Here ya go

It's time for a Monday update

So there've been some teasers here and there lately.
I saw the word cryptic in the comments.
Maybe that fits.
But let's cut to the chase.

Friday was to have been a busy day for GS, dealing with trained professionals.
Somehow, in the confusion of the previous week, with the scheduling SNAFU mishap, she ended up with four appointments on Friday.
They were scattered from 11:00am to 3:00pm.
Perhaps scattered is the wrong term.
They were all at the same place, so perhaps we can say staggered.
Anyway, we were prepared to deal with the situation

Thursday afternoon the phone rang.
It was the infusion nurse.
She'd looked at her schedule for Friday afternoon and seen that GS was scheduled for her injection at 11:00am.
She'd seen also that GS was scheduled for chemo education at 3:00pm.
She noted, too, that GS port was to be flushed.
She told us those were all things that she would be doing and that she could do them all at the same visit.
I mentioned GS also needed to have lab work done, so we still had to keep the early visit.
She said that wasn't necessary either, because she could draw the labs through the port.

How cool was that?

(That's a rhetorical question and the answer is based entirely on how one likes to spend their time.)

So now let's creep back to last Monday afternoon.
I probably mentioned somewhere we visited the oncologist.
That appointment was one of the ones that was mysteriously changed.
(and why I now italicize trained professionals)
We arrived for the 3:40 appointment with time to spare.
That meant little because it was the end of the day and time spent with earlier patients had put the doc behind schedule... but only for a little over 30 minutes.
This doc isn't a miser with his time.
He's really good about explaining and answering and waiting for the patient ...and the patient's accomplice [I use that term advisedly] plenty of time to formulate questions.

(here we digress for a moment)
Back at the time I started this blog it was about and my health issue, some spinal surgery to prevent further nerve damage.
The neurosurgeon was an extremely competent, meticulous (to a fault) practitioner.
He was quite good about explaining and demonstrating what he was going to do or what he'd actually done surgically.
But he had one particular quirk.
At the end of each visit he would end with, "Do you have any questions? ____Say, no!"

So... what the oncologist had to say is, the current recently completed treatment had not accomplished what was hoped for.
The lab work showed that certain markers, whose numbers should diminish under the treatment, had actually increased.
Friday (yep, the same one we already covered) would be the last of the injection treatments.
GS will again be having weekly lab work done and a new round of chemotherapy will begin  . . .once all the eyes have been crossed and and the tees dotted for the technocrats [again, a term used advisedly].
Along with the chemo there will be some other drugs administered.
The catch  . . .besides the bureaucratic wait . . .is that the chemo must be administered at the hospital, rather than at the clinic, because the State of California has yet to get around to inspecting the facility so they can approve the pharmacy to dispense the drugs.
The drawbacks to going to the hospital are;

1. parking sucks
2. the hospital facility is overburdened with patients such that there are not enough infusion stations and there is almost always a line (not literally) of folks waiting to go next.

The facility has been ready for said inspection since January, but the state has so many bosses that they can't afford to hire the folks who do the actual work.

(The same holds true for counties and cities in California. The main difference is the cities and counties are short on funds because the state has already spent it on its bureaucracy. The state has attempted to fill its coffers by increasing fees for services to businesses, but that has backfired because businesses no longer seek those services for which the fees have increased have moved to other states with lower or no fees.)

I don't know how I can't seem to keep this tale straight.
I'm not making it up as I go along.
Anyway, I hope it is as entertaining for you as it is for me.

At the moment we wait to hear that the new treatment  . . .the chemo  . . .has been approved.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, GS has a CT scan, followed by her long awaited (six weeks) nutritional consult [I may have further comments afterward].

Then there are other things with which I must deal.
They are of a more personal nature. . . meaning I have to do them.
First, the Honda (aka Misty [that's for you, Sully]) has to be taken for a smog check so it can be registered for another year.
(another involvement with the state, on two counts: they license and collect fees, which they've increased, from the smog check station; and the registration fees go to the DMV and they've increased to the point where they double what they were three years ago)
Then, I also have to deal with the DMV to renew my drivers license.
This year they are requiring me to appear in person for the examination.
For this I must make an appointment.
I want to get a drivers handbook before I take the exam.
For that I have to make an appointment.
I tried to call my local [sic] DMV office.
I can leave a number on the voicemail and they will call me back.

