Last Walk Of 2009

Beautiful day here in SoCal on this New Year's Eve.
I went for my last walk of 2009 this morning. Drove over to the Southfork Trail and realized how interesting the towers that carry the power lines are with the blue sky above them. Also, the sky was very pretty this morning. Took a few photos (see below).
Hope everyone has a safe and sane New Year's Eve and a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

It Was A Dark And Cloudy Day

Woke up this morning to a very cloudy sky. I has been very dark all day. We've had some drizzle, but not any "real" rain. I don't mind cloudy days if it actually rains, but I hate it when all it does is drizzle.
As usual, they say that our New Year's Day will be bright, sunny and in the mid-70's. Never fails. Everyone all of the country watches the Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA and see the beautiful weather and they want to move out here.
Ben's eye is clearing up nicely. This surgery however, is NOT the kind that corrects your vision. He will still have to get corrective eyeglasses after they take care of his left eye.

Follow-up On My Husband

Ben's laser eye surgery went well. The did his right eye, which is NOT the one with the ruptured vein, however, they saw that the veins in the right eye were on the verge of rupturing, so they wanted to stop that from happening. The next surgery will be on the eye with the already ruptured vein.
His B/P was still up some. It was not as bad as it was when we were there 11 days ago. They sent him back to the NP who prescribed the meds for him and she doubled the dosage.

Last Tuesday Of 2009

My brother is still here. He and I just got back from another walk. I'm really wearing him out (LOL).
After lunch, I have to take Ben over to the Ophthalmologist for the to do the first of the three laser procedures they are going to do on his eyes. Next Tuesday, he goes back to our PCP for a follow-up on the B/P medication that the nurse practioner gave him a week ago. So far, his B/P is still high. I'm thinking our PCP will probably up the dose on the medication.
It's bright and sunny here in SoCal. Temps are in the low 60's.

A Day With My Brother

Today my brother Keith came up from Orange, CA to visit for a couple of days. He and I always have fun when we are together. He is 5 1/2 years younger than me.
We went out to some of the local stores. I needed an ink cartridge for my laser printer. First we went to Sam's Club where I bought my last one. They did not have the one I needed, so we headed for Costco. They did not have it either. Ended up at Best Buy. They had it for $10 more than I paid for my last one at Sam's Club. Best Buy was still crowded with shoppers. Guess they still have some good deals going on.
We went to lunch. Had a big sloppy chili cheese burger, fries and a coke.
We decided we needed to go far a walk after all of that food, so we did 2 miles down the trail near my home.
Here is a photo I took of my brother while we were out.

Below is the sky while we were out walking

Last Sunday Of 2009

Started out pretty cold this morning. Was 30 degrees when I got up around 6:30 a.m. to come and checkout what emails we had. The sky was very clear earlier, but now has clouded up a little. They keep saying we "might" have a little bit of rain Monday night into Tuesday morning. I hope not. My brother is coming up from Orange, CA tomorrow to spend a couple of days with us. Also on Tuesday afternoon, I have to drive Ben back down to the San Fernando Valley to Kaiser where they are going to do the first laser procedure on his eye to try to keep the veins from rupturing.
Went for a walk in the late morning. It had warmed up a little by then.

The Day After Christmas

Has been cloudy and gray all day here in SoCal. Yesterday (Christmas Day) was cool, but the sky was dark blue and the air was very crisp and clear.
Haven't been up to much today. We went over to Costco this morning to pick up several things, then stopped by WalMart to pick up a few more things. WalMart was really crowded.
Looking forward to Monday. My younger brother Keith is coming up from Orange County to visit for a couple of days. We always have a good time when we are together.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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Los Angeles Radio: K-EARTH 101: The Greatest Hits on Earth - The God Song

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Gray Monday Morning

It's cloudy and gray here in SoCal, but at least we are not in the blizzard back east. The snow looks pretty, but I would sure hate to have to drive in that mess and I'll bet it is really COLD!
Finally got a follow-up blood pressure appointment with our PCP for Ben but it's not until January 5th. We are still waiting to hear back from his Ophthalmologist for when he should come back for the procedure they were going to do last Friday but couldn't because there was still too much blood in his eye to get the photos they need. Also they said they may need to do a laser procedure on him to stop the bleeding.
I'm sitting here waiting for our Puronics Water guy to show up. He's been saying he was going to bring a cover for the tank they installed back on November 22nd, but everytime he was supposed to come, the cover was out of stock or on back-order. Last time he called, he said he had one in his hands, so he's supposed to be here with it in about 30 minutes.

