THE MAGIC KINGDOM

 Oh for the cool of winter.  I know, by the time it arrives I will be complaining about the cold.  At least this morning it's down to 68 degrees with a high of 90.  Any respite is better than that 102 oppressive stuff.  My door is open and the fan on high!!  The sun painted a pretty sunrise picture.

It was Tuesday of course ... time for another rousing round of BINGO.  I wasn't exactly looking forward to this one.  I'm too old to be learning new computer programming.

Kitters was her usual troublemaker self.  I'm sure I have one lizard under my armoir in the bedroom because she is always looking under there, and I KNOW I have one under the dryer in the laundry room because I watched him scurry away faster than I could grab.  

Then she got a little OVER bold while I was petting her, which is demanded as soon as I sit on the couch.  She got sideswiped when she grabbed with both paws and bit me.  I don't know if that's play or just being mean, but she ended up on the floor.  It's okay, I just shoved her off and yelled NO.  She got the message.

I did absolutely nothing but phone games for the next couple of hours.  I figured I better rest up for the late night at bingo.  Lunch was quick and easy ... pulled pork salad. Yes it looks terrible.  There is lots of cabbage salad underneath, followed by tomatoes and cheese.  Pork on top with a sweet onion dressing.  It was delicious!!

Having been requested to attend a meeting at 2:00, I was at the lodge at 1:30.  I wandered around looking for anyone who might know about the Bingo Kitchen Menu machine so I could get a head start.  No one even knew what I was talking about.  Okay then ..... off I went to the upstairs meeting.

The problem quickly arose.  The meeting person was not to be found.  I stopped in at the office, only to be forewarned of two MORE problems.  Hey ... I am NOT the problem solver around here.  By the time I went back downstairs, I had two packages of paperwork to look over.

That lasted all of ten minutes before I went back UPstairs for the meeting.  That lasted all of five minutes.  I was definitely getting my steps in for the day.  Down once again, I found the gal who would teach me the register had come in early.  Perfect!  I won't have to have a substitute on the infernal machine for long.

It always works better if I actually hit the buttons and you just tell me which ones, but she would not relinquish the register.  I typed as fast as I could on my phone so I would have some idea when I tried it by myself in a day or so.  It's pretty easy, except for removing tax on one item, hitting those three dots and the today arrow, changing the time, custom reporting and printing twice on some, only once on others.  The good news is our cashier got another flight and will be here for the next six months.  YAY!  

Bingo went okay ... yes some dress alike and all wear their Bingo regalia.  There's everything from stilettos to slippers, probably ten wigs, many of which change every week from black to blond and back again.  Clothing runs from short shorts to long flowing dresses to stretchy pants.  Stretchy pants and short shorts don't go with stilettos, but they wear them.  We've talked about those before.  

With a slew of newbies coming in who have never played our kind of bingo before, there was lots of yelling for the first few games.  Sometimes they have patience, sometimes not!  We even have one sweet lady with Alzheimers who comes every week.  Her husband drops her off and picks her up.  She remembers everything about playing 15 years ago.  On this night she won not ONE but TWO jackpots.  No one complained one bit.  The good news is her husband gets a break every Tuesday night and on THIS night got $500 in his pocket.  

Everyone seemed to be in a better mood, including me.  I even talked to the guy who is supposed to run the show.  I've been more than extremely distant due to the handling of a problem, which finally got fixed ... for the most part anyway.  Sometimes you just have to stand your ground.

The night was almost over and the volunteers were getting antsy.  That's when I got the phone call.  Apparently there was a little fight upstairs at the bar.  Okay, not a little one but a BIG one.  I just laughed ... it was not about Bingo for once.  Beers were slammed down and words said.  I stayed stuck to my little bingo seat and did not get involved.  It's better to get out with your head intact.  

And so ended another lovely night at Bingo.  Some of the newbies won, meaning they will be back next week.  I am very much surprised at the husband/wife combinations coming in.  This used to be almost exclusively a woman's domain.  Even the homeless are getting in on the act.  Two came in late and plunked down $100 bills to play for the night.  You just never know who is going to show up.

Every night when I got home from Bingo, this is what I used to find.  Mr. Cooper with his ball, waiting for me to toss it back to him.  Still missing this sweet face so very much.

It's accounting day .. oh won't that be fun.  Then it's off to get the Veteran quilts embroidery done.  Such an exciting life I live!!  

