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 |   Drop by drop the snow pack dies, watering the arid lands below. |
    Other Blogs and Journals containing the continuing writing adventures of Prosperous Snow celebrating   "The Snowflake Chronicles"  "More Snow Melt" "Writing in Snow" "Welcome to My Life" "Memories of Snow" "Dreams of Snow " Poet999's Thoughts about Writing and Other Stuff http://poet999writingthoughts.blogspot.com/ Poet999 - A Butterfly Emerges From Her Cocoon http://poet999.blogspot.com/ |
On Saturday, September 22, 2012 at 10:49 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time the sun crosses the celestial equator. On September 22, the day and the night are equal. It is fall in the Northern Hemisphere. The Autumnal Equinox always brings back fond memories of my childhood about harvesting my Grandfather's garden. Autumn in Oklahoma is beautiful. It isn't like Autumn in Nevada, not that Autumn in Nevada isn't beautiful. The Autumn beauty in Nevada is a different type of beauty then in Oklahoma, but perhaps each state has it's own special Autumn beauty.   I remember Autumn in Oklahoma! I remember looking out the window and watching the Cottonwood tree in my Grandparent's yard change from green to gold.   In Nevada, especially in the Las Vegas area, if I want to see the trees change color I have to go into the mountains. It's in the mountains that the first freeze occurs, which is the cause of a tree's new Autumn dress. Sometimes we get a freeze in the Las Vegas valley, but not until closer to the New Year. The trees in the valley remain green longer and it just doesn't feel like Autumn without colored leaves.   Oh well, I guess I'll just have to figure out a way the produce that Autumn feeling without leaves changing colors. Another way is to harvest a garden crop, but I didn't plant a garden this year. It wouldn't have did my any good to plant a garden because I have a brown thumb. Plants don't respond to me the way the did to my Grandparent's. I attempted a garden several years ago and it didn't grow well. I don't do well with flowers either, actually I do great with plastic flowers, but it's the living ones I can't grow.   I just had a weird thought about the change of color in the leaves. Perhaps I could figure out a way to dye the leaves on the tree. If I had the power to dye the leaves on the trees would it make Autumn in Las Vegas feel more like Fall? I doubt it because there is just something about watching the leaves change color in the fall that generates the feeling of Autumn.   |
| It is Wednesday. It is hump day. It is trash collection day in my neighborhood. It is the day I had planned to go to the grocery store because I need to get several things, but I just do not have the energy or the motivation to get out of the house. I did not get up until 5:15 this morning, thus I was late getting Mom up, making coffee, and rolling the trashcan to the curb. I got up, realized what time it was and then took my thyroid pill (I think; I can't remember whether or not I took the pill and so I can't take one because I might have taken that pill). When I went into Mom's room, I found the hospital bed completely raised and I couldn't get it lowered (if I can't lower it I can't get her out of bed safely). I unplugged the cord from the extension cord and plugged the bed into another outlet; it still didn't work. I called the hospice and they contacted the company that oversees the care of the equipment. Before the company called me back, I unplugged the extension cord and plugged the bed into that outlet. This time the bed worked. Apparently the problem was the extension cord and the fact that I had difficulty plugging the bed into the other outlet. Anyway, I finally got Mom up and dressed. It was about 6:00 when I finally got Mom into the living room. Then I had to convince her to swallow her meds and get her something to eat. By the I accomplished that, it was after 6:30 and still no coffee made. I went into the kitchen, made the coffee and then decided I should go out at get the morning newspaper, by this time it was after 7:00. When I went outside, I noticed that the neighbors had put out their trash (it is supposed to be out between 6:30 and 7:00 AM). I rolled my trashcan to the curb and then picked up my morning paper. Sometime this morning, between the time I got up and went out for the newspaper, I turned my other computer on so that the virus scan could run. I don't know what time I turned it on and, at this point, I don't care. All I do know is that it's taken more then an hour to run the scan. It's now about 10:20 AM Pacific Time. I drank three or four cups of coffee, I haven't eaten and I haven't taken a bath. I also haven't checked the bank accounts. I'm not ready to go to the store. I don't want to go to the store. I have to purchase some trash bags, so I have to go to the store sometime today. If I don't get to the store before 2:00 PM then I have to wait until after Kris comes about 3:00, in which case I will go to the Ninety-Nine Cent store because it's closest to the house and I have t he cash in my purse. |
