Memorial Day 2017

In recognition of Memorial Day, I went to the ceremony at the City of Lubbock Cemeteryhttps://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x86fe6cbc2b936f5d:0xd97d0d076c73dc91!2m19!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m13!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!3m1!7e115!4shttp://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page%3Dcr%26GRid%3D492%26CRid%3D151541%26!5scity+of+lubbock+cemetery+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e1!2shttps://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2012/349/CEM151541_135561713366.jpg&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjokNms55XUAhVq_IMKHYOlA3YQoioIdTAK
The service is organized by the Nancy Anderson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution http://www.texasdar.org/chapters/NancyAnderson/.  There was a nice crowd, and after the service Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts put flags on the about 2000 graves of veterans in the cemetery.

After the service, I went to the Lubbock Area Veterans War Memorial https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x86fe7271a5c99123:0x5618d02a9f4624e7!2m19!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m13!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!3m1!7e115!4s//lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ISsJq0rjoJc/WQvYR_XnsuI/AAAAAAAAAEE/PWY73y_dTFYrn1y-jNmaFzcOoGh3vD_YgCLIB/w213-h160-k-no/!5slubbock+area+veterans+war+memorial+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e3!2s-ISsJq0rjoJc/WQvYR_XnsuI/AAAAAAAAAEE/PWY73y_dTFYrn1y-jNmaFzcOoGh3vD_YgCLIB&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH6dCO6ZXUAhXs64MKHa-YB14QoioIbDAK.  There was a good number of people there, including one veteran who was explaining about the meaning of Memorial Day to two young girls, presumably a daughter or both were daughters. I do not have roots in Lubbock, so most of the names mean little to me.

In the same park is the statue of William "Willie" McCool http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/23173 who lost his life on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003 when it disintegrated upon re-entry.  One year, I was at the statue, and Astronaut McCool's father was there.  That was an honor to meet him.

My last stop was the Lubbock Regional Public Safety Memorial https://www.facebook.com/LubbockRegionalPublicSafetyMemorial/. I did not know any of the fire department, EMS or police honored, but some of the names and stories of the honorees are familiar to me, having heard about them on the news.  I knew the wife of one of the firemen. I was the only person at the memorial at the time I was there. 

I was watching a show on National Geographic about John Kennedy http://www.natgeotv.com/za/jfk-seven-days-that-made-a-president this evening, and became oblivious to what else might be on TV. But after that was finished, I started looking and realized that I missed the National Memorial Day Concert https://tv.kttz.org/schedule/#page=schedule&day=20170528&provider=Broadcast

Laurence Fishburne and Joe Mantegna host the annual salute to America's military heroes. Performers include Renée Fleming, Vanessa Williams, Scotty McCreery, Five for Fighting, Ronan Tynan, Russell Watson and the National Symphony Orchestra. Gen. Colin Powell (USA Ret.), John Ortiz, Christopher Jackson and Ana Ortiz also appear. The event features a salute to the Doolittle Raiders presented by Gary Sinise and includes a look at music therapy for injured vets. From the U.S. Capitol's West Lawn.

I was able to watch the last half hour, and fortunately, it will be re-aired. So I will get to see the show.  Thank you PBS.  Which is why I send a small donation every month.

Memorial Day Weekend

I am looking forward to a quiet Memorial Day weekend. I did some shopping yesterday and housework today, then watched Concerto, One Night In Central Park.  I need to do some yard work, so will do a little this evening after it cools off some, or at least, when the yard is in the shade.

I usually attend the ceremony at the City of Lubbock Cemetery https://www.mylubbock.us/departmental-websites/departments/city-cemetery/home.  Sometimes, I have gone to the Mass at the War Memorial in Lubbock, but often, the Mass begins about the time the City of Lubbock Cemetery ceremony ends.  http://www.kcbd.com/story/35527553/2017-memorial-day-events. I might drive over that way, anyway.

There are other events and ceremonies. Some conflict, and others, I just do not care about.

