Better days!

It will soon be 2 months since Floyd died. I really miss him at times. We spent most of our time together, so we depended on one another a great deal. I miss talking with him and sharing my feelings with him. Anyway, time goes on and all is well. I am feeling better and as a matter of fact, hospice is cutting me loose; they say I am not sick enough to meet their criteria. So that is certainly all right with me, I don't want to be any sicker than need be.

Christmas is Sunday and seems like it just arriving so soon. I'm not ready!  I am wishing all of you a happy new year and a generally great holiday season. Talk with you all next year; take care of one another.  Hugs, moni xo

Living in Arizona

After my last posting, I ended up in a hospital with yet another heart attack. Story of my life!  I was there for a week, then Stewart convinced me to move to Tucson, Az where he lives.  I have been here for a couple of weeks and everything is going along fine. My daughter Phyllis and her husband Larney moved our furniture and belongings from Deming to Tucson. It was a hard, dirty job, but they did it with no complaints at all, so much hard work.

Stewart has been trying to put things away. His house is really cute, but really small. Next Spring he hopes to be able buy us a larger place so we have room for everything.  He is renting this place from a very nice lady. So many good people out there! I need to mention The Animal Guardians of Deming for finding a home for my old dogs and for my kitty. They fed them and cared for them until they found good homes for them and I will be forever grateful.

So now I am on Hospice. They are wonderful people and make life as easy as is possible. I do not have any pain, and that is a blessing. They provide just about everything anyone would need to be comfortable. My heart is just worn out and can't be fixed any more. Stewart is a great cook, and he provides lots of yummy food for me. I doubt anyone ever had it so good. :-)!

After long last, we are both back online and it is wonderful to be able to talk to all my super facebook friends.  Going to take a nap now, talk with you all later.♥♥

Goodbye Floyd

I buried my sweet hubby last Wednesday. He was such a good guy and I am going to miss him something awful. He wasn't sick all that long and I never thought of losing him until it happened. He had a massive heart attack followed immediately by a stroke caused by a huge blood clot on his brain stem. He fell in the hospital and the doctor said that he was probably dead before he it the floor.

Now I am learning how to live without him. Floyd was my caregiver, so I was so very dependent on him. My children are so smart and they know how to take care of me.The only problem is, I feel like a child and they seem like the adults!  Well, can't be helped, I can do some things, but not too much. My daughter Teresa was here all day yesterday, and she made my lunch, changed the linens on my bed, vacuumed the floor and generally did everything including taking care of the dogs and the cat. Stewart is going to take care of me now; he has just moved here from Tucson. My eldest daughter Phyllis is taking care of all kinds of business matters.  I am a lucky lady!

Today is a truly beautiful sunny day, not too hot, just a perfect Fall day. I wish my sweetie was here with me.

Good News

This morning Floyd and I went to see his doctor so that she could explain his CT Scan. Well there was nothing to explain, his brain was clear of any leakage of any kind. She is a little concerned about his confusion, but she wants to wait to see how he does in the next few weeks. He has a mastoid infection and she hopes the antibiotic will clear up his thinking. His confusion doesn't really bother me so long as there is not a physical component. We all get confused as we age.  Floyd's pain is all gone and the one problem which continues to bother him is the dizziness he experiences when he bends over. We figure that is due to the infection. At any rate, we are so happy to have him back with normal brain function, lol. It may not be optimal brain function, but it will do for us! Take care all and I will keep you posted as to how well the antibiotics are working. 

We took the "city bus" to the docs and then to Walmart to pick up his medication and then home. I mean, that was a bumpy ride but Floyd's doc does not want him to drive. Unless it involves his doctor, I will probably be taking the bus alone.Floyd absolutely did not enjoy taking that bus, lol.

Hope everyone has as good of a day as we have had. We are enjoying a lovely, sunny day and it is so good to be out in our warm sunshine.

Busy month so far!

Well here it is October already. This is an absolutely beautiful month here in SW New Mexico.  Our temps are just perfect. I called our plumber today to make an appointment for him to come out and drain and cover our cooler and to light the pilot light on our heater. The soonest this can be done is Oct. 18, so it is a good thing I called!

