TREE OF BIRDS

I sat quietly near the tree of birds camera on my lap.  Only one feeder hung today but it was enough to bring a whirring of wings like tiny helicopters blades flitting by my ear.  A bevy of Quail came in trusting my stillness.  No feathered flyers touched down on my shoulder & no white splotches on my cap.  Pheebs lay stretched out beside my chair paying no attention to columns of ants carrying bits of Mesquite leaves to underground homes some distance away in a Prickly Pear patch.   Sun at my back cap pulled down & eyes closed at times I listened to the days overhead feathery flutterings.  An occasional short sharp shriek brought to my ears sounds of quick disputes at the feeder hastily resolved by the size of the shrieker or the defiance of the shrieked at.  Sun’s rays as hot as the cool air.  A southerly breeze resolved Mother Nature’s discrepancies making for a fine couple hour’s sitting under my tree of birds………………..

  

 

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A man goes to his local bank and asks for a loan to start a chicken farm. The loan official asks him what exactly the loan is for-it is to buy new chicks. The loan is okayed but a week later the man is back, seeking another loan to buy new chicks. The loan officer asks "What happened to the first batch of chicks?", to which the man replies, "I don't know! I can't figure out if I'm planting them too close together or too far apart."

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Very early one morning two birds are sitting at the side of a large puddle of oil. They see a worm on the other side. So...the one flies over and the other one swims through -- which one gets to the worm first? The one who swam of course, because "Da oily boid gets da woim."

WORD CAME TODAY AN OLD FRIEND HAS PASSED AWAY

BASHAS' supermarket in Wickenburg had a Thanksgiving Day dinner deal going today.  Turkey, dressing, & all the fixins come in containers to be taken home & heated up.  We were in the Jeep & off to Bashas to pick up our Thanksgiving dinner about 9:30 this morning.  Nice to get out of the house & see some scenery going by the window.  Half a cart load of groceries & we were home again by 11.  Yes we do have a 21 pound frozen turkey in our freezer but Kelly said we’ll save that for another time when she’s feeling up to preparing a big turkey dinner.  Update:  The turkey dinner from Bashas’ turned out to great & we came away with no complaints:))

KELLY HAS BEEN DOING A LOT OF READING & MEDICAL RESEARCH ON HER COMPUTER THE PAST COUPLE DAYS

 

YUP GOT MY DAD’S HAT ON

I am well into my latest Kindle book, UNBROKEN by author Laura Hillenbrand.   It is described as a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption.  From the first few pages I could tell it was well written & that writing style has continued consistently through the book so far.  These are the types of reality books I enjoyed so much years ago.  I’m not a reader of fiction.  

RELAXING AFTERNOON ON OUR FRONT PORCH

We have a nice shaded porch on the front of our house & it’s a great place to sit, grab some zzzzz’s, do a little reading, or just sit quietly & watch the world roll by.  It was especially nice doing all of the above this afternoon with a nice southwest breeze cooling our 80 degree temperatures.

<<< NOTICED THIS LITTLE FELLOW ON MY BEDROOM MAT THIS AFTERNOON

Later in the day we could hear loud voices out front on Ghost Town Road.  An old 1981 school bus painted pea soup green was angled off into our neighbor’s driveway.  Recognized the old beater of a bus right away as the fellow who had made Kelly’s walking stick last March.  His name is Arky & it was while Kelly was picking up her walking stick that day a three & a half foot Diamond Back Rattlesnake came slithering up to them.  You can read about that encounter here…..KELLY'S CONVERSATION WITH AN ARTISAN.  But back to today…….Arky & his friend Barbara were headed on back to their desert camp at the end of Ghost Town Road when his old bus just quit & rolled to a stop in front of our house.  That’s when we heard all the loud talking as Arky talks quite loud.  They had 3 little dogs with them plus more dogs back at their camp & Barbara was worried about them.  Kelly fired up the Jeep & drove Barbara the half mile up the road to their boondocking site.  Luckily our neighbor Rick across the road came out & with a length of chain was able to hook his pick-up truck to Arky’s old bus & tow him back to his camp.  Luckily Arky is one of those handy mechanical fix everything guys so didn’t seem to worried about what ever was wrong with his old bus.  I gave him our phone number in case he needed us to go get any parts for him.

ONE OF ARKY’S 3 DOGS WASN’T HAPPY WITH ME TAKING A PICTURE OF HIS DAD’S BUS

CAN YOU IMAGINE IF ARKY HAS TO REMOVE THE ENGINE HOUSING……….OMG!!

