Trying To Keep Busy

Admittedly I have more time on my hands these days with being quarantined and along with the hot weather.  We are half way through 'K's' self imposed 2 week quarantine due to her helping out at a memorial service.  The hot weather also keeps me inside more anyway so any outside chores just don't get done.  Well I did cut the grass a week or so ago.  It was at a critical stage.  It was high enough that it was tickling the thighs of our Granddaughter.  

With so much time I try to come up with some projects to keep me busy.  The cabinets in our kitchen were looking a little tired.  We had refinished them about 7-8 years ago and the 'shine' (polyurethane) had seen better days.  So I had a small can of and decided I would add a little to perk them up.  Then 'K' got involved.  I'm sure y'all can guess how that went.  She was cleaning them in preparation of me working on them and discovered the cabinet doors in front of the sink and nearest the dishwasher were in worse shape than I wanted to hear.  She said they needed more stain.  I didn't want to hear that and just wanted a quick touch up.  If she wanted more stain she could do it.  Well it turns out she was right.  The look a lot better and it really didn't take all that long since we didn't need to sand them down.  It wasn't that big of job but I felt like we accomplished something worthwhile.  Now all I have to do if figure out a project for this month....and not tell 'K' until I'm finished.

The hurricane (Hanna) we were hoping for some good rain was a bust for us.  Two quick showers with barely any measurable rain.  Was really hoping for some serious rain but it is not to be.  Generally July brings next to '0' rain, although we have had some serious storms in the past.  Sometimes August will be kinder and dump some on us toward the end of the month.  But it also generally brings even hotter temps.  Not complaining, it's just a fact of life here in this part of Texas.

Happy Trails

A Couple Photos I Promised

I had forgotten to post photos of the cover I made for my new tablet and also what is going on in the photo above.  

The new Fire HD, the tablet I got, is a little bit larger than my old one so a new cover was in order.  

back side, a facsimile of the Seal of the Republic of Texas

                      

                                       

Front side, the shape of the Republic of Texas, before we became a state.

If you're not familiar with Texas history you may not recognize this as Texas.

As you can see it included a large portion of new Mexico, a bit of Colorado and a small slice of Wyoming.  Those parts were given up with annexation.

As for the cover photo for the blog.  That is yours truly and my lovely 'K'.  We had gone downtown for some rare reason and came across this shop where you could dress up and they would take your picture.  This was 1977 and 'K' was 3 months along with our first child.  We have another we made with both boys but we are in politically incorrect attire for that one.  I'm sure you can guess what that was.  

We are currently re staining some kitchen cabinet doors and then a coat of polyurethane.  For some reason the finish had dulled considerably and there was no remaining polyurethane.  Hopefully they will get dry before that tropical weather hits here Saturday.

Happy Trails

Monday Catching Up

Even with this Hung Chow flu we find ourselves busy.  This week will be significantly slower.  I had a couple doctor appointments, the ophthalmologist and the dentist.  The eye doctor was just my regular diabetes check up and all was well.  The dentist was much more involved.  The tooth I cracked and had removed over a year ago is getting an implant.  Well the space where that tooth was.  It is a bit nerve wracking to endure but surprisingly less pain than the removal required.  I go back in 2 months to get it checked for healing and a mold to be made in order to get the crown made in preparation for final install.  I had no idea what this all entailed, but I had to laugh when he broke out a mini ratchet wrench to screw in the part that that the crown will attach too.  That torqued my jaw and so my joint in my jaw is a little sore.  

'K' went to the memorial service for our dear friend that passed away from cancer two months ago.  It was delayed due to the Rona.  I didn't feel it was prudent for me to attend and made an emotional call to her husband and my good friend to let him know I wouldn't attend.  He knew what I called about before I even mentioned it and was very gracious.  It made it no less hard and I hate having missed it.  'K' was there to serve the food, decorate and clean up.  She took precautions and didn't really interact with anyone in order to avoid exposure to the Kung flu.  Even then, she is 'quarantining' herself at home and we are not having any of the Grandkids over for two weeks just to be on the safe side.  

I have my 6 month visit with the doctor that found my prostate cancer as a regular follow up.  I have already seen the lab results and nothing has changed and I am still cancer free if I read it right.  I assume these visits will continue through the ten year mark and we are just past 5. He also regulates the 'T' I am injecting.  

My garden is pretty much a bust.  No tomatoes harvested.  There is one green tomato on one vine, it's taking it's sweet time.  The bell peppers have stopped growing and are very small and thin walled.  No meat at all.  The late planting and severe heat we have had stopped it from developing.  However our good friends that live in Bandera came into town for some things stopped by and brought us a bag of fresh tomatoes.  Much appreciated and oh so tasty.  It was great to visit with them awhile even though we sat outside in the heat to avoid close contact.  I had n't seen him in over a year I'm thinking, maybe two.  He is just super busy in the medical field and over worked.  I can see that it has physically affected him.  He is still short of retirement by about 5 years.  He needs a break.  He is a true American Hero, and if I could tell you the little he has told me...  He was a 'special operator' is all I will say.

