No Vacancy

We finally got back to walking yesterday morning. Got in 3 miles in an hour and a half. And that was with a lot of stops to enjoy the birds, turtles, bunnies and quail. For the first time in a long time we saw bunnies, but I couldn't get the phone out of my pocket in time to get their picture. Our first stop was at the Boardwalk pond. No more room on this rock for more turtles. A nice sunny morning they were enjoying. 

The little guy was on a rock of his own. 

The water was high - usually this rock is out of the water. Liked the reflections in the water. 

We are starting to see the big fish again, for a while we didn't see any. 

Oh! He company on his rock. 

Looking at the snowy mountains. They are supposed to get a couple more feet of snow the end of this week, and we should get some rain. 

Taken from the bridge we walk to. The strip isn't very far from here as a bird flies.

No pelicans in the river, but one did fly over, of course missed a picture of him. Two cormorants airing their pits. 

Just as we were leaving the park we saw this guy. Usually nothing is in this area. Then some idiot came up the path with two dogs, not on leashes. The bird took off. Dogs are not allowed in most of the park. These two were small enough to be coyote snacks. 

Watched a quilting show on TV and they were using up scrap material making little baskets. Looked like fun and I do have lots of scraps. The first one I made. Made a few mistakes on it, but only I know where. No I have no idea what to use them for or what to do with them when they are done. Not real big, about 4" by 4".

They have a lining in them. And a little pocket on the front. 

Also got one of my diamond paintings done, framed and hung up. Bill made the frame out of maple burl years ago. Used to have a different photograph in it. But works for this just fine. (they are hard to get good pictures of. It is prettier than it looks here.)

I've actually been cooking lately. Made roasted vegetables - potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, red peppers and zucchini. Turned out GOOD. Also cooked some chicken breasts coated in Caesar dressing and sour cream then topped with crushed Caesar croutons and parmesan cheese. I cooked them in the air fryer and they turned out perfect. Then yesterday I made Waldorf Salad. Haven't had it in years but had all the ingredients so why not. YUM. 

Bill's eyelid is still drooping down. It can take up to six weeks for all swelling to go down, so we are still hoping it will be good. Son sent his ladies, he owns cleaning company, over today to clean. I don't turn that down. And that's it from here. 

A Happy Saint Patrick's Month to All

 Got all my Saint Patrick's Day stuff out. Celebrate the whole month, why not. My pillow covers. 

I've had the placemats and napkins and other stuff on table for a long time. 

Also this hanging decoration. When I put this up it made me really miss my embroidery machine. I probably could get the embroidery mechanism fixed $$$ - but I no longer have the program with all the patterns. It was on an old laptop (think Vista!) that quit working. And it will not load on my Windows 8 or 11 laptops. Oh well. 

I got a text on my phone saying Verizon was offering me a $40 decrease on my monthly bill. It had a link to click...Well...nope not clicking the link though it really looked like Verizon. So I called their customer service number and much to my surprise it was real. So thanks to customer service, very nice lady, we now get $40 a month off for the next year. For being loyal customers. Works for me.  

I like to put up stained glass sun catchers in my kitchen window to go with the season. I only had two for Saint Patrick's Day so I needed two more. Went on line and found a couple of patterns. The paper pattern I downloaded is on the left. The glass I cut out is on the right. Picking out and cutting the glass is the first step.

This is the second pattern - on the left. On the right is the roughly cut glass, it is under the paper pattern I made from the original pattern. 

Next step is grinding the glass pieces so they fit the original pattern, then each piece has to have copper foil put around all the pieces. 

Then they get soldered together. That is the hardest part for me because of my shaking hands. But managed to get it done. Just have to add the hangers and polish them. 

I haven't been sewing lately. I have my three Easter throw pillow covers already done and waiting until next month.

Bill is still having a hard time with his eyelid. Sometimes it is up and he can see fine. Other times it is half closed and he is looking through his eyelashes which tends to make him dizzy. Other times the lid is completely closed. He says he does not want to have any thing else done to it.  I did read it takes 5 to 6 weeks to completely heal. We are hoping by then the swelling will be gone and it will stay up. 

Yesterday he made a BIG batch of spaghetti sauce. Just some of the stuff he used to make it. 

Chopping  everything up. That suncatcher in window is one I've had for years. 

All kinds of things chopped. We were waiting for a WalMart delivery to get a few more things he needed.

