Category Archives: My Life

Weekend Coffee Share #14-Outside

Coffee’s up. Grab a cup and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would tell you I think I found the name of the those trees with the yellow flowers I told you about last week. They are not Golden Rain but are Sweet Acacia.

They have feathery yellow puffs with thorns on their branches. There are two of these trees behind our back wall. I found some of the puffs on the ground.

The neighbors were having them pruned and we picked up one of the tree branches and found the thorns. The Sweet Acacia trees are losing their yellow puffs so hopefully less pollen. There are lots of things blooming around here now. So it could be something else. I took a short walk around and spotted a pretty yellow oleander and some beautiful Palo Brea trees.

I’m still using my cell phone camera for now. I have to hold the view finder away from me a bit to shoot photos. So my focus is probably hit and miss. I am seriously thinking about buying a new digital camera. The amount of sunlight does make a difference with glare. I tried the wide-brimmed hat but not as helpful as I had hoped. It is often breezy and I had to pull the hat on tight. Then the brim blocked my view down the road. I discovered some cloud cover is helpful in reducing glare.

I had another roadrunner sighting. First he/she was taking shelter under a low bush and later making a daring dodge in front of a FedEx truck. I read online that roadrunners can make a clicking sound like a raptor, (Jurassic Park variety), when hunting together. I heard some clicking sounds on one of my walks. I felt a bit edgy imagining a roadrunner dogging my trail.

Did you hear we are opening fully in California on June 15? We are cautiously optimistic about this. Maybe because we have these variants running around. The latest is called the Double Mutant out of India discovered recently by scientists at Stanford University. This is in addition to the New York mutant, the UK mutant, the South African mutant, and our own California mutant. Many Californians are getting vaccinated so hopefully we will win the race for immunity.

The thing is we now have to get comfortable re-entering society. I read an interesting article about how to gradually expose yourself to social situations to cope with the anxiety. It’s called ‘Dreading post-pandemic crowds and social situations? Exposure therapy can help’, by Ileyse Debrow DiMarco in the Washington Post. Even the thought of crowds makes me apprehensive and I know I won’t be exposing myself to them any time soon. Have an appointment for my first professional haircut in over a year next week. That is a start.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer.

Weekend Coffee Share #13-Something Missing

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Coffee’s ready. Pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would ask if you noticed the bags under my eyes this morning. I think I have an allergy to something. I am trying cool compresses to reduce the swelling. I will not miss the bags when they’re gone. Since the start of the pandemic lock down there are many things we stopped doing, like shopping, going to the movies , restaurants, hair salons, library, dental and medical visits, travel, and family gatherings. I have come to realize that I don’t miss some of these activities that much. I do miss more visits with family and friends, the library, and car trips. Before this all started, I thought we would travel abroad. Now I don’t know when we would feel comfortable with that.

It is good we are able to visit with a few people who have had the COVID vaccine, like my son and daughter-in-law and my daughter who got the first dose will be able to see us sooner than we thought. My brother-in-law and his wife visited us yesterday which was very nice. A few things are opening with some restrictions. My little grandson started back at his preschool last week. He was so excited to be back in school. We were excited to see him when he visited last Sunday with his parents.

I will wait a while before being around more of the public because of the COVID variants.

Things I definitely won’t miss are masks, social distancing, and the fear of infection.

Not sure if this is a Golden Rain tree or the culprit for my allergies but we have one right behind our back wall. They are pretty trees.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer.

Roadrunner Watch

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I spotted our neighborhood roadrunner the other day. At least I think it is the same bird. It was running furtively at the front of the houses on a nearby street. It must have a nest around here. I wondered what was drawing it to our residential neighborhood. I looked up what roadrunners eat. They eat insects, reptiles, small mammals, and even other birds. We do have a golf course with ponds and I am pretty sure there would be birds, insects, and lizards there. Here are some recordings of the different sounds and calls from All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). They have quite a repertoire. This website said they do make a ‘meep, meep’ sound when running away from danger.

Our neighborhood friend has been quiet so far.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘run.’ Featured image of Roadrunner by National Park Service Death Valley. I haven’t been able to get my own photo of our roadrunner. I would have to be ‘Quick Draw McGraw’ with my cell phone to catch it.

Weekend Coffee Share #12-Putting It All Together

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Coffee’s up. Come on in and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would tell you my most recent favorite words are, ‘ no assembly required.’ My husband and I have been buying a few things for our new house. I ordered them online and most were from out of state. They are bulky items and I would not want to ship them back. So we had to make the best of it. I bought an inexpensive etagere that was a breeze to assemble compared to the chase lounges for our backyard. It took 2 days of hard work by my husband with some assistance from me to assemble them.

