Walking Wetlands finally

Well here I am back again. All kinds of things going on around here. Lately I've been seeing more wildlife here in our backyard than in the Wetlands. A covey of quail. There were about four more of them but couldn't get all in the picture. They are funny the way they run around. 

One of our sunset during the monsoon days last week. 

Another day, we thought we were really going to get a storm. Henderson got poured on but we didn't get a drop. Just heavy winds.

I have started another quilt. It is much prettier than this picture. The materials are beautiful. Not sure how it will turn out. I might put some embroidery on it or some applique. Haven't decided.

Went walking again Monday and Wednesday. Managed 2.5 miles each day. But it wore me out. Not sure if it is because of my hospital episode or the fact that we haven't really walked since the middle of June. I was out of breath and tired. Have called the cardiologist and left a message. Lucky to be able to do that. Hard office to get ahold of. And we'll be seeing our Primary Care doctor the end of the month. He at least has sent for the hospital records. I've actually been feeling good otherwise.

We heard this guy before we saw him. He is cutting back some of the reeds that have overtaken this pond. He has a saw like thing on the front and the claw to pick them up after cutting them. 

Now that looks like a fun job. And there are plenty of ponds that need clearing out. 

I guess there is a machine for any job needed. 

Not many water birds here yet, migration has just started. Seen some geese flying overhead but none in the park. This heron hangs around all year long. People have named him Harry.

Because of the sewer line going through the park and the rains we've had to stay on the concrete trails, which just go through boring parts of the park. Will be glad when all the construction is done. Must be 50 dump trucks a day going right behind our house, been going on for over a week. Some come in emty and go out full, others come in full of dirt and go out empty. The person holding the slow/stop sign said they are "exchanging" the dirt. OKAY... Also the bigger equipment that is going further into the park has to go right behind us too. 

Well, the gardener came to trim the offending bushes. I told him they had to be trimmed away from the house and the big bush had to be trimmed shorter. He nodded okay. Trimmed the lantanas that were overflowing into the next yard. Cleaned them up and left. ... I hope he was just not sure how to trim the other ones and the owner will come later to do them. Otherwise I'll get written up again tomorrow at the re-inspection. Oh well.

Bill went to the neurologist yesterday he was supposed to get two tests on his face and neck. I guess to gage how widespread the myasthenia gravis is - if it has spread beyond his eyelid. First test was kind of a shocker - literally they shocked parts of his face. The next test was to be sticking needles in his face. Thankfully the first test told the doctor all he needed to know. No spreading. I couldn't have watched the needle thing. 

The Sphere - this reminds me of when we went to Area 15. The whole inside looked like this. 

We are going to be having daily temperatures of mid 80's next week. Might have to turn the heat on. Made some great roast vegetables the other night. Potatoes baby ones, carrots and zucchini sliced and covered with olive oil and italian spices. Yum! 

All is well around here

 I am doing great feeling good. Not back to walking in Wetlands yet. Kind of nervous about it. Trying to get some walking in around the neighborhood though. 

You gotta love Las Vegas, this is in the Albertsons grocery store. Every where you go. 

We are in Monsoon season so have had some nice sunrises. Looking out over the Weasands  I forgot to check the sunsets, but the clouds usually add colors. 

Well they got us again. Got the "letter" from the 4-sided inspection. I need to trim all these plants. They need to be "trimmed to shape and ensure they don't touch the home or over grow." They are kind of growing over neighboring house yard. But no one lives there and it is usually full of weeds. So emailed the gardener, he will have his guys trim them before the reinspection. I think it looks pretty.

Sitting out in the back yard just enjoying the scenery Waiting for it to rain. 

Bill checking things out. That is one of the many, many, many dump trucks loaded with dirt that are going down behind us. Something to do with the new sewer line project. Need to go out there and check it out.

Looks like the rain is getting close, heard a couple of loud claps of thunder. 

We did get rain - very heavy and loud for about 5 minutes and that was it. More expected for the next few days. Listen to the sound on this. 

Bill went to see the new neurologist about his ocular myasthenia gravis. He really likes him. Doctor was very thorough checking out Bill. And talked to us about what goes on with MG, Going back for some testing on Oct 1st - and has a new  pill to take to hopefully get him off prednisone. We will see what happens, hope he can take it. 

Need to go to market today but that is about it. I haven't touched my sewing for a few days, looking for a new pattern. 

