Update for the week

Good afternoon.
Here's a few pics I took during my morning walks this past week....

This was on a street corner near my house. It appears a hawk got a bird, and plucked it right here. That was a big pile of feathers!

And another full moon this past week.....

And you may need to click on the pic to see it better, but a duck and 3 little babies were roaming near the large fountain on the busy corner of Aliante Blvd and Elkorn Street.
Yesterday morning, I blew all the leaves out of the back yard. Our back yard is walled, and 2 of my neighbors have 3 African Sumac's just on the other side of 2 walls. As the weather gets hot, they lose about 1/3 of their leaves as a means to conserve water. So, a lot of leaves come down in my yard. Once they are all down, I blow them out of the stones onto the patio and bag them up.
I also sprayed around the foundation outside. I do this once a month to keep unwanted bugs out of our home.
And some good prices on good fruit right now. $.99 a lb for cherries and grapes, and $.99 for whole pineapples. And I've learned an easy way to cut, core and chunk them.
Also, for the months of May, June and July, Smiths (owned by Kroger) is giving double points on purchases every weekend. So we try and do all our shopping then to take advantage of that. Also, I get surveys on most receipts, and doing those gives me 50 points each. I can do 1 survey each week. We ended this month just over 1100 points, which we can use for $1.10 off a gallon, when we fill up with gas.   😀
And that's it for now.....

fewer posts.

Good evening.
Just a quick post today.
Not too much going on. Walking every morning and going to the fitness center several times a week. 
You may have noticed the number of posts I've been doing lately have come less frequently.
The reason for that is some time ago, my Mom complained I wasn't responding to her e-mails. Well, she sends quite a few, and I thought they were just comments about things and not in need of replies. So, I told her I'd try to respond to them., And I have. I e-mail her between 4-6 times a day.  But with that, I've been telling her pretty much everything about my days, and so, I don't feel I have as much to blog about. And a lot of my blogging was for her. So if you don't see me posting as much, that's why.
Now, for dinner tonight, I fixed sausage sandwiches. We both have gotten hooked on Big Dog's Tavern Kielbasas. So I have been duplicating them at home with better for us choices.

I used Chicken sausages. I fillet them and cook them in a pan. I open the buns and put ketchup and diced onions on the bun. Top that with the sausage. Add more diced onions and shredded reduced fat cheese. Put in under the broiler for a few minutes, and they are almost as good as Big Dog's with probably half the calories.
Sunday was our usual Sunday paper, coffee, and a Raspberry Fritter. Dinner was ham and scalloped potatoes. Tomorrow we'll be having beef and broccoli.
And that's about it for now....

tasty food and another project.

Good morning.
Just got back from my morning walk. Only did about 30 minutes, as I have a bum toe. I stubbed my little toe yesterday, and this morning it's all black and blue. So it's a bit sore to walk on.   :-/
A couple of days ago, I planned on having pork cutlets on the grill along with roasted veggies and long grain wild rice.

Well, when I thawed out the meat, I discovered it was chicken breasts.   :-/
I think I should start writing on the freezer bags what's inside. I do write the date I freeze it on the bag, so it doesn't sit in the freezer forever.
So... we had boneless skinless chicken breast's on the grill instead.   :-)

I love roasted veggies! They somehow taste sweeter that way.
And another day, I cleaned out our puters.....

I try to do this twice a year. Early Jan. and around July. I was surprised how little dust was in them this time. But keeping out the dust helps them run cooler and extends their life.
We also hit a high for the year so far at 112 yesterday. But even at that temp, we were able to sit out on our patio comfortably with our mister system. Low humidity makes a world of difference!
And in response to a couple of comments....
I don't know if those cargo planes were moving anything. We have Nellis Air Force Base in the eastern part of the valley, and planes are flying back and forth over our community as they fly to and from the training range to our north west. I'm assuming the big planes were in a training flight too. But of course, they don't tell us anything.   :-)
And it definitely was a rat Gene.  It doesn't look that big in the pic, but the body was a good 6 inches long without the tail.
Well, that's it for now....

more projects

Good evening.
I've been a bit busy the last few days.
First off, I walk every morning. Usually around 40-45 minutes. That is approximately one 'loop' around our community of 2000+ homes. And lately, Craig and I have been going to the fitness center many afternoons. We used to walk after he got up, but by the time he's been getting up, it's getting a bit too hot to walk.
Here's a pic of some plantings near our community center.

And I found myself a little project.
This is what a nice sparkling clean washer is suppose to look like inside.

But, emptying the dishwasher one morning, I noticed some black like sludge around the water drain cover. So I got out my tools, took off the cover, and discovered this......

This is the underside of that cover. Ewww!

And this is what was under the cover.......double Ewww!

So, I scrubbed everything real good and ran an empty load with just white vinegar to clean and sanitize the washer. I'll make sure I check this every couple of months from now on....
Then this morning, after my walk, I went out front and trimmed a few bushes and noticed the dead leaves were starting to look kind of thick in the stones. So I got out the blower and blew out the front yard.

I was surprised how many leaves I ended up with. Since the stones are similar in color, they really didn't look that bad, but wow! That was a lot of leaves! I find I need to do this about 2-3 times a year. Next week, I'll do the back yard which shouldn't be as bad as there is only 1 tree, and the yard is walled so not much can 'blow' in. So even with 'desert' landscaping, there still is yard work.   :-)
So, that's it for now....

Rats!

Good afternoon.
It's been a bit warm this week with temps around 107. But we are suppose to 'cool' back down into the mid 90's. But even with the very warm temps, we've enjoyed sitting out on our patio with the misters. Those misters sure make a big difference!
These next 2 pics you'll have to click on to even barely see the planes, but a few days ago, 5 of these very large planes went right over our neighborhood.

