Retirement has some surprises

I NEVER, in a million years, thought hubby would love watching the birds out front.   He always joked to friends and family how I loved it, but he is NOT a true nature lover like me.

SURPRISE!

GUESS WHO loves to sit in his office, with his window open, and listen and watch the birds?   Yup.   I even moved some of the feeders over by his window so that he can indulge himself.   And, he loves to hear them!

WHO would have thunk?    This is the guy who used to work 60 hours a week and weekends!   However, I've noticed how much he has slowed down since retiring 2 1/2 years ago.   He hardly EVER goes out anywhere anymore, so I was surprised when he went to our neighborhood WalMart yesterday to buy ground turkey to make turkey chili and made it... ALL BY HIMSELF!   Of course, it is enough to feed Alexander's army, but that's okay...at least he got up out of his chair!

Well, this is our LAST DAY of pleasant temperature before we go up into the 90's, high 90's and even 100's next week.   Ugh.   NOT looking forward to that.   I'll have to call our air conditioner company and have them come out and do the "spring check" of their system and make sure that there's enough freon (or whatever they use now) to get us through the summer.   I wonder what kind of summer we will have.   So far this year, it has been 3.5 months WITHOUT temps in the 100's, which apparently is a NEW RECORD!   We haven't done that since ... 1970!!!!

I have to babysit today and then tomorrow I'm going up for a horse visit.   Then I babysit again Friday morning and then we stay in for the weekend.   It's the 2nd weekend of the Coachella concert and NOBODY in their right mind wants to be out on the freeway Thursday night or Friday!!!!

Have a happy Easter weekend!   My hollyhocks are starting to open up and bloom out front by the mailbox, so I'm HAPPY!
~Cheryl Ann~

Well, I overdid it yesterday!

I was supposed to go for a visit to the horses yesterday, but, with all the traffic coming from San Diego over Highway 74, I decided to postpone my visit.  Good thing, too, because I understand that drivers were whizzing through Anza and acting horribly.   Ugh.   Who needs that?

So, instead I decided to tackle the weeds (AGAIN) out front.   I used the weeder and did it along the side, next to my sunflowers, and along the street.   Ha, ha...don't want the city code enforcement officer to give me a citation for "weeds" even though many houses around us need some TLC!

Next I decided to mow a little bit more in the back yard with my NEW lawnmower!   I got about 1/3 of it done last week with no problems.   HOWEVER, yesterday I also yanked up some weeds with my bare hands (I probably shouldn't have done that...), finished another 1/3 of the back yard, and took the weeder back there, too.

By then, I was a... COMPLETE MESS.   My eyes were watering.   My nose was running.  I was coughing.  I never had problems breathing, just everything was running!   I sneezed and sneezed and sneezed.   I FINALLY came in, took a shower, and laid down.  At one point I SCREAMED at my husband to go buy me some Zyrtec (it is what our kids recommened), so he did.

I slept for 2 1/2 hours!   Got up, watched a movie, slept another 2 hours, got up, ate a grilled cheese sandwich, watched another movie, and fell asleep for the evening at 9:30.

I feel 80% better this morning (NO SNEEZING), but I'm woozy...or... LOOPIER than usual (as hubby likes to say)!

Next time I'll wear long sleeves and a MASK!
Ugh!
At least the yard looks halfway decent now.
~~Cheers~~
Cheryl Ann     (see below)
P.S.
I just looked up ragweed.   We have it ALL OVER the yard!   We also have lamb's quarters (I believe that is what I pulled out with my bare hands).
OOPS!   The guy across the street is out sneezing right now!!!!!

The mountains are COVERED with wildflowers!

I drove to our son's home in Temecula last weekend to attend the grandson's baseball game.   He is 10 now and is on a team that has only lost 1 game all season.   Those kids are sure baseball savvy!   They steal, they fake each other out, but they also still miss a lot of thrown balls.   Anyway, his team won 24-3.   And, I got to visit the 18 month old and the 4 year old, who acts like she is 18! 

ANYWAY...I digress...

The hillsides on Highway 74 going from Palm Desert to Temecula were all COVERED with wildflowers!   I've never seen so many lupines!   I need to return to the horse ranch tomorrow and brush, brush, brush all 4 horses since I only stayed long enough to greet them and check their pellet cans (all empty!) on Saturday morning.

There are quite a few hillsides covered with California poppies, and I'll need to find a decent parking space to park and take photos.   That's also true for Highway 74.   There just aren't enough turnouts.

Here are a few photos I took Saturday morning:

I've been driving this road since 2006.   I have NEVER seen so many wildflowers as what is there this Spring!

Have a great day!
~Cheryl Ann~