day.....photos!!....426

 I spent the afternoon wandering around

I will let the pictures do the talking tonight.

Stopped to visit the bison at Nachusa

Visited the statue known as Blackhawk

This is actually from last week when the wind was blowing and the air was filled with dust.....lost my grill cover for a few hours

This is in my back yard.....not sure if I should be concerned with Corki

Also in my back yard

This is my prairie plot

One of my favorite prairie plants....prairie smoke, or geum, I believe.  When the flowers are finished they turn silvery, giving the impression of smoke

Bloody nose...actually on our wooded lot near Oregon.  It is a trillium.

I believe this is Mayapple...also on the wooded Oregon lot.

That's all!

Stay safe.  Stay healthy

Peace and Love

day.....moving....425

 I told Jackie that I want to move

    I want to live in a town or place where I can order Domino's pizza and have it delivered by driverless car.

    I think that is soooooooo awesome!!!   The ad shows the strange looking little car pulling up and the customer  taking the pizza out of the storage compartment.

    We don't have a Domino's in town, so no driverless delivery.  

    Of course I could just drive to DeKalb and order a pizza and give an address  where it will be delivered  Maybe I could use the church address and just wait in the parking lot.  If I have to go through all that, I might as well just pick it up.

    We'll see.

    I learned today that I have a false memory.  

    I remember as a kid going to Brookfield Zoo and riding the little zoo train from one station to the next.  I loved riding that train.  Aunt Bea lived just a couple of blocks from the zoo and I remember going with her and my mom.  That train was great and it is stuck in my memory as a positive childhood experience.

    So today I get the zoo magazine.  This issue highlights events in the zoo's history.  In 1962 the miniature train was introduced.  It ran until 1967,

    In 1962 I was 14 years old.

    I don't imagine riding the train at 14 is the same as riding the train at age 5 or 6, but the memory I have is riding it when I was 5 or 6.

    As a sidenote, I always wanted to be rich enough to buy enough land to have a miniature railroad, like the ones in kiddy lands and amusement parks.  My train would go through woods, across rivers, through a tunnel....and I would spend hours just riding it.

    Maybe I was 14 when I rode it.  I guess that doesn't matter, because I have a great memory of something that may not have happened.  I'm ok with that.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love

day.....vampires!!....424

I had an unusual experience today 

    It was a great experience, in a way.  But it was unusual.

    I had to have a blood test.  I hate blood tests.  I hate getting stuck with a needle.  I know, I am not the only one, but that does not make it any better.

    My test was at the former DeKalb Clinic, which is now part of Northwestern Medicine.

    I went in, told the person taking the blood that I am a big baby.  I took off my glasses and prepared to worry.

    She said she could tell by my body language that I was a little up tight, and she kept talking to me about stuff I don't even remember.  Then she said, "Ok...hold this while I get a bandage."

    I asked he if she was done and she said yes!  I never felt the needle go into my arm!  It was truly amazing.

    She said next time I come to ask for her and she will draw again.  But I hope there is no next time.

    I did manage to ride around the block today...got a 7 mile bike ride in and my legs are a bit sore right now.  Hopefully it will not rain tomorrow and I can get another ride under my wide belt.

    All in all it was a pretty good day for us.  Two medical appointments done, a little shopping, a bike ride. ...... not a bad day.  Plus I used a digital coupon at the grocery store!  I downloaded it to my phone and redeemed it! That was also a high point of the day.

    Come to think of it, that is pretty sad, isn't it?

    Oh well....

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  

Peace and Love

day...doctor, doctor.......423

 This must be appointment week

    Jackie had a doctor appointment today, has another tomorrow, a hair appointment Friday morning and I have a medical appointment tomorrow.

    There is hardly any time for a nap, although I did manage one at 11 a.m. today!  It felt good, but I felt guilty because I should have been working on cleaning out a closet.  I think that is why calendar makers invented tomorrow.

    It was quite the boring day.  

    I did buy  lettuce for a salad tonight, then forgot it in the car until about 8:30.  Then it was too late.

    I am making more than my average number of typos, which means it its time to trim my nails. 

    Tomorrow I have a blood test to double check my PSA level, which is 0 since the operation last November.  I believe the good doctor said this will be my last visit with him for at least a year.  I will be happy with that.

    So....stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

day...ennui.....422

 Sometimes I just don't feel like doing anything

    Nada.  Zilch.  Sit in a chair and veg.  

    That's how I was today.

    I had to force myself to work in the yard and prepare the raised beds for planting.  but I had no desire to do anything.

    I have more days like that lately.  Then I get upset because I don't have the little things done that I need to have done.

    When I made supper tonight I realized I had not emptied the dishwasher, so I had dinner dishes stacked  in one place and I cleaned off the counter to put the clean dishes, then I loaded the dishwasher again.  Just like Groundhog Day.

    The meat I cooked splattered, so I ended up wiping up the floor when all the rest was done.

