Hump Day

Busy day. Went to pick up Ben's B/P meds, then stopped by WalMart on the way home. Came home and ran my weekly/monthly scans on my computers and cleaned up the files. Went outside and pulled some weeds. Didn't get to walk though

Lucky Day

Well it must be my lucky day. I decided to go for an afternoon walk. I decided to do my 2-mile walk along the bike path. About 1/2 mile from home, I saw something that looked like money lying in the dirt all folded up. Picked it up and it was a $10 bill!

Morning Hike

Went on a 3.5 mile morning hike over in Towsley Canyon. Ben worked today, so I just had to get out for a nice walk. Most of the wildflowers are gone now, but the purple thistles are blooming like crazy.

There were a lot of people over in Towsley today. More than I've ever seen before on any of my hikes there. the parking lots were full, but luckily I found a spot to park in the "free" parking area. I even passed a "guided nature tour" group of about 12 people and 2 dogs. I've never seen a "guided" tour in Towsley. I've seen a lot of them over in Placerita Canyon.
Took me about 1 hour 10 minues for the hike. I once hiked the entire 5.1 mile loop trail in this canyon (back in 2008), but once was enough. Now I average 2 to 4 miles on my hikes.

Jury Duty

Got a summons for jury duty today. I have to be on-call starting June 1st for 5 days. Hopefully I won't have to report, but if I do, The courthouse I'm supposed to report to is only about 7 miles from my house. Problem is, the last time I was told to report to that courthouse, they changed the venue to the BIG courthouse down in Van Nuys, CA (about 25 miles away) and I had to drive over the hill down there. I hated it there. I didn't get picked that time. Only had to sit in the jury room for 1/2 day and was excused by noon. The next time I got summoned, I had to go down to the courthouse in San Fernando, CA (about 15 miles away). I got called on a panel that time, but got excused because the defense lawyer didn't like an answer I gave for one of his questions.
Hopefully if I do have to report, it will be at our local Santa Clarita, CA courthouse as stated on my summons. But I'm hoping I won't have to report.

HAPPY EARTH DAY

Went for a 2 mile morning walk since Ben has finally returned to work after his illness. It is beautiful outside this morning. We have had a little rain off and on for the past 2 days and everything is fresh and clean. There are a few puffy clouds in the sky. The local weather says we still may get a little more rain later today. This is very strange weather for us here in SoCal. This time of year, our rainy season is normally long gone and we are starting to get warmer. Last year at this time we were in the 80's and I was already wearing shorts and I did from April until October. I'm hoping that this "long" rainy season will keep us from having a HOT summer. Our summers here in SoCal can get up over 110 degrees and I am miserable when we get above 90. It would be nice to have a nice cool summer for a change.
I need to think about maybe going on a hike next week if the weather holds out. I heard that we may have even more rain next Tuesday and Wednesday. Maybe I'll try for Saturday since Ben has to work that day too.

Ben's Follow-up Dr. Visit

Doctor put Ben back on his B/P meds and upped the dosage on one of them. Told Ben to take his B/P at home and also go in to have the nurse check it once in awhile so she can report it to the doctor. Lowered the dosage on his Iron from 3 a day to 2 a day. Ran blood tests to see how his blood numbers are doing and to make sure his kidneys are still ok since he was so dehydrated. Said he could go back to work Thursday if he wants.

California Golden Poppies

Ben and I drove out to the look at the California Golden Poppies near the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. The Golden Poppy is the state flower of California and this is the area in our state where they grow the most. People come from all over the world at this time of year to view and photograph these beautiful wildflowers. In fact we saw several tour buses filled with Oriental people. Cars were parked all along the desert road that lead to the reserve.

Antelope Valley (California) Poppy Reserve

Update On Discovery Park

The landscaping people have been working every day at the site of Discovery Park. They have planted trees and shrubs everywhere. This park is going to be a "passive" park and very eco-friendly.
A "passive" park has no playing fields. It is as "natural" as possible. They will have picnic tables, benches, and a walking/bike trail. It will be a place for people to just sit and enjoy Mother Nature.
I took a walk down by the park construction site this morning and took a couple of photos of the progress.

Nice Day

This morning we went over to our city's "Earth Day/Arbor Day" celebration. Saw some interesting things. Also got to meet face-to-face with a woman I met on Facebook. This is the second "on-line" friend I've gotten to meet in person.
After lunch at Der Weinerschnitzel, we took a drive up to Santa Paula in the Heritage Valley of Ventura County. It was a little overcast, but we got out and walked around their old train depot near "old town".