Concert

Recently, I purchased the DVD/CD combination of Andrea Bocelli Concerto One Night In Central Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerto:_One_Night_in_Central_Park  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnK-NGAg2PU. I had seen it on PBS, but I am not sure if it was in 2011, when the concert was performed, or if it was an encore presentation.  Anyway, I remember being wowed by it. So when I saw the combination DVD/CD at Barnes and Noble, I purchased it.

I watched part of it the other night, but it is over 2 hours long, so did not see all of it at that time.  I did just watch it this afternoon.  I was wowed again.  The CD does not have all of the songs on it from the concert, but it has the best ones.  I am not sure what I like the best, but I think it is "The Prayer" is the best song from the concert. 

I am sure I did not recognize some of the stars who were shown in the crowd, but I did recognize one.  Donald Trump, http://www.trump.com/biography/ the man who is now our President. He is sort of hard to miss.

Feeding Haiku

Last year, early in the year, Haiku started acting very strangely.  She would chase around and cry, sit in the closet and sit and cry, and act like she did not know where she was.  I took her to the vet. They did lab work, said she had kidney problems, gave me kidney care food (dry and canned) and antibiotics.  She took the pills for several days, but got worse and worse. I called the vet and we went back in, they could find nothing else.  After another day or so of worse and worse, I just stopped the antibiotics. I was convinced Haiku was having a reaction to the medication.  Shortly thereafter, Haiku started behaving better. More like her self. The vet said she had cat dementia.

Haiku was not really excited about the kidney care dry food, and totally uninterested in the canned food. The sad part was that Taki, who will eat just about anything, did not like the canned food, either. The cans were samples, so no loss.  Taki liked the kidney care food, and I think Haiku ate it because Taki did, and she did not want to be outdone. (There is some of that in their relationship.)

Haiku still has some days when she cries and races around, or hides in the crate in the closet, but she is much more interactive and attentive, and her racing and chasing is not so disorganized.

When I got back from vacation in early April, the cat sitter had left me a note that Haiku and Taki were not eating much of the canned food I had for them (that they ate for me), and she tried other flavors. They would not eat the other flavors for me and for the first 3 and half weeks or so after I returned, neither cat ate well.  I was not sure if that was to punish me, or a reaction to the stress I was feeling because it was so hard to get caught up at work during that time.  I think the latter, because once things calmed down for me at work, things were better at home with the cats.

When Haiku went in for her yearly exam earlier this month, she had lost 1.5 pounds.  She weighed 6.3 lbs. The vet was not too concerned. Older cats just lose weight.  But I was concerned.  And early this week, Haiku stopped eating.  Wednesday, I check with the vet, and they had other kinds of kidney care or kidney support food.  I picked up samples of dry and canned food.  Haiku ate the dry food, and sat waiting for more, and ate, then later in the evening, asked for more. I called the vet after she ate the dry food, and they had more in stock, so I arranged with the vet and my boss to go by the vet to get a bag of this food in the morning, and go into work late.

I am so pleased.  Haiku is eating well. She eats a little, then sits at the dish and waits, and eats more. She does not let Taki intimidate her into leaving her dish. She comes and asks for food.  She seems interested in eating again, instead of just sitting there, looking at the dish.  I do not know how long this will last, but she will get this food as long as she wants. I think I might occasionally give her the other food, to keep her interested and not bored with eating.















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Plumbing

The toilet in my full bath sometimes does not work. The lift arm to allow it to flush is connected to the plug by a chain, and sometimes, not very often, the chain disintegrates, and needs to be replaced. That happened to night. I keep extra chain in the tool box, and it takes me less that 10 minutes to fix it, usually not even 5 minutes. So it was tonight.

Lawn Care

The first two years I used a lawn care service, I was basically pleased with the service I received for the price.  This year, not so much.  The owner told me she had some new people and there was more of a learning curve than she expected.

It started off with my request to get the leaves raked.  It took 3 tries before they actually finished, leaving piles of leave on the east side of my house and under my pecan tree.  (There is actually some leaf detritus there.) I paid for 3 trips to my house to do this.  I guess that is probably okay, because if they had spent the time the first time doing this work, it would have taken them that much time. They mowed when they raked leaves, and I asked them not to mow the vinca, but they did, anyway.

