Let It Snow!

Last week we had our first "winter" storm come through the state. The weather people were saying that we're all going to get snow and be prepared. They were also making sure the snow plows were ready to go. As the storm came into the state they were all saying it's snowing here, it's snowing there. The news people were sent out to track the storm. Channel 13 had one reporter near Las Vegas, NM (maybe she was in Las Vegas, I don't remember). Anyway she was saying that it's snowing, camera person pans the area and you can see a snowflake here and there. To me, that's not 'snowing.' Then she said, "to show you how much snow has fallen, let's take a look." She then bent down and pulled up a handful of 'snow.' But it wasn't all snow. Most of it was dirt/mud. There was no snow on the ground!! Just traces here and there. You could see more of the ground than the snow!! Hello!
So next morning I turned on the radio and the traffic person said the roads in Rio Rancho were icy and slick. And to be careful. Then the report that Rio Rancho closed the schools. I went to look outside to see how much snow has fallen. NO SNOW at all. Pretty soon the radio station I was listening to had people calling in to find out about Albuquerque schools. The mountain schools were closed. Usually closes when it snows in the mountains. Then they said so far APS is in session. People were calling in asking why APS is open, Rio Rancho is closed!! Hello! There's no snow on the ground. About an hour later APS closed the schools!!! WHAT?? No school? OMG!! What has gotten into these parents demanding they close the schools! Now these same people will be crying about their kids having to go to school after Memorial Day!! And then they won't even go to school after memorial day. Seems that's what happened last year. They had to make up 4 days and after Memorial Day no one went to school. APS people said, "It's OK." No wonder our kids don't learn much. So we now know they most likely won't make up that day. Just the teachers have to show up. Anyway, I couldn't understand why all the talk about closing the schools. The traffic reports coming in said that I-40 east and west going out of the city were snow-packed, so be careful. Later on they closed the roads. Then reports about southbound I-25 getting pretty bad, too. They said "If you don't have to go any where, please stay home!!" All during the day, a snowflake would fall here and there. No snow. That afternoon my nephew needed a ride to the westside and I took him out there. Wow!! The westside got lots of snow!! There was about 3-5 inches, depending on the area we were in. More snow going towards Rio Rancho. I can see that the westside people were concerned about their kids going to school in the snow. Because of the winds coming through the mountains, the city didn't get any snow. Just the surrounding areas got the snow. A couple of days later, my niece was telling me about the snow in their area. She even had to drive to work for the first time in the snow. And she said it was scary. It's a good thing she worked just a couple of miles away, no hills to climb, either. She said the snow got blown against their door and they had a hard time getting out. So all the apartments facing north had the snow against the doors. I had to take her to work a couple of days after the snow and Juan Tabo still had lots of snow at the sides of the road. And we didn't get any snow.
We drove out to Bernalillo the day after the snow and there was lots of snow every where. I had to drive over the bridge and it was covered with snow and ice. A car spun around trying to get over the bridge. I thought about turning back and going a different route. But went ahead and got over. The Rio Rancho schools remained closed for 3 days!! APS had to go back to school the next day.
Another storm is expected tomorrow. We'll see what that brings. They said SNOW!! I'll believe it when I see it. Seems that they usually say SNOW and it doesn't snow. It doesn't feel like it's December. I think I'm still back in August or September.

December 2011

70 mph winds on Thursday! It was trash day for our area. What a mess. The wind knocked some trash cans over. Those people didn't get their trash picked up.
Weather people were saying to expect snow, but nothing happened. Just wind and then by Friday all seemed to be ok. No sign of snow, either. Sun was shining brightly and warmed us up that day. That evening we started hearing about the traffic accidents in the East Mountains and that they may close Interstate 40 soon. Then there were accidents west of Albuquerque as well. Oh, no. Is the snow coming? By 11 PM there was nothing outside. So I thought, maybe it's not going to snow. I'll believe it when I see it. 2:30 AM, there was snow on the ground! Just enough to cover the ground, though. By 9 AM, it was all gone!! Sun had come out and melted it all away.
No time to make a snowman!!

Tamales

Hey, I found out it's not that hard making tamales!!!

What the Heck Is Going On??

It's been a week or two without our DJ's Tony Lynn & Myles. Now I heard that TJ Trout is leaving 94 Rock after 25 years. He says he's "going fishing" for a while. Hmmm, sounds familiar. Seems that about 10 years ago Tony Lynn said "he's going to play golf" when he announced he was retiring from radio. At the time he was at KRST. I didn't believe him at all because how can he just retire when his daughter was just starting college! College isn't cheap, neither are girls!! So, about 3 weeks later it was announced that Clear Channel was bringing in a new country radio station and Tony Lynn & Myles were going to be the morning DJs. Made a lot of people mad at him for doing that. They even said they would never listen to him. Ha! They all lied! I hear them on the radio or read about what they have to say to them via email, Facebook, etc. Anyway, I believe that TJ is 'retiring' until his 6 months of no radio is up and then he'll appear on another radio station. Almost all of Clear Channel stations here in the Duke City have gotten rid of their DJs except for The Peak. Seems that those guys (well, a lady, too) are going to keep their jobs while the other stations go syndicated. That's what it seems to be turning to.
So that said, I don't know what I'm going to be doing without the radio. Hmmm, let's just play CDs. I've got tons of CDs (glad I didn't get rid of them as I had planned to!) So I'm good for some music for a few years!!
Well, UNM hired a new football coach. Bill Davie who use to coach at Notre Dame. Not sure what to say about that. They hired Mike Locksley to continue the winning with the football program but he only won 2 games. And guess what? The Lobos beat UNLV Saturday night!! Snapped their losing streak. We'll see what happens with this guy. I don't know if he'll have a chance because people around here have been asking UNM to do away with the football program. So who knows, there may be no foottball at UNM!!! Crazy, huh? But that's Lobo fans for you. If they're losing, get rid of them.

The Day I Thought the World Ended

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 is the day I thought the world has ended. I had heard that my favorite radio DJs, Tony Lynn and Myles were let go from KBQI, the Big I. Chuck Hammond says it's due to low ratings and low budget. Tony & Myles had low ratings?? How can that be? How can they be 'popular' radio DJs just about everytime they were mentioned? They had been with the station since it's inception 10 years ago. Without them that radio station wouldn't exist. Clear Channel has a 'classic' country station that no one seems to listen to. Everyone seems to listen to the Big I or KRST. So why did that station stay and the guys let go? I think it's something else that got them 'fired.' But they won't say and probably won't. They use the low ratings as an excuse. They are searching for new DJs for the morning job. These DJs have to be way better than Tony and Myles to have me listening to them. Right now, I listen to another staiton which isn't country. But if I need my country fix I turn on the internet and listen to Alana Lynn, (Tony's daughter). She's a morning DJ in Boise, Idaho. She started out her radio career with her dad at the Big I. I can't listen to KRST morning crew. Sorry, I didn't like their program as it's too adult for me. Tony & Myles had more of a 'family' program.
Well, that said, I will miss the guys and hope that they are on to better things. Thursday morning came and the world went on. And it's still going. So I guess it's not coming to an end, yet.

Where I Live

Last night I went to the Halloween dinner/party at Montano Chapel for Academy Heights ward. My sister told us about it and I took my mom with me.
My sister told everyone she could "here's my inactive sister." Yeah, inactive in Academy Heights ward. I don't attend the ward as I don't live in the ward boundaries. That's the reason I don't attend. My home teachers back when I left told me that I don't live in the boundaries so they can't be my HTs any more. My bishop said he can't help me any more. So every now and then I get people telling me to "go back to church." "It's not good to skip church and be a good Saint." Even some of the former missionaries told me to go back to church!! Hello! I am going to church, just not at Academy Heights! I didn't know I am suppose to check in with them that I attended church, read my scriptures and said my prayers.
These people need to pay more attention to themselves instead of worrying when I will be at church. If the #157 bus ever runs on Sundays, I will be there so they will be happy that I go to church. Until then, they will have to deal with the fact I go to another ward. I didn't think I have to report in for that either. Come on people, I don't question you about your church attendance. Or if you read your scriptures or said your prayers! Aren't we responsible for ourselves? Can I say "Mind your own business."?