OH SO SAD, JACKIE IS GONE.

 First and foremost, I have some bad news.  I'm sure you've seen the pictures of the baby eaglets from Big Bear Valley in Southern California.  

Jackie (2012) and Shadow (2014) were a mated pair of bald eagles who lived near Big Bear Lake.  For all these years, their raising of babies has been followed on live cameras.

Oh so sadly, the Mom Jackie has passed away.  She was found on the ground and taken to the Wildlife Rehab facility, that did everything they possibly could to save her.  It was apparently anemia, but they could not come up with anything definite causing it.  Her mate for life is still hanging at the nest with the last two babies, who are now all grown up.  What a horrible loss for the community.  They have produced babies for many years.  Fly high Miss Jackie ... you were a GREAT Mom!!!

I got up at the normal 4:30, only to run outside to ALMOST see some nice color in the sky.  It was a hot 70 degrees, meaning we were looking at another 102 degree day.  UGH!!

I opened the smoker and stuck the thermometer in the biggest hunk of pork. Wasn't I surprised to find it was already 10 degrees hotter than it should be.  Oooohhhhh that's not good!!!  I quickly took it out and shut the smoker down.  

From that point on, I was so distracted by cutting it up that I completely forgot to take pictures.  There was no towel spa treatment ... it was overcooked.  I just chopped it up and stuffed it in baggies.  Of course the pork loin piece was dry as a bone, so I threw in a little apple juice for good measure.  

With nothing else going on, I went outside at 8:30 to lie in the sun for a bit.  Here I am looking through my hat at the brightness that was bringing the heat.  I lasted all of 20 minutes before hanging it up and heading inside.  

Truthfully, I did nothing the rest of the day.  Oh there was the panic phone call that we did not have a cashier for the Bingo Kitchen tonight.  The one on the schedule got her plane reservation cancelled due to weather.  She won't be back for two days.  We called three other people who all said no.  See -- it's easy to say NO.  People just do not want to volunteer any more.  

We finally convinced one gal to come in, if only to teach me that particular cash register.  It's completely different from mine.  That way I can con someone into running the infernal machine and I can cashier for the kitchen in emergencies.  I'm not sure what we will do when NO ONE volunteers.  Close it down I suppose.  Don't tell anyone, but I secretly yelled YES in my head!!!

Lunch was a pulled pork taco with what I had.  It was really quite tasty, but needed some "juice" to moisten it up.  

I wasn't feeling up to par on this day, a rarity for me, so I parked myself on the couch.  Amazon loves it when that happens.  

I did finally go out and replace my old faded raggedy flag with a new one from Walmart.  We shall see how long THIS one lasts.  

I did spend a couple of hours cleaning the barbecue.  I don't know what happened last time, but I forgot to clean up the bottom three pans.  What a JOY that was!  I had to use a heavy paint scraper to get the big stuff off, then soak it for over an hour.  

I have to say this is the best smoker I've ever used.  It's a Bradley electric that uses wood bisquettes that advance automatically.  I actually have another Masterbuilt smoker that is more difficult due to it having a tray for wood chips.  You are constantly refilling the wood chips from the outside, though you can't see the container, making it difficult to know WHEN to add more.  

I got this one on Amazon MANY years ago for half price on Prime Day.  Shipping was free.  I think back then it cost me $200.00.  They appear to be a little cheaper now, but maybe they are smaller.  This one is still going strong and I think it must be over ten years old. 

In case anyone is interested ... this is Pig Powder.  There is no substitute, though many have tried.  It was developed by an award winning smoker of everything pork, named Jim Tabb.  His daughter has now taken it over.  It's not exactly cheap, but I guarantee you will like the flavor.  It's won all the barbecue shows you see on TV and worth every penny in my book.  Great on pulled pork and better on ribs.  Just go to pigpowder.com.  I buy two of the regular 12oz size every time I get down to one bottle.  NOT the spicy.  I am not a spicy girl!!!

That's it for today.  Time to put on my armor and SHINE at Bingo!!!  

ARE YOU SMOKING?

 It looked like the country was on fire this morning ..... and it felt like it too.  Good grief ... this heat has become oppressive.   At 7:30 last night,  it was 103 degrees.  Oooweeeee Mother Nature is mad at someone!!  Or maybe she's just trying to smoke us to tenderness.