OK RICK I’M A READY TO GO

 

SAFE TRAVELING GUYS

We met Doug & Dolly last winter when they dropped in to see us in Congress.  It was their first RV trip & Doug was so happy to finally be in the great southwest.  Had been a dream of his for quite awhile.  Doug just retired a few days ago & already he has their Class C headed back to the southwest.  Dolly decided to keep the home fires burning so Doug’s off on his own for the winter.  Lots of adventurous travel ahead for him.  MISS ADVENTURE TRAVELS

And a sad email from my good friend Jim Eifert in London Ontario late this afternoon.  Readers may remember my post from last September entitled, SATURDAY'S DAY OF SADNESS & LAUGHTER.  Our long time friend Helmut Hell who we had gone to visit that afternoon passed away today.  His long struggle with cancer is over & Jim writes he passed away peacefully in his sleep.  I had known Helmut since high school days.  A hard working fellow who dropped out of high school then went on to own his own brick laying business.  Very financially astute Helmut always knew the value of dollar, had a great sense of humor, was down to earth & was not afraid to tell you what he thought.  Helmut was instrumental back in July of 2010 in reuniting me with some of the old home town Tavistock gang.   I wrote a post about that meeting entitled, SOME OF THE OLD 1960'S GANG GETS TOGETHER.  No doubt Helmut will be greatly missed by family & friends & I’m so glad Jim & brother John & I got to say good-bye to Helmut when we did.  Take take my old friend & if those pearly gates need any brick work done I know you’ll be right at it…………..

GROANER’S CORNER:((  One morning a local highway department crew reaches their job-site and realizes they have forgotten all their shovels.  The crew's foreman radios the office and tells his supervisor the situation. The supervisor radios back and says, "Don't worry, we'll send some shovels ... just lean on each other until they arrive."

A QUIET DAY HERE

Kelly did manage a short walk this morning but has spent much of the day resting.  Her & Pheebs jeeped themselves to the library & back about mid afternoon.  An appointment at Wickenburg’s Medical Center is now in the works & will likely happen next week.  And yes Kelly tested positive for the Epstein Barr virus (Mono) two summer’s ago.  Thanks to readers again for their concern, suggestions, & opinions.  It is why I entitled my post ‘What Would You Do’ Tuesday night.  Nothing wrong with asking for thoughts & opinions.  Readers have always been helpful.  There are a multitude of people out here with a whole wealth of experience & knowledge & it’s always good to hear people’s thoughts.

We were aware of the ‘cash’ for medical service having experienced that one time in Elfrida AZ a few years ago.  Kelly had already called the clinic here in Congress to verify the cheaper cash rate & they said yes it is always in effect.  Thanks to several commenters for mentioning that though.  It is the kind of information which is helpful to everyone.

With most every fine weather day the same as the day before it isn’t leaving me a lot of leeway to continue my grumbling weather reports.  Darn, I miss that. 

Spent my morning hauling everything out of our shed & cleaning up the floors.  It was also a good time to purge all the unnecessary stuff that I had accumulated in the past couple years.  Thursday I will put back in only the necessary stuff needed.  Tuesday I did 2 loads of laundry & this morning I did my sheets.  Oh how I love that fresh smell of laundry that has been hung out on the line to dry.  Always takes me back to my earliest years when my Mother would hang wash out & how fresh it would smell when it came back in.  No automatic dryers back then.  Well at least not for the poor folks.  Remember those cold winter days when laundry on the line would sometimes freeze stiff as a board.

It was a piece of luck I clicked on the Yacht club’s harbor lake cam in Grand Bend Ontario this morning & saw ongoing preparations to install the new light house beacon at the end of the pier.  Didn’t take the crew long in hoisting up the new tower into place.  My first memory of walking out to the end of that pier dates way back to the early 60’s.

 

CRANE IS FIRST POSITIONED AT THE END OF THE PIER AS A PICK-UP BACKS OUT THE NEW BEACON

 

 

CRANE SWINGS LIGHT BEACON ONTO IT’S CONCRETE FOUNDATION

A JOB WELL DONE & A BEACON WELL DESIGNED

I thought RETIRED ROD'S latest post was a good example of something I have blogged about several times over the years.  It’s not something that really happens to us a lot because of our boondocking preferences but it does happen to people frequenting RV Parks.  How many times have you just pulled into your allotted spot, exited your vehicle & started your set up routine only to hear ‘Howdy Neighbor.’  Or your hooking up to leave & somebody wanders over & starts talking to you about your RV.  When that happens your attention to what you were doing is broken.  Whether you know it or not you are now at risk of forgetting something or doing something wrong in your normal routine.  How many totally avoidable accidents could have been avoided by people being considerate enough to leave other people alone while they concentrate on what they are doing.  It’s easy enough as it is in these Senior years to forget things without distractions being added on top to complicate matters even further.  In other words, ‘don’t bug your RV neighbor until it looks like he’s finally sitting down & totally relaxed enough to be seriously bugged’.  Seriously……………   

GROANER’S CORNER:(( The salesman at the electronics store was pitching a high-definition television to a customer.  A fellow shopper, overhearing the spiel, mentioned that he'd upgraded his regular TV to high-def.
"How did you do that?" my husband asked.
"I dusted off the screen."