Scary Larry

Yesterday morning I went to take my niece to work. As I was driving the car went weird on me. I had no idea what was going on. I thought maybe I was suppose to take my usual route which is take Candelaria all the way up to Juan Tabo and then south to Central. This time around I decided to take Menaul all the way up to Juan Tabo. Just for a change in scenery. Besides, I hit all the school zones on Candelaria. For some reason this year the elementary schools start much earlier than they usually do. I guess each school has that option. Well, back to my driving. I went over the railroad tracks when I started to hear a beep noise. At first I thought it was on the radio. I turned off the radio and didn't hear the beep any more. Oh, I hadn't heard that sound on that song before. Tells me that I don't listen very well. Then the beep comes back and this time there was a red light somewhere on the dash that I didn't know what it was as it flashed really quick. Then the door locks clicked as if I was starting out and it automatically locks the doors. Then the beep, the red light and the clicks. I thought, is there a ghost that got into the car. I looked in the back and there wasn't anyone there. Duh, you can't see ghosts!! So I started to talk to them. Then the beep, red light and locks click again. Then the light that says the door is open came on!! OMG, what is going on? So I decided to call my brother and let him know the car was doing funny things. I told him that I don't know if the car is going to die out but to be prepared to come rescue me no matter where I am. Then he told me that when I get to Juella's place, turn off the car. Maybe it needs to reset itself. Oh, ok. So I kept on going and the same thing keeps going on and that light wasn't going to turn off either. Now I am thinking that I should drive on a less busy street in case the car dies. As I am driving trying to think of a place to drive on, it dawned on me that I had to scrape the ice off the windows! I had to get the ice scraper out of the back seat. I tried to open the back door but it wouldn't open!! Frozen shut!
I guess when I went over the railroad tracks it opened the door (thawed out by then). So the beep was warning me of the door open. Never knew that would do that. So getting to Wyoming I decided that I better pull off the road and close the door. I was laughing as I saw the back door was open. I shut it and went on my way laughing at what happened.
After getting to Juella's place I called my brother and told him what happened. He thought that was pretty funny. I was relieved because I didn't want to be in the car when it breaks down. Already happened and didn't like it.
BTW, the ice scraper that was suppose to be in the back seat wasn't even there!! It was in the trunk!!

Oh My

Just like that, my world has been turned upside down!! It won't ever be the same as before, so I gotta move on from this point on. Lot of praying and hoping all turns out for the better.

If Your House Is A Mess

If your house is a mess:
1. Create a new folder
2. give this folder a name: The Mess In My House
3. Go and get yourself a snack.
4. Right-click on the folder, choose to delete
5. The computer will ask you Do you want to delete 'The Mess In My House' permanently?
6. Click Yes
7. Put your feet on the table and enjoy your snack!

Big I Mornings

Big I Mornings: Big I Mornings's blog postings.

Will this work??? Enjoy!

Posted from Big I

Check out the video from the Big I. I didn't know how it works so I did what I think I was suppose. Hope you watch the video (in another post!!) Pretty cool.

The Gambler

I've been gambling the past couple of weeks!! Been going to Route 66 Casino, located west of Albuquerque, a 20 minute drive. Anyway, last week they started giving away prizes for the State Fair that starts on Friday. You just spin this huge wheel and you win whatever the marker stops at. You can win tickets to the rodeo, admission to the fair, free parking at the fair and also state fair souvenirs. You can also win Route 66 souvenirs, too. Well, so far I've won rodeo tickets - to Craig Morgan and Easton Corbin. And I won fair admission for 1 day. The other days I got a water bottle (2 times), Kids Quest thingy (which I didn't take because I don't have any kids to leave there (while I gamble) or know anyone with kids). And then I got a cell phone holder. My brother got about 4 parking passes and he doesn't own a vehicle!!! He and my mom won most of the fair tickets so they are all set on attending the fair!! While I wait in line I watch people play the slot machines. Oh boy, if those machines could fight back, there's be a lot of people with bruises!! Some of them really get mad at the machines for not letting them win!! One man was just cussing at the machine each time he hit the button. It's cute when a couple playing together win a big jackpot. To me it's big even though it's like a hundred dollars. They were just cute today. They won 20 free games and hit some really big wins on those spins. And then they got an additional 8 games and their winning came to $103.00. They cashed out right away and left. Then this lady went to play that slot machine and lost her twenty bucks. She wasn't happy about that.
My brother told me we should go to Dancing Eagle Casino to spin their huge slot machine. You can win prizes including gasoline, buffet and someone could win $250,000. I told him it's too far and I really don't care to win stuff like that. What are the chances of even winning that money? My chances are zero. I only win small things. So far that's true. I can't seem to win the big concert trips given by the radio stations.
I'm sticking to the state fair things.

I Am Wondering.....

I wonder if they would give me back my toe nail. It has not been fun the past few days. Today has just been a pain. I am wanting to get the toe nail back and put back in place. I will suffer that pain rather than this one. It's worse than the other way......................

Yuck!

Back in 2006 I broke my leg. First time ever to break a bone! First time ever to be in the hospital, aside from being born. And I had just turned the big 5-0!! Anyway, people were telling me how I will have a cast on my leg and how uncomfortable I will be. Gosh, I didn't think I could even survive that after hearing all those 'horror' stories. Why did I have to fall and break the leg? Anyway, I guess Jan thought it would be great to get a pedicure before going to the hospital and getting a cast on the leg. So I went along with that. Bad choice! About 2 weeks later, my big toe on the unbroken leg turned red and hurt quite a bit. Jan put some medicine on it and it went away for a while but came back in September. I couldn't stand the pain, so I got an appointment for a doctor to check it out. In the meantime, I didn't need a cast on the leg. They gave me a Bledsoe brace and the docs were amazed at how fast my leg had healed. Well, in October I went to see a doctor and he told me my toe was infected and he had to remove the nail. What a pain that was. I was screaming out loud that the other docs and nurses came to see what was happening. It hurt and I just wanted to die or have them chop the toe off. Well, after that it was better. The nail grew back but not the way it should. It started growing into my toe. I believe each time I clipped the nail it grew more into the toe. 2 months ago, I noticed how bad it looked and it started hurting me. I made a doc appt. to get it checked. Wrong choice I made because she decided that it needs to be removed. I also ahd decided to tell her to remove it and not let it grow back as I didn't like the way it looked. WHAT a PAIN it was. First she used the tiniest needle to numb the toe and had to do it in 3 places. "There's lots of nerves going into your toes and fingers," she said. Once that needle went in I wanted her to stop because I can't stand too much pain and then the burning sensation was even worse. She told me each time what she was going to do. Then she said she'll wait about 5 minutes for the toe to get numb. Well, it didn't help much. She began to remove the nail and caused me so much pain that I was screaming out loud. She got a roll of gauze and put it in my mouth. It hurt worse than my broken leg. I told her to just chop the toe off so I won't be in so much pain. She replied, "Well, you're going to be in worse pain if I do that!" Then she said, "Ok, it's coming off, I got about a fourth of it off." I thought it was all off but she was working on it. "Ok, it's halfway off." I'm still squirming and screaming. "It's almost off, it's alsmost off, sorry for the pain, but it's almost off." Finally, after an eternity passed, it was off. And I knew I was going to be in pain later on once that numbness wears off. Never going to have that done again!! I really thought I would just die if she kept doing that. So now I have another problem. The gauze she put on the toe hasn't been able to get off. She told me to leave the dressing on for 24 hours. I think it dried onto my toe (or she used super glue instead of medicine on my toe and it's stuck for good!!) Well, this happened on Monday and it's now Thursday and I can't get the thing off. I called the 24-hour nurse number and she told me to soak the foot every hour or so and it should come off. If it doesn't go back to the doctor and they will have to remove it. NO WAY am I going to let anyone remove it from my toe as they will cause MORE PAIN than I can stand. I don't want anymore pain. I tried to pull it off but I just cause the toe to bleed more and cause it to hurt more. I can imagine what they will do if they do it for me. They wouldn't care what pain I'm in, just as long as it's not them suffering. OMG, I don't know what to do. The nurse on the phone told me to get it off ASAP as it would get infected! I don't think I could stand that either. I think I just need a new toe.
Ever since I broke my leg, I've been having so much things happening to me and causing more pain that I ever suffered. Well, no, I take that back. I suffered really harsh pain during those once a month periods. All those years of suffering (I thought there was a little monster trying to get out with a sharp knife) and now that it's all over, I don't want anymore pain. PLEASE, NO MORE PAIN!! If it's not one thing it's another. When will it all end. I guess my life isn't boring as some people may think.

September 2011

September is here!! Green chili roasting across town at many grocery store parking lots!! Love the smell. Not sure about eating the stuff, though. If it's not too hot, it would be great. And now the NM State Fair is just around the corner. Seems like the 2010 fair ended a couple of months ago. Boy how time has flown by the past year.
Pretty soon the hot air balloons will be dotting the Albuquerque skies!! There are 3-5 balloons that go up almost every morning from Coors Rd, north of Montano. You know they're in the air when you hear the dogs barking. Our dogs bark, too. Well, the little one runs around trying to figure out what the other dogs are barking at. I sometimes go out there and point out the balloons to her and then she just goes berzerk with running, barking and jumping.
Well, I will enjoy September. I hope to get to the fair at least once while it's here. Not sure if they're doing what they did last year. No fair on Mondays and Tuesdays. It starts Friday, Sept. 9 and runs thru Sept. 25th. Crazy, huh? Navajo Nation fair is also going on the first weekend that our fair starts. I think it starts on Wednesday or Thursday thru Sunday. I believe Utah and Tennessee have their state fair as well, going on during this time too. Their's just run 2 weeks, though.

