WOW

Mainly posting to show off our beautiful sunset last night. A real WOW!

Weather has cooled down, but still above normal  but really cooling down at night. Next week Fall is really arriving. 7 o'clock in the morning. 

Went walking on Wednesday and did a little over three miles. Glad we don't walk again until tomorrow. Not seeing much wildlife over in the Wetlands, just birds. Every time we go there we see more ducks. No Canadian Geese yet though. 

The Sphere, I did not take this it was on line. Just thought I'd share it. Funny. 

Really cool  with clouds in the sky. Didn't have to look for shade and enjoyed the sun when it came out. 

By the time we got home the cold winds had really come up. What I found in the ditch the next day. No idea where they came from. I put a message in the communities facebook page that I had them, but no one claimed them. While down there I did replace some of the rocks, but a couple are pretty heavy. 

A different day. It is so nice to walk over there. Peaceful. 

Clouds and sunshine, made the mountains look almost like they were covered with snow. 

A branch of the main river. Lots of birds hang around it. 

I'm working on a Christmas throw pillow, but it is slow going as I'm still not sure how I want it to look. Still in planning stage. 

Also working on couple more diamond painting Christmas scenes. 

Bill has now developed a droopy eyelid and it is really interfering with his sight. Can't get an appointment until Nov 5th. But they told me to call every day to see if there is a cancellation. Of course the lid is on the eye he can see out of. The one he gets the shots in. He is almost completely blind in the other eye, just has peripheral (sp?) vision in it. Going to make some banana nut muffins and peanut butter cookies. I think the oven now cooks at correct temperature. I hope.

AC fixed and now a leaking pipe! Enough already.

The full moon the other night, except this was taken early in the morning. 

Sunset Friday night. Just happened to go outside at right time. 

All the work on the AC is finally done. Here it is in its new home. The tools laying around belong to the workers. 

Where it used to be. Guess I'll eventually have to add some rocks to cover the area. 

It is working fine. Cooled house right down. And this morning it was so cold out at 55 that we had to use the heater. Bill was freezing. We're getting winds gusts up to 50/55 mph so it intensifies the feeling of cold. This is going to last for a couple of days, then back up to temperatures above normal. 

On Wednesday when we walked it was nice and cool out at 7:30. 

While the workers were under the house they found a very slow drip coming from one of the water pipes. Got a couple of estimates to fix it. One was over three thousand dollars, were they going to use gold plated pipes??? The other was six hundred. Same leak, same pipe. And of course the home warranty company will not cover it. Why not? Well because it is at a joint that some time in the past was repaired with PVC. I'm beginning to think about cancelling them and keeping fingers crossed. Or just putting what I pay them into a savings account. Calling a friend who is a plumber, he thinks it can be fixed much cheaper. We'll see. That's it with home repairs. 

For the last couple of days it has been cold and windy, highs of mid 60's with winds up to 30 and gusts to 55mph. Trying to get thermostat set so Bill is warm enough and I'm not cooking. 

Have walked a couple of times since last writing. Did 3.5 miles on Saturday. Should have stopped sooner I think. This day there was no wind at all. And a pretty blue sky with puffy white clouds. . 

He was standing patiently waiting for a fish to swim by. Just after I took this he caught something and flew away with it. 

No idea what this is, one person said it was an osprey. Sounded like they knew what they were talking about. 

UFO floating down the river. I think it looks like a piece of hard foam rubber. 

This is the tree that has the cross carved in it. Sign is covering it . 

I'm working on a new diamond painting, have finished a couple more of the Christmas set. Also just started working on a Christmas throw pillow cover. Now that wind has stopped and no more workers in back I'm going to put my colorful pots and rooster back out on the patio. Then watch the Las Vegas NASCAR race.

The wall is done.

 So...the weather is great, only getting to 90 yesterday and 89 today. By the weekend it will be in the mid 60's as a high during the day. Lots of wind and maybe rain. Will need to turn furnace on. But by Tuesday back up in the 80's. 

The back wall is done. But debris is still in the drainage ditch and my rocks are still not where they belong. A fight for another day. 

The last work on the wall, filling the blocks with cement. No cap on top of wall, just cement up to top. 

We have been enjoying our walks, getting out at 7 a.m. while it is still cool enough for me. When I took this picture of the river I didn't notice the mallard out there. His head is sure a pretty green. 

There are four of us walking now most of the time. This particular day we found a small trail along the river so decided to take it. Probably won't do it again, Narrow and lots of bushes with big thorns. and some unstable rocks and dirt. Notice how they are dressed, I go in shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt and get hot. 

So we try to walk three times a week. Have made it to three miles a couple of times. In fact today we did three miles. That's why I'm sitting at the computer and resting!

Back to our air conditioning problem . Heard from home warranty company on Monday. They will not cover anything. Not repair pipe, not move AC and NOT pay for freon. Well @#@!%$#. So I found another company who works on manufactured homes and AC's. They came out Tuesday. Yes they would replace the pipe under house with new COPPER pipe and put in the gas. I almost fell over when he gave us the estimate. Much more than first company. Of course, not covered by warranty company. So we mentioned other company suggested moving AC from here in the back of the house.  

To here - red X - behind the garage. Yes that can be done, for a lot less money. That didn't make sense to me so asked how could that be cheaper. Was told the copper pipe is VERY EXPENSIVE and because the pipe goes both ways - so two lengths of expensive pipe and it would take more gas to fill it it is way more money. So we will relocate the unit. Price much cheaper than first company. And their reviews are much better. Then I had to fill out the paperwork for the management company and meet with the manager. That turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would.  

