Terrible fires all week

 This has been a terrible week of fires.  There were four big fire's
going at one time during the week.  We heard a lot of news about
the fire near Colorado Springs, not so much about the others.

All week we've been worrying about the Currens and the Ellis's
and now I'm worried about Betty.  The fire near Rifle is not far
enough away from her. It is more difficult to keep track of the
Rifle fire than it has been the fire near Colorado Springs.
Plenty of updates about it.

Last Sunday we went to Salina to hear ACapella choir sing.  I
paid little attention to the words, but was very impressed by the
singers.  How they could all start on the same note without any
other instruments than their voices. I was very moved by that!
After the singing there was a reception with ice cream and
cookies.  I avoided the ice cream by going outside.  There I and
many of the Salina Community gathered.  It was good to see so
many friends.

During the visit to Salina, I tried to walk from our house to the
church.  I only made it to the next driveway. I asked Robert to
go back and get the car and we would drive to the Church.

The next morning it felt as if I again had Atrial Fibrillation.  I
had a regular appointment with my cardiologist that morning and
she decided that I should wear a 48 hour heart monitor.  I had
that put on Wednesday afternoon.  I was planning to drive to
Salina for book club, but decided I'd not try to go up there
again for a while.  I called to say I wasn't coming.  Very
soon it was decided that the book club would come to our
house!

Connie arrived about 10:30 And we took off for a trip to
CostCo.  It was too hot to take a walk so we "walked" Costco for
about a mile.  I also picked up a few things there for the
evening book club meeting.  We had lunch at Pantera Bread.

On Monday and Thursday I have cardiac rehab at Community
hospital.  I'm slowly, too slowly up the speed of the treadmill.
I enjoy the work out and the people.

Also on Wednesday, as mentioned earlier, we had book club in the
evening.  The books we discussed is "The Orphan Master's Son."
We had quite a good discussion of the book.It is a novel set in
North Korea and supposedly is a good representation of North
Korea at this time.

On Friday I picked up Gabby at 9 AM.  We finished the little
cannon ball garden.  She applied the compost and I spread it around
all the plants.  When that was finished she applied the mulch and
I spread that around.  After about 45 minutes we took a break and
went in for a cold drink and a snack and to cool off.  We then
returned and finished the job.

Because of the heat we decided that was enough gardening for the
day so I took her home.

At 12PM we left to meet Fred Clare at the Hungry Toad Restaurant.
We had a good lunch and conversation with Fred.  It has been a
very long time since we really had a chance for conversation.
We've seen him at various affairs, but never long enough to really
talk.  It was fun and we shall do it again, but probably I'll
invite him to come here.  He hasn't seen the house yet.

This noon we are having lunch with the Mossburgs at their home.

It has been a full week.

Garden, phase 2

 A sad note to this entry.  Janis' father died last Friday, May 31st.  It is so hard to lose a parent.  Of course in addition to her grief she must help her mom get through this, too.  


Tonight we'll be celebrating Martha's 50th birthday. She looks marvelous.  I'm cooking a prime rib roast and the fixins to go with it including a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

I am enjoying my twice/weekly visits to the CardioRehab at Community Hospital.  I go Mondays and Thursdays and spend 45 minutes on the treadmill and 15 minutes of upper body exercises.  Most of the class is using weights, but two of us are not allowed to do that yet. I was surprised last Thursday when the therapist announced the next exercise was to stand up from a chair without using your hands.  I didn't do that exercise because I was sure I couldn't do that, but I have now practiced at home and find I can do that, not  easily, but at least I'm getting better at it. It's amazing how many of the little things are difficult.

I bought perennials for the new garden.  Gabby came on Friday and planted and labeled them for me. Now the planting is done and before we cover the garden with wood chips, Robert is installing soaker hoses to water the garden.

June 9, continued

Robert is adding the soakers to the little garden as mentioned above.  With a timer on the faucet, I'll have water for my flowers. After he is finished I'll add compost and mulch on top of the compost.  Actually, Gabby will probably do the heavy lifting on this project as she has with all the planting.  She has done it all. Robert placed and aimed the sundial so that it keeps accurate time, to the minute.  He also with Ezquiel's help made the structure to hold the cannon ball.  Now, we need a sign for the  cannon ball.  "Used against the Rebel troops in Boston during the Battle of Boston in the Revolution, by the off-shore cannons of the British Red coats"