Monday May 19 2008

Muddy Canyon

Judi went with me to Jackson today. Met her at 7:30 in Pinedale. The whole country is turning emerald green and the Hoback is flooding brown/red and frothing over the boulders. Hope I got some o.k. pictures. Back home about 8:00 or so. Kmart - Gas $75 ! ! (last fall same amount about $40 +.) - Ridleys and got all on the grocery list. - Prescriptions. - Groceries put away. Virginia stopped in to say hi. Went by to see Sue S. show at the Jackson Fine Art Center and liked it quite a lot.

Everything went good. I'm wearing the pump again for the next two days. Have collapsed into chair! Feeling alright, just tired and I guess anyone would be since up at 5 a.m.

My plans for going to Vegas have fallen in to place. I'll write the plan for Vegas, new chemo information, etc. just once on tomorrow's blog; too tired right now to write.

It got quite warm up there in the afternoon almost 80. I wore my first spring outfit this year and sandals.

As I left this morning, there were horse trailers coming in the road, one parked outside the gate, to gather our neighbor Doc's cows and calves and take them onto the desert pasture. Sure wish I could have gotten some cowboy photos, but missed the scenes this time. This is another sign of spring. Richie's will follow in another day or so. And the black angus have been on the allotment our mailbox is in for a week or so now. I like to see them trailing to the creek for water every morning.

Check out Gina's blog http://www.horseback41.blogspot.com/ for SooooperNube's first trail ride.

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ISS MARATHON: I'm going to try to see it again about 5 a.m. here..... if its not cloudy ..... and if I'm awake...... The 2008 "ISS Marathon" gets underway this week when the International Space Station spends three days (May 21-23) in almost-constant sunlight. Sky watchers in Europe and North America can see the bright spaceship gliding overhead two to four times each night. The ISS is as bright as Venus or Jupiter, so even people in light-polluted cities can see it. Use simple Satellite Tracker to find out when to look: http://spaceweather.com/flybys - just put in your zip code for the schedule times.

Sunday May 18 2008

Deer with House in the Background

(click to see better)

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WINDY!!

Judi and Rollie have a fox den in their subdivision. Of course this isn't a subdivision in the sense of the word that you would usually think of. There's a lot of open space. She said there are twelve kits. She's been trying to get good photos, but the kits don't cooperate. She showed a picture of some of them on her blog this morning.

Its only a couple of weeks now until time to go to Vegas. I'm so bad about making a decision and getting a plan and haven't made any reservations yet. I will talk to the people in oncology tomorrow to see how appointments can be scheduled so I can take a trip for a few weeks. There is a birthday part for Shane and Clay on June 2. Tayler's graduation is the 6th. Beverly is having some surgery on the 11th. I would like to be there for once when she has troubles, I almost never have been able to be there when things are going on in her life for one reason or another. For example when Clay was born I was going to be there, and that's when Joe had his stroke. Anyway maybe after I go to Jackson on Monday, I'll know a little more. I guess I'll be flying, since I seem to be staying way too tired (and sleepy) to drive on a long trip. Taking the shuttle to the Salt Lake might be a good idea. I'll be googling some of the possibilities.

Joe's been out and about the shop, yard and fields. Yesterday he went over to our head gate and adjusted the water level in the irrigation ditch. He goes out and looks at the ditch (along our lane) a couple of times a day. He's still working on his trucks and tractors.

Betty and Nancy made it home yesterday afternoon. Betty called and said it was HOT HOT down there. She's been wearing sweatshirts and down while here.

Yesterday I wrote. Reminiscing with the friends brought back a lot of memories. We all looked at the photos of the classmates and and I've read all the "autographs" in my annual gleaning memories. Most of the kids wrote about our silly escapades and how much we laughed, and guess we still are. .....Laughing. Twenty more pages have been written on The Book since I last mentioned it. Also lots of time gets spent on editing and re-editing. It's still in the high school years, and surely I must be about finished with that era.

Making bbq spareribs, baked potatoes, acorn squash, and apple pie. Joe will have some leftovers when I'm gone tomorrow night.

So tomorrow it will be time to go back to Jackson for chemo again. Another early and long day. This should be the first day without the possibility of snow and ice - supposed to be about 80 degrees. Judi is going with me. She says that Kathy who has now taken over April's position in Kickin' Cancer in Sublette County said that 43% of all oncology patients in the Jackson Hospital are from Sublette County. And that's just the ones that go there - not to Rock Springs, Salt Lake City or Houston. Something scary in that statistic. Kathy's daughter has cancer too. I've seen them at Oncology.

Saturday May 17 2008

Kramer Place in May

Called Gina this morning for the phone number of where to contact to get the inside of my car cleaned to get out the dog hair and stink. That's one of the things that has been let go for several years now. It needs the super deep cleaning. I'm trying to arrange for that to be done while Judi and I are gone to Jackson Monday. Judi will take her car and we can leave mine all day. Hope it works out and if not this week then another time soon.

The gals got on their way home yesterday morning and should be home this afternoon. Betty said she'd call when they get there. Then I got several things done in addition to all the helpful things Nancy and Betty did before they left, so the house is all back together and laundry caught up.

BTW, just to follow up on the "looking up our old boyfriends" we did find one (first) ex husband was still in the same place as she last knew of him years ago - and apparently still alive and married to the same woman. It came up as the first choice and only putting in his name - no address - it always amazes me how the internet searching works so well.

