winter weather

Good morning.
Winter like weather has filled the valley. Temps we normally see in January. Highs near 60. Lows in the low 40's. At least we don't have snow....in the valley anyway.  :-)
Had a little repair job to do.

The toilet in the second bath had started to squeal after it filled. It was like the shutoff  lever wasn't closing completely. I tried to oil it. I changed the water fill level. Nothing seemed to work but to remove the top and 'jiggle' the lever. I finally got tired of it and went to Home Depot, bought a new fill assembly, and swapped it out. Was actually very easy. And now.....it's quiet again.   :-)
Here's my latest puzzle.....

 A very challenging one! This one took a while. But it was also 1000 pieces.
And the cold weather has brought snow to the Spring and Sheep mountains.....

Our Sheep mountains rarely get snow, and if they do, it's in Jan, but this cold spell has brought the snow level down to about 5000 ft. Looks pretty.....up there!    :-) Will probably be gone in a few days.
Had a nice quiet Thanksgiving. Craig cooked a Turkey as usual. Watched the parade, and some of the dog show. There sure are a lot of odd looking breeds!
And for the first time in nearly a year, I think, I'm not picking up anyone's mail but my own. Feels kind of odd.
And that's about it for now.

a little late again!

Good afternoon.
Been a very busy week!
 Here's a couple more puzzles I did.....

And our neighbor and fellow morning walker, Barbie, who's husband passed away 10 days earlier, arrived in Vegas last Friday, and Craig and I picked her up.

We didn't want her first trip back to Vegas without her husband to have to Uber the 18 miles to her house all by herself.
Craig got the idea to dress up like a 'chauffeur' and stand there waiting as she came off the plane and through security. She 'loved' it! And was sooo happy we picked her up.
Another neighbor, Gloria and Dave invited us all over for dinner that evening, which was very good!
After dinner, Barbie sent me a text and asked me to come over and sit with her as she was feeling very lonely. We sat and talked until she was tired enough to go to bed.
Saturday, Barbie, Craig and I went to lunch at BJ's. She seemed in better spirits. I imagine she'll have good days and bad as different things trigger emotions. Sunday afternoon, a group of neighbors got together on her patio. Monday, we did lunch again, this time at Big Dog's Tavern.
Today a group of 10 neighbors are getting together for Taco Tuesday. Then on Thursday, She has old friends from Wisconsin coming out for a week, so I'll get a break from entertaining her.  :-)
Other than that, I've been cleaning and working on puzzles.

better late than never??/

Good afternoon.
I guess I'm overdue for a post....
Here's some of the puzzles I've done since my last post.....

And here's a visitor we saw one afternoon when we were sitting out on our patio...

This large owl took up residency in out Desert Willow tree. Stayed there most of the afternoon, sleeping.  Or at least, looked like it was sleeping.
Flew off later. Boy was it big!
Didn't seem to get any of our resident lizards. I counted 4 out there this morning.
Weather has been perfect this past week and should continue into next week. Lows in the 50's and highs in the upper 70's.
Been doing some yard work and dusting.
Booked our excursions for our cruise.
Norwegian opened bidding, so we bid for a balcony room. We booked an inside room. If you remember, we booked an inside room for the Panama Canal cruise and successfully bid up to a balcony. This apparently is what Norwegian does. We saved hundreds on the Panama cruise, and hope to do the same with this one.
Now time to go out and deadhead my Geraniums and Pansies. They grow very nice here in the cooler weather.