My Sweet Fur Baby Hiker

 I don't know if anyone even looks at this blog anymore, but if there is anyone out there, I wanted to let you know that on October 12, 2020, I had to have my best friend, Hiker put down. She was only 10 years old. She was suffering from liver failure. It came on very quickly. I had some benign lumps removed from her in late December 2019. They did bloodwork on her at that time and everything came back good. In late August 2020, I noticed she was not eating normally. Her routine was starting to change and eventually, she started to show signs of fatigue. I took her to the vet and they ran bloodwork again and noticed her liver numbers were a little high, but not a lot. They put her on some antibiotics, thinking she may of had a infection or bacteria and they also put her on a special liver medication. I was supposed to take her back in two weeks for a follow-up. She seemed to get a little better, but her eating habits grew even worse. She was hardly eating at all. Before the two weeks were up, I took her back to the vet and they ran her blood tests again. This time, the liver numbers had gone way up, so they did an ultrasound on her. The ultrasound showed that her liver and spleen were enlarged and inflamed. They kept her for 2 nights. It was the first time since I had adopted her (9 1/2 years ago) that she and I did not spend the night together. They let me bring her home with more medications, but she would not eat that day and the next morning, she was throwing up blood. I knew it was time to let her go. It was the second hardest thing I ever had to do. The first was when my husband was dying and I had to make the decision to stop his medications.

It's Been A Long, Long Time

It has been a long time since I was here to add anything to my blog. After I was diagnosed with A-Fib (a heart condition that causes irregular heart beats), I was not able to get out to hike much . That made me so unhappy because hiking and taking photographs to share are my favorite things to do. Also, as I have gotten older (I am 70 now) , I cannot hike as far, nor can I go up semi-steep trails anymore.

I will tell you that I have now gotten my A-Fib under control, thanks to the modern medicines that are out there now.

In 2018, my older brother moved in with me. He was a resident of Paradise, CA, a town in northern California that was 90% wiped out by California's most deadly wildfire in history. There was no town left, so I invited him to move in with me here in Santa Clarita, CA.

I am now starting to get out more for daily walks, but where I used to do 2 to 4 miles a day, I can now only do about 1 1/2 to 2 miles a day, but at least that is something. My cardiologist has told me to get out and walk as much as I can.

I had hoped that this spring, I would be able to start hiking on some of the trails again. I would just have to stop every now and then to rest some. But then this terrible Covid-19 virus took over the world and changed all of our lives. The trails in SoCal were closed.  I did hear that our local trails have just opened back up, as long as we wear face masks.

I hope that if anyone is reading this, that you are safe and staying well and I hope that this time in our lives will soon be just a bad memory.

Peace.

Gene Autry Western Museum - Los Angeles

On December 29, 2017, my brother Keith and I visited the Gene Autry Western Museum in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles.

For those of you who aren't sure who Gene Autry was...he was a cowboy actor in the 1940's and 1950's. He was known as "The Singing Cowboy". He also had a TV show in the 1950's.

The museum has Native American artifacts and western movie paraphilinillia , plus there are many sculptures and historical items in the museum. Some of the fun exhibits are toys from the 1950's. You might recognize some of them if you are my age.

There are also some fun interactive exhibits that you can get into and have your friends take pictures of you.

You can find more information about the museum at this link:

Gene Autry Museum

Heritage Valley

Hi all.

I know I have not been here for awhile. I was diagnosed with A-Fib and I find it harder to get out and visit places to share with you, but I did get out during the 2017 holidays and was able to see a few things.

My brother and I went to the Heritage Valley in Ventura County on December 27th. It is made up from the towns of Piru, Fillmore and Santa Paula...all small farm towns in southern California.

The Heritage Valley is about about 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

Piru is the smallest of the 3 towns. You may have seen this town on many television shows as the studies use it a lot.

The Piru Mansion was once owned by David C. Cook who was the founder of the town. It is also known as the Clark Mansion.

