Notes from my patio

Grampa Don said:
No activity to see this morning. Not a bird or a bug. Not even a hummingbird. Not a creature was stirring, not even Grampa Don. Sometimes it's like that. But, the sun is warm.

I made a Wednesday appointment for my root canal. I figure if you don't trust your dentist it's time to find another one. I trust mine. I think she is advising what she thinks is best for me. I know it could fail. The specialist's website even says there is a one in ten chance of that. But, nothing is guaranteed.
Click to expand...
May the procedure go easy for you Don.
 

Deep inside my brain is a little boy who's afraid of being hurt, either physically or mentally. He's always been there and I have no control over him. But, he controls my body. When he gets stressed I start to shake, I flush and my heart beats faster. This happened yesterday.

My son and I arrived at the endodontist's office and I signed in. They sat me in the reclining chair and took a couple xrays. My son was in there too. I was told the doctor would be in soon. As I lay there, my little boy took over. 20 minutes later I was shaking like a leaf and about to panic.

The doctor came in and I said I can't do this. He was very gentle and understanding. We talked a bit and he offered to write me a prescription for Valium and said I could come in today for the work. So, that's what I'm doing. My daughter in law is driving me this time.

I hate being like this, but I can't help it. And as I age, it seems to be getting worse.
 
Grampa Don said:
Deep inside my brain is a little boy who's afraid of being hurt, either physically or mentally. He's always been there and I have no control over him. But, he controls my body. When he gets stressed I start to shake, I flush and my heart beats faster. This happened yesterday.

My son and I arrived at the endodontist's office and I signed in. They sat me in the reclining chair and took a couple xrays. My son was in there too. I was told the doctor would be in soon. As I lay there, my little boy took over. 20 minutes later I was shaking like a leaf and about to panic.

The doctor came in and I said I can't do this. He was very gentle and understanding. We talked a bit and he offered to write me a prescription for Valium and said I could come in today for the work. So, that's what I'm doing. My daughter in law is driving me this time.

I hate being like this, but I can't help it. And as I age, it seems to be getting worse.
Click to expand...
Well, what you did was take care of yourself, your inner self. You told the doctor you couldn't do it right then and made new arrangements to make things easier on yourself and your inner self. Good for you. Positive thoughts for today. ♥️
 
Grampa Don said:
Deep inside my brain is a little boy who's afraid of being hurt, either physically or mentally. He's always been there and I have no control over him. But, he controls my body. When he gets stressed I start to shake, I flush and my heart beats faster. This happened yesterday.
Click to expand...
Thank you for taking care of that little boy. You're the only person who can properly look after him. We need to nurture our inner child and I'm glad to hear you did that. 🫂
 
Grampa Don said:
Deep inside my brain is a little boy who's afraid of being hurt, either physically or mentally. He's always been there and I have no control over him. But, he controls my body. When he gets stressed I start to shake, I flush and my heart beats faster. This happened yesterday.

My son and I arrived at the endodontist's office and I signed in. They sat me in the reclining chair and took a couple xrays. My son was in there too. I was told the doctor would be in soon. As I lay there, my little boy took over. 20 minutes later I was shaking like a leaf and about to panic.

The doctor came in and I said I can't do this. He was very gentle and understanding. We talked a bit and he offered to write me a prescription for Valium and said I could come in today for the work. So, that's what I'm doing. My daughter in law is driving me this time.

I hate being like this, but I can't help it. And as I age, it seems to be getting worse.
Click to expand...
I'm also glad you made a decision that is right for you.
 
I got my root canal. It went super smooth, no pain, no stress. I was completely relaxed. The doctor explained everything as he went along and kept asking me if I was OK. I guess the pill worked. My daughter in law sat in the room and watched the whole thing.

They have a new machine now that uses ultrasonics to clean out the canals. It makes a loud buzzing noise, but no pain. It's supposed to do a much better job than scraping and swabbing. That took about 10 minutes. The whole procedure was an hour and a half.