Kind of an eventful month. Floyd had a little stroke and has had some difficulty eating and talking.  He is slowly recovering however and that makes me very happy. At first I was really scared. Stewart came from Tucson and stayed three days. Deb and hubby Harold came from SoCal and stayed here a week. Well, they actually stayed at LaQuinta, but they were a great help, bought food and prepared it too. Hauled Floyd off to Las Cruces to have a CT Scan of his brain, and spent time with his doctor. We don't know when it happened, but he was eating dinner one night, last Friday, and he looked at me and said "I seem to have trouble swallowing". I called the ambulance and they took him away to the local hospital where they ran labs on him and then let him come home. His tongue was laying on the bottom of his mouth so his speech was very slurred and he had difficulty eating. He was weak and was unsteady on his feet and complained of neck pain. He kept his head bent over because it hurt for him to straighten up.  Well, his neck is getting less painful and he is able to hold his head up now. He still gets dizzy when he bends over. His labs were excellent, but his lower back had been hurting so the ER staff gave him lots of fluids and his lower back quit hurting, sounds as if his kidneys were the problem and it is easy to get dehydrated. He is carrying around bottled water nowadays and he is actually drinking more water. 


So now neither of us can drive and we are making arrangements with the local senior bus and with the local bus service so we can get around town. Floyd can't drive until the doc says he can and I let my license expire last year. Darn!!!


Hopefully, Floyd will continue to improve so we can take care of things ourselves. It is difficult to be dependent on others and Floyd has trouble with this. I'll keep everyone posted as to his progress.



 

September 2011

This time of year, our local merchants are roasting green chile and selling red chile. Normally, it is a couple of weeks earlier in August, but things are all ready to go now. Roasters are outside of Walmart and Peppers and many folks own their own. I just love the smell of roasting green chile; makes you hungry even if you're not, lol.

September is a good month here, like summer only a little milder with even cooler nights. Seems August was the hotest month on record in the southwest, so a little cooler sure sounds good. Monday is Labor Day, but we don't really have any special plans except it was a good excuse to buy a watermelon, lol. I am the only one who truly loves watermelon, so basically it is all mine.

I sure hope everyone enjoys this last special weekend of summer. After this, we all must hunker down for the cold months. :(

Just maintaining, lol

Well, let's see; earlier this month I sang the blues about being an old person, lot of nerve huh?? So many young people never have the opportunity. I don't know why I was complaining, just having one of those pity parties. Oh btw, my errant grandson added me back to his FB buddies, lol. What's new?? Well, I have lost 30 lbs. over the past 4 months. Actually, it began when we had some bad air move into our area from that Arizona fire and it made me extremely short of breath; I thought there was something awful wrong with me, I mean I just couldn't breathe. I went to see the doc and he had me get a chest xray and determined that it was just the bad air. Our air is normally nice and clear and clean So, he just told me to go home, keep my 02 on and take it easy! Anyway, somewhere along about that time, I really lost my appetite. I needed to lose the weight and I want to lose about 20 lbs more if possible. I just don't do any exercise, so losing weight is difficult. I have been hungry all day, so I guess that is why it is on my mind, lol I know I haven't lost any lbs today!

Otherwise, we are fine. Well, as fine as old folks can be. Today was really hot, the sun was relentless and not a cloud to be found. We have been fortunate to have early evening thunderstorms which cool things down a lot; not the case today. The country is having strange weather. Earthquakes in Virginia/dc area, Tornado warnings in Wisconsin, Hurricane warnings all up the coast to Maryland. Perhaps this Fall will bring some stability to our weather. I have a friend who is vacationing in Germany and says that they are having lovely weather.

Getting about my bedtime, hope everyone is well.

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Being old :(

It seems like these days nobody has any use for us old folks. I mean, we watched a comedy show where at least half of the jokes were at the expense of old folks. We sure make a good target. Before long the "babyboomers" will be aging, and I don't know how they are going to cope. Do you realize that even families don't like the old people in their families. We are kind of expendible and as a matter of fact, I just had a grandson "unfriend" me on Facebook! Who ever heard of such thing? I guess since he doesn't live around us, he feels like, out of sight, out of mind; he is not a teen, he is 27 years old. Well, on the other hand we had a granddaughter and her hubby come from California to visit and they were wonderful. I guess I need to think about the good things and forget the bad. Aging is not fun and it seems not a week goes by that we are coping with something new. All you old people out there know what I am talking about; lots of little things.

