Halloween

Another beautiful day here in SoCal. Hit about 80 degrees here today. We went for a "Sunday Drive" through Soledad Canyon near Acton, CA this afternoon.

Guess the little "goblins" will be out tonight. We have not given out candy in years. We used to live in a mobile home park and they didn't allow kids to come into the park to trick or treat, so we got out of the habit back then. Never got back into it when we moved to where we live now.
Have fun whatever you are doing for Halloween.

Afternoon Walk

We had rain early this morning and it's been cloudy almost all day, but this afternoon, it was so pretty outside, I just had to get out and walk. Took some photos as I walked through Discovery Park in Canyon Country, CA where I live.

Road Rage

Well this morning I had a little bout with a woman who seemed to have a case of Road Rage.

Ben and I were heading over to our local post office to mail a few things. We were about 3 blocks from home. I was driving. There is a stop sign at this particular corner and the woman in front of us made her stop. I pulled up behind her. She was the first vehicle at the stop sign, so she had the right-of-way to make her turn after she completed her stop, however, she let the vehicle to her left go first. When the intersection was clear, she continued to just sit there. She had picked something up out of her passenger seat and appeared to be writing on a pad or something.

By now there were 2 more vehicles behind me and we were all sitting there waiting for her to move. After about 30 seconds, I honked my horn and put my hands up in the air like I was asking "What are you waiting for"? Next thing I know this woman is out of her car and heading back towards my car, yelling and waving her arms around. She then accuses me of "flipping her off". I told her I did NOT flip her off, that I had just put my hands up questioning her intentions. After saying that, I rolled my window up and let her stand there and yell, which she was doing very loudly.

She continued to rant and rave at me, telling me that I had some kind of a problem and that I was going to have a "f--king" heart attack if I didn't watch myself.

So now I try to back up a little so that I can get away from this crazy woman. I didn't have much room. As I said before there were now 2 other vehicles behind me. I found just enough space to turn my wheels and try to pull around this nut and her vehicle. But then she puts her arms out and proceeds to stand right in front of my car still yelling at the top of her lungs. I kept trying to go around her but every time I did, she'd step right in front of my car again. Finally, she backed down a little and I went around her and her car and went on my way, only to see her jump into her car and proceed to chase me down the street.

At the next corner, I made my right turn to head toward the post office. First she zooms around me and races off ahead of me, only to be stopped by the traffic light. She is 2 lanes over from me but keeps looking over and waving her hands around. The light changes, we start up. The next light changes and this time, she jumps in behind me and when I look in my rear view mirror, she is writing something on a tablet, my license number I assume. I said to Ben that I don't know what she thought she was going to do with that information.

The light changes and we head off down the road again. Now she flies around me again and races off down the street only to be stopped at the next signal. By this time, Ben and I are cracking up. She is in the lane next to us and she is still yelling and waving her arms.

Finally, after this light turns green, she speeds off down the road and we lost track of her.

What's troublesome though is the fact that she probably lives in our gated community and if she's as crazy as she appears to be, she's liable to look for our car (if she did indeed write down our license number) and start harassing us. Hopefully not.

Fall In SoCal

We don't get a lot of fall color in SoCal but we do get some. Shot these photos during an afternoon walk.

1955

1955 CHEVROLET and The Conversations That Went With It! Read them and smile… those same folks were fussing when their kids added a second horse to make a chariot run faster!!

Comments made in the year

1955!

(That's 55 years ago!)

'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way
they are, it's going to be impossible
To buy a week's groceries for $20.00.

'Have you seen the new cars coming out next year?
It won't be long before $2,000.00 will only buy a
used one.

'If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit.
A quarter a pack is ridiculous.

'Did you hear the post office is thinking about
charging a dime just to mail a letter?

'If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00,
Nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store. '

'When I first started driving,
Who would have thought gas would someday cost 29cents a gallon..
Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.

'I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more..
Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying
DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND,
It seems every new movie has either HE.. or DA.. in it.