Fillmore is the middle-sized town. This town was used by the studios in the TV show "Jericho".

In the center of town is the town hall and a little park with a lot of old trains.

Santa Paula is the larges of the 3 towns. I is the "gateway" to Ojai, CA and there is a historic oil museum here. Santa Paula is also known for their man muruals.

For more information, you can visit this site:

Heritage Valley, CA

Tehachapi, CA

Yesterday (Halloween), my brother Keith and I drive up to Tehachapi, CA which is about 85 miles northeast of where I live in Santa Clarita.

I had been there once many years ago with my late husband Ben.

Our first stop was the train depot, which is now a museum.

Their train depot has been rebuilt twice due to it burning down in fires, but it has always been on the original site where the original building was.

They have a few interesting things to look at inside.

After leaving the depot, we drove out of town and up into the mountains to see the Tehachapi Loop. No trains were running through the loop yesterday because crews were repairing the rails on the train tracks. The view was still beautiful.

 If you are interested in more information about Tehachapi and the Loop, here are some links:

Visit Tehachapi

The Loop

Harvest Festival Time

Up at 6 am for a dog walk with my neighbor Jean at 7 am. Came home and had a bowl of cereal and then Jean and I headed up to the Ventura fairgrounds to the annual Harvest Festival. We go every year.

The weather was so nice up there. Sunny, in the 70’s and a nice cool sea breeze. After the festival, we headed over to Ventura Harbor Village for some fish and chips at Andria’s and then we walked around the shops in the village.

On the way home, we stopped by the Dollar Tree store in Fillmore and then headed home.

Hiker was so happy to see me. She greeted me at the door and was jumping all over me trying to kiss me. She followed me into the bathroom and kept trying to kiss me. I think she just wanted some treats (LOL).

Went up to get my mail and got the results from my mammogram. Everything looked normal. I was surprised to hear from them so soon because it used to take 2 weeks before I would get the results back. It’s only been 4 days.

Was still hot here in Santa Clarita. Was 99° when I got home from Ventura. They keep saying we are supposed to get down into the low to mid 80’s. Wish that would happen soon.

I'm Pooped!

I watched a movie on Netflix last night called “The Core”. It was pretty good. It was about the core in the center of the earth stopping which meant “the end of the world”, so these professor, an astronaut, some other intellects decided to go through the earth’s crust, down into the core and restart it with explosions.

Since it was Sunday, as usual, we stayed in bed until 8 am this morning. I usually watch “CBS Sunday Morning”, but this morning I fell asleep and missed most of it, which made me mad because it was Charles Osgood’s last day on the show and they were celebrating him.

After eating a bowl of cereal, I started do some housework. From 8:30 am until 11:30 am, I was non-stop. Mopped my floors, vacuuming the carpet, washing my sheets and towels. Also decided to wash my bathmats. I also changed from my summer comforter on my bed to my winter comforter, even though it’s still warm here. I usually change my comforter twice a year…in the spring and in the fall. So I also had to wash my winter comforter. Also decided to wash my bathmats. I put clean sheets on the bed with the winter comforter and the finally sat down. I was pooped!

After all was done, I had some soup and a salad for lunch. Watched the Dodger game. Today is Vin Scully’s last day of announcing the Dodger games. It was so cool how each Dodger player saluted him in the booth as they came up to the plate their first time today. I will miss hearing Vinnie call the games. I’ve listened to him all my life. He can describe the game so well that a blind person can picture it in their mind.

Happy Friday!

We got up early this morning to go for a dog walk with Jean. It was only 47° at 6 am when we got up, but by the time we left for the walk, it had gone up to 52°. I actually wore sweat pants instead of shorts. We let the dogs play for a while and then Jean headed home.

I made some eggs for Hiker and myself and then Jean called and wanted me to go to the Dollar Tree store with her. We actually ended up going to all 3 Dollar Stores in the Santa Clarita Valley.