Are they serious?

(Another of those frustrating rhetorical questions)

So. . .  gentle reader, you can see I will have much fodder over the next weeks from which to extract topics for this blog.

Or. . .  I may continue as is the past, and throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks.

Today I'm going to the bank.
I don't need an appointment. . .  this time.

it should be fun

So some folks are looking for an update

Yesterday the Anderson Lions made their annual trek to Lake McCumber, where there is a facility for "campers."

We do this at the close of the Diabetes Camp that's sponsored by the Lions District 4-C1 Health Foundation.
Our sole purpose in going to the camp is to save the Foundation from having to pay for someone to clean the facilities used by the campers.
We're talking here about the cabins, the restrooms, the showers, and the staff restrooms.
The few hours we spend in the cool [low 80s] of the mountains [4000 feet] saves enough to make it possible for at least two additional youngsters to attend camp.
They even offer to feed us.
The one drawback to that is we'd have to stop working and then start up again.
It's easier just to work straight through.

it isn't Monday

Because that's just how it is

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it has happened.

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Normal Friday

I was gonna entitle this post...

"Perché quella rana porta i pantaloni?"*

Just because I saw this yesterday.

Hey!
Don't complain.
I remembered I started this regular Friday feature.
That doesn't always happen.

normal being a relative term

* Why is that frog wearing pants?

Well, guess we'll have to do something about that

I just a moment ago realized I never posted any of the pictures I took of the prolific fruit tree.

Heck, I'm pretty sure I have posted any from the garden, either. . .
. . .and I probably won't [for awhile, anyway].

The tree I will.
That's because I can't accept, nor will I seek, any credit.
It's been there since before we moved here almost 30 years ago.
It has done what apricot trees do without any assistance for the entire time.


The video is from ten days ago, before any of the fruit was ripe.
Looking at the tree this morning, I could swear there is still just as much fruit on the tree.
Maybe drought is good for apricots?

oh... and it's organic and gluten free

It's doing famously

I think I mentioned that we planted a garden this year?
Right now it's one green [insert mild dialectic expletive describing the offspring of a female dog].
All of the plants are bearing fruit ...or vegetables, as the case may be.
Next time there may be fewer tomato plants.
I don't know how soon we'll harvest, but my best guess is the first tomatoes could be as soon as July 4 ...zucchini even sooner ...and peppers now?

On another front, we have apricots.

Boy ...Howdy, do we have apricots!

These are in the kitchen, on the counter...

...and might be fairly obvious where these are?

From the looks of the tree, we haven't even put a dent in the crop, yet.

there will be jam

I missed something yesterday

It wasn't much.
But it was an anniversary.
53 years ago my buddy, Smitty, and I went to the Federal Building in San Francisco on a Friday morning and gave I lives over to the care of Uncle Sam's Navy until our 21st birthdays.
It seems like I remember everything that happened for the next three years, one month and 15 days.
It would have been longer, but by enlisting right out of high school, before my 18th birthday, I was released from active duty at the ripe old age of 21.

GS saw the oncologist yesterday.
I was going to a Monday Update here today, but I will wait.
The news isn't what we wanted to hear.
My emotions are not allowing the proper words to come forth.
Fortunately, I have been able to restrain myself from saying much of anything.
She moves on to the next level of treatment.
GS is a rock.

'...there's somethin' happening here

 what it is ain't exactly clear...'

After posting yesterday

I was surfing the intertubes and kibitzing on F/B before I created anew batch of BBQ rub and prepared the ribs for barbecuing.
(Yeah... right!)

This reminded me of Satuday [and a whole lot of other occasions].

I stole it from another blogger.
Someone else commented with this image.