Slow Day Today

Didn't do too much today.
We had planned to go do our grocery shopping on Tuesday morning, but went this morning instead because Ben wants to keep Tuesday open in case the Ophthalmologist calls tomorrow to have him come back on Tuesday for the procedure they did not get to do on last Friday.
I put in a request with our PCP for a follow-up appointment for Ben since the Nurse Practioner prescribed the B/P meds. We have not heard back from the doctors office yet.
We went over to Lowes and bought a wall mount to hang our brooms and mops on. Put that up in the laundry room this afternoon.
It's been in the 70's here all day and a little cloudy.

Another Crazy Day At Kaiser Medical Center

Yesterday, Ben was supposed to go back to the Ophthalmologist to have the procedure where they would inject the veggie oil into his arm vein and they would then take photos of the back of his eye to see if there were any leaks in the veins. We left the house at 12:45 PM to make his appointment over in the other valley at 1:45 PM.
They dilated his pupils and then said that there was still too much blood in his eye to see the veins clearly and that they could NOT do the procedure!
His blood pressure was a little high, so they sent him over to another building at the medical center where they have a Blood Pressure Center. There they took his blood pressure again and it was even higher than it had been in the doctor's office because now he's getting upset about them not doing the procedure and the fact that he will have to go back again and just everything that was happening.
The B/P Center then sent him to a Nurse Practioner to have her check his B/P and prescribe some B/P meds for him. Well, she took his B/P and once again, it was higher than it had been in the B/P Center! The NP prescribed the meds but insisted that he see an Internist because they did not want to release him with such high blood pressure.
So we go upstairs to the Internist and again, when they take his B/P, it's even HIGHER! The more they did, the more it upset him. They gave him some kind of medication that is supposed to lower the blood pressure quickly, but it wasn't working, so they gave him a double dose.
They FINALLY let him leave at 5:30 PM and we got home around 6:30 PM because the traffic was so bad on the freeway.
What is really upsetting is that the procedure we went all the way down there for wasn't done and we will have to go back down another day to have it done. Hopefully the B/P meds they prescribed for Ben will kick in and his B/P won't spike again while we are at the doctor's office.
I'm glad that he is back on the meds. He had this samething happen a year ago and that's when he said he didn't "believe" that his B/P was too high and he refused to take the meds. I told him today that if he had stuck to taking them a year ago, he probably would not have had to go through all of this today.
Now he has resigned to the fact that he will be taking them for the rest of his life.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU - VINCE VANCE & THE VALIANTS

This has been my favorite Christmas song since it came out 16 years ago. I think it's because of the 1950's style.

Update On My Husband's Eye Problem

Today we went over to the Kaiser Medical Center over in Panorama City, CA.
We got there early because we were not really sure where we were going, but it turned out there wasn't much traffic and we found the place with no problem.
Anyway, they took some photos of the back of his eye with some kind of camera that can see through your eyelid. Strange.
It only took about 2 or 3 minutes to take the photos. We sat in the waiting room longer than that.
When we got back home, the doctor's office called and said that the doctor had looked at the photos and wants Ben to come back on Friday to have veggie oil injected into his veins and that they are going to take more photos of the inside of his eye.
I had this procedure done about 5 or 6 years ago when I had a vein break in the back of my eye. This is how they can tell if the vein is still leaking blood or if it has started to heal. It doesn't hurt, but it is annoying because of the bright light they shine in you eye.
They say that some people throw up from the veggie oil, but it didn't bother me when I had it done.

What A Day!

...and it continues tomorrow.
Yesterday my husband called me from work and told me that he was having blurry vision in his left eye and had me call our doctor so he could see him today. This happened to my husband about a year ago and they put him on blood pressure medication, but when he finished the prescription, he refused to go to the doctor and have it refilled, so I'm blaming his b/p on this.
Anyway, he went to see our doctor this morning at 8:40 A.M. and our doctor referred him to an ophthalmologist and set up an appointment for him to see her this morning at 11:15 A.M. She then said he needs to go to the Kaiser Hospital in Panorama City (in the San Fernando Valley) to have some tests run. So I have to drive him down there tomorrow to be there by 1:15 P.M.
Our regular doctor took a bunch of blood tests while Ben was there this morning, so I'm sure he will be calling back to have Ben come in and I'll bet they put him on all kinds of meds.
I feel that if Ben had continued seeing the doctor last year and had continued with the B/P meds that this would not have happened again. But he would not listen to me.