Here in our neck of the woods, school begins this month. Back to school sales, etc., I was always use to school starting in September, and August seems awfully early, but then again, the kids get out earlier in the Spring. Can you believe that next month is Fall? Wow, time sure flies!

Guess I am through with bitching and whining, lol. Trying to keep positive thoughts going here.

Chicago

When I was 17 years old, I took a greyhound bus from St. Louis, Mo. to Chicago, Il. This was in 1952. I spent a wonderful summer in Chicago. I found a nice little efficiency apartment on N. Clark, about 5 short blocks from the Lake. You could go on the roof of the apartment building and watch the boats on Lake Michigan. Always a nice breeze so near the Lake. I think I walked on every street that was fit to walk on. I walked as far north as the far Northside of Evanston, and as far south as the neighorhood appeared safe. I found both ball parks, walked every step of Lincoln Park and the zoo. I caught the El and rode all over the city. What a wonderful experience for a young girl to be alone and free to explore such a town. Needless to say, I fell in love with the city. I walked north and south on Sheridan Avenue with LSD always within my sights. I went to the Navy Pier, walked the Gold Coast, and went to Soldier's Field. It is a wonder my legs didn't fall off, lol. I enjoyed walking and it sure was a good thing. I found an abundance of "neighborhoods
", and once found a small neighborhood consisting of people from the State of Tennesee, lol. I walked Michigan Avenue from north to south and love walking across the bridges on the Chicago River, what a sight to see those big ocean tankers coming right through the heart of the city; the bridges would raise to let them through. I loved the food of Chicago which for me was mostly hot dogs or "red hots" as they were called. At 17, the city made quite an impression on me; I loved every inch of it, museums and all.Do you have memories of a special place??
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June, 2011

Seems that I am only blogging once per month. I didn't plan it that way, but oh well. I think it is all due to Facebook. I can keep in touch much better with friends via Facebook, so blogging takes a back seat plus, I just don't have that much news. My computer has been acting up for the past two weeks, off and on and I was pretty sure it was my modem, but no, just my phone. I switched from Vonage back to Qwest (unlimited long distance and calls=
$5.00 per month) and, no contract! Guess they are determined to compete with Vonage.

What else?? One of our grandchildren is coming to visit next month from California, Jennifer and hubby Jim..sure wish them a good trip. Oh yes, received a nice birdhouse in the mail from son Stewart in Tucson. He made it for me.:) Floyd hung it up in front so we can see it from our front porch and I expect the birds to love it.

It is just now summertime and we love it. We have a swamp cooler, no A/C, and it is very inexpensive to operate; works really good in this desert heat.

Locally, things are humming right along. The new truck lane at the border crossing is nearly completed, the wind farm and the solar voltaic facilities are being built, just enough to keep our economy and work force stable.

Tomorrow is shopping day and luckily I found a bottle with some nitros in it in my purse, it helps sometimes when I have to walk a lot. I would drive one of those carts they have at walmart, but my vision,(or lack thereof), would have me running into things!

Floyd got the grapes planted and they are looking good. They were bare-root stock and I ordered them online from Missouri, so they all have leaves now, which means they have taken root. No peaches or plums this year courtesy of a late freeze, boo!

I hope you all enjoy your summer. I am watching the Casey Anthony trial on tv and I am hooked like most people are who follow the court trials.

May, 2011

It has been so windy and dry around here. Every day we get "red flag alerts" which means dry and subject to fires. We haven't had even one drop of rain all this year; and the midwest has way more rain than they need. Mother Nature sure is strange!

Nothing much new going on around here. I have ordered some Marquis Grape vines to plant to replace some of the nice green vines that we had and were destroyed by that awful deep freeze we had in February. Otherwise, most of our desert cacti and succulants are doing fine. I was worried about our ocotillo, but is has turned green and looks great.

Mother's Day was great around here, none of the kids were here, but Stewart sent me a cash gift and bought me a nice big chocolate cake with red roses on top and it said "Happy Mother's Day Mom"..delicious. Teresa sent me some chocolate covered strawberries which I dearly love and Phyllis sent me a large houseplant which I truly needed because all my other ones were killed. So it was a happy time for me. I enjoyed talking online with some dear old friends from many years ago. Time changes us all, but it is so good to talk to people that once played such an important part in my life. When I say "talk", I really mean writing on Facebook. I dearly cherish all my Facebook friends.

