Halloween

Got up around 7:30 to a beautiful fall morning. Went out and snapped a photo of the moon in the western sky.

At 9:30, Jean and I headed over to the Hyatt Hotel for the 3rd annual Golden Years Expo. Didn’t have as many booths this year as it has in the past. We were only there about 45 minutes. Then we headed over to the Green Thumb Nursery because Jean wanted to pick up a couple of rose bushes that were on sale for 50% off.

Got back home a little after 11 am and Hiker and I waited for Keith to arrive.

He got here around 12:30. Hiker was so excited to see him. He and I left to go have lunch. We ate at Everest and they were really crowded.

Came back home and did a load of laundry.

Tonight, we will be sitting outside on the front porch handing candy out to the trick-or-treaters.

Community Halloween Party Day

This morning, Jean and I took the dogs back over to the new dog park to play. There were a lot of people and a lot of dogs there. Hiker had fun last time when it was just her and Jean’s dogs, but today, the other dogs scared her so she was stuck to me like glue and would not run and play. She is always very shy with any dogs she does not know. Hopefully she will get to know them and play with them soon. Around 10:30 am, me, Jean and our other neighbor Christine headed down to the community rec room to help them get everything ready for tonight’s Halloween party. The weather was beautiful today. Started out cool and windy. We even had to wear light jackets to the dog park because the wind was cold. It warmed up around 9 am and was a typical fall day here in SoCal. Spent about 2 hours or so over at the rec room making mummy dogs while some of the other girls decorated cookies. We will be going back at 5 pm. The party starts at 5:30 and goes until about 8 pm. If I see any really great kids in costume, I’ll take pictures. Finally got the forms from Kaiser that that were supposed to send me 2 weeks ago. Had to fill out some of the information to take with me to the surgical center the day of my surgery. Also had a form for me to take to my primary doctor during my pre-op so he knows what labs and tests they want him to do. One of them is an EKG. I hope they can do that one at my doctor’s office instead of me having to go over to the main Kaiser building. I’ll have to go over there the same day of my pre-op for the pre-cataract class.

Sally and Jean making mummy dogs.

Beautiful Weather Today

I didn’t get out of bed until 8 am this morning. When Hiker went outside at 6 am, I had a “sinus-like” headache around my eyes, so I took a Tylenol and went back to sleep.

During the night, I kept waking up because my nose kept clogging up and I could not breathe, so I think that had something to do with it.

Just before I woke up at 8:00, I was dreaming that I was at a mall somewhere with one of my friends. Couldn’t really see the friend’s face, so I have no idea who it was. We had Hiker with us, which is odd since only service dogs are allowed inside of malls. Anyway, we were in a store and were getting ready to move on. I had my purse and my camera with me, so my friend said she would take Hiker’s leash. I turned around and they were gone, so I went out the door to look for them and did not see them there anywhere. I was panicked because I thought my friend had dognapped Hiker. That’s when I woke up.

After breakfast, I took Hiker with me to get my lottery tickets for Saturday. When we got back home, the weather was so nice. I got her leash and we walked around inside of our community. Wanted to see what people had out for Halloween decorations.

Was a beautiful day all day. Not too hot…nice breeze.

Giant spider in our neighborhood

Peaceful Wednesday

Up just before 7 am this morning. Had some breakfast and then headed out to fill the car with gas and go to Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Spent way more than I had wanted to, but that’s what happens.

Was overcast again this morning but felt warm due to the humidity. The sun tried to peek out around noon, but didn’t really show up until around 1:30 pm. They are saying we are going to be warm this weekend and have Santa Ana Winds.

I mixed the ingredients for a meatloaf for tomorrow night’s dinner. I like to always mix it a day ahead and let it sit in the fridge and mingle the flavors.

My plantar fasciitis has really been bothering me for the past 5 days so I tried to stay off my feet most of today.

Was in the low 90’s here today. When the heck is summer going to die? It’s almost November!

Lunch At Olive Garden

Hiker and I went to bed around 9:30 last night. I feel asleep within 30 minutes but at 12:04, Hiker woke me up with a half bark/half yip sound. I think she must have been dreaming. She was at the foot of the bed and she didn’t move. I reached for her and it seemed to wake her up. She went right back to sleep after that. Took me about 15 minutes to go back to sleep.

It was another chilly morning when we got up. I like it because it is finally feeling more like fall. Better late than never.