Started Out Foggy

This morning started out pretty foggy here in Canyon Country. We looked out the windows and it was as if someone had moved the mountains and our neighbors (LOL).
I had to do some housework, so I knew I would not get out for a walk until the afternoon. I took a couple of photos of the morning fog just as it was leaving.

In the afternoon, it has cleared and warmed up to about 65 degrees. I drove over to our city's Central Park to walk around there. I did about 1.5 miles. It is so amazing how a little rain can clean the air so much and make the mountains stand out and the sky so blue.

The photo below is the same shot as this morning

when it was foggy

Another Day, Another Walk

No rain this morning. The sun is out, but there are still big clouds hanging around the mountain tops. They keep saying that by mid-week, we are going to be in the 70's. Hard to believe since we've just gone through about 5 days of cold weather and rain. But that's California weather for you. You never know what it's going to bring.
Took a few photographs while out on my morning walk.

Check out the reflection in the puddle in the photo below.

Looks like a mirror.

More Rain

It didn't rain yesterday, but it rained all night last night and it's still raining now. I'm loving this because we really need it badly.
But would you believe that they are saying that next week we are going to be sunny and in the mid-70's?
Amazing!

Another Walk In The Brisk Morning Air

I thought today would be a little warmer than yesterday when I left the house for my morning walk, but it wasn't. In fact it was about 4 degrees colder. I left at 9:00 a.m. and the temperature was 41 degrees.

Nice Walk On A Chilly Morning

Left the house around 9:00 a.m. and headed over to the community of Bridgeport to walk around their lake path. The temperature was 45 degrees when I left. Walked from the park, past the elementry school, around the lake, past the faux lighthouse, back around the lake and back to the car. Total of about 1.9 miles in about 36 minutes. You can still see snow on some of the mountains.

Snow In The Mountains

It's COLD here in SoCal today. Woke up to 28 degrees and it's about 40 now. Our high is only supposed to reach 47 degrees. These temps are cold for us. We are usually in the 60's this time of year. Ben and I had to go over to the post office and I took a quick shot of the snow on the mountains. We are supposed to have lunch with some friends over at Chilis today.

Finally Some Rain!

Didn't really have anything to post yesterday. It was a "ho hum" day basically. Ben and I just hung out at home, watched a little TV and that's about it.
We are finally getting a little rain here in SoCal this morning, but I'm afraid it's not going to be that much. We need a BIG bunch of rain. What's really bad is that the northern part of the state has not gotten much weather either and that's where our drinking water comes from....the snow pack in the Sierra Nevadas.
Our average rainfall here in SoCal is about 15" a year and right now, I don't think we've gotten even 5" yet. Of course we are heading into our "rainy season" which is December through February, with January being our wettest month. In January of 2005, we received 38" of rain here, which is really a lot for us.
Only problem with it raining is that we had that big wildfire a few months back (The Stage Fire) over in the San Gabrial mountians and the people that live in those areas are worried about mudslides.
I looked out into my backyard this morning and saw the raindrops on some flowers, so took some photos.

Hoping For Some Rain

Just got back from my morning walk. Did 2 miles along the dry riverbed. This morning when we first got up the sky was very cloudy. Ben left for work and I decided to go for the walk. By the time I left, the sun was peeking out, but the clouds are still sneaking in over the mountains. We really need rain and they are saying we should get a small storm by Sunday night or Monday morning and then later in the week, they are saying we should get a bigger storm with more rain.

I need to get out and start cleaning the garage up some. I'm doing it in sections. Already did 3 sections. We have shelving out there and I'm going though everything to see what needs to get tossed or go to the Goodwill. We also have a pool table in the middle of the garage that we can't even use because we have so much junk surrounding it and under it. I need to clean all of that up too so we can get back to playing again.