April and NO showers

March went by quickly for us. February was a short calendar month, but seemed to us to last forever. April is going pretty good so far. We need rain in the worst possible way. Daily the weather bureau gives us fire alerts because of the wind and very low humidity. I love the sunshine, but our region is a tenderbox, just waiting for something to start a fire. New Mexico is having some fires not too far from here, one in the Gila and one over in the Ruidoso area. I don't think that Luna county has had a drop of rain this year.

Nothing new to report. Kids and grandkids appear to be doing well. Grandson Nicholas will begin studying at VCU in the Fall. He is such an artistic talent, and I know he will do well. Everyone else is just busy working and making life best as they can. Son Stewart has moved to a new location in Tucson and I am anxious to see some pictures!

We are well, pops and me. I'm having a little arthritis pain, but so what? Just a couple of otc pain pills work just fine. Haven't been blogging much because really I haven't any real news. We are enjoying our kitty very much. We have always had dogs and this little cat is such fun, hungry all the time. I think she is spoiled because she can do no wrong.

Wishing you all a happy Springtime. Hubby is still trimming the dead stuff off many of our shrubs due to that awful deep freeze we had in February. I hear that the freeze killed off over half of the Palm trees, here and in Las Cruces. It is recommended that the palm trees that we all plant be California Fan palms instead of the faster growing Mexican Palms. Live and learn the hard way huh? Some of those trees were 40-50 years old.

Hawk was here today!

We had a "sharp-shinned hawk" come visiting and was sitting on our fence. They are year 'round residents, but we have never seen one that close to us, it could see us sitting on the porch! We think the many small birds that came to eat our birdseed, was the attraction. However, it may have been it's intention, but the small birds just took off immediately when the hawk arrived. It was unnerving for us to see a bird of prey so near our doors.

Our temp is to be 82F here today. Spring is official this Sunday but it has been "springlike" for a couple of weeks now. Our fruit trees are in bloom and hubby just went to Walmart to get some fertilizer for them. He has fertilized the roses already. So many of our shrubs look awful after that deep freeze last month. We just don't know if we can save any of them.

Nothing new happening here, and that is indeed good news. Take care all and enjoy your Spring!

March 2011

I really hope that this month is better than last month! February was the pits. We had that horrible deep freeze that killed much of the local flora. Also our town had frozen water pipes of epic proportions, every other home had some water damage. We were without running water for 7 days total. So I am glad that is done and over with and then my computer modem (qwest) went down and I had to send it off for repairs. I guess I thought they could just repair it online, but no and worse yet, I sent it to a wrong address and it was sent back and then I had to resend it. I hope the rest of this month shapes up. Our weather forecast shows 70s and upward all next week so thank goodness for that. My telephone is vonage and it has also been OFF since it is dependent on my internet connection. I went out a bought a little tracfone and am having trouble activating it, don't know why. You know, life gets much harder when you get older..that is all I can say about that.

So anyway, I sure hope life has been better for the rest of you. I see that my friend Lyn was having water problems;( but who hasn't. Have good days people and enjoy Springtime!!!!

January 2011

This picture is just a little part of my Cherokee heritage, my great grandfather on my mother's side was a full blooded Cherokee. Although, the Cherokees don't care much for bloodlines, mostly they follow geneology via names.

We are in the middle of January and one thing I can say, winter has been on the mild side. Our elevation gives us very cold nights, otherwise it would be like Fall in most parts of the country. We are looking at about 10 days of 60+ - 70+ weather, very nice. I am due to receive some books from my bookclub, and I plan to sit outside and read my books, fun time!

I have been watching "In-Session" on tv lately. I am fascinated by the trial currently underway where the Arab doctor murdered his Italian-American wife by lacing her calcium caps with cyanide.:(

Otherwise, all is about the same here. I'm a little concerned about Floyd's memory, think I had better talk with his doctor about it. Which reminds me, our best friends David and Betty Watson have left for Fresno, CA where they will live with one of David's grandsons. Apparently this grandson really wants them there and has the room and funds to be able to care for them. Betty has Alzheimer's and David has lung cancer, so, crap happens with us old folks. Makes me want to cry but David is tough and I have no doubt that if this doesn't work out, he will just make other arrangements.

I am looking forward to this coming week and the milder weather. I always love the sunshine.