Monday Misc for July 13th

 Heat: I laid in bed this morning, listening to the radio and decided I wasn't going to walk this morning based on the weather at 7 a.m. It isn't that it is just so hot but based on the heat index it is too hot for me!  Yesterday morning I rolled out at 7 a.m. and went for a 1.25 mile walk but the heat index wasn't so high and I chose a route that was mostly in the shade. Maybe tonight after the sun goes down.... It is supposed to be up to around 99 today with a heat index of 110-115. Summer has arrived! The humidity is so high due to all the rain we have had. Yesterday I walked across the grass to feed the squirrels and noticed that the ground is still soggy and squishy 2 days after the last rain. At least it gets back down into the upper 80's later this week....

Storms: Well I made it through my first Tornado Warning last Monday since I moved back here. I still can't keep Tornado Watch and Tornado Warning straight so have them in my cell phone notes. I know that one is "conditions are ripe" and one is "take cover". Here is what I was seeing on TV and the street going up the center is the street I live on. As the storm went on, the sky was totally dark navy.

Back when I lived here before,  you would hear the sirens go off but you really didn't know what was happening. Now, it is non-stop TV coverage with 2-3 weathermen in the studio, the guy in the helicopter and several spotters on the ground. One of the guys in the studio is forecasting, one is glued to the radar screens and another one is in communication with the people out in the field. They go back and forth between showing the radar on the full screen and the helicopter picture being the small picture like below.  The one below is NE of me before the one near me flared up.

. What really amazed me was at 4 p.m. there was no storms in the area and yet they were in full force an hour later. I was surprised that they could form that quickly.

Liver Doctor:  I saw my liver doc last Wednesday and he discharged me... I have had perfect liver function labs for 18 months.  Either the auto-immune hepatitis is in remission or I didn't have it in the first place which is what the doctor things.  He is 100% convinced that it was simply my liver being sensitive to Tylenol. I had switched to Tylenol from Ibuprophen at the insistance of my kidney docs after the transplant.  Apparently studies have show that some people's liver is sensitive to Tylenol and will show the same abnormal labs as someone with liver disease. We'll never know for sure since the doctors in Tucson only went by the blood test and didn't do a liver biopsy which would have been an accurate confirming test. So i get my labs done every 3-6 months, follow up with my primary care doc and call the liver doc if they show up abnormal again and we will do the biopsy. About 30% of the people with auto-immune hepatitis do go into remission so we will never know which it was.

Another Monday.....

Another holiday over with..... I'm not sure why I have no interest in most holidays.  Maybe it is because my parents didn't make a big deal of them when I was growing up, maybe it was because for so many years when I was by myself and didn't have people to celebrate with or because both of the above coupled by Larry not being big on holidays so we usually didn't do anything special for them. When I was plant manager, we rarely shut down for holidays and sometimes worked Christmas.  If I was home and the plant was working, then I always made it a point to go to the plant and work in my office for awhile plus go out on the floor and say "hi" to the guys working. Anyway, I'm always glad when they are over. Overland Park has a ban on all fireworks except the displays put on by the town.  The ban includes sparklers.  It was nice to not hear any fireworks going off......

Me and my Fit Bit: We are getting along just fine and the little guy hasn't had cause to smirk at me anymore. I have walked at least 1.5 miles every day and most days it is 2.5+ miles. Last evening I checked it and was only at .75 miles so went out after the sun set to get in a mile walk even though it was around 80 degrees. The longest walk I have done at one time is 1.5 miles which is a long way from when Larry and I would do 4 miles to the McDonalds and back home. My back does bother me some at times when I'm walking but my knees are feeling much better and not as stiff. I've been noticing a lot of baby bunnies on the trail and they are so cute!  However, when they are on the trail in front of me they don't seem to be afraid so I walk 2-3' by them and they just set there and watch me. 

Weekend with no rain:  I wrote a few weeks ago that we hadn't had an official Sat and Sun weekend without rain since March 21-22nd.  Well this weekend we finally made it and there was NO rain. Now in the meantime there have been weekends when we didn't have rain in Overland Park but that isn't the official weather for KC which is measured at the KCI airport. Everything is sooooooo green! 

