Too much excitement

 Yesterday, Dave went out to get us some fast food breakfast.  I had already showered, and was just lazing with my lap top, when I smelled smoke.  

Like...a LOT of smoke.

I looked outside, and there was heavy smoke all around our house.  I ran outside, and there were plumes of acrid smoke coming from behind our property. It looked like the house behind us was burning.

We have a bamboo stand at the back of our property, so I could not see (that's the point of the bamboo) exactly where the smoke was coming from, but it absolutely appeared to be right behind us.

Coughing, eyes running, I dashed inside and called 9-1-1.

While I was transferred from central dispatch to fire dispatch, I could hear the sirens coming our way.

Once I was on with a dispatcher, the sirens could be heard over the phone, so we said our good byes, and I went around and closed the doors and windows.

Then I went back outside, and I could hear the crews voices, and could hear them cutting a hole in the roof....it still sounded to me like they were RIGHT behind us.  

The smoke was choking, though, so I ran back inside.

By the time Dave got home, the smoke had dissipated by about half.  

He came inside in a panic "THE HOUSE BEHIND US IS ON FIRE!"

"Yeah, I know, HAHA!  The crews are already putting it out, you can put your phone away."

The house behind us is inhabited by a family of people who speak Spanish.  We don't KNOW them, so we do not know if they are Mexican, or South American, but we say hello over the fence when the bamboo isn't tall, and their kids frequently need our help retrieving their toys from our yard.

All I could think about was those kids.... aaaand then I went into a full blown panic attack.

Still crying from the smoke, I started to sob and hyperventilate in panic.  It took me a good long time to get that to pass.   I knew that the fire crews had come REALLY quickly, but I also knew that I heard sirens LEAVING the scene, and assumed it was an ambulance.

Anyway, we eventually found out that it was NOT the house behind us.  It was on the other side of that street, and over three houses!  The wind was so strong yesterday, though, that it blew the smoke (and the sounds of the fire crews) RIGHT toward our yard.

The house is completely destroyed, but the news article Dave found in the afternoon said no people were injured. Unfortunately, the pets died.

Our hearts go out to the person or people who lost their home and beloved animals.  

The crews got the blaze contained, so no neighboring properties were damaged.

It was SUPER hot out yesterday, so we didn't do any of the outdoor things we had wanted to do.  It was Autumn Equinox, and my "anniversary," but I didn't get to have a fire, or do a ritual outside, as I had hoped.

After my grocery order was delivered, we went to Kohl's to take advantage of a discount coupon I had, and get both of us some new shoes, then made a couple of stops along the way home.

Other than that, we stayed indoors where it was cool, watched the Cubs, and I did my indoor chores.

I went ahead and made my planned-for dinner, even though it involved having the oven on for several hours.  Roast chicken and carrots in brown butter.... It was SO good.

Today should be cooler, so Dave will do some outdoor stuff, at some point.  I might mow part of the back yard, because that is probably the only way it will get done.

The grocery delivery brought me the biggest roasting chicken I have ever cooked.... SEVEN pounds....so I have lots of left over chicken to remove from the bone, and will be making a hearty chicken enchilada casserole.

The only health related thing for next week is that I need to get my labs drawn on Friday, because my last appointment at the current location of the clinic is the following Monday.

Have a good week!

p.s. Sammie and the 4 surviving kittens are still living in our yard, and we still have found ZERO options for them....

Closing

 My treatment went fine on Wednesday, aside from the treatment room nurse having a hell of a time with my port....but some stressful news came from the clinic.

I got a bankruptcy notice in the mail on Monday, so I took it with me, and talked to doc and Jamie, both, at some length.

The clinic is closing its doors on Oct. 2nd. My last treatment there will be that day, even though it's two days early for my three week rotation.  

Doc was pro-active when word of the bankruptcy first came to him, and has been asked to join the practice at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences.  The Stevenson Cancer Center is closer to home for me, and could provide a broader spectrum of treatment options, going forward.

The scary part is that he isn't 100% sure that he can take Jamie with him, and she is our ROCK.  She does all of the research, and asks all of the questions.

She's also the only one who can access my port without problems.... so.... yeah.

Hopefully, by the 2nd, we will all have more information about what happens next.