Then I decided this year to get the yard scalped. It helps with weed control, but the down side is it pick up the clippings that I want to mulch into the ground. But I do not scalp every year. I asked that they not scalp the vinca in the northeast corner of the yard, because the neighbor's Bradford pear, and my grapevine on the clothesline create too much shade, and the grass does not grow there. But because they scalped the vinca, anyway, as it was not obvious to them where it was, after they had mowed it. The owner of the landscape service told me if I watered, she thought the vinca would come back, but offered to buy some for me. I went with the watering option, and the vinca has come back better and stronger than ever (this sometimes happens with plants.)

I bought some plastic pickets to mark off the vinca, and we had a successful yard care experience the next time.

But, I had put off lawn service for a couple of weeks, because the grass was not growing that quickly.  Last week, I had meant to contact the lawn service to come to mow, but forgot, on Sunday, and Monday, when I arrived home from work the front lawn was mowed, but because the gates to the back lawn were locked, the back was not done. My lawn service person did not contact me about that, but when I contacted her, said she had forgotten to text me about the schedule. No harm, it needed to be done, but the crew did not trim the tall grass near my front ivy, so I asked her to reschedule them for this week, to do the back yard, and the tall grass near the ivy. They came today, as scheduled, did not do the tall grass near the front ivy, and left part of the area under the clothesline uncut outside of the area picketed off for the vinca.

It is obvious to me that when I schedule lawn care, I need to be very specific about what needs to be done.   If I do that the next time I have yard care scheduled, and do not get what I want, I will start looking for another yard care service.

Posture and Position

Since I started having neck pain several years again, I became acutely aware of how important posture and position are. Changing the set up in my office to be more ergonomically correct vastly improved my head and neck pain due to the compressed vertebrae in my neck.  It probably did more to help than the anti-inflammatory Celebrex that I took.

After that, I got into the habit of leaning into the pull out on my desk and pushing it against my upper left chest, and, above my breast, leaning over to write. When I had my yearly physical exam, my gynecologist discovered a "lump" in that area, and sent me the next day for a diagnostic (not screening) mammogram.  There was no lump, and the matter resolved, and has not again shone up because I changed my posture at work!

So, more recently, I lean into my computer at work and at home, and when I do a lot of computer work, I am left with a lower back muscle strain.  Tonight, I decided to change the configuration at my home desk:  I took the old keyboard on the lower desk platform, and leaned against the unused CPU of my desktop computer. I dropped the laptop onto the lower platform, and with a few minutes, the muscle strain was eased!  Oh my gosh!

So tomorrow, I am going to make a priority of figuring out a way to lower my keyboard at work, so I am not leaning into it at my desk at work.  One of my colleague says it is as simple as putting it in your lap, but having to support your feet because we are so short, it will slide off if we do not. I can do that. I have a foot support at work.

Sunset

I was sitting at my desk facing north, looking through the window, and saw the fire pink clouds in the sky.  I have seen this before, and sometimes, it is due to fire, but more often, it is due to the fabulous sunsets we have in West Texas.  Well, I went out to look, and sure enough, the pink was so vibrant when I went outside that even the concrete drive way reflected it, and it came from the sunset.  This occurs when there is a low level cloud bank in the west, and the sun reflects gold on the lower edge of the sunset, and reflects pink on the other clouds, including the mammatus clouds.  The recently erected YWCA building to my west at the end of my street blocks my direct view of the sunset.  The intensity of this kind of sunset passes very quickly, and sure enough, by the time I went in to get my phone/camera, the brilliance had faded (why didn't I bring my  phone with me. I do not think in terms of pictures.)

So this is the washed out version of the photo. We are due to have some cloudy weather other days this week, so maybe I can remember to get a better picture next time.

