Christmas 2014

The time off so far has been fun.  My sisters and BIL came to town for a few days.  We did a lot of tourist things and went to a bunch of local restaurants.  A good time was had.

One thing that disappointed me was the lack of hot air balloons.  I talk all the time about how we see balloons in the air all year 'round.  No such luck.  I guess all the balloonists were working at their day jobs in the days leading up to Christmas.  My younger sister did get lucky on Christmas Day.  She went out to get the newspaper and there one was at the end of the street.  She took a couple of photos (I don't have copies).  They left on Friday and wouldn't you know, one took off from the park out back this morning.

In looking at my last post, this appears to be the same balloon shown in my previous post.  I guess they're a balloonist that resides in this neighborhood who finds the park a convenient launching pad.

Today I added to my small amount of Christmas decorations.  While my sisters and BIL were in town, it occurred to me that putting Christmas tree balls in my cut glass bowls would be pretty.  I was at Target today and they had decorations on sale so, what the heck.

I think they look very festive.

Happy Holidays!
Papillon

A Weekend - Gone Too Quickly

On Friday morning I was awakened by a hot air balloon.

My suspicion is that they were taking advantage of the weather.  Friday was a lovely day.  Sunny and cool but not cold.

For the past several days, the local weather people have been sounding the alarm.  The front that had dumped a whole bunch of rain on California was headed our way.  Weather warnings!  Weather warnings!  This will hit on Saturday PM.

With this is mind, I did all my errands on Saturday because they were forecasting possible snow for the whole metro area and I wasn't sure what the roads would be like on Sunday.

Sure enough, the rain started around 7:30PM.  From the puddles remaining today, we must have gotten a significant amount of rain.  However, it wasn't the violent downpour the weathercasters had made it sound like we'd be getting.  It was more of an extended gentle rain. 

This morning I woke up to sunny skies.  It was chilly, made more so by a sharp wind.  It sounds like the wind has died down, but it's still quite chilly.

Having said all that, the metro area did get snow.  This picture shows why I don't live in the Sandia mountains east of town.  I try to avoid situations that involve me shoveling snow.

I'm still missing Oscar.  It's been a week and 3 days.  I miss seeing him curled up asleep in my recliner.  I even find myself missing him at 8 PM.  He had to have one vaso-dilator pill a day and that was the time I usually gave it to him.  Missing you, you silly furball.

Papillon

Missing Oscar

Over 16 1/2 years ago, I adopted an orange tabby named Oscar.  Here he is, just a day or so after coming home with me.

He has aged gracefully over the years, at least until April of this year.  At that time, he began losing weight.  Since he was not overweight at the time, this was not a good thing.

I took him to the vet who said it was a question of 16+ YO kidneys beginning to give out.  The vet gave me a prescription for Oscar, vaso-dilators to help his kidneys continue to function.

He did OK, but more and more little things started to surface.  He couldn't jump up onto things like he used to - such as my bed.  I put a chair in place so he'd have a halfway point to use.  Then, his balance was beginning to go.  He couldn't make quick turns. 

This past week, the downhill slide speeded up.  When I got home from work on Tuesday, he was so heavily asleep it took him a half hour to notice I was home.  Even more balance problems, including not being able to squat when he urinated and getting urine on the floor.

I called the vet and set an appointment for Thursday morning.  Wednesday evening we spent with him on my lap being petted.  By this point, he was still drinking water, but had stopped eating.

Since my appointment was early on Thursday, I was hoping for some peace and quiet.  No such luck.  There were a couple of unhappy cats letting everyone know how unhappy they were.  Plus, a large dog (golden Lab?) who did some barking. 

That said, I did get some alone time with Oscar in the exam room and got to hold him as he passed over.

I sure do miss him.

Here he is, about a week prior.

I love you, silly kitty.
Papillon

I Love Long Weekends!

Here it is, day 3 of my 4 day weekend.  I've been having fun so far.

Thursday was very quiet, I watched football for part of the day.  Two of the games were lopsided so I spent part of the afternoon reading a good book.

Friday had more activity.  The dining table I've been using at the new house fitted nicely in the old house, but was a bit small for the new one.  (OK, it occurs to me I need to start calling it the current house, since I purchased it over a year ago.)  Plus, the chairs I'd been using at the old house were in fairly crappy condition so I got rid of them when I moved.  In the meantime, I've been using folding chairs with the old table.

On a related note, a friend of mine has been downsizing.  She mentioned she was getting rid of her old dining table and getting a smaller one.  Having spent lots of time with my quilt group around the old table, I knew it was in good condition and even without any leaves added was bigger than my old one.  So, I asked her how much she wanted for her old table.  She quoted me a price, et, voila, I had it moved to my current house yesterday.  It's looking good.  (It's pictured with 4 of the 6 REAL chairs.)