In the meantime, they are pressed with the responsibility of notifying all of their patients...especially the ones who only go once a month, and have already been for treatment, and don't KNOW yet that their next treatment won't be at the clinic they know and love.

This short notice is unfair and unethical.

In other news, the weather has shifted, and we got a little bit of rain, but it will be back up in the 90s this coming week.

We did finally get into the hot tub last night, and were visited by a skunk while we were out there.  He/she seemed oblivious to our presence, and the outside cats presence, and just went about its business of being ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE, and eating up the cat food!

This skunk was all white down its back, where the one we saw last week had two distinct stripes.  I need to look up the different species we have here.  They're SO cute....I just wish they didn't have that little defensive mechanism!!

The one last night had a MAGNIFICENT tail, which was held high, like an umbrella.  

Oh, and forgot to mention last week that our new manager at work is gone already.  Of course, we will never hear why.... guess it wasn't a good fit!

We have some house and yard chores to do today, and I am working on seasoning my fire pit dutch oven in stages, but we will go to the woods first. 

It's been months, and I feel a total disconnect from nature.

Given my Spiritual proclivities, this is NOT GOOD....so off we shall go while it's still cool out.

Have a good week!

 

The end is near

 They are saying that we will have a "summer ending cold front" tonight.  It's to be cooler today, too, than yesterday.

Next week, it's supposed to actually rain, and be 30 - 40 degrees cooler for highs!  

One of the weather guys gave a total number of days over 100 since Mid-June, but I don't remember what it was.  It didn't break any records, because, of course, the official readings are always different from real life.

Not much to report for our first week after vacation.  

Sammie and the kittens are still here, and the Humane society is ignoring our application to get another appointment.

We were going to go to the woods this morning, but we slept late (8:15!) instead.

I have my office day tomorrow, labs after work on Tuesday, and my next treatment is Wednesday.

Can't remember why they changed it to Wednesday, as it has been on Tuesdays since January.  Fortunately, it doesn't interfere with Dave's standing appointment on Wednesday morning.

My cooking project for today is to attempt to make Pork Carne Adovada.... New Mexican style braised pork.

Hopefully, it will be edible.  I got mild chilies, so fingers crosssed.

Have a good week!

Home again, home again

Our little trip to Santa Fe was mostly really good.

There were problems with our Air BnB RV rental, which were partially blamed on US, so I only gave them a 3 star rating.

The hot water, for example, only ran for about 3 minutes at a time when we first arrived, and then it stopped working entirely the second night while we were trying to do dishes.

The host was a management company, with a local individual, "Charles," who lives in the house on the property.  

Despite him being right there, no one could come to fix the hot water until after we had already left for our Wednesday planned activities.  

Dave was able to take a "navy shower," and I just heated water on the stove and did a "sponge bath" before we left.

The hot water failing was blamed on us.  No.  You just DO NOT do that, AND it wasn't working the moment we arrived, so how was that our fault?

The other major issue was that the website didn't make clear that the interstate was about 350 feet away.  The noise was CONSTANT and LOUD, and I got almost no sleep the first night, even with running fans to try to get enough white noise to block it out.

And, there was also a minor issue with the pedal that operated the toilet.  It got progressively more difficult to operate, which is not good! "Charles" said that he wiggled it back and forth when he came to fix the hot water, and that it was fine, but it had not been touched..... By the time we left, we had to get down on the floor, with our faces in the toilet, basically, to get it to flush properly.

It was disgusting.

We knew we were renting an RV, and that the accommodations would be modest, but we DID expect everything to work properly, and for the lodgings to be serviceable, but certainly not luxurious!! We don't need luxury, but we needed to be able to stay there without having any struggles, and without being blamed for any of those struggles. 

Anyway, we had planned to go to the local mall on Tuesday, our first day there, and get pedicures, visit a thrift store we'd been told about, and then go to lunch in The Plaza.  We had planned to take it really easy, to adapt to the altitude.

Fortunately, we both did REALLY WELL with the altitude.  My ears even worked better than I expected, going up and coming down.  That was such a relief, as I was worried about having ear problems the whole time.

