Museums, museums, museums.....

Today was Museum day and Samantha did a fine job getting us from one to the other. She didn't get fired once today!

We started the day with the National Civil Rights Museum which was an interesting, moving place.

The museum is build onto the original Lorraine Motel which is where Martin Luther King was killed in 1968. The wreath is in front of the balcony and his room where he was when shot. The cars belonged to him and his entourage. The museum is very well done and we spent 2 hours there which is a long time for us - we tend to move through museums quicker than that. 

I know you probably can't read this but is the bill of sale for a slave which was a 10 month old baby. I  have read about slave owners selling children and breaking up a family but I had not head of  babies being sold by themselves. The docent said sometimes slave owners would buy toddlers or very small children so he could raise them the way he wanted them. Hard to imagine!

This is the actual bus that Rosa Parks was on and the bronze statue of her is where she was sitting when she was arrested for not sitting in the back of the bus. 

Next stop was the Blues Hall of Fame. It only opened in May 2015. 

We went through this one in record time.... The museum is well done with exhibits divided into different types of blues music including "country blues" - whatever that is.. There was even a harmonica section.... I realized that I like the music but don't know many of the performers. 

Last museum of the day was the Cotton Museum which was very interesting and informative. 

The museum is located in the original Cotton Exchange. It was similar to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange that sells stocks but this one sold cotton all over the world from different plantations in the south. 

The white stuff is cotton seeds with some of the fiber still on it.  The brown is the seed after all the fiber is pulled off it. It takes about 200 days of frost-free days after the seed is planted until it is ready to be picked. 

A typical cotton bale is 55" tall x 33" thick and 21" wide. It is enough cotton to make 1,256 pillow cases (100% cotton) or 1,217 men's t-shirts or 313,600 $100 dollar bills.  I did not know that a $1.00 bill is 75% cotton!

The Tucson Trio is on the road again tomorrow heading for Nashville.

2nd Day in Memphis

Samantha and I are getting along better - maybe it's because we are both getting better at finding our way around Memphis. I spent some time this morning studying a map of the city so I at least had an idea of where I was going. At least she still has a job.... 8-)

We left the hotel this morning and went by Graceland. None of us wanted to do the tour so we drove by and parked in a side road so Nancy and Jane could walk over to look up the drive at the house and grounds. I had seen it before so stayed in the car. I was really surprised at how much the trees in front of it have grown since I saw it 4 years ago. Now, you can hardly see the house for all the big trees.

Then it was on to Beale Street again to tour the Rock 'N Soul Museum. The museum does a good job tracing the history of rock and roll from the cotton fields music to the Beatles. Beale Street certainly looks different in the day - kinda like Bourbon Street in the daylight - not a very inviting place.

As we came into town yesterday we saw a very large pyramid building and visited it today. Is is the Bass Pro at Pyramid.

The building opened April 29, 2015 after 4 years in construction and $191 Million dollars.. This is the front of the building. 

The back of the building where the parking lot is. It is 32 stories tall and  besides the usual stuff in a Bass Pro Store, it contains a hotel, a 12 lane bowling ally, a 28 floor observation deck, the best fudge you will ever eat, etc. The observation deck is reached by taking the tallest freestanding elevator in America.  I went up but Nancy and Jane stayed downstairs. However, I did not walk out on the part of the deck that is clear material and you can see the building/ground below your feet - I stayed on the concrete part of the deck. 

Needless to say, the view of the Mississippi River and downtown was spectacular! 

There is also a man-made cypress swamp with 3 alligators in it. As you can see, they could care less about us...

Tomorrow is the Civil Rights Museum, Cotton Museum and the Blues Hall of Fame.  Plus we will need to repack tomorrow night as we move onto Nashville on Tuesday. 

We made it to Memphis...