Thunder and Lightning!!

Last night we had quite a light show!! It hardly rains during the night so this was something unexpected. Around 2 AM the dog wanted to go outside so I went to let them out. They went out but turned around and quickly came back it because of the rain. I made them go back out there till they did their business. I wasn't going to find any accidents when I get up later. I told them that, too. So they finally got the message and were allowed back inside. So I went back to bed. The little dog, Momo, got out of the room they sleep in and came and actually jumped on my bed. She was awakened by the thunder. So I let her stay because the sky lit up so bright and then that loud BBOOOOOMMMMM!!!! Pretty scary for me, too. At times there were two consecutive and that thunder just scared the dickens out of me. Then the rain started to fall. But it wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be. Twenty minutes later (I looked at my clock) it stopped!! Not much rain on ground. I thought it was over. But near 3 AM I was awakened by the thunder, it just about shook the whole house and just like that the rain was pouring hard. OMG, I thought it was going to keep on coming down and we'd get flooded. I went to see how much was in the street and it was quite a lot. So I imagined the parts of the roads that get flooded when it rains like this. I even thought about getting in the car to go check it out!! But I didn't!!! Id' get wet going out to the car and I'd probably had to get dress and I was pretty tired. Another 30 minutes of thunder, lightning and rain and then it stopped. When I got up around 7, you wouldn't have known that it rained really hard just a few hours ago. No water in the streets. Just the ground was muddy. The weathermen said that we can expect more rain but I think it'll rain in other parts of the state, not here again. Never does it rain two days/nights in a row. We get the rain one day and then don't see any more for a day or two, or three, four, five. You know what I mean.
Earlier this evening I heard that the rains were out in the area where the fires had hit earlier this summer. They are expecting lots of flooding from that. I hope that the people got prepared for the rains. I know the people in Santa Clara Pueblo were on top of getting sandbags to the residents since the fires were contained. They spent weeks asking for help with sandbags.

Poor Baby

Poor baby wasn't having her way!! Maybe she just wasn't ready for anyone to take a picture of her. I don't remember why she was ready to cry, I was just taking pictures. When I realized she was ready to cry, I had to stop to see what was wrong. You know, asking her "what's wrong?" And to think that she's going to answer me!!!

Here's happy baby!! She is growing fast!! She's learning to sit up and she's also learning to talk. She enjoys watching The Pink Panther on TV. She screams out loud when they go into commercial!!

I can't believe she's going to be 5 months old!!!

A New Driver?

Our 4 month old is ready to drive a car, according to her doctor!!!

She went in for her 4-month check-up. Her motor skills were "pretty good that she can probably drive a car," said her doctor. Her daddy and mommy are going to make sure the car keys aren't lying around!!!

What A Day!

Yesterday morning I left early to take Juella to work. It was her first day at Target. I didn't know the car was just about out of gas when I left. I was running late already so I couldn't stop to get gas. I just prayed that we make it to Target on time. Well, I got to her place, went in to get her, and we were getting ready to leave. THE CAR WON'T START!!! I didn't know what to do. Juella didn't know what to do. Then I told her we need to push the car out of the space since we were at an uphill slant, a slight one. So we pushed it out and the car started. For some reason the car thinks it's out of gas when there's actually about 5 gallons still in there. So we were off to Target. On the way out of the parking lot, the car stopped!!! I looked forward to the rest of the way out Central, it was a slight uphill and there was no way we're going to get to Central if the car starts up again. Now the car won't even start. This guy was on his way to work and I told him our dilemma. He said he was going to be late, and he worked at the gas station just down the street. I asked if they have a gas can we can use, he said no. It would cost us about $7 to get one. So then I asked if he had time to take Juella to work but he said he was late. So he left and there we were trying to figure out what to do. So I told Juella to help me push the car back down a ways and see if the car will start. The hard part was getting over those speed humps. But we were able to get the car down to a flat area and the car started up. I said we'll have to go out the other exit. Juella said that it might be locked because they lock it every night. I took my chances and it was open. In the meantime that guy came back and told us that his boss said it was ok that he can take Juella to work but I told him it was ok since we got the car going. I was headed to the gas station and we had one more uphill area to go over and we prayed the car would get over that little hill. And it did. I got some gas and sped on down to Target. We got her there in time. Now I was on my way to get my sister as she wanted to go shopping. I had to go back to get Juella at noon as she had to be at Coachhouse Gifts at 1 PM. So here I am doing all this driving with my sister and didn't realize I was about out of gas again!! I didn't put much in the first time as I needed to get her to work. I was taking my sister home when I realized the car wanted to stop. I told the car to please make it to Montgomery and it's all downhill from there. I tried to think of streets to go on but my mind wasn't in the mood to think. We did make it to Montgomery and I coasted down to Sam's Club. Before getting there I had to deal with the freeway!!! There's a big hill that goes over the freeway!!! Now what do I do?? Well, the light was red for us, so I stayed down on the flat part until the light changed. I said we're going to have to speed up, hope no one gets in front of us (there was a huge space between me and the car in front of me), otherwise the car will die out and I will just die because I don't know what to do. Well, we made it over and I told the car it's downhill to Sam's Club. But it wasn't!! The car almost died as I turned onto Renaissance, it's a big curve and the car is thinking it's out of gas. It barely made it to the downhill slope. It was downhill all the way to Sam's Club. We got the gas and were on our merry way. I took my sister home, went back for my niece and took her to work at the mall. This morning I had to take her back to Target. She said, "don't forget to check to see if you have gas!!" I did have enough to take her, well, more than enough since I filled the tank up yesterday.
I hope to not run into anything like that again!!

August 2011

I can't believe it's already August!! The smell of green chile roasting is in the air!! Already??? Boy has the year flown by because it seems like a month or two ago the smell of roasting green chile was in the air. State Fair starts in one month!!
Tonight Tim McGraw is doing a show at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Albuquerque Pavillion with Luke Bryan and The Band Perry. As you can see, I am not there. Tickets are so expensive these days. I just don't think it's worth spending all that money to hear songs they play on the radio. Last month I went to see The Oak Ridge Boys at Santa Ana Casino and that was worth the money I would have spent had I not won tickets!!! Wow!! They sang songs that were at one time played on the radio but not any more. Of course Elvira will forever be the crowd favorite and you don't hear that on radio any more, not even the station devoted to the oldies. But to hear those songs that aren't heard on radio was worth the time spent there. Oh, there were tears shed when they did songs that Steve Sanders sang lead on. I miss that guy and his wonderful voice. Tim did an interview on the radio yesterday and said that the crowd will hear the usual plus a couple new songs or so. Like I said, I'd rather hear the songs you don't hear any more.
It's trying to rain but I don't think we'll get more than 10 drops. We haven't had much rain since that Sunday night we got 2 inches. Yesterday the Heights got almost 2 inches and nothing down here in the Valley!!

8 Years

8 years ago, my sister, Joan and niece, Juella, (Joan's daughter) were baptized!!! It doesn't seem like it was that long ago. They are doing good these days.

2 Inches

Sunday, July 24th we received 2 inches of rain!!! Around 5 pm it started to rain, like hard. The water was building up in the yard and the streets. There was also thunder and lightning. And in 15 minutes it all stopped!! Awww, I thought it would last a bit longer. The skies cleared and pretty soon it didn't seem like it rained as hard as it did. Then around 7:30, there was the sound of thunder and then it started to rain really hard again!! The satellite went out for a while. I thought the power was going out, too but it didn't. It rained for about an hour.
I really don't like humidity. I wonder if we can do away with it after the rains.

Well?? Rain are you comin' or what??

Yesterday the thunder was playing with our minds! We could hear the thunder and expecting to see some raindrops but nothing happened!! It was cloudy. I guess it's one of those odd things the weathermen talk about. The heat rises and hits the cold from the clouds which produces thunder and lightning (or something like that). So we just got a little bit of a sprinkle. I'd say about 10-15 drops. Then this evening the clouds came back, much darker than yesterday! And we got some rain. 5 minutes of it!! That's monsoon rains here in the Albuquerque area!!
I'm doing something I hadn't expected to do. I am teaching someone how to sew. Maybe if it works out, I can teach others. It's not hard to do. I do enjoy sewing, so it's not hard to do. I think I am going to like this. Anyone interested????

If Tacy Can Do It......

So can I. I don't think I ever read Les Miserables. I know I haven't seen the Broadway show, even though there were several opportunities. But I enjoy listening to my Les Miserables CD. This is the one with Gary Morris as Jean Val Jean. If he hadn't done the Broadway show back in 1987 (around that time, can't remember the exact year) I don't think I would have been interested in Les Miz. Thanks to him for getting me interested. I have seen several movies of Les Miserables. Some like from 1940's (I think) all the way to the last one that was in the theaters.
I went to the library today and I have 3 weeks to read it. Good luck to me!! (My niece saw the book and thinks I've lost my mind. Then she said, "Aw, but you're Auntie and you can do anything you put your mind to!")

