Baton Rouge

We have decided we love B R! Yesterday we went to visit and go up to the top of the magnificent State Capitol building. Although there were hundreds of schoolchildren all around, we were nearly alone at the top. And the children were quiet and very well-behaved. We were surprised!

We had a fine lunch at a place called Shucks, after finding a free parking garage behind the Belle Casino. Then we went the short walk to the USS Kidd - a retired but well-restored destroyer from WWII. We enjoyed our self-guided tour there, and the museum as well.

Weather has warmed and cleared,after a few days of somewhat chilly. Today will be 81°!

Location : 4, LA,

Lordsburg, New Mexico

We actually did make it out of Tucson, even though the "where is Janee now" hasn't updated. We stopped here attending the koa because we wanted to, but, even if we had wanted to go on, we would have been stuck here. Because of fierce winds and dust storms, I-10 is closed immediately east of here, all the way to Las Cruces.

Location : W Railway, Lordsburg, NM 88045,

Goodbye 2005

Today I did my after-tax-filing shredding party. This means that I moved all my 2011 folders into long-term storage, moved 2012 from immediate to short-term storage, and I took 2005 out of long-term and shredded all those papers.

Everyone has different ways of keeping stuff and different timetables for purging. Michael basically never purged anything. So when I was preparing to sell the house in Bloomington, I had to shred 50 + years of documents. I had the shredded going for literally days. So this one-year-at-a-time thing is a piece of cake. Fun, actually.

Location : E Centrepark Dr, Tucson, AZ 85710,

Well again

Finally I am indeed healthy once more! It was only 2 full days that I lay about doing nearly nothing besides watching my temperature go up, but it felt like far longer. At its peak, it was 102.0, my neck glands were quite swollen and sore, and I was blowing aliens out of my nose.

I made a point of drinking lots of water, took some tylenol on day 2, and just took it very easy. Today I am a bit stronger --not up for zumba this am, but maybe tomorrow.

Location : 201 N Pantano Rd, Tucson, AZ 85710,

Two paper cuts

...in two days! Ouch!! I hate paper cuts because I tend to replay their creation over and over in my mind.

Location : E Centrepark Dr, Tucson, AZ 85710,

Beautiful Easter Day

This day began with sunrise service at church. It was a lovely time with birds serenading us as the sun slowly lit the Catalinas, before creeping up over the Rincons. What a beautiful town this is, and how fortunate I am that Michael and I found this place in January of 2006!

This afternoon, Jack and I went to a nice party at Nancy's. There were only fun people there, and the best of things to eat and drink. Need I say that a good time was had by all?

Having arrived so early at church, neither Jack nor I was inclined toward exercise until late in the afternoon. We took a slow walk over to visit our rv in storage, and around the Pantano wash, back around to our garden.

What the javelinas have not rooted up or trampled looks great! Our lettuce is 4-5" high, and we've enjoyed several salads from it already. The zucchini plants look healthy, and they should bear fruit for who/what-ever wants to harvest them. The radishes are already producing. Parsley looks good. Peppers , carrots, and the rest of the herbs seem, so far, to be javelina casualties. Ah well, we can always get nice vegetables at Fry's. The Javelinas can't.

Location : E Centrepark Dr, Tucson, AZ 85710,

I'm not sure

That is, I'm not sure what I've been doing. I've stayed busy, but can't really say I've accomplished anything.

I was going to travel east to visit with a family member, but my mind was changed for me at very literally the last minute. This left me out (just?) $600 but I never missed a night sleeping in my own bed. I had still looked forward to the visit, though, and will do it another time.

Jack's plumbing in his cottage stopped draining, so he will have it repaired on Monday. It is a park problem, though, so that is good for him.

I got a somewhat clean bill of health from my doctor, but he does want me to do some follow -up with a psychiatrist in Michigan to see if we can't get better control of my depression. Three different docs have talked to me about electro-convulsive therapy. (I think that's what it is called.) Life-changing, my doctor says. I will do more study, but the idea scares me more than thoughts of suicide, and that's a lot.

Location : E Centrepark Dr, Tucson, AZ 85710,

Very close

I was driving behind another vehicle this evening, through a light where we both turned left, down a little way, and then the other vehicle signaled for a left turn just as I also did.

From my vantage point, I could clearly see that the oncoming traffic was quite close. The first vehicle was a motorcycle, the second was a car with its left headlight out, and it was followed by another motorcycle.

The vehicle ahead of me made the turn, though, only a very short distance from the front of that motorcycle. I know that driver misjudged the oncoming traffic, perhaps not even knowing that the first thing was a motorcycle. And I know that the biker is feeling lucky tonight. <shudder> I am very grateful that there was no bloodbath on that street this evening.

Location : E Centrepark Dr, Tucson, AZ 85710,

No Regrets

That was the fabulous play we attended on Sunday. It happens that our Pastor Lesley was its star, but every aspect of it was well done and entertaining. Afterwards we had a St Patrick's Day feast at our church and that was lots of fun.

Oh, and did I mention that I got up and played my penny whistle for church on Sunday? I played "Let All Things Now Living" and "I Danced in the Morning." While I'm confident that my next performance will be better, I did it, got through it, and everyone applauded me and came up afterwards to ask me about the whistle and how I learned to play it. I was pleased.

Then last evening we had the last of our ballroom dance lessons for the season. What fun we've had with that this year! There is just one more dance here, and we're excited to strut our stuff again.

Jack made the best pie today -- cherry with chocolate and a bit of orange zest. He's mastered pie crust making, too. No one will need me now!

I am feeling better now. I talked with an ent Dr friend who looked at me and doubted I had mastoiditis after all. My doc said my blood work was normal, too, which makes it unlikely that there was an infection. My friend said he thought it was a muscle thing, and to take aleve and put heat on it. So I have been doing that since Sunday and it's almost like it was before. I even wore a headband out to dinner tonight and no pain. :-)

Location : E Centrepark Dr, Tucson, AZ 85710,

Feeling a bit better

I started coming back to myself late in the day yesterday, and today, I actually felt a little bit creative! I celebrated by doing my B:

I'm still taking the antibiotic, and I had blood drawn for testing just yesterday. My doctor wants to do a CT scan, but insurance is balking, and, if I'm feeling much better on Monday, I may say "never mind" on the CT. That is a lot of radiation, and I don't want to turn into the Hulk for nothing.

Weather here has turned suddenly hot. Yesterday, we hit a record high for the date, of 93. Actually, compared to what we know that Tucson WILL be getting, 93 is a nice cool day. :) The pool is full of people who are tired from packing to go back north. It's still a bit too soon for us. And we have some things to do here before we go. We are NOT spending the summer of 2013 here, however.