The patio table we purchased had the wrong parts and luckily we were able to contact the distributor and get the right parts sent to us.

This is how two lamps arrived. At first I thought they were broken and we were ready to just throw them out. My husband said it’s not worth the trouble of returning them because they were inexpensive.

Then he figured out we had to thread the cord through and screw on the socket.

We are dealing with shipping and assembly because we don’t want to go into stores to shop for this stuff just yet. I have now decided it is better, if I can, to order through local companies because if something is wrong or broken I can return it.

A few more favorite words are Free Delivery and Assembly. I was happy to order from a local store that offered to do both. And if anything is missing or broken we can easily return it.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer. Featured image’ Cup of coffee in cafe bar in Madrid’ by Gvjekoslav on Wikimedia.org (cropped)

California Blow

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California! Where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain. Whoops, wrong state. But we do get a lot of wind in the Coachella Valley. It has to do with low pressure drawing in the air from areas of higher pressure through the San Gorgonio Pass. That’s why we see a lot of wind turbines dotting the landscape coming into the valley too.

‘Windgarten’ by Ian D Keating on Wikimedia.org

It get’s going in the afternoon right into the night and can really howl, an eerie effect at night. It doesn’t happen every night, but when it does I want to cozy up with a good mystery book.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘starts with cal.’

Start of post inspired by lyrics to ‘Oklahoma’ by Oscar Hammerstein II.

Weekend Coffee Share #11-On A Lighter Note

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Coffee’s up. Grab a cup and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I would tell you this week we started ‘Daylight savings time’ here in California and most of the US. I thought I was over it since I no longer have to keep to a work schedule. But I notice I am more than usual groggy in the morning lately. It may take me more than two cups of coffee to wake up today. I have never liked the time change. Every year when my husband announces it’s time to reset the clocks ahead , you can hear my loud groan, ‘oh, no.’ I don’t mind ‘Fall back’ because you get the extra hour of sleep then. I have noticed since we moved to the desert that one thing we have plenty of is daylight. I don’t think we need to save any of it. It really seems brighter here. I read that the sky is bluer too because there aren’t as many dirt particles in the air. I hope we don’t have as much air pollution as the city. There is quite a bit of traffic here as the population has grown in recent years. Eventually, we are supposed to go to electric cars and what a change that will mean for Southern California.

Getting back to brightness of the light here. I have been attempting to take photos of some of flora with my android and noticed I have trouble seeing what’s on the viewfinder because of the glare. I took a couple of shots almost blind. I googled the problem and read I could use a umbrella or large brimmed hat to provide enough shade for the camera. It reminded me of the old-time photographers who used to cover their heads with a cloth to block the light. In my brief research, I found there are attachments for digital cameras called digital display shades. Or it was suggested to drape a towel over my head. I think I might scare the neighbors with that technique.

A couple of my blind shots:

I was frustrated I could not get the shots I wanted of other plants and trees. Still figuring out my new android and how to manage all the light. Almost forgot, I did get a shot some of my grapefruit blossoms.

‘Man standing in paddock’ c 1930 via State Library of Victoria on Flickr.com

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie on Natalie the Explorer.

Weekend Coffee Share # 10-Coming Out Of The Cave

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The coffee is ready. Come on in and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I might ask you how your life has been over the past year. We are passing through an anniversary of sorts. It has been a year since we first heard we were in a pandemic.

The year of the pandemic started officially on March 11, 2020 with the declaration from the World Health Organization. For me it has felt like a year of unreality. The shock and fear in the beginning. On March 19 Governor Newson announced the lockdown of California. The first lock down which was to last until April 21 in LA. I remember thinking how will we get through it, a 1 month lock down. Little did I know it would extend into a year plus. The memory of our first trips to the grocery stores. We went in the early hours of the morning designated for older people and found long lines at one of our regular markets so decided to try another instead. The disorientation of walking into a store with many shelves, milk and meat cases empty. The hasty decisions about what to buy out of what was left. I quickly learned how to order online groceries and at first there were shortages with that as well. It seems like ages ago when we couldn’t get paper towels, toilet paper, or disinfectants. I remember hunting for those items everywhere. There were worse things to come. The loss of my younger brother to COVID. I remember visits with my grandson at a distance on our front patio. Dental visits postponed indefinitely. Doctors visits done remotely. A very frightening visit to the ER where we waited for almost 2 hours in masks. My husband hospitalized with a non-COVID illness. Eventually we all felt safe to visit with our grandson inside our house. We were our own little pod. My daughter was living with us for several months, so at least I was able to be with her regularly too. So grateful that my husband, children, and grandson have made it through. I have become accustomed to living my life inside my house. I am an introvert so this is not completely uncomfortable, but it will take some getting used to being out in public places again. Like shopping in a market, going to get my hair cut, or going to a movie theatre. I wonder if I have developed a mild case of ‘cave syndrome’, ( a term coined by Dr. Bregman, a psychiatrist), where I fear going out of my house. During the pandemic my hair got very long and I took to wearing it in a single braid down my back. My daughter said I looked like Willie Nelson and gave me my COVID haircut. She did a good job. I haven’t had my hair professionally cut for the whole year. My husband has an appointment for a haircut at the end of this month. He will wear a mask but I still feel nervous about it. He did go to have a couple of haircuts when the barber was allowed to be open. I know I will adjust to going into shops, the dentist, and doctor eventually. It will feel very strange in the beginning.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Featured image ‘Good Morning Coffee’ by Daniel Go on Flickr.com

