Walk Day

I took off bright and early because it is still quite warm. A cool front is on its way and tomorrow we are promised a high in the 60's. 68, I believe. Whoo hoo! We can turn off the air and open the windows. What a treat! The moon was full as I started out this morning and I kept looking for a good picture and I found one.

At the place on the trail this photo was taken is a home that many people think "something" should be done. It is very cluttered with all kinds of yard art. In past years it was cluttered but tidy. Apparently, the creator of this art is no longer able to take care of it as well as in years past. I appreciated the opportunity to get this arty photo.

Miss Elise 

Little Leo is returning to Preschool and Miss Elise is in 1st grade!

I like thistles. I think they are beautiful...in their natural habitat.

My morning ride

It was foggy this morning so decided no on picture taking. Did see a total of 5 deer. Momma and two fawns in one sighting and Momma and one fawn in another. They were a few miles apart.
The trail is still twig-littered from the last storm so I must pay attention or deal with a bumpy ride.
It was pleasant and cool although a bit damp. Morning is my favorite time to ride or walk. It starts the day off right.So now on to laundry!

Full Moon Last night

Leo sent me this picture taken last night. When I got up during the night I noticed the neighborhood was well lit by moonlight. Beautiful.

Too busy living...

I had to go back and find out where I left off. Sunday, sister Theresa,niece Karla and Butch and I went out to Roger Conant's farm for an annual Zimmerle gathering. My mother was the youngest of seven Zimmerle's. Roger was married to my cousin Sherry. Roger still hosts a gathering for that side of his family. Joanna , his daughter, helps him with all of it. It was a great time visiting with cousins. The original seven, the children of John and Myrtle Zimmerle are all gone now but when the cousins were all small getting together at Grandma Z's in Herndon was not all that unusual. A great time was enjoyed then and now.

Monday must have been quite mundane because I do not remember much of it. I did have one computer student Monday evening. She has been coming for a few weeks now. I really like working one on one.

Yesterday Butch and I went to West DesMoines to get a new battery put in my phone.We dropped the phone off then went to Costco while Chuck worked his magic. When we returned Chuck told me it was a good thing I had the battery changed because it was bulging and would not have lasted much longer. He said he thought it was bulging because it was thicker than the new one. He also assured me I had bought the right one. An assistant of his also cleaned up excess apps and other stuff I didn't want or need that may have helped my phone run slower. So it is now behaving like a much younger phone.

It also was brought home to me that you can not always tell what someone looks like by listening to them on the phone. Chuck may or may not be a nerd but he looked like a well-dressed, well-groomed businessman, wearing dress slacks, shirt and tie and closer to my age than I imagined him to be. I was impressed with his knowledge and the way the business was run. When I am ready for a new phone I will be paying them another visit. I called several Verizon stores looking for a tech to put a new battery in before I remembered Chuck. And before you think replacing an internal battery in a phone is easy, rest assured it is not. I think Chuck is a rarity in the phone repair business. I now have his number in my phone under Chuck Phonefixer.

Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer
Cell Phone Store
Address: 5010 Mills Civic Pkwy, West Des Moines, IA 50265
Phone:(515) 225-7169

Sunlight on dew

Keri and I went for a walk this morning and that could be considered the highlight of my day. The sunlight was glistening off the dew drops on the Pampas grass flags. Had to take a stab at capturing the look.

I came home and made some banana nut bread to make use of a couple of overripe bananas. The age old argument of a rescue or few more pounds continues. Somedays I win and some days I lose. I do not think that when I die they will say, "She was hot and sexy right up to the end." So why? That ship sailed a long time ago, in fact, it may have never existed. I say that cheerfully and with great relief.

The Olympics are dominating the TV at our house and some of you are very enthusiastic about them and completely understand why that would be the case. Binge watching sports of any kind are way down the list of my warmest desires.
So lots of thumb twiddling has been taking place for me. This too shall pass.

Sooo... I think I will go out and pull some weeds.

Next pics from the trippers

Greer's Ferry dam

Lunch

Storm, Rain, trivia and Bike trail

It rained on the day before yesterday-1.2 inches. and then last night the skies  dumped 2.7 inches. We were at the HyVee Market Cafe playing trivia with a group of friends. We came in second. We enjoy it. Butch didn't think he would so he surprised himself. However, while we were playing the skies opened wide and dumped on us! We had a front row seat for the storm.
This morning I checked out radar to see if it was okay to ride the trail. It looked clear enough so I went. The trail was littered with twigs, leaves and other tree trash. I decided I would ride till I was stopped or I reached the end of my route, whichever came first. The first obstacle was at the entrance to the big river bridge so I stop my bike and cleared the trail. It was not a big branch but just enough to be hazardous to a fast rider. No pic for this one. I walked across the bridge and remounted on the other side. This is the next minor blockage.