| October cometh, like a swift moving tide flowing into the shore and overpowering everything in its path. In October I will celebrate my writing.com anniversary. In October I will participate in the NaNoWriMo preparation challenge. In October I will answer the following questions in preparation for NaNoWriMo in November. These questions can be found at {ritem:1151093).  What is your novel about? Where did you get your inspiration from? What challenges will you have to face to get your novel written?In past years, when I participated in the NaNoWriMo Prep Challenge and in NaNoWriMo, I have written everything offline and then used cut and past to transfer the items to my writing.com portfolio. However, this year my time is limited due to taking care of my mother and cleaning house. So this year I think I will work online and save everything directly to my writing.com portfolio. I could change my mind, at least about the way I write during NaNoWriMo, but right now this seems to be the easiest way to do it. Right now, I feel like I am floating in deep space with little more then a tank of oxygen and a spacesuit. I have felt like this for a couple of three days now. I have my new computer sit up and am using it. Today the tech came in and installed the equipment so that I can access the internet with both my old and my new computer. In addition, I have to keep my premium membership because I need the space in my portfolio. I need to set up my NaNoWriMo folder in my port and I still have no idea what the novel is about. Maybe I just need to sit down and do a free write to see what I can come up with. I do not know if the novel is going to be a fantasy or science fiction novel. I suspect I will end up working on the novel in the middle of the night so that I can keep up with the word count and have no interruptions. |
| I was a short and sleepless night. I didn't have insomnia, at least I don't think that was part of the problem. Due to my mismanagement of my time, I didn't get to bed until about 11:30 PM. The precisely at 12:00 AM, I heard my mother calling my name and crying. I went into her bedroom to investigate the problem and found she wanted to get up. Mom has more difficulty getting because the side of the side of the bed she usually gets up on is against the wall. This prevents her from getting up by herself and falling on the floor. Mom wanted to get up, so I asked her if she wanted to go to the bathroom, but Mom said no to that question. I explained to her that it was the middle of the night and not time to get out of bed. I finally got her to stop crying and go back to sleep; at least, I think she went to sleep. At about, 1:30 AM a repeat of the above and then again at 2:30 and 3:30. At 4:30, when I heard her crying again I got her up, dressed, which took about 45 minutes, and brought her into the living room. Needless to say I got very little if any sleep. Oddly enough, I don't feel sleepy; I'm tired, but I don't want to go to sleep. I don't want to go to the store either. Actually, I'm afraid to go to the store because there is the possibility of me falling asleep behind the wheel and I don't want that to happen. I'll stay home today. I need stuff from the supermarket; however, I'm not going to take the chance of falling asleep while I'm driving. Right now, I think I'll post this and find me something to eat. All I've had this morning is coffee. |
Sunday in Las Vega Somewhere in Las Vegas people are outside and having fun. They are eating, they are play sports, they are walking up and down t he Las Vegas Strip. I am home typing this and watching my mother eat her chicken and green beans. This morning I made her a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich and then made me a peanut butter and strawberry preserves sandwich. I apparently got either grape jelly or strawberry preserves in my hair because every time I touch my forehead my hands get sticky and I have to go to the bathroom to wash them. I have no idea how I manged that, unfortunately, I cannot wash my hair until Mom goes to bed. Mom had an interesting morning. She wanted to know where her shoes were and began crying because she could not find them. Mom has not worn her shoes in a couple of weeks because of water retention. Her legs are not swollen as bad today, so the water pills are working and Mom's blood pressure is in acceptable range (at least for now). She also cried because she did not know where her clothes were; I told her they were in the closet and that seemed to satisfy her. Mom seems to be walking better and she can hold herself up, as long as she has the walker, longer now that her legs are less swollen. I