On another note, WE GOT RAIN!!! A quarter inch of rain fell in our part of town. I had tickets to go to the Isotopes game, too. But they postponed it because the rain started around 6:30 and continued falling. Around 7:15 the called the game till today. About an hour ago, I heard thunder but haven't seen any rain. Hmmm, is it just playing with our minds??? We could use some more rain, you know. I saw on the news about the heat wave across the country. I hope it will end soon. Gosh, a few months ago, there was a freeze going on across the country, now heat wave. I am sorry that people have to suffer from those things.

The Mighty Oaks

The Mighty Oaks are mightier than I thought!! I went to see the Oak Ridge Boys the other night at Santa Ana casino. It was the best show I've seen in years. These guys did more than at any of their shows I've seen. They top all concerts I've ever been to.
2 hours of great music. These guys sang their hearts out. Some people were amazed at how energetic they were during the whole 2 hours. They couldn't believe that 'old' men can have so much fun. It's funny listening to other people comment about the shows. This lady was sitting in her seat after the show and said "I'm embarrassed to even try to get up. I can barely move and those guys were jumping all over the place!!"
I will try to put some pics of the boys when I get them uploaded. Not sure when that will be.
So, earlier that day we had gone to Isleta casino (aka Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - I like Isleta). My parents don't like to drive and I drive them around when they need someone. So we went over because it's Senior Day. You get $5 free play. So I played my $5 and won $40 on the Dean Martin game. I quit then because I wanted to buy CDs at the concert that night. I ended up buying 2 CDs, one of them being Chris Golden's latest CD. I totally enjoy listening to his music. Great singer and musician. He is William Lee Golden's son and drummer for the Oaks. Anyway I was going home with $5. As we were leaving the casino I thought about all the traffic going out. It's going to be backed up no matter which way you go. So I thought it was best to hang out for a few more minutes. I had $5. So I went to play "Tt's A Blast" which is a sheep game. I enjoy this game only because it has this sheep who blows himself up when he realizes he lit a match with dynamite all around him. Another friend enjoys that game too. Anyway, I started playing and got a bonus game immediately. After that I had several more bonus games. The last one I got lots of credits. I ended up going home with $49. I got my money back from buying those CDs. I thought that was awesome. I went home happy. We listened to Chris' new CD on the way home. It is really good. Chris told me to comment on his website but I haven't had time to go there yet. Guess I better head to that now, now that I'm thinking of it.
If you ever want to see a great show/concert, go see the Oaks if they ever are in your town. You won't regret it. They are awesome. Or do like I do, drive out to one of their shows. I enjoy doing that. Travel to shows I want to see. We don't get many here. Guess cause we're out in the middle of nowhere.

Yay!!

It's been raining now for about half an hour!!! At first it was hard rain but it's just drops here and there. And the sun is brightly shining!!!! The streets are actually wet!!

Joella & Juella

Here is our babies!! 3 months old and 22 years old!!

Oom Poppa Mow Mow

Yep, Elvira is 30 years old!!
The Boys are back in New Mexico next week. They were here 7 months ago, up north at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino with their Christmas Show. Hmmm, does that mean they're here for their Christmas in July show??? Ha, just kidding. That just came to mind. You know, you usually hear "Christmas In July" during this time of the year. Anyway, back to the Oaks, they are doing a show in Bernalillo at the Santa Ana Casino - Bosque Center. That's a great place for a concert!! Not a bad seat in the house. I can't wait to see the Boys. Been a fan of theirs like forever!! I go back to when I first heard their song "Y'All Come Back Saloon" on the radio when I was living in Provo, Utah. Little did I know that a couple of years later they would do a show at the Marriott Center on the BYU campus!!! I've been to several of their shows, been to their fan club Open House. Was even crazy enough to follow them for a week and saw 8 shows!!
The 2 fires up near Santa Fe are still going. The Donaldson fire is just about out, they said by tomorrow night.
Good night!

Fire Update!

People have been allowed back into Los Alamos. Very happy people there. They have been warned that they may have to leave again if the fire changes directions. Seems it's heading toward Santa Clara Pueblo. It has already destroyed several home in the pueblo and endangering the sacred canyon they use. They are doing their best to stop the fire and hopefully will have full containment. I believe they said it's about 60% contained. I know the Wallow Fire in Arizona is 95% contained. The Donaldson fire (started on Sam Donaldson's ranch) is about 65% contained. Another fire erupted east of Los Alamos earlier today. I haven't heard much about that one. On Saturday a fire started on Los Alamos Nat'l Lab grounds. They said a squirrel started that one. Seems it ran up the powerline and got electrocuted, fell to the ground and started the fire. Poor thing. Pacheco fire is still going, too. You can see the smoke to the north and west of the city.
Smith's grocery stores pulled all their fireworks from their stores early last week. Albertson's and WalMart soon followed. They said they don't want to have to see anymore fires that would destroy people's lives. Some of the people that are selling fireworks around the city also closed shop saying they'll lose money but it's better than to have a life lost, home lost or more than that. The Governor said she can't ban fireworks (state law says you can't ban anything that is for sale) but just be careful what you do. After that several towns completely banned fireworks in their towns. They said they could be sued but it would be better than have their town burn down. Albuquerque doesn't have enough money to be sued so they aren't banning fireworks but asked people to be careful and think twice before doing something stupid. Wish that 14 year old thought about it before starting that fire near the zoo the other night. He INTENTIONALLY set that fire in the Bosque. The Bosque had been closed from Pena Blanca, NM down to Socorro, NM. No one is allowed in the area but the stupid people go in there anyway. They've all been arrested. I am glad they closed it because I live close to there. Last time it was on fire it was the scariest time because of the fear it was going to jump to the east side of the river and that's where we all live!!
Firework shows are at Balloon Fiesta Park, Rio Rancho's Loma Park and Isotopes Park this evening. I am staying home as everyone else will be out there. I thought about going to park around the area and watch but everyone else that would rather not pay to enter the parks are going to park around the areas to watch. Last time it was way too crowded to watch them. So I'm staying home. Maybe watch a movie.
My granddaughter is 3 months old!! Yeah, I said granddaughter. I told my niece I will not be called grandma, just her mom can be grandma but everyone else says that I'm grandma no matter what I think. I still think I'm the Great Aunt because I am!! My niece is just an Aunt!! My niece says I can be the Great Aunt since I am a great one. My other nephew agrees with her! Yay for them!! But it the other relatives trying to make it 'the real' way. Joella belongs to my other nephew, my niece and nephew's brother!! Ha, did I confuse anyone? I'm confused. Juella is Joella's aunt!!
Now I gotta get back to work!! I am working at trying to get my pictures into scrapbooks! I thought it would be hard to do as I am not an artistic person. It takes me days to think of something. I've found some pictures that my brothers had and am working on putting that all together, too.
Happy 4th to all!!!

The Fires continue.......

Wow! There's the Las Conchas, Pacheco, 346, Donaldson, Wallow fires and a couple more that I can't name at the moment going on in the area. The Wallow fire is about 82% contained!! Yay!! They haven't had any luck with Las Conchas and Pacheco fires, 0% containment.
Yesterday afternoon it got really smoky here in the city. The mountains disappeared! It was pretty scary looking. Later on it all cleared up. Today there was a little bit of smell of smoke in the morning but it's all gone. Los Alamos is practically a ghost town. They said about 150 people are still in the city but will be told to leave once the fire gets to town. They are doing their hardest to keep the fire from coning down the mountain. I think they said they added about 1,000 more firefighters to help. The thing about this fire is that it has reached near Cochiti and that the Dixon Apple trees are in much danger of being destroyed. Some have already burned. I'm thinking that Cochiti is between here and Santa Fe but I am wrong. I haven't been to Cochiti so I don't know exactly where it is. There's the exit from I-25 to Cochiti. I thought it was just down the road from there. I can only imagine how big this fire is, if it's that far from Los Alamos. I don't know if those in Espanola and Santa Clara Pueblo are safe. I heard something about the pueblo but didn't get the full story. I've got relatives there!
All I can say now is that we really have to pray. I was reading something I had for a few years and it was about prayer and the person told a story about how the prayers were answered. If we all do that, just think what a difference we might make. It's not just praying, it's keeping the Lord's commandments as well. As I read my scriptures it seems that that's the message I see: keep the commandments. There are other messages but that's the one that seems to be popping up!! Prayers, too.
After that said, it's sad to hear people tell me that I don't pray or read my scriptures. That's the reason for my situation I am in. They just don't know that the situation I am in has really helped me see things that they don't see. It's sad that they don't know that they are missing out. And then I upset some people because I have this wall hanging that says THE LEFT SIDE OF THE BRAIN CONTROLS THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BODY...SO BEING LEFT HANDED IS WHY I AM ALWAYS RIGHT! So there!
You all have a nice and happy day! If things aren't going as you'd like, just remember that there's someone that is in a rougher situation than you. Keep smiling and keep it positive!!!

