Month: February 2021

The weather has turned a bit warmer, thankfully. We had 32 days with high temperatures below freezing and 13 consecutive days (plus others mixed in) with highs below zero. A couple “record lows for the date” were recorded during the most frigid of those days.

Recently, though, temps have climbed to near 40 degrees. Snow is melting, which creates pooling water problems, but we’re happy to cut back on our heating costs and have sunlight coming through the windows. Even the dogs and outside cats are enjoying the (relatively) mild weather.

NE Iowa did receive about 8 inches of snow a few days ago. Low in water content, the snow was very light but there was a lot of it. I was able to use the snow blower (which ran pretty well after my recent repair) to clear the walks and access to the mailbox. Now routine, I cleared the ally access to the garage with the John Deere lawn tractor. Clean-up took most of a morning.

I should note that we have several pathways used by the outside cats. These generally provide access to the catio ramp, outside water dish, outside feeder, and access to the east porch. These needed to be cleared again after the recent snow, and Pam helped in this effort.

The dog run also gets attention in the form of shoveling back space for the dogs to run. Poor Bru is the shortest of the dogs and had to bunny-hop through new snow so Pam decided we needed to clear some space.

Inside the house, Pam has finished the library’s art deco paint job. Here are before and after photos of the east wall.

Pam tells me another step for that wall will be to sew valances for the tops of the curtains. She plans to rearrange, and possibly replace or upgrade, the library’s furniture. Flooring, which is now a somewhat older carpet, will be removed and be replaced with area rugs where possible. We don’t know (but can imagine!) the condition of the floor; once we pull up the carpet we’ll decide on a flooring approach.

A trip to Rochester, MN, took up some of our time last week. I wanted to identify where to go for my March 3rd appointment and find the 2 Mayo Clinic buildings I need to visit and identify surrounding parking places. Pam went along this trip and we made it a multi-function event, stopping at a Walmart to pick up some supplies and of course Culver’s drive-through for lunch.

Yesterday Pam went to the dentist to get a root canal done on one of her molars. She is in pain today. The dentist had trouble finding one of the roots and the procedure took a bit longer than average. Pam is handling the pain; hopefully she is over the worst of it. A return trip to prep the same tooth for a crown is on tap in March.

I finished our 3 tax returns — Colorado part-year, Iowa, and federal. What a pain. We’ll do a final review to make sure I have not made a calculation mistake or missed an entry before we send off the forms, but the bulk of that job is over and I am glad of it. We owe money to both states but will get something back (eventually) on federal. Next year’s returns should be a lot simpler!

Photo Archive

We had moved to Colorado in 1977 and spent many weekends exploring the high country. These next two photos are from one of those trips.

I often took off on my motorcycle to visit different areas.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

London, our oldest rescue cat at 16-going-on-17, is experiencing a decided health decline this month. He’s been losing weight and energy since the relocation from CO to IA. London’s a Flamepoint Siamese; he’s one of the cats I acquired while working for the animal rescue in Colorado. I began my somewhat-prolonged Crazy Cat Lady period slightly after London joined us.

I’ve been reflecting on London’s time with us this past week, and how different we are now compared to 17 years ago. The biggest changes aren’t location, or working vs. retirement, income, or what the kiddos are doing. Nope, the biggest change is how much time-energy-money we now devote to thinking about and planning for health care. How totally boring it is.

Be well. Happy Trails.

It was February of 2011 when Appleattic and this blog went live. Since then there have been many changes in our lives. The site has changed, over time, to reflect those changes.

I began by adding Galleries pages (with slide shows) that visually document people, places, family, and things that we had experienced. Videos came later and added motion to projects and events. I added the Humor Corner to the main page and Pam’s Penny and Photo Archive sections to each post.

Many under-the-hood changes took place over the years. Some were small or not noticeable, but include things like adding rounded corners to the thumbnail images on various pages. Navigation button and footer entries were consolidated into single reusable files, eliminating the need to modify each page when these items changed. Galleries received slide show controls and were standardized. Conversion of the site from an unsecured to a secured site was a major upgrade.

Many people do not realize I’ve also created and hosted web pages for my motorcycle club’s rallies over the years. Here is one for 2021.

