Autumn at it's best................

 

Yesterday Romeo and I took the majority of the day to travel on the Sandia Mountain tram to the top for a hike ~ he had said maybe we shouldn't (since it's my short weekend), but I mentioned that this is likely the last weekend in the 70s (I think the high was 74) that we will have.  Certainly next weekend's forecast is at least 10 degrees below that.  What a glorious day it was ~ in fact today was just the same, it was a beautiful day.

As you see, the skies were blue like a robin's egg...the breeze was mostly felt as you approached the edge.  An edge that is quite spincter tightening in places, lol.

One of my favorite photos from the lot.  I have so many in my collection.  But each time I go, there is something different, whether it be the season, or the weather.  

I posed as a tree-hugger :-)

I'm not sure what Romeo intended to convey.....haha

We meant to get going to see the aspen trees turn gold, but we were late for that.  They are gnarly trees once all their leaves are gone.  The grow tall in order to reach the sun, and the high winds common at the crest of the mountain create these tortured shapes.  The golden leaves were tattered and scattered on the ground.  

After the hike (nearly 6 miles of ups and downs and rocks and stairs ~ yes there are stairs cut into the rock in places), we were starving.  There is a wonderful restaurant on top, near the tram.  By the time we arrived, there was a 30-45 minute wait, so we left and drove to El Pinto which is a popular New Mexican restaurant in town.  It didn't escape my attention that it took about that long to drive there.  :D

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend too!  

Less than 30 weeks to retirement....

Love, 365

Flummoxed..........

 

There are a growing number of folks that are convinced that the earth is flat, and that we've all been brainwashed that the earth is round ~ headed by NASA, our government, and likely other organizations.  I watched about 3/4's of the show Behind the Curve.  That was all I could do, I just couldn't do it after that.  And, perhaps more importantly, it was driving Romeo crazy.  

The very first part was narrated by a flat earth believer, Mark Sargent.  He seems like a reasonable person, who apparently truly believes the earth is flat.  Then things take a rather weird turn.  

Not much of the FEB's (flat earth believers) actually have any proof.  They have some experiments that seem to support them.  But mostly they are talking about believing what they believe and then working hard to support their theory.  It's not based on having a theory and then applying the scientific method to find the truth, but sticking with working on proving their theory....and if their test doesn't prove it, trying another test until they find what they're looking for.  I watched as they were trying to use some special gyroscope to prove their theory, but when it didn't work (this was to prove the earth doesn't rotate), they kept trying with different processes.  As far as I know, they failed every single time.  

Neil Degrasse Tyson describes this movement as an anti-intellectual movement that borders on the end of civilization as we know it.  Hmmmm.  I think his frustration has influenced the vehemence of his words😡, lol.

There was quite a bit of film that had absolutely nothing to do with the theory.  A guy who makes a "flat earth motorcycle" ~ the possible romance between Mark and Patricia Steere (who is apparently well known in FEB you tube videos) ~ a dating service for FEB, because who else would date someone with those beliefs? 

Some of these people are making a lot of money off of the believers of this baseless theory too.  One guy spends hours (and is quite talented) making flat earth models that are very elaborate.

Anyway, it was interesting.  I watched because I wanted to see their "proof", or at least understand why they are convinced that the earth is flat.  I have come away agreeing with one of the psychologists that commented here and there ~ there are those who, for some reason, do not want to believe in the "establishment".  It's a thing.  I've had experience with this, and I bet you have too.  People that insisted when the vaccine first came out that it would be "the mark of the beast" or that there would be some kind of tracker in either the vaccine or the freaking band-aid.  

If I could ask a FEB a questions, it would be "then why is the moon round, the sun is round, the planets are round"?  I'm sure they have a theory on that too.  Romeo would shake his head at me for even engaging in such nonsense.

Love, 365 

Mean people, possible puppy, and other adventures.....

