More Prodding and Poking

Back on the 11th I went in for my yearly physical.  For the most part things were better than usual as far as my diabetes numbers were concerned.  That was actually great news.  The change in meds and more exercise was/is paying off.  While there I mentioned a few minor issues that I wanted to get checked.  One was a wart I have had for years that just won't go away.  So they decided to do a biopsy.  I realized right away that it was more than just a wart of he wanted to biopsy it.  The doctor even mentioned that it might be squamous cell carcinoma.  As it turns out, that is what it is.  

I didn't really know what it was/is.  I know it is pretty common and have at least one friend that has multiple issues with this.  This is brief article on exactly what it is: squamous cell carcinoma 

It fits exactly what mine appears to be.

I don't think it is really anything to worry about.  I just don't relish the idea of more doctors and having to submit to the type of exam that will now occur with a dermatologist.  

No, I'm not really worried, just bummed.  I'll be ok.

Happy Trails

TRUTH

I can't say it any better about how those protestors have gotten it all wrong:

I am sure he will feel the wrath of the left and maybe get banned from you tube/google

Fall Cleaning

Yes, we are hard at it, trying to get things squared away and cleaned up around the homestead.  Since we will be hosting a gathering of family and friends for Son #2 and his new bride we want things to be more presentable than they usually are.  Even if we weren't hosting we needed to get busy with a few things anyway.  It doesn't take long for things to get somewhat out of hand for two people that would rather do other things than clean house.  Oh don't get me wrong, we do clean house but we don't do the deep clean thing that often.

We also had been having a problem with ants.  You think you have cleaned up after yourself when you eat, but you find out pretty quick just how thorough you were.  One little almost invisible crumb would get swarmed by ants.  When things get dry around here, some bugs start coming inside looking for water.  I think that is what has happened with the ants.  It has happened before and it hasn't been as big an issue as it has this time.  So, we started the deep clean and moving items around in order for me to spray insecticide inside.  I don't like using it inside but nothing else has been working.  One of our concerns about using a pesticide is the effects on our fur baby, Buster.  Since he lays around on the floor I worry about him getting some of the residue on him.  So I use it sparingly and very seldom if ever inside.  I don't even use it much outside.  This time around I was using a fine mist to apply and forgot to turn off the ceiling fans.  It wasn't too long before I was feeling light headed.  The fans were blowing the mist around too much and I was breathing it in.  SMH.  I'm still alive.

The wife has also been trying to thin out some of her 'beads' and jewelry making supplies.  She has been at it for several days.  I can't really see a dent in anything she has done but I know she has been hauling stuff out.  You would have to see all the beads and supplies she has to understand.  No, it's not a hoarder level type thing.  More may have to go if she never goes back to the resort.  Not sure how she will dispose of it, there is a lot of money tied up in that stuff.  I am sure she will come up with a plan to sell it to her jewelry making friends or something.  Actually she has never said anything about getting rid of any of it.  It's just me thinking that and you know how that would probably go over.

Sat in on a 'webinar' for medicare yesterday.  I have to register for that in the next few months.  I was a little surprised by some things.  Most of all the premium I will have to pay monthly.  It will be an added expense that I thought would be offset by the changes to my current insurance.  Nope, not even close.  We need to figure out some things in that regard.   

Happy Trails

I Don't Know

It seems we have volunteered (I didn't) to do some work at the place where Son #2 lives while he is in Arizona with his new bride.  I would love to have heard the conversation that got me committed to that.  It is mostly painting two rooms he would like done before they come back.  That will be sometime the first week of October.  However, one of the rooms is wall paper.  That will require covering it with joint compound first and letting it dry.  That is something we have done in several rooms we had wallpaper in.  It turns out really well and is much easier than your standard way of getting rid of wallpaper.  I suppose this will take at least three days to accomplish.  They don't even care what color paint to use, they will leave that up to us.  SMH.

I see that as an opportunity for Son #2 and his new bride to work together on a project.  You know, the things that husbands and wives do together, bringing them closer and closer.  I tried that argument with the wife and it fell on deaf ears.  She told me if I didn't want to she would do it herself and I could stay home.  I'm tempted.  So one day soon we will need to go over and assess what needs to be done and let the wife decide on the color.  

How did I get myself into this?

I have been looking for some quick easy leather projects that I can turn out quickly and make a larger number of in a short time.  I can have them on hand in time in case Kim is still able to work at the resort come Christmas.  There are any number of various things I am considering and have three in mind at the moment, but that could change as I do more research.  I can also use them to gift friends etc. when I feel like it without too much effort and little cost.  One is a coaster for a wine glass that I think is unique, various types of key fobs and another coaster with a mirror inside.