Painful Joints

Don't know if it's the cold weather in the mornings or what, but I've had painful joints today. Mostly in my neck and shoulders. I didn't even get out for a walk today.
Talked to my brother in northern California and he said they may get snow this weekend. The snow level is down to about 1500 feet and where he lives, it's over 1600 feet. He said it was all cloudy and gray there. We are supposed to get some rain by Monday. Sure hope we do because we need it.

Just Plain Sad

Went for an early morning walk in the cold weather this morning. It was 35 degrees when I stepped outside the door. I decided to walk around inside our gated community to see what kind of Christmas decorations people had put up. Here in SoCal, people love to decorate the outsides of their homes and they love to put decorations in their front yards. Usually, the weekend after Thanksgiving, just about everyone is outside putting up their decorations, and most years, just about every house here (400 strong) has some kind of yard decorations or lights on their homes.
Well, I guess this year the economy has hit everyone. I saw only about 50 homes or so that had any kind of decorations and a lot of them just had a wreath on their front door.
I'll admit that there are a lot of empty homes in our community now due to the fact that people could not keep up with their mortgages and had to walk away from their homes.
It's just plain sad.
It was pretty cold out there as I was walking. When I was on one of the "upper" streets, I looked down toward the riverbed and noticed that all of the houses had ice on their roofs.
When I finally got back to my street and started walking up the hill towards my house, I noticed that there was a huge bird in the neighbor's birdbath. About 4-doors down from us, they have a nice bird area in their front yard....a birdbath, several bird feeders, including hummer feeders, and a lot of plants that attract the birds. I noticed this huge bird just sitting in the middle of the birdbath. As I got closer, I realized it was a red-tailed hawk. I tried to get a picture of it, but it flew off before I could get close enough.

December Is Here

Well, December is here. Another year almost gone.
It was 35 degrees here this morning when we awoke. Got up to 72 this afternoon. They keep saying with "might" get some rain this weekend, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Had to go over to OfficeMax this morning. Needed some greeting card envelopes for my Christmas cards, which I actually mailed this afternoon, and I also had to buy a new "printing" calculator. The Casio printing calculator I've had for about 25 years finally crapped out on me.
Made some "year-at-a-glance" calendars for my friend Judy. Every year, she emails me a photo of her grandkids and has me make the calendars for her and I laminate them too. She gives them to family members for Christmas.
After I got her calendars made, I stuffed my Christmas cards and letters into the envelopes and got them mailed.

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

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Accomplished

I accomplished everything I had planned to do today except for one thing.
I cleaned the house this morning, then went over to WalMart. They sure have a lot of Christmas decorations over there and they were putting more stuff out on the shelves while I was there.
Came home and had my lunch and watched my soap (Young & Restless). After lunch, I put some Christmas lights up on the outside of the house. This year, I only put them around our front door. Last year I had them around the front door, all across the porch, across the front of the house and the front of the garage. It's just too much for my anymore to climb up and down the ladder to hang so many lights, so I decided to "downsize" this year. I did put a small fiberoptic tree on the front porch too.
I'll put up the tree and decorate the inside of the house next Monday.
The one thing I didn't get done was stuffing my Christmas cards and letters into envelopes, getting them addressed and ready to mail. I make my own cards and I buy "greeting card envelopes" over at OfficeMax. Well, I thought I had more envelopes, but found out I only had about 5 of them left from last year, so I have to go buy some before I can get the cards and letters ready to go.
Hope you all had a good day.

Not Much To Say Today

Don't really have too much to blog about today. It was cold this morning (37 degrees), so I did not go for my morning walk.
Ben and I went over to The Dollar Tree to get him some "cheater readers", you know, those reading glasses that you can buy a just about any pharmacy. The pair he was using broke, so he wanted more. He says why pay $10 for them at CVS when he can get them at The Dollar Tree for $1.
Then we went over to Staples because I needed to by some color ink cartridges for my printers. Time to make the Christmas Cards and Christmas Letters, so needed the color ink.
Spent the rest of the day at home.
Tomorrow I have a lot to do. I have to clean house (vacuum and dust), then I need to go over to WalMart and pick up a few things. Then after lunch I think I'll put the Christmas lights up on the outside of the house. I noticed that 3 of our neighbors put theirs up today. Plus now that the Christmas Cards and Letters are printed out, I need to stuff them in their envelopes, stamp them and get them mailed. Ben will be at work, so I should be able to get everything done.