Farmer's Market:  The market is getting into full gear.  Last Saturday I got tomatoes, new potatoes, early peaches and corn.  The corn was REALLY good. 

Sept Trip:  My 2 friends from Tucson and I are working on the driving trip we are doing in September. We got the itinerary set and are now working on hotels/motels to stay at. Places we are staying overnight are in order: Bentonville, AR; Little Rock, AR; Memphis, TN; Nashville, TN; Gatlinburg, TN; Ashville, NC; Cookeville, TN; Paducah, KY; St Louis, MO; Boonville, MO and back to my house. They are flying out to KC from Tucson and we leave from my place. It is really hard to pick places to stay! Prices have also really gone up since we did a driving trip on the east coast 3 years ago. We are really looking forward to the trip!

Misc Misc for June 30th

I realized I missed writing a post last week!  I wish I had a really good excuse but actually I just forgot....

Fireflies: When I was a kid, we called them lightening bugs. I can remember catching them on summer nights, putting them in a jar that we had punched holes in the list for air and watching them light up.  Anyway, a couple of night ago I went for a walk about sundown so it was getting a little dark along the trail. I couldn't believe how many fireflies there were on the trail! I see one or two in my yard but nothing like there was along the trail - maybe due to the trees, creek, etc. Memories.....

My new toy:  I kept hearing so much about people wearing their FitBit at Weight Watchers and how great they are for tracking activity so I decided to try one after the latest lecture from my cardiologist. Here is what it looks like.

It syncs with my cell phone so I can look on my phone and see how many steps I have taken in a day, how many miles, how many minutes of activity, how many calories I used and how restless I was during the night!  The first day I wore it, the little guy inside informed me that I had walked 769 steps. I knew that would REALLY make my doctor unhappy.... The medical profession says you should walk 10,000 steps a day for good health - about 5 miles. It counts every step during the day - whether just in the house, in a mall or on a trail.  I knew I wasn't going to go from 769 steps to 10,000 very quickly so set my goal for 5,000 and the 3rd day I hit it. It is a reminder to me that if I want to do the things I want to do then I gotta move it.   I am walking more with the little guy reminding me that I can hit 5,000 with just another trip around the block......  An interesting thing is to look at the sleep chart that shows when I am restless in my sleep, when I get up, etc. And yes, my backs hurts more but I'm trying to keep it up - my knees do feel better though.

 

New Store in Town: I have watched a really big, tall building being build in the shopping center near me for the last year. On Saturday the Scheels Sporting Goods Store (employee owned) opened in the space. I held off going until yesterday - the 2nd day and oh my....  The store is 220,000 sq ft, has everything for sports that you can possible imagine plus has a 16,000 gallon aquarium, a 65-foot tall Ferris Wheel and two fully animated, talking presidents. There is a deli/fudge shop with 24 flavors of homemade fudge and 18 flavors of gelato. It is totally overwhelming!!!!!  The thing that I didn't expect was a department of women's clothing, purses and jewelry that was not sports related - some really cute stuff. I didn't even find the shoe dept - too many people. Yes, the store and parking lot was packed yesterday but I can't wait to go back when it isn't so packed just to really look around. I overhead one person saying "this will be the new tourist attraction for KC" and I agree - it isn't just a store, it is an experience.

 

 

Mon Misc for June 15th

And here it is - another rainy Monday and weekend....  Yesterday, around 6 p.m., it rained so hard for about 30 minutes that I could barely see across the street plus the wind was like crazy and blowing the rain sideways. Then it just quits!  This afternoon we got another good shower...  I just have this nightmare that one of these days it is going to quit raining and it will be a dry spell of months.... Hope not! Too bad that all my plants are under the porch and don't get watered by the rain so I still have to water them.

