I called in sick.....

Here I am at Quarai ruins....the beautiful church show here was built by the women of the Pueblo.  The community was in existence for over 200-300 years before the Spanish came.  

The Quarai ruins are remarkable, but not for the ruins.  Nope, it's remarkable for it's gardens.  It is estimated that they grew enough food to feed around 500-800 people who lived there.  That's quite remarkable considering the climate, which has been described as either bone chilling cold (10 degrees) or broiling hot.  It was very hot yesterday, which is why you see me with the item that looks like a scarf...you wet it and it cools you down.  It worked very well yesterday, keeping me much more comfortable.  But all of this sun and heat wave we have had for the past week has left me feeling a little crummy.  I decided to skip the trip to Santo Domingo today, which pisses me off.  I think it would have been a fun trip to watch the horse races and view the Pueblo plaza and church.  Oh, well.  

I really need to catch up on my reading today anyway.

Guest lecturer and some of my class mates...

There were beautiful trees, and it was cool in the small valley...evaporative cooling from the stream that is just below the surface in some areas, and above in others.  

My favorite photo of the ruins.....

Well, I'm off to do some reading and relaxing.  Have a great weekend!

Love, 365

Home...

Old Albuqeurque Airport, home to the TSA

Romeo and I took a quick trip to the old Albuquerque airport building, which I understood has been renovated.  We could only look around the main concourse of the building, as the remaining rooms now house the TSA offices.  It's pretty cool ~ literally it was cool inside, as we are experiencing more triple digit temp's (or close to it).  The thick adobe walls are likely 18 inches thick, and are typically thicker at the base and thins somewhat as it rises.

Interior...note the beautiful beams and vigas on the ceiling.

As we were driving home ~ omg is it hot, thank god for a/c ~ we discussed again our earlier thoughts on moving back to Texas upon retirement.  Which granted, isn't for another 5 to 8 years.  This came about earlier in the year right before I traveled to Austin to visit the boys, Mom, and my sister.  Once I was there, and recalled the absolutely horrible traffic (Austin has become notorious for it), and the sheer number of people (San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the U.S.), I began to have my doubts right about the time Romeo was beginning to warm up to the idea.  

I had a discussion with a friend, and mentioned the reasons I wanted to move back, which is mainly for family.  And I would like to be closer to them.  And I realized that I was assuming that my sister and I would engage in a wonderful re-creation of my visits.....and just how unrealistic that thought is. She has two grandchildren from her husband's kids, and my nephew and his wife are expecting in August.  She has a lot going on.  And when we did live in the same city ~ at one point we lived less than a mile from each other ~ we didn't really see each other that often.  Family get togethers, sure, but otherwise, not so much.  Perhaps once we are both retired (she's already semi-retired) I suppose we would spend more time together.  

But, then I looked around me.  The mountains, the turquoise sky, the urban/suburban feel of Albuquerque.  The beauty of the countryside around us.  The smell of the desert.  And I began to have misgivings about the very idea.  Romeo and I decided to put the decision on the back burner for the moment.  I think it's kind of funny how a place can get into your soul, and before you know it, you feel as though you belong.  You are home.

Love, 365

A hidden gem in the heart of Albuquerque

Los Poblamos, Albuquerque

Our Architecture of New Mexico class went to Los Poblamos yesterday to view a style of architecture that is unique to NM.  But mostly, it was just fun, and amazing.  I never even heard of this place!  I will be going back soon....

The main crop is lavender.  The plants were beautiful and of course, smelled heavenly.

John Gall Meem was the architect for many of the buildings here....and also designed the Zimmerman Library on UNM campus.  

Professor Norman Crowe joined Prof. Karla Britton to give us the low-down on the details of the NM territorial style.  Sweet guy.

Our group photo for this trip....

This building would be the area for a wedding that was to take place that evening.

We had a real scorcher yesterday, and we were tempted to jump into this pool....

I was obsessed with this tractor and silos....I love this photo.

We arrived at 9am, and by the time we left around 11:30, the heat was pouring it on.  We went to have lunch at Flying Star....and for some reason they chose to eat outside on the patio.  Which was covered, but omg, really?  I took 2 ibuprophen as I left, to try to get rid of a building headache.  Soon after I abandoned my last errand and went home.  After a few hours rest, I was feeling better.  I decided to order a cooling neck wrap for next week's travels, as I don't want to deal with a migraine when we're an hour from home.  

Regardless of the headache/migraine, it was fun.  I purchased some lavender lotion and lavender honey (wow! is that stuff good) at the farm store.  I plan to visit again, and purchase gifts at the store. It is a historic inn and organic farm, and I'd love to spend the night there sometime...although it's a bit pricey.  

*********************************************

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dad's, Step Dad's, and men who fill the roll... 

My Romeo.....

Love, 365

Oh, good grief

I have class tomorrow morning at 8am  I've spent the week reading the material, and working on our assignment (there are 2 this week).  Basically, I worked 2 to 3 hours Monday and Tuesday, not including reading stuff during lunch hour.  ~ I though I had already gone through the reading material before I received her e-mail on what to read for this week, which was a little depressing.

