Wednesday October 1 2008

Stormy Sunset

Another month gone. What happened to summer? Here we are already getting closer and closer to winter. Big beautiful thunderclouds are building over the mountains. There have been rumors of snow coming on Sunday - the hunters will like that. But today is beautiful again. We had about 10 raindrops on the windows this afternoon. The dogs are tired out too, getting to go somewhere almost every day. Sprawled out in the yard sleeping in the sun.

Betty bustled around this morning, leaving her room all clean and made up, getting her belongings all gathered up and packed into the van. She left about 10 a.m. and had made a reservation for tonight at her favorite motel in Nephi, about halfway home to Mesquite. That way she only needs to drive about 5 hours a day. She'll get home about noon tomorrow and need to unload (remember all the old wood and stuff) and return the rental van. She was going to stop by Bonnie's on the way out to photograph her bay window. I suppose they will have lots to discuss about their mutual friend me.

Anyway Betty is thinking of having a bay window put in over her kitchen sink where she spends a lot of time watching the birds and wildlife at the feeders in her yard. Except that the window is too high on the wall to get a good view from the second level there where the kitchen is down to the yard below. (The lower level is a full basement but on a hill so..... I forget what you call that when the house is built in a hill and you come in at ground level on the different stories.) Betty is going to call me this afternoon when she gets to the motel.

It's going to be a quiet day for me here, as the last many days have been busy ones. Two days away in a row always have tired me out. I napped yesterday and today for many hours - I was just worn out. I might make some lists - what I want to take to the new house, other things to be done, things we need to buy - furniture or appliances etc. -and spend some time looking at the paperwork of the houses to choose which ones to show to Joe. I'll try to take a few more pictures to show you when we go do that.

But here are the internet links to look at the houses we considered, in case you are curious enough to take a look. They all look the same but each one should open onto a different page. We chose places close in town, with one story, mostly no stairs, clean not needing remodeling, newer, not too big, on and on.

Click to view listing(s) .. Click to view listing(s) .. Click to view listing(s) .. Click to view listing(s) .. Click to view listing(s)

Some favorites not in order:

2 South Fork Trail - 2 acres

86 Orcutt Dr. - 1.36 acres (has stairs and full basement; view )

17 Arrowhead - 2 acres

865 Grace Lane - new modular

60 Riverbend - new modular, very small lot.

I talked to Lois this morning because they used to live in one of the houses I'm most interested in. The only negative she mentioned was that the guy who built the garage put the roof on so the snow slides off into the the driveway ..... can you imagine?? Otherwise she loved the house. She had painted a sky mural on the high ceiling above the kitchen which is still there and it's charming. But each place has some negatives, we're just going to have to see what works best for us. For instance, the roads to the very nice one on Orcutt Hill may not be the best in winter - kind of far off the good county road - plowing may be an issue; stairs to the basement where the washer and dryer are - they have to be replumbed and moved upstairs. Most of the others need to be fenced and some have covenants that describe how you must landscape etc. Of course, there will be time for landscaping next summer. But because of the dogs, we need to fence immediately. Those are drawbacks to brand new places, where lived-in ones need other kinds of repair or cleaning. Each house is very much different from the others except for two similar modulars in the same new area.

A few things that came to my attention - perhaps hadn't considered before - is that Pinedale IS a very nice town overall. I've always liked it very much, but hadn't given that much thought. Some of the older sections can be a little dreary, but I'm more impressed overall than before. The other thing that really stands out is how much the town is growing, and that the new "subdivisions" or "developments" are quite nice - parks and green spaces and bike paths. If good views aren't right in your face, they aren't far away. Pluses and minuses to everything, so we're going to have to be flexible. I sure knew and have often mentioned how the whole area around town is developing rapidly, but the town is also.

I should be back to having some good days - I was sorry that my chemo recovery days were during the time that Betty was here. I wasn't the best of company much of the time. Now I hope to have the ambition to paint a little. Joe's having a little trouble with his hearing or the hearing aids. He will go see the audiology person soon to check it out. And has an eye checkup this week as well. He's watching all the financial and political news. That's about all I know today. So far.

At 5:30 p.m. during an edit of the blog,..... It's Raining!

Tuesday September 30 2008

PHOTOS OF A HOUSE HUNTING DAY

Absolutely beautiful morning. We left home by 8:30 and had time to walk the dogs near the bike path so they would be o.k.waiting in the car for several hours while we went house hunting and had lunch with James. We parked them in a shady spot near the real estate office and off we went to see five more houses.

Another picture of yellow trees - beautiful.

House hunting. This was a very nice place sitting up on Orcutt Hill with probably the best view of the mountains. It has a stone walk and stairs in several places that would take some redoing in order for them to be "elderly" safe. I liked several of the houses today. We've looked at 13 or 14 homes and probably everything available within our guidelines. There is quite a variety and they all have pros and cons, of course. Now it is time to sort through every thing we've seen and pick out the top half dozen or so and show them to Joe in a day or so. James has done a great job helping us look.

Kathy met us at the Brew Pub for a nice lunch and it sure was good to see her. Thank you for the meal and the nice day you guys.