That one cracked me up.
(Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist... we have a Ford
Okay it's a ten year old Mustang, but it's a Ford and it's not the only Ford we've ever purchased)

While I am thinking about it.
I can't remember if I ever thanked the Old AF Sarge for the acknowledgement he put on his sidebar.

I don't see the resemblance

At the very bottom.

is declutter a word?*

*According to the Collins English Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged, yes

Copying

Actually the other post was the link to this.



I thought I would save you the trouble of clicking again.

horsin' around

Somebody's out to get me.

On my way home from a meeting this morning I merged onto the freeway  about 4 car lengths behind another vehicle.
Both of our cars had accelerated to the 70mph speed limit of the highway.
Both cars stayed in the right hand lane, as there was no reason to move to the left, and I was getting off at the next exit anyway.
I noticed, in my left side rear view mirror, a vehicle traveling at about the same speed.
Suddenly the vehicle behind and to the left accelerated and passed me so as to insinuated itself between my car and the vehicle ahead.
The driver then had to use his brakes to decelerate sharply so as not to collide with the vehicle in front.
The driver had not taken into account that there was very little space between his rear and the front of my car, even though I had already begun slowing.

The part I am trying to figure out is there were no other vehicles on that side of the freeway within sight.
Why was it so necessary that the third car pass mine when I was already at the speed limit and the only way I could have gone faster would have been to pass the first vehicle?

I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that the idiot was from another state and had shut down is brain while on vacation.

The vehicle got off the freeway at the same exit as I and then needed a gentle reminder to go when the light turned green.

the herd needs culling

Normal Friday

Remember I said I was going to serialize the Friday post?
It was a little over year ago last March.
I actually succeeded remembered, periodically, for a month or so.

I started out with posts about Normal.
Then it evolved [anything but evolved] to just random posts, which is pretty much what you find here, anyway.

Today is just about like any other Friday around here.
That means, of course, something unexpected will happen... or in this case, has happened.

GS was scheduled a month ago to have some lab work done for her regular visit to the oncologist next Thursday.
We were to go in at noon.
Around 10:30 the phone rang.
GS picked up.
It was the Drs. office calling about the appointment schedule.
I only got the gist of the conversation after a minute or two.
I pulled up the calendar on my smartphone when I heard something about scheduling appointments.
GS ended her conversation and handed me the phone.
The lady on the other end was telling me the appointment for the lab work today and the oncologist appointment had been canceled "at the patient's request."
They needed to reschedule.
My mind told me, "WTF!"
I asked who made the request.
She said, "Either the patient or her spouse."
I wanted to say, "You'refullof$#!+!"
Instead, I said, "No, we didn't" and read off the schedule for the appointments, which also include an injection for next Friday.
She told me that appointment had been changed, as well, to an earlier time.
I was having none of it.
Finally she told me they'd straighten it out and call back.

A short time later, we were kinda back on track.
Labs were back on for noon.
The Dr visit will now be on Monday afternoon.
(we will have to wait to see how happy he is about that because he said they needed four business days for the lab work)
She couldn't get through to the clinic where the injection is, so I told her we could straighten that out when we came in for the lab work.

So now that's out of the way...
Here's the rest of the story.
It has nothing to do with doctors, but everything to do with the drive home.

Do you ever think that some folks shut their brains off when they go on vacation?
...or maybe my cloak of invisibility is working

Twice, within the distance of about a mile, I felt it necessary to brake hard to avoid running into a vehicle that had turned from a driveway into a lane in front of me.
Worse, the second vehicle in question, after crossing in front of me from the right, then pulled in front of me again from the left to make a right turn.

I'm not planning to go out again today.

"We have met the enemy and he is us."

 ~Walt Kelly

There've been a few hiccups

The PC was getting is pretty old.
Besides it had Vista and some folks had some real issues with Vista.
My only issue is that I couldn't operate a lot of the hardware I had from the previous PC, which had 98se.
The hard drive was full of crap, too, going all the way back to a HP Pentium2 MMC that came with 95.
What I'm saying is it's time to upgrade...

...and downsize.