The moon was still up, but it wasn't feeling it either.  Just a tiny sliver.  At least it's not full for this meeting I have to attend.

But first ... remember these two running watches?  They tell you how far based on GPS, even shows a map of your route, how fast, heart rate, recovery rate, pace ... just about everything you would ever want to know.  I paid a lot of attention to these back in the day.  Practice makes perfect when it comes to marathons.  I was hoping to resurrect one or both so I could keep track of my time a little better.

Woohoo!!  This one lit up with the correct time this morning.  I was thrilled that it worked.  Too bad it only worked for about 49 seconds.  I'm sure I heard a big sigh about the time it died a quick death.

Well rats.  Sadly, you cannot change the batteries in those watches.  They want you to buy a new one. I suppose I can't complain ... this one worked well for about 8 years and has been sitting for 10.  I looked them up on Amazon and about had a heart attack.  That watch above that I paid about $450 for, was now $1,099.00.  Well that's a big NO THANK YOU!  I settled for this MUCH cheaper one.  It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it will do what I need it to since truly, I don't see any marathons in my future.    

In no time I had to head on off to the big town of Stockton.  Yes, that's where my truck died on the last trip up there.  I prayed the entire way that my Jeep made it.  I drove that because the fuel is $2.00 a gallon cheaper.  Still, it cost me $70 to attend this unnecessary meeting.  

They call it the Motel ... which is exactly what it looks like, and probably used to be.  they even have a swimming pool in back. I felt like diving in.  It would have been better than the meeting.

All the bars on the doors made me nervous, but I went inside to find a nice large cool room and a table of my friends.  Well .... most of them were my friends.  I actually had a blast talking to two of the guys I had not seen in awhile.  We laughed and carried on like school kids while others scowled at us.  

I spent a good part of the actual meeting just laughing to myself.  I'm surprised several in attendance didn't get sent to the principal's office.  I stayed as long as I could stand before tapping my watch and running out the door.  I grabbed a donut on the way.  Lucky for me, traffic wasn't too terrible, and thank the Good Lord above I was not going the OTHER direction, where they were backed up for about 5 miles.  

Coming through town, I had an epiphany!  If I stopped at the local Mexican market, I could get a pork roast and smoke that baby.  Unfortunately, they only had one, so pork loin had to suffice for the second one.

Here it is in the fridge, smothered in mustard and PIG POWDER.  Those who have been reading my ramblings for awhile, know about the Pig Powder.  It beats anything out there.

I'M SMOKING!!!  It went in the smoker about 4:30 and will smoke for five hours.  Yeah, that means I have to stay up late, but it's worth it.  It will actually cook for a total of 15 hours.

I did make the mistake of not standing on the other side when I opened the door to pour on some apple juice.  I got blasted with smoke.  The men are going to be following me now!  I smell like SMOKED MEAT.  It will come out at 5:00 or so, get wrapped in foil, swaddled in towels and stuck in the ice chest to finish cooking to juicy deliciousness.  I can't wait to taste it.  It's been a long while since I made smoked pulled pork.

Another sweet Cooper picture from a couple years ago.  Big sigh .... I still miss him every second of every day.

TECHNOLOGY CAN BE AMAZING ... OR NOT.

 I should have been off VERY early on this morning, hitting the road for another run.  What can I say, I got distracted by brain games on my phone.  It was already hot when I left at 7:30, so I tried to stick to the streets with shade and got in 2 more miles.  My legs were NOT happy campers, so I walked a little more this time.  It used to take one day to heal up ... now it seems to take two.  It will get better, but my legs are talking to me constantly!!

When I got back, I wasn't sure what vehicle I was taking to the Elks Meeting up north today.   Truly, I despise these meetings where absolutely NOTHING happens other than telling us we need to make more money by signing up more members.  Well if we could, I guess we would.  

At any rate, lucky for me, the Jeep had a full tank.  The fuel mileage is about the same as my diesel truck, but this one gets into smaller parking spaces.  I suppose I should check the tires ... and so I got out the old air compressor and went to work.  This right rear tire gave me a little trouble, but all the rest got topped off with no problems.

That's when I discovered this.  One of the tire monitors had lost its cover entirely.  I'm surprised it even worked with the battery showing.  Now I KNOW I have a bag of these somewhere, but for the life of me, I could not find them.  I've looked in every junk drawer I have.

