Spanish flu?

I got the flu vaccine and dreamt that night entirely in Spanish.

Makes one wonder. . . .

1,500 miles is not that far.

I guess it's how you look at it. 1,500 miles is longer than the distance between the southern border of California to the northern border of Washington (state). It would take about 500 hours to walk. Or a year at an average of four miles per day which was my average daily walk in 2024.

So is that a long distance - 1,500 miles - or a short one - 4 miles per day?

I hope to walk farther in 2025 but I'm off to a slow start. I do most of my walking in the cooler months of October through April although it can get hot even then. And while I trained for a half marathon in the early months of 2025, I never completed one. And then, I didn't walk for much of the summer because it was too hot to go outside much less do anything. My daily average for this year is only 3.2 miles per day for a total of about 830 miles. I'd have to do more than six miles per day to reach 1,500 miles by the end of the year. Now, 1,500 miles looks far.

All that being said, it's time to replace my walking shoes so I went shopping last weekend and came home with two pair. One is the (women's) Altra Experience Flow that I purchased from REI. The other is the (men's) Nike Run Swift 3 purchased from DSW.

You might wonder why I bought both a women's shoe and a men's. I typically wear women's shoes but I have run in men's shoes before. They give me a little more room in the shoe, particularly in the toe box.

So far, I've walked three miles in each pair on a treadmill and while I wanted to like the Altras more I'm not sure I do. The Nike pair are closer to the style of shoe from New Balance that I've been wearing the last few years but when I ordered a pair this year, they felt clunky and stiff. I did some research online, decided on some metrics that I wanted to focus on, and went shopping.

I'll do another few miles in each pair of shoes on the treadmill before deciding but either way, I'm getting motivated to get out there and get walking. The weather is starting to cool down providing much needed relief to those of us in the southern California desert but it needs to be much cooler for me to do distances of 4, 6, 10, or more miles. I would love to do a marathon this year and even if it's something I could do, do I really want to? A marathon would take me six to seven hours to walk. And even if I wanted to do that, I have to consider all the time that training to walk that far would take. I've run two marathons before and while that was hugely satisfying, the main drawback was the sacrifice of time.

To be determined.

Whichever way I go on the shoes, I must mention that the customer service and return policy of REI are above and beyond. Even if I rule out the Altras, I won't rule out REI. No matter what you're looking for, if you're looking to get outside, start with REI. They have a lot to offer.

In the meantime, walk on.

Suddenly September

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was bored with summer. Nothing to do, too hot to go outside, I started looking for a job. That's how serious it had gotten.

Now, I can't seem to keep my desk cleared, the emails from piling up, keep up with my diary, or post to my blog.

Although, I am getting pretty close to finishing this . . . .

Modeled by the beautiful and elegant JW.

And for some inexplicable reason, I waited until it was 110 degrees outside to embrace baking. First, I cleaned the oven which filled the house with hot air. Then, I learned to cultivate a sourdough starter. Since then, I have made sourdough bread, rye bread, biscuits, and countless cookies. Also, I knit blankets.

"You live in a desert," my granddaughter helpfully pointed out.

Yes, but I won't get any use out of a sweater, hat, or scarf. At least, I can cuddle under a blanket in the cooler evenings a couple months from now. 

That is, if I'm not cleaning the oven.

Is it bigger than a breadbox?

"Why do you put your bread in the microwave?" my grandchildren ask, looking for signs of dementia.

"Because I don't have a breadbox," I answer.

They stare blankly, then ask, "What's a breadbox?"

I can't help but smile at the obvious answer, "It's a box you bread into."

They think I must be crazy or from another planet. "But why?"

Frankly, I don't know. "That's how my grandmother kept her bread."

I suppose I could just keep it on the counter but that would look messy. Breadboxes, if they exist at all, are rare and would make my kitchen counters appear cluttered. (Keep in mind, I keep my coffee maker in the laundry room for this very reason.) Other people keep bread in the refrigerator but aficionados argue that dries the bread out while keeping it in the pantry can potentially promote mold (if there is enough heat and humidity).

Meanwhile, the microwave is a cool, dark, and airtight place to store bread and recommended by King Arthur Baking Company in "The Best Way to Store Yeast Bread." In fact, that's all I use my microwave for: storing bread. Ditto for the oven in my RV back when I used to own one. I never used the oven for cooking and it made the perfect place to store bulkier items like bags of chips in a kitchen without much storage space.

So that, dear children, is the reason I put my bread in the microwave.

It just makes sense.

By the way, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" was a standard question in the game 20 Questions back in my day. Which is to say, we are old enough to know what breadboxes are. (Also, the game of 20 Questions.)