Met some of the widowed ladies at the Olive Garden for lunch today. Olive Garden has some really good lunch deals and they are very reasonably priced.

It was overcast all day here today but still warm…in the high 80’s.

Cool Morning/Hot Afternoon

Didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. But then I’m like that every morning. My old brother picks on me because I say I’m tired all of the time. I used to get up early when I worked and even after I first retired, I’d get up around 5 or 6 am to start my day. But I’ve gotten to where if I don’t have anything to do that day, I’d rather stay in bed, even if I don’t go back to sleep after Hiker comes back in after potty. As it is, I only average 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night. I go to bed between 9 and 11 pm, but I turn on the TV and watch it until I fall asleep. Sometimes that is not until midnight or later. Then Hiker wakes me up at 6 am every morning to go outside. We did our Monday dog walk with Jean and her dogs this morning. It was “nippy” out there while on our walk. Was actually down to 46°. We get cool mornings, but then it warms way up in the afternoon. Got a call from Marcie at our community office. Jean and I volunteered to help them with the Halloween party prep, plus we are always judges for the kid’s costume contests. The party is this Friday evening, but we will go over early in the day to help them get things ready. I got the call-back I was waiting for from my eye surgeon’s scheduler. She told me that she had not sent out the package last week with the form in it. That she had waited until today to send it out because she was waiting to get my post-op appointment with my eye surgeon set up. So hopefully I will receive the package by the weekend. My pre-op with my regular doctors is Wednesday, November 4th. My surgery will be on Thursday, November 19th. Then I have a post-op with my surgeon on Friday, November 20th. Then I have an office visit with him again on Friday, November 27th. I had promised Hiker this morning that I’d take her for a ride in the car and maybe to the park for a short walk this afternoon, but by 12:30 it was already in the mid-90’s and I didn’t want to walk her because she’d burn her little feet on the hot pavement. So I put her in the car and took her for a 20-minute car ride. She was perfectly happy with that. She loves riding in the car.

Overcast Day

I stayed up late last night watching “The Good Witch Halloween”, so I was tired this morning.

Got up around 7:30 am. Jean was coming by at 9:30 to pick me up to go over to the Crafty Ladies Boutique in Granada Hills. We got there early and hardly anyone was there. I didn’t buy anything this time. Didn’t see anything “I couldn’t do without”. It’s a very small craft fair in a school auditorium. I think in the 3 times I’ve been there, I’ve only bought something 1 time.

It was totally overcast this morning. The sun finally peeked out around 2 pm.

When I got home, didn’t really do much. I baked a small cake, just the right size for me to have 4 good slabs of it. Made lemon cake with creamy lemon frosting.

Figured out my menu for next week then sat down and watched “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on one of the Encore channels. Have always loved that movie. Paul Newman and Robert Redford were so handsome in that movie. I think they looked better in that movie than in any other movies. I just saw that Katherine Ross and Sam Elliott have been together for 31 years. Good to hear that someone in Hollywood stayed married to the same person.

Getting Warm Again

Woke up in the middle of the night and then had trouble going back to sleep, so I turned on the TV. Thought we’d sleep in this morning, but I turned the TV on at 6 am when Hiker came back in from going potty and I didn’t go back to sleep, but instead I laid there watching the TV until 8:00.

Got up and made some breakfast, put a load of laundry in the washer, sorted my meds and supplements for next week then settled down to watch some TV. So it’s been another lazy Saturday.

I had to do 2 loads of laundry today because I normally wash my sheets and towels on Sunday, but tomorrow Jean and I are going over to Granada Hills to the Crafty Ladies Craft Boutique.

I’ve been waiting to receive a packet in the mail from Kaiser. I was told I’d get some forms that I needed to take to my doctor when I go for my pre-op on November 4th, but I have never gotten it. I did get an email from Kaiser last week telling me to go onto their website to my “Personal Medical Action Plan” and fill out a form about my medications and any other supplements I take and to print it out and take it to my doctor when I go for my pre-op. So now I’m thinking maybe that is the form I was told would be coming in the mail. I called the eye surgeon’s scheduler and got her voicemail and asked her it’s possible they sent me the form via email instead of snail mail. Hopefully she will get back to me on Monday.

Was pretty warm here again today. Got up into the high 90s. Had to turn on the A/C today which I have not done in over a week.

Was Out Shopping All Day

I’M POOPED!