GS's laptop is in the midst of taking a crap.
The DVD is kaput and the hard drive sounds like a real sick cicada (click... click... click... click... click... click...)...

...and it has Vista.

We have another smaller, lighter laptop we used when traveling.
It has Windows 7 and fits in a backpack.
It is out of the backpack and being used by PHG and GS, when she's not using her tablet.

But that's not what this is about.
I went shopping for the new unit, another PC, a week ago yesterday.
I went back to the folks who built the last one because I was really happy with it [except that it sucked a lot of dust with it's two cooling fans].
I was ready last Friday.
I wasn't.
I had to clear some junk from "the den."
Amongst that junk was the PC running 98se, which no longer powered up and I'd only been using because I was too cheap to purchase software that runs on later versions of Windows.
Enough about old stuff.
The new unit is solid state.
The only moving parts are in the external DVD unit, which I only need occasionally and can be used with the TV, should I wish.

I mentioned hiccups.
I was finally able to clear the space where the old PC is now residing.
Then I cleaned about 70% of the crap when the new PC sits [and it only needs less than half of that].
As I assembled the parts and connected them yesterday afternoon, I realized there was was I was going to get the monitor connected.
It came with a VGA cable.
I had thought I was going to connect it with HDMI.
I have an HDMI cable.

(You really don't need to know what the abbreviations mean, only that they are part and parcel to the new PC [and that means Personal Computer... not MAC)

However, the HDMI port on the PC unit is of the "mini" variety and the cable I have is of the standard (it won't fit in a smaller port) variety.

By the time I realized this, it was too late to go get an adapter.
That was purchased this morning.
Did you know that I can get a pair of standard 6 foot HDMI cables for the same price as a 5 inch standard to mini adapter?

Anyway, this post is being prepared on the new unit.

so far, so good

Wednesday's Monday update

By now most of you know I went south on Monday.
If you don't, it's because you haven't read yesterday's post.
I mentioned that it was a bittersweet journey.
First, because GS is unable to go.

I went to Elk Grove, which is just south of Sacramento, to a memorial service for a very good friend.
I had only met Gary in June of 2006.
We served as District Governors at the same time.
The district he served is immediately adjacent to the one where I served.
We and our wives saw a lot of each other... even by design.
Gary was a real low key guy, who accomplished a lot and touched many, many folks.
There were close to 400 at the service.

I did see seven others who served on the Council of Governors with us.
They came from all over the state.
It was kind of a mini reunion.
It would've been better if it was planned.

I told them to put the short ones in front

There is a candid shot, as well.

It was the only we'd see some of those in the back

Afterward I was able to visit my grandchildren and their parents in Sacramento.
After I had an opportunity to spoil them, we went to watch the perfect grandson's karate class.

Li'l Teeny goes nonstop, full speed.

Big Brother waits patiently for class to start

Mom (my daughter) was enlisted to assist with a class exercise called Fire Breathing Dragon (FBD).
That's an even better pseudonym than Permanent House Guest (PHG).
However, since it doesn't fit the subject, I will have to wait to hang it on someone.
But it's food for thought.
After some play time it was off to dinner at one of the Capitol City's many ethnic restaurants (Mexican if you must know).
 Then it was back to their house to change into some more comfortable clothes for the drive home.

I will refrain from posting my drive time from Sac to Anderson.
Suffice it to say the average speed was lower than the posted limit.

On the home front, the apricot tree found it couldn't handle both the wind and the crop of apricots ...at least on one branch.

The one on the upper left (sticking up) was of insufficient strength

PHG heard it crack and fall to the ground.

The apricots aren't quite ready to harvest.
We should have culled a few a month ago.
We probably won't even begin to be able to use all of them ...if we can even get to them.

anyone want some apricots?

Yesterday...

...I knew what I was going to post today.

It was a kind of bittersweet day and I will write a post...

...just not now.

...later, probably tomorrow [but there's no guarantee].

I was gone all day, to Sacramento.

I know I'm getting way behind with stuff I want to post.
But the good news is I am able to see some of the part of the top of my desk.