The next one was from the top of a dead tree. It was a tall tree but only the top fell on the trail.

 And then we have the deer who are becoming very unafraid. I talked to them I asked them nicely to not run in front of me when I passed by. They were frozen.

 Finally they moved.

So I thought I shall continue until I have to get off my bike again for any kind of issue and it was not too far up the trail when I encountered the next one.

So I decided I had better things to do than clear the trail so this is where I turned around. Even then it was like an obstacle course getting back to Jefferson. 

Trippers

The trippers had breakfast at the BIG Chicken!

Family Pics from trippers

Leo sent Keri some pictures he took while they were visiting Don. And here they are!

Bernard Kelley

Bernard and Don

Don Brooker

Marlene Kelley

Butch's Doctor appt.

Butch had his appointment with his hand surgeon today. He is scheduled for carpal tunnel and trigger finger release surgery ( left hand) on August 26th. He cannot drive for 10 to 12 days after that so I told him we would not be going very far.
His right-hand surgery will be waiting till next Spring.

Wednesday morning walk

Today was a walking day and I was feeling it. Very high humidity. Most of the time if I have an ache or pain I can walk it out. I could this morning but it took about 3/4 of a mile. Low back pain. I had a broken back ( 3 vertebrae) when I was 13 so I suppose it should not be too much of a surprise that old Arthur kicks me in the backside on occasion. It strikes me that it is worse on humid days.
 I started my walk at 6:00am. The sun had not yet risen but it was light out.

These are today's trail pics.

Tree Bones

 Sunrise 1

 Sunrise 2

 Sunrise 3

And then there are the black rabbits. I had heard they existed but had not seen them til today. Apparently, they are escapees. They look healthy and happy!

 Located at the east end of Madison street

Family Time

Leo, Marlene, and Bernard are going on a mini-vacation to Arkansas. They will stop on the way to see Don and then on down to see Bill and Jo in Heber Springs AR. Marlene and Bernard came down to 209 Main in Paton and met the rest of us for supper. Bernard went to Paton school through 8th grade so the town holds a few memories for him.We then went back to Leo and Keri's place, watched the Olympics for a  bit.
On their stop at Don's place in Fairway KS, Leo snapped this photo of Marlene and Don and I snipped it from Facebook. Thanks Leo!

Photo's from supper time.

  Keri and Bernard discussing...

                           Marlene and Butch

Leo and Keri

 

Missed photos

This photo is a favorite of mine. I may have posted it before. Not sure. It was taken south of Jefferson about 4 miles on the bike trail.

This one may have been taken the same morning. They are doing the prep work for another paved crossing on the bike trail. They will curve it for a dual purpose. By curving the path it makes bikers slow down and it also places the biker at a better angle to see both directions.

Story about a phone.

My phone has been losing power. The battery lasts about 2-3 hours. It is on the charger more than it is off. Now to back up a bit, I had a problem with a phone a couple of years ago. That was when I learned that if your phone goes completely black and does not seem to respond, hold the buttons on the back down for at least 30 seconds and it will come back like magic. But this is a different problem. When I had the previous problem the helpful person at the Perry Verizon store told me about Chuck. She said Chuck can fix anything so if the 30-second thing doesn't work, call Chuck. I remembered that.
 So smarty that I am, I figured how hard can it be to swap out a battery. I can buy a replacement battery on Amazon for $9.95 free shipping. Then I go to Youtube for directions on swapping it out. That brought me up short.  And I learned it can be quite intimidating.
Then I remembered Chuck. This morning I called Perry and was lucky enough to get the same person who told me about Chuck to begin with. She gave me the phone number and said be sure to ask for Chuck. I was very lucky. Chuck answered the phone!
I said, "I have purchased a replacement battery for my phone but now I am intimidated about putting it in the phone." He said, "Oh, you do not want to do that!" "Bring it to me and I will do it for $20."  He works in a Verizon store in DesMoines.  I think I am going to like Chuck. I did find out you do not joke with Chuck. I was and I could tell he wasn't "getting it". I think Chuck might be the best kind of nerd. All business!

