A Foggy Morning And A Trip To Town

On Tuesday last week, I saw a therapist. I don't know who referred me, and I was curious. As it turned out, our city or some entity thereof received a grant for the purpose of providing therapy, mental and emotional, for people with diabetes. 

This really impressed me. It seems to me that people in general  take diabetes far too lightly, like it's a nothing disease. 

All you have to do is manage it, I've heard. 

Yeah, right, ever so easy. 

Of course it isn't.

So I was happy to go and learn what this was all about. As it turned out, I really liked the therapist and could talk to her about anything I wanted, not just diabetes. I did, I talked about the recent cloud on my horizon: lung disease, oxygen, breathing. 

I even made her laugh out loud. Which made me feel good. I will see her again. Her name is Terry and I really like her.

Then I went to the post office. See the man coming out the door? He wasn't there when I started to lift my phone for the picture, so he's a mistake. But he gave me the evil eye as he approached, as if I were stalking him or something. 

I love trains and  never mind waiting for them to pass at a railroad crossing. 

I drove around for awhile, looking for trees with pretty fall colors. They don't look quite as strong and good as in previous years. Maybe it's too dry. But I found some, these are in our Albertsons parking lot. 

Many pretty trees on this street.

It was fun driving around taking pictures. I think I will give up on phone pictures and maybe get a little point and shoot camera, something light. I have a camera, but it's heavy and for me a bit complicated. I only want to take what we used to call snapshots. Quick and easy ones. 

A street view with a large tree on the corner. Our town has many beautiful, large trees everywhere. So different from the canyon. 

Before I drove back home, I decided to stop at the Dollar Tree store, where I haven't been since the pandemic began. I was curious to see if everything was still a dollar. 

It was and I stocked up on some cleaning supplies, candles, and even some cheese. Not something I would normally buy there, but I had grilled cheese in mind. I used to eat that a lot, but haven't for many years. I'm in the mood to try it again. Maybe with that Creole seasoning I'm so fond of now, sprinkled on top.

On that note, I will end this and wish you all a happy day.

Come With Me to Town and Good News for Sick Friends

I took this picture in our Albertsons parking lot March 22, 2013.

Yesterday, February 24th, I took this picture in the K-Mart parking lot. Ornamental fruit trees are in bloom all over town, a full month sooner than last year. Birds are singing springtime love songs, our ground-squirrels are awake and sunning themselves in our yard. All signs that spring has arrived in the mountains.

Pretty spring flowers are on sale at K-Mart together with 

lawnmowers for those whose lawns haven't perished in our drought. 

After buying a housewarming gift for my BIL, I drive over to St. Vincent de Paul's thrift store, which I use as my library. I buy surprisingly good books here for a quarter/paperback - dollar/hardcover; after I read them, I return them to the store to sell again. The store supports the homeless in Bakersfield. 

Then I stop at Walgreens to pick up test strips for my diabetes care and buy chocolates (yes, I do know the two don't go together). In the chocolate isle, an elderly man approaches me and shows me a small box he has filled with a variety of goodies. He asks, "do you think these will last me to Texas?" "It would depend on how fast you drive," I answer flippantly. Then I feel bad and ask where he's going in Texas. I forget where, but he says, "I'm going to visit my sister. She's 90 and I haven't seen her for over 30 years. This will be a trip of forgiveness." I think, oh, the things lonely old men will share with you in the chocolate isle. But I say, kindly, "I believe you will need a lot of candy for your trip." And I wish him good luck and go on my way. I will not forget him though. 

Almost done with my chores, I drive to the recycle place and get rid of my magazines and some cardboard boxes. My husband suggested we take the bottles tomorrow, when we both go to town. Great, but it is supposed to rain, which doesn't mean much here, so maybe we will get it done then.

On the way home, I drive by the railroad tracks and see views like this.

The road stretches out empty for many of those 15 miles I mentioned yesterday. 

Some of the dead weeds you see above are Rabbit Brush. It is very invasive and has overtaken the fields in our canyon. And these hardy bushes, among which our Cottontail rabbits live, are dying now, everywhere. 

People in Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley gathered recently to pray for rain. They may have been heard, because the forecast calls for another Pineapple Express from Hawaii coming our way with a 60 percent chance of rain from Wednesday this week through the weekend.

Finally, thank you for your prayers and healing thoughts sent to Fran, aka fishducky, who had a mastectomy yesterday and is doing fine. Fran wrote a post called: Ode My Left Breast, which her son posted as soon as he knew she came through the surgery OK. You can read it here.

And blogger friend Roland Yeomans had skin cancer surgery last Monday and is recovering well also. Thank you for thinking of Roland as well. Our blogger community is so caring and kind and I believe all this really helps. Click here: Writing In The Crosshairs to check out Roland's blog.

Fall Colors In Our Mountain Town

On my way to the post office the other day, I pass by Railroad Park in the center of town. It's looking so pretty, I decide to come back after my errands are done.

It's a small and narrow park in the middle of town, with the railroad on one side and main street on the other. The water tower anchors Railroad Park at its western end. 

Along the railroad tracks, red berries grow on bushes that cover the fences. 

I hope for a train, but none comes. 

The tall trees are are magnificent, as their leaves begin to turn. I back away and take a few pictures. 

Then I just have to point my camera to the ground and hope I can convey the beauty I see there.

Of course, I can't help myself and aim upwards. But the trees are tall and so dense, the picture doesn't come out as well as I hope.