    I finished the bottle of wine I opened Saturday and now I am so thirsty I am drinking iced water.  

    No food is satisfying me, I keep grazing and nibbling.

    Maybe a good night's sleep will help.  Every night when I go to bed my feet itch!  I spray them, and rub lotions of different kinds, but they itch.  Last night I took an allergy pill and the itching stopped.  So, are itching feet the sign of some sort of allergy?  Did the pill help or was it coincidence?  Or am I just weird?  Maybe it's a little of both. 

    Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

Peace and Love

day.....was it me?....421

I am sometimes a rotten person 

    We have a large common area behind our houses.  For the past three years, neighborhood kids have taken to riding their 4 wheelers, dirt bikes, and ATVs through the retention pond part of the common area.

    I admit, I hate when they do that.  It's noisy, raises dust,  and just irritates the hell out of me.

    I always say, "I hope they have an accidnet and break something."

    Well, I was out mowing tonight and some kids were running their ATV up and down the retenton bowl.  It was annoying.

    I was off my mower, and I saw a kid running like hell across the retention pond.  Then another kid.

    I figured good, they  ran out of gas or got a flat tire.

    A lady had just walked by my house and she turned onto Skare Road.  Suddenly she started running.  A car pulled over.  I figured something was up, so I went in to get my keys to drive over there.

    By the  time I got there, parents of the kids were there.  The ATV flipped, spilling kids out.  Two of the kids were bleeding, one from the head and the other from some place.  There were already 7 adults there, 911 was called, so there was nothing for me to do.

    So I stood in the middle of the road and sort of directed traffic....telling people to stop or go.  No big thing, but it really was the only thing I was capable of doing.

    The ambulance came and took the two boys to the hospital.

    Now I feel bad for thinking evil thoughts.  In all honesty, everyone is lucky no one was seriously injured, at least the boys did not look seriously hurt.

    Next time I will just wish for a mechanical breakdown.

    I finally finished washing the patio furniture.  Now I have to sand it and seal it.  I hope I do it right this time.

    I was sitting on one chair and bent over another chair in the driveway.  Suddenly a voice yelled out, "Hey!"  I looked up and there was a woman standing at the bottom of the driveway.  I said hello and she said something like, "Just checking."  

    She must have thought I was ill or injured.  I don't know who she was, but it was nice of her to check.

    Back to the boys...I don't know them or their families.  But maybe tomorrow I can find out where they live and just check in on them.

    I won't tell the parents I put a hex on them though.

    Stay healthy.  Stay safe.  Think good thoughts.

Peace and Love

day.....out!.....420

 We actually went out today

    It was a fairly busy day.

    First, I dropped off 7 years of tax returns at the shred day our bank was holding.  I cleared out all returns up to 2014.....along with some other stuff that we did not want to put in the trash.

    Then we went to the museum for the annual opening of the fountain.  

    Over 100 years ago a woman named Laura Fessler bought an 800 pound cast iron drinking fountain for the city.  At one time it was in the center of downtown, then was moved to outside city hall, then it went in storage, and eventually it came to the museum.

    It's a strange deal.  There are water pipes that get turned off and he fountain winterized.  The pipes get turned on in the spring, someone goes down into a pit and turns a handle, someone goes into the museum basement and flips a crank and voila!  Water.

    But it is a special fountain.  Yes, it's age and history are interesting, but the design is also quite neat.  There is a bubbler for humans.  The fountain is designed to run constantly.  Water not drunk by humans drops into a large basin about hip high so horses could get a drink.  That unconsumed water drops down to two basins on the bottom for dogs, cats or even goats!  There is also a small spot for birds to quench their thirst.

    We do a fountain opening each year in early May, except for last year when it was not opened due to Covid.

    This year we had a nice crowd that included a horse, two goats, a dog and people.

    Of course there were refreshments, including carrots for the horse, puppy chow, bird seed brownies and muffins.

    It was nice to get out among other people.

    Then we went to DeKalb to pick up some stuff I was supposed to get Thursday.  At 1 a.m. today Jackie said to a Terry in the middle of a dead sleep, "You forgot to stop and pick up my package."

    Thus a drive to DeKalb.

    The only downer was the wind.  I could not go outside to finish cleaning the chairs because there was so much dust in the wind (not an intentional Kansas reference, but it works) and I don't think the chairs would have stayed in place. 

    So, that gets pushed to tomorrow, putting me two days behind.  And I did look for Wet it and Forget It, but our local hardware store only had concentrate.  It was a half gallon container and I would use one ounce to five ounces of water.  I  think I would have had enough for a lifetime, so I passed on the purchase.

Hope your day was pleasant. 

Stay safe.  Stay healthy.  Happy May Day!!

Peace and Love

Laura Fessler appeared to give us the history of the fountain.

Somebody has to get down into the pit.

You can lead a horse to water and make him drink!