April cannot come soon enough.

If your husband is like mine, he has trouble remembering what day it is. Usually, all he has to do is take a look at his pill box but if he's forgotten to take his meds, then he's thrown off and he has to ask me.

That's why I recommend Day of the Week Boxer Shorts. Of course there is a downside. You may find your husband occasionally looking down the front of his pants to figure out the day of the week. I can think of more than one circumstance when that might be awkward if not inappropriate. Think about dinner with your mother. Or passing by a schoolyard.

But there is an upside. You can mix up his underwear drawer for April Fool's Day. 

That will really mix him up.

Summer out West

 

I never paid much attention to “fire season” except to whatever was in the news. But it turns out there are far more fires than I ever heard about. It’s wild and a little bit scary how much of the country is on fire although nearly all of it is west of the Rockies.

In the fall of 2020, we were moving from the Portland area to Southern California and we were driving our one car plus a van with everything we hadn’t sold. There was a fire raging just south of Portland at the time and, unbelievably, we were allowed to drive right through it. The smoke and flames were so dense that visibility was near zero. It’s as close to what I can only imagine that entering the Gates of Hell is like. 

Imagine driving into flames that are so dense there are no flames, only color. The sky and the air all around us was orange mixed with smoke that was all encompassing like a dark cloud. I don’t know how it’s possible that I-5 remained open and people were allowed to travel through the area. Nevertheless, we emerged on the other side, and made it safely to our destination.

Not everyone was as lucky, however. When we stopped for the night, the hotel was full of people who’d had to evacuate, many who lost literally everything but their lives.

More recently - just a few weeks ago - there was a 50-acre fire just four miles from our home. As neighbors started noticing the smoke, text chains were set up to share information. Many of us downloaded the Watch Duty app for updates, which included evacuation notices. While we were never put on notice, the neighborhood just across the street from us had been ordered to immediately evacuate. It was scary to think about the possibility of losing our homes and made the devastating loss of life and property due to previous fires all too real.

Stay safe out there, especially if you live out West. And be diligent not to start any fires. 

Consider this:

The number one cause of residential fire is unattended cooking. 

The number one cause of woodland fire is humans.

Taking the helm!

We went boating for four hours and the dog was fine. She neither puked (as she had earlier after eating something she shouldn't have out in the yard) nor had any trouble holding her bladder for the entire cruise. We, on the other hand, did.

There was no toilet on the boat we rented and there was no way to get into the lake because there was no way to get out of the lake; the swim step wasn’t something you could easily pull yourself onto and there was no ladder. But, there was a 5-gallon bucket which was provided by the rental company for depositing trash. My sister-in-law and I locked eyes. We both knew what that bucket was really going to be used for.

I (aka Tiny Tank) was the first to need it. The place we rented the boat from told us to stay out of coves and to not dock anywhere. I couldn't get in the water and there was no way to hang my back end over the rail. (Not the mention the lake was crowded with other boaters. Can you imagine the scene?) My only option was the bucket. But the boat we rented was a “party barge” with absolutely no privacy. The most secluded place for the bucket was in front of the captain’s chair and behind controls.

Everyone aboard looked off to the horizon while I “took the helm.”

I rinsed the bucket with lake water and we all pretended that that didn’t just happen.

But then the captain needed to “take the helm.” One by one, we all "took the helm" during our four hour tour.

Disgusting? Yeah. Necessary? 100%.

Meanwhile, the dog was fine.

July is Sarcoma Awareness Month

I don't want to be aware. I wish it didn't exist and I wish I never had it.

Sarcomas account for 1% of cancers in adults. I had it less than three years ago and I'm aware of it every time I have to go back for scans.

And because of this post, I'm aware of how deadly sarcomas are. Not that I wasn't aware before but writing this post forces me to remember. It's scary af.

I spent the summer of 2022 getting radiation, driving 35 miles round trip, daily, for five weeks. In October, I had a mass removed from my leg that measured four inches at its longest point and weighed about 6 ounces. Recovery was interesting. 

I was in a heavy leg brace for a week which prohibited me from bending my knee. Let me tell you, that made going to the bathroom an event. I also had to tote around a drain bag and a wound pump with me everywhere I went. I had to sleep with all of this equipment as well. I was issued a walker and a cane when I was discharged from the hospital and checked into a nearby condo.

During the week that followed, it was my mission to walk. Hubby urged caution but with his help, I accomplished my goal of walking across the street, toting all of my equipment, for a cup of coffee before my first week's convalescence was through.

For the first couple of years, I had to go back every three or four months for scans and checkups. I'm still going but with less frequency - only twice a year now.