Castor Reunion: Vida, my sister-in-law,  and her 1 brother and 2 sisters were the stars of the Castor

reunion (her maiden name) on Saturday in Avilla, MO which down in the southwest part of the state. There was 75+ people there that were descended from their parents. One son has already passed away.  The planning for this event started around the first of the year.  Since then, her brother was diagnosed with late stage cancer and is undergoing treatment but he made it to the reunion.

 

Of course I knew very few of the people there but I'm getting used to these events where I know maybe 20% of the people in attendance.  I felt better when I hear others say the same thing....

 



Appointment with Heart Doctor:  I had an annual checkup with my heart doctor today.  As he said, "Yes, I have a high risk but we know that, we treat it with meds, I eat right (well part of the time) but I need to exercise more." My cholesterol and triglycerides are still in the 150-175 range and they would like them lower. They used to be in the 120's when I was taking Trilipix but I can't take that anymore due to the liver issues. Instead of increasing the Crestor dosage, they are going to add Zetia to my mix. Crestor prevents the liver from making as much cholesterol and the Zetia prevents the body from absorbing as much of what it does make.  We shall see... I love it when the docs take the time to explain stuff!  He drew me little pictures of plaque in the arteries and what happens when it "erupts" (his term) and blocks the artery causing a heart attack. My blockage is under 70%. He said that many people have much higher blockage and never have a problem where they see people all the time with only 30% or less having a heart attack. Besides my primary cardiologist, who is one of the top cardiologist in the KU heart department, I also saw a doc who is a cardiologist but also has a Phd in cardiovascular disease.  They also looked at my chart before coming in to the exam room and wanted to know if I had gotten all settled in after moving from Tucson, had I been back for a visit yet, is it as brown as it looks from the air, etc. That kind of stuff just blows me away with the KU Med system! You are truly a person - not just a number.

Monday Misc for June 8th

It's good to be home after the trip...seems like it is so much fun to travel but equally fun to be back home until the bug hits again...  I don't have any more long trips planned until September but will probably have1-2 overnight things before then. I think I am going to Columbia in early August for the Annual Missouri State Genealogy Conference. I have a lot of empty days on my calendar this month and am trying to keep them that way so I can get a lot of my genealogy research done.  My list of Genealogy To Do just keeps getting longer and longer.

Royal's Game: The apartment complex I live in sponsored a Royal's event yesterday. For $20 I got a tailgate lunch before we left, bus ride to the game and ticket for the game. Since going to a Royals game was on my Bucket List, I couldn't pass it up - especially since I didn't have to drive. I took a niece along with me since we could being one guest. On the way home on the bus, they asked how many would be interested in doing the same thing for a Chief's game and everyone was interested even though the ticket would be more.  If they do, I hope to go so I can check another item off my bucket list. 8-)

It was the hottest day of the year (90 degrees) so I was really concerned about the sun but our seats were underneath an overhang so we were in the shade.  However, we also didn't have the breeze that was blowing and it was still hot. Yes, we were up high but sure could see everything and the price was certainly right. At the end of the 5th, Carol and I went out in the concourse where there was wind - like in a wind tunnel and cooled off. We ended up sitting on the floor out there, in the breeze, watched the rest of the game on a TV and listened to the stadium announcer.

I was trying out a new, small camera that I can just stick in a small purse. I got it in Tucson in January but haven't really used it that much. It certainly passed the test yesterday! In the top picture, you can see how high up we were. In the bottom picture, I zoomed it all the way in and you can read the batter's name on the back of his jersey.

Downtown St Louis

Today it was back to the Metro going down town, walking, walking, walking, the trolley back to the Metro station and then back to the hotel.  My feet are tired but not as bad as yesterday... Yesterday I took 254 pictures and today it was only 173.... I'm still going to have a lot of editing to do before doing the book from this trip.

One of the things that I was surprised at was the abundance of greenery downtown among the tall buildings. Above is a picture in the City Garden which is a 2 block long by 1 block wide space surrounded by tall building. There are a lot of sculptures around in the park, benches, etc.  There are trees along the curbs of all the city streets downtown. The only other place I have seen this is in Little Rock and some in Oklahoma City. Very refreshing!

One of the many fountains in the City Garden area.