know the water pills are a permanent addition to her medication. The problem is sometimes she has difficulty swallowing the potassium tablets she had to take with them. I will have to find out if they can be ground up, if they can then that will make it easier for her to swallow. I see Mom has finished her lunch, so I have to get her some more watter; perhaps this time I will get her two glass or rather plastic tumblers. I do not give Mom glass glasses any more because of t he breakage potential and the fact that I do not wear shoes in the house. I am tired. I wish I was out walking in a park or even on the Las Vegas Strip. I have not been anywhere on Saturday of Sunday in over a year. I miss not being able to go out on those days. However, since I do not have anyone to stay with Mom (who can take her to the bathroom or dispense her meds) I will not go any place on the weekends for a while. Oh well, that's life (and not the magazine). |
Tacks in the Snow I look behind me at tracks in the snow. They follow me as I climb toward the high pass. They are, of course, my tracks. At least, they are supposed to be my tracks but I wonder if they are really my tracks. They could belong to someone else; they could belong to a stranger who looks just like me. Perhaps I am not myself, it has been so long since I looked in a mirror. I could now be someone else, I could now be a werewolf or an elf or a werewolf elf. I could no longer be human. I look back at the tracks in the snow. They follow me as I climb Dragon's Peak, as I struggle toward Fire Pass, the high pass that separates the Valley of Crystal Shadows from the Valley of the Were-Dragons. I wonder if the tracks are mine or if they belong to my shadow twin, the stranger that follows me on my quest to discover reality. The quest to discover my destiny. I look back at the tracks in the snow. I do not think they belong to me, but I turn and put my feet into them. The tracks are the same size as my leather boots. The tracks must belong to me. Logic tells me the tracks belong to me, my intuition or is it my imagination tells me something different. It tells me they belong to someone else. It tells me they belong to a stranger. It tells me they belong to the person I was twenty footsteps ago. I look back at the tracks in the snow. I know I cannot stand here watching the tracks that lead across the snow to me. I have to turn and continue my climb toward the crest. I cannot stand here all night because I will freeze and then what will happen to all those depending on me to continue the quest for ... for what my destiny. That seems so selfish, there has to be more to this quest then just me. There has to be more to this quest then the endless climb toward eternity. I look back at the tracks in the snow. Then I turn back toward the crest and continue my climb. I try to ignore the tracks whose numbers increase as I push toward the crest of the pass that lies between Dragon's Peak and Werewolf's Peak. I must make the pass by night fall or I will freeze like the others who have come this way. If I become distracted by the thoughts of the stranger that hides withing my wondering thoughts, I will never make the pass. I must ignore the tracks in the snow that keep following me. |
| i bought a new computer. It's a senior MyGait computer. At this moment, I'm waiting on hold with my cable provider because I'm considering going wireless. Which means I need a router in the house, this is so that I can use both computer to access the internet. Under normal conditions, I don't need use them both. However, once a week the situation in this house isn't normal. I'm a member of the National Consumer Panel and once a week I have to upload a scanner to their website. I can't seem to access the internet with the other computer. I think, at least, I hope I can do that with a wireless router. Anyway, I'm waiting on hold wit h my cable provider to ask how much a router cost and if I can use either computer to access the internet. I just got off the phone with the cable company and found out how much a wireless router will cost and how much they will charge to have a tech come to the house and sit it up. They will add it to the next bill, but that's life. At least, both is just a one- time fee. Since I'm not sending this new computer back, because I like the speed and ease of internet access. |