Keeping the blog going has been an interesting exercise. This will be post number 454. I have lost track of the number of photos and videos uploaded over the years; these number in the hundreds. There have been close to 55,000 “hits” on the blog page. (Counters for the blog and main page were added after both were established.) A total of 782 comments have been posted. Security software Akismet and Site Lock have stopped dozens of spam messages and hacking attempts.

I don’t know how much longer the blog will continue but it will last for a few more years, at least. It has been an interesting 10 years!

Now, on to other topics.

On Monday I drove to Mason City to get the official results of my CT and bone scan tests. As anticipated, both tests came up ‘clean’ indicating the prostate cancer has not spread to surrounding soft tissues or bones. That is good news! Next up is a meeting with the Mayo Clinic on March 3rd to discuss treatment options.

Continuing with medical news, Pam is suffering from an infected molar that will need a root canal followed by a crown. Right now she is on penicillin and has a Friday appointment for the root canal work. Not good times. The basic dental plan she had signed up for does not cover this kind of work, as Pam has needed very little except maintenance dental work over the years. There goes the stimulus check (if we ever get one).

Inside the house Pam has completed two sections of the stencil in the library and it is looking good! The work is over half done, as the trim painting is completed leaving the rest of the stencils to be painted on two more sections of the wall.

Pam added this bit of decoration over the front hallway entrance:

In avian news, a pair of cardinals are starting to frequent the bird feeder. (Recently we saw four cardinals around the feeder at one time.) I have a hurried shot of this pair feeding on the ground. Taken handheld at maximum telephoto through two layers of glass, well, the quality is not very good. I will get out the tripod and see if I can get a higher quality shot in the future.

Elmo the cat is often photogenic and I took this shot of him sleeping on the back couch. (He looks so harmless, doesn’t he?)

Our frigid weather was not the only weather-related story this past week. On Tuesday our daughter Felicity sent us a text informing us Tulsa was on rolling blackouts and she was without power for periods of time. The South is not equipped to handle the record cold temperatures; demands for power (primarily electric heating and furnace blowers) have outstripped the grid’s ability to deliver. Weather is supposed to moderate in the next few days in Oklahoma and other southern states — conditions will improve. Amazing the human toll the cold has taken in these areas.

Photo Archive

Flowers in Colorado have always been a draw for me.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

I can think of at least ten things I would rather spend $1,000 on right now, other than a root canal. Seems about every twenty years my teeth require “attention” – wisdom teeth removal in my 20’s, a molar extraction in my 40’s, and now a root canal in my 60’s. (Yee-hah.) Well, you gotta have teeth.

Major excitement – Jerry added our names to the COVID vaccine list at the local Elma Clinic. The small clinic only receives 100 doses at any given time due to refrigeration issues; who knows when our number will be called? Overall, Iowa has not been very organized re: vaccine distribution. The governor has proven to be totally inept in her attempt to administer this statewide health program. Add COVID stupidity to the Iowa “not to like” list.

Be well. Happy Trails.

We are closing out the coldest week of winter with another week to come. High temperatures have been below zero for a few days and lows, with wind chill, are in the -40 to -50 degree F range. Brrr!

This has not stopped Pam from working on the art deco stencils going into the library.

The results are starting to look great. It’s just a huge amount of work to get there! And once the painting is done, Pam still needs to add the rest of the ribbon and tacks to complete the job. Things are moving ahead and looking good.

I received a call from the Mayo Clinic, setting up a March 3rd appointment to discuss treatment options for my prostate cancer. The fact that they called appears to indicate the cancer has not spread to surrounding soft tissues or bones. If confirmed, this is good news. I have an appointment with my regular doctor at the Mason City Clinic this coming Monday and will get the official results then. I hope for the best outcome which would be to qualify for Mayo’s Proton Beam Therapy but won’t know if that is the course of action until after the March 3rd appointment.

Most of my activity this week involved moving snow around. We had two light storms come though that dropped just enough snow to be shoveled. After I had finished a neighbor came up and asked me to do a driveway for a neighbor lady (Kate, whom we had met last year) as she is in therapy and can’t be home. Of course I said yes then spend another half-hour clearing her drive.

Cleared walkways are a rarity in this town, but I feel it is the duty of a responsible owner, or renter, to clear their sidewalks. Elma does not have a local school any longer so there are no children walking to and from, but there are people who walk and the only course open is to stay on the street. In winter, with slippery roads, this can be an adventure, particularly at corners with stop signs where autos tend to slide out of their lanes of traffic.