Anyway, when we got to the mall, the pedicures were $7 MORE than advertised on line, and our budget for this trip was TIGHT, so we skipped that, and wandered the mall for a little while.

The thrift store had nothing we couldn't live without, so we went on to The Plaza for lunch, which was AMAZING!!  

If you're ever in Santa Fe, eat at The SHED! It's in a building that was constructed in 1692, and the New Mexican food is SO good.

More wandering, to the song of over 9,000 steps!  We found the gallery where the largest in-town collection of Maria Martinez's pottery is, and I cried a little.  

My sister and I each inherited a piece of her pottery.  They were purchased by mom and grandma in 1955, from Maria directly, during a desert south west vacation my family took. This was before Maria was famous, and she was selling her pottery herself to tourists. For something like $2.00  

Having seen her work in a gallery, with prices, we now understand that we should probably take out insurance on the pieces we own!

The next day was the Georgia O'Keefe museum, and then more of wandering The Plaza.

That day, we had lunch at the Plaza Cafe, which is the longest continually operating restaurant in Santa Fe, and it is a classic American diner inside, with traditional New Mexican cuisine, as well as diner fare.  I had the pork and red chili soup, and it was phenomenal. Dave had a diner style breakfast for lunch.

As we wandered, I bought some earrings, and Dave bought a hoodie, because he forgot to bring a jacket, and the evenings were blissfully cool.

We sat out and looked at the full moon and stars before bed.

Thursday, we HAD been planning to meet up with the cousin of my dear friend, for an early morning hike, but I wasn't feeling well (guess that delicious food was too much for my digestion), and Dave was wiped out from TWO days of over 9,000 steps.

So, we opted for a visit to the local living history site, about a half hour south of town, later in the morning.

Unfortunately, our cool weather failed us that day, and it was nearly 100 degrees, so we didn't make it through the entire place, but what we did see was fascinating.

We started out in the 17th century area, with the original buildings from the 1690s, and then moved to through the 18th, and just barely into the 19th centuries, before we had to call it a day.  There was also no food available there, and we had not had lunch yet, so we went to the nearest, air conditioned place we could find.

Not everything has air conditioning in Santa Fe, because, like everywhere else this summer, it hasn't been THAT HOT for, well, ever.

Welcome to climate change.

Lunch was nothing special, and some of it was way too spicy, even for Dave. 

We just lazed about on Thursday afternoon and evening, me doing a little packing up as I felt the urge.  

Because it had gotten so hot that day, it took a LONG time for the RV to cool down

It was 100 degrees INSIDE when we got back, and running the air conditioning on high tripped the breaker, too.  Fortunately, that was an easy fix, with no need to contact the hosts!   

Unfortunately, the reason it was still so hot in there, even into the evening, was because the rules are that you can't go out and leave the roof vents, or any windows, open, or the a/c on.  

Thankfully, even though it was hot, there was a breeze, so I sat outside most of that time with a cold drink.

We didn't see much wildlife on our trip, but there were mule deer that we saw in the area of the RV, as well as bird varieties that were new to us, ravens, magpies, a jack rabbit, and a couple of different kinds of small lizards. 

We got up and out on Friday morning, and made it safely home, taking our time, by about 6 pm.  Traffic was really pretty good both ways.

Sadly, we stopped in the famous town of Tucumcari, NM on the way home, and, while we saw all of the really cool, original neon signs (during the day, of course, so they were not turned on), along the streets, nothing was open, and we didn't get to visit the Route 66 gift shop.

The website said OPEN NOW, but it was closed up tight, and there were no cars in the lot. 

I had really wanted to explore the town a little, but it's become very shabby, and looked forgotten. 

This is a three day weekend, and so yesterday was laundry and cleaning day, though the house was still pretty clean, and Dave went to the pet store to re stock cat food.

Momma and four surviving kittens are still here, and this coming week, we hope to find a way to get them to a shelter, IF anyone will take them.

I also got groceries ordered yesterday, and we just relaxed the rest of the day.

Today, we are finally going to get those pedicures, and do some more relaxing.  

Tomorrow?  Who knows?  It's hot, of course, and will the hottest tomorrow, but I want to grill some bratwurst.  Maybe have our house sitter come and get her gift.

Have a good week!