Fussy Eater

Haiku has become a fussy eater. She has always preferred dry food to canned food, but even that does not appeal to her any more.  Because neither she nor Taki ate canned food yesterday morning, I did not put out any last evening.  Haiku wanted me to get up about 4 AM but I did not, and I do not know what she wanted, but I should have arisen, and checked.  So, when I did get up this morning, Haiku did not want canned food, or dried food, but she did take treats.  I left a second dish of treats on the kitchen counter. Taki can jump up there, but rarely does. Haiku easily jumps onto the counter, and does to check out anything that interests her, including the other day when I was cutting celery leaves off the celery stalks, or I had shrimp thawing for shrimp cocktail. She  did not eat the treats during the day, and turned her nose up at it tonight.  She later ate some freshly put out treats. She did not want the canned food I put out tonight that she has eaten just a few days ago, the last time I put it out. Taki ate some.  Haiku at first did not want the kidney care food, but finally ate a little.  She did finally eat a different flavor of canned food.  I hate that she has become so picky. I am going to try to call the vet tomorrow after work, and see if they have any other kind of kidney care food we can try.  I think she gets bored.  Always before, I have varied her foods and she has liked that. In the last year and few months, she has been on the same food, over and over, and has "gone off feed" for a meal or two. I do not blame her for getting bored. But with her weight loss over the last year, I do not want that to be common.

Bounce Castle

I was enjoying the fresh air and sunshine in my back yard early in the afternoon.  I could hear my neighbors children enjoying themselves.  They have a castle bounce house in their backyard.  I think that is fabulous!  I suspect it is a special day, maybe a birthday.  But no matter, I think that is great!

Cat Capers

Haiku likes to get in the laundry basket when there is clothes in it.  I thought that it was because the clothes were warm.  But, not so.  She often gets into the laundry basket when I am hanging clothes. When they are cold.

Today, I was filling the washing machine. Haiku decided to get on the washing machine, and then, into the basket where the clothes are for washing. She did not stay for long. I don't know what that was about. 

Cable TV

My cable TV provider, Suddenlink http://home.suddenlink.net/ has recently announced they have done some updates, which might mean that we need new boxes to get the HD broadcasts.  The flat screen TV I have is updated, and the box is adequate for this new signal or system, but the TV that dates back to the 1980s is not set up for this new signal or system.  So, I had to get a new box, which will be free for 2 years, and then cost $3.25 per month after that. 

So I went today to exchange my box, and set up the new box. It took a little bit to get it set up, but the solution was simple. My TV was set for channel 3, the box was set for channel 4, so when I set it for channel 3, everything worked.

I have two TVs, at opposite ends of the house, but I often like both of them on so I can traverse back and forth through the house, and keep posted with what is on TV.  When I got the flat screen TV, if I used the HD channels, the TV was not in sync with the other, older TV. Now that I have this new system, the other, older TV is hooked into the HD system, and I have to have the newer, flat screen on HD to coordinate with the older TV. This is okay.

I am just glad that I was able to get the new system set up. 

Air Conditioning

For the first time this season, I shut off the heater, and turned on the air conditioner. I had been holding off, and the inside temperature never rose above 80° until today.  I have also been able to cool off the house at night by opening the windows, and letting  the cool night air in. And, I use ceiling fans.

Tonight, at 9:30 PM, it is 80° outside, so that will not help cool off the house.  If we have storms overnight, that will help.  But earlier, before nightfall, the storms were to the north and east, and moving to the north and east.  Even now, there is a line of storms east of Lubbock, moving to the north and east, missing Lubbock.

I always like to turn on the heater and air conditioner under circumstances that include I will be home while those functions run for the first time, just to be sure there are no major problems.  With the heater, there is always the hot dust smell from the vents.  Not so with the air conditioner.

Derek Jeter Day

Derek Jeter retired from the New York Yankees in 2014, after 20 years in baseball. Tonight, his number "2" was retired at Yankee Stadium, and it was Derek Jeter night.  https://www.espnfrontrow.com/tag/derek-jeter-night/ .  Thanks to ESPN for televising the ceremony with minimal commercial interruptions. http://www.espn.com/.  There was a vote for his most influential play, and The Flip Play http://m.mlb.com/video/v3134880/nyyoak-gm-3-jeter-cuts-down-runner-with-iconic-flip won, followed by the Mr. November Home Run http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v7105163/arinyy-jeters-walkoff-homer-off-kim-wins-game-4.  That is how I would have voted.