At any rate, I try to keep our walks clear and in useable condition. This year we maintain the walking path that extends from the east (side) porch out to 7th Street. Delivery people, the mail carrier (with boxes that won’t fit in the mail box), and even the neighbor who asked me to clear Kate’s drive all use this path.

It adds more shoveling time but is worth the effort. It’s possible we will put in a permanent cement walk in this location at some point.

Just for the record, here is a view of our Main Street walk; the 7th street access follows the left sidewalk branch and the diagonal walk goes up to and around the house.

Pam is starting to feel “cabin fever” and decided to put a bit of color — in the form of silk flowers and a spring flag — on the east porch to brighten the landscape a bit.

Speaking of colors, we have seen a male and female cardinal at the feeder a few times. Their reds add a striking bit of color to the otherwise drab snow. A blue jay has also made a few appearances, but he doesn’t stand out as do the cardinals. I’m glad to see all the birds getting something to eat.

In my last post I mentioned I had some trouble with the snow blower. I did work on its carburetor and the blower is now in running condition. Not perfect, and I have ordered a carb overhaul kit, but running well enough to get through to warmer weather.

We have started to assemble the paperwork for our taxes. Oh the joy. I have part-year status in two states, sold property, retired, and started getting Social Security checks. Pam does not have the part-year issue but also started getting retirement checks. There will be plenty of forms to fill out this year!

Photo Archive

This week’s photos are from 2004 and are primarily landscapes but there are a few others tossed in.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I reinstalled the two red hearts (made from rope lights) in the downstairs bay windows for the weekend. The hearts were such a hit over the holidays, I’m sure the locals will appreciate an encore.

We remember these frigid spells from previous years living in the Midwest. Not fondly. On the tally sheet of things to “like” and “not to like” in Elma, frigid Alberta Clipper weather patterns are definitely in the “not to like” column.

Be well. Happy Trails.

I didn’t get much done this week. Pam, on the other hand, moved ahead with redecorating the library. Snow and a trip to Mason City for my cancer tests rounded out the week.

The library painting involves a LOT of detail painting. Pam goes around the window frames, outlining them with the wall colors (green or white) but also touching up the brown window frames. Add in some patching with vinyl spackling compound, waiting it for it to dry, and the process takes a lot of time.

I don’t have any new photos of this work-in-process but hope to have some by my next post. Pam is almost at the point where larger areas of the walls can be painted. When that is completed I can show before-and-after photos that will clearly show the differences her work has made.

I do have a photo of one of Pam’s morning (and evening) rituals, feeding the cats. Four of the five house cats line up for their treat of canned cat food. The rest of the day they have to settle for the dry food in their feeding station. The exception is KitKat; she does not like to be around the other felines so does not come into the kitchen for this treat.

Pam also prepares three bowls of dog food for doggie breakfasts and dinners. The dogs are fed in the laundry room; a gate separates that room from the kitchen, to keep the two groups apart at feeding time.

We took delivery of a load of propane this week. With the forecast for bitterly cold weather this upcoming week (high temps near or below zero) we are pleased to have a full load of fuel for the furnace. One water line runs up the inside wall of the house to the 2nd floor bathroom, where a barn heater maintains a constant temp behind the toilet in that bathroom. Heating tapes keep first-floor water lines from freezing near the washer (also on an exterior wall). Ah, winter in Iowa.

With windchills in the minus 30 degree range or lower, most outside activity (and garage work) has come to a halt. Exceptions are getting the mail and refilling the bird feeder. That’s about it!

Thursday afternoon was spent clearing sidewalks and the alley (for garage access) after a snowstorm had dropped about 2.5 – 3 inches of snow in Elma. Unfortunately the snow blower developed carburetor problems and would not run properly so more hand shoveling than anticipated was needed. The blade on the John Deere can move snow but only if you have a place to move it to. The build-up of existing snow limited the blade’s usefulness in this new snowfall. Several hours of work later our walks, mailbox access, and alley access were opened up again. I will have to work on the blower before the next storm hits.

Friday I drove over to Mason City to take the tests that will indicate if my prostate cancer has spread into the surrounding soft tissues and/or bones. Two tests were done, a CT scan for the soft tissue and a bone scan.