Before leaving Little Rock this morning, we went out to see the Big Dam Bridge - honestly, that is it's name....  The bridge crosses the Arkansas River and is the longest and tallest pedestrian/bicycle bridge in the country. It is 4,220 feet long, 14 ' wide and 90 feet at the tallest. The span over the water is 3,463 feet. Larry and I went out there a lot when we were there.  We never walked the full length but would walk about half way and watch barges go through the locks beneath it.

I couldn't resist taking this picture - it is an open sign at the bridge. 

Then it was on to Memphis which took about 2.5 hours including a gas stop. Neither Samantha Garmin or I like driving/traffic in Memphis! She took us the long way around to get to the hotel. Then when we left downtown tonight she wanted to go the long way and I wanted to go a shorter way. I finally won but got 180 degrees turned around. I'm going to blame my problem on it being dark and my cataracts..... Not sure what her excuse was..... I don't like driving after dark anymore - especially in a new city - but we really wanted to visit Beale Street so toughed it out. I am usually really good with directions but Memphis is challenging me... We'll see what it is like during the day tomorrow.

First stop tonight was the Peabody Hotel to see the March of the Ducks. The hotel lobby was packed!  The 5 ducks were ready to go by 4:45 but they can't leave until 5 so the Duck Master had to keep herding one of them back into the fountain. I love watching them.  After many of the people left, we got a table in the lobby bar and had drinks while admiring the beautiful lobby. Mine is the middle drink and was Peabody Punch.

Next stop was Beale Street for awhile to people watch, listen to some music and have dinner. It is definitely a unique place. 

This is a band that was playing some blues in a courtyard on Beale Street. 

Thoroughly enjoyable evening!

Still in Little Rock...

We are finishing up Little Rock today before moving onto Memphis tomorrow. It was a beautiful day - not too hot, light breeze and partly cloudy.  It is supposed to be down around 60 in the morning which is going to be a little nippy for the Tucson girls. We were surprised that the leaves are starting to turn here and fall.  It seemed to us like that was kinda early....

I got a new Garmin GPS a few weeks ago for the trip and "Samantha" had done a fine job of getting us to where we want to go. I had a choice of voices and picked her.  She is nice and pleasant plus doesn't know the words "recalculating" which I HATED on my old Garmin. When I miss a turn, she very nicely gets me back on track. I can choose an image to represent my vehicle so chose the Rubber Ducky shown above.

This morning we spent at the Clinton Library.  It was the 3rd time I have been there but the 1st time that Jane has been to a Presidential Library. Their special exhibit was about  dinosaurs which didn't do a thing for us and we zipped right through that part of the libary.

Here is "President Jane" setting in the President's chair in the Cabinet Room. Both the Cabinet Rom and the Oval Office are exact replicas to what Clinton had in the White House down to the size of the room and all the pictures and books. 

 This is part of the Oval Office. I always expect it to be larger than it is based on what I see in pictures and on TV. This week they started something new in the Oval Office.  You could never go into it before - had to only look in through windows and doors. They have replaced all of Clinton's personal items with replicas so it is now open to the public.  The best part is that you can sit at his desk, they take a picture and then you can get a copy which was fun.

And here is "President Jane" with her staff...... One of the volunteers said that when Clinton is town, he comes into the Oval Office, sits at the desk and rearranges the items to be the way they were when he was using the desk. They get moved around by cleaner, etc.

This afternoon we drove out to The Old Mill which is a replica of an old working grist mill. Pictures of this mill are in the opening scenes of the Gone With The Wind movie. It is a beautiful, peaceful setting in the midst of a residential neighborhood.

Tomorrow is "On The Road Again..."

On to Little Rock.....

We left Bentonville around 8:30 this morning and had a 3 hour drive onto Little Rock. It was a nice drive through the beautiful rolling hills of northern Arkansas with trees as far as the eye could see. Freeway and trees..... We had lunch at Dugan's Irish Pub which was one of mine and Larry's favorite place to eat in Little Rock. It is only a block from the condo we had here for 2 months in 2011  and ate there at least twice a week. I have a lot of good memories of that place and Little Rock in general. The owner came by our outside table to say hi and ended us staying for quite awhile chatting with us about the area, changes since Larry and I were here, what we must see, etc.

