Daily life

Life has been both ordinary and hectic since my last post. Several events have occurred, some of them not so nice.

My mother, who will turn 83 next month, recently spent several days in the hospital. Her heart is not what it used to be, pumping less blood per cycle than normal, and she had developed liquid around the heart. Fortunately the condition can be treated to a large degree with drugs. She is home now and my brother Jon and sister Sienna are watching her for the next couple days. We hope the drugs do their job!

I missed a couple days of work with stomach flu. Seems I am more susceptible to this in recent years. Pam had me go to the doctor to see if I had an ulcer or other contributing condition, but the doc didn’t find anything. I’m feeling better as I write this, but have not eaten a lot for the last 4 days. Maybe today I’ll manage 3 meals.

Pam observed a birthday. (I am not at liberty to disclose which one it was.) We had planned to take the day off and go over to the lot, but the weather stopped us. Forecast is for 1 – 2 feet of snow above 8,000 foot elevation, and we expect to see some snow  (up to 1/2 inch) accumulate on grassy areas at our place. We decided to stay home instead.

Fall clean-up continued last weekend when I decided to carry out my promise to our snow-bird neighbors, Jim and Jolene, to clean their yard of leaves at least once in the fall. J & J left for their winter home in Arizona a month ago. Here are a couple photos Pam took of me using my lawn-vac to clean up their yard:

Jerry with his lawn-vac at work

Removing leaves from Jim and Jolene’s yard

I line the back of my old Scout with a large sheet of plastic, dump the shredded leaves on the plastic, and drive  to a disposal site near town. I pull the sheet of plastic out to dump the load. Not as convenient as having as a truck, but the [enclosed] Scout keeps the leaves from blowing around as I transport them. It works OK.

The majority of work is done, but there will be some more raking and hauling to be done for both yards before the snow really sets in for the winter.

The other afternoon our oldest cat, Mira, was lounging in the sun and I captured this shot of her:

Oldest cat Mira capturing a few rays

Nothing like a cat sleeping in a sunny spot.

Speaking of cats, we were pleased to learn that Pam’s last foster kittens have all been adopted. Quinn, Quentin, and Quirky had gone through their spay or neuter operations and were adopted within 3 days. We do not know if they went as singles or a combination, but it is nice to know they are out of the shelter and into good homes. That result is what makes fostering worth-while.

We are glad the election is over and even happier the robo calls have stopped. Several people have commented on Colorado’s passage of a recreational marijuana bill. (Dude – we are too freakin’ old to be stoners.  Bummer.)  This poses several problems for the state, one of which is the law does not go into effect until 2014. The bill gives the state 1 year to put in place a regulatory and tax structure, and the tax part has to be voted on again before the bill becomes law. 15 percent is the proposed sales tax. There is a part of the bill that promotes the use of other  hemp-bases products, such as rope. Trivia question: Did you know that early American money was printed on hemp-based paper?

That’s what’s been going on in our part of the world since my last post, pretty much just daily life.

Thanks for looking in!