For those who have not been exposed to these tests, here is a brief outline. The first step is to have an injection of a radioactive dye to be used by the bone scan system. It takes about 2 1/2 hours for this to fully circulate and be ready for the scan so the dye is injected early in the appointment. Since I would be getting addition injections before the tests the technician installed a ‘port’ in my right wrist.

The second step is to have an injection of a fluid that is used in the tissue scan. Along with this, two doses of a barium drink are consumed over a half-hour period. I took the first at about 11:50 (just before noon) and the second at about 12:20. During this interval I read I book I had brought along to kill the time.

After taking the second dose of the barium smoothie I changed into a pair of hospital gowns, one open in the back and the other open in the front. My gear was put into a locked storage area. I was taken into a room and given an explanation of the upcoming test, which covered my chest, abdomen, and pelvic area. I was also given an injection of another fluid that would enhance the contrast between my organs and the surrounding soft tissue.

The test itself was routine. I laid down on the machine’s bed, put my hands over my head like an olympic diver, and was moved forward and backward through the scanner. The technician told me when to hold my breath and when to breath again. The process took about 10 minutes. When completed another technical removed the port from my right wrist.

Back to the changing room and into my street clothes again. There would be a lull before the bone scan test so I nibbled on the three oatmeal and raisin cookies Pam had packed for me, and drank some water I had brought along.

After a short time I was escorted into the bone test chamber. Again, I laid down on the machine’s platform but this time with my arms by my side. In fact, I was ‘wrapped’ to keep my arms from moving or flopping off the side of the bed. (On both beds I had a support placed under my knees to help keep them stable.)

The machine started to operate and I could see and feel myself being drawn into the scanning chamber. The bed moves in a series of small steps, not a smooth pass, through the scanner. To be honest I kept my eyes closed though most of this process which took a bit longer than the tissue scan but not by much.

When the machine beeped, indicating the pass was over, I moved to a sitting position and another scan, shorter in duration, was taken. The tests completed, the ID band I had received when I checked in was removed from my wrist, the wrap that had covered the spot where the the port had been installed was removed, and I was free to return home.

Minimal side effect of the tests required me to stay close to a bathroom when I returned home. I didn’t feel very hungry for dinner so just had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with some hot tea.

Now comes an interesting wrinkle in this story. Jeff Hayes, a friend of Pam’s from childhood, mentioned during a phone call that the Mayo Clinic has a program called Proton Beam Therapy that can be used effectively on several types of cancer, including prostate. Elma is about an hour or so away from the Mayo Clinic. I called them during the week and spoke to Anne (with an ‘e’) about the Mayo program. The upshot of that conversation was enrollment in the Mayo system and their promise to get the results from Mason City (Mercy One care system) and determine if I could be a candidate for the Mayo program.

Mayo Clinic offers Proton Beam Radiation Therapy only in a few places in the United States, as the facility has to have a cyclotron generator to produce the protons used in the process. This is state-of-the-art stuff. The advantages are highly targeted beams resulting in minimal radiation damage to tissues and organs surrounding the cancer, often eliminating the need for surgery, and faster recovery with fewer side effects. Follow this link to view the clinic’s web page that discusses this treatment.

If I am a candidate I will get treatment at the Mayo Clinic. Assuming we can afford it and all the insurance pre-approvals support using Mayo. This is the most hoped-for outcome. If I am not a candidate then I will have to go ahead with surgery and/or conventional radiation therapy and will probably stick with Mercy One in Mason City. I’ll be pretty tense until I get the results of the tests (no earlier than the middle of next week).

Photo Archive

Most of my photos over the years have been of landscapes, fall colors, and places visited in Colorado. Here are a few fall color shots from 2004. (There will be more in the future.)

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

Outside time for animals in these fierce cold conditions is brutal. I keep an oil-filled heater running nights [and sometimes during the day] in the catio, which only warms temps in there to the 20 degree range at best. There are also heated water bowls and bed heaters running 24/7. B-r-r-r-r. Our electric bill borders on outrageous, when adding in the washer heating tapes, farm house heater for second floor bathroom, and space heaters used occasionally on the second floor.

The dogs resist going outside into the wind chill. I frequently need to accompany them outdoors and “cheerlead” them to complete their business expeditiously. What a fun week ahead, with temps and wind chills bordering on arctic.

We learned Iowa ranks 47th in the country at distributing the COVID vaccine. No wonder we haven’t seen hide-nor-hair of it.

Be well. Happy Trails.