Tonight, I planned to put the "finishing touches" on my assignments, print them up, put everything together, and be done.

But no.  Fate, or kismet, or whatever decided to throw in a little fun.  I couldn't print anything.  We've all had that happen....the printer won't connect.  For whatever reason.  I tried all the tricks I knew (which are dismally few).  Nothing.  I spent an hour before I threw my hands up and asked Romeo to help.  He gave me a memory stick, had me put the items on it and printed it on his computer.

Then, about 15 minutes later, mentioned that sometimes the wi-fi will ~ for some ungodly reason ~ chose a different wi-fi, which isn't connected to the printer.  And that was it.

I have bald spots now.....thanks to wi-fi.  And my own stupidity.

Love, 365

Reminiscing and remembering....

(Bing images)

Once upon a time I had a blog that I loved ~ but I had to erase it.  Delete it from existence.  I was pissed at myself and at the person who found the blog and then mentioned to my (then) boss, who was understandably quite upset ~ not only did I write about him, but other co-workers, and some of them were not ~ shall we say ~ charitable.   This was almost 4 years ago (how time flies! oh my god), but I was thinking about it this morning.  Since then I no longer work for the same person (thank you, god) and I have broken my vow not to write about work, but it's a rare thing and I don't go into much detail.  Besides which, none of my current co-workers would give a shit about my blog.  I'm certain I've never even mentioned it.  

My erstwhile employer, who had been vilified in the newspapers for tax evasion, is quite sensitive to criticism.  I just heard on Friday that he is soon selling his dental practice.  I asume this is likely due to his shoulder issues, and not a desire to spend all of his time with his bitchy and unappreciative wife, who prefers to spend $$ keeping up with the higher echelon of society in NM.  Which is funny, because there's not much society in NM, other than Santa Fe, which has its share of famous people. 

One of my friends, who is a hygienist for the erstwhile and crabby employer, texted me the news, and is now worried that the dentist who purchases the practice may not keep her on.  Which would be stupid, because her patients love her.  I think she has a legitimate concern, who wouldn't feel unsettled in that situation?  But if the new Doc wants to retain the patients currently in the practice, he or she would do well to keep her.  If a patient called and wanted to see her, and couldn't remember her name, they would explain that they want "the singing hygienist".  She has a lovely voice, and likes to softly follow along with the music while working.  I miss working with her.   

*************************************************

Well, I sort of rambled on longer than I intended.  Today I am enjoying the final game in the French Open.  Wawrinka and Nadal are playing....players that I like, and enjoy watching.  I believe Nadal is favored to win, although Stan has been playing well lately.  As I write this, they are neck and neck.....

Thanks for coming by, and have a great week ahead!

Love, 365

Etc.......

Watching the French Open and sadly reporting that Ramona Halep lost to Ostapenko......sad because I like Halep & hoped she would win.  Them's the breaks.  Tomorrow is another day.  Win some, lose some.  Etc........

I filled my injectible migrane medication, and discovered they have redesigned it.  Now instead of a pen where you remove the cap, press it to your skin and inject, you have to attach the injector to the medication.....I read through the instructions, and figure I ought to read them again, or attach the directions to the package.  It's great for carrying, but looks a bit more complicated to put together.

I watched a video of a woman giving herself one, and it doesn't look difficult.  I was concerned because when I have a migrane I can't think very well....suppose that's to be expected.   The pens I had that just expired were a lot simpler, but longer and didn't fit easily into whatever you're carrying.  A friend of mine uses them, and said to keep the expired ones even though the medication might not be as strong.  I suppose it's not a terrible idea.  

The best part was that I paid only $8 with insurance, and without it I paid $65, with a coupon from Good Rx.  The pharmacy told me it would be $200 without insurance (or coupon).  Good grief.

It's going to be a hot day here....I think this doggie has the right idea.  Perhaps I'll just hang around the house today and do laundry and cleaning.  Although that sounds like a horrible way to spend a Saturday.......

Love, 365

This and that and everything between......

View of Mount Taylor from Acoma Pueblo

I have today off.....when I registered for the class I took off the Friday's I have to work (every other one), then the class dates changed and as it turned out I don't have class today.  I pondered whether I should just work today, but decided that if my racquetball peeps were going to play on Friday I would just keep the day off and play, and luckily enough of us were able to make it.  I did not mention any of this to my co-workers, or the OM.....it's nice to believe that I have some control over my life.  It's just too bad that it's an illusion, ha ha.

Romeo had a rather nasty surprise last week, discovering that because he had a late start to the school year, his "contract" ended on May 24th ~ the last day of school.  Which means he will not be paid for the summer, which we had been discussing just the week before.  The principal of the school sent him an e-mail letting him know, and apologizing for it, and stating that she didn't realize this would happen.   We'll have insurance until the end of June, then a break from coverage until school starts again in early August.  I have my doubts as to whether she understood how his contract worked, but it's all water under the bridge.  As Romeo stated "it's been the year from hell", from his perspective.  It's really not a huge problem, we can survive a couple of months without the extra pay, but I do wish the insurance coverage wouldn't have that gap in it, although 4 to 6 weeks isn't much compared to the 10 months of 2016. 