Mandatory Evacuation!!

Los Alamos has been issued a mandatory evacuation now that the Las Conchas fire is near the city. I am praying that they can stop it from hitting the city.
I remember back when the fires hit the town. My brothers were working out there and there was word going around the neighborhood they were working that they need to evacuate. Back here in Albuquerque, their boss told them to stay because the fire won't get to where they are. But they're in Los Alamos and could see the fire in the backyard. They decided to ignore their boss and packed their things, as quickly as possible. They left behind the paint and things like that. Only took their stuff. As they were sitting in traffic trying to get back here, they said the fire hit the homes on the street they were on. And they were sure those popping noise were the paint cans left behind. Their boss was pretty mad that they lost all that. But the guys were not going to spend any more time retreiving that stuff. I mean he insisted they guys stay but once the sheriff got there, he told them to leave. This was about 10 years ago, or so. I don't remember exactly when the fire hit there.
It was just a scary feeling last night when I heard about the fire over there. I look to the north from here and you see the smoke from the Santa Fe Nat'l Park and now from Jemez Mountains.

Praying For Rain!

More fires came up today!! The bosque south of Belen is on fire. I don't remember how much has burned but they are trying to keep it under control. If it jumps the river those people on the east side may have to evacuate. The Pacheco fire is still going north of Santa Fe. They are trying to get a hold of it but the winds aren't helping. Earlier today a huge, huge fire, La Concha fire, started in the Jemez mountains and heading towards Los Alamos!! That's pretty scary because they say this one is really huge. Lots of winds that helped it grow. Voluntary evacuation for Los Alamos, I heard on the news. Then last night some idiot(s) were lighting firecrackers and bottle rockets near where I live. I wanted to find out exactly where it's coming from because I don't want my backyard to catch on fire. We have trees and the irrigation ditch is right there as well. That firecracker/bottle rocket could destroy a lot of homes, just like that. I think someone must have called the police or something because it stopped. Just to hear those last night, it's going to be pretty scary from now through July 4th because there are a lot of idiots living here in town.

We could really use some rain. They are saying it's the driest it's ever been since weather has been tracked in the area. Monsoon season is supposedly going on here. Weather people say that rain might come around July 4th. Hope they are right. It's really something to see what has gone on across the country. First the tornadoes that hit a lot of states and now there's the flooding near the rivers and over here we could use some of that flood waters.
I hope I spelled my words right. I usually go check it before I post but I don't feel like it today. Ha ha. I really can't stand to see people leave misspelled words.

More Fires!!

There's a fire east of Tesuque Pueblo, north of Santa Fe. It started on Saturday. It's still going but heading away from homes, which is a good thing. They haven't gotten it contained yet. The Wallow Fire is about 59% contained!! That's great news. The town of Luna, New Mexico was evacuated when the fire entered into New Mexico. And the fire unexpectedly jumped the line and forced the evacuation. Today the people were told they can go back home. The fire didn't reach the town. What a relief. We haven't really had any smoke in the city for a couple of weeks. I like that because I sometimes feel like I am going to suffocate when I smell the smoke and see it all over the place. I wanted to jump in a car and head where the air was clear. The fire up by Raton is 99% or was it 90% contained. Whatever, it's almost taken care of. I believe the interstate is open thru Raton Pass. Let's see, I don't remember how the fire is down by Carlsbad Caverns. I think it's just about put out as well. Then a fire popped up in Ruidoso over the weekend. I think it's about taken care of now. They are blaming a homeless person for that one. Another fire popped up down near Deming today. I haven't heard how that's going. The city and county has closed the Bosque. You can use only the paved walkway. Now July 4th is around the corner!! Hopefully people will be careful with their fireworks and know how dangerously fire can happen and how quickly!! No rain in sight even though it's Monsoon season!!

It was 95 degrees today. Someone complained about it being too hot! I said WHAT?? FOUR MONTHS AGO YOU WERE COMPLAINING ABOUT HOW COLD IT WAS!!! It was like in the 30's back then.


Snow in February!

New Mexico Is On Fire!!

There's a fire down near Carlsbad Caverns. I think that is being contained faster than they thought it to be. They are having over 100* temperatures with 5% relative humidity and winds about 30-40 mph which is cause for dry lightning. They are hoping nothing will happen.
Then up north near Raton, they have I-25 closed to Colorado due to the fire north of Raton. Seems that they haven't really got a hold on this fire and according to the weather people, it might worsen if they can't get a hold of it. It's just the way the winds will change, or something like that.
Then the Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona is 29% contained!! That's a relief to hear. They kept it around 5-6% for days. So glad to hear the number go up and hope it gets to 100% containment. Those firefighters must be pretty tired fighting that fire since May 29th. We haven't had any smoke in the city for about a week now. Hopefully it stays that way. I really don't care for the smell or the sight of the smoke.
Governor Martinez is pleading with the people in the state to please watch what you do especially if it has to do with matches, cigarettes, etc.

The Wallow Fire

On May 29th, the Wallow fire started in northeastern Arizona and has been going on since. June 2nd I attended this MS event at the Sheraton at Menaul and Lousiana. Got there around 6 pm and left a little after 8 pm. As we walked out of the hotel we could smell smoke and see smoke all around us. Oh my, we were wondering if the Bosque was on fire. Someone said it was smoke from the fire in Arizona!! That smell stayed through the night. Next day it was all clear, no smell of smoke, either. The weathermen said that the smoke and smell will be back once the sun goes down and explained how it happens. So since then we had smoke and stinky campfire smell. One evening it's really bad, the next evening there's nothing and then the next evening it's bad again. I wish it would make up it's mind!! Monday around 4 pm it got really orange outside and was just plain weird to see the whole sky orange. And the smell, most people were wondering if their neighbor's house was on fire. I thought it might be the Bosque. The smell was so strong. By 2 AM the smell was gone. I am happy with the clear blue skies during the day but once it gets to sunset, the smoke settles in and brings along the ashes. The next morning the vehicles are covered with ashes. I wonder how long this will be. I hear it's really hard to contain the fires out there. And it's about to cross into New Mexico! People in Luna are not ready to leave home. They are packed up, but the would rather stay there. That's gotta be a tough decision as they've been living there for years and years.
Country singer Trace Adkins had his house burn down over the weekend. It was weird that I was thinking of him on Saturday afternoon (during the time the fire was supposedly happening.) I was thinking of his older daughters and wondered how many he had at home. He has two daughters in their 20s and knew that there's one at home. Then I remembered somewhere reading or heard he's got a total of 5 daughters. So there are three little ones at home. His wife wasn't at home when the fire started but was alerted and went home. The nanny was with the girls and because one of them had a fire safety class at school the family decided to draw up a plan in case of a fire. And it came in hand. When Rhonda returned home, there they were at the tree they were to meet at. I heard the neighbor went to rescue their dog and got bit. He didn't get mad about it because he knew the dog was probably disoriented. He's ok, too. Trace was on his way to Alaska for some fishing before his shows today and tomorrow. He immediately returned home when he heard of the fire. I am sure he made it back to Alaska for his show today and tomorrow. He returns to Nashville for Fan Fair. He's just perforiming at the nightly concerts at the coliseum.
Today we were stuck in traffic due to a car accident. Well, I was going to get off the interstate at Rio Bravo but decided not to get off. In the meantime I saw these two police cars in the two inside lanes coming up behind me. I thought it was weird thatthey were coming up side by side. Never seen that before. By the time I got to the top of the hill I noticed the cars were slowing down and then knew there was an accident down at the bottom of the hill. And those police cars never came over the hill. All of a sudden I noticed that there were no more cars coming over the hill. Hey, they had stopped the traffic at Rio Bravo. People had to get off there. We slowly made our way down the hill and around the accident. 3 cars involved. A truck with a trailer was hanging off the road over an arroyo. I think he flipped his truck several times. He didn't seem to be hurt at all. the other two drivers seem to be ok, too. So after we went by the accident we were going up the hill and over it. I looked over to Broadway and saw that there weren't many cars on that road. I wondered if they closed Broadway for some reason. Did the people think it was going to be slow on Broadway and headed more to the west to get the interstate? Not many cars were coming up on Broadway, where we got off. On the way back to the city, we noticed they just opened up the road. The vehicles were moving really slow as we went by. Up by the Rio Bravo exit, a semi-truck had stalled in the middle lane and was holding up the traffic there as well. The traffic was backed up all the way to Central Ave!! I was glad I was going the other direction. I know there are times I am sitting in traffic and wishing I was going the other way!!

Well, we'll see how long this fire continues and how long we get the smoke. No rain in the forecast, either. It's staying to the north. But our monsoons start up around June 20th, hopefully we get some of the much needed rain.
Joella Kivina Begay is now 2 months old. I will try really hard to get picture or two of here before she's 21

Another Hot and Dry Day!

