It Was A Week

This past week was not exactly typical but, at the same time, not very exciting. Here is how we spent some of our time.

On Monday I drove up to the Mayo Clinic for two appointments. The first was to take a blood draw which will serve as a baseline to evaluate future treatments. The second was to get an injection of Leuprolide (AKA Eligard) a testosterone-reducing hormone treatment. The shot is good for three months.

I am scheduled for two late April appointments. The pre-surgury check-up will be on April 19th followed by surgery to implant the brachytherapy ‘seeds’ on April 21st. Not much to do between now and then except wait!

Tuesday was grocery shopping day, a process that generally takes 3 – 4 hours to complete, taking into account the time to haul groceries into the house and put everything away. For some reason local stores can’t get Friskies canned cat food, particularly the flavors our cats like. Empty shelves are a common sight.

Wednesday was Tax Prep Day. We went though our three sets of taxes (Colorado, Iowa, and Federal) and made all the corrections and calculations needed. Federal and Colorado returns have been mailed as we are getting a refund from both of those sources. We owe Iowa tax, no surprise there, so will not send those forms off for another month or so.

Thursday I drove to Cresco, the county seat. I needed to get an Iowa license plate for our aluminum utility trailer. The old Colorado plate was good through January, but with spring approaching I will be pulling the trailer on public roads so needed to ‘get legal’ in Iowa. Unlike Colorado, Iowa does not issue a title for trailers that weigh under 2,000 pounds, just a receipt along with the plate. I had to laugh, though. The cost of the plate, good through August, was $10.00. Renewals for a year will be $20.00. This is far less than we paid out West.

Pam took the spotlight for Friday. She returned to the dentist for X-rays and a routine cleaning. The molar that received the root canal is still very tender but is improving. Pam still needs to get that tooth fitted with a crown but that will not happen for a few weeks at best, possibly longer.

Scattered through this time I began the first lawn cleanup off the year. As much as I tried to have all the fall leaves taken care of, our neighbors are not as concerned with cleaning up their yards and a lot of leaves blew into our yard over the winter. The lawn is still wet from melting snow, but I have managed to clear leaves from around the dog run and garden fences and a bit around the garage and flower beds. Eventually I will rake the entire yard to clean up all the winter debris.

Other signs of spring are appearing. Tulip greens are starting to appear above the layer of mulch we put on them last fall. Some grass is beginning to ‘green up.’ Recently we have seen house wrens and finches at the bird feeder. I saw my first robin of the year a couple days ago. The outside cats are sunning in the catio enclosure. All the snow around our place is gone, although there is ‘plowable’ snow in the forecast for this coming Sunday night into Monday. (Warmer temps are in the forecast for later in the week so any snow we get won’t last long.)

Inside the house, Pam continues to work on the west wall of the library. Furniture has been re-arranged and a pair of new wall-mounted lights have changed the library appearance a great deal. That project continues and is now more than half-done.

All in all it was a busy week for mid-March. Not routine, but busy. Hopefully the next few weeks will have less trauma and more good weather.

Photo Archive

Family photos lead off this post. Taken in Oregon at our friends Tom and Patti Hamilton’s place, these first couple photos date from ’90 or ’91.

These next few shots are from all over.

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

Pam’s Penny

Life in Iowa…

Are you wondering what could possibly keep us occupied in Iowa during the waning days of winter? Days are full and tasks are many. Warming weather brings out the house flies and (continuous) hatching of the Chinese lady beetles (or whatever they are). Wasps will soon be next; Fields has already been on the hunt for defunct wasp nests from last year to eradicate from the house facade.

Lent is here, and with it additional Friday night fish fries to enjoy. The local bars feature Friday fish all year, of course, but Lent brings out the religious groups and town fundraisers. We’ve already enjoyed the drive-through fish fries in Alta Vista and Elma. (The fish fry featured above is in Charles City.) Lent fish fries seem to have more creative deserts than the all-year bar options. Anytime of year, Friday night fish is on the “things to like about Iowa” list.

The local weather report out of Rochester, MN no longer gives snow depths on the snowmobile trails and last month issued “get off the ice” reports for fishing shanties. Bugs-Lent-ice breakup — must mean spring is near.

Also, spring birds are here. The forsythia bush near the bird feeding station has finally come into its own. I hacked at that ancient growth three times in 2019/2020 in attempts to beat it into submission. Now the graceful forsythia fronds provide cover and branch supports for the variety of winter and returning birds helping themselves to bountiful meals. Enjoying the abundant bird life has also joined the “things to like about Iowa” list.

We are never at a loss to figure out on what to spend our COVID stimulus checks. The 2020 version helped pay my hospital bill at Gundersen in LaCrosse for the gall bladder surgery. The early 2021 stimulus paid a portion of my root canal, and the forthcoming Biden stimulus check will pay for a crown and various deductibles for Himself’s prostate cancer treatment. The only thing we’ve been stimulating is medical and dental providers, it seems.

My life, consistently, revolves around the needs of the animals. London, our 17-year-oldster Siamese mix, has stabilized at about 6 pounds and is now eating two additional small meals per day (the kitchen is always open, it seems). I keep track of the comings-and-goings of the catio cats, checking visually to see if anyone is ill or in need of repair. Elmo is always destroying something, usually requiring a change in interior decor to dampen his “interest.” The dogs are scheduled for grooming (JoJo is one giant hairball) and a vet visit. Heartworm meds and flea/tick preventatives are in-house for the season.

Himself already bought me a few packets of Grandpa Ott morning glories for spring planting. I was watching an Iowa farm show on PBS (I also occasionally take note of hog and soybean prices) that traced the Grandpa Ott seeds back to a Bavarian origin. There you go, Larry. PBS also had a special featuring the Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, which is definitely worth a field trip.

It will soon be time to switch out the “winter wardrobe” to the “summer wardrobe.” I am greatly in need of my sister Becky to be on premises; she always shames me into throwing away something totally ragged and unfit for continued use.

And, if we get bored, there’s always the hunt for COVID vaccine shots, which somehow have not made it to the NE Iowa rural area clinics (regardless of how well Iowa’s governor says things are going in that respect.) But then, who’s bored?

Be well. Happy Trails.