Like I said a BIG batch. Smelled so yummy cooking. I package it in freezer zip lot bags. So we have it when we want it. As an aside - the pan on the right was my mothers, she had it as long as I can remember. The pan on the left is what is left of a set of  "waterless cookware" My first husband was a salesman for them. Um...66 years ago. 

Our weather has been weird' either way above normal or way below. In a below normal stage for a few days. Even got some rain and more snow on the mountains. And along with that came big winds. Sure hope those dead pine trees have deep roots and hang in there until they get cut down. Haven't even been walking. I miss it, but don't like to go alone. And this time of year it isn't very pretty in the Wetlands. Everything is brown. 

A couple more pictures of Sphere. 

For the most part we are not going any where so an exciting day for us is when the pest control guys come and then the cleaning ladies show up both on the same day. (Bless our son.) Pretty bad huh.

My new sun catchers up. The one on the right and the second on on the left. I haven't done any stained glass for a long time, forgot how rewarding it feels to do something I can use. 

We still haven't heard from management about how we made out with the 4-sided inspection the end of last month. Usually hear the next week. Don't know if that is good or bad. And that's it for now. Hopefully next time I write I'll have something interesting to share.

Just one walk in weeks.

I did manage to get in one three mile walk this Monday. I was sure ready to sit down when I got home. The lady I walked with is a FAST walker. She's out of town for the rest of the week, so not walking - more fun to go with someone. 

Most of the birds we used to see weren't around. Don't know if it was the wrong time of day or if they are headed towards their northern homes. This one was hiding in the reeds. 

Last time we walked a couple of weeks ago this river was dry, now it is full and rushing again. It had been damned of upstream so work could be done on the banks. Oops guess that is my finger. 

This this picture doesn't show the true colors, but the area along the trail was almost snow white. It is salt that has leeched up from the dirt. 

It has been two weeks since Bill's second eyelid surgery and he is still having problems.Sometimes the lid is up completely and other times almost completely closed. There is some swelling still so we are hoping when that goes away it will be fine. Information says it takes four to six weeks to heal. He does not want to go back to doctor. So I guess we just wait. Today his eyelid is completely down...

Another picture of Sphere. That would be something to see. 

Well the management did the four sided inspection on our home last week. Still haven't got a letter from them. Maybe they forgot to send it but don't want to call and ask about it. They always find something wrong. 

Cooking , sewing and checking out a neat sight in the Wetlands.

Managed to catch a nice sunrise over the Wetlands the other morning. Have not been walking for over a week, so this is only picture I of have of the area.

On Monday Bill was doing pretty good, eyelid is starting to stay up longer. Sure hope that continues and it is fixed this time. Still swelling and incision is still healing.  So he decided to do some cooking. On Sunday he cooked a bunch of French Toast. Using Brioche bread. Turned out GOOD. Used a whole loaf so lots in freezer for another day. Any way. This day he was cooking chicken Milanesa - lots of it. 

He made the, for lack of a better word, marinade the day before. It is milk, lots of eggs, spices and I don't know what else. Soaks meat in it overnight. 

Getting ready to cook. Goes through a lot of Italian bread crumbs. 

All the meat is breaded, waiting to be cooked. There was another whole pan of it to do. 

Serious job, cooking all of that. He lines the stove top with foil to make clean up easier. 

One batch done. Had another pan full. I package it for the freezer. So we have lots of meals and sandwiches ready when we want them. 

While he was doing that I started to fool around with Easter pillow covers. Just in thinking mode here. I had a lot of pink, yellow and turquoise checked material I thought I'd use up. Found the images on line and printed them on PhotoFabric - a paper backed fabric - I had found a lot of it in one of my sewing drawers so am using it up. After printing the paper backing comes off and you have a piece of fabric with the designs on it. Years and years ago I made a bedspread for the RV using this method. I used photos from all the trips we'd taken. Lot of work, but turned out good. Then I can use fabric glue or fuzing to stick it to the fabric, then I quilt or applique it. 

Found some pictures of the bedspread -find of blurry and faded now but can get an idea of it. 

I happened to look out the back door - was actually checking on how the back yard looked - we have an inspection coming up this week - when I saw this in the wetlands. Probably a 15th birthday girl.

Photographer and whole family out there with her. I had to zoom way in so picture is a little blurry. Dress was beautiful. 

Nice saddle - the horse kept bumping her hat.  

From one oh my to another OH MY. That is me about 30 years ago with my son's BIG snake. It had a home/condo/cage in my backyard. 