| I have a regular "Bedtime and Morning routines" that I attempt to practice everyday. Normally I succeed, but sometimes something occurs to disrupt this routine. Last night I woke up about 11:27 PM because of "Clarence Dream" , at least I think the dream woke me up. I wrote notes about the dream so that I could write about it when I got up this morning. Mom’s cries interrupted the note taking. I could tell from the tone of her voice that something unusual happened. I put down my pen and paper and then went to my mother’s room. I found Mom sitting on the floor; apparently, she tried to get up and instead went down to the floor. Mom weighs between 140 and 145 lbs. I can’t lift her back into bed. I made sure she wasn’t hurt and called 311 to get fire department personnel to lift her back into bed. The firefighters put her back in bed and they left. I got her situated and covered her up. Mom said she was hunger, but by that time, it was around 12:00 AM. I told her that I didn’t have anything fixed, so she needed to remain in bed until the food was done. I went into the kitchen and got the coffee ready to make this morning. Then I went into the living room, picked up my prayer book, and said the Midnight prayer and went to sleep. I woke up again about 1:27 AM. I got up, went into Mom’s bedroom to make sure she was still in bed. Mom was asleep, which I expected. I came back into the living room, lay down, and went to sleep. It must have been after 2:00 AM when I returned to the living room. Anyway, I overslept. I didn’t get up until well after the alarm went off. I got up close to the time I get Mom up weekday mornings. As a result, I had my morning routine interrupted. This happens periodically because Mom wakes up between 11:15 PM and 1:30 AM. When this happens, she calls me and I go into her bedroom. Fortunately, this is the first time she called me because she was on the floor. |
| I stood looking out my living room window. The rain came down in sheets. The water flowed down Bracken Ave. toward Eastern Ave. I watched the curb deep water flowing. I watched trash like sail boats in the ocean moving east. It rained in Las Vegas. It flooded in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas wash is full of water. Las Vegas streets are full of water with cars stalled and their drivers wondering what happened, their drivers wondering how they could have misjudged the depth of the water. Perhaps now they will believe the billboards that warn drivers not to drive through floodwaters. This is Las Vegas and people are moving in everyday. The floodwaters will come again because we live in a valley we live in a bowl. When it heavy rains come the valley floods. When the valley floods cars and people become stranded in high water. On the bright side, this is the last of the monsoonal moisture. We may not get any more rain, at least not this much for the rest of the year. However, considering the weird weather that we had dealt with in 2012 one never knows for sure. |
| I think I’ve solved one problem I was encountering on the weekends. The problem was getting my mother to the toilet. Mom can’t go by herself and she is in a wheelchair. The wheelchair with Mom goes into the bathroom just fine; however, there is a problem when it’s Mom, the wheelchair, and me in the bathroom at the same time. It’s crowded. It’s difficult to get Mom up from the wheelchair and onto the toilet. This last weekend, I solved this problem. I put the combination shower chair and adult potty-chair in the dining room. Since we don’t eat in that room, it doesn’t matter that the potty-chair is sitting in there all day Saturday and Sunday. As long as I have, it cleaned and back in the bathroom by Monday morning so that the C.N.A. can give Mom her shower. It’s easier for me to get her out of the wheelchair and onto the potty-chair then it is to get her out of the wheelchair and onto the toilet. I found out this last weekend that my right knee doesn’t hurt as bad doing this way. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this solution before. All right, if it ever comes to the point when I have to use the dining room for a dining room on the weekends, I might have a problem, but I will deal with that situation if it ever comes up. |
| Listen carefully. Is that noise someone entering the house? Is it an echo, a reverberation for outside? Is it a ghost or some other monster skulking through the house? What is it? Don’t let your imagination run away with you. Don’t let your fears create terrors that don’t exist. Identify the noise. Remember that normal noises sound strange at night. Remember that sound echoes in odd ways through the house, especially at night. The noise echoing from the street is the neighbor’s Harley-Davidson. The noise from the backyard is a neighbor’s dog barking, probably at another neighbor’s cat. What is the noise in the house? Could it be the sound of paper blown by the air conditioner? Is it the icemaker emptying? Listen carefully. Identify the noise. Pick up your cell phone and walk through the house. Check the front door to see if it’s locked. Check the back door to see if it’s locked. Even without cats in the house things go bump in the night. Don’t let your imagination run away with you. Think about the sound. Identify the sound. If you are going to let your imagination run wild then put it in a story, but don’t let the noise frighten you. Let it frighten the characters in a short story. Let it frighten the characters in a novel, but don’t let it frighten you. |