 

Do you ever read those articles that pop up on your phone ~ I get them every day.  Usually there is one or two that I find interesting.  Today, Time Magazine had an article on why people seem increasingly rude lately (although "lately" is incorrect).  One of the reasons listed is that we're now unused to dealing with others during the pandemic.  Hmmm, perhaps.  It seems more likely that we're just so frustrated with all the pandemic brings, we're taking it out on each other.  And although the article didn't mention social media, that gets a good bit of my vote too.  People can't get enough of it, haven't you noticed?  Now that we can't have any magazines (honestly, didn't they already state that the virus is very unlikely to be transmitted from surfaces??), there's not much to do unless you bring your own book.  If you're already feeling rather pissed off all the time, social media is comparable to using gas to light a match.  

It's become a bit rough out there.  I haven't experienced much of the rudeness, just people who don't want to wear masks anymore.  Otherwise, most people I've encountered haven't been mean just for the sake of it.  The story is different on airplanes, in cafe's, and retail.    Crime is definitely up in our area too.  Hit and run accidents have been more common.  I think I'd rather stay home or go for a hike.  But I am missing having a dog.....

One of our hygienists has a dog that is pregnant.  The dog is a blue eyed husky.  Romeo hasn't said anything about wanting a dog, but when the puppies arrive, I'll show him a photo and see if he wants to do it...although he did say we should go for a smaller dog, since they tend to live longer ~ but prefers larger dogs.  Ugh.  Not sure that adopting a dog for longevity is the best way to go, although we both like Corgi's and Scottish Terriers.  

We're supposed to go to Costco today.  Wish us luck!  Yikes!

Enjoy your Saturday

Love, 365

Oh, how I miss breakfast.....

 

Even as a kid I was a big breakfast eater.  During my teen years, when body image is stupidly geared to thin thin thin ~ well, lets not go there, it was an unhealthy time of my life.  I feel as though I've always had issues with my weight.  Peer pressure, social pressure ~ women are always under fire to be thin.  There's a reason why most magazine and clothing lines advertise with tall thin women.  Oh, for the Renaissance, when it was popular for women to be chubby.

Sigh.

When we age, most people ~ men and women ~ put on pounds over time.  For me it really started coming on when I turned 60.  None of the usual tactics worked anymore.   I tried exercising more, counting calories, etc.  Nothing worked.  The scale stayed stubbornly the same ~ or crept up, despite my efforts.  Then I read about intermittent fasting.  The basic idea is limiting eating during an 8 hour period.  Because Romeo and I enjoy eating dinner together, I chose the 12-8 period.  Oh, how I miss breakfast.  The eggs, the toast, the pancakes, the waffles....bacon.  All postponed until noon.  

I have to say, by 10:30, my tummy is rumbling.  I drink two cups of coffee, then I go for water to stave off the hunger pains.  Which, truthfully, has limited results.  

I started this on a trial basis, and have been sticking with it for the past three months.  So far I've lost 6 pounds, which doesn't sound like much, does it?  It's been more successful than anything else I've tried. When I traveled I didn't follow the plan, but I didn't gain any weight, which was amazing.  

But boy, I sure do miss breakfast.

Love, 365

Hiking and baking........

Look closely at the sign.....at some recent point in time a kid ~ or kid at heart ~ put a little toy dinosaur on it.  A bright blue one.  Sometimes you see small cairns too.  A few months after the pandemic came, people were painting rocks and placing them along the trail.  Seems like every week there were new ones and the collection was fun to keep up with.  

 

I loved this Halloween display that faces only the park.  Very clever and cute.  

Bees, still busy out there.  Lots of blooming plants still around here, but I loved that I caught this one on a lowly dandelion.

Not long ago I saw some suggestions on how to take photos from a different perspective, so I placed my phone on the ground beneath this dandelion for the photo.  I was pleasantly surprised, but I need a little more practice.

Yesterday I baked a new Greek desert ~ ravani.  I'm not sure it turned out very well, but I have no way to know, never had one.  It's really too bad the recipe didn't explain to take the cake out of the pan before you pour on the syrup.  It would have turned out so much better if I had, I rather squished it getting it out.  I'll have to ask one of my cowokers (she's made it before).  So, I guess I'll keep it in the fridge until Monday.  All in all, rather disappointing. 