Another Busy Day

Went shopping at both Costco and Sam's Club today. We don't do the "Christmas shopping thing". We were there for groceries.
It rained for about 10 minutes around 1:30 AM this morning. We really need a lot more than that! The sky is really pretty though. Love the big fluffy clouds. It's much cooler outside now too. Only made it to the mid-60's today.
I went for a walk before lunch and took a few more photos.

ELF YOURSELF!

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Life After Turkey

Had to get out and walk this morning since I didn't do any exercise at all yesterday. Needed to walk some of the turkey off. After we had our turkey dinner over at the Hometown Buffet yesterday, I just laid stretched out on the sofa the rest of the day.
After my walk this morning, Ben and I went over to Lowe's Home Improvement Store and bought a storage unit for our garage. Came home and cleaned out the back of the garage and put the unit together. It's one of those 4-shelf plastic ones that just all snaps together. Felt pleased about getting the back of the garage cleaned and organized. Now I'll have to work on the rest of the garage next week.
Took a few photos of the pretty colored trees while out on my walk this morning and am sharing them here.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Well, since my older brother lives in Northern California and will be with his two sons for Thanksgiving, and my younger brother lives in Orange County California and will be with his four daughters, Ben and I will be just hanging out at home together, watching the marathons on TV. We'll head over to the Hometown Buffet later today for our turker meal.
I'm thankful for my health, my husband, my brothers. I'm thankful that I live in the United States, even though our country has been struggling for a few years to get back on it's feet, it's still the greatest place in the world. I'm thankful for the men and women in uniform who are spending this day away from their families because they are somewhere out there protecting our freedom.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Just Relaxing

I was just sitting here on the sofa relaxing and remembered I had not yet blogged today.
The weather is beautiful for about the 4th or 5th day here. It is still pretty windy though. I had planned to start cleaning out our garage this morning, but when I opened the garage door and started to sweep, the wind just kept blowing leaves and whatever right back into the garage, so I said "What's the use?" and gave up. I'll just have to get to it another day.
Planted some cute little English Daisy Bellis flowers in the spot I prepared next to my patio this morning. The problem is, they are "annuals" and won't last all that long. I didn't see any "perennials" that I liked at the nursery, so I'll just have to wait to see if they get anything else in. I didn't want to leave the spot empty though.
I got some white ones, some red ones and some purple ones. Here is what they look like.

Another Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day here in SoCal.
Did our grocery shopping this morning. There were a lot of people at the store. Guess they were stocking up for Thanksgiving. We are eating out that day, so we were just shopping for our normal canned goods, dry goods, etc.
After lunch, we went over to WalMart which was also very crowded. We had to pick up a filler valve for the toilet in our "second" bathroom. The other one seemed to have something stuck in it and it was "hissing" for lack of a better description. I put the new one on in about 10 minutes and now all is fine. Ben is not very "mechanical" and I usually end up making repairs like that around the house.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning......

Oh what a beautiful day.
Do I sound like "Oklahoma"? (LOL)
It is so pretty outside here today. The wind is blowing a little, but I like wind as long as it is not the destructive kind.
The sky is blue and there is not a cloud to be seen. It's 67 degrees out right now.
After Ben left for work this morning, I had a little housework to do (which I hate by the way), but then I got to go out into the beautiful weather and do a little gardening. Actually, I was preparing an area in my backyard, next to my patio to plant some flowers for ground cover.
Any suggestions as to what I should plant? I'd like something that is low to the ground, colorful and lasts most of the year. Now remember, we don't get snow here in the winter, so just about anything goes, or should I say "grows".

New Water System

Well today the people came and installed our new water system (filtration/softener). It took about 3 hours to install it and they did a really good job. The system is really nice looking compared to the ugly tanks Culligan Water Systems rented to us.

This system is used by NASA because it is "green". That is one of the reasons we liked it too. Here is a link to the site for this system.

http://www.puronics.com/product/31/Clarius.html

Finally.....A Hike!

Finally was able to get out for a nice 2-mile hike in Placerita Canyon this morning. There were a lot of people out hiking, jogging, biking, and there were a bunch of volunteers cleaning up the dry creekbed for when and "IF" we ever get any rain.

                                  

Self Portrait