KELLY IMPROVES THROUGH THE DAY & WHAT WOULD YOU DO………………..??

Judging from how much better Kelly felt this morning I probably owe Del-Taco an apology for assuming something I ate there likely gave me food poisoning last week.  I’m thinking now it was that 24 hour flu & I’m also thinking that is what I somehow passed onto Kelly making her so sick as well.  With her ongoing medical condition we automatically jumped to the conclusion her sudden sickness was related to that.  It may or may not be the case.  Although she didn’t feel like coffee again this morning she did rustle up some scrambled eggs.  Aside from feeling very tired her main concern today was trying to keep herself warm.  Thanks to readers for your concerns, suggestions & advice.  But here’s the problem we are facing……………….

First….I do not want this following paragraph to digress into a political debacle over health care systems.  This is not what this is about.  Keep in mind as you read this we are Canadians in the United States & our insurance coverage & procedures are different.  Yes we have travel insurance but our ‘out of country’ coverage will not include anything related to Kelly’s Auto Immune liver problem because they class it as a ‘pre-existing condition’.  It’s just the way insurance companies work.  If we were in Canada right now Kelly could just go see her Doctor no problem.  Tests, procedures, scans, operations etc are all covered.   If Kelly breaks a leg or had a heart attack etc  here in the States she is covered but if she goes to a Doctor here in regards to her liver condition & the Doctor schedules her for any scans, tests, medical procedures or whatever costs can rapidly skyrocket & come right out of our pocket because her insurance will not pay the costs incurred.  We are not rich folks.  So here’s our dilemma, what do we do??  Does Kelly fly back to Canada & spend the next couple months at home waiting for various test appointments.  Medical appointments back home generally take time.  Too often there is ‘a long wait!!  Do we begin packing up the rig & head back to Canada?  Some days she feels pretty good & some days she does not but she is adamant about not rushing off back to Canada.   This is not an easy time for us right now in deciding what we should do.  It’s not a cut & dried decision.  What would you the reader’s do under these circumstances??  Maybe you can now see why I have been using the term ‘one day at a time’ lately.  Update::  After writing this paragraph late this afternoon Kelly mentioned tonight she is going to make an appointment at the Wickenburg Medical Clinic next week for the same type of liver monitoring blood tests she had done there last winter.  It’s a start & I feel that is at least a step in the right direction right now…………………..

SOUTHWEST CORNER OF OUR BACK YARD WITH GATE LEADING TO NEIGHBOR’S PROPERTY

Definitely cooler in Congress than we were used to over at the Slabs in California but still a hundred times better than if we were stuck back home in Bayfield’s winter weather.  We are so eternally grateful for these past 9 winters we have so fortunately been able to spend here in the much warmer & much sunnier climes of America’s wild & wonderfully wooly great Southwest.

<<< A BUG ON MY WINDOW

Repositioned the rig in it’s spot, unloaded a few more things, straightened up some bins, checked the oil, etc.  Despite a few glitches we are still very pleased with the rig & I’m glad our water pump has not given us anymore problems since a temporary glitch up in North Dakota on our way down.  Since the problem Magnum inverter was removed there has not been a whining noise somewhere in the dash/engine anymore either.  Will be so happy to get this whole inverter thing resolved once & for all.  Temecula RV did call today saying they had just received our inverter but didn’t know if they would have time to bench test it today or tomorrow.  Said if we don’t hear from them late Wednesday it will be next week sometime before they get at it.  Turns out Kelly’s illness brought us home at a good time.

Dam Pack Rats!!!!  Opened the shed door this morning & stuff was scattered about again & dragged into the same corner where I pulled apart a Pack Rat nest early last October.  I did get that nest cleaned out but in moving some boxes up in the rafters another Pack Rat jumped out of a box & scared the heck out of me.  That’s 3 Pack Rat nests I’ve discovered in our shed.  I have since removed any boxes from the rafters & sealed a hole near the door where I saw one ski-daddle through.  Probably going to have to borrow our neighbor’s cage again, catch those Rats & drive them 642 miles out into the desert somewhere.