Sleep well!

Love, 365

Coupla days off..............................

 

Group photo of many of the dancers, our priest, and organizers/instructors.  I didn't take this photo, I stole it off of Facebook.  I did not manage to make it to watch any of the dances.  At the end of my shift I was tired and just wanted to go home!  

We actually did sell ALL of the pastries by the end of Saturday.  I was amazed.  And so happy not to have to go through another shift.

Yesterday I helped my friend with a catering job she had.  It was either a pre-wedding or post-wedding shindig by a wealthy lady who lives in a very nice house at one of the best locations in Albuquerque.  She loves Greek food, and called the Philoptokos society (philanthropic) to see if they would be interested in cooking for her event.  They were not.  Not sure why.  My friend didn't explain that part, but she did volunteer to do it herself.  She asked me to help, I suppose she just needed a warm body that could run food back and forth.  Without going into a lot of boring detail, I now know I have absolutely no interest in the catering business.  I can't imagine that it's at all lucrative, and it's tons of work (and frustration).  And for this I agreed to skip church yesterday.  :-(  Lesson learned.  It's true that you're never to old to learn shit.

Today is my regular day off, but I took tomorrow off too, thinking I would need an extra day.  So glad I did.  And the weather is lovely!  Romeo took off on his walk early, but I was setting up to cut the rest of the towel fabric, which has been sitting around since my first go round.  I am finished with that, and will start sewing later today....it is a lot of fun to see how the fabric changes with washing and drying.  This will give me three sets, but I do plan to give a set to my sister.  Maybe for Christmas?  Or just for the heck of it.  This time I want to sew a loop option for hanging. 

Well, I'm going off for the walk!  I hope you all have a wonderful week.  Happy fall!

 

Greek Festival time!.....

 

I know it's hard to see what's going on here.....shelves and shelves of baked goods for sale at the festival.  Tsoureki, paximadia (plain and chocolate), kourabiedes, baklava, etc.  These represent months of baking, I believe they started in June.  Last week was a whirlwind of last minute baking of things that don't freeze well, clearing out the hall, putting up all the decorations.  It is a huge production.  I only helped with a tiny bit of it.  Next year I can be more involved since I won't be working (YAY).  

I worked yesterday from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm.  I was exhausted.   We started with stocking the shelves, moving frozen items from the freezer to one of the refrigerator units.  As the shelves emptied, we restocked and restocked.  I would have thought Friday would be relatively low key ~ but no!  We were fairly busy until about 3 pm when it ramped up.  My friend who is the head of all of this said she thinks we will run out of pastries today!  But we'll see.  More than once people asked me who baked all of this, and when I swept my arm around to indicate all the women working the booth and said "we did" they were amazed.  I guess they thought we bought all of this stuff, lol.  

One of the reasons we had so much traffic on Friday was folks that buy the pastries every year, and really missed not being able to get any last year.

This is not one of this year's dancers, I haven't taken any photos of that yet.  I plan to do that today.  Luckily I can enjoy a relaxed morning since I'm not signed up until 2 pm.  

This is also the weekend that the International Balloon Fiesta begins.  Romeo turned on the tv and we watched with amazement at all the people who are on the field.  My thought that people are just hungry for places to go and things to do must be spot on.  Covid be damned, haha.

Well, I'd best finish my coffee and slice a piece of tsoureki before I shower to go! 

Love, 365

Did too........did not........

 

On our way back home from Texas we stopped in Las Cruces to spend the night before continuing on.  Tired and hungry, I went online to order some food close to us and found this charming restaurant.  I ordered online, but something happened while ordering...they charged my card, but said the order wasn't completed.  Oh, and that they would refund me the 25.78 in a few days.  But that didn't happen.  I figured I would hear from them in a few days.  But I did not. 5 days later my Mom passed away, and all of this went to the back burner.

