Survived the Wind, A Dull Day, Clouds are the Big Story of the Day, Still Loving the Desert

Saturday, Feb. 18^th just proved that we made it through the wind storm late yesterday afternoon and evening. Phew! There were times that it was truly a ‘hold onto your hat and your dog’ kind of gust. Thankfully, the gusts weren’t steady so I only freaked out a couple of times.

I was up before 7 and Bill soon after. It felt cool in the Suite with the temperature hovering around 63F and so Bill opted to run a cycle with the furnace to take the chill out. I had my tea and read the blog posts from yesterday and the comments. It is so nice when people comment, you know that you have family and friends out there taking the journey with you. At the same time, they know we are doing okay.

Get a load of these clouds today!

I’ve tried to write my posts earlier in the evening and by starting it in Word early in the day. This way I can add to it if I get an opportunity and it doesn’t take so long to post. Pictures take a while to download into my site but only because our wi-fi is not racing-horse fast. I can usually get it finished in 20 minutes doing it this way.

When Bill sat down at his laptop to write a post, I decided to make up a batch of steel cut oatmeal. It makes a great bowl of porridge with no additives other than raw oats. It does require patience, unlike the small packets of oatmeal that Bill likes occasionally, taking 25 minutes on medium heat to cook. But worth it!

We wanted him to fly over us but of course he didn't

I am trying to finish the last 80 pages of the David Baldacci book, The Simple Truth.  This is difficult while listening to Bill talk to himself. I say this with as much love as I can muster because he will never change and has always talked aloud while writing and puttering around. Needless to say, I’m still about 60 pages out after an hour.

Our oatmeal was yummy and the perfect breakfast on a cooler, cloudy day with rain spatters on the windows. Bill makes up for his interruptions by doing up the dishes, so all is forgiven. The day does not seem conducive to walking yet so the book will get finished and maybe another project started.

There he is, my sweetie setting the pace

Finally! I finished the book around noon and it was nail biting again right to the bitter end. It felt cool inside the Suite at 69F and that is ridiculous so we each had a bowl of chicken noodle soup. You know that stuff that is good for what ails you. It did the trick and warmed us both up.

Toad or tow vehicle or just visiting?

Bill and I took our cameras and went for a walk in the direction of the Coyote Mountains. We have yet to discover the stone snake so until we get firmer directions we will just wander to get exercise. Before too long and about a mile and a half the light rain returned and we turned back for home.

Ultra-lite

While walking, we saw two ultralights flying around the area but not close enough to get any good pictures. Although we tried.
The area we are in is not crowded by any means and daily we see campers leaving and others coming in to take their place. You would never know it was President’s Day weekend out here, it is so peaceful. We are not missing the city traffic at all.

From up on Coyote Mountain we took this shot

Today is a calm day, Mr. Wind blew himself out yesterday, I guess. No sooner did Bill say “come on, sun” than the sky brightened. Our panels have been drawing in some power even though it is cloudy but it would be nice to get up past 12.7 amps today.

I love how the clouds circle this little mountain peak

I pulled out my spooling kit again and set to work adding more to my ‘one day’ scatter rug. Bill read a bit and snoozed a bit until I told him that Lorne was out with his drone. Like a kid in a toy store, Bill had his out and the two of them played with their toys under the watchful eyes of Harold.

Look! Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it Superman? No, it's our drones!

I had to grab my camera because the clouds in the western sky, well, actually all around us, were just blowing me away. With each minute passing I had a different shot. Click click, zoom, click, oh my! Then the sun started to peep through the clouds so even more of the same.

  

these clouds were awesome all day long, all around us

Up there, I was witnessing the ending of one day but at the same time seeing what kind of day tomorrow would bring.  Just when I thought I’d seen the best a sun dog appeared so even more clicking. 

While I was doing this, the boys played with the drones flitting back and forth and up to 407’ snapping a whole different kind of photo.

Original shot

I enjoyed their playfulness as they flew them into position to look at each other, eye to eye. With that backdrop, who could go wrong? Of course, I snapped and clicked. After downloading my pictures, I used the Photo program on my Windows 10 laptop to play with the colour schemes. It sure changes your perspective when you look at the drones against a Zeke or Neo background.

                                                                     

So, it was soon time to come in and start supper. Bill lit the Weber and started the steak while I made up our salad inside. This is what Clemson does when Bill is outside barbecuing. He can hear something, smell something and knows that his daddy is out there. 

Clemson listens and waits

Bill takes more aerial photos of our rv's
Harolds (top centre) Lornes (2nd from top) Ours Tom and Debs (bottom right)

some 400' in the air

Can you see me now?

 By 6:30 we were done and I sat down to add to my blog. We’ll be having our last piece of rhubarb strawberry pie tonight, it has lasted us well and we have enjoyed every morsel.

And the day draws to a close, it couldn't be any prettier than this

It was a great day even though we didn’t see the sun for any length of time. It did make an appearance as the day said goodbye.

 Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed your day as well. Your comments are always appreciated.