I expect some pain for a few days and then I'll make an appointment for the crown.

Thanks for the comments and feedback.
 
Grampa Don said:
Another nice morning. I'm not a bird watcher who goes out with binoculars to spot them, but I do like to watch them. They say they are the last of the dinosaurs. I think that's kind of neat, although it's sort of hard to think of a hummingbird as a dinosaur.

They are super efficient. They don't require as much water as mammals because they don't excrete waste as liquid urea, but as solid uric acid. The hummingbirds are an exception. I've seen them squirt as they fly away from the feeder and there are lots of drops of their poop on my patio.

Birds have an extra air sac beyond their lungs, so air blows through the lung on both inhale and exhale. That's why some of them can fly over the Himalayas. And their brains are wired more efficiently too. That's why birds like crows and parrots are so smart.

I used to wonder why the bird bath went down so fast. Then I noticed that when they bathe they splash it all over, especially the larger birds. They really get into it.

One of my favorites is the California Towhee, a brown bird with an orange butt. They will get within several feet of me if I sit still while they hop around looking for whatever they eat, making little peep sounds. Here's a drawing I got off the web. They hop, but they can also run like little road runners.

towhee.jpg


I rolled my scope out last night to take a peek at Saturn. Its rings are edge on right now so it looks like a ball with a line through it. I hardly use my scopes. I should sell them, but maybe I'll get interested in astronomy again some day. Here they are.

scopes1.jpg
Click to expand...

I have been visited by the Eastern Towhee. It is very pretty and makes a lot of noise scratching for insects in the underbrush. It scratches back with both feet at the same time. Its a wonder it doesn't fall over.
 
70 and sunny on the patio this morning. Day 2 and no real jaw pain yet. I have to think about it to notice it. Maybe it's still coming.

I heard some crows making a real ruckus, so I walked out to see what it was all about. There was a hawk on top of a neighbor's tree and about 5 crows were harassing it. Crows don't like hawks. Eventually the hawk got tired of it and flew off. I got a photo of one once when it was sitting on the bird bath.

hawk-a.jpg


I used to see them more often when I had bird feeders. My back yard was kind of a snack bar for them.

My son used to have homing pigeons. When he moved out they became my homing pigeons. Every day I would let them out to fly around a bit. Some days one wouldn't come back. Eventually the hawk got all of them. I have to admit I wasn't really all that sad about that.
 
Grampa Don said:
70 and sunny on the patio this morning. Day 2 and no real jaw pain yet. I have to think about it to notice it. Maybe it's still coming.

I heard some crows making a real ruckus, so I walked out to see what it was all about. There was a hawk on top of a neighbor's tree and about 5 crows were harassing it. Crows don't like hawks. Eventually the hawk got tired of it and flew off. I got a photo of one once when it was sitting on the bird bath.

hawk-a.jpg


I used to see them more often when I had bird feeders. My back yard was kind of a snack bar for them.

My son used to have homing pigeons. When he moved out they became my homing pigeons. Every day I would let them out to fly around a bit. Some days one wouldn't come back. Eventually the hawk got all of them. I have to admit I wasn't really all that sad about that.
Click to expand...
Glad to know your procedure went so well and you're not feeling much pain!

I love crows and hawks. They have their individual awesomeness. 😎 Great picture!
 
Overcast and cool this morning. We get that a lot in the Fall and Spring. Usually it burns off in the afternoon, but not always.

cloudy.jpg


A while back I noticed that something was taking bites out of my baby sun rose succulent.

bites.jpg


I have other succulents, but they weren't touched. Then one day I noticed a sparrow fly down, take a couple bites and fly off. Apparently it tastes good to sparrows. Luckily they don't take much so there's little damage.

