Cloud Kissers

The annual Balloon Festival is in town and it's quite a sight to see. Forty or fifty balloons launched this morning into the blue cloudless sky and made their way over our small town in the Mohave Desert. 

Cowboy Joe from Wyoming made an appearance

From the Walmart Parking lot

From a bluff in town

All sizes and shapes and colors

A good way to wake up in the morning!

Busy Fingers

I'm recovering...so I crochet. Meet Scarlet the teddy bear sitting atop a turquoise ombré chevron blanket....

,,,and a pretty purple/lavender pillow.... 

...and a bulky winter white pillow

...and don't forget the smiley faces or all the angels I've made recently. 

I have 2 blankets started and more projects on the way. I'm keeping my fingers busy. 

A Bunch of Anomalies

Yesterday I saw a strange "thing." It was an electric car charging at the local Walmart. We've spent several months in this town and NEVER have we seen one car charging at the "pump." Come to think of it, I've seen only a handful of electric cars getting a charge. Given there are some electric cars on the road, we should see them charging more often.

That's part one of the anomaly. The second part is the electric car was pulling a small travel trailer. Since electric cars have a relatively short driving radius, I have to wonder how wise it is to pull a power guzzling trailer behind an electric car especially since there are not charging stations on every corner? 

The third part of the anomaly is the electric car is the darling of liberals. Camping is the darling of conservatives. This is a strange partnership. I know from experience there are no electric charging stations in campgrounds.  SO I have to ask, what is the driver of an electric car, pulling a small camping trailer thinking about as they were filling up at Walmart? An interesting set of anomalies.

The Saga Continues

The "smell" of recovery is on the wind...it's so close but not quite here. I've graduated from the wheelchair to the walker. There's a big difference between the 2 helpers of conveyance. In the wheelchair no one sees you (or they attempt not to see you); but with a walker, they do see you (as you are now at eye level) but they still don't know what do say to you. They ignore the walker or think some awful thoughts about what is wrong with this person. No matter what they think, I can now get their attention and start the conversation on my terms. With the wheelchair, I never caught their attention.

So the walker is lighter, easier to maneuver, and very helpful. It even has a convenient bench that can be used as a seat, or as a shelf to haul things. The shelf allows me to be a little bit of help around the house. I'm still more of a drone than a helper, but I'm hoping that might change a little bit. I do a whole house walk a couple of times a day, and yesterday I even walked outside. I did a whopping 1604 steps yesterday and I was tired.

I've decided not to name my walker yet, but "Johnny Walker" comes to mind. That is not original with me, I had a friend named Waverly who named her walker "Johnny"....but I have not named this guy as I do not want him to be part of my permanent "cadre of helpers." To that end I named my cane "Michael" a long time ago, as I've used a cane on and off for years due to 3 bunion surgeries and a broken great toe.

I now know the reason why I had the ulcer. During the summer I hurt my hip. To ease the pain I took too much OTC medication that eventually caused the ulcer. With the debilitating effects of the ulcer becoming first and foremost in my mind, the hip pain was minor. Now that the ulcer pain is gone, the hip pain is evident again. To that end, I saw an orthopedic surgeon last week. He took an X-ray that told the whole story. My left hip is rubbing bone on bone with the left femur, causing pain every time I move. The damage has accrued over the years and now I'm a candidate for a hip replacement. He gave me a shot right at the spot which is of some help but not a permanent fix. I cannot get the replacement now, but when I fully recover from the ulcer, the hip will be replaced. So the saga continues. I'm on the mend and then we'll have the rest of the story...

Stunning Sunset

We stopped for a snack at McDonald's and noticed a woman taking pictures of the sunset. We said..yeah it's ok but not worth a picture. THEN as we were driving home, the sunset turned spectacular.

The sunset's reflection was great too

Mother Nature put on a good show tonight.

Tradition

We have a few traditions in our family and one of them is to watch the Rose Bowl Parade on January 1. Last year the parade was canceled...but it was back this year with a full contingent of flowered floats, marching bands, horse units as well as singers and dancers. 

We like all of it. This year we recorded 2 versions of the parade: one by ABC the other by NBC. Believe it or not, they were different. NBC showed more floats and bands than ABC. By recording it, we were able to flip thru commercials and useless commentary, and just see the parade. It was great.

In 1980, 42 years ago (my the time has flown by) we saw the parade in person. My mother in law bought tickets for us as well as my parents. We drove down from Ojai on a school bus with a boxed breakfast and a boxed lunch at 0 dark thirty on the first of January. We arrived in Pasadena as the sun started to rise and we were taken to our seats, nowhere near the massive bleachers at the "turn" on Colorado Avenue. No matter, we saw all the floats and we marveled at their beauty. We heard the bands as we huddled in our metal folding chairs at street level. It was exciting. 

All too soon the parade was over and our school bus met us for the ride back to Ojai. It was a clean up nightmare. The mess left behind by thousand of viewers was unbelievable. Not just the "normal" trash of food containers and wrappers, there were dozens of dilapidated sofas and over-stuffed chairs left on the street, waiting to be carted off by the cleaners. We had no idea that people would bring their worn out furniture to the parade but our bus driver assured us with "oh, that's common...they do it every year." 

I doubt we will see the parade live again so now we enjoy it from the warmth  and comfort of our living room, pre-recorded, so we can view it without getting up too early. It's a good tradition, and a way to welcome the new year.  Happy and Healthy 2022 everyone!