When I picked up the paperwork I was told it might take up to two  weeks to get approval. Got it all filled out and called for an appointment with the manager. He was in a meeting, but I could see him in a couple of hours. About 10 minutes later the manager was knocking on our door as he was leaving the property and knew I wanted to see him. (I'd played the "we are old people and can't be without air conditioning for days" card). Any way. I handed him the paperwork. He looked at it and said it's fine. Go ahead and do it. WHAT!!  Yep that was it. So tomorrow morning they will be here to move the AC and fill it with gas. All of this should have been done two years ago when it first started leaking. 

Weird thing happened the other day. Bill and I were sitting at our computers just talking. My phone was on my desk behind me. We were talking about guns and people using them. All of a sudden my phone said something, I turned to look at it and it had the phone keypad on the screen and a message telling me I could make an emergency phone call now. Now that is spooky. It must have been listening to us talk. 

It is finally cooling down here in Vegas.

It is finally cooling down here in Vegas. Finally under 100, only 96 today and 99 yesterday. Check out next Saturday and Sunday. Need to get out Bill's long johns!

In July and August we were having our yearly problems with our home AC. Click here for post about it. It has been leaking freon for a couple of years. Every one who checked it out and added gass$$$$ said they had fixed it. Well the last time someone was here they put dye in the linset line and now we know for sure that the line (under the house, of course, is leaking. About a week and a half ago the AC was no longer blowing cold air. just a wisp of cool air was coming out. So another call to the home warranty service and back came the AC company who put the dye in the line. They looked under the house and said Yep it is leaking. Oh good, so you can fix it right? Well nope, we don't go under manufactured homes...&^%$# - but you can put some gas in it until we find someone who GOES under manufactured homes. NOPE, can't put gas in when there is a leak. What? @#$%^!@#$ Can't do it, we will call the warranty company tell them what is going on and they'll find someone who works on manufactured homes. Okay they did. Out came a new company named - wait for it - Snow Frosty AC. So it is fixed now right? Wrong - they don't crawl under the any house. So they suggest the AC gets moved from back of house to side of house then they can run a new shorter linset line.  And pour a new pad and rewire the whole thing. They will talk to warranty company. Will also have to get approval from the company that owns this place. This was Friday. Today got an email from warranty co. They are "Estimate: Processing   "

"We have received the service diagnosis and estimate from Snow Frost Heating & Air Conditioning, . We are in the process of reviewing the estimate per your contract."

Hummm.... Glad it is getting cooler here. 

Any way  - it has been cool enough to get out walking in the mornings. After taking the summer off we are not getting in as many steps/miles as we were in the spring. Only about 2 to 2 1/2 miles.  On Wednesday we did 3 miles. I was tired for two days. So we've decided we will go slow and not so far. The header is a coyote, I talked to the people in the Nature Center and they said coyote, only Kit Fox here and they are smaller. We are seeing more and more water fowl. Even some different ones. 

Only seen this one once, it is gray with white spots. 

For some reason we aren't seeing many bunnies lately. Maybe that is why the coyote looks so healthy and fat. A few other things we've seen. There was a smaller cross here last year then it was gone, now has been replaced with a bigger one. 

Some fall color showing up. The spot of yellow. 

And another cross - this one carved into the tree...why do people do this. 

The gate that goes into the Wetlands is back up and working, so we don't have to get in car and drive over there to walk any more. 

Not much else going on. Will try to write more often. Managing to keep house cool with all the ceiling fans running 24/7. And opening doors early while it is cool out. 

Still being crafty and still hot here

 Yes - summer is still with us. Still over 100 for a couple more days. During the last week it has set lots of hot day records. Got up to 107 one day. But at least it is cooling down enough at night that we've been able to get out and walk early in the mornings. The header is a picture I took yesterday of a coyote fox out there. It was watching us as we watched it. Thought it was nice of it to stand still so I could get a good picture. It looks well fed!

 But the last couple of walks we haven't seen any bunnies!!! The water fowl are returning. Pictures later. 

Put up my Halloween decorations. This is the finished witch pillow cover. Turned out cute.

And now I've started on a set for Christmas.  No idea what the next two will look like. This one I already had the strips for the tree cut so no brainer to use them. 

Things I've made for Halloween in the past. A door hanging. It has two more panels but couldn't get them in the picture. 

My table place mats. 

And the three completed pillow covers. Notice the one on the right matches the place mats - kind of. 

Made these a long time ago. Hard to get decent picture of them cause of the light behind them.

Not too much going on around here. Think our home air conditioner has lost all its gas again as it surely is not working right.  The energy company who installed the thermostat keeps sending me messages that I have a problem, it is getting too hot in the house. No kidding. Just too many days of hot weather this summer I guess. Will call the home warranty people tomorrow. UGH. 

Also the back wall is still not up. but they are getting closer to us. Here is a picture of the old wall that was damaged in the flood. Part of it was knocked down in the back part of the community - the part by us just had the foundation damaged on the wetlands side. So the whole thing is being replaced. They also took out the part of the drainage ditch wall right under the cinder blocks. 

Took this picture yesterday from the Wetlands. See our dead or dying pine tree on the right. One thing after another. 

About four houses down from us. The was is going up. It will be the same height as the old wall. Same color and construction just newer. 

Still have not heard from "Jimmie" about our rocks they knocked into the ditch or the chunk they knocked out of our retaining wall while cleaning up the wall debris. 

Just took these, the new wall is about two houses from us. I see they moved the porta potty closer to us. Rocks still in ditch.

These are right behind our home. By tomorrow afternoon, we should have the columns up. The lines in the ditch are shadows from the rebar. 

Just rough cement under wall foundation and our rocks along with a lot of other debris are still in the ditch. 

That's about it for now.