Then a professional dag walker came by walking 7 dogs and that was another 15 minute conversation. The dog sizes ranged from a large poodle down to a shitzu. We were watching him coming our way. He got to the corner, gave the dogs a command and all of them stopped in formation. Traffic passed, another command and they came across the street towards us. They were perfectly behaved while he was standing there talking to us. He walks a lot of dogs twice a day and  covers 24 miles a day walking dogs from the high-rise apartments and condos in the area.

After lunch we headed over to the Little Rock Central High School Historic Site. I was only 12 years old in 1957 when the incident happened after the Courts ordered schools to integrate so I don't remember a lot of what happened at the time. The above Mobil gas station is on a corner across from the high school and was the only business in the area that had a pay phone.  This station is where all the reporters came to use the phone and file their news reports. The station is now part of the Parks service. The high school is still a functioning high school in Little Rock.

Next was a 45 minutesround trip ride on the streetcar that and winds through the downtown Little Rock area and across the river into North Little Rock. It is a nice overview of the city and fun to ride.

Near where we got off the streetcar, is the Capitol Hotel build in 1857.  It has been beautifully maintained and restored as needed over the years. Most of the white in the lobby is white marble.  We set for a little while in the lobby and enjoyed some home-made lemonade that they offered us - very southern..... The hotel is a really beautiful place!

We will be spending tomorrow here touring the Clinton Library and some other things.  On Saturday we will head on over to Memphis.

On the road again......

Nancy, Jane and I backed out of my garage at 9 a.m. this morning with Willie Nelson, on my cell phone,  singing "On The Road Again". Only seemed fitting.... It was an easy drive down to Bentonville, Arkansas for a visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. . We got here at noon and had lunch in the Museum's cafe before we started through the galleries. The place is just beautiful and the setting, on 125 acres of Ozark forest,  is beyond beautiful!

This is the dining room at the Museum.  The heart sculpture hanging over the room is very, very large. The reflections of the room and light is amazing. Food is wonderful and for the 2nd time in my life, I had a Hummingbird Cake. If you haven't had one, it is a banana, pineapple and spice cake common in the southern states. It is the most requested recipe to Southern Living Magazine. 

This is a picture of a picture of the museum.  It is very large with lots of different wings to get lost in. Next time I come, I want to do some hiking on the trails around the building to see the sculptures that are along the trails and in the woods. 

There is currently a special exhibit at the museum showcasing the art of Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth. The exhibit was really good.  When I think of Andy Warhol's art, I think of the Campbell Soup Can or the one showing Marilyn Monroe in 4 different colors. This exhibit focuses on his Nature work and not what I expected.  Above is one of his pieces.

This is a painting of Jamie Wyeth.  I'm familiar with the paintings for Andrew Wyeth, his father. The title of this painting is "Portrait of Shorty".  Jamie was 17 years old when he painted this portrait of a neighbor. The detail in the painting is unbelievable - down to subtle veins in his arms. An amazing piece of art!

In the morning we hit the road again and should be in Little Rock a little after noon. 

Packed and ready to go.....

Just finished packing and am ready to go.  I know.....we don't leave until Wed.  However, Jane and Nancy arrive tomorrow and I wanted to be all packed, etc before they get here. There is all the last minute stuff to do in the morning, before I head out for the airport, such as picking up the house, etc. We keep watching the weather forecast for the areas we will be visiting.  At this point, the daytime high temperature range is between 72 - 84 degrees which isn't too bad. At least it isn't up in the 90's.... I'll be writing on this blog every day we are  on the trip - at least that is my intent if my laptop, wifi, etc all cooperate in the evenings. Here is the picture that will be on the cover of our trip book after we are all done...

Busy, Busy, Busy......