I will post picture of those when I get a few done.

Happy Trails

New Toy

A while back I picked up a cheap little dash cam.  I had been watching you tube and several videos of folks with these things appeared.  For some reason there are a lot of them from Russia.  From what I gather, after watching a bunch of those, you probably need one if you drive there.  They are crazy drivers and no one would believe your story if you didn't have a dash cam to prove it.

I don't use it very often if at all, however I did get a few hours of video on our way out to Arizona at the end of last month.  No, no Russian drivers made their appearance thankfully.  Actually it was very uneventful driving.  I did capture part of an area I would have liked to stop at for a few minutes and get some photos.  It is somewhere east of Tuscon, Texas Canyon.  No idea why it's named that.  It has a lot of big boulders all tumbled around.  It is pretty impressive as far as big rocks go.  

So here is the video of that part of our trip.  It will give you an idea what a very cheap dash cam looks like and a view of part of the canyon.  It was overcast so the colors don't really stand out and I only have the straight ahead highway view, but maybe you can get an idea of why I thought it was pretty cool.  

Skip to the 1 minute mark to get to the start of the canyon.

Happy Trails

Nada

The wife got a phone call from her contact at the resort yesterday.  There are some possible major changes coming to the wife's business at the resort.  Since she is an independent contractor they now will require a signed contract and for her to carry liability insurance.  Her guests usually charge her fees to their room since few carry cash etc.  The guests are usually involved in swimming etc. and charging to the room made it very easy for her and the guests.  What it amounts to is that the changes just make it harder and harder to do business.  So it may go by the wayside.  It has been dwindling over the last year or so anyway.  We just hoped it would maybe last another year or two.  Even more belt tightening will be in order.  We will be OK.  

Otherwise, I have nothing worthy to post.  The brain is just empty in that regard.  

Happy Trails

Doctors and Hospitals

Monday.  I spent most of the day at the doctor's office getting my physical and sitting with the family of my best friend while he had surgery.  My physical results were much better this time around although I did have to have a biopsy for a skin issue but it shouldn't be anything serious.  They also thought it was a good time to give me my flu shot and a pneumonia vaccine and I have to go get a shingles vaccine.  Suffice it to say I have had enough of medical things this week, especially needles. Along with my insulin injections and these I have had enough LOL.

That evening we headed to the church house and listened to an old friend at a gospel meeting.  It did us much good and was great to see him and his wife again.  

Plans are underway to have a reception for #2Son and his new bride in early October.  We will have it our house and will only be close family since we don't have much room.  It seems they may be moving back here permanently at that time with her giving up her job there in Mesa.  We are excited to have them get here.  

The gas crisis is alleviating finally, but you still might find stations with bags over the pumps, but fewer and fewer are now closed.  I wonder of that Irma hurricane will have it's own effect on the availability situation.

I have to get back at it.

Happy Trails

Still Behind

It seems I can't seem to catch up with these posts.  There are a number of things I think about to post here and then forget them immediately.  So that puts me way behind in updating.  Maybe I am busier than normal.  Yeah, that's it, I'll go with busy.  

A while back my Dad and I both did the DNA thing.  Mostly out of curiosity.  We also are hoping to someday unravel the mystery of who is Grandfather was.  All his life he has been told he is 100% German Heritage.  While that may be true in the definition of 'heritage' it isn't necessarily so with DNA.  I can't give you a detailed description of how this DNA thing works or even a brief summary.  

It is much too complex for me and I have only scratched the surface.  We did discover that he is not exactly 100% German.  There was more British Isles DNA than anything else.  This didn't really surprise me as we have had indications, although very minor that his real Grandfather may have had that ancestry.  But this doesn't prove anything in solving that mystery.  With all the migration patterns over the centuries many of those cultures overlap several times and so the DNA has gotten extremely mixed.  Thus it can give a wide range of locations of where your DNA came from.  I think the biggest surprise that we both share a significant amount of Scandinavian DNA.  I suspected some through some of my genealogy research had indicated possible northern Germany/Denmark as ancestral grounds.  Oh, and mine differed on the fact that I had Iberian peninsula DNA.  What?  Reading further it reveals that the Celts migrated to and inhabited a large portion of what is now Spain/Portugal.  I am assuming that is why it shows up that way for me.  It has to be from my Mother's side, Dad had none.  The largest portion of my DNA was also the British Isles, with mostly Irish, Welsh, Scots  DNA.  I'll be getting my bagpipes and kilt soon LOL.  This is what I expected.  

