Updates from the desert

Boy life sure does tend to get busy all the time, which leaves no extra time for writing.  I hate that but I know things won’t be like this forever.

Luckily, we aren’t working seven days a week now so that’s a good thing, although short-lived most likely, as the holidays aren’t even here yet when we seem to live at our place of employment.  As bad as it is holiday decorations are up all over now.  Xmas stuff showed up the end of September.  This is so disgusting to me.  It seems Thanksgiving is left out entirely most of the time.  Don’t people celebrate this day anymore?  Instead the isles are crammed with Halloween costumes and decorations and Xmas trees, ornaments and gift wrap. 

 Check out this beautiful sunrise

 

Thank goodness we have still had some decent temps here in the desert.  I know this situation will be changing soon, but for now it’s lovely to have the windows open and of course the cats love that.  I just wished it never got any colder.  I’m not looking forward to those days at all.

Hubby had cataract surgery last week and still has to do the other eye in another week.  His are spread two weeks apart, which I’m sure is because of Columbus Day coming up on Monday.  His experience has been different than mine.  He saw red lights and then white lights during his surgery.  Now is the stage when glasses aren’t really helping much at all (okay for one eye, but not the other one).  But this doesn’t keep him off the computer, or from watching TV.

 This is a male finch sitting on the edge of the water bowl on the patio

 

I have another eye appointment next Tuesday to see a specialist who comes here from Seattle once a month.  One of my eyes drips and runs constantly.  Supposedly, there’s another surgery to correct that.  The doctor says it’s covered by Medicare, but I have no idea at this point what the copay is or how much it is and what will be done to my eye.  The other eye is responding well to the dry eye drops I’m using in combination with an allergy eye drop.  I don’t know what I’m in for yet, but I’m really tired of having to wipe my eyes every five minutes.  But it’s that or let the tears run down my cheek all day.

 This is the amino acid for circulation.  I'm hoping it works.

 

When I had my consultation with the foot doctor who took care of the blisters on my feet, I was telling him about my circulation problems in the winter.  This only affects my hands and slightly my feet.  He recommended an amino acid called L’Arginine.  It’s not cheap and is bitter, but I figured I can endure anything to see if this helps.  After all, dead-looking fingers aren’t too attractive and I do have to work with the public serving food.  Plus, I can’t be rubbing them under a hot water faucet several times a day to bring them back to life.  So I started this stuff on the autumn equinox.  It’s powder that I mix with white grape juice.  There will be an update on this later.

In other news, car problems are an issue again.  I now need new shocks on the back of my car and the suspension system has to be serviced and straightened.  (I have to say this is original though and has never been replaced.)  This problem is wearing the inside of my back tires bald.  This repair is over $1.000, so my mechanic suggested I just buy new tires every year instead of doing this repair to a twenty-year-old car.  Tires aren’t cheap either at about $200 a piece, but I can afford to drive the car a while longer this way.  He said I may be able to go longer before replacing tires because I don’t put many miles on the car.  This is still in the thinking stage so hopefully the car will cooperate a bit longer before I have to replace the worst back tire.

 This is Jamie and Claire from Outlander

Here's Jamie from Outlander.  What a hunk of man and so brave and chivalrous.

 

Working doesn’t allow me much extra time so usually after dinner I try to watch recorded episodes of Outlander on Starz.  This is relaxing time for me.  I got hooked on this book series a few years back and have read all the books, but watching this show makes me want to drag them all out again and reread them.  I simply couldn’t put these books down the first time and even carried them to the kitchen to read while cooking.  If any of you are fans of time travel, historical Scottish highlands, sword fighting, romance and history, you should check this series out.  They are well researched and written and exciting enough to keep you turning the pages to see what happens next.

 The roadrunner preening itself on our wall.

 

I guess this is long enough for this time.  It’s back to work tomorrow serving free lunch to the Costco members, some of which never buy anything and have told me they are there only for lunch.  I sure hope my golden years aren’t so boring that I look forward to my daily Costco lunch.