I has been a busy couple of weeks between getting the Sept Quarterly finished, getting my stuff ready for my brother's birthday dinner and getting ready for the road trip that starts NEXT week. Now that the Quarterly is at the printers and everything is marked off my list for the birthday dinner, I am focusing on the trip. I'm only a couple of days late on the list which isn't bad. Can't believe that after about 6 months of planning the trip is almost here.  We are soooooo ready!

I took the car into the dealer's last week to get a "trip check" before hitting the road in it for 2,000 miles. I always do that before a road trip  so they can check the fluid levels, replace wiper blades, check the tire pressure, etc. The battery was testing a little low so they went ahead and replaced it under warranty.  As he said, "We don't  you to be someplace on the trip and it not start."  I appreciated his concern. It was all at no cost to me!

I am really starting to love Amazon!  I know people who have raved about it for years but I am using it more and more. I used to only order books from them. However, a few of the items I have ordered in the last few months are a hair product that I have used for years and is no longer available in stores, a pair of shoes and last week I ordered a white noise machine since I couldn't find what I wanted in the stores. I go online, order and it shows up at my door 2 days later. Sometimes the items arrive the next day!  Love it....

I see this dog a lot of morning when I'm out walking and it is one of the cutest dogs I have ever seen. She is a chihuahua/dash hound mix so is really small but long.  What is so cute is the coloring of her coat.  The colors are more like a big hound.  I love it!  She has energy to spare and goes a mile-a-minute.

Monday already?

It was 57 degrees at 9 a.m. this morning when I went for a walk - loved it but was glad I took along a long sleeve shirt....

On Saturday night, I went to see Garrison Keillor at Starlight Theater. I missed seeing him in Tucson so immediately got a ticket when I heard he was coming to KC. I read, after I got my ticket, that this is his last year doing the radio show and touring so especially glad I got to see him. The radio show will continue with one of the cast members taking the lead roll.   For you who don't know who he is, he is an author, storyteller, humorist and the host of the PBS radio show A Prairie Home Companion. On the radio show, besides musing about events and music, he provides the latest news from Lake Wobegon which is a fictional little town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average." I used to listen to him and his CD's when I was traveling all the time. So....to the show Saturday Night. It was a perfect night for a show at Starlight - cool, but not sweater weather,  and no rain. He came out by himself, walked down off the stage and let the audience in an acapella rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Then we walked all the way up the aisle to the back of the theater which is a pretty steep climb and was talking the whole time. If you haven't done that walk, that is a pretty steep climb - I speak from experience. Then he wandered back to the stage and the rest of the cast came out. The musicians on the show are really, really good. However, for me the cast stand out was the older guy who does "sound effects" that range from the sound of someone walking across a room to many, many animal sounds - one right after the other as the script calls for it. The guy is amazing! Garrison is 73 years old and has been doing the show for 41 years.  He was dressed in a tan suit with red tennis shoes. 8-) He did a 2+ hour show with no intermission....

Memo from by my back to me: NEVER expect me to set on wooden seats for that long again without a cushion! I actually had to leave after 2 1/2 hours of setting - by back said "enough is enough".  Part of it was that there wasn't enough room between seats for me to cross my legs, change positions, etc. Guess I will go shopping for a stadium cushion to take along....

Kidney doctor:  I had my annual checkup last week with the kidney doctor and we are both happy campers. He attributes my low creatinine numbers to my loosing weight, eating better, etc. I have his approval for continuing to take ibuprophen as long as my numbers stay good.  He was glad that I did the RF Ablation for pain management and was seeing a pain management doctor instead of just relying on pills. I'm finally done with all the annual check-ups by all the doctors!

