Promises of blooms

I've since removed the Impatients which were spitting stuff ALL OVER the place. They are welcome to freeze outside, which is appropriate. I thought they could behave, but no!

 How do all three orchid plants know it's time to send out these blossom stems? Yes the sun told them.

Watching the world go by

 

Sitting in the window of the Dripolator. Sipping coffee. Life is good. We're vaccinated and boosted. We wear masks when other people are near, and we space 6 feet apart just naturally these days.

And Saturday I got my hair cut, finally. Actually hope I can walk around without having to wear a hat. We'll see how it weathers sleeping on it! Usually that leaves me a bit lopsided.

The gold rush in Colorado etc.

 Last Saturday I showed quite a few stage coaches, and mentioned that one line was to Cripple Creek., CO.  There may be a few duplications, because I'm posting every photo that talks about Cripple Creek from the site: Western Mining History DOT com.

Cripple Creek is known for having gold mining proscpected in the 1890s.

Stages leaving for Cripple Creek at Florissant CO.

Stage coaches and freight wagons going to Cripple Creek 1890s.

Stagecoach in Cripple Creek CO, ca 1890

Hundley Stage line to Cripple Creek CO

Departure of Stage, Cripple Creek, 1895

Hundley Stage Line to Cripple Creek 1892-93

Cripple Creek stage 1895

And other places with miners and stage coaches...

Stage coaches in Boulder Canyon. 1880s

Stagecoach loaded with miners in Delores CO headed to San Juan mountains, c. 1890

Go a few thousand miles north to the Alaska Territory, where gold prospectors stop work for lunch. Yukon Trail in Dyea Valley, 1897

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week.

The coffees and yearly physical exams.

 

We were celebrating that we'd both had our yearly physicals...with different doctors, this morning.

And another friend is due to have hers soon too. There must be some reason behind this.

My results of my blood work show my cholesterol numbers are good. I'm just a bit low on protein, so will put more effort into eating tofu and beans! Vegetarians don't get a lot of protein, but usually it's enough.

I was looking for the vitamin B results, but he didn't have that ordered. So I'll wait till next year to find that out. All the rest of the tests were ok.

I gladly had a coffee with my friend and caught up on each other's lives.  Then I went shopping for groceries...what might be called stocking stuffers.

Oh, I'm wearing a hat till Sat. when I finally will get my hair cut. It had to be postponed like everything else.

We stayed pretty well spaced away from any other coffee drinkers.

This is the reverse view from the last one...with a rack of chocolates forming the frame on the right. I especially like seeing my friend's silhouette against the window. So I'm going to see if it has enough pixels to enlarge that portion...

Ah ha is in order...look what I found when cropping and just letting it enlarge by itself!

Yes, a bit fuzzy, and I could do with a little light endarkening (not knowing what the correct editing term would be.) But just look on the far left, and there's a mirror which captured my friend's face! I wish I knew more about photo editing, because this was such a fun discovery...and I do plan to show it to her!

When things just work out...

With a new diagnosis of a supposedly severe illness, I've spent quite a bit of time rescheduling things.

I say supposedly because I haven't felt all that bad...don't have high fevers at all, and am not needing to sleep much. I admit that I get tired around 8 pm, and am soon lost to the world for 11 hours. I'm still up before it's light outside.

Anyway the things that came together on Tues were about a dental appointment. I waited till 8:01 am to call the dental clinic which I go to in Asheville. I was aware that driving down the valley might be pushing my current condition, but at the last minute decided that anyone on antibiotics (me) needed to not be breathing on other people, no matter how good I felt.

As I was finally connected to the right people and I asked to reschedule, and was put on hold, my phone rang. It was the dental assistant calling me. So I put the first call on hold...a double hold if you will. And the second caller was calling me to reschedule because the dentist wouldn't be in today. 

Whoopee. We talked briefly about my broken part of a bridge that needed attention and she explained that the porcelain part that apparently broke off can't have anything added to it. But I still wanted to see the dentist - at least the bridge wasn't loose. She said she'd call right back. I said goodbye and hung up on her call, then hung up on the "on hold" call, who had been sitting right next to her call!

I'm so proud of finally being adept with my iPhone. Isn't it strange that we still call it "hanging up?"