I’m laughing about this dream now that I’ve written it down .After I ate and then gave Mom all her meds, I sit down on the couch next to her wheelchair. Mom went to sleep, I know because she was snoring. As I sit on the couch, I went to sleep and had a horrid or perhaps weird dream. It wasn’t a true nightmare all though it came fairly close to one. In my dream, I went to sleep on the couch with Mom dozing in her wheelchair next to me. I woke up (in the dream) because I heard someone in the kitchen. I picked up my coffee up so that I could get another cup of coffee and went into the kitchen. There was a woman in the kitchen taking dishes out of my cupboards and the coffee pot contained hot water instead of coffee. I asked, “What happened to the coffee?” She said, “I poured it down the drain.” You can imagine I was furious. About this time the C.N.A. who gives Mom her morning shower arrieved (I’m still dreaming). The C.N.A. went into the bathroom and then came out. She said, “I can’t give Marie a shower with all that stuff stacked in there.” I went into the bathroom and instead of the roll-in shower; there was a short bathtub with an easy chair beside it. Pilled in the tub were baskets of clothes, towels, and linen. I’m still pissed because of the coffee, so this doesn’t alleviate my anger any. Besides me being angry, the C.N.A. was angry because she couldn’t give Mom her shower and the bus was waiting outside to pick Mom up. I don’t know what happened in the dream because this is where I woke up to find myself still sitting on the couch. My cell phone ring and I answered it. It was the C.N.A. calling to say she would be late because there was a traffic jam on the freeway. I lay my phone on the couch, pick up my coffee cup and go into the kitchen. I was hoping that I wouldn’t find some crazy woman cleaning out my cupboards. There was no one in the kitchen. The coffee maker had turned itself off, but it still had coffee. I then went back into the living room and started getting my mother into the shower, so that the C.N.A. could get her bathed and dressed before the bus came to pick her up. I still haven’t figured out what caused the dream. Going to sleep sitting up on the couch usually gives me strange dreams, but never this weird. Before I went to sleep, I ate a bowel of high fiber cereal with milk and sugar. I also ate a banana and took my pain medication. I did take the pain medication with a full cup of coffee instead of the full glass of water indicated on the bottle. The thing about the dream that upset me the most was not a stranger coming into my house and cleaning out my cupboards. It was a stranger coming in and pouring out my coffee. I made a fresh carafe of coffee this morning and drank only one cup. I can always warm cold coffee up in the microwave, but you can’t retrieve coffee poured down the drain. |
The "October Novel Prep Challenge" [13+] begins in twenty-six days. I have no idea what I will write. I do have some ideas for characters, but they are only ideas right now. I also need to figure out a plot. I guess the best way to approach this is to begin a free write about the character ideas or maybe a background idea. I need to answer these questions at least by October 1, 2012. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?Perhaps if I take the questions one at a time with a specific character in mind and see what I can figure out. Maybe I should attempt something completely different this year, a story other then science fiction or fantasy. I have twenty-six days to figure it out. The problem is that twenty-six days will fly past like a rabbit chased by an eagle. |
| I think my mother hallucinated this afternoon. She was sitting in her wheelchair facing the fireplace. I was sitting on the couch near by and she asked, “Who are those two men?” I looked, but there were no men standing near the fireplace or anywhere else. The question surprised me and I didn’t know how to answer. It took me a second to come up with an answer that wouldn’t upset her. I couldn’t say “What men?” Mom didn’t realize there were no men standing by the fireplace and she would get angry if I told her there was no one standing there. I told her it was Grandpa and Uncle Roy. She didn’t ask me if it was her grandfather or my grandfather. She didn’t ask me to identify Uncle Roy. Uncle Roy is one of my Grandpa Newland’s brothers. Mom accepted my explanation. Sometimes it’s easier to give Mom an explanation with familiar names then to tell her the truth, which in this case was that I saw no one standing by the fireplace. Did my mother hallucinate? Did my mother really see two men standing by the fireplace? It doesn’t make a difference because given Mom’s Alzheimer’s disease and poor eyesight, she thought she saw two men. I wasn’t going to tell her she didn’t see someone standing there. I wasn’t going to tell her it was a hallucination. Either of those answers would have made her angry and I wasn’t going to make her angry. |