In a town where the wind constantly blows, nothing happens here. Having a patriotic moment, I stand and I wait, and wait, for the US and the California flags to fly with the wind, in unison. Nothing happens for the longest time, then our California flag, with its grizzly bear (no longer found in the state) cooperates, while the Stars and Stripes, I guess just doesn't feel it. 

Spring Has Arrived in Town

Our town is big on ornamental trees that bloom for a week or two in spring. I was surprised to see that they were already in full bloom when I was in town on Tuesday, so yesterday, I brought my camera. 

This and the first picture are from the parking lot at Albertson's Supermarket.

I took a couple of street scenes out the car window. The whole town is full of amazing looking flowering trees.

A final picture of the store parking lot. Other than that, we are all doing well and hope you are too. 

This, That and a HEATWAVE!

I'm sure all of you who blog have noticed that blogging makes us more aware, more present. Haven't you? I checked out one of my new follower's blogs and he asked the question: Why Do You Blog? a few posts away. There are many reason why I blog, but what I really like about blogging is that it makes me more present in my life. I see so much more in nature, in the way my dogs live their lives, in the books I read, and I was going to say in my baking/cooking, but in all honesty, not quite yet. But even there, I think blogging will help me.

Yesterday, I went to my BIL's place to do some more laundry and I also managed some visiting and shopping in the heat. As I drove home, I saw clouds! I haven't seen many clouds since those magnificent red ones I posted on my blog in early June. But yesterday, I saw the prettiest, puffy, white clouds all around the mountains.

Here are some other things that caught my attention yesterday:

My BIL's garden shed. The former owner of this house was an artist, who loved bird houses. There is a whole town of bird houses on all three sides of their fence with cute names painted on them, like: The Library: Where Owls Get Wise. Here are some others:

This is the jail, so of course the plaque says Jail Birds.

At 11:00 in the morning, it was already 100F/38C in the garden. Butterflies were the only wildlife to be seen. No birds, no ground squirrels, nothing – all the smart critters took a break from the heat. And so did I. After I took a few pictures and picked a few apples, I hurried back into the cool house.

All in all, I had a good day: Got some laundry done, went to see my girlfriend and Suki, the Shih Tzu, her dog, at the dentist's office. Suki, by the way, was very busy with a guy waiting to see the dentist and totally ignored me. But before I left she rolled over and let me scratch her tummy. She's so cute that little dog.

When I got home, I had to take some cloud pictures.

In the evening, I heard thunder rolling through the hills, my power went off, and I went outside to see what was going on. The clouds had changed color and character to this:

The wind was blowing like crazy, stirring up the mustard tumble weeds and making them fly all around with my trash can lids and other loose stuff. There was thunder and lightning, but only about two drops of rain fell around my place.

But it cooled off fast and smelled as if it had rained. A much needed and appreciated break after the hot day.

Angel and Soldier barking at the thunder.

I don't like thunder storms without rain and, sure enough, lightning must have struck somewhere, not too far away:

Or something else could have happened to start a fire. This one didn't look bad and it was put out right away.

At 7:45 p.m., the sky looked like this as the sun set and the temperature was a cool 82F.


Phew! What a day!

We'll have another hot day today, but by Sunday it's supposed to be around 68F during the day according to Weather.com! That doesn't seem possible, but I'll enjoy any cooling off we get. Then it will get warm again, but I hope for no more heatwaves like this one until next year.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Country Roads, Trains, and Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

Note:  Those of you who were interested in reading about Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells may want to check out the comment by Upupaepops on yesterday's post. I also found out from my friend Jane that the book is still on the NY Times Best Seller List. Great!

Today, I'm going to my diabetes support group for the first time since April. Since my social life here is not much to write home about, I'm very happy to be able to drive and go places and see some friends again. I had a lovely day yesterday. I went to my brother-in-law's place in town to do some laundry after I took care of some other things, including a visit to the dump.

As I left the dump, I noticed the view of the wind farms that line the mountains to the east of town. I hope you can see the wind turbines on top of the mountains in the background.

A good thing about country roads, other than the songs they inspire, they are empty. Never did I drive so long without a break job!

You may meet more trains here than you do cars.

This was a long one and must have been a great sight at the Tehachapi Loop. It's too much to explain here, but the Tehachapi Loop is an engineering feat from the 1800s that made it possible for trains to come from the San Joaquin Valley below up the steep mountain to an altitude of 4,000 feet. The loop draws fans from all over the world and it's one of the area attractions that I promised to blog about.

The street my BIL lives on.

As I opened the sliding doors to his lovely garden, I found more wildlife than here at my house in the canyon. But there is an attraction!

I tried to enlarge this beautiful bird. Not a very successful attempt, I know.

The bird sat there for a long time, looking distressed. I think it was more than giving up the food attraction that upset it. I, of course, need some help in identifying this bird. It's smaller than the red-tailed hawk and larger than the kestrel, the two hawks I see in the canyon. It had a dark brown/grey back and wings and a speckled front and rough on top of its legs. Please let me know if you can get a good enough view to identify it. Gorgeous bird and what a treat to see it fly back and forth close by me in the garden.

There were also plenty of hummingbirds. This one is taking a rest.

And ground squirrels.

This one was so cute in the lavender. So what was the attraction?

Apples, apples and more apples. That's what they were all after and so will I be in a month or two. There are two large apple trees and one pear tree in this garden.

How fun a Centigrade and Fahrenheit thermometer! Unfortunately, you can't see how warm it is, so take my word for it: 92F and 33C in the shade. And it felt cool and pleasant in the shade in this garden, so much cooler than here in the canyon where it was at least 100F yesterday. Then the camera batteries ran out, so I have to buy some tomorrow. Can't be without my camera.