This is my break down without detail:

Thousands of years ago

Ethnicity Estimate

•  33% Great Britain
•  27% Scandinavia
•  40% Other regions

What it amounts to is, I'm a mutt.  But I know more about how much of a mutt.

I have been trying to get my Mom to submit DNA also, but she says she already knows what hers is. 

I just shake my head, she confuses DNA with heritage.  Honestly I think she is a bit afraid of what she might find out.  Her family (mother) didn't care much for her ancestry, they embarrassed her to be honest.  I think Mom gets a lot of that characteristic having listened to the stories over the years.  My Grandmother would always ask me 'when I was going to be through with all this genealogy stuff.' She just didn't understand my interest at all.  It only brought back unpleasant memories, it seems, to her.  She always avoided things that could possibly bring her any heartbreak.  That is another story all of it's own.  So I was never really able to get a lot of info that I needed from her.  

Now that I have the results in hand I can't do much more without help from others that show up as sharing DNA.  Those would be the people that would have the info I seek.  However, that costs more $$ than I care to spend at this time.  So I will have to sit and wait for one of them to get motivated enough to contact me.  It is a never ending search once you get into genealogy.

Happy Trails.

Trying To Stay Busy

Not really trying that hard, it just seems that there is something to do everywhere I look.  `Which is pretty much the case everyday anyway.  However there is a bit of sense of urgency at this time. 

Son#2 and his new bride will be returning to Texas in October.  Since they didn't have the various showers etc. that go with a planned wedding, we will host a family reception for them at our home.

Yes, this will be only family, we can't host something really big due to size.  About twenty five folks should be here.  That has spurred me into action to get some of the small projects out of the way, like painting the hallway.  It was pretty nasty and I got that done and out of the way.  Also, we got a counter top microwave to replace the over the counter microwave that died way too early for what we paid for it.  So when you walk into our kitchen we have two microwaves sitting there.  The new one is much smaller (and cheaper by about 1/2), but takes up much needed counter space.  It also blows the breaker when we have the toaster and coffeemaker going at the same time.  The wife came up with the idea to put a shelf in the spot where the old microwave sits and place the new one up there. 

This would also allow us to use the dedicated circuit avoiding blown breakers.  That is now down, after trying to figure out the stupid measurements.  It's not perfect, but with a few decorative tweaks it will work.  Fitting something smaller into a hole that is designed for something bigger was a little harder than I anticipated.  There is more, much more, including major cleaning where two slobs live and a ton of yard work just for starters.  

I am hurting from trying to move all the sandbags.  Several had become soaked from the rain and break open when I try to lift them.  Not to mention they are much heavier when wet and my back is paying the price.  I still have about 6 or so to move and that will have to be done by shovel since they are a mess also.  They have been there too long, but I knew they would be a problem for me and my stupid back so I put it off.  

We heard from Son #2 this past week.  It seems their plans are probably changing by the day.  Since his bride is a teacher she has a contract through the end of the year.  He would be traveling back and forth throughout the year between here and there.  Once she was done the plan was to move here. 

However, it seems she wants to move here within the month.  There is a lot more to this and other things going on and we wonder what the next idea/change will be.  It goes with everything else that has gone on with this romance.  We of course are excited they would be here much sooner than planned, but we hope they have thought this through thoroughly before acting.  I am keeping my mouth shut and going with whatever they decide.  It will work out regardless.

Today I am heading north to see a college football game.  Something I loved to do a long time ago.  It will be a challenge for me but I am looking forward to it and try to make the best I can of it.  The weather should be perfect and the seats good, and even better, I won't have to drive in that mess.  I wasn't going if I had to drive.  

Happy Trails 

Catching Up

The effects of the hurricane are still being felt throughout Texas.  Finding gas here near and in Libtardville (San Antonio) is a real problem.  The word had gotten out that there may be gas shortages due the all the refineries that are were in the path of the hurricane would be shut down. 

Consequently, it created a mini-hysteria about the availability of gas.  Before we left for Arizona I had to search to find a station that had gas.  Three of the four near us were completely out.  This was last Wednesday.  Luckily I was able to fill up at the last one.  I was a little worried that we might leave on our trip and get stuck out in West Texas due to no availability of gas.  That didn't happen.  

