Happy Spring!

 Thank you for the get well wishes from South Church! I got the card a couple of days ago and yes, the forwarded mail does take that long to reach me. Your get well wishes worked, I am fine!

I know that I'm a bit late for the Spring good wishes but I've been trying to keep hydrated. We have had weeks of hotter than normal weather. Yesterday and today we were at 101 F. Many heat records have been broken. Altogether now, it's a DRY heat and it's true today with only 6% humidity.

With the warmer weather, the desert changes in many ways. The cacti bloom as does the "human planted" flowers and citrus trees. (And the oleander hedges, bougainvillea, olives, etc. You get the idea.) Consequently, I am constantly bemoaning the fact that I do not have stock in kleenex.

For the past two nights, the local news has had a "It's springtime and the warmer than usual weather means the rattlesnakes are out to warm in the sun" feature story. Are these people farking crazy?! Who is going hiking in 100 plus degrees? 

And they are saying, 'You will hear the snake first. Just step around him.' I'm guessing if these people are out hiking (probably with only 4 ounces of water), they are also playing with their phone, checking their email or some other necessary thing. And the other major point, besides avoiding the snake (duh!) is this: remain calm, especially if bitten. Okaaay ... the chance of my remaining calm is about the same as my chances of being hiking on a mountain. Can you say zero?

Yes, it is true, my flight to Bradley is April 8th. I will miss Coachella by two days since it starts on April 10th. That's the rock concert(s) where thousands of people descend on the area to hear good music outdoors. (Last year, Taylor Swift was in the audience as a guest, not a performer.) It's always very hot and dusty, so I'm hoping it cools off a bit at least. 

Some people pay thousands of dollars to CAMP out on the grounds. Now that is my idea of hell. You zillions of people roaming around your tent day and night, the music (three stages I think, not sure) until 11 p.m., you have to know where the bathrooms are, and if you didn't bring enough water, it probably costs you $6 or more per bottle. Ugh. Coachella is followed by Stagecoach which is country and western music the following week. It's smaller but the locals are pretty stressed out with the traffic. Luckily, Palm Springs is on the outskirts so the people who stay in the hotels here are well heeled and have hired cars to transport them (Uber, Lyft, etc.).  

Since I have not really been out and about taking pictures, you will have to make do of "file footage" of a sunrise. This is taken from Mom's front door. The pool is on the right.

No, there's no snow on the mountains! 

I send you good wishes and happy thoughts. Today's Friday lunch is at Taco Asado and I'm looking forward to the salad in the edible bowl. There's enough for both lunch and supper so I don't have to worry about supper. It's summertime and the livin' is easy. (Okay, I know it's only spring but I've got the Porgy and Bess song in my head.) Cheers!

At a Loss for Words

 Yeah, I know -- I' m never at a loss for words. But ... real life is heavy, man, heavy. So I'll just go with my little narcissistic bubble.

On Saturday, February 8th, I went to help out at a quilting notions sale in Palm Desert. My typical back pain escalated so much that I left after only an hour instead of the two hours I had planned on. By 7:30 p.m. our good friend and angel, Eric, was depositing me at the ER. From there I spent 12 hours on a gurney in the hallway. Finally in a room, I had an elderly roommate (I can hear my mother's voice saying, 'You are elderly you know,') with dementia. I felt badly for her, but her loud arguments with the staff and her son were very upsetting, especially coupled with the other dementia patient screaming down the hall. The noise in the hallway was incredible. I was jangled.

I don't know on what day, maybe day 3, they moved me to a single room which was heaven. By then, however, I was with it enough to realize that I had someone waking me about every 15 minutes at night. I hadn't eaten since some toast at Noon on Saturday and they weren't letting me have even ice chips. I was thirsty! An I V of fluid isn't the same as a drink of water. It turns out they were trying to knock down an infection in the gall bladder so they didn't know when they could do the surgery. Thus nothing by mouth. Every time an I V bag emptied, they put on another one. On Feb. 12th, they took out my gall bladder. I was discharged on February 14. 

View at sunset from the good room.

I have made a new friend with Kevin, who was my home health aide for three days. He's an all around good helper if anyone local in the desert needs his services. He even carried my purse for me, noting that it was not in keeping with his color scheme. 

I want to thank everyone for your get well wishes and prayers. Thank you!!

Yesterday Cricket helped me ALL DAY bundling and labeling fabric pieces for a sale on March 7th. I couldn't have done it without her. Each piece of fabric had to be measured and each size was tied with a certain color of toule. The color indicated the price. This is how many we did.

We had a bit of a windy time on February 18 and 19. On the photo below you can see one of the many piles of palm tree "trash" that fell down.

Lots of fruit came down in the high winds.

On February 25th, Cricket and I went to El Paseo Drive in Palm Desert. This is equivalent to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. In other words, the baskets in one gallery were $1500. and one restaurant featured caviar and chips for $120. But we were on a mission to go to the Winston Pie shop for their opening day and then onto Mole, an upscale Mexican restaurant. We brought 3 mini pies home to taste and share. We had apple, cowboy (it was like a brownie with a fudgy center), and dark cherry. I really liked the cherry because it wasn't very sweet. But we were surprised when Cricket found a cherry pit. Luckily, she did not break a tooth. Later, after supper, Mom found another cherry pit! Again, thank God, she did not break a tooth. That was two pits in a mini pie about 4.5" across.

I wrote an email and they offered me and my friend a free latte. And the spokesperson said in her email, 'That's why we label the boxes, you may find a pit.' I took a picture of the box and it wasn't until I enlarged it that I saw their warning. 

On Friday, Feb. 27th, we celebrated three birthdays at lunch at Billy Reed's which is a restaurant with a huge menu. Everyone gave us cards with lottery scratch tickets. I may have won $10 but these things are complicated! Below is a picture of the cards that Cricket made for us using her incredible quilling skills. Mom's is on the left and mine is on the right. I didn't get to see Dottie's card, but one year Cricket put a parrot on it. It looked like Dottie's pet parrot. Thank you for all of the birthday good wishes!

Today, March 1, it was 95 F. and that is a record breaker. It's never this hot at this time in the winter. Consequently, many desert flowers are blooming their hearts out.

This bush was outside Manhattan Deli of the Desert yesterday.

I don't know if I showed you this bouquet before, it's from a church service. Today's arrangement was all in white daisies but I forgot to get a picture of it.

Enjoy every day!