I had trouble falling asleep last night and then I didn’t sleep well because I was dreaming all night. Got up at 5:45 to get ready to meet up with Jean so we could take the dogs over to the new dog park.

The dogs loved it over there. There ran all over the place. We were there for about an hour and then we headed home.

I fixed Hiker a poached egg and then Jean came over at 9:30 and we headed out to have a shopping day and go to lunch.

We hit all of the Dollar Tree stores, all of the Ross, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s stores. Had lunch at The Alamo Mexican Café and then stopped by Sam’s Club on the way home so I could pick up some Halloween candy. Keith told me he is coming for a visit Halloween weekend and we are going to sit out in the front of the house and hand out candy.

I bought a soft pair of slippers at TJ Maxx for this winter and I bought Hiker a stuffed fox toy there too. She loved it when I gave it to her when I got home.

Didn’t get home until 2:30 so she was alone for 5 hours. She was glad to see me when I got home.

It got up to 88° here today.

Just A Regular Thursday

It stays dark until about 7 am here now, so Hiker and I have been staying in bed until 7:30.

We went out and got my lottery tickets for Saturday’s draw and when we got back home, I finally got around to doing that housework I’ve been putting off all week.

Another nice fall morning here. Was 47° on my patio when Hiker went outside at 6 am. The afternoons are still a little warm, but not as bad as they were a few weeks ago.

This afternoon, Hiker and I did a walk down through Discovery Park and along the dry riverbed. Was in the 80’s but there was a nice breeze so it wasn’t too hot for the walk.

Tomorrow, Jean and I are going to take the dogs over to the new dog park at Golden Valley Park instead of taking them for our normal walk. Then after we take the dogs back home, she and I are going to go out and do some shopping and have lunch. I owe her a lunch from the last time she took me to my eye doctor.

Pretty Day In SoCal

Hiker and I got up around 7:30 this morning. I made us some poached eggs for breakfast then I went online and paid the first installment of my property taxes. The last 3 months of each year are always “costly”. Have to pay my property taxes, my homeowner’s insurance, my earthquake insurance and my car insurance. When Ben was alive and we had our other 2 vehicles, our registrations also came due at the end of each year, but since I traded those in for my 1 vehicle, I pay that in August. Plus this year in November, I will be having my eye surgery, so I’ll have to pay my co-pay for that.

Beautiful morning here. Clear and sunny with a nice breeze. Hiker spent a while out in the yard, sniffing everything.

After lunch, I took Hiker over to Bridgeport Lake and we did a short walk along the lake. It was warmer outside than I thought it would be, so we didn’t stay as long as we normally would.

Still didn’t get to the housework I was supposed to do. Oh well, it will still be there tomorrow.

Out To Lunch

When I let Hiker outside this morning at 6 am, it was 48°. Finally fall! But they still keep saying that we will be in the 90s again by the weekend.

I met up with my widowed girlfriends for lunch at Cathy’s Deli. I was a little disappointed with my meal today. Usually the food there is very good, but today I ordered a French dip sandwich and the meat was very fatty.

It warmed up some…into the high 80’s but still not too bad.

For those of you who know Wally Meggitt…I got a call from Karren today that he had surgery today to remove the cancerous lump from his lungs. She had not seen him yet, but the doctors said that everything went very well. She sounded very tired. I told her to keep me posted.

Really Nice Day

Spent the night in one of those “half asleep/half awake” modes. I felt like I was sleeping, but I knew what was going on as if I was not asleep. We got up at 5:45 to get ready for our dog walk with Jean.

Another nice fall morning even though they keep telling us that we are going to be back up into the 90s by the end of this week.

So Saturday night, Hiker had the run in with the opossum. Last night, she had something in the corner by the garage. I went out to see what it was, but didn’t see anything. When she came back inside, I heard something scratching around out there, so don’t know if it was a rat, a lizard or what.

After breakfast, I took Hiker with me to go by my bank so I could hit up the ATM and then we stopped by the liquor store to buy my lotter tickets and a gallon of milk. They charge a lot more for the milk, but I didn’t want to go to the grocery store just to get milk, so I went for the convenience instead of the price.

When we got back home, I did a little housework. My urge to clean is getting to be less and less each month. When Ben and I were first married, I thoroughly cleaned everything on a weekly basis. Bathrooms, floors, vacuuming, dusting…anything that needed to be cleaned was cleaned. After I retired, the weekly basis changed to monthly basis, except for vacuuming and cleaning the toilets. I’ve grown so lazy. I would hire a maid to come in once a week, but I don’t like the idea of having someone strange in my house.