And of course, the Gateway Arch.... They are doing major remodel of the area around the arch including the visitor center. This was taken from the Old Courthouse.

This was part of the lazer light show in the Grand Hall of the hotel tonight. It was 4 seasons and really neat. I have not idea how they do it!

I catch Amtak at 9:15 in the morning for the boring 6 hours back home. I have had a great time and am impressed with St Louis...

Forest Park, Zoo, Jewel Box, Art Museum PLUS Light-rail

My feet may never be the same again.  I swear they are numb from doing so much walking today!
I caught the MetroLink behind the hotel and took it to near Forest Park.  Then I got on the Park trolley that runs around the park with stops at all the tourist places so you can get off, do what you want to do, get back on the trolley and go on to the next stop. It was all very efficient.  However, the hard thing for me was when I was done with something I want to go, not have to wait 10-15 minutes on the trolley.

Zoo:   The zoo here is really great - I'm not saying it is better than the one in Kansas City but the one in St Louis is bigger and has more animals. It is definitely far better than the San Diego Zoo in my opinion but then so is the KC Zoo.  I saw some animals here today that I have never seen anyplace in a zoo.  The exhibits are really well done - open and not a lot of bars.

Jamacian Iguana

 "I think I will just stay in bed today....."

One of the ugliest animals I have ever seen... It a 600 lb Takin - distant relative of an ox. 

Water lilies in the outdoor garden.

I saw a Water Lilies canvas by Monet in the Art Museum in Kansas City and here was another one... I read the sign by it and found out that Monet painted 3 of the prints - all just slightly different. One is in KC, one in St Louis and the 3rd one is in the Cleveland Museum of Art.  So I am going to compare this one with a picture I have of the one in Kansas City and see if I can see any differences. 

Tomorrow it is back to Light rail and heading east to the Gateway Arch area...

Greetings from St. Louis

Amtrak's Missouri River Runner: It takes almost 6 hours to get to St Louis from Kansas City with several stops along the way. The train was made up of the engine,  3 passenger cars and a club car. I was surprised at how many people were on the train although unless it was a couple, we mostly had the 2 seats to ourselves. Some had bikes, got off in Herman and were going to ride the Katy rail. Not me..... The seats were comfortable and there was plenty of leg room.  My problem was that after about 3 hours I got bored...  I had my Kindle but could only read for 15-20 minutes and then would have to stop for awhile - I get motion sick easily... I tried a magazine and that was even worse. For about 60% of the trip all there was to look at was trees since there were so many trees and brush in the fence rows along the tracks.

We started in along the river near Jefferson City which made it a little more interesting.  It seemed like the conductor blew the whistle most of the way since there were so many train crossings.  But in between, the top speed was around 65-70 MPH according to the conductor. We were moving right along....  I could check the map on my phone and see where we were or what a little town it was that we didn't stop in. Finally we got to the transportation station in St Louis that is the depot for Amtrak, Busses, light rail, etc. From there it was a 4 block walk to the hotel. 

Doubletree Station Hotel: This is an absolutely amazing place!  It was built in 1894 , the largest terminal in the United States at that time, and had 32 sets of tracks. The last train pulled out in 1978 after the new multi-use transportation center was opened. In 1985, after a $5.5 million renovation, it reopened as a hotel. Besides the hotel, there is a lake and mall. In 2014, the first 3D light show in St Louis opened in the Grand Hall and shows a light show on the 65 foot high ceiling in the Grand Hall.  

The show starts at 5 pm and happens on the hour until 11 p.m. with a different show each hour. In between shows, the color of the ceiling changes color every few minutes. Beautiful place!

Tomorrow I am off to Forest Park for the Zoo and 1904 World's Fair Pavillion via MetroLink which is the local light rail. So far so good not having a car...

Monday Misc for June 1st

Absolutely cannot believe it is June! I always heard that the older you get the faster time goes by and I am now a confirmed believer of that theory. Oh well, it is better than the alternative.