Cable TV and Botanical Gardens

New Cable TV system: I am still furious over the system although the TV reception is improved. The picture is sharper and I truly have HD now, the sound is better, there isn't as much lag time when I change channels, etc. However, the guide to the remote only covers about half the functions and my internet for the computer was totally screwed up last week. I talked to 3 different tech people on the phone over 3 days and each one had me do a different thing. Finally the last one said "take your wireless box and ethernet cable to our service center and get new ones". We can't send a tech person out when you are getting service to the house."  Needless to say, I was very vocal with him. However, I drove a very long way to get to their only customer service center in all KC area and exchanged them.  Then I had to figure out how to hook it all up and I was NOT going to call them for help.  I finally figured it out and the internet now seems to be working good.  I just can't figure out everything on the remote, etc.What really irks me is that I don't have a choice in companies since only Consolidated Communications supplies internet/cable service to the whole apartment complex!@#$%^&*(_+.

Botanical Garden in Columbia:  I was looking for something to do in Columbia to do and ran across  the Shelter Insurance Gardens "A Mid-America Arboretum and Public Garden." I have never heard of Shelter Insurance but in researching them I discovered they they bought out the old MFA Insurance Co. When I was a kid, I remember seeing MFA Insurance,  MFA Oil Co, etc. MFA started in 1946 and was bought by Shelter Insurance in 1981.  Their corporate offices are in Columbia and behind the office is the 5 acre garden containing over 300 varieties of trees and more than 15,000 annuals and perennial plants. The Garden also includes a waterfall, rock garden, statues, Vietnam veterans' memorial and a replica 19th century one-room school house. Pretty amazing place to be right in the city.

This is a path in the gardens. I don't think I have every seen as many ornamental sweet potato vines in one place before but they sure were pretty. 

One of the numerous statues scattered around in the gardens.  

Decent size man-made waterfall tucked away in one corner. There were a lot of koi fish in the water. 

 Newcomer School is a replica of a 19th-century, one-room school that is located near Brunswick, Missouri. Construction of the replica school began in 1974 when ground was broke with a plow pulled by a team of Missouri mules. Local grade school teachers often reserve the school for a day of teaching the tradition of their 19th-century counterparts. Below is the inside of the school complete with a wood stove. 

Rocheport, MO

A couple of weeks ago I saw a list of the "Top 10 Little Towns in Missouri".  I have already been to some of them but 2 caught my eye and I made a note to visit them - Parkville, MO was #1 and Rocheport, MO was #4. I stopped at Rocheport last week on my drive to Columbia. Population is 244 and I'm not sure what makes it so popular but I suspect that it is a weekend get-a-way since there is a larger winery there, lots of beautiful old Victorian houses that have been restored and turned into B&B's plus the Katy trail goes through town. The town was originally founded in 1825.

This is main street in Rocheport. The main store is a General Store (black awning) that sells everything from antiques to new bowls made of bamboo or kitchen spoons made of recycled plastic bottles. Yes, I got one of the bowls and spoon sets. 

I did my usual walk around looking at flowers and there were lots of them in yards and containers on main street. 

However, this was my favorite find and what I will remember Rocheport for! It is a 1928 Gypsy Wagon that has been totally restored and updated. 

Dutch doors at the back of the wagon with stained-glass windows and stained-glass turn signals. . 

Inside the wagon looking back at the living space. 

Front seat. The wagon is Solid Red Oak Wood Body, Red Oak Wood Floors, Copper Roof, 21 Stained Glass Windows; Stylized Wooden Sink, AD/CS Refrigerator, Antique Buggy Lantern Lights, AC/DC 12-Volt Lights, 30-Gallon Water Supply, Double Bed and 15 MPG. The Wagon has been updated with a 4-speed automatic transmission, power steering  and power brakes. I love it!

Busy weekend!

Trip to Columbia: I drove over to Columbia, MO on Thursday to attend the annual conference of the Missouri State Genealogy Society. Me and about 165 other people had 2 full days of genealogy techniques, etc.  The speaker is one of the top speakers in the country and she was really good. I leaned how much I don't know! I was going to stay over yesterday, Sunday, and go on over to Jefferson City to do some research today before coming home.  However, besides being really brain tired, I learned that there are more records available in Jefferson City at the Missouri State Archives than I knew about. I didn't have all the info I would need to search them so will do it another trip.

