I'm Glad That Week is Behind Us

Donna and I have been retired now for almost 8 years. When we walked away from our jobs, we walked away from schedules, alarm clocks, and everything else related to a structured lifestyle. I don't believe I've set my alarm clock a single time since I retired; I do, however, have a pretty accurate internal alarm clock, and I rely on that for waking me for early morning trips and such. Old sleepy head Donna needs an alarm clock occasionally for early morning appointments.

This past week really tested us. We have scheduled as many of our medical appointments together as possible so that they are not spread out, thereby getting in the way of our busy travel schedule. This past week, we had a total of 8 medical appointments. Additionally, we had some other things to do as well. It was truly a busy week for us.

I'll intersperse this entry with some pictures I took early this morning of a beautiful West Texas sunrise. I have not altered the pictures in any way except to zoom in, crop them, or resize them. The pictures with the brighter colors resulted from zooming in on particularly colorful areas, thereby eliminating some of the surrounding bright light.

It was just getting light when I snapped this picture looking off to the southeast.

Donna kicks things off on Tuesday

Donna started things off with a morning appointment on Tuesday. We followed that up with a stop at Schlotzsky's. I first ate at Schlotzsky's in about 1974 or 1975 when I was visiting a friend in Austin. I had never heard of this place with the crazy name before, but when we stopped at the location at Dobie Mall on the UT campus and I bit into that first sandwich, I fell in love. I don't enjoy their sandwiches as much now as I once did, and I feel they are a bit overpriced, but Donna really likes them. And since she had been such a big girl at the doctor's office, I thought she needed a reward.

I zoomed in a bit for this shot. By zooming in, there isn't as much light, thereby making the colors a bit brighter.

Lab work on Wednesday

We got up really early to have lab work done at 7:00 AM on Wednesday. We use the Urgent Care location just about a mile or so away from our home for lab work. We were back home by about 7:30 or so. I was grateful that Donna only bit the person drawing her blood once.

Most of our appointments for the week were at the clinics clustered around the downtown hospital, but we can use any of the Urgent Care clinics around town for lab work, colds, and other items.

After dropping the old woman off at home, I went out to run some errands. I got my hair cut to start things off, then stopped by the bank to take car of a little business. After that, I stopped at one of our 2 Walmart Neighborhood Markets to pick up a few items. I don't know if you've ever shopped at these little Walmart stores, but I love them. You can park close to the door, the store is smaller so you can find items quickly and easily, and check out is a breeze.

I allowed about 5 minutes to pass between the previous shot and this one.

Thursday is a long day

Things began to pick up on Thursday. Donna and I had early morning appointments with our dermatologist. We like to go in together for our appointments. I can help control Donna if she becomes hostile, and Donna can translate for me since I don't hear well and I don't understand medical things well. But we had a great visit with our dermatologist and everything looked good.

Some severe winter weather was moving into this part of Texas as we left the clinic, and we got into a bit of rain and high winds on the way home. The temp when we left that morning was about 51 or so, but by the time we returned home, it was down to 39 and still dropping. Areas to our north and northeast had a pretty good dusting of snow, especially around Blackwell and Orient, both very small communities to the north of us. But that wind was terrible, gusting up to 50 mph at times.

We returned home to have a light lunch. That evening, we attended a dinner at the clubhouse here at Rio Concho West. It was still raining as we dashed from our car to the clubhouse, but by the time the event was over, the rain had stopped although the wind was still blowing, presumably from Alaska.

And this is a couple of minutes later. The colors and light change quickly.

Friday, the last hectic day

I went out solo on Friday morning. I had a semiannual appointment with my rheumatologist. I was in and out of there quickly. Donna and I lolled about the house, eating a light lunch. Just after lunch, we both returned downtown for our annual visit with our family doctor. Since we moved to Angelo, we've been seeing a male physician, but he recently moved to Colorado. He was was being replaced by a young female doctor, and he referred us to her. He had known her in Amarillo when she was doing her residency there and thought highly of her.

Now, I'm old school, so I have to confess that I was a bit hesitant about seeing a female doctor. But times are different today, and I want to get the best care I can, so I was willing to give the young lady a try. Well, she's really good. She listens, she explains things well, and she is very detail oriented. I think I'm going to like her. She went over all our lab results, and I have to say that my results are better than they have been in quite a while. I think the increased walking I've done this year -- as well as watching my diet more -- has paid off. Everything looked great for Donna as well.

After our appointments, we went to Whataburger for a mid-afternoon lunch and to celebrate having all of these appointments behind us. We then went down the street to a visitation at a nearby funeral home. Our next door neighbor passed away last week, and his visitation was being held. We spent some time there visiting with his wife and family, then headed home. Our busy week was over.

I'm looking more to the south in this shot, and the clouds are farther from the sun. As a result, you can see the difference in color between the clouds at left and those at right.

But wait! There's still Saturday.

It was nice to sleep in Saturday. We had no schedule, no place to go, and nothing to do. We hung around the house all morning and had a fairly light lunch. The sun was shining and the day was warming. So, off to the state park we went for a walk.

We stopped at the headquarters to renew our annual park passes. This allows us unlimited entry to ALL state parks. It now costs $95 for our 2 cards, but we feel it is money well spent. I like knowing I'm helping to fund our state parks, and we do get our money's worth. Most state parks today have entry fees ranging from $3 to about $7 or perhaps more. I estimate that we make at least 30 or 40 visits in a year, most at our park. But when we are traveling and we come across a park and want to stretch our legs, we will just drive in and take a break from the road. And sometimes on our travels, we like to hike at other parks.

Anyway, we did our regular 5+ mile loop in the south section of the park. The sun was shining bright and the temp was well into the 60s. It was a beautiful day for a walk in the park.

Now, that is some orange color. I zoomed in again for this shot.

Getting back to normal.

Well, I'm certainly glad that week is over. We can get back to our usual routine now, where we get up in the morning when we want to, enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee, watch the news, and do whatever we want. But Christmas is quickly approaching, and there is a hoard of scary monsters who live about 100 miles north of us who have some invasion plans for next weekend. I'm sure those rascals have plans to disrupt my routine. 

I love our sunrises and sunsets!