Grandma Henke

I had started some bits of this and that last night before  I sent to bed and I think the boogie man swiped them sometime before morning because they are gone.     I hate when that happens … when the computer has a mind of its own and edits or erases indiscriminately.     I can just hear some of you saying, “Hey, it’s not the computer’s fault,” but you don’t know my computer.   It has a mind of its own and it is also vindictive.   We have a love/hate relationship at times.   I think when they invented computers and keyboards they knew this would happen.   That’s why the added a “cursor”.

Lynn and I are home alone this weekend.    Our daughter and her family have gone to visit her husband’s mother.    What a waste of alone time to have a giant summer cold.     Obviously the opera music didn’t help so I guess just listening to it isn’t the answer … you have to belt it out yourself.   We did stay up late last night watching two movies that had come in the mail and the only interruptions were by me when I kept asking him to put it on pause so I could run to the bathroom.   I wish I could put my bladder on pause instead.    Now THAT would be a money maker!

Lynn and I started a low carb eating regime this week.    I know, I know … I can hear you … we’re not doing a NO carb diet, just LOW carb.    We have done it before and both of us felt so much better even before we lost very much weight.   I think, basically it is the cutting out of refined carbs like sugars and white flour that does it.  (The tasty pastry stuff)   Several years ago I found was reading up on myofacial pain and fibromyalgia and read that it helps the pain to go on a low carb diet … and it really does … so why in the world didn’t I just remember that?    By the way, fellow sufferers,  this is an excellent site for reading up on both syndromes.  In fact, it is the best I have found and I have done a lot of research.

Our outside temperatures have reached 110 already.    It seems like all at once, over night it is hot here in our little southwest corner of Utah.    The heat makes a sound in the desert … it is kind of like a ringy-buzzy thing … sort of like a sizzle.   It’s doing that now too and off in the distance are the little wavy things that come up from the road ahead … and the mini mirages that make you think there is a puddle in the road but you never are able to drive to it.     Lizards are getting scarcer around our home now because there has been so much construction.   I miss the lizards but I don’t miss the scorpions.

Our first year here we saw a very large Gila Monster above Snow Canyon near where we live.   It stood up high on its 4 legs as it walked slowly across the road.    We stopped, of course, and ran back to take pictures and it quickly ran into the rocks and tried to blend in with nature.    We had to reign in our children because they wanted to catch it and put it in a box we had in our trunk and keep it or a pet.       Fortunately for us Gila Monsters are not aggressive unless cornered.    I admit we did get too close to it in our inexperience of desert living.     We went home and researched them and found out the one we saw was as big as they get.  We approximated its length at about 2 feet.   I’m telling you it was a HUGE lizard!  The kids were impressed when they read for themselves that the bite is painful and poisonous and it clamps on and grinds and doesn’t let go.    In our naivety we assumed we would see many more of them in the future … but we haven’t seen another one in 30 years.

Do you know there are actually places in the U.S. of A. where people don’t carry around big plastic mugs they can refill with soda pop at the corner gas station?    Here in Southern Utah that’s all you see … in other parts of the country they carry smaller mugs for coffee.    I think it is one of the “staples” of Utah where people tend to get their caffeine from soda pop.   Refillable mugs in Southern Utah are at a premium.    People shop for gas with two factors in mind … the cost of the gas and the cost of the refills.