A big change in the weather

 The header is a picture I took yesterday at sunset. We had had a good rain shower. Here is another one taken at same time. Kind of eerie out. Last night with the rain we had some lightening and thunder, but not bad at our part of valley.

This is looking out over The Wetlands when I got up this morning. Very cloudy until about 10, then it cleared up. Raining again now though, not hard just sprinkling.

Took this picture about 9:30 - hasn't been this cool for months. Thought about walking, but humidity was 73% - ick. 

Been working on this for a while. Bill bought me a set of pictures mostly with sunsets of some sort. So will be busy for a while. No idea what I'll do with them when they are finished. I still need to get the butterfly and sunflower ones framed. Maybe end of the week after the rain I'll go to JoAnn's or someplace to try to find frames. From just under the blue sky it is done to the bottom. 

A closer look at the process. Some of the little letter or numbers are hard to read. Have to pay attention. 

I took the next two pictures from the TV. This on is of a walking path in one of the parks closer to the mountains. With yesterday afternoons micro-burst rain there was this much moving water. Our son was out driving in it. Said he couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him and rain was coming down sideways. 

Forecast for tomorrow and rest of week. Glad we don't have to go anywhere. 

Not much going on. Made a pineapple upside down cake and have eaten almost half of it. My favorite cake. Probably just going to be reading and watching TV if we have a signal tomorrow.

A nice sunset

For the first time in a long time, we had an actual nice sunset last night. All of June and July there was not a cloud in the sky, just too hot and dry. Now with Monsoon season we have lots of clouds, but haven't remembered to check out the sunrise, well haven't been up either. The weather is cooler right above or below 100 which is nice. But the humidity has gone up, which is not nice. Can't have everything I guess.

About 15 minutes later the sky was bright red. So pretty. 

A couple of days ago, I heard one rumble of thunder then rain.This was the extent of the rain, can actually count the raindrops on the sidewalk. Then the sun came out and it was over. Some parts of the valley got almost an inch of rain though. The wild fire south west of us in California and Nevada is 93% contained but burned 93,000 acres. Most of it areas where the centuries old Joshua trees were growing. We might or might not get rain today and tomorrow, sure hope we do. Poor plants need a good bath. 

Between playing with my DOTZ I've been doing more venetian blinds. I have three of the five done. The remaining two are behind furniture that can't be moved. The computer desks and my huge beading table. Need to figure out a way to easily reach them. Have also cleaned all the ceiling fans. Wish I could reach the bulb shades, they all need a good scrubbing, but don't want to go up a ladder and lean over couch and/or bed to do that. 

I finished my butterfly dotz picture. Thinking about how to hang it or frame it. Bill bought me this one of sunflowers, my favorite flowers. It too is now finished. Wish I could get a decent picture of them. The sparkling of the beads doesn't show up. Mostly just the glare from lighting. I want to get this one framed. AND - Bill has bought me six more to do. Mostly ocean, sunset, sunrise scenes. 

His tendentious in his wrist has gone, so one less thing to unsettle him. His eye continues to improve. He keeps saying he can drive. His long covid days are getting fewer, but the fatigue comes on so suddenly it is scary. One minute he is fine, the next his coordination is gone and he gets foggy. Lasts about three hours. Though a day or two ago he was exhausted most of the day. Yesterday he was fine all day. It is a weird and nasty thing. And depressing. For both of us. No one has idea how long it can last. I started this this morning, since then I've cleaned another blind. The one in the computer room. I had to stand on Bill's desk to do part of it so decided to do it while he was taking a nap. Just one more to go. 

Love doing the diamond dotz things.

Still not out and about much, but weather has cooled down some. Highest day lately was only 107. And it is getting down into the low 80's at night. Later this week we are supposed to have two days under 100 and maybe some rain.

I finished my butterfly Diamond Dotz project. Now have to figure out what to do with it. Much prettier than the photo shows. Lots of sparkle from the beads. Been looking at frames - the least expensive one costs double what I paid for the project. Finished picture is 12 x 12. I might just pink shears the edges and hang it somewhere. We'll see.