St Louis trip:  I leave Wed morning on Amtrak's Missouri River Runner for St Louis and return on Saturday. The fare was $25.50 each way but I will have to rely on public transportation while there since I won't have a car. It will be interesting to get around without a car which is something I have never done before.  I have carefully studied the MetroLink (light rail) route, which has a stop right behind the hotel I am staying at, to see where I can go without having to change trains, change to a bus, etc.  Thursday will be spent at Forest Park with the zoo, Worlds Fair Pavilion, etc and on Friday I plan to go the opposite direction to the area of the Gateway Arch. I'm staying at the Doubletree Union Station Hotel which is the original Union Station for trains back in the day. Stay tuned for my new experience....

Rose Garden at Loose Park: Yesterday was a "no rain" day so I finally made it to the Rose Garden which I have been wanting to do for several weeks. The rains have damaged the roses but still found some good ones.

 I do love the roses..... I don't think I have ever seen a arose with the edges like this. There was 2 plants like this in the garden - both the same color.

And then there was this little guy watching to see which way I was going. I loved the way he was holding his hands!

History Tidbit: I was in a different part of Loose Park yesterday and noticed a sign that the area was the "First Home of the Kansas City Country Club". Golf was introduced in 1894 to Kansas City and in 1896 a 9-hole course was build in the pasture that is now the park. Nine more holes was added in 1899.

Strawberries: I went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday to get another box of strawberries and they will be the last ones for another 12 months.... The guy said they will have them Wed and next Sat but I won't be here and then they are over for the year.  Boo Hoo......  I'll resort to getting some at the store but they won't come close to being as good.

Odds and ends.... May 26th

Rain: It still keeps raining... As of 5 p.m. today we have received officially 9.71 inches of rain this month and more rain is forecasted in the coming days. Next Monday is the first day where no rain is forecasted.  According to the radio, it has rained almost every day this month.  The good thing is that most of the storms have been nice, slow, easy rains.  So of course everything is green and growing like crazy.  Right now the wind is blowing and the grass is moving in the wind - it is so long and thick. It sure beats the lack of rain....

Labs: Last Friday I went down to the hospital to get my monthly labs done.  I was done around 9 a.m. By the time I got back in the area, stopped at the store and got home I had an email to check "My Chart". My labs were processed and posted within 90 minutes! Must have been a slow day in the lab and doctor's office since the results go from the lab to the doctor's office who reviews them and posts them to My Chart. Once again, my kidney and liver are happy campers!!!!!! For the first time ever, my glucose was a few points above norm.  I'm not going to worry and will see where it is next month.

Fairy Garden: My Fairy Garden aka a Miniature Garden is done after spending weeks buying the little pieces to go in the garden plus 2 books on how to make one and ideas.

First of all, these are not cheap to make! Some of the plants come in 1" pots and cost as much as those in 4" pots. The hardscape items are very spends since they are the latest fad in gardening. Trimming is done with scissors and a small paint brush is the rake and used to sweep dirt off things. . The trees, african violet and coleus are planted in their pots so they will stay small. The Irish Moss "grass" is planted in the dirt. To put it in a size perspective, the tiles making the patio are 1" at the widest point. It was fun to do and I enjoy looking at it.

 

This is the side of the patio where it sits along with other stuff. If I choose to, I can bring it in this winter instead of starting over next spring.

 

Bursitis: It is definitely getting better but the side effects of prednisone have arrived in full force. I have all this energy but things are hard to do with only one arm. I finally went to sleep around 3 this morning and that is really hard for me to deal with. The pain pill that is supposed to make me sleepy was not strong enough to override the prednisone but at least I wasn't hurting while laying there wide awake.... Hopefully it will go better tonight but I'm not holding my breath...

 

Monday Misc - May 25th

Putting flowers on graves: Vivian and I drove down to Sarcoxie on Saturday to put flowers on the graves of family members including Vida's parents, etc - 14 graves altogether. The back of my vehicle was packed full of wreaths.  We got smarter this year because when we bought there here, we wrote the name of who it was for on the label. All but 1 grave was in the same cemetery in Sarcoxie.