After lunch, Hiker and drove over to Central Park in Saugus and did a loop walk around the park.

The weather has been so nice the past 3 days. It has really finally felt like fall and when the weather is nice, I’m not lazy like I am when it’s really hot outside and I love getting outside with Hiker.

Got up to 85° today and we had some really nice clouds in a dark blue sky.

Finally Some Fall Weather!

Stayed in bed until 8 am again this morning. After Hiker’s encounter with an opossum last night in the back yard, I thought we both needed to relax.

When we did get up, it looked like it was going to rain outside. I had thought about driving over to Central Park for a walk with Hiker, but I didn’t want to get caught if it did start raining.

Around 10:30, the sun peeked out a little, so we did a 2 mile walk along the dry riverbed. I noticed that the City of Santa Clarita is preparing for the El Nino that we are supposed to get this winter. They had some big equipment down there cleaning out the riverbed for when there will actually be a river flowing in it.

The sun peeked in and out all day long which was fine with me. It felt so much like fall today. I was loving it. Cool temps, blue sky and big, white, fluffy clouds. Only in the mid-80s again today.

Kind Of Felt Like Fall Today

We slept in this morning. Since it stays dark longer in the morning now, I like to just pull the covers up over my head and go back to sleep. Hiker curls up next to my head with her head on my pillow.

It was overcast when we finally did get out of bed. Hiker went outside to do you normal “hang out in the backyard in the morning” thing. I put a load of laundry into the washer and then settled down to check my Facebook page and my email.

After the mowers came, I put Hiker in the car and we drove across the valley so I could locate the building that I will need to go to on November 4th for my cataract class. It is right next door to the Kaiser medical building.

Driving is getting harder for me because of the cataract in my right eye. I will be so glad when I get the surgery over with. Some of the reason I have not been going out much lately is because I don’t want to drive more than I have to, plus I don’t enjoy my walks/hikes as much since I cannot see very well.

This morning felt more like fall here. It was cool, breezy and a little damp from the overcast sky. The afternoon it got up in the high 80s which is much better than the 90s and 100s we’ve been having.

Got Surgery Date

Got up early for our normal Friday dog walk with Jean. We started out for the walk but her dog Charlie got to barking and would not stop so she took him back home and we continued on with the rest of the dogs, but we could hear Charlie barking at her house from a block away, so we went back and got him and then just went to my house for the dogs to play in the yard. So we didn’t get our walk.

After Jean left, I made some poached eggs for me and Hiker and then I went back up to Wal-Mart to pick up something I forgot to get yesterday.

When I got back home, I did some house work and then I got a call from Kaiser about my cataract surgery. It will take place on Thursday, November 19th. They didn’t give me a time yet. They said that the surgical facility will call me the day before with the surgery time.

To prepare for the surgery, I have to go to a pre-op with my primary doctor on Wednesday, November 4th at 10:20 am and then the same day at 2 pm, I have to go over to the Kaiser facility in Valencia for a cataract class. I asked them what that was for and they said I will be told in the class what I need to do before and after the surgery.

So it will only be a few more weeks.

Was cooler today…in the mid 80’s but supposed to get warmer again.

Very Humid Today

I got up early this morning because I wanted to get over to the nearest Kaiser medical office when the lab there opened up. I had gotten an email from my primary doctor asking me to come in to have some preventative blood work done. I take Lisinopril/Hydrochlorathiazide for my blood pressure. It is a diuretic, so they check my take my blood twice a year to make sure my kidneys are functioning properly.

I stopped by Sam’s Club on my way to Kaiser to fill the car with gas, then went over to the medical office. When I left there, I went by Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. I finally found the spice cake mix I’ve been looking for to make the recipe for crock pot apple spice cake that I saw on Facebook.

It was so humid all day here. Last night there was some thunder and lightning that went overhead, but never got any rain from it. It scared Hiker and she was hiding in a corner. I guess there was another tropical storm in the pacific and it is now coming across land. The humidity was so bad; it took my breath away. We are NOT supposed to have humidity in southern California.

At 2:30 pm, the put out a flash flood warning for our area. There were some big storm clouds coming in from the northeast. I heard they really got some big rain last night in San Bernardino and other areas to the southeast.