Including this one ... where I got totally distracted.  OH LOOK ... lots of crap!  Actually, this drawer is full of running stuff.  Watches and attachments to gather info to make your run more productive.  Well look at that ... there are TWO Garmin watches in there that I'm sure will not work after almost ten years of non use.

I plugged them in anyway.  An hour later, nothing.  Well darn!  These two things that will almost tell you what you had for breakfast, cost me a fortune back in the day when I was running marathons, and I hate to toss them out.

There was another not-so-delicious lunch cleaning up the last of the leftovers.  I really should cook something .... like those shrimp in the freezer ... but I'm just not motivated.  Probably because I'm full at the moment.

There was a little kitty play time stuck in there somewhere.  

I finally took the chargers off the watches, wiped them with my fingers and stuck them back on.  To my absolute amazement, they began charging.  Of course that was AFTER I ordered a new one from Amazon.  This one came right up and everything seems to work.  It has GPS, maps and the whole shebang. Technology is amazing.  It can probably read your fortune if you asked it to.  I'll try it out on Monday and see if the battery holds.   The other one, not so much.  

 Maybe I'll send that new one back.  The other one actually did charge the battery, but it does not do what this one does.  I'll find someone to donate it to.

Later in the day, I placed an order with Walmart.  I used to sing their praises, but am having a change of heart.  I ordered 3 large avocados which came in a net bag.  Every single one of them is so rotten, they feel like there is nothing in the middle.  No kidding ... you can squish the sides together.  So here I go again back to Walmart for a refund.  It will cost me more for fuel than the cost of the product.

Next up ... beef tallow.  But that's a story for tomorrow.

Here's my sweet boy snoozing on the couch.

LIGHTS, CAMERA ..... ACTION!!

It was a hot one yesterday ... ending up with a cool-ish 69 degrees this morning just before the sun came up.  You never know what the sky will look like.  It looks kind of like a floating rib cage to me.  I'm just happy the weather guessers say mid 80's are coming up all next week.  We shall see.  I'm not betting on their prediction.

Here's Miss Kitty this morning, in her usual spot.  She wanted quite a lot of attention yesterday, garnering the spa treatment of massages and ear rubs.

 Breakfast was fabulous!  Just kidding ... breakfast was the normal egg thingy.  I had this for lunch instead.

Since I've gotten old, I can't take more than one appointment in a day.  My next one wasn't until 1:45, so I lounged around the house doing basically nothing.  Oh I trimmed a few more bushes here and there and tried to discover why there was standing water in the flower bed.  I was sure it was another broker drip line, but this time it would be MY fault since I'm the one that trimmed that bush.  

I didn't find any broken ones, so I broke one just for good measure.  I pulled too hard trying to get the plant to let go and broke the end right off.  It turned out to be a good thing since I was able to attach an end that didn't spit out so much water.  Winner winner HALF a chicken dinner.

Then it was on to the bedroom closet burned out light bulb.  Not that I really need to see back in the corner where I've stashed loads of things I never use any more.  San Francisco Giants jackets ... I counted five.  Dresses from the late 1800's with hoop skirts, four ski parkas and three huge suitcases.  Apparently I used to travel in style.  I had to take out nine pairs of cowboy boots (I know, ridiculous) to get the ladder back in the corner.  As with the rest of the house, this ceiling is 12 feet high.  

WHOA those LED lights are BRIGHT!  This one was easy peasy since I had walls to hang on to.  I decided to change the other one since I was there.  It was a little dicey when it came to looking up, but with one hand on the ceiling I got it done.  These two bulbs will last longer than I will!!

Then it was off to the haircut.  Of course I think it's too short, but at least it's the same cut all around instead of way too long in the back where I can't reach.  Yessiree ... my hairdresser loves that I chop up the front and sides, whereupon she has to try and fix the back.  It's a good thing she is also a good friend!!

Back home Kitters took up this spot on the coffee table and I got out my camera.  When she got up, it moved the feather toy.

Let the action begin.  And so we played the feather game for the next hour.  Honing her lizard catching skills I guess.  It's funny though .... instead of grabbing the feathers, she grabs the line and the plastic holder first, then goes for the feathers.  

Okay, enough of that.  Dinner was leftover Cooper-chicken enchilada casserole.  It was nothing to write home about, so no pictures.  I did have a couple of delicious tomatoes with it, which made it ok.

Dessert anyone?  Yes please ... and I still have one more Blue Bunny ice cream sandwich in the freezer.