Another Day At The Doctor

Had to take Ben back down to the Kaiser in Panorama City this morning, but not for his colon problem. That hopefully has all been fixed. Anyway, I had to take him to his Ophthalmogist again. They still could not do anything on his left eye because there is still too much blood floating around inside of it for them to see anything. He has to go back in a month and at that time, the doctor may discuss surgery on the eye.
After the doctor visit, we headed over to a new Bob's Big Boy and had lunch. The Big Boy Combo is just as good as it ever was. We've wondered why they closed down to many Bob's Big Boys and now they have started building new ones everywhere, but I'm glad they are.
Tomorrow our city is having it's "Earth Day/Arbor Day" celebration, so we "might" go to that. Depends on how crowded it is and if we can find a place to park.
Taking Ben to our regular doctor on Monday morning for a follow-up from his hospital stay. We are hoping that he will take Ben off the Iron supplements, put him back on his high blood pressure (as his b/p is up again) and also tell him he can go back to work.

Ben

I know Ben is feeling better when he starts looking for "munchies"

A Week Ago.....

A week ago, I posted a note about our neighbor's cat Marmalade and the fact that he had gone missing on Good Friday. He has never returned. Marmalade spent a lot of his time at our house because our neighbors are always gone so we felt like he was our cat.
I spoke with my neighbor today. She said that she had gone around the neighborhood asking other neighbors if they had seen him. Someone told her that they had seen a horned owl attacking a cat in our community late one night when they were driving in from work.
My neighbor told me that she had found large bird droppings on her patio and she ID'd it from the Internet as owl droppings.
I have seen a red-tailed hawk around here, but no owls, but I know that because we live right next to the hills that we have coyotes (which we have seen inside our community), bobcats, opossums, racoons and even bears, and I know there are horned owls over in Placerita Canyon where I hike.
So now maybe we know what happend to our sweet "Marmie". I miss him a lot.

Ben came home tonight. YEA!

He was very agitated this morning when I got to the hospital because everything moves so slow. He wanted to just up and leave and come home. I talked to his nurse and she started getting things moving a little faster. She got the colonoscopy moved up from 1:00 PM this after to 10:00 this morning. It went well. He does not have any colon tumors or any cancer. He has diverticulitis. This is NOT diverticulitis.

Diverticulitis is a common digestive disease particularly found in the large intestine. Diverticulitis develops from diverticulitis, which involves the formation of pouches (diverticula) on the outside of the colon. Diverticulitis results if one of these diverticula becomes inflamed.

The cauterized what was bleeding, got his hemoglobin count back up with transfusions, plus they have put him on Iron supplements for awhile. They gave him 3 days of antibiotics. They told him to stick to a low-fat, low-salt, low-cholesterol, high fiber diet. He has to follow-up with our regular doctor within 2 weeks.

He is now home in his own bed sleeping. Everything is good and everyone is happy.

Thanks to everyone for all of the good wishes and prayers. Plus for the offers people gave to come and stay with me while he was in the hospital. We love all of our wonderful friends.

Update On My Husband Ben

For those of you who do not know, Ben is in the hospital. He had a terrible bout of diarrhea and blood. He because extremely dehydrated and anemic. I had taken him to Kaiser's Urgent Care yesterday evening and they called 911 and had him rushed to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. They were afraid that he was so week that he may have a heart attack.

He was transferred from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital to Kaiser Panorama City this morning. They gave him 2 units of blue at Henry Mayo last night and another one at Kaiser today. They keep telling us that his hemoglobins are still way below what they should be and it's probably because he is still bleeding some. He is stable now and they are going to do a colonoscopy on him probably tomorrow to see what is causing the bleeding. We are praying that it is just some ruptured hemorrhoids or veins from all of the diarrhea.

Keith came up from Orange and stayed with me last night and all day today, but he has to return home this evening, so I will be alone tonight which kind of scares me. I wish Ben was still at Henry Mayo so I could stay with him longer in the evening. My biggest fear has always been being alone.

I want to thank everyone for their love and prayers. They are greatly appreciated at this time.

I will keep everyone posted on what is happening with him.

To All Of My Blogger Friends

Up Late

I'm up late tonight. I usually go to bed at 10:00 PM and it is now after 11:00 PM and here I sit at my computer.
I am sad tonight. I think in some of my older posts I mentioned my neighbor's cat Marmalade. He's not our cat, but since the neighbors are gone a lot, he spends a lot of time over at our house. We feel like he is our cat. We even have a place in our garage for him to sleep and have dry food and water when he wants to come in from outside. He's very lovable.
Anyway, he's been missing for 48 hours now and I'm worried that a coyote has gotten him. We always hear coyotes yipping around here early in the morning.
We found a clump of Marmalade's fur in our front yard Friday morning. If it wasn't for that clump, I don't think we'd be so worried about him.
The neighbors are two girls in their 20's. They leave him outside all the time, even when they are gone for several days. Once they were gone for a week and a half. It was the middle of winter, rainy and cold, so we would find him and bring him inside at night with us. He does not have front claws.
My husband and I have driven around looking for him. When we talked to the neighbors that own him about him missing, they were like "oh well".
I keep thinking about him and his cute little face and it makes me cry.

Good Friday to Everyone

Landscaping Today

I went for a couple of walks today...one this morning and a shorter one this afternoon. When I passed by the construction site of the new Discovery Park, I noticed that today they had started to landscape. They were putting in trees and shrubbery. They also put in a drinking fountain.