Not a superior day for sure . . .

My special UK Marble

 Not in the  mood for the camera and photos but I love my beautiful Marble photo. It is always on the center island in the kitchen so I can smile all day long when I walk by and see it. I need calm at this moment!

I drove to Zachary for a follow up appointment at 1:30 with the orthopedic doctor and he wasn't there. The poor lady tried to explain that the office had tried to call me and cancel the appointment. She said they tried to call yesterday. Well that is impossible because there are no calls listed on the phone from BROC yesterday or this morning. Somehow there was a mistake made and no one will accept the responsibility. I was bummed. I asked if another doctor at the Orthopedic Clinic could see me as it was just a follow up and she said that was impossible. I'm Dr. W's patient and he is the only one I can go to. She asked if I was having any problems. I said no and what was I supposed to do now? I suggested she ask Dr. W if it was necessary for me to see him or could I just call if I had any more problems. She said that was a good idea and would call me today or tomorrow to let me know what he said. I really liked him but the office visit we were supposedly following up on was also a mess. I was told to be there at 1:30 and then they called and told me to only come for 3:30, which I did, and he saw me at 5pm. I left his office after 5:30 and didn't get home until almost 7pm. I was pretty disgusted with the waiting but the shot he gave me has worked very well as has the physical therapy. I'm through with the PT but make sure do to my daily exercises and walk for at least 45 minutes at least 5 days a week. So I guess I won't worry about seeing him again unless the crazy hip acts up.

To reward myself (I really wanted a Black Russian to go) I stopped at Marble Slab and ordered a Hot Fudge Sundae with coffee ice cream and walnuts. Their ice cream display case was broken so they had to go into the deep freeze in the back of the store to scoop the ice cream. My sundae came back with green ice cream. I didn't even bat an eyelash - I paid for it and ate it all. The truth is I have no idea what kind of ice cream I ate - it may have been pistachio or mint - I couldn't tell and I know that my taste buds are pretty good even though I'm getting to be an oldster.

 After I got home the men came to fix our problem with the air conditioning at a cost of $1077 with our discount. It is worth having One Hour on call for our air conditioning and heating. We have never had a problem with the people who come to our home. They are efficient, nice, good people. They always explain the problems we have and how they are going to fix them and the cost up front. They will also let you know if there is problem that they can't fix and what must be done to get it taken care of. It is a blessing to have a company we can count on. Our home is about 25 years old so some things will always need fixing!

Enough complaining for today.

Quote:  Little, vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the pleasure of forgiving their enemy.   ____Chesterfield

Quote:  To see what is right and not do it, is want of courage.   ____Confucius

Couldn't help myself . . . the clouds were beautiful . . .

 Amazing cloud formations after supper this evening. I couldn't get them to look like the real thing but these aren't too bad.

 It was a run around kind of day. Had my yearly Wellness Visit with my primary care doctor in Zachary today and she was ecstatic. It seems my blood tests showed up as that of a 40 year old woman. Cool beansies! Now if the rest of me would regress to 40 years old it would be perfect! 

Having some issues with the air conditioning condensation drain upstairs in the attic. It'll be an expensive fix; the men  will be back tomorrow. PD&C's Pop had to siphon the drip pan today. That was interesting. He is an amazing man. He never ceases to impress me with his know how. 

Quote:  The joys of meeting pay the pangs of absence; else who could bear it?  ___Rowe

Quote:  Nothing in the world is more haughty than a man of moderate capacity when once raised to power.  ___Wessenburg

Much too hot and muggy . . .

The strutting turkey is in his backyard which borders the Park. There are no fences so once in a while you may even find some of the neighbor's chickens have laid eggs in a ditch!

Good looking Turkey!

Northern Mocking Bird

Red-headed Woodpecker

PD&C's Pop winding up the control's for his plane. Calling it a day.

 Had to walk in the gym at North Park this afternoon. 91 degrees in the backyard with 65% humidity is most uncomfortable. I really am thankful that we have superior accommodations and good people in DS. The funniest thing is I was trying to listen to Audible on my hearing aids and I couldn't hear anything coming from my little iPod. I was fiddling with it in every way I could as I walked until I finally reached up to check on my hearing aids - I didn't have them on! Jeez Louise, if this is what growing up is all about I will have to slow down. Since I had the entire gym to myself  I was able to listen by putting the iPod pretty close to my ear. It worked out okay but I drive myself crazy when I do stuff like that!

Even with all of the rain we've had I had to water the tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers. Since they are all in pots it is a tiresome chore. I like to do it when it is cool out but in the summertime it is a lot of work, especially for lazy moi! I have to stop adding plants to my menagerie but I find it hard to resist buying all those beautiful flowers at Clegg's. I'm hooked and must control the urge to stop there when I'm roaming around town.