Looked back

I looked back at some pictures and realized several days were missing from my journal/Blog. As an aside, I do refer back to entries when I need to remember things.
Friday, Butch, Karla, and I went on the Highway 141 garage sale. This is an 80 mile long garage sale from Grimes Iowa to Manning Iowa. We have done it before and we never last the 80 miles

We do 18 miles both directions. And that is plenty! We start at Hwy 4 south of Jefferson and this year we went west to Bayard and then back east to Jamaica for a tenderloin at ToJos' and then east to Dawson and back to Hwy 4, stopping at all the garage sales along the way and there are plenty of them

 The photo below was taken at one of the last stops we made. We made several purchases and I planned to take a picture of our booty but ran out of "want to". Suffice it say we did not spend much but took home plenty!

 
Saturday Butch headed out to Omaha to do an electrical project for Emily and Joe. Emily is Leo and Keri's youngest daughter. So I had some alone time. I made good use of it with housecleaning and a bit of shopping. Anymore it takes both of us to get any one-person job done so being apart is a challenge for both of us.
Below are this morning's trail pics. A walking day.

This is an ornamental grass I wish I knew the name.

The dew was sparkling on the pampas grass this morning.

Colleen- a stacker of rocks

My friend Colleen is on a cruise- a long cruise- she said she would be away from home for 35 days. That sounds way too long for me but she is seeing some amazing sights.
From Colleen:
'Colleens' by Colleen on a fjord near Einsfjord, Norway, a place I had to hike about 2 miles to -- up a slight incline and down a steep one. Water like glass, a beach  kinda rocky . . . the best kind, of course, for rock stackers. Many folks were  building them, including the fellow, and Asian from Portland, who took my pic and sent it to me.

Brooker's uniform

Leo stopped by the other day because the family of Butch's former softball team had brought by Butch's old uniform.  Butch tried it on and thought it fit him just fine. I thought it looked tight in places it never was before. It used to have plenty of room for complete freedom of movement. Not so much anymore.
For those who do not know, Butch pitched fast-pitch softball for many years.

Went to the doctors and the doctors said...

First appointment was with an allergist. I have a had a nasal drip ever since we returned from Texas and before. I was tested for allergies. The verdict is in and I do not have allergies! I have what is called Vasomotor or non-allergic rhinitis. Something of unknown origin can trigger it and may not go away once contracted. So now I have a prescription nasal spray and I am hoping to get rid of this tickle in my throat and naggy little cough.

And the second appointment was because of a bump on my thumb. It is a new bump. Doesn't hurt at all and wouldn't worry me at all but it is new. At least I think it is new. No worry here either. It is a ganglion. I am familiar with ganglions from working in the doctors office years ago. It may or may not go away on its own but doesn't hurt or bother so no problem.

Both visits were reassuring. Seems I need more of that these days!

This morning's 2.63 mile walk was hard! It was 73 degrees at 6:00 am with 74 percent humidity. I felt like I was walking through warm soup. We have a heat advisory. Butch is antsy to get the mowing done but it goes away as soon as he goes outdoors for a minute.

Our squirrels do not trust us or they do not like ice water. Maybe both! I put an ice block in the satellite dish and the squirrels will not go near it. They are curious and check it out delicately but that is all. The little wimps!!

Deer follow up

The DNR guy called me and talked to me for quite awhile. He said deer are very resilient and related stories of deer being shot and the hunter finding it with an arrow through its neck that had long since healed. He said he saw a Mama deer with three legs and her injury was completely healed and yet she gave birth to triplets and raised them up. And if the little ones are old enough to drink water and eat grass (they were) that they will be just fine. So we can all rest easier and hope for the best.

Foggy morning

I finally got a ride in this morning. I missed the last two mornings due to morning storms. This morning it was fog-lots of fog but I didn't let that stop me. I go at 6:30 so there are not a lot of people out and about at that time, cutting down on my chances of getting hit. The visibility was 1/4 mile at best and in places, it was about 30 feet!

They had the cross country kids (I assume) on the trail this morning and for some reason, they seem to think they had a priority. Very, very few seemed to think they had to make way for me. I successfully bluffed them out. It made me irritated that I needed to bluff them out! I was thinking if one of those Lance Armstrong wannbes had come by he would have wiped out a few kids. I would have offered first aid and used my phone to call 911 while I chewed on the ones who didn't get hit! The coaches should have had a short talk about trail etiquette before letting the dogs out. End of rant.