Also sharing this post with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, hosted by Linda G Hill. Linda who asked if we would be comfortable sharing our experience of the pandemic year. I have shared my experiences throughout the year as you know if you have been following my blog. I wanted to do a post on the One Year Anniversary of the pandemic and Natalie and Linda were thinking on the same theme.

Butter You Up

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Do I butter you up with a cheery post. I know on which side my bread is buttered, she thought. Since making a big move to a new house, I have been eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches or peanut butter stuffed pretzels because it is easy to grab when I am busy with other stuff around here. I like peanut butter, creamy peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter too. 🙂

Peanut Butter song by the Olympics via Orchard Enterprises on You Tube.com

And finding all the nooks and crannies in which to ~~stuff~~ carefully place all our belongings. This often requires the use of our folding step ladder to reach the high places.

‘Ladder to heaven’ by tumisu on Pixabay.com

I did have good news this past week. My older brother came home from the hospital and I was able to speak with him briefly. It was so good to hear his voice. I told him he is a tough guy because he came through it. Feel the need to keep even closer touch with him.

Many of us are getting our COVID shot series completed just in time for the attack of the mutant variants.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Adrian Perez on Flickr.com

We have our own California variant. Although, I just read an article that said the UK variant is expected to dominate in the US. We could have battle of the variants.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘butter.’

Weekend Coffee Share #9 Moving In

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Coffee’s ready, come on in. My morning cup is Pete’s French Roast with a splash of half n’ half. It’s how I start my day. That is one constant that hasn’t changed, which is comforting. The past year has been full of unwelcome changes but did end with some positives. My husband and I just moved into our retirement home and we are starting to get settled. We were able to get our COVID vaccines. Our new neighbors are friendly even though we still great each other at a distance and usually with masks on. We have three citrus trees in our backyard. The grapefruit is starting to blossom sharing its lovely fragrance. The landscaping was already in and is dry-scaping with assorted flowering bushes and desert plants, with a drip watering system. I really appreciate that the landscaping is done because I am not good at it. When we arrived the garage was clean and empty. We quickly decorated it with a very large assortment of cardboard packing boxes and have been busy clearing it out. It is probably unrealistic for me to expect it will get back to its pristine state again anytime soon. I have been busy finding just the right place for everything in our cupboards and closets. It’s a challenge when you move in with too much stuff from your old house which had more rooms and closets. My hope was to downsize our belongings. My husband has the most stuff and was the most unwilling to part with it. Maybe we can chip away at some of it in the coming months. I’m probably dreaming again there. It’s funny the things you don’t notice when you are buying a new place. Like the microwave had a missing rack, one of the electric outlets was upside down, the washing machine has a high pitched squeak when it’s running, and there were bins left in the garage for the refrigerator but they don’t fit this model of refrigerator. I said to my husband optimistically ‘maybe the washer is supposed to make that noise.’ He didn’t think so. The washer repair person is coming to check out the machine. At least it’s under warranty.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie on Natalie the Explorer. Featured image of Pikachu Latte Art, Harajuka in Tokyo cafe by ajay_suresh on Flickr.com Roadrunner photo from National Park Service Death Valley.

Honesty The Best Policy

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My older brother never wants to tell me his problems and has often not let me know when he was sick or in the hospital. I would find out at a later date and then still be upset anyway. He was being my big brother, trying to protect me, and is a very kind and loving person. I have been so tied up with our move that I had not spoken with him for several weeks. I was having trouble getting through to him recently and had a feeling something was wrong. I finally spoke with my sister-in-law today. He had been in the hospital last month and now had to go back in again. He did not want to worry me. It would have worried me and does now, but I’m glad I found out so I am able to send my love to him.

Even though we may want to protect our loved ones from bad news, I think they want to know what is going on no matter what.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today was a word ending with ‘sty’. Featured image ‘Vase de roses’ by Renoir via wikimedia.org