LSU Baseball has managed to make it into the second round of playoffs for the College World Series.  I stayed up until 12:23 last night to watch them win their second game of the day or be eliminated from the competition. I find it exciting to watch the young players trying to do their best to keep moving up to the finals. It really would be a shocker if they can pull it off. GEAUX TIGERS!  

Quote: The deepest wishes of the heart find expression in secret prayer. George E. Rees.

Quote:  Those who are greedy of praise prove that they are poor in merit.  ___Plutarch 

Quiet day . . . peaceful . . .

Great Egret stalking its prey on our neighbor's lawn which looks like their private pond!

Even though this could be a better photo I am so happy to have taken it. It is very difficult for me to get either the Carolina Chickadee or the Tufted Titmouse in a photo. I was excited to get them both in one photo. Yay!

One of my best photos of the Carolina Chickadee. I only have a few others where the focus was good.

Not as well focused as I would have liked but pretty neat anyhoo!

Red-bellied Woodpecker has been a regular this year. Very nice.

 I only left the house today to go to North Park and walk in the gym. The humidity is stifling. There were three young men who came into the gym while I was walking. There are often big kiddos and men, an occasional woman coming to practice basketball in the gym.  I make sure I am not in their way and stick to the sides and the entrances so they have the hoop free. But there are side hoops too and sometimes it can get a little tricky walking. Today I found the small side gym where they hold exercise and dance classes free so I moved my walking to the smaller area.  It is still a good sized, air-conditioned room. As I was listening to my Audible a woman came in and I was getting ready to leave because I thought there was a class coming in. Pat said there was no class and she saw me walking and decided to join me! So I turned off the iPod and she followed me as I put in my forty-five minutes. It went well as we walked and chatted. When I left she said she was happy I was there or she would never have walked as much! I told here I was at North Park almost every afternoon during the week. She said she'd probably come again. She used to go to the classes before the pandemic pandemonium; today was her first day back to the little gym.

Took these photos yesterday when the rain finally quit for a while. I was pleased to see the birds come. We even had birds seeking shelter on the back porch during the rain! Neato!

We watched LSU Baseball yesterday. They won two games.  They are playing at 9pm tonight. If they can win they will be going on to play more games; if not they will be done for this year. We're rooting for them.  It has been a tough year. Their coach is retiring when their season is over. Here's hoping Coach Mainieri can get a few more wins. 

Quote:  He that is not open to conviction, is not qualified for discussion.  ___Whately

Quote: The dews of evening -- those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun. ___Chesterfield

Libellule at breakfast plus a loss . . .

Dragonfly breakfast

 

We are disappointed that the Killdeer eggs have disappeared from under the Magnolia. It seems that PD&C's Pop was wakened by a commotion outside the bedroom window at about 4:30 am a couple of nights ago. There was an owl hooting right close to the house. Well, yesterday I tried to see if one of the Killdeer was sitting on their eggs; to my chagrin there were no Killdeer to be found and the eggs were gone. There were no signs of the eggs at all, only a depression. We're not sure if owls eat another bird's eggs but I imagine it must be a distinct possibility; it could also have been a snake or a raccoon having an early morning snack. We are a bit miffed. We were looking forward to watching the little tykes hatch and take off  for their adventures. But Mother Nature has a way of keeping the world in balance so there's no use in complaining. What ever got the eggs probably needed sustenance and in the grand scheme it most likely all worked out  well. We were cheated out of a nice little display, that is all.

I have never caught a Dragonfly eating breakfast before! I didn't realize what I was seeing until I focused in on the pretty, green Libellule and saw something red in its maw. I decided to try to video what was happening. It didn't take long for the pretty little red beastie to disappear. 

Did my Saturday morning washes and cleaning so now it's time to relax and read to my hearts content - it is another rainy day in the South.

Quote:  True delicacy, that most beautiful heart-leaf of humanity, exhibits itself most significantly in little things.  ___Mary Howitt

Quote:  Blush - The ambiguous livery worn alike by modesty and shame.  __Balfour

Well that was somewhat annoying . . .

Chasing the Little Blue Heron

 

I was putting my photos on the Birds of the Eastern United States Facebook site and I accidentally put them up before I had included name of bird, date, place and the video. I immediately tried to rectify my mistake but one of the moderators had already placed a special note on my post telling me I had forgotten to include the aforementioned items. Yikes! She must have an automatic response that immediately yells at someone who may have forgotten all the items needed for posting on the site or she has nothing else to do but watch the site for egregious errors 24-7! Well, I'm sure they all mean well; there are 32.3K members so she must be forgiven. It is not a paid position after all. I just checked the site and she removed her admonishment. Cool beansies.  I've got to cool down my annoyance level!