When I get up in the morning I get my coffee and go into the living room to watch the local morning news. Yesterday this is what I found on the coffee table. Gotta love him. 

Don't remember if I mentioned Bill ordered me another DD project. He knows sunflower is my favorite flower. This is it. The project before I started working on it. I have it almost half way done and it is going to be very, very pretty. I think I might have a frame that will fit this one. A frame Bill made out of found in the desert wood years ago. 

I have all our house hold bills set up for automatic payment on line. So shame on me I don't pay too much attention to the amounts which remain the same month after month. Except for electricity and gas. Our electric bill was $100 higher than it ever has been. There were two increases in electric rices over the past year and of course July was the hottest month on record, so I wasn't surprised. But I had to update bank and credit card info so was looking at the bills. HA!!! Our rent for the land our house is on went up 63 dollars this year.  Home warranty appliance service up $20, alarm $4, gardener $20, RV rent $20, Internet $3, Verizon $5, cable TV $10, all of these are monthly and pest control every two month $10. All compared to the same time last year. Not to mention groceries and gasoline, still over $4 here. Some of these things just sneak up on you. But it all adds up. 

We are kind of thinking about what to do this coming winter. Bill really wants to go back to Mexico for a month or two. So looking into flying and renting. Lot depends on his eye getting better or not. Our son came over to visit yesterday and was telling us about easy ways to check on line and find housing and renting cars and flying. Sounds silly but haven't done any of that in years. And so many things have changed. 

I did do something I've been putting off forever. Washed our big living room wood slat venation blinds yesterday. Didn't take me as long as I thought it would and was much easier than I thought it would be. So guess I will continue with the rest of them in the house. Figure one a day - only four of them to do. 

Enough blah blah for now. Need to get to the blind in the sewing room. 

96 yesterday and only 99 today

For two days now our temperatures are UNDER 100! That is something to celebrate! But going back up starting tomorrow. The temps were lower due to monsoon rains in the are of Vegas. In fact in the northwest section of the valley they had over 1.5 inches of rain in an hour. Flash flooding, damage and chaos.  We live on the eastern edge of the city - we did not get one drop of rain, just winds. For any one not familiar with the valley I marked the directions. We actually live in the area just south of Las Vegas city and north of Henderson. A no mans land if you want EMTs or Firemen. We get county help.

There's a big fire burning just south east of the city, near Searchlight. Over 83000 acres and only about 30% contained. Unfortunate it is burning in a Joshua Tree protected area. The TV reporters were talking to a conversationalist she said the trees only grow 1 to 3 inches a year, so it will be a long time before they will come back. For a day or two we got a lot of the smoke from it, but today is pretty clear, guess the rain cleared the air some. 

We have managed to get out a few time, for breakfast and to go grocery shopping. Tomorrow Bill has an apt for another shot in his eye. It is getting better, but slowly.  Need to ask some questions tomorrow. About how much better it might get, or will the shots just maintain it after a certain time. 

I bought a Diamond Dotz kit at JoAnn's - the cheapest I could find as I wasn't sure I could do it. Surprisingly enough I can do it. By do it I mean pick up a little half bead shape with a stylus and then place the bead on the canvas in the designated area. When I'm doing that motion my hands don't shake for some reason. It is fun to do. There are a zillion little beads in 28 different colors. It is kind of like paint by number with the areas marked by different symbols. 

A close up. Beads and symbols. 

The background is painted on the canvas, only the butterfly is beaded.  I only have the right upper wing left to do, but today my hand is shaking too much to pick up the beads. Will try it later. Don't know what I will do with it once I am done...

This morning I pulled out all the dead geraniums, so now have empty pots on the patio. Going to put artificial flowers in them and then when we get notice of inspection, take the flowers out for that period of time. 

The long covid is still taking it's toll on Bill. We were in Walmart the other day and suddenly he just drooped. Barely made it back to the car. We had just finished checking out so he was pushing the cart. It takes him a day or two to get his energy back again. But it is happening less and less often. 

Thinking about cleaning our big living room venetian blind today - just thinking... Not a favorite job.