New GPS:  I got a new Garmin GPS unit for the car before the road trip in September. The one I had was very old with outdated technology in it.  The new one is great and the screen is larger. However, the BEST thing is that they have taken the "Recalculating" out of the voice directions.  I HATED it when I would take a wrong turn, turn to get gas, etc and this condescending voice would say "Recalculating" in a voice that was really saying "Stupid"......  The new unit just gives new directions from where ever I am and her voice is much more friendly.

New Cable TV Box: I have been having some problems with my cable box so last week they upgraded me to a new system. I can now have 5 channels going at once - recording 4 and watching the 5th one.  The old box would only do 2 at a time. That part is great since I record a lot of shows and watch them later.  However, I HATE getting use to a new cable system.  It is o.k. if all you do is watch TV. I have to learn all new prompts, what buttons do what on the remote, the steps to set up shows for recording shows is all different, etc.  Eventually I will get the hang of it but for now and just plain frustrated!

Powell Gardens

Last Friday I spent the morning at Powell Gardens with Karen, my niece. We got there when it opened at 9 a.m. to beat the crowds and it is a good thing we did.  By 11 a.m., when we left, it was getting very crowded.  When we scheduled the day, I didn't realize that Friday was the opening day of the Butterfly Festival in addition to the ongoing Lego sculptures which is what we going to see. We went to the butterfly exhibit first before it got too crowded. I saw the butterflies in Tucson several times but this was the first time Karen had been to see the live butterflies. After the butterflies, we walked part of the gardens and saw some of the Lego exhibits before it got too hot for me. Below are some pictures of the day.

Here are some of the butterflies and a caterpillar in the exhibit which was in an enclosed room where they added trees, flowers, bushes, etc for them to land on. In the top right picture, that is a butterfly that landed on my hair and wouldn't go away until the volunteer moved it.  She said it liked my hairspray. 

Here are some of the sculptures from the Lego's Exhibit. They had a Lego's exhibit in the gardens a couple of years ago by the same artist. Here is a list of how many lego bricks are in each item: Top row l-r: Hummingbird and Flower = 31,565 legos; Bald Eagle = 42,198 legos. Middle row l-r: Milk Snake and Mouse = 12,069 legos; Monarch Butterfly on Milk Weed Blooms = 60,549 legos. Bottom row l-r: Kneeling Gardner (life size) = 34,340 legos and Roto-Tiller = 20,903 legos. I absolutely cannot imagine the patience it would take to put 60,000 legos in place to make something!

Misc flowers in the gardens. Top right, middle left and bottom right pictures are from the Water Garden. Middle right is an artichoke plant. 

We got a lesson in biology from the volunteer in the Butterfly Exhibit. The cycle of a butterfly is that a butterfly lays eggs which "hatch" and turn into caterpillars which become pupa (cocoon) which "hatch" and a butterfly emerges. In the above pic, these are pupa with two butterflies that have been "born". After they emerge from the pupa, it takes s1-3 hours for the wings ton "inflate" and dry before they are ready to fly. The butterfly on the right is older than the one on the left. After they are "inflated" and dry, they are then released into the open area where they try out their wings and get the hang of flying. We could watch the ones flying around and tell which ones were still learning.....

Happy Friday...