I put up a few fall outdoor decorations then settled down to watch a little TV. Still haven’t done the housework I need to do. I’ll have to force myself to do it this weekend.

After lunch, my neighbor/friend Christiane called me and said she just received the new Windows 10 Anniversary update, so she wanted me to come over and make sure everything downloaded and installed properly.

Was nice here temperature-wise all day, but supposed to get really hot this weekend. They are saying it will be in the 90’s at the beach and in the 100’s here inland.

First Day Of Fall

So I started watching “Designated Survivor” last night. I liked what I saw, but I fell asleep the last 10 or 15 minutes of the show, so I missed the end of it. If anyone watched it, you can email me or FB message me and let me know what happened at the end. I think I got as when the Iranian ships were heading “somewhere” and the military guy wanted to attack them and the new president didn’t want to do that.

I was having some kind of crazy dream when Hiker woke me up this morning. As usual, I was out “searching” for something so I felt exhausted when I woke up.

Hiker and I went out for a morning walk. The weather was nice. Cool and totally overcast. Perfect for the first day of Fall. However, the weather is going to change this weekend and it is going to be in the 100’s Sunday and Monday. Will it ever stop?

When Hiker and I got back home from our walk, we got in the car and went to get my lottery tickets and when we got back, I put a few Fall decorations out on my porch and in the front yard. I was going to put some Fall themed magnets on my garage door, but the ones I had from last year were so faded, they had no color to them, so I tossed them in the trash. I got them at the Dollar Tree, so it’s no big deal.

I need to get myself into a “house cleaning” mood this weekend. I have some cleaning that absolutely must get done.

#NeverForget

Aftermath Of The Sand Fire In Canyon Country, CA The Last 2 Weeks of July 2016

The last 2 weeks of July 2016, the valley where I live was covered with smoke and falling ash from the huge Sand Fire (the name CalFire gave to the brush fire). For several days, the fire raged in the canyons around the Santa Clarita Valley. It came as close as 7 miles from my home. I could see the flames and watch the aerial attack on the fire from my front porch.

My dog Hiker and I love to hike the Placerita Canyon Trail in the Placerita Canyon State Park when the weather is cooler. It is beautiful there. In the spring it is lush and green with huge old oak trees and when we have rain, there is a babbling creek running along-side the trail.

Below is how the Canyon Trail looked when Hiker and I were there in February 2016.

Here are photos of the fire when it first started a couple of weeks ago.

Day 1:

Day 2:

On Day 3, the fire was only 7 miles from my home. It had grown very large.

Later on Day 3, the fire fighters attack the fire from the air with planes and helicopters.

After the attack, it seemed that they had gotten this part of the fire under control.

The fire burned in the Angeles National Forest for about 2 weeks. Thankfully, they had it 100% contained as of yesterday.

Today, Hiker and I drove along Placerita Canyon Road. The park is closed do to the damage caused by the Sand Fire. I took photos along the way to show the destruction.

This is what the canyon looked like as we drove through.

 It will be a long time before Mother Nature brings this area back to the way it looked not long ago, but one day it will be lush again.

Route 66 Museum - Victorville, CA

My brother Keith and I headed out into the desert today to visit the Route 66 Museum in Victorville, CA. Had a great time. The docent, Lou, was a fun guy and he told us the greatest stories about bootlegger tunnels under Victorville, and about the ghost they have in the back room of the museum that locked them inside one time. He was really funny. Had a great time.

This place had so many cool items to look and and play with. It's only 3 rooms, but the items brought back a lot of great memories.

Stuff that I remembered from my childhood and from road trips we took as a family on old Route 66.

Caught my brother Keith at an awkward moment (LOL). Sorry Keith.

Here's me in my "new" car (LOL).

Here's Keith and I running from the cops back when we were hippies in the 1960's.

Thanks Lou, for such a fun time. You are a great docent.