Picture for Al in Bayfield

I'm in MN and saw a local solution(?) to the squirrel in the feeders war.
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I'm in MN

Mom and I got to my Aunt's place. There are a couple of stories, but I don't want to go into it right now. Forgetting about the second hour of time change when looking at radar and planning to out run a storm by less than an hour makes for an exciting trip.

I got into my friends' place about an hour ago and am soon to be fed. I'll stay here for a few days and then go back to MO and visit more with family before heading back to AZ.

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Plans and Progress

It is a cold, rainy day here.  I have the furnace cranked up.  This is better than 100* days.  Mom and I are heading back East at the end of this week.  Mom is already packed.  I'm getting there.  A neighbor is going to feed Bosley.  I have a couple of cases of his food already here, and I got 7 gallons of filtered water from the water kiosk today.  He should be good to go.  I also have a newly opened box of litter for the fancy automatic litter box.  I'm clearing and cleaning the motor home.  Laundry was done yesterday, hand laundry is drying as I type.  What few important or valuable (to me) things I have are being put into the storage unit while I'm gone.

The progress is that the car will be packed with 'good stuff' to take to younger cousins.  A nice set of dishes that are too big to use in the RV, some of my smaller professional clothes, a few art supplies I'll never get around to using going to one of my cousins who is showing a lot of art talent.  It is a start, and a cut deeper into my stuff in storage.  A younger friend here asked why I'm spending so much time getting going through my stuff and getting rid of things rather than doing 'fun' stuff with my time.  I guess the answer is that this is what I feel I need to do right now.  A bunch of fancy skin care stuff I haven't used since I quit working hit the trash last week.  Other expired things are following suit.  It feels like progress.

Breaking Radio Silence

I'm up in my summer spot.  I was immediately knocked to my knees with allergies for the first time in my life.  I blew my nose non-stop for 2 weeks and it took me awhile to get over all the allergy medicine I took trying to control the symptoms.  I have never had to take any of that stuff before.  Anyway, then I had to get back to doing all the stuff that I had not been doing for 3 weeks.  I'm almost back to what passes for normal for me.

I'm doing this post from Blogger rather than email (my preferred way since Live Journal died) as I'm going to have to do some major renovation of my blog.  Photobucket has locked me out of being able to deleted the pictures down to the number they allow in a free account.  I'm going to upload the pictures from May of 2009, when I learned how to insert pictures, until I started using Live Journal which put the pictures in the post without the Photobucket middle man.  Most folks started reading after Live Journal, but my Honduras pictures will have to be re-inserted.  I have the pictures, I just have to get them back into the blog.

It is difficult for me to go back and read my blog.  I have a lot of less than optimal lifestyle decisions going on in there.  I ended up ok, but boy, was it painful at times.  I guess that is the good/bad of having a blog for over 10 years.  I need to get the pictures thing sorted  before June 1 when the pictures become blurred unless I pay them ransom.

Necessity is the Mother

Mom is down to help me move my motorhome up to my summer spot. In preparation for the move, I have been taking a lot of the clutter out of the motorhome and putting it into storage. When it came time to make coffee for Mom I not only didn't have the smaller coffee maker, I didn't have any of the large tumbler's my coffee maker requires. Shown is my solution to get a regular cup up high enough to not splash all over while the coffee drips into the mug. I normally use that plastic tub to catch drips when I first take the tumbler out from under the basket. Multipurpose. And I hadn't even had my own coffee yet.

We both went to LensCrafters yesterday and got eye exams and ordered new glasses. They will be in sometime next week, and we will make a trip back down to get them. We have also eaten at a couple of restaurants along the way. I won't need a large meal for a few days

Once I get going I'll start the prep to move the RV up the road and Mom will follow me in her car. My car is already up there. Then I can settle in for the summer.

Norma

Norma Randle July 27, 1942 - March 24, 2019

That was copied from Croft's blog where he announced that his life partner, Norma, died yesterday.  I really have no words to express how I feel.  Norma and Croft came into my life during a time when I was pretty lost.  Norma scooped me up and made me feel like family.  Her no nonsense attitude was just what I needed on a regular basis.  I was hoping that I would see them this summer, planning on seeing if I could come to them if they were again not coming down here to AZ.  I have a lot of questions I want to ask her about everything from fashion for my over-60 self to deeper life questions.

Please keep Croft and the rest of Norma's family in you thoughts.

I seem to have lost my blog voice

I think of things I'd like to write about, but I stop before I get to a computer or the phone to actually write and post.  Maybe I've met too many people in real life who read my blog.  This isn't just some writing I lob into the blogosphere with no repercussions any more.  I think about some who I feel will judge me.  Then again, I don't tend to spend much time worrying about folks that don't think I measure up, so I don't know why that would be a factor.  I go through low energy times during transition, and this is definitely a time of transition.  I'm in the process of having the Class A worked on tomorrow, and then on the 1st I'll move to my spot in Payson.

It seems that a lot of people I know, or relatives of close friends, are having major health issues.  Every time I turn around it seems that I'm hearing of someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer or other health issues.  I keep these folks in my thoughts, and so far the ones I've heard about lately are on an upward swing.  Then my friend Mike calls me and his younger brother has just been diagnosed with brain cancer.  Mike lost his best friend to brain cancer about the time I was going through my breast cancer operation and radiation.  After awhile it becomes a lot to process.

Norma, of Croft and Norma, is going through radiation.  I keep her in my thoughts.  Jim Dixon seems to have finally gotten his issues straightened out.  I became worried about him when he wouldn't even eat ice cream.  I need to check that he actually has finished the container that I know was in their freezer.  Favorite Neighbor, who is in her 90's, just had major surgery, and has another surgery this Thursday.  So far she is doing well.  Hopefully this will fix the issues that were starting to paralyze her, ongoing issues from the fall she took a few years ago.

I'm looking forward to being camped in my spot in Payson with all getting back right in my world.  In good news Mom feels better than she has in over a year.  Today is her 88th birthday.  I'll take all the good news I can get.

Tom Mix Monument

I'm heading down to tour Biosphere 2. The Tom Mix Memorial is on Hwy 79 south of Florence, AZ. I've never been this way before and decided it was worth a stop. It is overcast, and a storm is expected tonight or tomorrow. Everything is green from the previous rains. It is good to get out for a day.

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Snow on the Superstitions

Update

Mom lost power around 6:45pm last night  She had had an earlier emergency text that it might happen, so had turned up her thermostat so it was warm in her apartment.  I monitored the outage map and by 10pm it no longer showed the outage.  She called this morning and said the electricity had come on about twenty minutes before 10.  She is fine, other than just the shear amount of snow outside her window.  She said the line of cars in the parking lot looks like just one long snowbank.  The folks trying to clear the walks yesterday while it was still snowing broke their snowblower, and there are none left to rent in town.  All the roads in and out of Payson are closed due to snow.  Hopefully this will all melt over the next 2 days or so.  The temperature hovers around freezing, so it should warm up some soon.

I'm fine.  Still a dreay, drizzly day outside.  I'm warm and dry.  Bosley is fine as long as he gets fed.