There's a fire on the east side of the mountains! With hot and dry conditions you really have to be careful with what you do. It's been really dry around the state and lots of wildfires. Other parts of the country has tornadoes, floods, etc. and we have the dry conditons which results in fires. About 3 apartment fires in the past few weeks here in the city! Scary.
I have a Great Niece that is here with me. She's snoozing. My other niece wanted to see her but her boyfriend's cousin passed away today. He had lukemia. She told her brother that hopefully she can see her real soon, just not today.
I did laundry and cleaned the house this morning. All before it got too hot. That's one of the good things about getting up early. Get things done before it gets hot! Now I am watching Did You Hear About the Morgans? Gets me to thinking of where they filmed the movie here in the state! Speaking of films and the state. They film two TV shows here. Let's see, In Plain Sight and Breaking Bad. I haven't seen either of those shows. Guess they're on cable. Anyway the past two weeks they've been in my way!! Huh? How? What? Yep, they're in my way! I had to go out of my way around the places they were filming, down here in the Valley. And to top that off, they're working on the road that leads to our house and it's been a maze to get home! Now the streets are torn up till Tuesday. Dust every where. Yep, the winds been blowing and it's just dusty. Anyway, they closed streets where they were filming. I don't know the stars but my nephew and his girlfriend were with me and they recognized the stars of the show Breaking Bad. We were next to them while waiting for a red light! Shannon was so happy to see them. Big smile and screams.
Speaking of red lights, hmmm. They turned off all the red light cameras last week. The contract expired and the city council didn't find time in May to discuss if they want to keep them going. June 6 is their next meeting and they hope to get around to discuss that. Last night I went by Carlisle and Montgomery, where 1 of the camera intersection is and right after I went by I guess there was big crash that closed the intersection for awhile. Scary. I thought people would know to stop even though the cameras are off. I have a feeling they will be turned back on because they say there's too many accidents this past week. Drivers! Drivers that are idiots!

Today

92 degrees, 6% humidity!!

Winds

Winds are picking up again in the state. I've been hearing about the fires that started today across the state. That's pretty scary. I feel bad for those who have lost their homes, personal things. I can't remember the name of the town in sourthern New Mexico that was completely evacuated due to the fire going on there. Several years ago there were fires right here in the city along the Rio Grande. I don't live far from there and it was pretty scary. They were saying that if the fire jumps the river to the east side, we better all be prepared to leave. I thought how can a fire jump the river when it's so wide. I guess it finds a way to do so. Luckily that didn't happen. But it was sad to drive over the river and see all the black. All this started from someone who threw out their cigarette. Another fire south of this area was started by 14 year olds playing with matches. They were caught as some people were watching them. They immediately called 911 when they saw those boys running out of the bosque. But the fire spread because of the winds. So I hope people are being careful around here. It's really dry around here. We haven't had much moisture.
We hope for rain when the weathermen/women say rain is coming. But nothing happens!!! We will get the rain, though. I am sure of it. Should come during monsoon season.

Red Light Cameras

I just heard the city is losing money on running those red light cameras around the city. Seems that people are actually obeying the law of running a red light. I see people slowing down when they get to one of those intersections. Once thru there they go speeding off. That's ok as they took the speeding tickets away from the red light. You'll get ticketed if you run any of those red light intersections. I think that may also be the reason for not getting enough money to run those things. No speeding tickets.
Tonight the City Council is voting on whether to let the public vote on the red light cameras or just leave it to them to decide what to do. They're afraid the people are going to vote it away. But there are people that are wanting it to stay. It keeps people in line.
Me? I use the public transportation so I don't have to worry about getting a ticket for those intersections. They had to remove some of those cameras as they were supposedly located on state highways and that's against the law. So any that were on Paseo Del Norte or Coors Rd are gone!! And those were their top money makers!! Guess that's another reason they're having money problems with them. Wow!
We'll see what happens.

Random

Little Caesars opened at 4th and Montano about a month ago. That made us very happy because the closest Little Caesars was up on Montano west of Coors Rd. That was hard to get to especially when you want pizza for dinner and you have to sit in line on Montano to get across the river with everyone else that are trying to get home. Not many roads go across the river. Why, I wonder, do these people not work on that side and not complain and keep me waiting for pizza. The other Little Caesar is at Montgomery and San Pedro. Montgomery and Montano are the same road. For some reason someone thought it was good to name the streets west of I-25 with Spanish names and east with English. There's Griegos Rd and Comanche Rd. Oh, get this one: Ellison Rd turns into San Antonio which turns into Harper!! What confusion for those who don't know and are driving around frantically finding their way. I just think it's funny. Anyway, with Little Caesar nearby, we get fresh, hot pizza!! Yippee!!

The other day while leaving home, I saw the fire truck sitting directly in front of me on Grande Dr. Huh? What happened? Gas line again? There was a house just north of this street that nearly blew up a couple of years ago because it had a gas leak and they had to close the street down for weeks. The lady in the house was taken to the hospital with 2nd degree burns.

It wasn't a gas line, but cable line they hit. So they closed the street down going north. They already had half the street closed from San Clemente south to Aztec Rd. What a squeeze we had to get through, as this is our only way out to the rest of the city.

They are done with the work they were doing but the street is still being worked on, they left their mess, I guess, till Monday.

Sunset. I enjoy the sunsets here. I carry my camera around with me most of the time so I can catch moments like this. I also have my phone handy in case my camera isn't ready to use (battery low or I loaned it to someone). I've got tons of pictures of sunsets, clouds, sunrise, landscape, etc. Not many people picture. They're too shy!! Ha ha! I'll go look for people and get some on here!

1 Month

Baby Joella. Already 1 month old.

My nephew was telling his grandma that she's already getting her teeth in. My mom didn't believe. She was holding Joella and said "They said you're teeth are coming in, is that true? I don't think so." Then Joella reached and pulled her bottom lip down to show her teeth!!!

Is That A Raccoon?

The other night, I was in the middle of a dream when the dog started barking. So I got up to let them out (2 dogs). I heard other dogs barking as well. I thought that there were some people along the irrigation ditch in the back. So after about 10 minutes I thought I better get the dogs back in before the neighbors call the police. Well, I couldn't get them to come in. They were barking like crazy out there with the other dogs. The yard is huge and they were way out there barking with the dogs that live back there. I tried to get them to come in but they wouldn't. This is going on like 20 minutes. I finally get my flashlight and go get them. I looked around to see what they were barking at. The wind was blowing as well. Then I saw something move in the tree above and I thought it was a cat. So I told them that it's just a cat. I shined the light up at it and it turned and looked at me and it was a RACCOON!! What was it doing in our yard??? I tried to get the dogs to come towards me so I can get them inside. All I could picture was Elf (the movie, the raccoon part). I was so afraid it was going to jump down on me. Momo finally came to me and I tried to grab her but those other dogs started barking again. She ran from me. So here I am trying to get her, which I finally did. I took her in the house. Now how to get Sparky inside. She's a much bigger dog. Hmm, what to do. Finally went inside and tried to wake someone up but they were all sound asleep! Here I am wide awake. I went back outside to get the dog. I grabbed her and told her to come with me but she was trying to get away from me. It was so funny and I was laughing trying to drag her in. She had no collar on so I was holding onto her skin telling her that it's going to hurt if she tries to run away. I tried to pick her up but she was too heavy. I started to laugh. I walked her to the house, but the house was getting farther and farther away. I thought it's going to be sunrise by the time I get to the house. I was laughing most of the way to the house. I thought about letting her go and try to find something to tie to her and pull her that way. But I thought how hard it would to grab her. So I continued to walk her to the house. We finally made it. I looked at the clock and an hour had already gone by. My nose and eyes were runny by the time I got inside. I told the dogs they were not going back outside till daylight. I put a note on the door telling everyone not to let the dogs out. I don't think anyone got up during the night and the dogs were quiet even though the other dogs were barking their heads off. I finally fell asleep and didn't wake up till 7. Those dogs wanted out by then and I let them out. No raccoon in the tree. The neighbor next to me said he thinks the raccoon lives around the area as he's seen it before but thought it was a really big cat. Found out that the other neighbor keeps the dog food outside. I think that's what brings it around. And everyone in the house said, "Why didn't you wake me up?" Huh? I tried. They are all sound sleepers. Me? I have to be one of those light sleepers. I hate that cuz I seem to wake up a lot. The trains toot their horns and I can hear them!! Most times I leave the radio on so I don't have to hear the other noises. I wanted to get my camera and get a picture of it because I knew no one would believe me. They all seem to think I actually saw a cat. Now I wish I got the camera!! Ha. That would have been funny trying to get a picture of it when it's pitch black.

