

And then I looked the other way. A really nice sunset.

See the rays going up from the area of the sun. 

Just another look at the colors.

Have had a couple not so pleasant news days but will stop this with the pretty sunset.

Project continues - coming together quickly

By golly we are going to freeze to death by Tuesday. We have not seen a temperature in the 70's for a couple of months. Will be a welcome relief. I saw on the news today that being inside in a cool environment can raise your blood pressure. Hum...

I continue to work on my rooster. It is going much faster than I thought it would. Or maybe I'm just spending too much time working on it. This was yesterday morning. 

This was yesterday evening. The neck and wings were not permanent, still moving pieces around. And cutting out more that I thought I wanted or needed. Looks kind of funny without his tail. But you can see the outline of it. 

This is now the only part not secure is the tail, thinking on it for a while. As you can see it is much different color wise from the original pattern. I prefer the oranges and yellow to the pinks.

 Original pattern and colors - as you can see I really changed the colors.

A closer look at the tail. I was going through my "stash" and discovered I had a couple of pieces of material with beautiful feather designs on them. Perfect. 

I haven't decided what I am going to do for the background. Either buy a piece of fabric that looks like it will go with the rooster. Then cut the rooster out and place it on the fabric. OR - do a collage background like the pattern. Then I'll have to decide if it needs a border then get the backing and finish it. No idea what I'll do with it once it is finished. It is pretty big. And will be bigger when it is finished.
Talking with one of our daughters-in-law about her daughter who lives in Hawaii. She lives on the base near Pearl Harbor, her husband is in Japan and she is home with the two kids. Their home is about 5 miles from the ocean. She says she is preparing for the worst. Stocking up and clearing out a middle of the house closet.
As I write this the guy is here on the roof of the garage replacing the ventilation fan we lost during one of the wind storms. Surprised on how much it is costing - in labor and roof repair around it.

My Chicken Project

Finally we are getting relief from the heat and humidity. Although rain might show up here today and tomorrow. But for the whole week the highest temperature is 102, with it cooling off into the high 70's at night. Hasn't been in 70's for over a month. Just hope it stays that way, but September is usually a pretty hot month too. 
Saw this packet of sugar substitute at Denny's the other morning. First I thought it was a PC things. Turns out all the sugar substitute packages had different sayings on them. Doesn't take much to amuse me, I had to read them all. Then I asked the manager if he knew the package said this. And I handed him this one, he looked puzzled like "What the heck?"  Then I showed him all the packets were different. No one had noticed it. 

 Up early enough to see the sunrise over the desert this morning. Rather pretty. 

But on to my chicken project. This is the pattern - showing one completed by the designer. I saw it being made on a quilting show the other day so looked into it. The designer is Laura Heine from Billings, Montana. She has a fabric store and has several different collage patterns. It looked fun. Including the background it is 36 x 42 if completed without a border. 

 This is the full sized pattern. You trace it on to a light weight white fabric. 

 Lots of small fabric pieces are ironed on to fuzing paper. 

Some of the pieces I've already cut flowers etc out of. 

Some of the pieces I've cut out. 

 And then they are layered onto the material pattern and when you like the way it looks they are all fuzzed down. As you can see I don't have many cut yet.

So that's how I'm spending my days, fuzzing [fuze] and cutting and hunting through my stash for material that looks like a chicken. Should keep me amused for a while. 

Doesn't take much to entertain us.

We actually had a day under 100 - my first thought was boy it is cooler out maybe I'll fix that roast in the freezer. Then more sane thoughts took over. 99 isn't cool!
According to the news this has been the  worst monsoon season since 1989 especially for destructive winds. Hopefully only a month to go before it stops. 
Heard some engines rumbling out front and look what I saw. Another new house coming in. You can see the other half of it waiting down the street. That makes four in the last year on our short eight house block. I like the back of his truck. These guys make this look so easy!

One half in. To the right is the house that came in a week or so ago. 

Had to drive up over the corner of the yard to make this turn up our street.

Hello there, are you coming in? He even managed to stay off the curb. 

In it goes. Notice the gray skies. We didn't get but a very few drops of rain but some of the valley got pounded. 

That evening, the sun reflecting off the clouds out over the desert east of us. 

Boy I finally managed to up in time to see the sunrise. Not spectacular but nice. 

The house on the left end got put in last year. Already has someone living in it as does the one right next door to us [not in this picture] The house on the right was brought over last week. They have been working on it full time. 

Oh my gosh, another new one coming in, just down the street from us. Where our street turns west. Notice the blue dumpster in the house next to it. That house is empty, owner to assisted living a couple of months ago. So guess they are cleaning it out to get ready to sell or...

Lots of trucks out front. This one is double parked. Workers on both houses.

Notice anything about all of these houses? They are basically the same color except for the porch size and color of the trim. Talk about cookie cutters. And their back and side yards are about 4 feet wide!!

This is one one right next to us, It has people living in it we think. See a car there off and on. Same color, same porch.

This is why we keep the Jeep in the back. The driveway isn't long enough to park facing the garage, so we have to pull in sideways to stay off the street.

How I'm keeping occupied during this hot spell. Bought a box of 12 different sized puzzles. From 150 pieces to 500 pieces. This is a 500 - it was a challenge but fun. 

Also today was the first soccer game of the Spanish league season and the Bristol NASCAR race. Easier to stay inside under the fans when it is 109.