'I read the other day where some scientist thinks
it's possible to put a man on the moon by the
end of the century.
They even have some fellows they call astronauts
preparing for it down in Texas .

'Did you see where some baseball player just signed a
contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball?
It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be
making more than the President.

'I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen
appliances would be electric.
They are even making electric typewriters now.

'It's too bad things are so tough nowadays..
I see where a few married women are having to work
to make ends meet.

'It won't be long before young couples are going to
have to hire someone
To watch their kids so they can both work.

'I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the
door to a whole lot of foreign business.

'Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the
Government takes half our income in taxes.
I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best
people to congress.

'The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather,
But I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.

'There is no sense going to Lincoln
or Omaha anymore for a weekend,
It costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.

'No one can afford to be sick anymore,
At $35.00 a day in the hospital it's too rich for
my blood.'

'If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.'

Another Cute October/Halloween Card

Check out this cute card:

HAPPY OCTOBER/HALLOWEEN

Ben's Eye Surgery

Left the house this morning at 10:15 AM to get Ben over to the hospital by 11:00 AM. Got home at 5:00 PM.


They took Ben in for the surgery around 1:45 PM. The surgery took about 1 hour and 25 minutes. Doctor said that there was a lot a damage to his eye because of the blood pressure. They had to put a gas bubble into his eye to hold his retina in place since they removed the vitreous humor. The bubble will dissolve and the vitreous humor will replenish itself. He has to hold his head downward for several day because if he raises his head up, the bubble in his eye floats to level itself. Keeping his head in the down/forward position keeps the bubble pressed against the retina so it does not detach from the back of his eye. As of right now, it appears he will be off work for at least 2 weeks, but we have a follow-up with the doctor in the morning and he will maybe give us a better return to work date. Also, there was so much damage that now Ben will have to have cataract surgery sometime next year.

Do I Live In Kansas?

Boy did we have a "storm show" last night. Thunder, lightning, wind, pouring rain, hail. It was pretty scary. Thought we were living in Kansas. Today is Ben's surgery so I will try to post an update on him this evening.

Tomorrow

Well tomorrow Ben will finally have the surgery done on his eye. I think I'm more nervous about it than he is. I know I'm nervous about what time we'll have to be there tomorrow. They are supposed to call us tonight between 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM telling us what time to arrive at the hospital. Don't know why they cannot tell you that several days in advance. The I have to drive him down there...about a 20 to 25 mile trip. The traffic going down is terrible in the mornings so I'm hoping they don't want him there too early. Plus we are having rain storms here in SoCal, so that makes the traffic even worse. I hate driving in the rain.
The surgery will take 1 1/2 to 2 hours so I'll have to hang around the waiting room waiting. I'll take a book with me, but when I'm nervous or in a noisy public place, I cannot concentrate on what I am reading. If it's close to lunch time, I'll spend some of the time waiting down in the cafeteria.
If the doctor needs to be a gas bubble or gel bubble in his eye to support the retina after the surgery, Ben will have to have a second surgery to remove it. He's not happy about that. Plus the doctor said he cannot guarantee that Ben's eyesight in the left eye will be any better, so Ben's REALLY NOT happy about that.
I'll just be glad when the whole thing is done.

Really Cute Halloween Card

Click on the link below to see

Happy Halloween

Spooky Creature

Ben and I were out driving around this afternoon. There is a Halloween Costume store about a mile from our home and we saw this "creature" standing on the corner near the store. He was about 10 ft. tall. We saw him walking down the street from the store to the corner. Looked really strange so had to turn around and get a photo of him. Yes...there was a real person inside of the costume.