However, the trip back was a different story.  We found gas at the outer reach of our range in Ft Stockton.  I planned to top off in Ozona so we didn't roll in on fumes and not be able to find gas when we got home.  I had been keeping up with the situation at home and it had become and even bigger problem.  The first two stations in Ozona were out.  The third only had ultra premium for 3$/gal.  

So I topped off.  Glad I did.  All the stations around home the next day were completely out.  WE have a full tank on my truck and near half on the wife's car.  We will conserve and avoid the hysteria.

There is no gas shortage.  The current situation is compounded be social media.  Everyone is telling others how there is no gas anywhere and as soon as a truck rolls in to refill they post that on social media and everyone descends on that station blocking roads and emptying the station in a couple hours.  Those idiots even advise folks to take extra gas cans to fill.  They are the ones responsible for this stupidity.  You know that everyone that doesn't really need gas is topping off and adding to the problem.  The herd mentality is in play instead of cool thinking.  Some stations are beginning to ration gas to 5 or 10 gallons  It makes me want to slap people.  Can you imagine the hysteria if there was a real shortage like back in '73/'74?  Not sure of the real date.  There would probably killings at various stations.  There are already folks with short tempers letting go at some of the locations with long lines.  I'm thankful we have small supply of essentials and we will stay away from the madness as long as we can.

Everyone in Texas is related to or knows someone really well in those areas hit the hardest.  There are a lot of folks turning out to help the worst hit areas.  Texans being Texans.  It's how we roll.

OK enough about that.  Where we live here in Texas is on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, so we are no newbies when it comes to heat.  This recent trip of 2000 miles in 3 days was an eye opener of what real heat is.  Granted they don't have the humidity we have.  But that saying 'but it's a dry heat' is meaningless.  When we rolled into Phoenix it was 110*.  Normally I would say 110 in the shade, but they don't have shade.  Those things they have aren't trees with those little spindly leaves and stunted growth.  (Yes, I'm dogging you Arizona).  When a friend found out I was headed out there he told me that it gets very cool at night.  I don't know where he was, but it was still near 90* at 4:00 AM.  The heat radiating off the pavement just keeps the heat in.  There is no way I could survive in anything like that with the heat issues I have.  I was a bit worried about the wedding since it was outside and it was 108*.  They actually found a shady place so all was tolerable for the time it took to get that over. My Grandkids didn't fare as well, they had some heat related issues.

Today we are sitting at home missing our kids and wishing we had been able to spend more time out there.  We hope to go back to take in the sights I want to see, but it will have to be sometime other than the summer.  Most likely an October.  We also want to get to know our Son's in-laws better. 

They are really great folks and he is blessed to have them.  

Happy Trails

It's Done

We got that wedding over and done with in record time.  It went off without a hitch which is surprising since there was no time to plan.  That it a testament to the bride's parents that we met for the first time the day before the wedding.  I have to say they are outstanding 'in-laws.'  How many can say that?  My Son is very blessed.

We made it back home from Arizona about 12:30 AM Sunday morning.  Just under 14 hours straight through driving.  It was harder coming home that heading out.  That was due to the combination of all the things that had transpired over the last 2-3 days.  Yes, we drove straight through to Mesa, Az. from our home.  No time at all to take in the things I wanted to see in that area.  But that is mostly a good thing.  It is just too freaking hot there.  It was also an issue for Buster, since we had to take him with us.  There is almost no grass anywhere you go there.  That makes it very hard on his paws in that heat.  WE tried to let him out every chance we could while travelling, but he was miserable when we stopped for gas in Tucson.  He just sat a looked us, no place to get off the hot pavement in 106* heat. 

Poor guy.  We stayed in a La Quinta, they are pet friendly, and they are very accommodating.  he was still pretty anxious about everything and you could tell he was worried every time one of left the room.  He is a herder and his herd wasn't together.  We did take some anti anxiety pills we got from the vet and they worked pretty well but I hate what it does to him.  Over all he was an excellent traveling companion.  But it was very hard on his 13 year old bones and it is telling today.  He is getting some pain meds as I post.

There are a lot of issues that Son #2 has to deal with having to split time between to homes until they are able to move to one place once her teaching contract is up at the end of the year.  They have some challenges to meet but they are up to it.

We missed service this morning for the first time I can remember in years for something other than illness,it feels weird, but we were just worn out and will go tonight.  So, I'm cutting this short today, I hope to be back up to speed tomorrow and I can fill you in on what's going on here in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and it's effects here locally in my neck of the woods.

Happy Trails

Cartoons

Considering the future wedding and I couldn't come up with anything worthy, you get these:

Some of these are more true than not.

Happy Trails