When my mother received the diagnose of Alzheimer’s disease My world turned upside down that day, transformed into chaotic terror, when age and illness reversed our rolls. I took on roll of parent and my mother became the daughter; I watch her as she forgets her parents’ funerals, giving birth to me: Does she remember my siblings? Does she remember her grandchildren? Does she remember her great grandchildren? Equilibrium, unlike Mom’s memory, slowly returns. When I wrote that poem earlier today, I thought equilibrium was retuning. I thought a new normal was beginning to stabilize in my life. This afternoon, I am not so sure. I do not know what changed my mind, but right now I feel as if there is no equilibrium; however, it could be that a three day weekend with Mom is more stressful then I thought. It could be that when I put the Gate belt back on Mom after getting her ready for bed I for got how to fasten it; at least, I think I did because it did not seem to fasten as easily this afternoon as it did this morning. I need the belt around Mom because it is easier to transfer her from the bed to the wheelchair and from the wheelchair to the toilet and visa versa. I got her transferred safely back to the wheelchair after getting her ready for bed. I got her transferred safely from the wheelchair to the bed, so the belt was secure. It could be that I am just tired. Perhaps I need to fix me something to eat or pour myself a large cold glass of apple juice. |
| I know this is still Saturday, September 01, 2012, because that is what the computer tells me. Right now, it feels like Sunday evening instead of Saturday. I took a nap early this afternoon and when I woke up I was disoriented. I was not sure if it were Saturday or Sunday. I think the problem was the way I took the nap. The nap was unintended; it was an accidental nap. I sit down on the couch to watch “Swamp People” and fell asleep. Normally, I do not doze during this show because I want to see the alligator hunt. For some odd reason, I enjoy watching the hunters catch and shoot alligators. Anyway, this afternoon I went to sleep during the show. This is a warning Beware the afternoon nap Disorientating |
| It is Friday, August 31, 2012, I remembered the following joke that I thought I would share. I am not sure where I heard it, that is the way it is with the jokes I remember; I remember to joke but not where I heard or read the joke. Talking To Yourself It’s alright to talk to yourself. It’s alright to talk to yourself and answer yourself. The time to start worrying is when you talk to yourself, answer yourself, and then ask, “What did I say?” |
Thursday, August 30, 2012 ~ Day 30 of the 30-Day Blogging Challenge prompt is Serial Experience: The Rules (tm) are simple. This is an open blog prompt where you can blog about anything your heart desires. The kicker is it has to be in two parts. This means 1 anecdote shared over 2 days. Do I hear thunder? I wonder. I thought I heard thunder. I did not see any lightning, but that does not mean anything. The thunder was in the distance and not in my immediate neighborhood. I looked out the window and did not see any rain. I did not hear any rain, but it was still dark outside. It was darker then usual because of the cloud cover. It must have been around 3:30 or 4:00 AM when I heard the thunder. I have to get Mom up between 5:00 and 5:30 AM, in order to give her all the meds she has to take before the C.N.A. come to give her a bath at 7:00 AM. I went into Mom room and started the process of giving meds; this morning I had to put eye drops in her eyes and it is easier if she is lying down. I got Mom up, semi-dressed (the C.N.A. dresses her after the shower), transferred to the wheelchair, and pushed her into the living room. I went out for the newspaper and did not find a puddle of rainwater in my driveway. This is a good indication that it did not rain in my neighborhood. There were still clouds in the sky, so I paused to watch them. Dawn turned them the color of strawberry lace. I stood outside for five minutes just watching the clouds. I would have stood out there until after sunrise watching the clouds, but I could not leave Mom alone for very long. I know it rained in some parts of Las Vegas because the C.N.A. said it rained in her neighborhood. I wish it had rained in my part of town. I guess rain is still possible because there are still clouds. The humidity feels higher then normal, which makes the heat that much more uncomfortable. I did not watch the news this morning or at noon, so I do not know what the meteorologist predicted for today. However, with clouds covering part of the blue desert sky, the question of rain is still up in the air.