 

PACK RAT NEST IN THE CORNER AS I BEGIN TO PULL IT APART

AND YEP THERE’S THE LITTLE DARLIN NOW TRYING TO HIDE ON ME

Sitting in our big relaxing recliners last night all stretched out comfy after a nice hot lengthy shower I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘ why would anyone go get in a rectangular box on wheels, drive miles & miles from home only to park out in the desert somewhere.   The same thought always occurs to me in reverse as well as each time we are out boondocking somewhere with no people in sight I think to myself, ‘why would anyone sit around in their house & not want to go anywhere as beautiful as this’.  Oh tis quite a restless & unsettled life I lead.  Never satisfied for long where I am until I have moved to another place where I will soon become unsatisfied enough to yet again move to a different place & once more resume my wait impatiently for that urge to move on to yet another spot again.  While cleaning up in the rig this morning I thought to myself, ‘ya know I could just jump right into that driver’s seat right now & head off somewhere down the road & feel pretty darn good about doing it too.

NO NOT A PACK RAT BUT A SOUTHWEST CHIP-SQUIRRELLMUNK:))

I sometimes respond to comments in our Shout Box & other times I just let them go.  Kelly prefers I let them go but sometimes I feel they warrant a response because of their obvious misaligned intentions.  I had actually started a rather sharp response to the comment regarding ‘all the issues with a coach’ but when I saw Sarge, SallyB, Kay, & RV SUE beat me to it I thought to myself………….Yay team:))

 

I particularly liked Jodee’s latest post over at ON THE ROAD ABODE.  She writes about ‘Why I’m Thankful’ & she writes it with honesty & feelings.  I like when open minded, helpful, & understanding people write like that.  She has been able to make her positive attitude work for her & I have respect for people who are reality based enough to do that honestly.

MEMORIES OF ONE YEAR AGO RIGHT NOW WHEN WE WERE IN BORREGO SPRINGS

GROANER’S CORNER:(( The fourth-grade class was studying the development of the auto industry. The teacher had emphasized the role played by Henry Ford, whose assembly lines decreased production costs.  At the end of the unit, she gave a test including the question: "What did Henry Ford invent that made buying a car more affordable?"  One of the students wrote: "0% financing."

ILLNESS SENDS US BACK TO CONGRESS ARIZONA

WE ALWAYS LIKE TO TAKE THIS TRAFFIC FREE SCENIC SHORT CUT TO I-10 EAST OF MECCA THROUGH BOX CANYON

We are back home in Congress Arizona tonight.  Decision was made first thing this morning after Kelly had a really bad night with nausea & throwing up.  Aside from a small cup of Tomato soup tonight she has not been able to eat anything all day.  She has not been feeling well for a long time but we don’t know what caused her to become so sick Sunday night. 

BORREGO SPRINGS LIES OVER THERE ACROSS THE SALTON SEA…HOPE TO SEE YOU NEXT TIME BORREGO

SOUTH OF MECCA CALIFORNIA HEADING NORTH ON HIGHWAY 111

GLAD TO SEE THIS SIGN EAST OF THE COLORADO RIVER ON I-10 THIS MORNING

We rolled out of the Slabs at 7 a.m. with Kelly riding part of the way home on her bed.  Stopped in Quartzsite for a McDonald’s coffee & fuel but Kelly only had 2 sips & that was all she could take.  Rest of the way home she spent much of the time lying on the couch.  Too bouncy in the back over the rear wheels.  We were home shortly before 1 a.m. & Kelly immediately laid down while I emptied the coach.  She had no strength left to do anything.  Pheebs has stayed by her side all day.  Because there are similarities between my sickness last week & Kelly’s troubles right now we have however come up with a possible theory tonight.  I don’t ever recall having but have heard about something called a 24 hr flu.  Could that be what I picked up from somebody last Wednesday.  I did shake a few hands & talk to a few people the day I got sick.  Is it possible I could have passed a flu bug onto Kelly??  We’ll see how things are in the morning.  If like me she feels better then I’m guessing the 24 hour flu theory may have some validity to it.

ARE YOU GOING TO BE ALRIGHT MOM

Didn’t hear anything from Temecula RV today but we’ll probably phone there tomorrow for an update on our inverter.  Whenever the problem is determined & remedied & depending on how Kelly is feeling I will probably just take the Motorhome back to Slab City myself & have Solar Mike re-install the inverter & make any changes to the current set-up he feels necessary.  Things are kinda up in the air right now so we will just take things one day at a time & try to get a handle on what sometimes seems an uncertain future this winter………………...

SUNDAY NIGHT’S SUNSET AT THE SLABS

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Taking my car to the mechanic, I was fearful that any needed repair might be too expensive. I was relieved when he told me all I needed was blinker fluid.

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A woman was chatting with her next-door neighbor. "I feel really good today. I started out this morning with an act of unselfish generosity. I gave a five dollar bill to a bum."
"You gave a bum five whole dollars? That's a lot of money to just give away. What did you husband say about it?" "Oh, he thought it was the proper thing to do. He said, 'Thanks.'"