And so ended the day.  I've downloaded the best of my Cooper pictures onto a thumb drive so I can have some pictures made.  It won't happen today since I've got a VERY early morning meeting, a wonderful 90 minute drive away tomorrow.  Why they would have meetings on Sunday morning is beyond me.

Bye for now my sweet boy.  I hope you are spending your days chasing the ball and actually catching it!!

A SLOW DAY

It was an ugly 102 degree day which left an overnight low of 70.  It got so warm in the house that the AC ran most of the night.  You know what that means ..... Nancy got no sleep and is a grump this morning.  Kitters tried to change the atmosphere by sleeping on the bed.  It worked.  Oh and by the way, we are up to lizard #13.  

I started the day out right with a 2 mile run , admiring the sunflowers along the way.  I asked my phone what those weed-like sunflowers along the road were called and it said weed-like sunflowers.  Really?  

Running always puts me behind my schedule, but I sure feel better when I take the time.  The good news is the after burn the next day is getting better also.  Spending the extra time to stretch afterwards, helps too.

 

I was stalked by Kitters the rest of the morning.  Everywhere I go, there she is.  She can be sleeping on the chair when I sneak into the laundry room on tiptoe ... and when I turn around, there she is!!

The only thing on the menu for today was a doctor's appointment.  I haven't been to one in years basically, and since I just weaned myself off one of my long time drugs, I thought I should check in.  It was made all the more difficult by the fact that NO ONE is taking new patients.  My old ones retired and closed down shop.  I've no idea what happened to the medical records, but apparently they were destroyed.  More on that later.

It's been so hot that sleeping doesn't come easy.  I have one set of sheets that are the coolest and the best I've ever had.  I checked the tag to see they were actually Hotel Sheets made specifically for Walmart.  Least that's what it said.  I checked online and found what appeared to be the exact same ones.  It took two weeks to get them, only to find out they are HORRIBLE.  So very thin, not "crispy" and do not have the heavy elastic bottom to keep them on the bed.  How disappointing!  The only good thing about them is the color!!  Note to self ... go to the store and buy your sheets.

So on to the doctor story.  He was East Indian, but wasn't I surprised when he spoke English just like me.  It helped that he was a gorgeous man besides ... maybe in his 40's.  I had to give him the highlights since there were no records to scan, then asked about my blood pressure.  It's not bad, but not as good as a spring chicken.  

I was shocked to hear him say it was good I quit taking one of my meds.  Because I'm a runner, my heart rate is VERY low and it was making it lower.  On the other hand, he wanted to change the one med I'm taking.  He says mine messes up your electrolytes.  Well can't I just get more electrolytes?  He changed it to something my friend took for two years that caused her legs to swell up, lots of leg cramps and other ugly problems.  

Ummm that will probably be a no on that one.  He prescribed it so I suppose I'll have to go pick it up, but I doubt I will take it.  I don't trust doctors much ... especially after CoVid ... so we'll see how it goes.  I think you have to do your own due diligence.  I'll do more research on the matter and see what comes up.  So far it seems to me that all those drugs used to lower your blood pressure have bad side effects.  Anyone else have problems like that?

Back home, I look out the window at Cooper's shrub all day long.  I went out to be sure it was still doing well.  It's full of buds and starting to bloom once again.  It makes me smile every time.

Dinner was nothing spectacular.  Tomatoes and leftover stuff just to clean out the fridge.  A tiny piece of cheesecake with plum jam topped it off.  I have to find out the name of those plums because that's the best stuff I've eaten in ages!!

There were more evening clouds, but unlike other places, no beautiful sunset colors appeared.  

Just because I didn't do anything else really FUN on this day, I did find this picture of our ancient hotel, built in 1928, now made into apartments that are probably being trashed.  It used to say HOTEL TIOGA on top.  The lights change color every night.  On this night however, the red was pretty appropriate since the local Fire Department was doing practice runs at night in all the big buildings in town.

Apparently that is done so if a REAL fire appears, they will already know how to get in, where the stairwells are and how the place is set up.  It makes it faster to get inside and do their job.  Anyone else's fire department do this?  I mean really ... how smart is that??

That was it ... a rather boring day to be sure.  It won't be much better today since all I have scheduled is a haircut.  Oh the fun!!  It would be SO much more entertaining if I still had this boy to keep me company and play steal the toy.