I sat down at the computer at 7:30 this morning and tried to catch up with the latest.
I saw that the Cranky Old Man posted a mission statement.
That immediately became my focus for today.
Well, that and the fact that the frickin' Intertubes, or my browser, or the PC are acting like they're severely constipated.
Any I need to clear the decks to write what I thought I was going to post today.
If you look back up to the top of the page... under the title... you will find the mission statement for this blog.
If you are able to read between the lines, you will also understand how important I think having a written mission statement is.
I have seen Suldog's mission statement almost every time he posts.
I can quote it almost verbatim [meaning I don't have to go look]:

"Soon, with more better stuff."

me, too

Filler

I am unavailable to write a post today.
I found the following on a distant [in miles] family member's F/B page.

road trip

This is part of a post from the past.
I had planned posting the entire thing on a regular basis.
Plans change.
This part fits today.
I will re-post the rest at the appropriate time.

My mother married my father, Willis O'Brien, Jr. in 1941 at St Brendan's Catholic Church on the corner of Rockaway Avenue and Ulloa Street in the Laguna Honda neighborhood of San Francisco. My Uncle Bob was best man and had to break regulations to wear his tux. He'd joined the Naval Reserve out of high school and had been called to active duty because of the national emergency. The war hadn't started yet, but obviously some preparations had begun. At least that's what I've been told.
I don't know if there was a honeymoon or not. They moved to Martinez where they had an apartment about three blocks from the train station. My father worked in Benicia... and the war started... and he either enlisted or was drafted in the Army. Officially he was in the USAAF. That would later be the Air Force. Somehow he and my mom spent enough time together so I came along. He shipped out to India in September 1943 as a Sergeant. His unit was deemed critical and in February 1944 was being flown over the mountains into China in a converted B-25, when the plane crashed into the side of a mountain in the fog.
That's about all I really know about my father, other than he may have been a saint and he may have been younger than mom.

Since the original post it has not yet been confirmed that my father was a saint.
However, he was younger than my mother, but no much younger that anyone would whisper behind their backs.

Happy Father's Day

I purposely didn't edit the music

It's Flag Day


Once again I was in a place at a propitious moment and the camera was close at hand.



The North wind was cooperating as well.

Happy Birthday, too, to the United States Army.

"the Devil made me do that"

Because we can

Infer what you will.

...and it's a full moon, too

This is realy h_ _ _ r!

see what that word (hodor) can mean?

Charlie Byrd

Thanks to the Cranky Old Man for reminding me.



I have just a few [meaning I have lost count] vinyl albums of his.

gotta clean up this

 room so I can set up

 the USB turntable.

Whassup?

So the visitors have left  . . .mostly happy with the results of their visit.
They were, however, blown away by the weather here.
I don't mean by the gusty winds (which are at 20mph with gust to 30mph), but by the temperatures, which approached 105º.
One comment from the daughter: "Are we somewhere near the equator?" 

There's been no respite.
The last time it was below 80º was Saturday morning at 3am.
The weather folks used to explain it by telling us the wind, coming south through the Sacramento canyon, gets compressed and warms up.
Now they just report that it will continue a bit and then cool down, but even that's relative.

The main concern is the fire danger, which is enhanced by the gusty winds.

I mentioned the daughter was here for a procedure.
She suffers from a condition which causes, for her, chronic back pain.
They have tried physical therapy, traditional medicine, chiropractic, acupuncture, and I believe some other, non-conventional solutions.
This trip was for another attempt at a solution.

It involved a couple of hours early Sunday afternoon to do some analysis.
The client (patient) records a script, followed by a recorded explanation in her words of the symptoms.
The practitioner then transfers the recording into a computer program for the analysis, which breaks down the tones in the recording into various parts.
That's where I get lost because I only have the information second hand.
A return visit a couple of hours later give the client (and her mother) a further explanation of the process and a demonstration of how to use a machine [slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes] that will reproduce sounds to help heal (or relax, or blend ...whatever) the source of the pain.
The client listens to the program twice a day.