We have occasionally seen 1, but this is the first time we've seen 5!  I don't know if they're bombers, but they have 4 engines and are very large compared to all the other military aircraft we see.
And this is what i saw this morning on my walk....

A dead rat! Laying in a neighbors driveway. I don't know how it died.  I've heard we have rats out here. Heck, I think they are probably everywhere! I have seen rat traps along the sides of the community building and other commercial buildings around the valley. But this is the first one I've seen and I'm glad it was dead!
And here's a couple of flower pics...

A couple of Pineapple Lillies in bloom...

And a Bird of Paradise. I love the intense orange flowers!

We've also been going to the fitness center nearly every day. I walk in the early morning when the weather is perfect, but by the time Craig gets up, it's getting too hot to walk, and he wants to get some exercise too.
And with that, we're off to the fitness center. We like early afternoon, as it's not as busy as mornings.

no pics today!

Good morning.
I've just returned from my walk.  Walked for about 30 minutes with my usual neighbor, and as I got back, another neighbor was heading out so walked with him for another 45 minutes. Got enough walking in today!
 The weather in the morning couldn't be better! Sunny and mid 70's.
We were even sitting out on the patio yesterday afternoon without the misters on and it was nearly 100. But the humidity was 1%. Low humidity makes such a difference!
I got my Medicare card in the mail yesterday. It seems quite early since I won't be 65 until October, But now I'll have time to look for a prescription drug plan and a medigap policy. You need your Medicare number to even start looking, so this is good.    :-)
We went to the fitness center again yesterday afternoon. Trying to go 2-3 time a week. Craig likes to sleep in and by the time he gets up, it's getting a bit to warm to walk. And he wants to get some exercise too.
Neighbors took us out for lunch to a nice Mexican restaurant. I had taquitos, and Craig had quesadillas. They were treating us to thank me for getting their mail while they were gone. I told them it wasn't necessary, as I'm retired and have a lot of extra time, but they insisted. I pick up mail off and on for several neighbors. Not a big deal, and gives me a little something extra to do.
 And that's all the news I have for now....

keeping cool

Good afternoon.
As the heat starts getting over 100, we need a little help to sit outside comfortably in the afternoon.
When I walk in the morning, it's beautiful! Sunny and mid 70's. Our patio is shaded in the afternoon, so not bad even approaching 100. But over that, it is a little hot, even with the low humidity. So we've added a couple of misters......

This mister kit I bought on Amazon. It attaches to our patio fan and a water source.

It work amazingly well! Over 100, the fan would just blow hot air, but the misters add a super fine mist that cools the air and is very refreshing!

Adding that to the misters we have along the ceiling, and we're comfortable outside no matter what the temp is.    :-)
And better yet, the mister kit from Amazon didn't cost a penny! I'm signed up with View Count. I'm not sure how I originally got connected with them, but they send me sample court cases for my feedback. The surveys take between 15 and 30 minutes to finish, and if I return them in a specified time frame, they e-mail me an Amazon credit of between $2 -$4. I don't shop on Amazon very often, so I've built up a nice little account that I used for the mister kit.    :-)
And we also booked our air fare to Miami for the cruise, and a hotel. We'll be arriving the day before departure so as not to miss the boat.   :-)   We're starting to look at the various excursions and will be booking some of them fairly soon. The good ones tend to book up early, so we don't want to wait too long.
We also gave each other haircuts. It's nice we can do that ourselves and not have to go out for it.    :-)
And that's all from sunny Las Vegas!

long post

Good morning.
I've just returned from my morning walk.
Here's a pic of my latest blueberry pie....

The blueberries were on sale, and though it's a little warm out right now for baking, I do love my pies!   :-)
And here's a few pics of what's blooming in the back yard...

The Bougainvillea is just starting to bloom again. In a few weeks with the heat, it should really look good.
And it's been a busy few days. I took a bag of 2 liter bottle and dropped them off at the 'Farm', and shipped a package of products to a friend back in Michigan.
I also went over to a neighbors house who is away for the summer and ran water down all her drains to keep them from going dry and letting sewer gas into the house. I also blew leaves off her front patio so it looks like someone lives there.
Then I replaced drippers on my 2 potted bushes. I had a green and a black one in each pot. The black put out less than the green, which works well in the cooler weather, but with the heat, I need to up the watering. So I switched out the black for another green. Then I wanted to manually check out drip system because one of the red yuccas in the front yard felt very dry when I fertilized them earlier this week. Well, with the water on I discovered the dripper wasn't emitting any water. And as I checked the rest, I spotted a small puddle of water in the stones not near any plant. I started to pull away the stones to see what was going on and water was bubbling up out of the ground. That means a leak either in the main line or a dripper line. Long story short. I dug up the area to discover that a root had grown between a dripper line and the main line and as it grew, it popped the dripper line off the main line which is also why the one plant wasn't getting water.  Fortunately, all I had to do was cut out the root and reattach the drip line. I was sure I was going to have to get someone out to find the problem, but luckily I was able to fix it myself.  Sometimes I surprise myself at what I can do.   :-)
And I've lost my doctor. The Practice I was going to sent me a letter stating that it was going to serve only Medicare patients and I could go to one of their other offices for my health care. I had an appointment in July, and it was just a maintenance visit. Well, I like the guy I was going to and didn't want to break in another one. And I turn 65 in October, So I think I'll just wait and go back to him then. I have enough refills available on my 2 scrips to last until then.
Well, I think I've rambled on enough for now.....