Big change of plans

I should be writing this from the road, but am actually sitting at my computer at home. Yesterday morning we decided we were not going to take the trip we had planned. In fact we aren't taking any trip until the fall. Well that might change if we think of someplace we would like to go that isn't many miles away and not over 100 degrees. 

We are both fine, it just is that the trip got too involved. We had planned on getting out of here much sooner thus giving us a leisurely drive to Oregon. But with the later date the long part of the drive became a real push. Not something either of us like. In a couple of the sections we would have had to go miles out of our way just to find campgrounds. Others, the campgrounds we did find were not some where we would normally want to stay. Then the HOT weather and rain here in Vegas, especially today out "leaving" day. And of course with the heat, rain, and wind I was kind of thinking - this is not going to be relaxing and fun, but didn't want to say any thing to Bill  as I was sure he wanted to get out of the house. Well yesterday morning we were both up at 5 a.m. to get the RV and bring it here to start loading. He said he really didn't have a good feeling about taking the trip. But if I wanted to go we would. That was enough for me to agree. I don't mind staying home.  Sooooo...right now no trip. 

Last night a big storm moved through the area parts of town got rain we didn't - lots and lots of lightening out over the desert. Tried to get pictures of it but just timed the camera wrong. Today it is not so hot but sky is very dark and humidity is way up as are the winds. In the month of June we had 23 days with temperatures over 100 - with several being over 110. Hottest day was 116. Today only going to be 97.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time cancelling all of our reservations. Today I have to deal with Verizon to try to get my old plan back. Don't need unlimited GBs when we are home. Also for some reason they cancelled my International Canada/Mexico plan...Grrrr.  Tried calling their customer service number and it rings twice then nothing. Think we'll go over to a store later and talk to an actual person.  Also had to call post office to cancel our mail being forwarded. Luckily we caught our postman yesterday and he said no problem.  We'll see. 

Just got off phone with Verizon - very nice person. Got all taken care of, kept unlimited which included Can/Mex International and will not be paying any more than before - I hope. 

I have been BUSY

I know that is no excuse but I've really been busy. A beautiful desert sunrise from a few days ago. The weather has continued to be well above 100, most days above 110 with no cooling at night. UGH.

A road runner came to visit. He was just standing int he middle of the yard, I watched him for a while, finally thought to go get the camera and of course when I got back to the window he had moved behind the plants. They are funny things. 

Another puzzle from the National Parks series I bought - this one took me over a week to finish. Really, really intense to do. Every piece looked the same. Some times I could find 7 or 8 pieces in a row before I got frustrated and stopped. Some times - nothing. 

I also made another pair of earrings - the colors of the Mexican flag. Will wear them this winter.  This is a fun pattern to make. 

In the room where we have the computers - Bill's desk sits right over the AC vent. And because the cool air blew out right under his desk, he blocked it off with a piece of wood. So that room, even with the ceiling fan running, gets pretty warm. Also it is on the west side of the house and get a lot of sun. So he took pity on me and got me my own personal very quiet and effective little fan. Has three speeds, no noise and feels soooooooo good. 

Yesterday was only in the 90's as was the day before - high 90's but under 100. We had a storm moving through. Looking out over the desert. 

And look towards the strip out front. We had about 30 minutes of solid thunder - reminded me of Indiana. But only got about 20 drops of rain. Lots of wind though. 

But check this out. This is a micro burst over The Strip. My girlfriend got over 1/2 inch of rain in Henderson - about 7 miles away from us. 

I mentioned we are going on a summer trip. I had made reservations at 1000 Trails campgrounds in Washington and on the coast of Oregon quite a while ago. Then our departure date changed several times due to waiting for prescriptions to be available. Finally got all that taken care of so started trying to make reservations...It took me a day and a half on the phone and internet to get the first half of the trip set up. Call after call to parks, who were full. Had to make a couple detours in our route to find places to stay. Also we don't want to do any long day driving so that added to the mess. Boy some of those RV parks are expensive now - amazing. So any way we are set - leaving here Wednesday and heading north. I was exhausted when I got it all done. I did get my Verizon data increased for our JetPack so hopefully if we do have a signal I'll be able to keep up the blog. 