Anyhow, yesterday morning was the second time.
She reported she was feeling some relief.
Only time will tell for sure.

hearing sirens

that's not good

Monday update (really?)

Well. . .  here it is Monday again.
That's about all I have to say about it.

We had some last minute delightful house guests overnight.
I received a message on my cell phone Thursday.
It was from one of GS many [more than five] nephews.

His wife and kids would be coming down to Redding, from Oregon, for some kind of "procedure" for his 12 y.o. daughter.
Would it be okay for them to stay with us?
Of course it would.
We would even look forward to it.
Fresh faces and visitors are encouraged.
We're just not quite up to standards we set some years back, but we can throw a dead chicken on the barbecue, char some asparagus heat up a can of beans, throw some romaine and spinach together with cukes, a sliced avocado and sliced tomato, and call it a party.

PHG was gone all weekend helping her friend, the Mountain [he's really big], move.
That involved driving to Klamath Falls Friday night and hauling a load back and then bring another load from Cottownwood north, all to a location in Redding.
PHG said there was also the issue of cleaning the place up after the folks who were hire to clean up were done.

So it was pretty quiet around here until about 2:00pm yesterday.
Only two from Oregon showed, followed, almost immediately, by PHG and NT [PHG's sister] and the grandson.
Son in Law would follow later.
It's a good thing the chicken was almost six pounds (there are leftovers).

It is a treat to have visitors . . .just not too many unexpected.
It will be really quiet again in awhile.

It appears, too, the procedure (of the non-invasive, somewhat non-conformist type) was at least somewhat successful.
It's a bit early to tell, but the signs are good.

It's been fun.

if it isn't, don't do it

More...

I was maybe just a little flip with my post yesterday.
A lot of folks don't understand how much Agricultural (or rural, if you prefer) California differs from Urban California.
This story, from the LA Times, goes a long way toward explanation.

I add that in my end of the Great Central Valley the excitement was not nearly as great as 125 miles south in the Twin Cities (Marysville & Yuba City) area.
But then we don't have the population they do.
Their excitement has been nothing compared with that of that of the southern part of the valley.

 
I wasn't aware, until yesterday morning, it was Derby Day at Epsom Downs.
If I hadn't written yesterday's post, I probably still wouldn't know.
I guess that makes me a lot like the folks I was writing about in that post.

The good news yesterday is I didn't have to concern myself with conflicting sporting events.
The Giants didn't play until last night . . .at the same time as the Hockey game.
Wait!
Why are they still playing hockey in June?
Then there's the NBA.
Why are they still playing basketball in June?
Those guys all need to get outside and get some fresh air.
Somebody should tell those folks the fighting season in Afghanistan is shorter.

BTW - the Giants won in walk-off fashion after being down 4 - 3 going into the bottom of the ninth.
In previous years it's been referred to as "torture."
I'm guessing it isn't this year because the G-men are 20 games above .500.

Have I mentioned, anywhere besides the reading list, I have read the first five books in the Game of Thrones series?
Had I known it was also a TV series, I might never have picked it up.
It have found it disturbing.
That is quite possibly because the character development is pretty well detailed and the author has made all of the characters flawed in such a manner that the reader can identify with many of them.
The odds are pretty good that I will continue reading the series.

You might be wondering now why I brought this up?
There is a character in the series whose every word of dialog I have memorized.

 it can even be

 used as an expletive

. . .and not many would

realize it

For a moment

Today those three-year-old horses run the third race in the Triple Crown.
There is a chance for California Chrome to be the first Triple Crown winner in, like, 36 years [I'm guessing here so help me out].

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

 
So for, like, the next few hours there will be a lot of worldwide interest.
Then, almost immediately after the race, the only folks who will care are those who own the horses in the race, the folks who put money on the race, and bookies.
Oh ...and those who might be interested in breeding racehorses for fun and profit.
My only interest is because of the potential win by a horse with connections to Northern California.
I might even watch the race...

...if the baseball game is finished.

kinda parochial that way

Yeah, well I really don't remember...

...because I wasn't quite a year old.

So many others have said so much.
There doesn't seem to be anything I can add.