Right to left of the front row: My nephew (Bill's son), Daddy, Mom and the empty space on the left will be mine... I look around at the names in the cemetery and it is like a trip down memory lane because I knew so many of them when I was growing up.

Whenever we have been to the cemetery the last few years we always say "Wonder how we can get the black stuff off Vivian's mother's tombstone?" So after last year, I called a company that makes then and asked how they can be cleaned. 

 

The guy said to put a few drops of Dawn dish detergent in a spray bottle, spray it really good, brush with a soft bristle brush and then rinse thoroughly. So after I sprayed and scrubbed awhile, Vivian took over and this is how it turned out. The two darker lines on this one is where the water hadn't totally dried yet.  This fall we plan to go back to the cemetery and do the same on the tombstones of some other relatives.  The build up isn't near as bad on theirs but want to do it before it gets too bad. The guy told me is was just dirt and algae that builds up on the non-polished part of the marble.

On the way home, we stopped at the Reeds Cemetery, in the little town where my mom grew up, so I could show the cemetery to Vivian.  Two of my uncles are buried there plus wives and some of their children.  We notice a new grave for a Tommy Dean Goodson and it turns out it was a cousin of mine. He was a year older than me but I don't remember him as a kid.

Bursitis update: The bursitis in my shoulder is a little better today.  I slept most of last night in the recliner.  The doctor said to take the pain pill when I went to bed so that is what I did.  I didn't know it took at least an hour to kick in. I could not find a position in bed that didn't hurt when I went to bed so got up after 30 minutes and went in to the recliner with a blanket. By the time I woke up at 5:30, I went to bed and through the magic of pain pills didn't have any pain. The pain is better today after the prednisone started working. Tonight I will take the pain pill at least an hour before going to bed! Today was one of the few times I was thankful for naturally curly hair because there was no way I could use a blow dryer and brush on my hair after a shower this morning.

More Arboretum pictures

I have a few more pictures from last Monday's trip to the Overland Park Arboretum of some of the flowers that were in bloom.

I really, REALLY, visiting there!

Overland Park Arboretum

Love this place!  It is just so peaceful to go out there and walk the trails.  Yesterday was a little more challenging since there were 2 school buses there with kids but I made it.  I really doubt if 1st graders had a fun time looking at flowers but were probably excited to get out of the classroom. They had a special exhibit going on right now called Container Gardening that was interesting. Here are a few of the pictures in the exhibit:

 Plants planted in a trunk.

 

 A different use for a shopping cart....

Above and below:  I never thought about using old purses as a container but it is kinda unique.

Below is a cute Fairy Garden in a cut-out clay pot.

Monday Misc for May 18th

Where oh where is the year going?  It is passing so fast..

Strawberries: I practically dreamed about the Midwest strawberries during the years when I was out west.  The only place I got strawberries that met my expectations was when I lived in Sacramento.  There was a field along a busy street that grew strawberries and sold them at a stand by the field. Then it was a long dry spell for strawberries while I Arizona but I am back to Strawberry Heaven again. I found out about a family farm/orchard that is about 40 miles away while at the Saturday Farmer's Market. I went out there last year and got some and have been looking forward to them again for the last 12 months. I got an email from them last week saying that strawberries are ready again and open to U-Pick.  Well, let me tell you, I DO NOT DO U-PICK!  I picked strawberries as a kid for spending money - 5 cents a quart and that was it for me. The little town I grew up in at one time shipped box car loads of strawberries by rail from the many acres of strawberry farms in the area. The local farm was at the Farmer's Market last Saturday and I got a quart for me ad 2 quarts for my bother that I delivered yesterday. I finished the last of my quart at breakfast this morning but will be picking up 2 flats at the farm on Wednesday - 1 for me and 1 for Bill & Vida.

Flowers:  Last week I was at Vivian's house (my niece) and her yard is just beautiful.  She must have inherited her green thumb from her Grandma and Grandpa Arnold (my parents) but it skipped a generation because I sure don't have it. Here are some pictures I took of her flowers in bloom:

 

 

My solution to having flowers on the patio or in the entry is to buy a potted plant that is already blooming, stick it in a container and if it lives it lives and if it doesn't then it get's replaced....

