General Topics

Today as I was running some errands I noticed that the large cloud of smoke was once again in evidence.  The last time I saw it, I wasn't sure which wildfire it was.  It turns out that it is from the Las Conchas fire up near Alamogordo.  Today, there was more smoke around the base of the fire which the local news said was due to some back burns being done by the firefighters.  All in all, it's an impressive site considering it's more than an hour's drive from Albuquerque.

On another topic, I just started reading a fun new book, The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure.  The author, as did many of us, read the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder while growing up.  She enjoyed it then.  Later on, she was reacquainted with the books.  She started re-reading them and liked them as much as when she was a kid.  Over time, she developed a mild obsession for reading as much as possible about the family and the actual time line of their lives.  Going to the places where they lived.  Trying things they had done in real life - like churning butter.  (It turns out that finding an actual dash churn to use was much harder than the actual churning.)  I'm only about a third of the way through it but am enjoying it so far.  It reminds me a bit of Julie & Julia from a few years ago.  Relatively normal person becomes mildly obsessed with famous author (yes, Julia Child wrote a book, albeit a cookbook, and thus could be considered an author).  Ends up writing a light-hearted book about their obsession.

I'm rather annoyed with myself.  Lately I've been feeling frumpy, lumpy and dumpy.  (The three cornerstones of a marked lack of self-confidence.)  I should be feeling good since I recently landed a job after an extended period of unemployment.  I start in about a week.  A large part of my problem results from my decision to buy some new tops.  It's been a while since I've done so and I've put on several pounds (OK, more than just several).  I tried on some tops in women's size Large.  All were too tight.  Some across the shoulders, some in the belly area and one weird top where the sleeves were too tight.  I then moved to Extra-Large.  The tops fit a bit better but some were still slightly tight.  Only one looked reasonably decent and it just wasn't what I wanted.  Sigh.  So I walked into the store feeling OK.  I walked out of the store feeling - lumpy, frumpy and dumpy.  I know I'll get over it and I'll find some clothes that will work.  But in the meantime, I'm feeling rather down.

Papillon

Smoke Column

I was north of Albuquerque in the Bernalillo area today.  We finally have enough humidity to make clouds and possibly even some rain.

However, I noticed this.  It's WAY north of Bernalillo and I'm wondering if it's a column of smoke from the Las Conchas fire (near Los Alamos).  Or possibly it's from another one of the wildfires in northern New Mexico.


 Granted, at the top of the photo, those are obviously clouds.  But that column has got to be smoke.  I had not seen anything like this before.













Papillon

Rain!

It rained last night.  Just barely.  It lasted slightly longer than the extremely brief shower we had a week or two ago.  I even got a chance to go outside and stand in it.  The cat thought I was nuts, but that's his problem. 

I knew we had a shot at some rain when I noticed I had moisture on the outside of my bottle of ice water.  Lately our humidity has been so low (4 per cent at one point) that even when my bottle held mostly ice versus water, there was no moisture on it.  So, knowing it had bumped up into at least the teens made me hopeful.

Oooh, I just switched over to The Weather Channel and the radar is showing showers in the area.  Hooray!

I'd be enjoying it more if I didn't feel slightly puny.  I had a medical exam the other day.  During the exam, they asked when I'd had my last tetanus vaccination.  I couldn't remember, but knew it'd been longer than 5 years.  So the decision was made to give me one.

Anyone who's ever gotten a tetanus shot knows it makes your arm hurt and slightly swollen and red for several days.  In addition, there's the diphtheria vaccine that's part of the shot.  Plus, about 5 years ago, the decision was made to include whooping cough to the vaccine.  AFTER I got the shot, the doctor mentioned that adding whooping cough to the vaccine has been known to make you feel crappier than you would have if it wasn't in the shot.

I got the shot on Thursday and, other than my left shoulder, felt OK.  Ditto for Friday morning.  Things started to slide gradually downhill on Friday afternoon.  I practiced my tai chi chih around noon.  However, instead of feeling relaxed afterward, I felt kinda sore and slightly stiff.  Weird.  Then sometime around 11 PM it felt like all my energy had disappeared.  I toughed it out for a while and then gave up the fight and went to bed.

Saturday morning, I felt like the Queen of Lethargy.  Oh my goodness!  I supposed I could have just gone back to bed, but the cat was demanding to be fed and I had a couple of errands to run, so I just kept on plugging.  After I got home I took an OTC flu pill (because it felt like I had a mild case of the flu) and took a long nap.  That helped because I at least felt slightly more human and slightly less zombie.  I did my very best couch potato for the rest of the day.

Today I'm feeling a bit better.  Less ache-y.  A bit more energy.  My arm still hurts, but it's also improving.  A bit less red around the injection site.  It's also itching a little which is a bit problematic what with the achiness still present. 

In any case, I hope you have a great Fourth of July.

Papillon