Sparrows are fun to watch. They are the majority here. They're really feisty little things. Sometimes there will be a bush full of them raising cane fighting about something. Once I saw one jump on a grasshopper that was almost as big as he was. They tussled for a few seconds until the grasshopper got tired of it and flew off. They fly in little spurts, flap a few times and then fold and coast. They don't glide as well as the bigger birds.

Gonna have a peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch. I have some really good apricot preserves, Bonne Maman, made in France. It reminds me of the jam my Mother used to make from apricots from our big tree in the back yard. I've tried planting an apricot tree a couple of times. But, after a few years they got some kind of leaf blight and died. Market apricots aren't fit to eat.
 
Grampa Don said:
I got my root canal. It went super smooth, no pain, no stress. I was completely relaxed. The doctor explained everything as he went along and kept asking me if I was OK. I guess the pill worked. My daughter in law sat in the room and watched the whole thing.

They have a new machine now that uses ultrasonics to clean out the canals. It makes a loud buzzing noise, but no pain. It's supposed to do a much better job than scraping and swabbing. That took about 10 minutes. The whole procedure was an hour and a half.

I expect some pain for a few days and then I'll make an appointment for the crown.

Thanks for the comments and feedback.
Click to expand...
So glad it's a done deal and not a bad one! :)
 
My son and daughter In law were here yesterday. We were sitting in the patio and my son said “did you hear that?” I listened and there was a faint ribbit. We traced it to the star jasmine. One of my neighbor’s frogs has made it to my yard again. He keeps a small pond with fish in it. The amazing thing is that he is on the other side of the street from me and my yard is fenced in. It must have come in under the gate.

This morning there was a stream of ants to a tiny smear of something on the kitchen counter that I missed when I cleaned up after dinner last night. I mentioned the ants before. They are Argentine ants. Here’s a photo of one I took through my microscope.

ant.jpg


They’re really tiny. We started seeing them about 5 years ago. Before that we had an invasion of fire ants. The Argentine ants displaced them. I read that they are immune to the fire ants’ stings. They sting too, but it's just a tiny sting so you know they are there.

You can’t get rid of them. They have multiple queens and different nests cooperate rather than compete. So, they’re everywhere. I used to set out baits made from sugar water and a pinch of boric acid. That would work for a few days and then another batch would show up.

So, I have to live with them. I keep everything sealed to be ant proof and don't leave anything around that they might like. Even so, there are almost always a few wandering around looking for something.

I asked AI if ants ever sleep. It said they do many times a day, but only a couple minutes each time. And, they never all sleep at once.
 
Grampa Don said:
My son and daughter In law were here yesterday. We were sitting in the patio and my son said “did you hear that?” I listened and there was a faint ribbit. We traced it to the star jasmine. One of my neighbor’s frogs has made it to my yard again. He keeps a small pond with fish in it. The amazing thing is that he is on the other side of the street from me and my yard is fenced in. It must have come in under the gate.

This morning there was a stream of ants to a tiny smear of something on the kitchen counter that I missed when I cleaned up after dinner last night. I mentioned the ants before. They are Argentine ants. Here’s a photo of one I took through my microscope.

ant.jpg


They’re really tiny. We started seeing them about 5 years ago. Before that we had an invasion of fire ants. The Argentine ants displaced them. I read that they are immune to the fire ants’ stings. They sting too, but it's just a tiny sting so you know they are there.

You can’t get rid of them. They have multiple queens and different nests cooperate rather than compete. So, they’re everywhere. I used to set out baits made from sugar water and a pinch of boric acid. That would work for a few days and then another batch would show up.

So, I have to live with them. I keep everything sealed to be ant proof and don't leave anything around that they might like. Even so, there are almost always a few wandering around looking for something.

I asked AI if ants ever sleep. It said they do many times a day, but only a couple minutes each time. And, they never all sleep at once.
Click to expand...
Yeesh.
It seems wise that you've decided to do your best to live with them rather than making yourself crazy trying to eradicate them if it's that difficult.

