11-8-10. So far, so good. We haven’t had any real bad weather yet, just down in the twenties a few times at night, but still decent during the day, but we know it can’t last much longer. At least the longer it waits to turn bad the less time we will have really bad weather (I hope). Not much going on around here now. The campground has closed for the winter so not near as much traffic coming in and out of that road. When the campers are down there it seems like they spend all weekend running in and out on the gravel road, some of them anyway. I’m glad I don’t live right on the gravel road, because most of them drive like they’re going to a fire or some other emergencies and throw gravel and stir up dust. When we go in and out on the gravel we drive slow as to not kick up rocks to hit the car and some of them come by and go right on around you, lickety-split. (First time I’ve heard that expression for a long.) When I used to go camping, I always went somewhere I could fish and have privacy and really feel like I was getting away for a while. I used to camp and fish at Lee McBride in Cedar Rapids and below the Coralville Dam and several other places. I guess I’d be afraid to camp in any secluded place nowadays with so much crime everywhere. It’s not safe to be anywhere with people shooting and killing each other around the Quad Cities area like in the old western days, but maybe worse because there’s so many more people now. They shoot and stab people for any reason. One guy cut in line in front of another car at a fast food drive through and the first guy got out of his car and went and stabbed the guy that cut in, that was a few days ago in the Quad Cities.
Well, a lot of our “Pets” we feed are gone for the winter. Birds and butterflies have all gone south. There’s a slow poke that comes by once in awhile that hasn’t made it down there yet. The ground hogs and ground squirrels are all tucked away in their holes for the winter. Of course there’s a lot of birds that stay here all winter. I’m glad of that. The cardinals look so beautiful on the snow. I’m making my Christmas cards again. I’m using a picture of a male and female cardinal sitting out here in one of the cedar trees with snow on it. I took that picture during the winter (naturally) and then I laid it down and put little red and clear beads on it, in the snow to hopefully look like little red berries and ice crystals. I’m going to try to send my cards early this year before the mail gets too busy. I think that every year, but then end up getting in the mail at the last minute nearly. I’ve cut down on my list now because I was using about three books of stamps each year at Christmas time so I really needed to cut down some.
Since I retired I had to cut back on several things. I’m not complaining though. I’m just glad I’m retired and still able to get around and do things, some of the time anyway.
I was just getting over a sinus infection. That has happened to me before. I mentioned it to a lady in Tipton and she said that happens a lot of times when you take antibiotics and that it takes out the bad bacteria, but also takes out the good bacteria too and makes it easier to get another infection. I never thought of it like that before. She said you can take acidiophilis tablets and it helps to put good bacteria back in your system, so I got some of those and some Azo Cranberry Plus tablets and also some regular cranberry pills and I think I’ve about got it beat now. I sure hope so because I don’t want to take antibiotics again this quick. Now I have an appointment at the clinic in Tipton on the 22nd for blood work, then I don’t have to go back to my eye doctor until September of next year. I hope I can get back to the once a year on that. Right now I’m really feeling good. At the time I went to the doctor for sinus infection, I was also having stomach problems so she told me to start taking two of the omeprazole capsules instead of one (that’s the generic Prilosec). It has really helped my heartburn more than anything. I seldom ever have it since I started taking those and then it doesn’t last long, so by me taking two a day instead of one, I ran out. I called the pharmacy and they said the clinic hasn’t gave the new script for two a day so I had to call the clinic this morning and asked them to do that and now I have to go to Tipton this afternoon and get those so I can start taking them again. As I went by the living room a while ago Walt was watching the weather news and they said we have a big snow heading our way coming from the Rockies. I hope it lessens before it gets here. I think it’s supposed to be here by the weekend. I hope we can get all our errands ran before the weekend. We have to go to the Cities one day this week so Walt can take care of his business there and we think we’ll do the rest of our shopping there so we don’t have to go to Muscatine this week. That will cut down on our running. Of course I really miss seeing the girls when we don’t go.
Our little chipmunk is still out in the front yard. He sits on the porch steps in the morning and waits for Walt to bring his food out. He climbs up the tree and gets on the top feeder. The little ground squirrels don’t do that. I guess that’s why they’re called “ground” squirrels. Of course I named the chipmunk “Chip” after Chip and Dale. He was using one of the little squirrel holes, but now I think he’s staying under the porch most of the time. He might be able to get close to some of the heat ducts and stay warm, but I’m not sure. I don’t know what he’ll do when the snow gets here. Well, I guess he’ll use the paths Walt makes with the shovel. It will go over to the feeder and down the sidewalk and I guess from the garage and of course, that way he won’t have to get out in the snow at all. Anyhow, we will be in the Cities one day this week and hope to see Rob and Dee somewhere, somehow and whenever we get time while we’re up there I want to see friends, Harley and wife and Jeff and Betty. I keep telling Walt we need to go up there sometime just to visit with friends and family. His daughter, Berta, moved from Bettendorf to Milan so I think it will be easier to see her now as we go through Milan coming and going of course she’s usually at work when we’re there. I hope all our families and friends are doing okay. Anita has been having problems with the veins in her legs and got a blood clot in one of them and couldn’t be on her feet for a few weeks. I hope she doesn’t have that trouble anymore. It seems like just abut everyone has health problems of some kind, especially when we start getting a little tad older or for some of us a big tad older. I tell people I’m a “Junior Citizen” instead of a “Senior Citizen”. We were in Muscatine last Wednesday and ate with the girls again. They were pretty busy and we didn’t get to visit much. Lisa always feels bad when that happens and I always know she had to do her work. I sure don’t want to cause her any problems with her boss for talking to us too much. She always says she’ll try to come out here on Friday, but I know a person has so much to do on their day off. I’m the same way and I don’t even have to work. I always think for sure I will make calls during the weekends and then I don’t get around to it. I’m trying to get my summer clothes put away and winter clothes out. I was working on that the day it got up to 89 degrees, so I hated it for awhile, but now I’m back at it and still trying to get rid of some things that I think I might be able to struggle through without. Well, I guess I’ve about got most of my thoughts emptied out for this time. I want to say hello to everyone who reads this. May God bless and keep you all. So until next week, bye, bye for now.