Well, recently I looked into it and I still haven't been refunded. So I called the restaurant, and the person who answered said that he saw the order, but that I had never been charged.  I disagreed.  "It's on my bank statement, two charges on the same day".  Still, he argued with me.  Now I'm getting mad.  And he's no longer listening, so I hang up.  And called my bank to dispute the charge.

If he hadn't been such a but head, I probably would have just let it drop....it's only about $26.  But he had to be a jerk, and that riles me up.  I did enjoy the food, but it wasn't worth $50.  Ugh.  I really don't need this kind of frustration right now.  

None of us know why a particular co-worker is having some sort of personal crisis, but she is not doing her job (meaning, leaving me to handle everything up front, which is more than a one person job).  I asked her yesterday "Is something wrong?", but all I got was a "no".  Today was a repeat of yesterday afternoon.  The OM helped me quite a bit.  Truthfully I was a bit bugged that she just let her do what she was doing (haha, which was not assisting at the front desk).  So, I guess what I'm learning from this is that if I'm in a crappy mood because of something, it's OK for me to not help anyone else.  There are normally 4 people at the front desk, but the last day and a half there have only been the two of us.

Maybe I'm just letting things get to me.  '

I'm too sensitive.  I've been told that many times.  I take things too personally.  I don't stand up for myself, etc.  I wish I didn't have to go in tomorrow.  Blech.  Retirement is sitting off in the distance waving me forward.

Love, 365

Monday, Monday......

 

I don't recall if I mentioned that I finally broke down and bought a new sewing machine.  I had never heard of Elna, which is a Swiss brand, which is manufactured in Taiwan.  Go figure.  Anyway, I previously had a really ancient Singer, that was once my Mom's.  And that machine was made from 1985-1988.  Translation: old, but the darn thing still works fairly well.  It does need a tune up, but that would probably cost $150 or so.  My sister, who is an accomplished sewer, suggested it was time for a new machine.  Romeo thought so too.  So, now I have a new machine and an old one that I need to give away.  I want to give it to someone who doesn't have one, and would like to have it for minor sewing projects.  It'll take a bit of investigation to find someone to give the old one to.  I  have it all, the bobbins, instruction booklet, accessories.  Oh, yeah, I need to look for those and package them up.

The funny part of all this was me trying to figure out how to do simple things, like fill a bobbin and use the fancy self-threading device, and how you're supposed to change the sewing foot.  I failed at all three before I took my basics class today.  Although I did finally get the sewing foot on successfully once.  :D  Now I have been instructed.  Hopefully I will remember how to do it next weekend.  Things have changed a lot in 33-35 years. 

I also had an ultrasound of my upper abdomen.  My doc wants to see if there's some issue with my kidneys that is causing the constant uti's.  I had also asked her if she thought my liver was enlarged, so they scanned it too.  I should hear something in 3-4 days.  Hopefully all is minor or negative.   Once you've had a cancer diagnosis, everything is possibly cancer.  Better not, dang it.  Better not.  As far as the liver is concerned, I can't blame it on drinking....I only have a driink a few times a year.  Romeo doesn't like to drink (alcoholic Mom), so I just don't, even though there are times when I'd like to have a little something after work.  I am not really a wine drinker, but I do like beer, margaritas, the occasional martini.  So, send those good vibes my way, would ya?

I hope y'all have a great week!

Love, 365

Happy Friday to you all!............

 

Yesterday morning the sky was just beautiful.  I took this photo while walking to the office door before work.  

Well, friends!  It has been an interesting summer, no?  Full of all sorts of challenges ~ I would say ups and downs, but there really haven't been very many "ups".  Mostly it has been great losses, and huge frustrations.  Every time I think we're done with the downs, I discover there's more.  But, hey, I just can't sustain that kind of sadness for too long.  It's my nature to look at the sunny side of life.  I think I annoy people with my "silver lining" way of looking at things.  Could be worse, though, right?  

I have my moments ~ like the last post.  I stand by that too, I guess it is my failing that I cannot fathom why people persist in believing the vaccine is  ~  whatever it is they believe.  And for the reasons that most can't articulate, or maybe I'm too stupid to understand.  Could be both.  But whatever.  I am "over it" as they say, although I still have to deal with it at work.  