Not A Happy Camper

One thing I hate right now is the dryness. No rain for many, many months. When we did get rain, it was just a couple of drops. Not enough to really drench the ground. With snow, it was like about 4 snowflakes and that was it. So with it being so dry there is fire danger in the whole state. Several places have been hit with fires and it's not over. Then there's allergies. Juniper was the culprit awhile back and it made me miserable. I hadn't suffered that bad in years. I thought it was all going away. Now the wind had been blowing like crazy and there's all these things in the air and I can't stop sneezing. My eyes are just watery and people probably thinking that I am really crying. I am not alone. I see the many people around town who are suffering like me. Some are really bad so I shouldn't be complaining too much. It's not as bad as some I had seen. I feel for them. The winds have died down. They said rain today, but nothing happened. Clouds came and then they were all gone. Not a drop fell. It was nice to see some clouds though. And it was colder than usual. People complained about how cold it was. They just don't remember it gets cold in April especially when baseball season starts at Isotopes Park. The game started today. I remember all the years going to the Dukes games and freezing cold most nights in April. We just take our jackets and blankets and enjoy the games. I haven't been to an Isotopes game since they came to town. Too expensive to buy tickets. I miss the old stadium. This one is good, but it's not the same. And then my brothers aren't around either. That makes it kind of hard to get to the games because they were always at the games. I will go to at least one game this year! I won tickets to Tuesday night's game (April 12). I won from the radio station. Yay for me!! Allergies have to go away, please. I want to go outside and not have to sneeze and wipe my eyes.

April Not Only Brings Showers, Also Brings BABY

April 2, 2011 I sent this text to my niece: Hey there Auntie! Now you and I are the same, except that I am Great!! She thought that was funny and then realized that she's an auntie. My nephew and his girlfriend welcomed a baby girl at 1:40 pm. 5 lbs, 11 oz. She's just a cutie. We went to see her and the proud parents. They were all tired. Poor Shannon, she said they were up all night because of the pain she was going through. She didn't want to go to the hospital until it was almost time for Joella to make her appearance. She said she and Kee got to the hospital at 1 PM. Afterwards she said maybe she should have gotten there a bit earlier because she couldn't get any kind of drugs and she wanted it really bad. She's not sure if she can do another natural birth as this was too much for her. We'll see. Anyway, as soon as I figure how to post a picture you'll see the new addition to the family. Now our birthday season as been extended by 2 months!!

Time To Share Some Pictures!

Guadalupe Trail NW. Walk from Montano Rd. to my house. This was from summer of 2010. Nice road to walk every day. Ok, this is not Guadalupe Trail, it's a road to someone's house off of Guadalupe Trail. I walk on the trail from Griegos Rd to Montano. South of Griegos I walk along the irrigation ditch to the street I live on. It's much shorter than walking the streets to get home. Yeah, I go to Montano Rd to catch the city bus when I need to get around town. This one (#157) takes me to the mall, Cornado or Cottonwood. Other bus lines near where I live is close by. I can walk to Griegos Elementary School and catch the 12th Street bus on San Isidro Rd. That bus goes around by Old Town and to the Alvarado Transit Center in downtown Albuquerque. From there I can catch other buses to my destinations. The other bus would be the 4th Street bus. That takes about 25 minutes to get to, though. That would be my last choice to get to. They run more than the other two lines. So if I need to be somewhere quick, it's the 4th Street bus to get. 12th Street runs once an hour!!

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New Mexico Rail Runner! This is at the Los Ranchos station. I enjoy riding the train. It cost about a dollar from one end of the city to the other, if you buy ticket online! It's an all day ticket. Rode to Santa Fe once and it was pretty nice ride. Lots of people commute via the Rail Runner, between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The train starts and ends in Belen, NM and Santa Fe, NM. There's talk about extending service down south to El Paso, TX but that's probably and 10 to 20 years before it actually happens. Our current governor isn't in favor of the extension until the state budget gets back in order.

Aww, Momo and Sparky. Momo belongs to my niece and Sparky to my nephew. They live at the grandparents house. They enjoy it as they have lots of room to run around and play. They enjoy barking at other dogs, with other dogs and at each other. They enjoy barking at the hot air balloons, too. Every morning the balloons are up and flying and they can hear them from afar and ready to go out to bark at them. They love Grandma because she feeds them good! Momo came with lots of toys, mostly stuffed animals she 'stole' from Jimmy, the cat. Jimmy is my niece's cat and he took control over her stuffed animal collection. Then Momo came along and took over Jimmy's stash. They fought over who had what. Jimmy finally grew up and let Momo have them all. So there are stuffed animals and parts in the yard. Grandma picks them up and tries to mend them only to have them torn apart again. Momo has this baby bird (stuffed bird, as in stuffed animal) she sleeps with. Such a cute thing to see her carry the bird to her bed. Sparky has been trying to take it away from her but hasn't succeeded. Animals can be funny.

March Madness madness.....

WOW!!! A lot of people were saying that Gonzaga was going to beat the 'you-know-what' out of BYU!! The Cougs had the last laugh by beating the Zags by 21 points!! Woo hoo!! Then Butler beat #1 Pitt. Last year Butler went to the Final Four and people were saying they couldn't do it again. So far, they are winning! Pitt could have won but they blew the last free throw and then went and fouled Butler when time was running out! It could have gone to OT if that foul didn't happen. Cincinnati is trying to oust the #3 UConn but we'll see. 10 minutes left to go in the game. They are like 1 to 3 points difference throughout the game so far. Any one of those teams could win it.
ON TO THE SWEET SIXTEEN!!!
It's been 30 years since BYU has gone to the Sweet Sixteen. Gosh, that's a long time ago!! Guess what? That was when I was enrolled at the Y!!!! Yikes!! Am I really that old????? Naw................... I'm actually one of those few lucky ones who finished school much earlier than my peers and went on to college at a very young age...................

March Madness continues.....

Lots of upsets and lots of winners!! I am cheering on the Mountain West Conference teams. We had 3 teams but UNLV was unable to win their game yesterday. So it's just BYU and San Diego State going for that Final Four!! San Diego State just beat Temple in double overtime!!! What a game that was. I am so happy the Aztecs came out on top. Now the Cougars are playing Gonzaga. Cougars are ahead at halftime. Hope they keep it up. Watching the other games as well. My team, George Mason has to keep winning to the end. If they do, I win tickets to the Big I 10th birthday bash with Alan Jackson. It took them a whole year to get this 10th anniversary together as they will be celebrating 11 years on the air in July. We'll see how GM does. But I hope the Mountain West teams go all the way. They do have that opportunity to do so. We'll see............... Go Cougs!!! Go Aztecs!!

Spring

JU - aaachooooo - JUNI - aaaaaaccchhhhhoooooooo, aaaaaacccchhhooooooo - JUNIP -aaaccccchhhhhhoooooooo - JUNIPER -aaaaachhoooooooo. Boy do I hate Juniper. Need to head to the drug store for more kleenex. Aaachhhooooo.............

March Madness

It's that time of the year once again. March Madness is on. The Mountain West conference has 3 teams vying for the top spot. Hopefully all 3 teams will make it, but one will have to opt to be the 3rd place team. Hopefully my team, the Cougars, make it to the top!! Yep, just dreaming. Whoever comes out on top deserves the top spot, who ever it may be. I will be cheering on my team as well as SDSU and UNLV. And then if they don't make it all the way, then I'll have to choose a team to do that! GO COUGARS!!