I saw my primary care doctor this week for my annual "Wellness Check" and he is as happy with my health status as I am. First of all, I am still totally surprised that the doctors here go into the computer and read my chart before they come into the exam room!  I always felt that my PCP doctor in Tucson didn't have a clue about my issues when he came into the room and had to refer back to my chart if anything came up. This guy walks in, is familiar with all my labs, what the other doctors have had to say, what my ongoing health issues are,  know's I'm retired, live alone, move here to be near family, etc when he sees me. His discussion this time was that "yes I have some medical issues that I can't do anything about such as the plaque in the heart, one kidney, etc so I need to focus on what I can do something about such as eating properly, continuing to loose weight, exercise and stay busy since I'm retired."  According to him, that is the key to a quality life when birthdays accumulate. He was telling me about a 90 year old patient who still plays tennis weekly and his 86 year old father who still farms but is now selective about what he does on the farm every day but getting on the tractor and plowing fields is one of the things he still does. So with that said....here is a sign I saw in a store last week:

Another Monday....Another day of 90+ degree weather

O.K. I have been here for 1 1/2 winters and 1 1/2 summers - I will take the winter!  I can always put another layer on and go outside. I'm tired of not being able to get out an do stuff.  Yesterday and today I had to resort to walking on a treadmill at the gym here in the apt complex!!!!!  I hate treadmills but it was just too hot to even walk at 8 a.m. in the morning with the humidity. Actually the gym is really nice with a big variety of equipment but I always feel like a hamster when I'm on a treadmill. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back outside... According to the Weather Channel on Facebook, only 57 more days until fall.

On Sunday I got my "Penguin March Badge" from my FitBit which I didn't even know such things existed.

I think the little guy is cute!  The smaller print says: "With 70 lifetime miles, you just matched the distance of the March of the Penguins - the annual trip emperor penguins make to their breeding grounds. You're doing swimmingly well!"  I wonder what the next one will be? I gotta admit that the FitBit has made a big difference in me exercising.  I see it on my wrist and it is a reminder.

I'm becoming one of those people who take a sweater or shirt along when I go into restaurants.  They could save a lot of money by not having it so cold in there. That NEVER used to bother me but it sure has this summer. It feels good to go outside and stand there a minute in 90 degrees to thaw out.

6 weeks from this coming Wednesday,  2 friends and I will be heading out on our road trip! Can't wait... However, before that happens, I have to get the September Quarterly to the printers....

Monday Misc for July 20, 2015

Another day, another thunderstorm!  The storm woke me up at 4:30 a.m. this morning with lightening, thunder, high wind and a downpour of rain. It looked like a hurricane outside! The storm went on for about 30 minutes and then started letting up. The ground is beyond soggy.... We got a rain yesterday morning but that was just a light, steady rain for awhile. And....the weather man says we are in for another storm later today but a very small chance of severe weather.

Birds and squirrels: I quit feeding them on the patio since the birds found the feeder and there were too many of them.  So, I just put the feed on the ground under a tree outside the office window where I can watch them. They are soooooo entertaining! However, that entertainment can get expensive.... I looked out yesterday and counted 23 birds plus many, many more I couldn't count due to them moving around.  There was big black birds (cackles), little brown birds that I don't know what they were, 2 cardinals and 1 blue jay plus a couple of squirrels. Quite an assortment! They will hear a noise and all scatter.  The guy at the bird store tells me that the black birds go south in the winter so that will help.  In the winter, I will probably go back to feeding the squirrels on the patio because of the snow, etc.

FitBit: Still walking..... 8-) I got an alert on my phone yesterday afternoon that I needed 6 more steps to reach my goal so that one was easy - back and forth to the kitchen did it... When I reach my daily goal of 5,000 steps, the FitBit on my wrist vibrates and I get an alert on my phone.  The vibration always scares me.... I have seen NOOOOO difference in weight loss but my knees definitely are better plus I have more energy overall. I feel pretty silly when I get up at 6:30 a.m. to walk before it gets too hot but that is the way it is during the hot days when it is still too hot to walk in the evening.  This morning I was on the trail, came around a corner and the trail was covered with about 6" of water so had to backtrack and take another route.

Trips: I'm finally getting around to editing the pictures from the June St Louis trip and then doing the book for that trip.  I still have to mark the maps and print out addresses for the Sept trip to plug into the GPS gadget.  Plus...I have started working on the "Snowbird" trip to the southwest in December.  Fun times.....

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!