Weirdly, I've never really thought ants (or spiders or ladybugs) as bugs. It's, "we have ants," "there's a spider," "oh, ladybug!" or for pretty-much anything else, "a bug! a bug! gross."

That's a great picture. I thought that ant was huge until you explained it.
 
Medusa said:
Yeesh.
It seems wise that you've decided to do your best to live with them rather than making yourself crazy trying to eradicate them if it's that difficult.

Weirdly, I've never really thought ants (or spiders or ladybugs) as bugs. It's, "we have ants," "there's a spider," "oh, ladybug!" or for pretty-much anything else, "a bug! a bug! gross."

That's a great picture. I thought that ant was huge until you explained it.
Click to expand...
I'm so used to them now that if I don't see one for a couple days I begin to worry about them.
 
My son thinks I should have a dog. I love dogs, and I know it would be a comfort to have for a companion. But, having any pet comes with a responsibility to care for them. It’s not only feeding and cleaning up, it’s also making sure everything is pet safe and caring for their health.

It’s very likely a dog will have some sort of problems, and these will mean Vet visits. Our last pup had plenty and I don’t feel like I’m up to that anymore. I don’t need the worry and hassle now. And, it’s also very possible the dog would outlive me.

From the time we got a fenced in yard, we’ve always had a dog. We’ve gone through four of them and they were all good boys. My wife made memorial shadow boxes for the first three. Sadly our last pup lived longer than my wife and hasn’t got one.

pups.jpg


Our first was Homer, a little poodle mix. He was 12 dollars at the pound and sweet as can be. He lived 18 years. Next came Skipper, a mixed breed from a litter of my brother’s dog. He was my wife’s favorite and lived 15 years.

When we lost Skipper my wife bought Buddy at a feed store. Buddy looked like a Tibetan terrier and was angora soft, another good boy. He lived 11 years. And then we got Sparky, a pure blood Tibetan terrier from a breeder. Sparky was fun, but a challenge. He had all sorts of health problems. I think his parents were too closely related. He was just shy of 17 when I had to let him go.

spark.jpg


Right now I don’t want even a gold fish to care for.
 
Last edited:
Grampa Don said:
My son thinks I should have a dog. I love dogs, and I know it would be a comfort to have for a companion. But, having any pet comes with a responsibility to care for them. It’s not only feeding and cleaning up, it’s also making sure everything is pet safe and caring for their health.

It’s very likely a dog will have some sort of problems, and these will mean Vet visits. Our last pup had plenty and I don’t feel like I’m up to that anymore. I don’t need the worry and hassle now. And, it’s also very possible the dog would outlive me.

From the time we got a fenced in yard, we’ve always had a dog. We’ve gone through four of them and they were all good boys. My wife made memorial shadow boxes for the first three. Sadly our last pup lived longer than my wife and hasn’t got one.

pups.jpg


Our first was Homer, a little poodle mix. He was 12 dollars at the pound and sweet as can be. He lived 18 years. Next came Skipper, a mixed breed from a litter of my brother’s dog. He was my wife’s favorite and lived 15 years.

When we lost Skipper my wife bought Buddy at a feed store for $150. Buddy looked like a Tibetan terrier and was angora soft, another good boy. He lived 11 years. And then we got Sparky, a pure blood Tibetan terrier from a breeder for $750. Sparky was fun, but a challenge. He had all sorts of health problems. I think his parents were too closely related. He was just shy of 17 when I had to let him go.

spark.jpg


Right now I don’t want even a gold fish to care for.
Click to expand...
Loved hearing about your dogs. How nice that your wife made those shadow boxes for your first 3. Really a nice tribute to them.

The first dog I rescued I named Sparky! She was a good dog a terrier mix and we had her for quite some time and suddenly she went outside and never came back.

I understand why you're choosing not to adopt another dog; at our age a risk as you say. a puppy would probably be more of a hassle then we can handle and an old dog would be health problems and vets are very expensive these days Still we wish we could have another buddy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top