"On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Adolph Hitler’s crack troops."

 http://www.army.mil/d-day/

Yep ...not average

There's no excitement around here.
I couldn't even incite an expletive at the Senior Center yesterday.

We are finally getting the coolers online this morning.

Following on from late yesterday.

0830PDT

Average is 87 °F 

summer's early

Not average

It is waning as I write.

. . .not looking forward to tomorrow 

I think I have figured out one of my problems

But, maybe not.
We're talking about my writing.
It's mostly accidental.

. . .like this post.

Something pops into my head and, if I can develop a conclusion, it becomes a blog post.
Sometimes, too, it ends like this. . . [with an ellipsis]

My problem is my brain works about 50 times faster than my fingers.
It will forget to capture a thought.
That's probably a good thing because not all thoughts should be retained.
They definitely need not be always acted upon.

The problem is by the time I start a post my mind has raced on to about three more topics and I've totally forgotten where the thought process has taken me.
That creates an issue also because I hurry to finish and a lot of times the result is incomplete {at least in my own mind].

Ooh, look!
A squirrel.

In case you are new and haven't been following here for long, or are only an occasional visitor I will remind you the blog has a title.
Most of the time it is operational. . .

. . .even when I am serious about a subject.

That is one reason why you won't find a whole lot about current events here.
My thoughts on most issues are constantly evolving.
What's scary is I can even find myself disagreeing with both sides on an issue because they have such a narrow view.
One of my favorite expressions is, "That's not right!"
It's not nearly as challenging as saying something is wrong and it allows for some latitude.

ain't semantics grand?

How does your garden grow.

Fresno chili

or if you like live action. . .

. . .yeah, the camera phone was on the wrong setting.

There's nothing quite like live action vegetables.

Somethin's going on over at the Senior Center and my assistance is required.

So... (a Monday update)

Here it is, Monday again.

There was no post yesterday because the Muse didn't bite me on the @$$...

...and I was busy anyway.

There was the monthly breakfast at the Senior Center that takes up most of the morning [that's only a slight understatement].
Maybe I've mentioned my main task at the breakfast is scrambling eggs and cooking French toast?
What I probably haven't mentioned is I am one of those (there are two of us ...sometimes three) who arrive an hour and a half before we actually start serving to begin setting up.
Somehow, it is also understood I will be one of the last to depart when we have finished.
The main advantage to arriving early to set up is I get a choice parking place.
Some day I may find an advantage to being one of the last to leave.

The last time we saw GS oncologist, Monday May 19 ...two freakin' weeks ago ...he told us he was going to order a nutrition consult.
While we were in Redding Friday afternoon the nutritionist called to make an appointment.
PHG took the message.
We were finally able to reach the nutritionist this morning.
We have an appointment with her in Redding next month ...a full week after we see the oncologist again.
We've been informed Medicare will not pay for the consultation.

The garbage saga may be done.
I hope nobody misunderstands.
The ag bin ...the green on with yard waste ...is still a little less than half full ...or a little more than half empty (YMMV).
But the important thing is I was able to tell another person, besides someone I know, about the issue.
And, more importantly, I stirred the pot.

The Cranky Old Man re-posted a good one this morning.
(All of his posts are good ones.
I didn't mean to infer that some are of lesser value than others.
All are entertaining.
Most are somehow educational.)

I could totally relate to this post, though.
One statement in particular hits really close to home.

"One distraction and the task at hand is forgotten."

That would be me.
I can start to do something and if there is an interruption I may never get back to it.
Saturday morning I turned on the drippers* for the vegetable garden, intending to let them run for about a half hour.
I even set the timer.
The timer went off as planned and I started to go out to turn off the drippers.
GS stopped me to ask for something.
Then PHG asked for something.
Then I saw that someone was actually clearing brush in the jungle next door.
Finally, just before dinner, I noticed the vegetable garden was flooded.
At least the flood was confined to the garden and of the miniature variety.

there are pictures

they may get posted

*I have set up a drip irrigation system.
I may have to find a way to put it on a timer.