I still have not heard from the cataract surgeon’s scheduler about my surgery. He had told me to giver he 2 weeks to call me before I call her, so if I don’t hear from her by next Wednesday, I’ll call her next Thursday.

Lunch With My Lockheed Girlfriends

We got up around 7 am this morning.

Skipped breakfast because I was meeting my Lockheed girlfriends in Palmdale for lunch. Had to pick up my friend Sandi at 10:45 to drive up to Palmdale.

Eight of us showed up and we had a great time. Always so good to see the ladies I spent so much time with when I was working.

Sandi didn’t ride home with me. Her husband had to go up to Palmdale and he picked her up at the restaurant, so on the way home, I decided to take the scenic route and drive home down Sierra Highway. About halfway home, there was a police car parked across the road blocking it because there were filming something along the road. They have always used that road for a lot of movies and TV shows, so I have no idea what they were filming. Anyway, after sitting there for about 15 or 20 minutes (because I know how long it sometimes takes them to set up the scene for filming), I decided to make a U-turn and head back up to Agua Dulce and cut across to Davenport Road and take it down to the lower section of Sierra Highway. When I got to the intersection of Davenport and Sierra, I noticed that there still were no cars coming down from where I had just been, so I’m guessing they were still sitting there waiting for the filming to finish.

My friend Judy had given me a stuffed toy to bring to Hiker. She always sends a toy to Hiker whenever I see her. I gave it to Hiker as soon as I got home and Hiker played with it for a long time before she ever stopped to get up on the sofa and take a nap.

Was mostly cloudy all day with the sun peeking out every so often. Was somewhat cooler (high 80s) but because of the clouds, it was very humid, so still felt really hot.

Need to get up early tomorrow morning and go over to Kaiser for some bloodwork they want me to do to check my kidney function. I take a diuretic, so they check my kidneys a couple of times a year.

Fun Lunch With My Widowed Girlfriends

Today is the 4th anniversary of the date I adopted Hiker! Best thing I did after Ben passed away.

Only slept in about a half hour this morning. I was meeting my widowed girlfriends for lunch over at Backwoods Inn, so didn’t want to stay in bed too long.

Good thing I didn’t because when I turned on my TV in the living room, I got nothing. I tried to reboot my cable box but that didn’t help, so I went to the online Time Warner Chat and was told there that they were having problems with specific cable boxes and that they were working on the problem.

Well that didn’t sound right to me because my box in the bedroom was working fine, so I called TW and they said there was an outage in my area.

Me being the “non-believer” disconnected my cable box and sped up to the Time Warner store. When I’m getting out of the car, I see a guy coming out with a new cable box. When I get into the store, I see 3 people waiting with cable boxes in tow.

Within 10 minutes 3 or 4 more people come in with their cable boxes tucked under their arm. We all start to talk to each other and find out we are all having the exact same problem. Everyone had tried to reboot their box and it shows “APP” on the box screen but does nothing else.

I thought about just coming back home and reconnecting the old box, but thought while I was there I’d go ahead and get a new one since they are refurbished and only last about a year. Mine was already about 10 months old.

When they finally called my number, I told the girl at the desk that they may want to check into what was going on because we were all having the same problem and that they would soon be running out of boxes to hand out. She told me that they are not in touch with the technical part of TW and so she just gave me another box. However, she did tell me that the boxes “pings” every night around midnight and that it sounded to her like this certain box model did not get the signal at that time.

Well I guess what the guy on live chat told me was correct because I connected the new box, called TW to have it activated which is done electronically and NOT by a human, and guess what, the box screen showed “APP” and that’s as far as it went. Still not working.

So around 10:30 am, I called TWC again and this time spoke with a representative and she assured me that I was not the only one with the box problem and that they were working on it and hopefully it would be back up sometime today. They tell you now that TW will call you when the “outage” is fixed, so I mentioned to her that I was going out to lunch with friends later and might not be home when they call, so she told me if the box was still not working when I got home, to call them back. The boxes they were having problems with are the Scientific Atlanta brand boxes.

Around 11:30 am, I noticed the box was rebooting and it finally came back on, but later I’ll have to set all of my favorite channels and other settings.

Had a wonderful lunch with my widowed girlfriends. Fun and laughter every time we all get together.

Was still 98ׄ° here today.

About 5 Degrees Cooler Today

Up at 5:45 am to get ready for our regular Monday dog walk. Nice and cool while we were out, but started to warm up not long after we got home.