Cat Eating Habits

I have written about this before, but it just never seizes to amaze me.  And, I know that this is not a phenomenon limited just to my cats.  When there is dry food in a cat dish, but the bottom of the dish shows, my cats do not want to eat.  They want there to be more food in the dish, or I have to rearrange the food so the hole does not show.  I do not understand this, but it is what it is.  Hmmm.

Who Knew

The other evening, I started brushing Taki.  She allowed me to brush her for quite some time, so it must have felt good to her.  She has dandruff, so I have to think that stimulating her skin helps with reducing the dandruff and the dryness of her skin.

She got in my lap tonight, and stayed for quite some time while I brushed her.  The best part of this type of interaction is that she does not end up grabbing at me with her paws or trying to bite my hand, which is what she does normally when she has enough.

Baseball

I shouldn't have, but I stayed up late Sunday night to watch the Yankee vs. Cubs marathon baseball game. It lasted 18 innings, and the Yankees finally won http://www.npr.org/2017/05/08/527452847/yankees-defeat-cubs-in-18-inning-game-that-broke-combined-strikeouts-record. I had a hard time staying awake for the end of the game, and dozed from time to time. 

Well, it was worth it. The Yankees won. And because I have to stay late for work on Mondays, I have to go in late, so I only work 8 hours.  All ended well. 

Crazy Driving in Lubbock

I was driving through Central Lubbock about 2:15 today, and saw a couple of crazy maneuvers.  I was at the intersection of Indiana and 50th, as I was going East.  The South bound lanes on Indiana at this intersection are a right turn lane, 3 straight ahead lanes, and 2 left turn lanes.  When the light turned greed for the South bound traffic, I watched as a car in the center straight  ahead lane crossed the two lanes on its right to get into the CVS parking lot on the Northwest corner of that intersection.  Their was a space, but also vehicles driving South in both lanes.

So, I turned South at Indiana, and was in the left most lane.  There is a light at the intersection of Indiana and 58th St., and going South there are 3 straight ahead lanes, and one left turn lane.  As I approached the intersection, the light changed to green, and the first car in the left turn lane crossed well in front of me to the middle straight ahead lane, and continued South on Indiana, eventually working its way to the right most lane. 

Hmmm. The first driver cut it close with the traffic going South, the second driver had lots of space to make his move.  But it still is not a usually accepted practice. 

Sometimes, I Am Not Very Observant

Tuesday evening I took a walk.  Because I had been locked out one day, after realizing it could happen and I did nothing about it, when I do not take my purse that has a set of house keys, I take a spare set of keys.  So, Tuesday night I took a set of keys on my walk.  I put them back in my vehicle, on the driver's seat, and never thought anything about it.

Until this morning.  I was going into work, and was not taking my purse, so I thought about those keys.  I could not find them this morning, after a quick search.  I did not have time to search then.  I thought I would go to the park and look at the picnic table I sat at, knowing that was a long shot, but had to get on to work.

It was a short stint at work. On my way out to the car, I reminded myself that I did need to look for that set of keys.  I opened the car door, and viola that missing set of keys was on my driver's seat, where I put them Tuesday evening! I had been sitting on the keys almost all week, and did not even know it. A little embarrassing, but funny now, so I can write about it!

I Must Have Pissed Off Haiku

I don't know what I did, but shortly after I went to bed last night, Haiku joined me and proceeded to slap me in the face. She left a scratch on my forehead, and my nose. I did not know what that was all about, and I basically ignored her. The house was safe, secured, and intact. There was no gas leak. Everything seemed fine, except from her perspective.  Early in the morning, she came to bed, and snuggled with me.  I realized then that maybe I pissed her off because I opened the windows in the bedroom, and turned on the ceiling fan, and it was cooler than she liked, because she likes it very warm. But it was not cold last night. It probably got down to 69° in the house. 