 I guess the individual(s) who painted this should have spent more time studying....

Have a great Friday, y'all.

Love, 365

How things have changed........

Ah, the waiting room.... (Bing images)

I'm willing to bet that at some time or another, all of you have noticed that our medical care system has become more automated.....picking numbers and having those numbers called out by a computer generated voice.  The above photo is similar to the waiting room I expereienced this morning.  I arrived at 8am, but probably should have arrived at 7:30.  It was really full.  The facility I was in has a Tricore lab in it, which is where I was going ~ but it also has physicians, nurses and mental health doctors too, which probably accounts for how busy it was.  Monday seems to kick us in the backside more often than any other day of the week ~ just sayin.

I hit the button on the kiosk that spits out the little piece of paper with a number on it.  With that little piece of paper comes the hope that there aren't too many ahead of you....until the computer voice says "A025 please report to desk #3", and your paper says A054.  I settled in.

At first it was fairly quiet.  The occassional rustle of paper, shoes scuffing on the floor.  But it didn't take long for some folks to haul out their phones and make arrangements for the day.  At least I didn't have to listen to someone fighting with a spouse or family member.  As grandparents entered with grandkids in tow, it got a bit louder.  It's interesting to people watch, but I prefer not to in a medical office....you just know that some of these people have some serious issues.  I brought something to read....and took breaks by playing a game on my phone.  I think Candy Crush was developed for the waiting room, ha ha.

Finally got out of there an hour later, which I suppose wasn't too bad.  I have a nice little hole in my arm where they drained me of blood, and in a couple of weeks I will find out the result of the tests, which are basic.  I haven't had a cholesterol test in over 10 years, and the Doc wants to check my thyroid function.  

How was your last Dr/lab visit?

Love, 365

Mikey! I think she likes it!

One of the many pics I took yesterday at Acoma Pueblo ~ "Sky City"

IF you read my blog with any regularity, you might recall the debacle of the 8 week history class.....I ended up dropping it after asking myself to list the pros and cons of it, and could only come up with one pro and a whole list of cons.  And yet......I did it again.  I registered for "Arch of New Mexico" (erroneously thinking it mean archaeology of NM, instead of architecture of NM).....this is the class that I had to stay up until midnight to get.  It's weird, that this class was listed under art history, architecture, geology, history, and a few others.  Truth is, I could have registered under some other designation than history and likely had my advisor change it to history ~ which is what one of the students in the class has done.  What's done is done though, and I still would rather stay up late to sign up under the class I need (history) rather than go through the trouble of having to beg the advisor to change it.......and as stupid as that is, perhaps not be successful.  Now, wouldn't that suck the big one.

Admittedly I liked this one because of the sun rays that seem to bless Acoma....

At any rate, I became a bit irritated before the class began, as suddenly we received e-mail notice that the class would start on 6/2 instead of 6/9.  Why irritated, you ask?  Well, because I had already taken off the Friday's I thought I would need.  So, that's one.  Secondly, I received a notice on Wed that the "course packet" would be available at the copy center on UNM campus after 3pm.  Just as I was getting ready to leave work to pick it up I checked it's location and discovered that the copy center closes at 4:45.  I would have been so pissed if I had driven down there to discover it was closed.  My only option then was to spend my lunch hour on Thurs to go pick it up.  The problem was that I had to read the 3 articles and write a one page paper to turn in on Friday.  I was also noticing that they extended the class by one more Friday because the professor is out of town on 6/9.  I didn't ask for that Friday off.  I'm likely not going to be able to attend the last class.  I guess I'll have to make arrangements to turn in my final paper by e-mail or something.  I doubt seriously that I'll be able to take that day off.  I decided to attend one class and see how I felt about it.

The Acoma people began building on the mesa top in the mid 1100s

I unhappily set my alarm for Friday at 5:30am, and left with my backpack in tow at 7:25 ~ not as early as I'd hoped because I thought I might get caught up in the Friday morning traffic.  As it turned out I arrived just in time.  Only to find that all of the doors to the building the class was being held at were all locked.  I could see a room with a few people in it....I wondered how they got in.....and shortly after that I noticed a man walking from one door to another, and finally got in.  I don't know what I expected, but certainly more than the 10 people who wandered in.  Apparently some of the students could not rearrange their schedule to attend a week early, although the professor said she would hold a make up class on Sunday.  Now that caught my attention.  Not many would do that.  

I liked that you could see the adobe bricks under the stucco....

Well, I love the class.....the instructor isn't a completely unadulterated nut bag who wants you to do nothing but her class for the next four weeks.  Sure, we have assignments.  But they are REASONABLE.  Wow.  Realism.  Not a concept I often experience in college classes.  Anyway, we went to Acoma yesterday, and it was great.  We're going to discuss our experiences and observations. She actually wants our observations, not a prescribed reiteration of what she expects.  Refreshing.

Here we are.....our instructor is the one in the straw hat.

Our next field trip will be to Santo Domingo Pueblo, where we are apparently going to get a very inclusive tour.  I've been there, but only for an art sale, which they have every October.  Can't wait!

Love, 365