36 weeks.  That's what I have left before retirement.  It doesn't sound too long, does it!  There are two of us that will retire at the end of May.  I'm giving a good bit of notice, but the other person says she is only giving them a week.  I bet our OM will retire before I do.....that should make life interesting.

I am planning to obtain my passport.  I've never had one.  Truth is, I may get it and never use it.  But I want the opportunity to travel to Europe (no, I've never visited).  I lived in Japan as a child, and visited Canada, but that's pretty much it. 

Well, I hope you all have a great weekend!  

Love, 365

It's apparently all or none........

 

**Before I begin, recently one of my coworkers asked me if I ever write about them on my blog.  I said no.  I lied.  I doubt seriously that any of them has any knowledge of blogging (for one), nor has enough interest to search for more than 5 minutes.

This week was interesting.  Ms. Loud had to go out of town because her Uncle was dying, and they are very close.  He sadly passed away two days ago.  Apparently he had terminal liver cancer.  

In the meantime, on Tuesday, one of our dental assistants left abruptly.  We weren't given any information about why.  Was she fired?  Sick?  Did she quit?  No one knew....lots of speculation, gossip, etc.  Later in the day someone discovered that she had a positive Covid test.  Someone said one of our patients called in last week to report they were positive, and she had worked on that patient.  Of course, there is no way to know how she was infected.

We also noticed that about an hour later, there was a mandatory staff meeting on the schedule for the next day.  Still no confirmation or information on why she is gone.   

Yesterday we had the meeting ~ and "to protect the identity of the person" they admitted without the name,  that she/he/it is positive for covid.  I don't know about anyone else, but I thought that statement was stupid.  We all know who it is.  When you have a staff of 17, and one person is out.....only a moron would wonder to themselves, "gee, I wonder who it is?".  They discussed the complaints our office received about staff who weren't wearing their masks or were wearing them incorrectly (yes, we have one person who's nose is hanging out all the time).  The doc's are upset about this, and the view that patients have that our office might not be safe.  Although I agree with them, I think this is all over-blown.  We have been working as we are right now, for 1 1/2 years and this is the first time we've had a staff member test positive.  I've been waiting for this day.  We lean over patients faces all day long for pete's sake.  

Then, they stated that our non-vaccinated staff will, in the near future, be required to be tested every week.  And the fireworks exploded.  One staff member went on and on, and it was obvious she was taking it all very personally.  After hashing it out a bit, they decided our office would buy the test kits for testing instead of asking them to go to a testing center, which does seem fair to me.  I would hate to have to go to one of those places every week. I was shocked to learn that to buy test kits for the number of un-vaccinated to be tested each week for two months would cost the practice over $1,000.  But one person said she refused to be tested every week.  Period.  

While our doc's are trying to figure out where to go from here, there was lots of gossip, complaints, speculation.  I was laying as low as I could, trying not to get dragged into it.  Dreading when Ms. Loud returned to work, which was today.  And I was right to be concerned. 

Apparently she, and a few of the other non-vaccinated staff agreed that they would be ok with testing if everyone is tested.  Ms. Loud was saying that it's discrimination to require testing only from those without the jab.  Then she compared it to Christians and Jews, and then I had to say it's nothing like that, omg, that's a ridiculous comparison.  Then I turned around to my desk and said no more.  

Our OM (office manager) confided that if the doc's fold on their plan she will retire.  Which she is eventually planning on doing anyway, but she's tired of this situation that she knew would come, and has been trying to discuss with them for a year.  I have no idea what will ensue.  If I had all my ducks lined up I would give my notice tomorrow.  I am sick and tired of these non-vaccinated people crying out because they can't go to the state fair (ours is requiring it),   Truthfully they probably wouldn't have gone anyway, but they feel justified to constantly bitch about it.  

I am vaccinated.  I couldn't wait to get vaccinated.  I understand some people don't want to, and support their right to remain unprotected.  But don't expect a lot of sympathy from me when consequences have to be paid.

Love, 365