After five days with us Emma the foster cat continues to improve. She is eating much better. She is drinking water regularly. She is using the litter box regularly. She sleeps well ... and often. She has claimed our living room rocker recliner as her own. She comes to us occasionally throughout the day for very brief "love up" sessions, although she is not all that fond of physical touch. She only wants physical touch on her schedule and terms. She has plumped up a bit, so is obviously less dehydrated than when she came to us. And she has gained some weight, both from drinking and eating. Joanne is leaning towards adopting her. I don't object. She affects my allergies almost none, surprising given that she is long haired.
Early this afternoon I, Joanne, and Bo loaded into Laszlo's and Gail's ( and DeeOJee's ) truck and we headed out for an afternoon picnic and rock picking session out in the desert where Laszlo regularly "prospects" for gold dust and nuggets. We collected seven hundred fist sized rocks. Our objective was five hundred rocks, but after picking five hundred, we thought it looked like we would need more. We are planning to use the rocks to write our names out in a different desert area, not too far from Yuma, where people have been writing their names using rocks for decades. We were shown this area quite a few years ago by our 94 year old friend Eilene. After we returned home we all rested in our Arizona room for quite awhile, too tired from our outing to do anything else. I, Joanne, and Bo even skipped our late afternoon laps around the dog park.
I cooked halibut cheeks for supper tonight, the last of our Prince Rupert, BC halibut. We watched a rerun of a Christmas episode of Downton Abbey. I placed online ads in the White Sheet for our neighbour's items that I am selling for her.
Monday ; Partially sunny and mild.
Late this morning we headed out to run some errands. First stop was Big O Tires where I dropped Obie off to have a wheel alignment check and brake check done. While that was being done we walked across the street to Wal-Mart and did some shopping. As we were finishing at Wal-Mart I got a phone call to advise that Obie was ready. Good timing. I didn't get any surprises about the condition of either the wheel alignment, the tires, or the brakes, but ... I did get a lot of "would you like fries with
that ?" upselling attempts. I don't begrudge a business the right to attempt to upsell, but sometimes, as in this case, it really indicates that the business wasn't listening to the customer.
We returned home for a late lunch, then Joanne went shopping by herself while
I napped with Bo and Emma. Emma continues to improve daily, and is now not only eating well, but actually "asking" to be fed. Her health has improved enough in her six days with us that she has an appetite.
In the evening we watched Celebrity Apprentice and I continued working on year end investments file updating and analysis.
Tuesday ; Partially sunny, mild.
This afternoon we went to the Humane Society for our regular Tuesday afternoon shift of dog walking and cat cuddling. This evening, while eating supper, we watched Barack Obama's farewell speech.
Emma continues to improve. Joanne deserves to be proud of herself. I certainly am !
Wednesday ; Sunny and mild.
We spent the afternoon doing some difficult gardening ; removing Cholla Cacti.
I chopped down two Cholla Cacti with a machete, then dug out the roots. Our park's dumpsters were full today, so the cactus remains are piled on a tarp in our driveway until the dumpsters are emptied. As part of the process, we dismantled and rebuilt a flower bed, making it smaller. Then we replanted a Prickly Pear Cactus that we had dug out, and planted a new Barrel Cactus.
We had a pleasant visit this afternoon with the couple from The Foothills ( winter ) / Terrace, BC ( summer ) that sold us a Shaw Direct satellite dish LNB a month and a half ago. They were interested in seeing Kofa Ko-op, our RV park.
This evening I continued working on year end investment file updating and analysis.
Thursday ; Cloudy and mild, a perfect day for working hard out in the desert all day.
This morning Laszlo and Gail and DeeOJee picked us up in their truck and we headed out into the desert northwest of Bard, California, into Picacho State Recreation Area to a remote area where for at least the last fifty years people have been writing their names using rocks. Writing our names out there in the desert has been a project on our "to do" list for the last few years.
Last Sunday we collected about seven hundred fist sized rocks to do this project. And today we got the job done. But it was a lot of hard work. AND ... wasn't without injury. While unloading rocks out of the back of Laszlo's large pickup truck, I fell off the tailgate. And at sixty-two years of age I don't bounce anywhere near as well as I used to when I was a lot younger. OUCH ! Could have been worse. I'm not hurt much. Bruised and scraped elbow. Bit of neck "whiplash". Bit of a sore back.
We ( sort of ) had a picnic lunch while out there. Bo and DeeOJee had a great time wandering around out in the desert while we worked. Two couples on ATV's stopped to ask questions about the area. It was their first time exploring the area and were quite surprised to stumble across this area where thousands of names are written on the desert floor. One of the couples was from Okanagan Falls, BC, in our "neighbourhood".
We arrived back home at 6 PM. We quickly fed Bo and Emma, then Joanne and
I headed out again by ourselves to Yuma Palms Regional Shopping Center for the first night of the Village Jazz Series. Every Thursday evening from now until the end of March there is a free, outdoor jazz concert in the courtyard of Yuma's newest and largest shopping mall. We sat and listened to Yuma Big Band for about an hour, then left to go for supper. We were getting cold and hungry. We had supper at Eat Asian Super Buffet, one of our "must visit annually" restaurants.
After supper we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy more cat food. My, my ... Emma certainly is eating a lot ! HA HA HA ! That's great ! ! !
Friday ; Cloudy and mild.
WOW ! What a mistake it was to plant Cholla Cacti five years ago ! Oh, well ...
I finished correcting that mistake today. This morning we hauled the large load of Cholla Cactus remains that we dug out on Wednesday to the dumpster. Difficult to drag it all there on a large plastic tarp. Difficult to get it hoisted high enough to dump into the dumpster. This afternoon I dug out our two remaining Cholla Cacti, planted behind our rear fence in the dog park. And we hauled that load to the dumpster as well. Farewell !
I also dug out and relocated an Agave. And I dug out and was going to relocate a small Barrel Cactus as well. But when I dug it out I discovered ... it was dead. HMPH ! Hard to tell sometimes when a cactus is dead ! HA HA HA !
Joanne went grocery shopping by herself. We trimmed Emma's claws. We cleaned Emma's ears and treated them for a minor infection ! I downloaded and processed some photos. I sharpened knives. I continued working on year end financial matters. Joanne made a wonderful turkey soup for supper.
Saturday ; Sunny, mild, windy, very light rain late in the evening.
Late this morning we headed east to The Foothills for a day of shopping errands. First stop was Goodwill Thrift Store. Bought a brand new, medium size cat litter box for use in our truck camper. Next stop was the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Here we bought a brand new, large size cat litter box for use in our fifth wheel trailer. And a soft baby blanket for Emma's chair. At Foothills Hardware we bought some Damp Rid crystals. Next stop was Southwest Exchange for some hardware. Then Del Taco for a very late lunch. Last stop was Wal-Mart. HMPH ! I thought we had a rule that prohibited weekend shopping at Wal-Mart !
In the evening I continued working on year end financial analysis. And we watched Saturday Night Live. HA HA HA ... the election of Trump has certainly provided a lot of fodder for SNL.
DSK
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