Found out today that we have another great grandson. That makes 11 greats, 6 grands from our 5 sons. 

We had a home health care visit last week. Part of the yearly wellness thing for Medicare. We each get a 50 dollar gift card for CVS so "come on out."  And this morning we went out for breakfast then dropped off a big car load of full bags and boxes for Goodwill. Trying to get rid of some stuff so our kids won't hate us too much when we're gone. Figured that at 88 and 86 it was time to start thinking about things like that. 

Rain first time in over 200 days. And more eye problems.

214 days without rain. And then the BIG storm kind of fizzled out, at least where we live. This was earlier in the day our first drops. Patio.

The street out front. 

Of course yesterday was Bill's post op appointment on the other side of town. According to the weather reports the rain was supposed to be bad just about the time of his appointment. So I reserved an Uber. Turns out that was a good choice, but not because of the weather. Our ride there was a hybrid Ford F 150. Boy the pickups now sure aren't my Dad's pickup. Very nice ride. Going home we got a Tesla. And for both rides it WASN'T raining!!! We did get more heavy rain in the evening and most of the night. And today winds. I hope the ground didn't get wet enough that the winds can blow down that big dead pine tree. 

My three Saint Patrick's Day throw pillow covers are done now. Next ones will be for Easter. Looking for ideas.

No blog would be complete without a picture of the Sphere. 

Have not been walking - too cold and windy. 

So about Bill's eye...The doctor came into the room and stopped...he pulled up a chair and sat down. He turned around and looked at me and asked, " Has the eyelid been further up than it is now?"  Ummm...."Well for a few days it seemed to be." He looked back at Bill. Asked him how he could see. Bill told him he could still see his eyelashes. More contemplating. Then doctor asks, Can you wait here for a while, or go home and come back about 5 o'clock. No we can't come back, but we can wait after all it is his sight. Doctor says, Okay, I want to go back in and add a couple more sutures. WHAT?!?!  He was not happy with the lid still drooping. He said I'll just open the incision and add a couple of sutures. You have to sign a consent form. The nurse will get that. Bill and I look at each other. He asks will you put me out. "Oh no," says doctor. I'll just give you a shot to numb eyelid. Bill opens his mouth to say no...We all look at him and he says okay. So doctor leaves, nurse comes in with consent form. Doctor comes back in with syringe full of numer. As soon as Bill signs the doctor reclines the chair and says this might hurt and bang, shot is in. Caught Bill by surprise. About five minutes later the nurse comes back in and tells me she will take me to waiting room and they take him to another room. In less than five minutes they come get me and Bill is in the hallway. All over. WOW impressed. So today his whole eye area is swollen again and it hurts somewhat and we are back to cold packs and antibiotic gel. Sure hope it works this time.  Doctor's office was absolutely great. Talk about service. It took longer to get the Uber ride than the time spent with the doctor. So that is that story. 

Did I ever tell the story of why he is almost blind in the other eye. About four years ago he started having problems with his left eye. It was about a year after his cataract surgery. So he went back to that doctor who told him he was experiencing the beginning of macular degeneration. So he referred him to at retina doctor. We got to the doctor's office for his appointment at 10:45. The waiting room was full (this was around covid time) Also the office was freezing. Even I was cold. We waited and waited and waited. Finally his name was called about 3:30. The retina doctors have a routine. First you see a nurse for all kinds of eye tests, then you get pictures taken then you go to another waiting room. Which was standing room only. Every one was very abrupt and unfriendly. Finally at 5:30 -YES 5:30 IN THE AFTERNOON he was called in to see the doctor. She was a witch, very unfriendly boarding on nasty. Then she told him he needed a shot in  the eye. We had no idea that was coming. He questioned her. She left the room. Finally she came back in and asked you want it or not. He agreed to it. So she jabbed him in eye. Told him he'd have to have shots every four weeks rest of his life.  No information on how to care for eye etc. By then not only were we freezing we were starving. Mentioned that to nurse her reply was, "Well you should have worn a jacket and brought some snacks." WHAT!!! He refused to make another appointment. We got out of there just after 6 o'clock. I didn't blame him. So that is why his eye left eye is no good. It was the most horrible experience we've ever had with a doctor's office. He only has peripheral vision in it. If we had gone to a different doctor he might still have eyesight in that eye. It was a bad decision for him. If we'd gone to another doctor's office things might be different now. 

NASCAR is back. My favorite driver still has a POS car. He should just retire and enjoy life.