We have been having a wind, rain, thunder and lightening storm for about an hour. Not a whole lot of the wet stuff but plenty of the rest. Glad it waited until we got home from grocery store. 

It was an interesting day.

 Last Wednesday started out as a normal, nice day. Cool enough to walk, got errands done all was well. Bill had gone in to lay down. He gets up around 2/3 a.m. every day so he needs his naps. I was sitting at the computer when I felt a thump, thump in my chest. Hum? I've had that before after too much coffee or aggravation and it has always stopped. So I kept playing on computer. Well the thump thump didn't go away. I got up got a drink of water walked around in house a bit. THUMP, THUMP,THUMP. Got the little thing you put on your finger that shows your heart beat and oxygen level. Heart beat was bouncing between 130 and 145. And not slowing down. So took my blood pressure  183/89. Well that's not good. So I waited a bit. Not getting better, called my walking friend who is a nurse. Told her what was going on. She suggested going to ER. Either call paramedics or drive myself. I woke Bill up. Told him what was going on. Not getting better. So decided not to drive and called the EMTs. So trip to hospital, luckily they let him ride in ambulance. Ended up being there 10 hours. Poor Bill was stuck there with me (he was freezing the nurse finally brought him a blanket.) Any way. Blood enzymes showed no heart attack. I actually felt okay except for thump thump. EKG showed no problems except fast beat. Heart beat remained around 115-120. Blood pressured above 180/89 - go up once to 212/98! Then a CatScan of chest because doctor told me my blood oxygen was low.  Well that was new. Scan showed nothing. About 9 o'clock doctor came in and asked me if I wanted to stay overnight and have more tests or go home. Duh! Go Home. He said okay but if it got worse or anything else happened come back to hospital. As soon as they said I could go home heart rate and blood pressure started to go down. So called an Uber went home. Had something to eat and went to sleep. Next day everything kept returning to normal . Blood oxygen remained a little lower than usual for a day. Now I'm fine. All is normal. Blood pressure is normal, heart beat is normal. Oxygen levels normal. So maybe I had a Panic Attack.  Had one years ago and spent the night in a Mazatlan hospital. I've been taking it easy, haven't gone back to walking yet. But might tomorrow. 

Yesterday I got pictures from Havasu of all four of our great grand daughters cuddled up in their new quilts. Now I have to decide on a new project for my sewing. 

And that was a wake up call to get our affairs in order.

So nothing else going on to write about. All is well. The Sphere getting an early start. It looks so real. 

Walked again

On Wednesday early in the morning while it was still cool my friend and I took a 2.5 mile walk in the Wetlands. This picture is right behind our home. They are putting in a new sewer line. Today we walked north instead of south. No orange fences to go over or under that direction. 

Haven't been by this pond in quite a while. It used to be full of big soft shell  turtles.  Can't tell if there are any in there or not due to all the algae. Just a couple of beer cans, why do people do that?

There hasn't been much maintenance going on, some of the dirt trails are getting pretty narrow.  But it is so peaceful to walk them. 

Another one of the ponds. The beavers keep trying to damn it up. See the are in the square. They've put in a lot of mud and reeds. The maintenance people come along and drag it all out every few days. Some of the old stuff on the ground at the edge of the water. 

Another of the fire areas, lots of new plants, now if they just grown. A couple of the little trees still have green leaves. Fingers crossed. The mountain in the background is the one I can see from our kitchen window. Love to watch the changing shadows on it. 

A rocky area in the river, helps purify the water. And some ducks. 

Hard to believe this is so close to the Strip. A whole different part of Las Vegas. 

A couple of these trees seem to be sprouting fnew growth from their roots. 

A lot of the water in the river is run off from the city of Las Vegas storm drains. so after rains lots of stuff ends up right here in the Wetlands. Mostly from the homeless who live in the tunnels. Some ducks are out there, don't know if they were the ones who stayed here or if winter migration has started. 

Harry is going to catch something to eat. 

Our walk took us about an hour and a half. We stopped in sat down and of course stopped to watch the birds. After getting home Bill and I went to the UP store to ship the quilts, the market and CVS to pick up a few things. Then Bill, yes Bill, drove the RV back to the storage area. Our son couldn't do it for a couple of days and our neighbor across the street made a point of letting me know he saw the message that the parking area was open again. 