Anyway, she called back soon and did have another time slot, in a week. So I'll be all better by then  (hopefully!) And maybe I'll just have to get used to this new configuration on my bridge. I am trying very hard not to chew on that side! It's amazingly hard to pay attention to my chewing.

A good friend came over last time I was sick with shingles, and helped by washing and drying all my dishes. (Yes, new topic.)  She then put things away. Later in that week, I gave all the pottery which I'd donated to an auction to another friend, who was willing to distribute it to those who had bought it. It took several more weeks, and then she called to say one bowl didn't seem to be there, did I still have it?

"Nope," I answered, and looked high and low for it. So I thought about donating something else so the person who bought it would at least have something I'd made. I didn't have any more of that hand painted design.

And then last night I found the bowl, where it had been tucked inside other bowls on the top shelf...all this time. It must have needed to be washed, and my friend didn't know it was different than all the other bowls. My technique of stacking bowls is to put all big bowls in one stack, and then medium ones in their own stack, and little bowls, etc.

But my dear volunteer just stacked big bowls on the bottom, then medium bowls then small bowls into this one stack, so I hadn't even looked at it for weeks, until I took the stack down and found the missing bowl in it.

I called my friend who had been distributing the pottery for me. Now she and her husband have the flu. So I'm giving the bowl to the man who ran the auction, and he'll get it somehow to whoever bought it. 

Just some silly variations of it all coming together. 

And here's a beautiful little quote by a man I've admired for years.

We are the children of this beautiful planet that we have lately seen photographed from the moon.  

We are not delivered into it by some god, but have come forth from it.

We are its eyes and mind, its seeing and its thinking. 

And the earth, together with its sun, this light around which it flies like a moth, came forth, we are told, from a nebula; and that nebula, in turn, from space.

So that we are the mind, ultimately, of space …


—Joseph Campbell
Myths to Live By

If you have/had a veteran in your family...

 

Or family of one. This is the Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain NC.

These people were looking for a headstone, and carrying a bouquet of flowers.

The Neuro-Treatment Center

 

This is a much bigger facility than I thought, overlooking the Veterans Cemetery. But I dare say people with brain injuries, severe mental illness, or dementia may not be looking out the windows.

Oh the "Take Out" food

 I stopped by the No. One China to pick up some Chinese American food after being diagnosed with Pneumonia.

I knew I'd want some Hot and Sour soup.

I knew some tofu and broccoli "Home Style" would be good at some point.

And I took home these goodies and stuck them all in the refrigerator.

Next day, I fixed a half bowl of soup, and when it was hot, put in those crunchy noodles that kind of cut the power of the peppers in it. And heated up a small plate of various veggies. Sometimes I only get broccoli, but this time there were a few other things as well. 

The crunchy noodles were so good in the soup that I started dunking the veggies in it too. I was ravenous. No idea why, because I've been drinking lots of fluids, and eating some soft things so I don't bother my broken tooth.

Anyway, I'll have to cancel my physical therapy for a while. I think the scheduled annual physical at mmy doctors office may still go ahead, since they already took my blood sample...and I'll wear a mask the whole time. With the doctor's office computers not working (no charts from the past are available) I'll take my copy of last year's results regarding my cholesterol levels. That's what I'm most interested in comparing.

My friend and I have cancelled our lunch date in Asheville next week. So I'll be a good sickie. I'm trying. But when I lie down and close my eyes, I imagine I'm playing solitaire on my phone, and I always loose.

I have to avoid sunlight, though I think a bit through the windows won't damage the antibiotics. I just won't sit in it!

Balance

 That's my word for the day.

I started by climbing the steps at the doctor's office without grabbing the hand rail...and then left with the same focus on my steps. Yes, I can do this! It was the day last week when I gave my blood for my annual physical. So I don't have any complaints about this old body, for a change!

I now need to go do some household tasks.

But besides the mundane tasks of life, I do wish to focus on balance some more.

It's a way to accept that there's a dark force that equals the bright one which I usually think about. As they said in the Star Wars movies, May the Force Be With You...meaning that positive one.

But they would never have had a plot without the concept of a dark force. Which of course was evil personified.

Three generations of men in my life...on l, grandson William, in back grandson Michael, next ex-husband Doug, and on r. eldest son Marty, father of the two younger men!

I tend to want to consider a different basis for our lives...not the duality of good vs. bad. I guess I'm more of a circular or even spiral design thinker. Some days that works, and some day I have to push myself over the edge so I fall into a new space. Like right now.