The runner was made by another quilt buddy several years ago.  It's got an Xmas theme so fits in well with the season.

This morning I was awakened by the sound of people celebrating the weekend with balloon rides.  From the noise, it sounded as though they touched down in the park to swap out passengers.  Here are a couple of them.

Later I went to the Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival.  I saw lots of lovely things, but restrained myself from going heavily into debt by buying them all.  I did get a couple of Xmas gifts so it was a productive trip.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow, but I plan on doing it in a leisurely fashion.

Feeling thankful,
Papillon

Afternoon flights

Usually we'll see hot air balloons in the morning.  It's unusual to see them in the afternoon.  So, I was surprised to walk out this afternoon and there were four of them.

I'm thinking they were taking advantage of absolutely perfect weather.  It was clear, not too hot, not too cold, very little wind.

One loitered over the park in back of the house for a while. 

The others were north of my house and heading farther away.

From the related color schemes, I'm thinking they belong to a local company that specializes in giving balloon rides. 

It was fun watching them.

Papillon

Lucky for trick or treaters

The 200 or so people that showed up at my house on Halloween got lucky.  That night it was chilly but clear.

That wasn't the case today.  It started raining around lunchtime and has continued, off and on, since. 

We're glad to see this.  After all, it was just a couple of months ago that New Mexico was officially out of drought conditions.  Even with that good news, there are still a lot of reservoirs that are WAY
below levels where they should be.  So more rain is a good thing.

Papillon

Halloween - oh, my word!

I bought my 'new' house about a year ago.  I had some remodeling to do so hadn't moved in when Halloween hit.  So, I wasn't sure what to expect this year.

In my previous house, the neighborhood was older and a bit farther to the west side of town.  Over the years, the kids seemed to grow up and move away.  The first several years I had a respectable but not overwhelming showing.  As the years went by, there were fewer and fewer kids and I always had candy left over. 

Here in the new neighborhood, things started at 6:30 and I now know what it's like to experience a human tsunami.  I think I had more kids troop to my front door in the first half hour than I did for the ENTIRE time I lived at the old house.  I think the longest I've gone between groups in the last hour has been about 3 minutes.  (Which I will use as the excuse if this is a bit disjointed.)

I strongly suspect that a large number of the kids don't live in this subdivision since I've not seen this many kids either individually or collectively coming out of the neighbors' houses.  I suspect some of the kids play sports in the park out back and decided we looked like we had potential.

I don't really have a problem with this.  With the exception of a few of the older kids who went 'minimalist', most of the kids have been well costumed.  If they've made the effort, why not get some candy?  A few minutes ago I saw the cutest, tiniest USAF 'officer' ever.  He was darling.  I find I'm amused at the parents who are 'trick or treating' for their babies (in strollers or being held).  Yeah, right.  Like those kids are going to see any of that candy.  Ever.

I forget where I saw it (Facebook, maybe?) but the suggestion was made to do a drinking game of shots whenever an Elsa from 'Frozen' showed up.  Surprisingly, I've not seen any so far.  I did see one pre-teen as 'Maleficent'.  A couple of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one of whom was quite young and obviously tired. 

I was at the liquor store earlier and decided to follow the Halloween theme and get a bottle of Vampyre ale.  I'm glad I did because I think I'm going to be in the mood when this is all said and done.

Wow, I think I've just gone 5 minutes with no kids.  Things may be slowing down.  I'm thinking I'll give it until 8:00 and shut things down.  Spoke too soon, just had another group.

Oh, this is the first Halloween where I've seen so many smartphones.  Not just the kids, but also a few parents. 

Well, an honest little girl just told me she'd already been to my house.  OK, now I'm apparently getting repeats.  I may stay 'open' for the remainder of the bag of candy, but will be shutting things down.  End of bag or 8:00, whichever comes first.

It looks like I'm getting a bit punchy!  All for now.

Papillon

Well, it's about 10 after 8:00 and I've finally shut things down.  I usually give out Smartees - small rolls of very tart candy.  The manufacturer says there's about 217 servings in the big bag.  I have a few rolls left so it looks like I had approximately 200 kids come to my front door in just about 90 minutes.

At the old house, Oscar the cat liked to watch me hand out treats.  This year, he checked out a couple of groups and then, meh.  Granted, he's an old geezer at 16 YO, but I think he was overwhelmed.  He spent most of the evening in the recliner.

I think the house across the street either ran out of candy or energy about 7:45.  I totally understand.