And then the day went to heck. 

Doing some walking

I'm getting better it isn't even a week since I last posted. We did see the cardiologist last week. He says we are both fine. In fact he says Bill's heart is getting stronger. Though both of us had slightly elevated blood pressure. I said it was probably the drive over. Traffic was horrid and we were almost late. He did put Bill on a blood pressure pill. Then he said see you next year. So that turned out good. 

Went out back one morning and caught this flock of birds going somewhere. I don't think they were geese as they were going north and I didn't hear any honking. 

They are still working on laying the new miles long - right through the Wetlands - sewer pipe. This poor guy is out there every day in the heat with his SLOW/STOP sign. They have been starting work earlier lately. 

It finally got cool enough to walk early in the morning. We walked on Sunday morning as we missed Saturday because my friend had an early appointment. Left home about 7 a.m. and got home 8:45 - did 2.5 miles.  I was tired when I got home but we needed to go to market. Before I went to bed that evening my watch went off - I'd done 10,000 steps that day. My friend is 15 years younger than me and is a fast walker. She had to wait for me a couple of times. Hope I get used to it the next few weeks. We started out on a concrete walkway we've taken many times. Whoops! it came to an abrupt end. A wide dirt roadway cut it off - the sewer pipe was laying on the edges and I presume that all the big equipment uses this as their right of way right through the park. There was orange plastic fence up across the trail. Hum. We noticed that it looked like a lot of people had come that way and just walked over the fencing. Okay. We didn't want to go back to find another way so we stepped over the fencing and slowly, for me anyway, carefully walked down a little incline to the smooth dirt. That was okay. But then we had to climb over the pipe and the fence and go up a !mile high incline! to get back on the trail. My friend went first. Did I mention she is YOUNGER than me. Between the incline, the rocks, the pipe and the roll of stuff and over the fence...she pulled me the last few feet. I feel that a few years ago I wouldn't have even slowed down. Funny how your body and mind says...mmmmm??!!  We made it and off we went. 

Got to the first pond. Lots of turtles swimming around. They came right over to the overlook when they heard/saw us. I guess someone is probably feeding them. Only saw one big catfish swimming around. No water fowl. Two or three different kinds of turtles in the pond. 

Continued on up the trail to the area that was burned in the first fire. That one big tree in the middle won't be coming back, it seems complete dead. The black one in the left front is sprouting from its roots. So in a month or so the burnt part won't be visible. We sure hope the little ash trees that were planted after the fire live. Most of them don't look very good. It felt so good to be outside walking. 

Didn't take a picture, but should have. We came home a different area. Again the orange fence, but not trampled down. Again we didn't want to back track so we ended up lifting the fence away and crawling under it. That would have made a funny video. I wonder what the construction company will do about the big dirt path they've made. If they'll replace the dirt and reseed it?

I have finished my fourth small quilt. So here they all are, just waiting to be boxed up and sent. Hate to think what that is going to cost. All are different patterns, materials and sizes. I kind of like the bear paws, but will never make another one of that pattern. Too much work. The middle one has a lot of butterfly material in it. The bottom one I made a year or so ago. It was  fun to make. The one on the left I saw the pattern on line and copied it. 

I also made those little basket/bowls I was making a while ago to match each quilt. Finished them this morning. Put a note in each one saying to use the quilts, don't just put it away somewhere. Hope they do use them.

This one is different. 

Last week we had a four-sided house inspection. Management walks all around the house then sends you letter telling you what you need to fix, paint, prune or get rid of. So waiting for that letter. They always seem to find something. One time years ago when we still had the big pine trees, they said there were too many pine cones and needles on the yard. Glad the trees are gone.

Also we have the RV out front. They are repaving the RV lots so everyone had to move their RVs out on the the streets. Waiting for them to call and say we need to put it back. They say they are making the spaces wider, that would be good. Can barely open the door when someone is parked in next space. And that is it for now. 

No more mouse in the house

Our weather is finally cooling down, mostly in high 90's now and best of all cooling down into the 70's at night. So we are going to try walking on Saturday - should be around 75 at 6:30 a.m. with a breeze. They are still working on the sewer lines out in the Wetlands, be interesting to see how much damage if any, has done to the park. 

Bill and I got out one day this week and went to the big Mexican supermarket just up the street. Always interesting to see what they have. Look at the shine on the concrete floors. Bill is asking about something he was looking for. Very helpful workers there.