Late Night TV

Early on, Jimmy Fallon http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show on the Tonight Show made some comments about children and child abuse (or more accurately, the lack of recognition of child abuse) that made it so I could no longer watch him.  I agree he is very talented, but I think he is very insensitive.  So, I started watching The Late Show with Stephen Colbert http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/.  I was really frustrated, though, because he took so many breaks and there were so many reruns, but I persevered as a watcher until last week.  I just could not watch the nonsense and silliness that was being presented by that show.  Colbert must be on some really bad drugs.  I just could not stand it any more. 

Oh well, I have a lot of good books that I want to read, and will help me to wind down before I go to sleep. 

Foot Pain

As I was sitting at the computer tonight, I realized that my feet had pain in them.  Kind of like arthritic pain.  So, for the second time this week, I used analgesic cream on my feet. The upside of this is that the cream relieves the pain.  The down side is that Haiku likes analgesic cream, and tries to lick it off me when I use it.  I worry about it making her sick.  I hate to deny her, but I have to keep her safe.

The other thing about using analgesic cream is that is eases the pain in my hands.

Clouds

Some sort of cold front is blowing in tonight.  Early in the evening, it was really windy.  And getting cooler.  Close to dusk, dark clouds moved in.  They did not show up as rain producing on the radar, and the weather forecasters gave Lubbock a slight chance of rain, with much of the wet weather in the north and east of us.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

A Sports Week

The Celtics are in the NBA play offs http://www.nba.com/playoffs, so I have been able to watch their games the last few weeks. This week, so far, I have been able to watch either a Yankee or Red Sox baseball game or a Celtic basket ball game every night.  Tonight, I am watching the Yankees against the Blue Jays in New York  https://www.mlb.com/. I will watch Celtics basketball tomorrow night.  I think there is no Yankee or Red Sox baseball Friday night, and the only basketball I have a remote interest in is the Houston Rockets against the San Antonio Spurs, but Friday is Blue Bloods https://www.mlb.com/ night so no sports is okay, but if I decide on sports I can watch Blue Bloods on demand.

The Great Rabbit Caper

Chica showed up in my yard this evening.  I took the trash out, and there she was.  She has black ears and a black and white body. Oh, she is a bunny and obviously, someone's pet. At first, I was not fast enough to get to her, but after a bit, I was able to pet her before she got away.  Well, I am not interested in adding a pet, so I decided to canvas the neighborhood to find a missing owner.  I made flyers, and started knocking on doors.  Where there was no answer, I left  a flyer.  I decided to do my side of the street, and the side of the street directly behind me.  People were very nice.  No one was bothered or disturbed by my inquiry (I live in a nice neighborhood.)  One neighbor offered to post this on the Facebook lost pets page (who knew, I did not.)  I was visiting a friend at the far end of the street from my house, when I received a phone call. It was from Chica's family who were at a T-ball game. Their neighbor called them and told them Chica was in my yard.  I told them I would go home and see if she was still there, and get back to them.  She was still there, and I gave them my address so they could come by after T-ball and get Chica. I had thought also to contact Animal Control in the morning, and the local elementary school, because a neighborhood child might tell a teacher about a missing rabbit. We also have a YWCA facility in the neighborhood, and I thought I would leave a message with them.  I am so glad Chica's family contacted me.

So, it turns out that Chica's family has two rabbits, and Bonnie is the escape artist. This is the second time she got out this week, so I wonder if she is feeling randy.  It took a while for us to capture Bonnie, but we did very gently and she went home to her family.  She looks clean, well fed and without any pests or skin disorders, so I think her family takes care of her. She is about 8 months old, so probably is experiencing her first fertility period, per rabbit sites on the Web http://www.fao.org/docrep/t1690E/t1690e05.htm. I know that when pet dogs and cats experience fertility periods, they get randy and feel the need to breed and get out of their confines to accomplish the fact. 

At least, now I know who in the neighborhood has rabbits and can contact them if Chica or Bonnie escape again.