And I'm still walking. I think that's what gets me through stressful times, including cancer. Both times. (I had breast cancer in 2019.) The point is I can walk. I'm alive and I still have my leg. (Amputation used to be the cure.) 

I celebrate my survival by walking. Since becoming cancer free, I have walked and finished three half marathons. (I trained for a fourth but wasn't able to participate in the event.)

Unbelievably, two other members of my family have had sarcomas as well. I am far too aware of it. The thing of it is, everyone is aware of some kind of cancer one way or another. If you want to be more aware of sarcomas, you can start with the Sarcoma Foundation of America. (If you want to be more aware of my particular sarcoma, look up Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma.)

If you want to donate, please do. But I'm not going to ask you to because you've probably donated to some other cancer-related organization already. I know I have.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. We're all too aware.

And now you're aware of sarcomas. You're welcome.

Meanwhile, celebrate what you can, however you are able, with the people you love. Move forward and do what you can to help in the cure for cancer. All cancers.

Leaving the Nest

We were gone for a few days to Big Bear Lake, home of the famous eaglets, Sunny and Gizmo. When we got home, our own "eaglet" (an unnamed baby hummingbird) had grown. It was sitting up in the nest but still appeared to be lacking the full plumage needed to fly. Slightly bald, if you will.

Perhaps I was mistaken because the next day, the little bird flapped its wings a little as if trying out the idea that they might be used for something other than just sitting around. 

And, then it was gone amid a short time of distraction. While houseguests arrived and got situated, the nest appeared to have been vacated. 

Later, we saw a hummingbird back at the nest but there was considerable debate as to whether this was the mother or the baby.

Today, there is nothing.

I feel a little jilted. I had spent weeks watching the nest and the accumulation of poop below. (This, was on a cover to a propane fire pit which was not in use and won't be until the weather is cooler.) I took pictures, although none turned out well, and peered closer with small binoculars. I tiptoed past the nest when I needed to get to the back yard, trying to be respectful of the young life taking place on our patio - rent free.

It's probably rare to catch the exact moment when a hatchling takes flight for the first time so it's not fair for me to be disappointed even though I'm left with the task of cleaning up the mess left behind. What's worse, is we have a new tenant that is larger and - dare I say - rather disgusting.

I don't know what it is and don't want to. Just don't have any babies on my patio. Okay, pal?

We have a baby!

A baby hummingbird, that is. 

I've been posting about our non-eaglets, not in Big Bear: A hummingbird had build her nest on our patio in a most precarious place. She built it on the loop of a ribbon which was hanging from the pull chain of a ceiling fan. It took her some time to make it stable as it kept sliding off the ribbon and was hanging literally by threads from the pull chain. Eventually, though, she got it reinforced and ready for eggs.

Because it is near to the ceiling and I don't have an extendable camera stick, I couldn't get very good pictures of the nest or of its contents. Nevertheless, I assumed if a hummingbird was going to build a nest anywhere, it was for the purpose of laying eggs so I left her to her work.

She spent a lot of time coming and going while building the nest and then she just nested. She sat in her nest in what appeared to be uncomfortable positions. There were two distinct positions: One was with her back arched so her beak and her tail feathers pointed to the ceiling; the other was with a straight spine with her beak and tail feathers in a horizontal line.

And then, she was gone for large chunks of the day. I was starting to think I had it all wrong. Either she had built her forever lodgings and hadn't laid any eggs or maybe her eggs didn't survive.

However, about a week or so ago, I noticed our hummingbird perching on the edge of the nest while thrusting her beak into the nest. It looked like she was feeding a baby, except we couldn't see whether or not there were any baby birds in the nest.

Other times she would sit in the nest and point her slightly open beak in the air and tilt her head side to side rhythmically. Was she listening for something? Was she searching for a scent?

Finally, I got my first glimpse of a tiny bird's head, beak thrust upward, visible just over the lip of the nest. But, for the most part, the baby stayed well inside the nest while the momma bird was gone for long stretches of time.

Today, I saw them both - momma and baby - in the nest. They were both seated in the nest with their beaks slightly parted, their heads moving side to side. Was she teaching her baby to do this? What purpose does this serve?

Now, I can see the baby alone in the nest with only its head visible from my vantage point. It has its beak in the air, slightly parted, and is tilting its head side to side like its momma taught. I can only see one head although most of the information I'm finding online suggests hummingbirds lay clutches of two eggs.

It could be a couple more weeks before the baby is ready to fly. I just hope I get to see it!

If you want to see how tiny the nest and baby hummingbirds are, here's a video. The birds in this video don't look like the birds on my patio but you'll get the idea.