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012 ~ Day 29 of the 30-Day Blogging Challenge prompt is Serial Experience: The Rules (tm) are simple. This is an open blog prompt where you can blog about anything your heart desires. The kicker is it has to be in two parts. This means 1 anecdote shared over 2 days. It is early afternoon; a breeze begins to blow pushing a few beautiful fluffy white clouds across the sapphire sky. Slowly the clouds gather into flocks. It is almost in perceptible at first; it is as if they sneak up. I looked out the window to see a smattering of clouds decorating the desert sky. A few minutes later, I carry recyclables to the garage. I pause to look up at the sky and see a few more clouds, but they are scattered haphazardly over Las Vegas. I become distracted. There are dishes to wash. There are floors to sweep and mop. There are stories to write. There is mail to read. There are phone calls to make. There is little time to look out the window and watch the clouds. I check the clock and find it is almost 3:00 PM. Where did the time go? I know that Chris will be arriving soon to help prepare Mom’s supper and get her to bed. I unlock the security screen and notice that the humidity has increased; I shrug my shoulders and then go to the kitchen pour myself a cup of coffee. It is late August and monsoonal moister is normal when there are a few clouds in the sky. I go into the living room and sit down on the love seat to watch T.V., but first I look out the window. Towers of white clouds now cover almost 90% of the sky. My cell phone rings and I push answer. It is, Sherri, my mother’s Hospice nurse. She has called in a prescription for some eye drops, which will be ready in about half an hour. Since I have to pick them up, I need change clothes. I take a sip of coffee and sit the cup down. There is no time to finish it because I have to be ready to leave when Chris arrives. Chris arrives and I leave for the Walgreens. I know that when I get back to the house Mom will be home and Chris will have given her super. Once I return the only thing I will have to do is give Mom her medication. I drive to the pharmacy. The clouds continue to build as the go west on Oaky Avenue. I wonder if it will begin to rain before I get back home, but I am fortunate because the clouds continue to gather without rain beginning to fall. As I write this, the sun is setting behind clouds. The sun transforms the clouds into burning coal. There is still no rain, at least in my neighborhood. Las Vegas is huge, so it will rain somewhere tonight. It may not be in my neighborhood. It may not even rain at the airport, but it will rain somewhere in Las Vegas tonight. If it does not rain at the airport then the rain will not be official, but that does not mean much. If it rains in this desert city there is a good chance it will flood some streets. It does not matter if it is an official rain or flood. People will still be foolish enough to drive through flood areas when they should drive around, when they should find a different route to take them past the water covering the street. What part of Las Vegas will receive rain tonight? Will it rain hard and long enough to flood streets? Only morning will bring the answer to these questions.
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012 ~ Day 28 of the 30-Day Blogging Challenge prompt is "What health issues are important to you?" At 65 I realize my body won’t live forever. Three types of health issues are important for a human being to remain healthy and happy. These health issues concern the body, the mind, and the soul (spirit). Each individual must balance the needs of these three components in order to remain strong and healthy. A person cannot focus exclusively on one of the components and expect to remain healthy. I did not come to this realization until later in my life. This is no excuse, but it does explain why I have health problems. Since I cannot go back in time to tell my younger self to stop smoking, eat a balanced diet, begin a meditation and prayer routine, and practice moderation in everything (including moderation); I have to deal with the consequences. Fortunately, I can take action to alleviate some of the problems caused by my youthful ignorance.  I can set aside some time each day to pray and meditate. I can attempt to eat a balanced diet most of the time. I can work on acquiring a more positive attitude. I can take my medication. I can exercise to the best of my ability. I can laugh and practice my sense of humor.A bit of senior humor Woman in her 60s: What are the three signs of old age? Woman in her 20s: I don’t know. Woman in her 60s: Lose of sight, lose of hearing, and I can’t remember the other.
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