life stuck at home.

Good afternoon.
Well, to keep busy while we are told to stay home, (there's almost nothing open anyway) I've been doing pretty much what I do anyway.....

Work on puzzles....

Talk my hour long morning walk.....

Take pics of the mountains on my morning walk.....

Work on more puzzles....

Oh, and watch my car being towed away, when it wouldn't start, while we were at the store several days ago. Fortunately, it was just a battery, and the repair place was open. I did make sure I wiped down the inside real good when I picked it up, before I drove it home.

Sit in my backyard and watch the resident lizards run around. He's on the light colored rock next to a blue rock in the lower middle of the pic.

And, I bake pies. This one is an Apple / Cranberry pie with a pecan crumb topping. Craig's favorite.
As you can see, we don't do much different from our normal stay at home life. We just don't go out as much as we used to, and of course, no eating out right now. But Craig is a great cook, so we have a lot of tasty meals.
Everyone stay home, and stay safe!

What a difference a week makes.

Good morning.
Well, a week ago, I went to the buffet here at Alainte, to meet some friends from Michigan who were in town.
A week later, so much has changed! MGM has closed all their hotels, restaurants and shows on the strip. The Wynn and Encore are closed. All the strip buffets and all the strip shows are closed. The governor has closed all the schools, recreation centers and library's.  And of course, all sports are cancelled. And crazies out there have run on the stores, stripping shelves of paper towels, toilet paper, diapers, cleaning and sanitizing supplies, canned goods, frozen goods, bread, and others.
Fortunately, we tend to stock up on things when they are on sale. So we are in pretty good shape. Our little chest freezer is pretty full of meat. We have several packages of toilet paper. And most importantly, the liquor stores are still open!   :-)
So as the new normal of social distancing settles in, we're in fine shape. We tend to be a little on the anti-social side anyway, so staying home isn't a big deal. We don't go to shows or sporting events anyway, and have never liked big crowds.
But back to us.......
Here's a couple of pics I took on my morning walk.....

Still love looking at our mountains!
And here's the latest batch of puzzles I've done.....

And here's a pic of my back yard....

The geraniums made it through the winter and are really starting to bloom more, the pansies love the cooler weather, and the daisy like bush is blooming.  The yard made it through our fairly mild winter pretty good, and once some warm weather settles in, it'll really take off!
New people moved into Barbies old house yesterday. I've met them and they seem nice. We'll see if they fit in with our little Taco Tuesday group.
Stay safe, and 6 ft apart!

A little catchup

Good evening.
I know, another week has gone by without posting.
Sue me!   :-)
Here's a few puzzles I've done over that time.....

And also during this time. Our neighbor, Barbie, (who lost her husband last Nov and has decided to sell and move back to Illinois) I've helped pack and get her ready for the move back to Illinios.

We had lunch one last time last Friday after her house sold and the moving company packed all her things and left. Her sister flew out to help her drive back to Illinois, and they stayed down on the strip a couple of days before they hit the road.
And this isn't a good pic, but the huge desert area to the west of our community, will soon have hundreds of new homes, as you can see the wall they have started.

I swear, they are building thousands of homes here in the valley. nearly everywhere we go in the northern part of the valley, large new subdivisions are going up. We toured a new age 55 community last weekend. Was fun to see the new amenities and the latest decorating schemes they are using. We still like our home and community better.
And my latest puzzle......

Tomorrow we are meeting some ex customers from our Salon, visiting Vegas, over at the Aliante buffet for lunch.
Just saw on TV that Caesars properties here in Vegas are closing all their buffets due to concerns over the Corona virus. Seems a little premature, but I suppose it'll probably get worst before it gets better.
Anyway, we have taken a more proactive approach in washing our hands more often, and using sanitizers everywhere. We have also postponed booking any more trips until this whole thing has abated. I think a common sense approach is appropriate. Glad I took my cruise way earlier this year!
So stay healthy and away from crowds.

Palm Springs, part 2

Good afternoon.
Our trip continued toward Palm Springs, with a stop in Kelso. Now, pretty much all that's here is an old depot station. When it was built back in 1924, it served as a conductor’s room, telegraph office, baggage room, dormitory rooms for staff, boarding rooms for railroad crewmen, a restaurant, a billiard room, library and locker room. The railroad built it because of a 2% grade going north. Trains going from LA to Salt Lake needed 'helper' engines to climb the grade, and those engines were based here in Kelso. And they needed a place for the crews to live that drove the engines and maintained them. After  stronger diesel engines came along, they no longer needed Kelso, and slowly the town disappeared.  The Union Pacific decided in 1985 to raze the building because of safety issues, and residents and others across the region managed to save it.

It's still pretty much inside like it was when it was built. But weird having such a large building way out in the middle of the desert.
From there we made it to Palm Springs, and our hotel, which was right on the edge of downtown.
We had been here nearly 20 years ago, and forgot what a quaint lively town it was.
Ate some good and unusual food, such as baby Octopus....

And sliders made with crumbled bacon, beef and chorizo sausage.....

On our seconda day at this restaurant, we also got to enjoy a parade.

We thought it might be a leap year parade since it was on Saturday the 29th, but heard it was for Black History Month.
And I took a pic of this car in the parade, because Craig liked the wheels.  :-/

I got these pics backwards, but also on the way to Palm Springs, just outside of Kelso is the Kelso Dunes.

Weird seeing mountains of sand sitting out in the middle of the desert. But looked pretty cool.
So a great time was had. The weather was sunny and low 80's. We got there safe, and returned home safe. Did a little shopping, and a lot of eating. ....It was a good trip.

road trip to Palm Springs.

Good morning.
We just returned from a little road trip.
This one took us south, with our destination, Palm Springs, CA.
 We broke the drive up into two days, so we could see a couple of things on the way. First up...The Seven Magic Mountains.

These are massive boulders, that were painted and stacked in the desert about halfway between Vegas and the border of CA. Very colorful, and can be seen from the highway. Though if you want to get up close, you have to take an exit 10 miles south, and come back up on a side road. Was worth the little diversion. Then, at Jean NV, we got off the highway, and drove about 7 miles to the town of Goodsprings.  Not much of a town, but it does have a place called the Pioneer  Saloon.

This place is famous because, one, it's very old and still pretty much the way it was built. And it was used in numerous movies, and second, this is where Clark Gable waited while search parties searched the nearby mountains for the plane that crashed carrying Carole Lombard. So a lot of history here.
After a tasty lunch, back on the highway to the border town of Primm NV.
Not really a town, but three casino hotels sit here just over the border from CA.
Spent the night here, then did a back country drive through the desert to Palm Springs the next day.
Will post more about that tomorrow.