Just happened to notice the Coca Cola in glass bottles. Made in Mexico.  The white sticker is Nutrition Facts. 

And of course, the bakery. Yum.

Happy face cookies. 

Most of the week though I've been working on a couple of quilts. This one is one of those things you wish you hadn't started. I thought it was cute, but didn't realize all the work it would entail. But I stuck with it and the front is done now. Going to a great granddaughter in Lake Havasu. Will be sending four of them there to the four girls. Let their grandmother sort them out. 

It is sewed together and I have the backing for it. Now just have to quilt it. But think I'm going to have to use my old machine to do that. The new one doesn't like bulky things. Also I want to try out some quilting templets I got and the new machine doesn't like them either. The only thing my old machine will do is quilt free motion quilting now. 

Also have the backing for the butterfly quilt. So need to finish it too. 

Just took this because I liked the shadows on the mountain. Took it through the kitchen window so isn't as clear as I'd like it to be. 

About the mouse. When the pest control guy came last week he gave us a couple of huge traps with poison in them. He said the mouse would go in the trap eat the poison and then go somewhere to die. I didn't like the somewhere part of it. What if it was under the stove or in a wall. UGH. Well he did die and did so in plain sight. Except neither Bill nor I saw him at first. This rug is right outside our bedroom door. Both of us had been in and out of the bedroom a few times that day. See him?.. 

I was coming out of the bedroom and wondered what was on the rug, it looked like a big piece of lint... OMG it was the dead mouse. How neither of us didn't step on him we'll never know. Can you imagine stepping on him with bare feet.......!!!!! He kind of just blended in with the rug.

Today we go to cardiologist for test results. Then week after next Bill goes to new neurologist. He doesn't specialize in ocular myasthenia gravis but does treat MG. Hope Bill likes him. And I hope the MG isn't spreading.

Sewing, sewing, sewing - all about learning my new machine

Our weather has been hot and humid - unusual for here. But this week it has been lower only 98/99 and starting today the humidity is going away. It really hasn't bothered me as I've been in the sewing room learning my new machine. Have figured out a lot of things. Here it is set up for embroidery. I am doing the rooster pattern. There is a little X on the picture that shows where the needle is and where it is going. This machine has smaller hoops than my old machine. And the presser foot has to be manually raised and lowered. The other machine was automatic. Need to get used to that. 

The finished rooster, needs to be pressed. And I learned after it was finished I should have changed the bobbin tension. Oh well. 

Got into some serious sewing this day. Took over entire room. 

I did take breaks once in a while. Saw this road runner in the back yard. He was watching something. Maybe a lizard. But he lost interest and left. 

Back to sewing again. This time I set the machine up right. Doing the balloon. The squares under the picture are showing me the thread colors and when to change them. 

Took a picture of the machine doing the rooster. Fun to watch the process. 

The finished balloon, not pressed yet either. Did a better job with the tension set right. See the detail on the basket. 

Oh My Goodness I finally lucked into figuring out how to connect my laptop to the sewing machine via WiFi. I have hundred of embroidery patterns on the laptop from when the old machine worked. 

Sent this from the laptop to the machine. So excited...

Yes, every once in a while I left the room, once to check out a sunset. Kind of pretty. 

Back to sewing. Have this quilt almost done, Well the top part. I started to play with some of the decorative stitches I discovered. Used them on the small yellow strips. 

Hard to see but there are hearts on the top one, small flowers on the middle one and bigger flowers on the bottom one. 

Now I'm trying to decide how to quilt it. I saw some stuff on line I might get to help with the quilting. 

Today Sphere.  They are going to show the old movie The Wizard of Oz inside the Sphere. I guess they have added some AI features to it. WOW in row 9 the tickets are $294 each for tomorrow night. People are crazy!!!

Our little house mate the mouse is still around. When I was at my computer I heard strange noises. At first I thought the printer was updating. Then I realized it was coming from my waste basket, Moved the shredder and sure enough there he was looking at me. I went to the kitchen to get a trash bag to empty him into and when I got back he was gone. No idea how he managed to climb up the sides and get out. Haven't seen him since. 

Bill is having a hard time with the prednisone so we need to get it in smaller doses. Have called primary doctor and left message. Also have located another ocular myasthenia gravis doctor. Will call there next week to see if we can get him an appointment.