I finished a leather project I was working on.  This was for myself.  I upgraded my Amazon Fire tablet to the Fire HD.  It needed a cover since it's a different size than my old Fire.  My old Fire was out of storage and adding a memory card offered no help as it had slowed considerably due to the storage issue.  It was already pretty slow.  The HD was on sale for 30 off and I had gotten a gift card for Father's day so I treated myself.  It is significantly faster and doesn't have the issues I was experiencing with the old Fire.  I am pretty happy with it.  Sorry, I didn't remember to take photos.  I will and post them here.  It has a 'Texas 1836' theme and I wanted it to look rugged and used.  I am pretty happy with it as I was struggling with ideas.  I am weak in the creative thought process coming up with original designs, but I gathered a couple things I would see elsewhere and put my interpretation in it.  

Happy Trails

More Craziness

I hope this finds you well and safe from the Hung Flu.  We are doing our best to stay healthy.  At this point in our lives health is pretty much the main goal, although we never expected to have to deal with something like this.  

I know that opinions are strong and emotions high in regard to how to deal with this virus.  I see so much information out there and it all conflicts with everything else.  So it makes it hard to get a good read on what's true and what's not.  I have had to 'sleep' close friends on the book of faces because of their continued arguments about this virus.  While I agree with much of what they believe, some of it is just out there baiting others into an online debate.  I don't know why they do this, I can surmise but in the end all their posturing and arguments serve no purpose but to alienate and demean other that don't see it exactly as they do.  I know they have lost friends over this stupid issue.  What's the point, what does it matter if someone has a different opinion.  I think they really are not real sure about what they believe and they are doing the same as others, saying something long enough and loud enough to make others think it's the truth.  A lot of their opinions are internet memes they repost and take for fact.  It's just nuts.  So now even the little time I spend enjoying a few things on FB has been curtailed.  I don't need the insanity.   Who knows when this will all end.  Maybe November after the election, unless the one 'they' hate like no other gets re-elected.  Them we will have even more problems like we have never seen IMO.

I attended a meeting yesterday that I was conflicted about attending.  Let's just say my fears were confirmed and I find myself at a crossroads.  It may be time to relinquish my position and leave room for younger faces.  

We have been having issues with our WiFi.  Intermittent connections and maddeningly slow have been going on for a while.  I called the ISP and got them to send me a new modem and router as mine is pretty old.  That was three weeks ago or more.  I haven't even gotten the tracking number they said I would get.  We are two weeks past the date they said it would be here.  This morning, we have NO WiFi at all.  As soon as I finish this I will reset the modem and hope it gets it back in service.  I am currently on a wired connection, that is why I am still able to connect to the www.  This issue today is something new.  Maybe the WiFi had been going out and has now bit the big one.  There is a local office where I can exchange my equipment.  But if you have ever done that, you know lines are extremely long and I doubt the social distancing guidelines are followed, so I am avoiding doing that.

Anyway, I now have the Nugget in my lap wanting me to take her outside.  Her demands take precedence.  

OK, I'm back.  Just one more thing.  It is crazy hot here.  Yes, we live on the edge of a desert and we can expect it to get hot.  But this is rather unusual.  I live just at the Southern edge of what is known as the Texas Hill Country.  We are about  3-4 hundred feet higher than the highest spots in the big city to the South of us.  So our temps can be a  little different than what is recorded there.  Generally we are 4-5 degrees cooler in all seasons.  This Summer at our place, we have experienced almost identical temps of the city.  For the last 3 days we have hit 103 when we rarely ever hit 100.  Today it is supposed to be even hotter with predictions of 105-107.  OK, I know, it's not Arizona hot or even Dallas hot with their crazy highs and even higher humidity.  The one  thing that makes this a little more bearable is the humidity has been uncharacteristically low.  It has been in the 20-30% range during the hottest times.  Although in the mornings it is generally 80% making my morning walks take a break for a while, not to mention the Africa dust is still here and making me have issues when I stay out too long. 

What a crazy freaking year with still half of it left to go.  I expect even more crazy before this is all over.  Keep your powder dry come November.

Happy Trails

I Don't Normally Do This,

But, I think this is worth your time.  The following is a segment of a column by Rush Limbaugh, on where we go from here, 

'We Must Decide Whether We Want To Save America'

'Going forward, we must decide whether we want to heal or persist in endless conflict and racial acrimony. We can’t legislatively purge evil from men’s hearts — but we can and must pray to the God of all creation and of all precious human beings to expunge racial conflict and distrust from our souls, and to heal this land. I believe we’ve made enormous strides on racism, and let’s not allow the naysayers to take that away from us.'

The rest of his column is at the clickable link below.  While his columns seems to be mostly about how to heal racism, the same process will work for the other divisions ripping us apart politically, pray.  I do, every day.

Rush  

On another note, we had a pretty good July 4th.  It was also our 45th anniversary.  We usually go out and have a nice meal at our favorite steak house.  However, things are shutting down again and we decided to stay in.  At first I was going to grill us a couple ribeyes but 'K' wanted to do something else.  Our kids usually go to another family's July 4th celebration, but this year with the chinaman flu it was a no go.  So we she wanted to invite them over and order some pizzas.  Only problem with that was our favorite pizza place was closed and so were every other one in the area, except Domino's.  Now I remember why we stopped getting their pizza.  Not too good.  But at least we were able to visit and have fun and watch the grands play.  