Before it got light this morning Bill went over and brought the RV here to the house. Then he washed it. So I'll do a little loading and putting away today. So there won't be so much to do when we get ready to leave. 

HOT, SMOKE, LIGHTENING OH MY!

Got up at 4:30 and it was already 94 degrees out! There are a couple of fires burning just outside of town so the air is smokey. And today we might get thunder and lightening but no rain. Not good. 

I am not doing much that takes any effort so working on my National Parks puzzles. They are all turning out to be challenging. This one took about four or five days. Guess I didn't get the camera focused...

A magnificent sunset the other night. Really interesting clouds. I could feel the heat in the pavement through the soles of my shoes and it was 8:00

I noticed in the monthly activities pamphlet that they were going to have a couple of classes in "One Stroke Painting" sounded interesting so thought I go see. Well I forgot about it until about five minutes before it was to start. So threw on a clean shirt and some shoes dashed to the garage to get in the car and drive to the club house. Well crap. I forgot Bill had brought the Jeep out because the battery was dead and he was going to take it to get a new one. (He put the big charger on it to get it started.) When the garage door went up there sat the Jeep right behind my car. Nuts. First I thought I'll take the Jeep, then thought again - would it start up when I wanted to come home? So then I thought well I'll walk down there. Got about two blocks and turned around, just too hot for me to do it. When I got home I got to thinking about the painting. Years ago I took a class at JoAnns - I thought it was the same thing. So went digging in my craft closet and sure enough there were the paints, brushes and instructions. OKAY! Brought them out and started playing with them. I for sure can use some refreshment instructions. But here is some of my practice...I'm painting on clear plastic sheets. I can wash them off and reuse them a couple of times. 

Third or fourth time of practicing. Coming back a little. But if I remember next Friday they are having another class - so will go to it. 

Yesterday and today have been miserable out. The sky is a weird shade of yellowish brown and no breeze at all. Just heat and overcast sky.

This morning's sunrise. The color is from all the smoke and haze in the air. 

Not going outside at all. Working on another puzzles in the National Park series. It is of a sunset in Joshua Tree Park. HARD!!! Also beading earrings again. Anything I can do to keep busy without moving around. 

Tonight will be decision time with the TV all at the same time is a truck race, a soccer game and the hockey game. What to do???

Wednesday was Dennis birthday, he would have been 63. In my heart I think he met up with his wife Jennie, she died suddenly several years ago, and that theyhad a wonderful day. 

Interested in moving to Las Vegas?

Any one out there interested in moving to the south west? Vegas or Arizona. Might want to rethink it if you don't like heat. And it is only the middle of June! No gradual warming this year - just jumped right into the high one hundred high teens. 

No more walking in the mornings for me for a while. Notice it is not even cooling down at night. Some forecasts are saying closer to 120...sure hope they are wrong. That AC bill is going to be high. 

I have a box of eight puzzles from the National Park series. So far I've done four of them. Kind of pretty. And not at all easy. 

I've finished my quilt except for the label. Baby won't be here until sometime in August. But it was fun working on it. I had all the material except for the pink and the blue. So got to use up a lot of my "stash." It is a little bigger than crib size but not quite twin. 

Just a closer look at the squares. For some reason I got the bright idea to add the faeries. I had the material so why not use it. Made it a little more girly, but added quite a bit more work to it that I really hadn't planned on doing. 

This is the backing. I've had this for a long time wondering what to do with it. 

Thought it went with the front pretty good. 

About the faeries - I fussy cut them. That is following the outline instead of cutting them in say circles leaving a lot of background material on them. Then I fused - used sticky material to put them on the quilt. Well the sticky material did not stick so well so that meant I had to top stitch all of them.  

