Thoughts on Aging (not original to me)

Bennett Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House.  He also liked to put together compilations of humor.  Granted, since these were published in the 1950's, some of the humor and jokes are very dated.  However, now and again, you find something worth pondering.  (Note:  I'm not sure if I'm repeating a former entry, but if I am -- so what!  It's my blog after all.  Plus, it's worth repeating.)

So here's the good thought on aging:

"Feeling old and discouraged?  The snap of youth gone from your stride?  Look over these statistics compiled by an agency pushing old-age annuity policies and take heart:  Between the ages of 75 and 83 Commodore Vanderbilt added 100 million dollars to his fortune.  Kant wrote his philosophical masterpiece at 74.  Tintoretto painted his biggest and most famous canvas when he was 75.  Verdi was 85 when he wrote Ave Maria.  Cato decided to study Greek when he was 80.  Goethe was also 80 when he finished Faust.  And -- listen to this! -- Titian painted his historic 'The Battle of Lepanto' when he was exactly 98!

Sun shining a bit brighter?"

Papillon

Play Ball!

For decades Albuquerque had a semi-pro baseball team called the Albuquerque Dukes.  So named because this area was originally part of a Spanish land grant involving the Duke of Alburquerque.  (Yes, the extra 'r' is correct in the Spanish spelling of the word.)  The Dukes were a farm team for the LA Dodgers.

About 10 years ago (or more), the franchise was sold to a group up in the Northwest (Oregon, I think) and subsequently was moved there.  Albuquerque went without semi-pro baseball for a few years.  Then another group formed a team which was named (with a distinct nod towards The Simpsons TV show) the Isotopes.  As before, they are a farm team for the LA Dodgers.

Back when they were still the Dukes I went to a couple of games over the years.  I remember the old stadium had the concessions on a lower level that always seemed dark and closed in.

After an extended period of unemployment, I have signed on with a new employer.  I started my employment just in time to take advantage of a group night at the Isotopes.  This happened last night (8/27).

When I got to the stadium, I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the renovations done to the stadium for the Isotopes.  The walk-up to the stadium is lovely.  The concessions are up on an open-air mid-level concourse that is user-friendly.  I found my seat and then went to got a beer and some popcorn and finally settled in to watch the game.

My seat was located way down the first base line.  Here's a photo of my section taken from behind third base.  Locate the long white sign on the left side of the photo.  You'll notice a large blue circular logo on the right side of the sign.  My section was under that circular logo.

The Isotopes were playing the Round Rock (TX) Express and the evening went well for the 'Topes who won by a score of 8 to 3.

It was a fun evening.  It was rather hot when I first got to the stadium - in the mid 90's and initially my section was in the sun.  It was better when the sun went behind a cloud and then eventually set.  After it got dark, the temperature dropped into the upper 80's and a nice breeze sprang up so it was quite nice.

Here's a photo of what the game looked like from where I was sitting.

See that expanse of nighttime sky on the right side of the photo?  We kept seeing lightning off in the distance (the northwest section of the Albuquerque metro area).  Not a lot.  Plus, it was far enough away that we never heard any thunder.  Still. it made me nervous to be sitting near large light poles knowing there was lightning in the area.  I don't know if the lightning meant somebody was getting rain.  While driving home, I didn't see any spots that looked like they'd gotten rain.

I took a closeup shot of the game.  This is while Round Rock was at bat in the top of the 8th.  They're in the gray uniforms.  The 'Topes players were in blue shirts.

All in all, I'm glad I went.

Papillon

Silly Rabbit

I don't know why, but the wild rabbits that live in the neighborhood like to occasionally hang out in the middle of the street.  It has absolutely no cover against predators.  In the summertime it has to be HOT. 

In any case, yesterday morning when I went to get the newspaper, there was a rabbit.  Sitting in the road.  Washing its face.  And giving me the hairy eyeball in case I turned out to be a rabbit killer.  (I'm not, but I did have some homicidal thoughts when I found out they were eating my thyme plants.)

Here's a long shot of the rabbit - in the middle of the lower part of the photo.



And here's a cropped version of the same photo.

The rabbit let me take a few photos before deciding it was time to leave.

Papillon

Things That Make You Go H-m-m-m

A couple of weeks ago, my younger sister (A2) decided to make a quick day trip to visit my mom.  On the way home, she sees a pickup truck headed pulling a horse trailer.  She also sees the horse inside the trailer sticking its head out - just like dogs do when they're riding in cars.  She said she had never seen this before and was highly amused.

My older sister (A1) then related this story.  Earlier in the summer, she and my BIL were on their way either to or from an annual reunion of his family in Nebraska.  What did they see?  A pickup truck pulling a horse trailer.  And the horse is sticking its head out - just like dogs do when they're riding in cars.  She was highly amused.

Today I'm on my way home from work.  While heading westbound on I-40 I come up behind a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer.  There were 3 or 4 horses inside.  One of them, a very nice looking dark brown horse, was (you guessed it) sticking its head out of the trailer.  As I pulled alongside the trailer, the horse looked me in the eye & nodded its head.  It certainly seemed to be enjoying the wind in its hair.

Here my sisters and I have gone multiple decades (each) and have never seen this before.  And in less than 4 months, each of us have seen a horse acting like a dog.

Go figure!
Papillon

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