We brought our son's Pupster back home this morning. Their fishing trip was great for a few days and then the weather made them pack up and come home three days early. We were impressed with the number of fish they brought home all cleaned, filleted and frozen. Hoping there will be a Fish Fry soon. M makes the best fried fish ever. I never liked fish until we moved to Louisiana and now I will even order it in a restaurant. But M's is still the absolute best. 

Had to walk in the gym at North Park for last couple of days. The humidity is stifling; the rain hasn't helped even though it is not a constant downpour. Time to get the supper on the table.

Quote:  He that is good for making excuses, is seldom good for anything else.   ____Franklin

Quote:  No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.   ___Terence

Too many photos . . .

Eastern Bluebird sitting for a photo shoot.

I was enthralled with the photos I was able to take yesterday at South Park. PD&C's Pop invited me to go  with him while he walked the Pupster, our son's old puppy who is staying with us while her humans are catching all the fish in Texas! That's just a little exaggeration. It has taken me quite some time to thin out the photos and I'm finished. This little ladybird stayed in front of the camera lens for a long time.  It was unexpected and rare. But I'm always excited and pleased when I can take more than one photo of a subject.

I spent the day doing some grocery shopping, reading the tiny bit of news fit to be in print and having lunch with my true love. We had a late lunch at Big Mike's so I didn't have to cook dinner. I also indulged in a to go Black Russian which I have nursed for over four hours. I keep adding ice and it is just perfect. That was to celebrate beating AT&T at its own game, kinda! We have one old prepaid cell phone and one new version of the same old flip phone that we had to buy since the old phones are  not 5G compatible. We only use them for emergencies; we've been having trouble when we try to use them to make sure they are working properly from our home.  I called that awful company and explained the problem yesterday. It only took me an hour on the phone with three different people from three different departments to end up with the last lady hanging up on me and then charging my awful new flip phone $4 for the call AT&T initiated. I tried to call 611 this morning to get the money put back into the account and of course because of the crazy pandemic they can't answer the calls in person. That ticked me off so I went to the AT&T store which is about a mile from our house and spoke with a very nice young man. He had the charge reversed! Now that was great. I feel badly for the young people who work for AT&T because they have to put up with a lot of disgruntled people and there really isn't anything that the company will do to help their workers deal fairly, calmly and well with customers. Of course AT&T wants me to get an iPhone through them but I have an iPhone through our daughter-in-law's plan so I don't need anything else. The only reason I have kept up the old flip phones is because we've had the prepaid plan for years. Way back when the company was overcharging their customers the government made them reimburse the customers they had defrauded. Now we're stuck with these two weird phones and the company won't allow me to put the money from the two accounts together in one account. They still owe us about $160 in minutes and are always trying to get us to miss the yearly deadline to renew them. I make darned sure I keep up with the yearly deadline or we will lose the money. They will not send us the money and close the accounts so we have to play their game. It is tiresome but rather funny. Of course I despise dealing with AT&T but most of the young people I've dealt with when I have a complaint are very nice. As a matter of fact I think that the lady who did hang up on me probably didn't do it on purpose. She was trying to send me some kind of code and I never managed to find it  - poor woman.

Oh well, time to call it a day.

Quote:  The moral progression of a people can scarcely begin till they are independent.   ___Martineau

Quote:  Eloquence is vehement simplicity.  _____Cecil
 

Nature's stories are unending . . .

Killdeer trying to distract us so we don't find the nest.

Killdeer

Hoping there will be more than three eggs.

Taken through the slats in the gate.

  I had been weeding under the Magnolia in the front yard while PD&C's Pop was mowing. When I finished weeding PC&D's Pop pointed out  that there was a Killdeer running around like mad on the front lawn. I got my camera and saw the bird in this odd pose and then recalled that a few years ago we had a Killdeer nest on the opposite side of the house right in front of the gate in the fence. Of course we never used the gate or mowed that section of the lawn until the babies hatched - four of them! Now it seems we have another pair with three eggs, so far. PD&C's Pop found the nest just a foot or so from the spot I had been working on. I took the photo of the eggs with my Panasonic FZ 200. The last photo I took through the slats in the gate on this side of the house. Of course there will be no mowing or weeding on this side of the house until the little ones hatch. Point of interest: a few years ago a Red-eared Slider laid her eggs on the edge of our front lawn, right near the road. So my husband put up a sign to warn the neighbors that we had a turtle nest and to please not drive too close to the edge of the road. When they did not hatch in the given time he was worried because the ground was no longer wet - it is clay and it was all dried up - so he carefully unearthed ten little ones just in the nick of time. Our neighbors brought them to a clear water stream at their camp. Pretty neat! 

Quote:  If idleness do not produce vice or malevolence, it commonly produces melancholy.   ____Sydney Smith

Quote:  Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools.  ____Chesterfield