Talking about Earthquakes

This morning the radio station I was listening to were talking about earthquakes. Asking who's been through an earthquake. I've been through a few. First one happened about 40 years ago. We had no idea what was going on but it wasn't a big one. Just shook the house for a few seconds. Then it was over. Not too bad. About two years later, same time of year (New Year's) we had another one. This one was bigger!! We were watching TV and there was a bomb that exploded and we decided that the show wasn't that interesting and decided to go to bed. So my aunt and her kids were here visiting. My brothers and cousin, Vincent were in the bedroom playing around and would throw each other against the wall. I was already in bed and soon thought my sister was kicking my bed. My mom was standing in the hallway, ready to turn off the light and go to bed. My aunt was in the living room sleeping. That's when the house was shaking. It lasted longer than the one before. My mom thought she was dizzy, my sister and I thought the other was kicking the bed, by brothers thought it was because of them hitting the walls. My dad, well, he slept through the whole thing. My aunt had no idea what was going on. When it stopped she looked out the window to see if all was ok. By the time it stopped we all ran in the hallway wondering what was going on. We turned on the TV and radio but nothing was said about what's going on. Pretty soon we heard there was a mild earthquake. We ran outside to see if there were cracks in the street or sidewalk. None that we could see. It was dark, the middle of the night. We went back inside and went to sleep. Next morning it was all over the news. People near the mountains had it stronger. They had broken dishes, windows, etc. But not too much damage. That was the last time we experienced something like that here in the city.
There was another time that I had gotten home from work. Was getting ready for bed. Finally got into bed and was watching Benson before I go to sleep. Suddenly the antenna was shaking back and forth and I wondered what was going on. I could barely feel the bed shake and I thought EARTHQUAKE!! But it stopped before I could say anything. Hmmm, wonder if it was down in Socorro. It seems there's more quakes that start in that area. You don't really feel anything here in the city. So the next morning I watched the news and sure enough there was a quake centered in Socorro. And many people felt it here. No one else in the family felt it or were awakened!! My brothers said to wake them up next time there's one!
So that brings me to one more story about an earthquake. This time I was up in Provo, Utah, at BYU. My roommate, Sharon, had just left for Southern California with the Lamanite Generation for a tour. They were gone for 2 weeks. When she got back we told her of the earthquake that hit Provo. She was so mad because she thought they would experience one when they were in California!! She said, "AWWWW, I missed it??? OMG, I missed it!!!" She's pretty funny. Anyway, this happened about 3 AM. I was getting up at 4 but was awaken by my bed shaking and I could hear the beds in the other rooms hitting the walls. I had to hold on to the mattress so I wouldn't fall out of bed! I was waiting to hear if anyone got up but all I could hear was the beds hitting the walls. I don't remember how long it lasted but it was at least a minute. Then it all stopped and there was silence. Then I went back to sleep because I had to get up in an hour. I got up at 4, got ready for work and left a note on the mirror for my roommates asking if they felt the earthquake. I was listening to the radio as I got ready and they did say there was an earthquake in the Provo area. Registered around 5.0 or so. Can't remember. Anyway, I met my friend downstairs and asked if she felt it and she said NO. I told her what happened and she said none of them woke up. She wasn't sure if I was telling the truth. She heard about it once we got on campus. It was all around campus by the time classes started. Later I got home and my roommates told me I should have waken them up. How could I when I wasn't even sure why the beds were shaking and was pretty scared to get out of bed, I might have fallen down. Here we are on the third floor!! We also found out that the girls in the other building, next to us, had more damage than we did. Most of them were thrown out of bed, dishes were falling out of the cabinets, etc. I was glad I was where I was. I don't know what I would have done if I were over there. I guess few people had damage done to their homes. Sharon comes home and hears all this. After that, no earthquakes. I don't know if she's been in one since.
Here in Albuquerque, you can feel the shakes, lightly, when there's an earthquake down in Socorro area.
Another time I was in California with my friend and we stayed at her friend's house in Santa Barbara one night. I felt the floor move when I was asleep. I woke up and heard nothing but silence. I thought I would hear someone get up and ask if somehing just happened. Nothing. Next morning while eating breakfast, we heard on the news there was another aftershock (there was an earthquake earlier that week). I said "I wasn't sure if that was what I felt during the night!" Everyone looked at me and said "Why didn't you wake us up?" I told them that it was over before I realized what it was. And it wasn't that big of a aftershock. It was enough to wake me up. Me? I'm a light sleeper. They said next time wake us up even if it's over. Well, we didn't stay there after that. Haven't been back there, either.
Those are the ones I remember going on. I hope those in Japan today are ok. It's sad to hear how many lives were lost, to see all the damage done. We can just pray for them and everyone else on earth.

Avon

Anyone interested in ordering Avon from me is welcome to. I can take orders from anyone across the country. Just visit my website at www.youravon.com/kbegay and order away!! Your order will be delivered directly to your door step.
I'd like to have some online events and specials but I need customers!

YAY!!!

Yay! We're back to normal!! I thought we were going to remain in the 'Alaska state of mind' alot longer than anticipated!! Glad those below zero readings are gone. Even the single digit temps are gone. We had a high of 56 today!!
With all this cold weather it has finally hit me................. a nasty cold. I hate it. I blame it on my cousin, Kay and my niece, Juella. They were both sick on Sunday. Kay had a Superbowl party at her house and invited us over to eat. So we went, not knowing she was sick. Here she is just coughing all over the place. Then I had to go get Juella from work and she said she was feeling sick. Seems that she and her co-worker, Karen, were sick at work. (getting customers sick, too!!) So the other day, Wednesday, I felt a cold coming on and tried really hard to make it go away but it just wouldn't. Now I am sneezing, coughing and just being miserable. I forgot what it was like to be sick. I hadn't been sick like this for the last 3 years!! Hmmm, wonder if it's because I finally got a flu shot!!! I haven't had a flu shot for the past 3 years!! When I was in the hospital they suggested I get a flu shot so I wouldn't get sick!! Ha! Look at me now. I oughta go hunt those docs down and say "Look what you've done now!!" Oh well, I knew it had to happen sooner or later.
Spring is in the air!! We're up to the 60's next week!!

Winter

Wow!! We got snow here in Albuquerque!!! Where I am living, there was about an inch on the ground. The weathermen (women) actually got this one right! They said it's going to be brutally cold and they're right on that too!! Brrrrrrr is all you hear from anyone in town. February 1, 2011 was the day it snowed!
They closed the schools after putting them on 2 hour delay. The roads were icy that morning and there were thousands of accidents throughout the city. So that was the reason for them closing the schools that day. Rio Rancho kept their schools open, though but parents there weren't too happy about that. Seems that they had to take their kids to school!! What happened to the buses? Then February 2nd came along and the weather people were saying that we should wake up to more white stuff as the 2nd part of this brutal winter storm was passing through our neck of the woods. Tuesday night they decided that they will keep the schools closed because of that storm. Woke up Wednesday morning and no white stuff on the ground. In fact, the skies were clear and the sun was popping up over the mountains! It was freezing cold, though. I think the wind chill was -14 that morning. It warmed up to 7 degrees that day!! Last night they were talking about black outs in southern New Mexico and urged people to lower their thermostats to keep the gas going throughout the state. This morning we heard that they closed the schools again. People are crying WHY? WHY? Seems the school buses wouldn't start! Then they were concerned about the heating in the schools. They didn't want to risk losing heat and causing the kids to freeze. I learned that diesel fuel turns to gel at 15 degrees!! That's what happened to the buses. It was 2 degrees this morning at 7. Now most of the schools across the state are closed tomorrow because of the gas shortage. They're not sure if the schools can handle things if the heat goes out. I remember back in 1971 we had about 8 inches of snow and it was COLD, COLD, like freezing. We even went to Peter McDonald's inaugeration in Window Rock, AZ on a Tuesday. They had closed the schools on Monday and opened on Tuesday. We were in Window Rock and freezing like crazy as the event was outdoors and snow on the ground. My brother was very cold and when he cried his tears froze!!! We heard it was -17 that day!! We were glad to get home that evening and thawed out by the next morning!! We learned how some schools closed on Tuesday due to no heat. One of them was my school. So I didn't miss anything. The schools were closed the rest of the week because of the heating problem. So what's going on today is something that comes around every so often. We should be grateful that we don't encounter this every year. A lot of people of taking this as a lesson in life.
We will be thankful when we get the temperature back to the 30's and 40's next week!!
I hope those across the country get by with this vicious storm going their way. I saw on the news about the people stuck in Chicago for several hours. I am sure there are people without heat, electricity and things like that. Hopefully they will find a way to get through this storm. I have been praying for everyone that is affected by the storm. I believe it's just about everyone in the USA.
(I didn't check for spelling, forgive me if I made mistakes. Tired!!)

Cats

My niece has two cats, Jimmy and Zelda. Jim was a gift to her from her two friends. Zelda was from one of a friend's cat. Her friends got the other kitten. Anyway, things happen and my niece had to find a new home for her and her pets. She asked her mom if she could leave the cats with her for about 3 weeks, at the most, while she finds a new place to live. (She and her friends had a falling out). Anyway, her mom was happy to do that, at least we thought so. Her mom had other ideas about taking in the cats. All she had to say was no to her daughter. Here my niece is so happy that her mom is taking in her cats and no complaints at all. On the other hand, my sister is talking about how her daughter just dumped the cats on her, she didn't buy food or provide litter. Then with me, she said none of that, just happy that she took in the cats. The home teachers got their earful of the bad news and just told my sister to take the cats to the pound since she can't take care of them. They must have planned for her to take them at a certain time if my niece didn't comply with her wishes. Nothing was ever said to my niece from her mom. My niece was there to feed her cats and clean up after them. Only thing is that my sister beat her to the cleaning part. Not sure why, but my niece was thankful to her for cleaning up even though she told her she'll do it. So after I got out of the hospital, I was waiting for my prescription when my niece called and told me her mom just told her that she's giving the cats away to someone from church. But she wouldn't tell her who got the cats. So she wa crying and wanted to know what happened. I told her that I had heard that her mom wanted to take the cats to the pound for whatever reason she felt she should. So I called the HTs because I knew they were going to take them. Sure enough they said they took the cats in that morning and I told them that they shouldn't have. They jumped all over me because my niece wasn't taking care of the cats. I tried to explain but they didn't want to hear it. So I asked where they took the cats. I told my niece and she was able to retrieve them through adoption. But she got her cats back.

I guess she loves her pets because they love her back. It's sad when you have parents that really don't seem to care about your existence. She now believes that her mom really doesn't give a hoot that she's alive and she's her daughter. Poor thing. She knows the rest of the family loves her and will do just about anything for her. It's sad that my sister doesn't realize the good things about having kids. She really doesn't talk to her kids since the day they were born. She doesn't even know them. She looked forward to the day that they were 18 and out of her life. She got her wish.