After the walk, I made some poached eggs for me and Hiker and then I went up to Stater Brothers to do my grocery shopping. Since today is a “holiday”, the store was a little more crowded than it usually is when I go.

I don’t know why they even call this a holiday because Christopher Columbus never really did discover the part of North America that is now the United States. He was down in the Caribbean Sea. No one really knows who actually was here first. Some say it was Irish Monks, others say it was the Chinese and still others say it was the Vikings. All I know is that it was NOT Columbus.

My brother Ron called me from up north right after Y&R went off. He is considering coming down to visit around Thanksgiving. It is tentative as of right now.

It was 100° here today so didn’t get out any this afternoon, but I am going to go onto my Wii and play some Wii Sports again.

Another Day Of Staying Inside (Again)

My bad habits are getting worse. I stayed in bed until almost 8 am again this morning.

Because of the heat, Hiker and I don’t get out for walks, etc. and because I’m not exercising, I mostly sit on the sofa watching TV all day. This causes me to be more tired because I’m not moving. You know the old saying “a body in motion stays in motion”. Isaac Newton was right. If I’m not moving around, I am so tired all of the time.

I did wash my sheets and towels and I got my grocery list written up for going shopping tomorrow morning after our dog walk with Jean.

Sometimes though, I think that my vision getting worse from the cataract causes me to be more tired too. I do know that it is starting to give me slight headaches the past week or so. I used to get a lot of headaches when I was working, but I know that they were caused by the stress and high blood pressure, but after I retired, the stress went away and I started taking meds to control the blood pressure, so I rarely get headaches anymore.

Got up to 106° here today. They say we are going to be hot and humid the beginning of this coming week and then we might get some rain by the end of the week.

Have our morning dog walk with Jean tomorrow. Tuesday I’ll meet my widowed friends for lunch at Backwoods Inn and Wednesday, I’m meeting my Lockheed friends at Hometown Buffet up in Palmdale.

Hope I hear from Kaiser about my cataract surgery this week. The doctor told me if I don’t hear from his scheduler by October 21st, for me to give her a call.

I’m putting off making some call for a few things I need done until I have a date for my surgery. I need to get my chimney cleaned and I need to have my car serviced. I also have not heard from my retina specialist’s schedule for an appointment with him in December, so I need to be calling her too.

Another Lazy Saturday

According to my Fitbit, I slept for 10 and a half hours last night! Yesterday morning, I was starting to feel a little light-headed. When that happens, I take an over-the-counter motion sickness pill. I knew that they made me sleeping, but this one knocked me out! Around 2 pm, I was watching TV and I started getting really sleepy and I actually did fall asleep for a little while. After dinner, I went in and took a shower to try to help me wake up, but it didn’t help. By 7:30 pm I was falling asleep on the sofa. I finally decided I’d just go to bed around 8:00. Fell asleep as soon as I got in bed. I did get up a few times last night to go to the bathroom, but I would go right back to sleep each time. Hiker woke me up around 6 am to go outside, but we went back to bed when she came back inside and I fell asleep until a little after 8 am. The Fitbit can tell when you are sleeping and when you are restless or awake during the night and it said I was restless 25 times and awake 3 times. From that, it figures how long you actually slept. I spent most of my day watching Hallmark Channel movies on TV and Hiker spent the day snoozing next to the A/C vent in the entry way. The high temperature here today was 109°

Just A Quick Note

Did our Friday morning dog walk with Jean and her dogs this morning. It was already almost 70° at 7 am.

Since it was once again a very hot day, we stayed inside the air conditioned house all day. I’m beginning to think that our summer weather is never going to leave us. The local weather people are saying that we will continue to be hot for the next 7 to 8 days, plus now they say we are going to have very bad humidity next week.

110° on my patio today.

Hot Thursday

Slept in late this morning because for some reason, I could not fall asleep last night.

I went to bed after “Code Black”, so it was a little after 11 pm. I turned on the TV thinking it would lull me to sleep, but it didn’t. at 11:30, I turned on a movie called “Pompeii” that was on the Encore Channel. It ran until 1:30 am and I was still wide awake. Think I must have finally dozed off around 2 am.

Finally got out of bed around 8 am and had a bowl of cereal, then headed over to Sam’s Club. Needed to renew my membership and pick up a few things.