I'll keep you posted on this very tiny cycle of life.

Say It Isn't So

The premier source of inspiration for procrastination, and the ultimate waste of time, faces a nearly eminent shutdown. The Chief Inactivist of the blog "76003.1414" (where one can enjoy "world-class work avoidance" among other things) has announced his desire to take a much needed nap.

76003, in its current form, originated in 2005. However, its inception dates back to1998, before the word "blog" even existed. In 2009, it became the inspiration for the blog "back(b)log" which is a mostly defunct site originally created to chronicle one person's journey with back pain. That blog led to two others. This one, "Chocolate Chip Mint" (started in 2010), and "Beer Here" (2017). These three blogs, combined, have not equaled the success of 76003 with roughly 450,000 total hits compared to 1.66 million.

76003 has mostly been a news blog or, rather, a running commentary on the news of the day. It has also been a place where stories from long ago were memorialized (sometimes with audio recordings by the Chief Inactivist himself), photos were posted, and contributions from correspondents throughout the world and beyond were shared. It's been both funny and insightful.

I happen to know the author and Chief Inactivist of 76003.1414 quite well and I know he is a wonderful storyteller, historian, tech guru, and an intelligent commentator on the news, politics, and events of the day. He is also a man who has done an exceptional job of letting his family know that they are loved.

It's understandable that he's tired and grumpy from the state of things as they are today. While one can hope he will awake from his nap and declare 76003's closure was just a dream, one can also hope he spends his much earned time off to write his memoirs.

Onward.

Here, hold my salad!

 . . . is never the start of a great story.

Case in point: Hubby said to me the other day, "Here, hold my salad!"

We both bust a gut laughing because everyone knows, a really great story never begins with that. I thought, "I need to write about this!"

The next morning I found the note I left for myself which read, "Here, hold my salad!" I asked Hubby, "What happened after that? I can't remember."

"Nothing," he answered. "I just needed to free a hand to dig the car keys out of my pocket."

And there you have it: No great story ever starts with "Here, hold my salad!" even if a story really does start with "Here, hold my salad!"

What’s my dream job?

I was with a group of women when this questions was asked by way of an icebreaker. The idea was introduce yourself and tell a little something about yourself. 

It reminds me of a time when we were with our sister-in-law (who, coincidently, has both my first and last names). We were in a small bar. So small, that it was impossible not to get to know your fellow drinkers.

We might not have been on our first beer when my sister-in-law proposed that we should ask everyone in the bar three questions:

1) What was your first job?

2) Have you ever been fired?

3) What's your go-to karaoke song?

The most interesting answer came from a woman who was dressed in a bathroom having just come from the hot tub. She started signing Adele or some such thing and blew our minds. She was amazingly talented.

Now the question was, "What is your dream job?" And I was seated to the left of the person who asked it.

If I had answered first, I might have said "Ninja." I was relieved when someone a few seats to my left volunteered the first answer.

The sad truth is that I wanted to become an accountant at a very young age and I became one. Not very exciting.

Everyone else in this group of women picked exciting things like singer, dancer, actor, or film producer.

I was nearly the last to answer and said, "Writer." Humorist, if you wanted to be specific. 

I think the truest answer would be "Extrovert" if that was a job. Singer, Dancer, or Actor - even Ninja - would be roles that would require a certain projection of self which, generally, is not my bag. Thus, it would be a dream of mine to be able to do any of those things. Writer is the closest I can get to expressing myself but, really, that is a solitary endeavor. I can be seen and unseen at the same time. It's safe.

Being an introvert is part of what made me a good accountant. I wasn't a CPA and I didn't deal with people. I just dealt with numbers. 

Being an introvert makes me a good long distance walker/runner/biker. I like people but in the end I will go the distance alone.

New situations or situations that require that I put myself out there scare the crap out of me (although I have been known to sing karaoke from time to time. "Crazy" by Patsy Cline is my answer to Question #3, above.)

So, what's my dream job? I don't know. A ninja who writes funny things? I would like to be fearless when I walk in a room sometimes but other than that, I think I already have the dream job of just living my life.

Shout out to my sista-from-another-mister and my entire family and my friends for making my life meaningful. There's nothing better than that.

On second thought . . .

My 12 year old granddaughter told me she wants to live with me so I asked her, “Why?” 

She said, “Because Dad is so annoying.”

"Annoying? That’s literally in the job description," I said. "He’s supposed to be annoying."

"Yeah, but he’s so annoying." She pleaded, "I could help you clean the house. I would always do my homework. We could go swimming. I could help you bake cookies and bread because, face it, you're not that good at it."

I asked her, "Who do you think taught him to be annoying?"