After lunch we let the dogs out again, this time taking the nature trail through the park next to Pine Creek. They had to swim of course so after this we rode with stinky wet dogs.

"Walking the Dogs" - We sat and listened to the water run.

Downtown Pinedale Wyoming - couldn't have been a more perfect day. We've been seeing lots of geese in their formations, getting ready to fly south for the winter.

This is a part of the new veterans memorial in the park. It's the first time I've seen it close up. It's very nicely done. There are polished monuments with every Sublette County veteran's names on them.

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There is Joe's brother Jim's name - James M. Thomas - and shows how polished the rock is - the rock is actually black, but the reflection is something. We couldn't figure out what the stars, triangles, crosses, etc. mean.

This shows from a distance part of the monuments where the names are listed on the left. The uprights are some kind of polished black rock and the names are carved into them. I think there are three sets like the one above, but couldn't figure out exactly how the names were listed - it needs a code listed somewhere so you know what you're looking at.

We ran the car through the car wash and then we had ice cream cones, yes - the boys too. They shared a baby cone. Then we drove on home.

The ingredients for turkey vegetable soup for dinner. This made an easy meal, with some croissants and watermelon. Sparky was ever hopeful for scraps from the turkey.

Betty will be leaving in the morning. We will both miss her. She got her laundry done up and the car mostly packed.

Monday September 29

Septembery Day

Fall Creek Road near The Snake River

Meadow and Colorful Hillside

Betty Photographs

This morning we were on the road by about 6:30 - groan! Joe wanted to ride along to see the fall colors so he went with us. This is about the longest outing he has had in many months. We walked the dogs once on the way and got to the hospital right on time for my appointment. Returned the pump. They tried to get my blood drawn, this for the protime test to see how the coumadin is doing, and again had to stick me 3 times before they got a vial full, twice before the doctor appointment and once after.

We maybe spent 45 minutes for the entire time we were in hospital. The time with the doctor was not long at all. Joe met Dr. Ward, and they visited just a little, because about ten years ago Joe had gone to Dr. Ward in Salt Lake when they were checking some abnormalities in his blood for leukemia - and Dr. Ward said he didn't have it, but his blood does show a tendency to have it. So Dr. Ward was going to go back in the records ten years and look at what he had told Joe.

First off he noticed my spiky hair and said he really liked it - asked Joe if he didn't like it too and Joe just look at me and asked the doctor if it was all going to fall out. He said no. He asked how my symptoms had been so I started at the top and went down. He just said "Well you can blame me for all that" and we just laughed. We went over the CT scan and ultra sound tests, he gave me the usual exam feeling my liver - he never says much about that, discussed the symptoms I'd been having and skimmed over the clot in my neck, which he seems to be confident the coumadin will take care of that in a few weeks. I hope he's right about that. Mainly the good news from this time is that he says I seem to be holding my own very well. And then he said I could begin having the treatments every 3 weeks instead of every 2 and that would give me more space for feeling well in between. I was glad about that too. He said to have another scan in December - so sounds like I'm pretty good at least until then.

We went over to Virginia and Calvin's and visited about 30 minutes - Joe likes Calvin a lot and always wants to know how he's doing. I returned Virginia's book Remember about the Willie Hand Cart company. Then we walked the dogs at the fair ground - they met two other dogs there who where learning to retrieve.

We decided to drive down the Fall Creek Road again that Bonnie and I did a few weeks ago, so Joe and Betty could see the colors there. We stopped at Nora's Fish Creek Inn for lunch, then took the drive through the hills. It was probably about as pretty as it's going to get. There are so many beautiful spots to go painting. Walked the dogs in there again. Then on toward home.

We stopped a few minutes and got some fruit and a bit of groceries at the Hoback Market. In Pinedale we had ice cream at the little drive in for a treat - the boys got to share a baby vanilla cone. On the way by at Boulder I showed Joe that lovely log house we first looked at so he could make a comparison of the prices on what we will be showing him soon. Home by about 3:30. We're all still so full we just had an omelet for dinner. And I told Sparky he'd had so much already - tacos and prime rib sandwich leftovers and ice cream - he would only get a little dry food, he was disappointed when the can food didn't come out.

There was a message on the machine when we got back and Paige said my protime test was high so to take 1/2 a pill one day and a whole the next, and get it checked again in Pinedale next Monday.

In the morning we'll go back to meet James and look at five more houses in Pinedale and then have lunch, so we'll be out of here about 8:30.

Sunday September 28 2008

More Yellow Trees

It is a really lovely day again. Dogs are out sleeping in the sun. Nothing interesting happening to write about and my mind isn't in a mode for any creative thoughts either. The best we can think of to do is go sit outside in the shade and enjoy the day. Betty's been walking a little with the dogs and Sparky watches her every move so she doesn't get away without him.

James sent us some more house listings and we went through all those and picked four more to look at on Tuesday. This online looking is quite easy, and what we're looking at can also be sent to the kids.

