Doctoring - again! 06-05-24

This is not a long post because I  need to take a shower and get to bed.  Tomorrow morning at 7am my driver will pick me up for the drive to the Hoag Surgery Unit at Sand Canyon off  of  the I-5.   I need to be clean for another spinal injection for sciatica.  The last one was a year ago in June  2023 and it lasted about ten  months.   Slowly over the last two months the pain has become  increasingly worse, but getting an  appointment is always a  problem these days.   I first called mid-April and now we are into June!  Next time I will call the minute I feel a twinge!   It isn't  a humungous procedure,  takes about an hour and then I am home again  with no restrictions.  

All  the hospitals or surgical centers I have visited in the last five years have fabric  curtains with calm designs.  Decades ago when I visited such places they were all heavy plastic.  Good change. 

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Just a flower day 06-04-24

 

And my favorite -  the rose "Brandy".

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Cleaning out! 06-03-24

I have never  been  much of a housekeeper, not something I learned when I was growing  up.  But over the years I have read the articles and listened to the housecleaning gurus  and always  managed  to keep at  least a decent house.  But being a widow, living alone (KoKo doesn't care) everything has gotten away from me.  Now that I am feeling better and the bi-weekly  fitness is improving my strength, I will slowly start to clear out the piles and boxes of old papers and "stuff" in the office/library/computer room.  Last week the offices of my financial advisors held their annual shredding day so their clients could dispose of old files. I  took four full file boxes and hardly made a dent in my piles.  

 

Almost cleaned out one end of the room. I did not go through the files.  I haven't looked at those papers  in decades, nothing there I need. These empty boxes are available to fill with all the papers in the two four-drawer filing cabinets.   Those  I  will  need to sort through the papers -  groan.

And then there are the three bookcases crammed with books I have already read, photo albums of guild events and pictures of quilts, and a lot of doodads and whatnots from years gone by.    

I'm going to work at this when I have the energy and the will power.   I'll let you know when I have accomplished this goal.  Probably by the holiday season!!

And I will need someone to carry the boxes to the car.  Those four boxes nearly killed me. Good that the shredders unloaded them at the site.  

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Friday Food 05-31-24

 Somehow spring time is always salad time for me.  Although I do eat salads all year, they seem more appealing as the weather warms up and the landscape is green and also colorful with flowers.  Here are some memorable lunch salads.

Although Fitness Grill has changed to Versie, the menu is basically the same. I frequently order the salmon salad which is always simply delicious.  Other than scallops I rarely cook seafood at home, so often order it at restaurants. 

Several years ago there was a fad of stuffing the salad in a tall glass and then  upending it  on t he plate; a sort  of  salad tower; this one was at Bowers Museum restaurant.   Very tasty, but one had to flatten it out to eat it. 

Here is a crab salad in an interesting combination.  Don't recall the restaurant. 

Here is a made-at-home salad.  Celery, avocado, oranges,  banana,  dried cranberries, chopped toasted pecans, lactose free cottage cheese.   Not yet added, a drizzle of Brianna's Poppy seed dressing.  

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Twenty years ago - June 2004 05-30-24

The yearning for a road trip is getting me down,  but I cannot go right now, maybe in late June.   These phots are from June 2004 when I was driving cross country and wandered off the main highway.  Nice to stop and look around and take some photos.   Not sure where I was, could be the very top NW corner of Texas or New Mexico.  Lots of wild, wide open country there. 

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Wordless Wednesday 05-29-24

 

Second bloom - today.

First Bloom - early April.

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Memorial Day 05-27-24

Although no member of my family died in war, my Uncle Gordan was in the Navy stationed in the Aleutians during WWII.  But as a child my family always took flowers to the cemetery for our relatives and friends buried there.  There were always lilacs, iris, daffodils, privet leaves, and Douglas fir branches.  Those are the ones I can remember, anyway.  I loved the mausoleum that has a great curving staircase and marble all around.   I decided that I would get married there and come sweeping down in my long white dress!  What did I know about weddings!

Flower field near Lompoc, CA.  The only way to see it is from the air.  I suppose this photo was taken with a drone.  Wish I could see it  -  from an airplane! 

Along a secondary road in Kansas on Memorial Day, 2011.  I was surprised to find the road lined on both sides with these large flags.  It was a rather rural area with a very small town nearby. 

 

In 2018 I was on the  road again on Memorial Day.  I was hard pressed to find an open restaurant in Yreka, CA, and ended up here at Jefferson's Roadhouse. Food was good, not many people. 

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