When I got home, I decided to add my Halloween decoration magnets on my garage with the autumn ones I had already put up a few weeks ago.

I decided to get all of my medical stuff together so I could send it to OneExchange online to get my reimbursements from Lockheed. When Lockheed dropped our Retired Employees Medical Group Plan, they said they would still give us reimbursements on some of our out-of-the-pocket costs. I guess a little bit is better than nothing.

Got pretty hot here today. Was 106° by 2 pm and we are getting some Santa Ana Winds with this hot weather. So far we have had gusts up to 11 mph. We always get the winds in October. That was the month in 2007 that Ben and I had to evacuate from a brush fire that the winds blew down from Agua Dulce that year.

Cataract Consultation

Hiker and I got up very early this morning since I had an appointment at Kaiser at 8:30 am.

I saw my cataract surgeon this morning. I really like him. He is very honest and seems very knowledgeable. I know my retinal specialist told me Dr. Chun is the best there is.

Anyway, he told me my choices and what he does during the surgery. He said it will take 10 to 15 minutes to do. He told me I will need to go with the contact lens in my left eye, otherwise he said my vision would be way off and it would cause headaches and dizziness. I asked him about wearing my eye glasses with one plain lens and one prescription lens and he said that would still cause headaches and dizziness because the corrective lens in the eyeglasses is not directly against my eye and due to the degree of my nearsightedness, the difference in that space causes problems. So I will no longer wear my eyeglasses, but he did say I will probably need reading glasses.

The surgery will be done in 4 to 8 weeks and they will call me in the next 2 weeks to give me the date. The surgery will be done at the Facey Surgical Facility on the corner of Valencia and McBean.

He gave me the prescription for the eye drops I will have to start using 3 days before the surgery, so I picked them up while I was there.

Got home around 10:00.

My eyes were still very dilated, so it was hard to watch “Y&R” today, but I got the jest of it.

I’ve noticed that my snail mail mailbox is full of Medicare information again because it is open enrollment time. They waste so much paper sending all of that stuff out.

102° here today.

Where's My Internet???

I slept in a little bit this morning. Forced myself to get up at 7:30.

It was nice a cool this morning, feeling very much like fall, but I’ve mentioned before that the local weather people on TV keep telling us it is going to be 103° this weekend.

Met my widowed girlfriends of at Dario’s Mexican Restaurant today for lunch. There were only 5 of us today, but still had just as much fun as always.

It was clear and sunny when we went inside, but when we came out, there were some big white fluffy clouds, but still pretty warm. It 91° when I got home around 2 pm.

Got home to find a big Time Warner Cable truck in front of my house. Their box that links to 4 homes in my area is in my front yard so the guy was out there working on it. I was thinking “oh great, I probably don’t have Internet and TV, but I was wrong. Everything was working.

I found the guy who was working in the box in front of my house and he came back and fixed my Internet, so right now, I’m back up and working.

I have to be at the Ophthalmologist at 8:15 tomorrow morning.

Mostly Cloudy Day

So last night I was in the living room watching “Madam Secretary”. Hiker had already gone into the bedroom and I heard her in there making noise then she got very quiet. I thought I’d better go in and check on her and see what she was up to. Well I walk through the door and I find the comforter totally on the floor and Hiker all stretched out in the middle of the bed. I guess she thought the comforter was in her way, so she kicked it to the floor.

I put it back on the bed and totally covered her up with it. About 30 minutes later, I went back to check on her again and she was still laying on her side under the comforter, but she had stuck her head out at the top like a person.

I actually slept with the comforter pulled up last night and this morning when Hiker went outside to potty at 6 am, it was only 49° according to my weather station.

We went for a dog walk with Jean and her dogs and I was wishing I had worn a sweatshirt because it was chilly with just my t-shirt. But they are saying we will be back up in the 100’s this coming weekend. This is October for gosh sakes!

My brother Keith called me after his doctor appointment at Kaiser. He was being checked by a dermatologist for some skin growths and they did turn out to be Basal Cell cancer. Thank goodness it is not Carcinoma or Melanoma.

After lunch, it started getting cloudy.

A new park just opened up not far from us, so I took Hiker up there. I didn’t realize that they had put a dog park there too, so that was a surprise. It’s a small park, but the dog park is much nicer than the one over at Central Park.

It stated to sprinkle some while we were at the park and then when we got home it continued to sprinkle. But around 3 pm, the sun came out again
Hiker at the dog park