After a moment of thought, she said, "Yeah, I might not want to live with you."

Good thinking.

My weather vane is a turtle.

This is what it looks like on a clear, sunny day. There is a smaller turtle on the turtle's back, an elephant on its head, and a little green Army guy on the back of its neck.

On a windy day, it looks like this:

Can you find the elephant and the Army guy?

On a really windy day, you'd have to go looking for the little turtle as well.

It's been said that it rained last night but I didn't capture how it was reported by the turtle vane. First of all, I slept right through it and, secondly, I didn't want to disturb the nesting hummingbird outside my sliding glass door.

By the time I woke up and the hummingbird took flight to forage, everything had dried up anyway.

[No new activity to report in the nest, btw.]

 

In case you're following along

 ... this is an update on the hummingbird nest.

The nest itself has been fortified. It looks more like nest and less than a tiny beehive. The hen (for I presume the bird is female) has been sitting on the nest more, keeping perfectly still. I have rarely seen a hummingbird so motionless. She is very small with non remarkable plumage (dark brown/gray). 

My guess is she's laid her eggs, possibly two, which means we could seem impossibly small chicks as early as next week.

I'll keep an eye on it. (If I had a better camera, you'd be able to keep an eye on it, too.)

Just something I'm playing around with

 

Progress on the nest

 

It's very difficult to see in these photos - I really need a telephoto lens to get a better image - but, the gist of it is the nest (left photo) has been expanded and reinforced. It's less of a sack and more of the bowl shape that you might expect a nest to look like.

The hummingbird is sitting in the nest in the right photo. She was very still - more still than I've ever seen a hummingbird - almost as if she was asleep.

The images are much clearer with my binoculars but I haven't figured out a way to take a picture through the binocular lenses.

I'll be out of the office for the rest of the week so I won't be able to post any updates on the nest for a few days. I'll be sure to check on it as soon as I'm back.

Not nearly as gripping as a live camera on an eagle's nest, is it?

Not bald eaglets, not Big Bear

 Something even more rare. . . .  Do you see it?

This is a picture of our back patio looking out to our back yard. See it yet?  

Here's a picture of the ceiling fan on the patio looking out to our back yard. There are two pull chords for the fan. On one, I tied a ribbon which is weighted by a lock. The ribbon was added because I couldn't reach the pull chord. You can see the pull chord on the right is anchored by a round metal object which is out of my reach. The ribbon on the left pull chord is tied to its round metal object with a bow. (We have a lot of MacGyver fixes around here.)

In case you still can't see it, here's a closer view:

On top of the bow is something that looks like a dusty fuzzball. In reality, it's a hummingbird nest which is hard to find in the wild because they're so small. But, for whatever reason, a hummingbird decided to build one on top of a piece of ribbon under a ceiling fan on my patio.

Right now, it looks more like a fuzzy sack, hanging from the pull chain next to the bow. The hummingbird has been coming and going over the last week, adding to the nest, and perching for a short while before zooming off to feed or gather more fuzz. 

The activity has slowed over the last couple of days but I can't see any activity in the ball of fuzz. I have a pair of binoculars on the dining room table so I can get a closer look and have been checking frequently. I can't imagine how impossibly small the babies might be if the hummingbirds laid eggs.

A quick internet search suggests that if eggs are laid (likely two), it will be two weeks before they hatch.

Check back later. Things could get exciting!

Fail!

In my last episode, I told you that I may have reconciled with 'Bucks but I didn't get the bonus stars as I had expected. 

After I ordered my drink, I noticed that I had exactly the same number of stars after my drink as I'd had before. I thought that maybe the stars would only be awarded at the end of the promotion period which was still a few days away, not that there had been any precedent for this. But, no. It turns out that I hadn't ordered a latte as was required by the promotion offer. (The promotion was for 30 bonus loyalty stars when I purchased a latte within a certain timeframe.)

I ordered this:

Instead of this:

See the difference?

That light foam at the top is what makes coffee and milk a latte. Without it, it's called a flat white.

I ordered a flat white - a latte without the light foam - which IS NOT A LATTE!

Really?

I guess I really had forgotten how to order at Starbucks. But, to be fair, I didn't know a flat white was not a latte. In fact, when the flat white was first introduced on the Starbucks menu, it was listed as a latte. But, whatever, it's not a latte now.

My grandkids like Starbucks so later in the week, I found myself there buying them sugary drinks just before I returned them to their parents. That was enough to push my star balance up over 300. (I already had nearly that much already.) That allowed me to get a pound of whole bean coffee FOR FREE. Which is like gold. 

I wonder what would happen if I order a latte, hold the foam?