So went and bought invisible thread - it is so invisible I couldn't see it to thread the needle - which I had to buy, for invisible thread use - tiny tiny hole. So had to use a marker to color the end of the thread to see it. Then discovered I had to change the tension on the machine - crap didn't remember how to do that. Hunted for the owners manual. Okay that was easy and luck was with me everything went smoothly and all twelve faeries are applicaded  [even spell check couldn't help me there] stitched on. And you can't even see the thread!

Now I'm going to watch the NASCAR All Star race. Yesterday my favorite drivers truck team won a race and he won a race. So maybe his luck will hold today. Dennis was the only son who liked NASCAR - so missed his texts yesterday. Little things that come up. 

And the days go by.

The days continue to go by. First I want to thank every one for their thoughts, hugs and prayers. I do want to talk a little about Dennis. His birthday is in 6 days, he would have been 63. For the past year and a half his health has been poor and was continuing to worsen. He had heart and lung problems and was just diagnosed with liver problems. So the call we received was not unexpected but - I don't know how to put it - kind of a relief. There was no - you'll feel better or having good days any more. He succumbed to a heart attack. We of course are devastated to lose another son. But we did not wish for him to continue to suffer. This is his senior year picture. He had gone to school that day in "farmer" overalls. Suddenly he came flying through the front door - "It's picture day. I have to change my clothes." This is the result. It doesn't seem that long ago.

A picture he had taken for me to add to my old west family collection. 

We will always love and miss him. 

On to lighter things. My little bush in the back surprised me by really blooming. Life goes on in beautiful ways. 

I was sitting out on the back patio the other morning watching the sun rise - Just thought this looked pretty. 

The sun rise over the desert. 

Mother Nature helps to heal sad hearts. 

On to other things. I think I mentioned we both had appointments with the cardiologist - well that was yesterday. We both got clean bills of health. Every things is good - come back in a year. Sigh of relief. So now we are starting to plan a summer vacation - going to try to find some place cooler. By the end of this week the temperatures will be back up to 115 or higher. Even "dry heat" is hot at that high. 

Another gift from Mother Nature - sunset the other night. 

These were taken with my new camera. Actually it is the exact same camera that I've been using for the last several years. Guess I just took too many pictures with the old one. It got to the point it wasn't usable any more. Every time I turned it on it shut its self off again. I like the features it had so replaced it with the same one. So everyone will have to continue to suffer with my lack of control with pictures. 

For some reason I woke up and got up at 3:45 this morning. I should really put my shoes on and go out to walk before the sun is completely up. Did walk of 3.24 miles on Tuesday and yesterday only made 2 miles as it got hot quickly. The sun beating down on me really wears me out. And I've been using an umbrella to keep some of the sun off. Not working.

And that is all that's been going on around here. 

So many things I should have said

 

It is with a heavy heart that we say Goodbye to our oldest son Dennis Mitchell Chadd. He would have been 63 in two weeks. 

Sunrise and Sunset

 Bill is in living room watching the hockey game. I sure hope they win tonight. They are down two games, but playing here in Vegas tonight. 

The sunset the other night. Liked the rays up into the clouds. 

I "lifted" this from the Internet. Just liked it. 

We have a little bush in the back of our side/front yard. It has had a really rough life since we planted it about five years ago. The first year it had just started to grow when we had a terrible wind storm that tore it in two. Just left a little straggly piece of it. The next year the drip sprinkler didn't work and we were gone for a while and when we got home it was almost dead. Didn't think it would make it. But every spring it has slowly gotten bigger. This year for the first time it bloomed!

It has beautiful little flowers on it and it blooms most of the summer. 

Standing next to the bush looking towards the street - our side/front yard is full of flowers now. 

I haven't done any walking this week, just too HOT. By 7:30 it has already been into the mid 80's. Hopefully by Monday it will be cooler in the morning. It was suggested I walk at night. At 10 o'clock at night it has been in the high 90's...nope, don't think so. So instead I've been cooking, brownies, cookies and banana bread. 

This morning's sunrise. Like the way the bottom of the clouds are lite up. 

The computers are on the west side of the house and the AC vent is under Bill's desk, so it gets pretty warm in here by evening. So this is a short blog. Heading to the living room where it is a little cooler.