Earlier last week we availed ourselves of the senior hours at Costco.  We never had before but thought we would try it and see how it was.  I think everyone else had the same idea.  There was a line to get in.  Not long and moved pretty fast.  Later that week 'K' went to HEB grocery for a curbside pickup.  We were trying to avoid and exposure to the increase in the kung flu that has been going on.  'K' did the pick up without me and she says there was a long line to get inside.  It appears the fear of another shut down is causing some more panic buying.  Or at least trying to get more prepared than they were the first time around.  WE are also a little bit guilty of buying extra, but we have been doing that all along.  We also ordered another fridge for the garage.  That is the one are we were probably most weak at, fridge and freezer space.  Nothing extravagant.  It will be here on the 10th and we can then work on filling that up.  

I've got a dental appointment and an ophthalmologist appointment this week.  Just routine visits but I will get set up to have a dental implant started.  I need to get taht hole where that broken tooth filled in.  

Hope y'all have a good week.  Happy Trails

Saharan Dust

I don't know how it is where you are, but over the last 2 weeks or so we have been getting warnings of the cloud of Saharan Desert dust that is headed our way. This is a yearly occurrence here.  It comes right after the smoke from fires burning the landscape down in Mexico.  This year I didn't smell any smoke or suffer the usual effects.  However, they warnings for the impending dust cloud (Am I racist is I say African dust?) was that it was supposed to be worse this year.  Well it rolled in sometime Friday evening.  I didn't really see it as I stayed inside most of the day.  But I started getting a scratchy throat and headache.  Ever since then I have ventured out only to set out our can for trash collection and water my puny tomato and pepper plants plus several philodendrons that we cut out of and over grown pot and replanted.  That's maybe three times.  It seems to have paid off as the effects have lessened.  They say the dust will begin to lessen some today, but just for the day.  How do they know this stuff?  Oh Yeah, science.  

Saturday evening I got an emergency notification on my phone but the wife didn't.  It seems the mayor of the rat hole south of us is panicking about the rise in cases of the China flu.  Of course that set all the social media sites aflame with every type.  Starting today I am getting off most all social media and avoid all the craziness.  The mayor never lifted a finger about all the protests and gatherings of the sort 2-3 weeks ago but wanted the governor to give them authority to arrest and/or fine those that wouldn't wear a mask or social distance etc.  I wonder how many of those that were near those gatherings are part of those numbers.  They claim those catching the flu are now the age group of those that gathered.  So they really aren't invincible.  You should have seen the photos of the rivers near here that are popular with tubers over Memorial Day.  I probably could have crossed the river without getting wet by using them as support.  It was crazy.  Pictures from Padre Island were standing room only and that's huge beach, mile after mile of open beach. Weekends, the beach is to be avoided.  Their hypocrisy knows know limits.

I have a rather long list of things I need from Home Depot.  I guess those will wait a bit.  At least until the dust is settled-see what I did there?  

Happy Trails

Tuesday Update

Today will be a bit of a busy day.  The fridge repair guy will return with the new part and we will finally have it back to normal.  We have done OK without the icemaker/water dispenser, it's just a little inconvenient to have to rely on bottles of water and bags of ice.  They take up a lot of room and we have to move things around to find what we are looking for.  I drink a lot of water and sometimes I forget to replace the bottles I have used and then I am without my cold water.  We also have the pest control coming out for his quarterly visit.  I am not sure how good his spray will work outside since we are currently having a small thunderstorm and a good amount of rain.  At least I can get him inside, which he didn't do on his last visit due to the health restrictions they are under from the chinaman kung flu.  

We will get the baby today and she will stay a day or two.  That will be decided during her stay, how long she is here.  Their dog is sick again.  He was very sick the last time she was here.  We kept her because she won't leave him alone and he just didn't feel good at all.  She lays all over him and tries to play with him.  They are best buds, except he is miserable right now and needs a break.  They have really hit a rough patch here lately.  Things breaking down, sick dog, sick baby, car issues and it all hits their small income pretty hard which just compounds things.  We help out when they let us and it is hard to see them struggle with these things along with all the bad news in the world.  It takes it's toll on a young family.  We know very well how it is and brings back some not so pleasant memories for us.  I try to keep the 'fatherly' advice down as much as possible.  In fact, no advice has been given, I know that it can always be worse and try to stay positive and not interfere.

The weather here will be somewhat stormy over the rest of the week.  We had hoped to head down to Padre Island for a day drip and just sit on the beach for a couple hours and take the kids with us if they could get away.  They could use the break too.  But with inclement weather predicted we will not go and take a look at weather conditions for  next week.  I will need to look for something to keep the sun off of us for a few hours while we are there.  We all have some pretty fair skin and need to avoid the burns we can get down there.

Hope y'all had a great Father's Day and are avoiding the kung flu.  It has hit closer to home here lately.  We are on our guard for that as much as I hate it.

Happy Trails