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~

Just around the desert this week

Just a few more photos from my day out with my camera (see previous post)...

 Palm trees blowing in the wind

 More palm trees

The windmills up on Dillon Road

Desert wildflowers

I finally managed to remember to take my camera with me the other morning as I was driving Miss Ellie to kindergarten.   I missed one whole day because I was down & out with a 24 hour virus and I was so dizzy I couldn't drive...so Papa had to drive her to school and pick her up at 1 p.m. (early release) AND babysit her for the entire afternoon!    That apparently was QUITE an adventure, but that's another story...

So, with bright sunlight, rainbows, and clouds still on the mountains, off I drove, camera in the car.   After safely depositing the kindergartener at school, I went off in search of a quiet spot to view some of our desert wildflowers.

I'm NOT KIDDING...I actually don't remember a year with so much COLOR!   I'm going out again this morning with my camera to take photos of the hills of verbena in the Coachella Valley Preserve.   However, these photos were taken near the Annenberg Estate in Rancho Mirage, where I could safely pull off the road, stop, and take photos.

The light purple flowers are verbena and our desert is COVERED with them.   There are even some desert lupines off Interstate 10, at the Date Palm exit.   I can't wait to see what's blooming out by the Coachella Valley Preserve this morning.

I've been busy

So, I've been busy this past week, but not in a good way.   The little man (the 2 year old) has pediatric bronchitis and I had to stay home with him for 3 days.   He had such a huge coughing fit on Friday that I texted his mother at school and told her and she ended up taking him to the ER at JFK hospital that afternoon for a chest x-ray.   Fortunately he does NOT have pneumonia.   JFK ER was one of the few places that will take a child under 3 for urgent care.  Funny how that works...she was terrified the entire time they were there because some guy on meth came in and they announced a "Code 4"...must have been quite an ordeal.

So, I probably get to babysit him again next week, which means I'll be having more 13 hour days...At least he does take an afternoon nap, and so can I, but his Friday nap lasted 10 minutes and then he had his coughing fit.

I'm going to take my sewing machine with me next week and finish up 6 journal covers that I was able to cut out and glue together on Friday, so I'll have something to do.   At one point he wanted to go outside (in the cold and wind) and Nana said, "NO!" and he had a meltdown, but there was NO WAY I was going to allow him outside in that cold weather.   Nope, nope, nope!

I did absolutely NOTHING yesterday but run errands all day.   I went to WalMart, Trader Joe's, Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, and COSTCO, and then hit my favorite quilt shop on the way home.   Today I have to go to our library and pick up 2 books that I ordered from other branches.  Good thing I have a full tank of gas.

By the way, have you noticed that gasoline prices are slowly inching upward again?   I have.

So, until next time...

~~Cheryl Ann~~
The sick little man and his daddy at the Living Desert Reserve.

What a day it was yesterday!

Yesterday was my birthday and it was also the day I had my tax appointment with our CPA in Palm Springs.   I figured that after I dropped off Miss Ellie at kindergarten, I would simply drive to his office, about 15 minutes away.

NOPE.

First of all, it was POURING.   And, I mean pouring since 2 am.   Here in the desert that means lots of flooded streets and intersections.

However, I was NOT prepared for the amount of water out on the streets.   And, the street which I chose to drive to the accounting office was nearly completely flooded.   Out of the 3 lanes each way, only 2 were passable (but...OF COURSE...there were always THOSE drivers who think it is fun to splash water all over everybody else's car!)

When I got to the last intersection before heading up a small hill near the Palm Springs airport, I knew I was in trouble.   My brakes were wet.   I was first in line for the next green light and water was RUSHING down the intersection.   A school bus came barreling through the intersection and I thought "That is DANGEROUS!"  Then my car started scooting from the pull of the water.   The only place I was going was out into the intersection and I had a red light.   Fortunately when it turned green, I made it through...phew!   However, by that time my brakes were in worse shape.  I had my foot all the way to the floor in hopes that I wouldn't be moved any further and it simply wasn't working...I was drifting.   But, I made it to the tax office.  I figured the hour there would give my brakes a chance to dry...NOPE!

I knew I couldn't return home that way (down Ramon Rd.), so I headed west to Highway 111 in downtown Palm Springs.   By 11 a.m. the streets were... HORRIFIC!   I've NEVER seen them so full of water and we've lived here now 45 years.  I drove by 2 washes and they were both tumbling full of water.   The second one was ready to crest the wash.   Quite a few people had stopped their cars to get out and take photos. 

Then some IDIOT in a white Infinity blew by me and splashed water ALL OVER my windshield and I was completely blinded.   I couldn't see a thing and my wipers were going as fast as they could.   They just couldn't keep up with the water that was dumped on my windshield.   I literally had to stop and pray that nobody was behind me (nobody was, fortunately.)....I was so shaken that I had to pull over, stop at Michaels, and spend an hour inside the store.   And, I was low on gasoline.   I mean, WHO wants to stop for gas in that storm???

But I had no choice, so I bought $20 worth.  By that time, I was cold, I was tired, and I was wet from all the rain.   All I wanted to do was make it home safely, which I did, FINALLY.   It took me 2.5 HOURS to drive from Palm Springs to Palm Desert, which is normally a 45 minute drive (of course, I DID spend an hour in Michael's).

Then I settled in my chair to watch the news.   Palm Springs Unified School District closed all its schools.  People were told to "shelter in place".   I got hold of our daughter and explained to her that there was NO WAY I could drive back to pick up Miss Ellie from kindergarten, since my brakes were wet and I was exhausted.  Schools closed at noon and our daughter picked her up at 3 p.m. since she had to stay with her own students until they were all picked up.   She stopped a couple times on her way home to take videos of the water rushing down the main wash, tumbling to the Salton Sea.

And, it was my birthday!   Lovely day, eh?
Turns out, this storm was the 3rd most rain in a single day since 1943.   I believe it.