Joe and Betty took the truck down to the big old wood pile and looked for weathered wood and barn wood and antique iron hardware. He gave her an old iron wheel for one thing. She wants to decorate her big planters in desert xeriscaping so she doesn't have to water so much, and thought the rustic wood theme would fit there. I started the laundry, vacuumed while they were gone, then got us some lunch. I suppose dinner will be turkey leftovers. So rather dull around here.

Saturday September 27 2008

THANK YOU DEAR BETTY

Its another beautiful Indian Summer morning. The antelope are chasing in the fields. The hillsides are really getting golden now.

Many many years ago when I was at the lodge most of the time, Betty made me a small comforter to cover up with when "I laid down to take a nap". If you know me, you know how much I actually napped - NOT - but I loved the comforter and did use it on my bed for YEARS! It had silly little green frogs on red checks. Finally the comforter was worn threadbare and I had to give it up. It felt just like Linus, that I had drug that blankie around back and forth from here to Vegas, the ranch to the lodge. The blankie was always packed and taken wherever I was. Well, I recovered the batting with new red plaid and carried that around many more years, always used it to snuggle into. Earlier this fall I finally burned the comforter, and made sure the barrel was burning when I took it out, or I'm sure I would have gone and taken it back out of the garbage I was so attached to it. Actually Raven had been sleeping on it for a while by then.

Well, Betty brought me a brand new comforter made with a piece of the leftover froggie material and a new dark blue backing for a gift. I don't know many people who would have kept a piece of material for 30 years with just this thing in mind. So here is a picture of her sewing on the last of the ties. She didn't get it quite finished before she left home. We hope I use the comforter for many years and get it threadbare too.

Debbie called this morning and she, Curtis and Beverly are planning to come up and help us "move" or get into a new house in a few weeks. We need to get it bought first. Maybe Tuesday Betty and I can have James take us to a few more likely houses to check out and even get Joe in to town to look at the most likely candidates. Joe is being amazingly positive about being in town for the winter. It seems like he's looking forward to the whole idea. One good thought is that I could swim almost every day at the new pool and do a lot more socializing. And can you believe Joe says he will come back and feed the cats once a week and make sure they have water in their heated dish. Wants me to buy another heated water dish so they'll have plenty of water. I suppose he would want to check on the place, as the heat will need to be left on low, in the house etc.

It's been quiet and we had naps. Tonight we're making a turkey and dressing dinner. Betty saw the Rusty cat with a mouse this morning.

Friday September 26 2008

Nube Leads a Pack Horse when Bob and Gina went hunting.

Yesterday James showed us four houses, three were not suitable for us, and there was one that I loved. It's really charming We drove by two others to see what they looked like and I didn't much like where they were at but that's all we had to go on. Mainly the rest if the houses were much older than I would like and two of them were way bigger than we need. Just don't want to move into a place we have to clean, paint and recarpet etc. at this point.

We also went into the Communications Concept which serves both my Verizon phone and the Dish TV network. The repairmen aren't coming to look at the TV until after the 15th of October. He wasn't able to resolve the messages for another person that are coming into my phone either and said I'd have to have the person who has the plan take care of it.

Today it is a beautiful morning, quite a bit of clouds and is cool. It cleared up and got warmer later. Betty drove us in to town to look at more houses because I'm taking more pain pills again, and thank goodness they are working, but they make me really drowsy. I got the neck pain back again after getting the chemo pump off yesterday. It may have to do with the saline flushes they use - she used four syringes of it..

We stopped at Bonnie's on the way in today to return her videos and she and Betty met each other. Nancy had left a whole sack more of videos she is lending to me. Then as we were going by Boulder, we decided we'd eat lunch - burgers - there at the Boulder Pub. We also stopped by Nancy's - she changed the string on the bead necklace she made me from sinew to wire so we picked that up. She also gave me a marvelous frog fetish. What a treasure. I'll take a picture of it for the blog.

In Pinedale they were just having a homecoming parade as we drove in and later you could hear all the cheering at the game. We walked the dogs on the walking path. picked up Joe's blood test results from the health fair at the public health nurse and went to meet James about 12:45. We looked at three more homes. James had four lmore houses lined up, but the owners of one said wasn't a good day to show it. That seems to be about my limit for stamina right now anyway. One house was entirely solar passive, and that guy really was enthused about all the creative ways he had built the house. Too much technology for me. And they still paid $300 a month for heat in the coldest months. We looked at a very nice brand new house up on Orcutt Hill and I liked that one second best, so have two good choices now. We got home about 3:15 and later fixed some grilled chicken and baked potatoes for dinner. I have really been falling asleep a lot today, couldn't keep my eyes open.

Thursday September 25 2008

Brilliance on The Rim

Today we go to Pinedale and get the port taken off at the Clinic. I'll have the first protime test there. Joe has a haircut appointment, but decided to go on his own since Betty and I will probably be most of the day in town. I have an appointment to get the oil changed in the SUV and we'll have some lunch. There is a long list of town errands, but at least we don't have to grocery shop. Perhaps we can get James to show us a few houses for sale in Pinedale.

Time is a companion that goes with us

on the journey that reminds us to cherish every

moment because they'll never come again.

What we leave behind is not as important as how we live

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Comander of the Enterprise D

Star Trek Generations