Day At The Doctor

Took Ben down to Panorama City Kaiser facility this morning for the pre-op with his ophthalmologist. Had a 9:15 appointment, but they took us in as soon as we got there. They dilated his eyes and then we sat in the "dark" room for about 15 or 20 minutes. Doctor checked his eyes and then sent him over to have a sonogram done on his left eye (the one that the surgery will be done on). They also gave him an injection into that eye. They said it was something that would help prepare the eye for the surgery next Wednesday. They gave us some eye drops that contain antibiotics for Ben to start using today.
We then had to go over to the Center Medical Offices to talk with an RN about the surgery. She gave us some instructions and then sent us over to the Admitting Office at the hospital so we could pre-register Ben for the surgery.
We finally got home around 12:30 and went over to Hometown Buffet for lunch.
Sure will be glad when all of this is done.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Today I went for my mammogram. Have you had yours?

About 1 in 8 women in the United States (between 12 and 13%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.

In 2010, an estimated 207,090 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 54,010 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.

About 1,970 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men in 2010. Less than 1% of all new breast cancer cases occur in men.

From 1999 to 2006, breast cancer incidence rates in the U.S. decreased by about 2% per year. One theory is that this decrease was partially due to the reduced use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) by women after the results of a large study called the Women’s Health Initiative were published in 2002. These results suggested a connection between HRT and increased breast cancer risk.

About 39,840 women in the U.S. are expected to die in 2010 from breast cancer, though death rates have been decreasing since 1991. These decreases are thought to be the result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening, and increased awareness.

For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer.

Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among U.S. women. More than 1 in 4 cancers in women (about 28%) are breast cancer.

Compared to African American women, white women are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer, but less likely to die of it. One possible reason is that African American women tend to have more aggressive tumors, although why this is the case is not known. Women of other ethnic backgrounds — Asian, Hispanic, and Native American — have a lower risk of developing and dying from breast cancer than white women and African American women.

In 2010, there are more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S.

A woman’s risk of breast cancer approximately doubles if she has a first-degree relative (mother, sister, daughter) who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. About 20-30% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a family history of breast cancer.

About 5-10% of breast cancers can be linked to gene mutations (abnormal changes) inherited from one’s mother or father. Mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are the most common. Women with these mutations have up to an 80% risk of developing breast cancer during their lifetime, and they are more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age (before menopause). An increased ovarian cancer risk is also associated with these genetic mutations. In men, about 1 in 10 breast cancers are believed to be due to BRCA2 mutations and even fewer cases to BRCA1 mutations.

About 70-80% of breast cancers occur in women who have no family history of breast cancer. These occur due to genetic abnormalities that happen as a result of the aging process and life in general, rather than inherited mutations.

The most significant risk factors for breast cancer are gender (being a woman) and age (growing older).

Fall At Lombardi Ranch-Santa Clarita, CA

My friend Judy and I went over to Lombardi Ranch here in the Santa Clarita Valley. We checked out all the pumpkins, and exhibits and visited the petting zoo. Took a ride around the ranch on the train and then walked through "Scarecrow Alley".

Lombardi Ranch
 

Beautiful Day In The Santa Clarita Valley

It is so pretty here today. It's about 90 deg. but it's very breezy so it doesn't really feel that warm. I have my doors wide open and I'm enjoying the sounds of my windchimes.
I decided to go for a little ride and took a few photos along the way.

My "New" Bird Bath

Last spring my brother that I just visited got a free bird bath from his work. They were going to toss it as a customer brought it back saying it "leaked". My brother asked if he could have it and he put a 5 cent washer on it and it didn't leak. Anyway, while visiting he told me he wanted to replace the bird bath with ...a fountain statue and asked if I wanted the bath. I said YES! Here it is in my backyard.

Short Video

While visiting my brother in Northern California, we went to the Mt. Lassen Volcanic National Park. I shot some video of a boiling mud pot there and some steam vents. We also went to the fish hatchery in Oroville, CA and I took some video of the jumping steelhead trout.

I'm Home From Vacation

Hi All. I'm back from my vacation to Paradise, CA and my visit with my brothers. I have attached a link to my Fotki.com photo sharing site where you can go and look at my photographs of the trip.

My Vacation Photographs

ON VACATION

Will be back online Saturday, October 9th.