I just got upset about someone parking in my parking space. But then I parked illegally and came inside and ate my pizza and read my emails, and left the huge pushcart full of clean clothes to be taken care of later. I'm very good at "later." So, just let go of the parking problem.

Focus on what I can do right now. Yep, get up and get my self in gear and make the bed and hang up all those tee-shirts. I wish I could run away. Is that the evil devil influencing me? If I were still Christian I could have the personification of evil to fight against. I'm not even interested in calling this pull towards negativity Satin. I just don't believe in names like that. I create my own negative space, or the positive one.

I have a friend who asks for her friends to only post positive things on FaceBook. I find lots of pretty pictures to share. But then I read one of the political viewpoints showing how there are people with totally evil and misguided information trying to take over America. A bit difficult to swallow.

Balance? Let's say that I see the error of their ways, and definitely don't want to live again under another tyrant like tRump. I realized today that I could make up any story, a complete lie, and base it upon certain previous lies, and it would be accepted as truth/fact, much as he continues to do.

Well, I didn't see that coming. Politics is part of life these days. More than pretty pictures.

It's amazing how GOP leaders spend all their efforts in denigrating Democrats. They (GOP) don't have any of the positive force left. I'm sad about that, but don't have any energy to engage against them.

When I have a reoccurring fever which seems to give me 2 weeks off, then come back, I have to give my attention to my health. I do wish I had an answer to this. When I feel good I never know when it will come back...there doesn't seem to be a particular cause that I know of, yet. Time for detective health-sleuth!

I dropped by our local "urgent care" on Sat. to get a COVID test...which was again negative. But my lungs were somewhat clouded, and they started me on antibiotics. It's been almost all year since I've taken any, so let's hope these knock out the crud. Then I can think straight again. It's amazing how these little "bugs" eat into one's psyche. I wanted to watch a familiar show that didn't come on till 6 last night. But I forgot which one it was, and played around with all kinds of other shows for about 1/2 hour...then found the one I really liked. Geese...the brain is firing on one cylinder.

I'm grateful that I had 2 weeks of health, and hope it returns soon. Until then, I'm going to be the best sickie that I can be!

The mountains (Rockies) and stage coaches

 Stage coaches in the old west...here's a great link where I found most of the following photos.

Last week I shared this photo of a stage coach in Ouray CO in 1890, in front of the Beaumont Hotel. It's rather civilized looking isn't it?

Beaumont hotel and spa in more recent shot!

Here a toll was collected at Bear Creek Falls, on the way to Silverton from Ouray CO. Silverton was the site of silver mines and a gold rush in the late 1800s. 

The highway in 2019 still follows the creek's canyons.

The Old Circle Route Stage in Ouray CO, 1923. 

The road in the 1890s.

Driver John T. Cormack with stagecoach outside Nederland, CO in 1914

Hudley Stage line to Cripple Creek. Even when trains could move passengers about through the mountains, some places needed the stage coaches still.  Cripple Creek was a gold rush town.

I'll share more stage coach photos and more about Cripple Creek next Saturday!

Link to Sepia Saturday.

Bounty and Soul

 When I go to PT, I park right next to the office of Bounty and Soul. 

They have great big green trucks with food painted on the sides...which go all over the community sharing food from the larger pantry "Manna Food Bank."

Before COVID, they would come to my apartment complex (senior citizens) and give away free produce weekly. It was a highlight of our week often, and a chance to meet our neighbors. We had to stop when meeting indoors was no longer safe, (COVID). They started giving out meals and produce in different settings, keeping up the work of feeding those in need. I think most of these silly vegetable people are volunteers.

Physical Therapy

 Oh, my aching back!

Now I've got exercises to do to help it.

And soon will go back to get more!

Black Mountain Physical Therapy has changed to Phoenix PT. And someone else now has the Black Mountain PT name.  But this is where my favorite therapist works, Cliff Shulman.

I got there early and filled out all the forms. It's hard for me to write these days. Barely finished them in time. I like the simple waiting room.

White Horse, Black Mountain

 Happy December one! Here's another mural in Black Mountain!

The White Horse is a music venue with alcoholic drinks sold as well...the audience sitting at little tables while being entertained.

I've been on the stage when the Sahara Peace Choir entertained. And I've sat in the audience several times to hear some favorite musical performers!