Dick, Kevin and their friend are here to open their place for the summer and found that some very unusual "something" happened to their power transformer? switch? A power company person was on the way to repair it. It will be interesting to learn what caused that. Dick came over about 5 p.m. mainly to check out the slide situation. Zane is going to scan all my old slides on to CDs and we are trying to figure how to best get them to him in Denver. In the beginning they were going to Lander where he has a cousin, but things change. I wouldn't mind going to Lander but Denver is a bit far right now. Best thing is probably to wait for Zane to come to the ranch and take them, Dick says maybe Memorial Day. There are 100 boxes and somewhere between 70,000 to 90,000 slides. The slides are to go to the Museum of the Mountain Man. Zane's finished CDs or mini drives will go to members of the family.

Another good looking day here - hope you also have nice weather.

PHOTOS FROM LAST WEEK

NANCY AND BETTY VISIT WYOMING

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Good Memories
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Betty does the morning chores
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Nancy cooks
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Togetherness - Making a picnic for the road.

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Nancy makes Joe pancakes

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Stuff to be loaded
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Loading the van - Looks like a good day

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Friday May 16 2008

Betty the Photographer

Wind Rivers a Few Miles from Home Yesterday Afternoon

Today's landscape photo is of The Cirque of the Towers and Washakie Pass. We took it yesterday on our drive. I'll put a few more in on future blogs of some of the scenery we saw I'm also going to do a separate entry for pictures I took this morning of Betty and Nancy.

Nancy made breakfast, and then they did laundry and got the beds made back up for me. About 10 this morning Nancy and Betty packed up the van and started back home. They will go as far as Nephi today and on to Mesquite tomorrow. I was sorry to see them go and will miss their company, but they plan to come back in the fall for another visit. We do enjoy seeing each other.

Joe's working on servicing another truck, his old Chevy pickup. He's going through everything one by one changing oil and filters and all he does each spring. I suppose he'll be checking the irrigation water each day now that it's filling the ditches. He bruised his leg somehow yesterday but it's better today he says.

Finally finally we have the most glorious morning, no wind, and it's supposed to begin getting warmer each day until by Monday it will be almost 80. I can go for that and its about time. After that I heard a prediction of more snow in another week. Rats! I'm sure going to enjoy and soak up every day of warmth while we have it. The front door and studio window are open for the first time this spring.

Thursday May 15 2008

What Little Old Ladies Do

photo by Betty

(Of course this is after we've been on some all day outing or adventure to get the photos in the first place. )

This morning Nancy cooked breakfast again. Joe is going to miss her for sure. After sitting with coffee we went out to dig up plants from the phased out flower beds for Nancy and Betty to take home to their gardens. Of course the wind was blasting out of the north and even some icy snowflakes came down for a while. We have water in the irrigation ditch for the second time. It backed off for a week or so. Now Joe is out adjusting his headgates and checking the water with the dogs.

Last night we got to talking about how to look up on the internet where some of the people we used to know are now. Some of those people were long lost boyfriends, so there was great hilarity about us sitting on the computer and looking up our old boyfriends on address.com. )

This afternoon we will take a little drive around the countryside somewhere. It's hard to think of some place interesting that isn't off on some dirt two track, which I'm avoiding at this season. Its a little early to be going 4 wheeling in the mud. None of us want to get a truck unstuck. If we have something more to report, I'll write again later.

LATER: We did drive around the area and stopped for photos. We made an executive decision to go to the Boulder Store for ice cream cones so headed there. Donna has been remodeling the store and turned out she wasn't open for ice cream yet, just beer. So we visited a little and started back home, with a couple more side trips to check out the countryside. We got home just in the nick of time so Joe's dinner wasn't late. Dinner plan is spaghetti sauce from the freezer over pasta, with salad and french bread. Then we downloaded our new photos and watched them on slide show. Hard to believe what we find to laugh about, but we've had an enjoyable time.

Wednesday May 14 2008

Joe Putting Away John Deere B

Today was very windy, about 50 degrees and cloudy. We decided to stay home and just hang out here. Nancy fixed breakfast. The last time she was here she made Dutch Baby, and she made that again with bacon and fresh fruit. We still haven't seemed to run out of things to talk about, old and new. They are helping with all the chores. We looked at some old photos of my dad's family and marveled at the way they traveled, lived and dressed etc. For lunch I made my grandmother's potato soup with veggie and dip and crusty french bread. This afternoon I was glad for help on another purge of my closet and dresser drawers. Now it is down to a good and manageable and sensible amount. It felt like nore weight lifted, and somehow more peaceful to see it uncrowded and uncluttered, yet there are still more clothes than I really need.

Joe has been servicing his tractors. We watched wildlife, gravel trucks, Richie's sorting their cattle, birds and cats. I don't know what else we did, but managed to fill the day. Dinner was broiled marinated rib steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and salad. Tonight we watched the silent film "Grass", which I have on DVR - Four stars - tribes of nomads with their flocks crossing Persia to find new pastures. We talked about high school, and both Betty and Nancy remember a lot more about the schoolmates than I do but then they both went to grade school together in Henderson too and I just went to high school. All of it is helping my memory with "The Book".