Odds and Ends....

My SUV:  Last Tuesday I took my vehicle in for a 65,000 mile checkup, etc.  I got a loaner (free) since it would not be ready until on Wednesday.  Much to my surprise, I got a 2015 RX350 (same as I have) with 604 miles on it. Other than having a navigation system it was almost exactly like mine.  I was surprised that there were very few changes over the last 5 years in that model. I commented on that when I took it back and the service mgr said that they are going to do a major design overhaul for 2016 including making it quite a big bigger. Guess I won't be getting another one of the same model since I want smaller not larger.

Adult coloring books:  If you saw NBC news last Monday or Tues evening then you heard them talking about the big new stress reliever that is coloring books for adults. I'll admit I about choked when I heard this and then the more I thought about it the more intrigued I was with the idea.  So the next day, while at Barnes and Noble book store, I asked the clerk if they had any.  She directed me to a table that had about 20 different book designs. Now these are not your old coloring books like we grew up with.  Large solid space is limited. The designs are intricate and sometimes small.  Here is one page out of the book I got. The page is 8 1/2 x 11 - regular paper size but a heavier paper so the markers don't bleed through.

 

And the coloring is another thing, adults don't use crayolas like we did as a kid.  Now they use colored pencils, gel pens or magic marker type pens - all look different on the paper and you blend colors to get other colors, etc like painting.  They come in boxes like crayolas and are in that section of the store. It was a whole new experience for me to look in the Crayola section of the store yesterday. Last night I tried it out and here it is....

Some pages have several designs on the page, such as the above page, and I thought I would start with this one which is one of the easier designs. I'm not looking at this so much as stress relief but I can't just sit and watch TV - I like to be doing something while sitting and watching TV.  My senior eyes won't let me do embroidery or crochet anymore so I usually read during commercials or play games on the iPad. This coloring seems much more fun.....

 

Trip to St. Louis:  I'm thinking about taking Amtrak to St Louis next month which will check off an item on my Bucket List. If I do, I won't be getting a car but will rely on public transportation...  Could be an interesting trip.

 

 

Gardens, Birds and Squirrels

The grass is lush and green, flowers are blooming, the temperature is perfect - I do love the spring in the Midwest!  I have observed that the landscapers, who do the apartment complex, do not cut the grass short so it looks very lush and even moves in the wind. It is cut and trimmed every week. I noticed this week that the roses are starting to bloom and of course all the other spring flowers have either already bloomed or are just starting. Here is a picture of cuttings from Bill & Vida's peony plant last week.  The blooms are the size of large grapefruits. Nope...I do not miss the desert except for friends....

I've been working on getting some color on my front entry and patio. The entry (below) is about done. I am going for "easy care" stuff this year in both places. Some of it I am leaving in it's pot from the nursery and just setting it down in a container.  That way I can easily replace it if it doesn't like me. One of my new ventures this year is doing a Fairy Garden - or miniature garden. I had never heard of them until last summer and think they are neat. Plus it's something I can set down and work on since I'm putting it into a container that will set on a table on the patio. Stay tuned.....

The Great-Tailed Crackle birds have found my bird/squirrel feeders and are driving me crazy.  I can't believe how much they eat, they spill the seed from the feeders and are just a plain nuisance!  I guess I can't have Blue Jays, Cardinals and squirrels without having these ornery things and doves who are almost as bad. I can put out 5 lbs of seed and in a few hours it is gone!  What really ticks me off is they get into the feed for the squirrels that is on the patio, pick the seeds out and leave them on the ground mixed in with the hulls that the squirrels leave. So if I sweep it up and toss it, I am also tossing a lot of good food. Not sure there is an answer to the delimma but will talk to the guy at the bird feed store this week when I replenish my supply...  Anyway....I caught one of the squirrels stretched out and resting on the patio railing yesterday...

I am discovering that it doesn't take much to amuse retired people.....