GOOD NEWS!

Hello everyone, sorry I’ve been too lazy to write lately. If it’s any consolation, I DO feel guilty!

I have lots of good news this time! I guess I was whiny last time so a group of my old dog show friends sent money to buy the heater I wanted. WOW!!  I rushed down to the propane place where they’ve had 2 or 3 of those heaters sitting next to the door since last winter. Every time I went in there it reminded me how much I wanted one. Well naturally when I got there, they had been sold!! And they said there was some problem with the manufacturer and they wouldn’t be getting any more until February!

Theirs were priced at $299, obviously last year’s price because last I looked they were $329 on Amazon, but now they’re $479!!! I searched around and found a seller that “only” wanted $389. With tax, $412. Cringe! Then another $40 for the stand. And this part is really crazy…$160 for the piping & hose, and that’s using a regulator I already had!!  Would have been over $200 otherwise. I can’t figure out why this stuff is so expensive, but I know they’re not price-gouging because the same dual regulator they sell for $49 is priced at $48 on Amazon. Sigh.. But hey, I’ve got HEAT!!!  Wonderful, cozy, reliable heat, with a thermostat! It’s a great little heater. THANK YOU, everyone who donated money! You improved my life immensely! 

I’ve got it set up for two propane tanks outside, through the house wall to two interior outlets, one for the heater and one for the new cooktop that’s not hooked up yet. (Need the new countertop before I can install it). It’s good to get one of the propane tanks out of my tiny kitchen! I still have a 20# tank inside that goes to the little stove I’m using right now, it is high pressure so can’t be run through a regulator.

I also have LIGHT!! My little inflatable solar Luci Lights are fine for spot lighting but really crappy for general lighting, plus it’s a very harsh white light. I bought an $8 clamp-on work light with the big round reflector shade, cut off the plug and wired on a cigarette lighter plug, popped in a 3 watt 12 volt LED light bulb, and now I have lovely light over the whole house! (It’s plugged in to my handy little Jackery solar generator)

I’m feeling really good right now. A blog reader commented that she had the very same kind of neuropathy as mine, same place even, and that it faded away after 4 months. Well that’s what happened to me too!! It’s almost entirely gone so thanks to those of you who were praying!  I went ahead and had the EMG Electromyelogram test a couple weeks ago. Boy, that’s certainly unpleasant!! Part of the test involves mild electric shock to nerves but the other part involves getting stuck with needles, and it felt like he jabbed them in there about a foot deep!! It showed impingement of 2 nerves in the back that leads to that area. It also strangely showed moderate carpal tunnel in my right wrist, but I’ve never had any pain there! Of course now that I know that, it’s starting to go numb at times, LOL. 

My doctor told me to try yoga and I laughed. My knees don’t hurt at all but they would not appreciate me getting up & down off the floor! Then I saw an advertisement for a video of “chair yoga”, that sounded great!! I almost pushed the BUY button before I remembered…I don’t have a chair!! 

On Friday the 13th my doctor’s nurse and her family came over to get some firewood, I had 4 big cedar trees down that had branches spread all over a big area and it all looked very untidy. Unfortunately he decided that most of the wood was too old but he did get about ½ a pickup load. He dug a big fire pit and we all collected up the smaller branches and threw them on the fire. One time I passed by the fire and thought “Wow, that fire is pretty hot”! It wasn’t til later that I discovered my hair had gotten burned, the whole front of my head plus both eyebrows! No skin burns though. That evening I couldn’t figure out why my hair felt so strange. I thought it was from being outside & blown around but then I felt my eyebrows and knew. UGH! That first night I could make my hair stand up like Martin Short without any Product, just with my hands!! SO attractive!! I was able to pull most of the little frizzly end bits off my eyebrows so they don’t look too bad, but if I trimmed my hair to get rid of the frizzies, I’d only have ½” length left. And my hair is too fine and thin for that, it would not be a good look. I slathered it with coconut oil and then when I washed it, a lot of little frizzly ends came off. There’s a lot still there but I can live with it for a month or so til I can cut them off.

Word in the neighborhood is that a cougar jumped over someone’s fence and tore up their dog! And pretty near by, too. That’s pretty scary! About 25 miles away a cougar killed an alpaca. I’m assuming it was not the same cougar, though I don’t know what their range is.

I just had the most wonderful visitors! My friends from Ecuador, Mike & Raquel. Mike was my Spanish teacher. They moved back to the U.S. a few years after I did. Originally they were going to just stay two nights but it ended up being 5 days!! They have 3 big dogs so it was great that they could run loose here and not bother anyone with their barking. The dogs were very rude to Roxie but they didn’t hurt her. 

Mike helped me do all kinds of things here! (And by that I mean he did them while I watched). The big project was to get the post holders for my front porch cemented in place. They had to be in precisely the right place so the porch roof will line up with the posts. He even put some rebar in the holes to help hold the post holders plus big auger tiedowns for the house & porch.

He also jacked up my camper, put it on blocks and removed the wheels so we could take them to Walmart and get new tires installed, then mounted the wheels back on. He noticed a wheel hub was loose and fixed that too! I never would have even noticed that. And he helped me put the new propane lines through the house wall, and other smaller projects. I never wanted them to leave! They said they loved it here and are coming back soon.

One day they helped me drop my car off in town for servicing (it was an all day job) and when we went back to pick it up, we were early so we drove around a bit. We stopped at Pinetop Brewing Company and had a snack and a beer. I had about ½ a beer….CARBS!! And that morning I’d made sourdough pancakes and ate one, beer and pancake the same day! I was really worried about stepping on the scale the next morning but I’d actually lost weight, and was at my lowest so far….129#!  I lost 3# while they were here, I guess because I was more active. I like it! I think 129# sounds infinitely skinnier than 130#, don’t you? 

I am very excited to finally be going on a vacation in a few weeks, with old camping buddies Jeanne, Joanne (both from Phoenix area) and Deb from Pahrump! Can’t wait! We’re not going far, just to the other side of AZ. But it’ll be the first time in three years that I’ve gone anywhere!

I saw a cute sign the other day, it said “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT….don’t be cheap and easy!”