Making entries into this journal is typically done each day, or at least notations are made daily to help refresh my memory. However, almost two weeks have gone by since last writing. To say that I’m easily distracted would be an understatement!

Kay and I continue to play catchup after being gone for three months this winter. And, the yard work is overwhelming, particularly since a new “butterfly/hummingbird” garden is being built in one of the few places at the back of the property receiving sun most of the day. This work in progress involved relocating about a half yard of washed gravel (one shovel at a time), cutting plastic ground cloth, adding a half yard of top soil, and planting flowers.

During the course of creating the new bed, a few photos were made on Tuesday, April 22. The dragon fly is a Common Green Darter.

The butterflies are a Red Admiral and Gray Hairstreak, respectively.

More yard work was done on Wednesday and a couple of butterflies, damselflies, and dragonflies posed for photographs.

On Thursday, a new dishwasher was delivered (as mentioned before, this is the third Frigidaire appliance to be replaced since moving in 9 years ago). Also, a couple more photos were made.

Neither of our backs held up to the yard work, especially when combined with sports. We were sore for days, and spent a good portion of time inside recovering.

Kay began feeling ill on Friday, and over the course of the next day and a half came down with a full-fledged head cold. It is so rare for her to be sick!

On Saturday, we picked up a new 2024 Hyundai Palisade to replace the 2018 Honda Pilot. The Pilot was perhaps the “best” car I’ve ever owned, but lacked a couple of options I wanted/needed. It will take days, if not weeks, to learn how to “program” all the bells and whistles. Grandson Ridge played basketball Saturday evening in Little Rock and while he played well, the team won one and lost one. In the loss, the other team was more disciplined and deliberate, and had a couple of big “men” that took almost all the rebounds.

Basketball was the main attraction on Sunday, but was short lived as the team was overwhelmed by a slightly better group of players. Ridge played really well again, but his contributions were not enough to make the difference. Both Kay and I attended, and enjoyed a quiet Sunday late afternoon and evening.

Wet conditions prevented my sports participation on Monday, while Kay had a few minor appointments. I played golf with the church scramble on Tuesday, and Kay stayed home for installation of the new dishwasher. The first people who were to install the dishwasher priced installation at $600+. After making a few calls to Metro Appliances in Maumelle (from whom we bought the dishwasher and who recommended the expensive installation), a more reasonable installer was identified and did a good job. We see more and more “contractors” taking advantage of the elderly here in Hot Springs Village; shame on them!

Our yard and house have been ignored too long; a bad back followed by back surgery, and then a gimpy shoulder followed by shoulder and bicep surgery has taken its toll on our ability to take care of things around the house. We’ve tried hiring it done, but first of all, it’s hard to get anyone to rake leaves and put out mulch. Secondly, they charge an exorbitant amount for such work. And thirdly, none have been able to satisfy us in terms of quality and completeness. Thus, we’re the only ones to do the work if it is to get done.

On Monday, still recovering from all the yard work on Sunday, I rode over to watch the “Chicks” play pickleball at Diamante, but there were not enough to play, and of course I volunteered. Kay had medical appointments most of the afternoon. Late in the afternoon, I walked around the back yard looking for things to photograph and was surprised to see a Black and White Warbler. It was only the second one I have seen and the first was in Gilbert, Arizona.

There were also a few Yellow-rumped Warblers darting from limb to limb, and a Blue-winged Teal was swimming in the lake just off the dock. 

Even a dandelion posed for a photo.

Kay played pickleball on Tuesday, and we shared a quiet evening. Just looking around, the office is a disaster as photography and computer equipment are scattered all over the place.

Kay played her first golf with the Duffers on Wednesday and shot a pretty decent game, hitting her “Heaven” wood (Callaway 7 wood) and putting well. My semi-annual medical exam took place on Wednesday, and all is well, relatively speaking. I had lost 17 pounds since my last visit, and blood sugar levels had dropped in half—but they were still too high. He asked if I had fallen lately and I said yes, six times, playing pickleball. He said that didn’t count! Dinner was a petite chopped broccoli salad at Diamante for each of us, and it was really good.

Early Thursday morning, eleven lemony blueberry/cranberry muffins were made with sourdough discard, followed by preparing and smoking a rack of ribs on the Big Green Egg. I then repeated Monday morning’s pickleball activities, not intending to play but the “Chicks” were again short one player. The four of us had some great matches! Following pickleball, I tried to play 18 holes of golf, but my back hurt too much. Consequently, I played only 11 holes. Kay played duplicate bridge. And then, in the afternoon, we planted almost three dozen flowers, all intended to attract pollinators, especially butterflies and hummingbirds. Once again, we both were dirty, sore, and near “exhaustion”. It’s sometimes hard to remember that we’re in our mid-70s! I take that back. After pickleball, golf, and gardening, it’s pretty darn easy to remember—soreness in the knees and back, and leg cramps don’t let you forget!

Working in the yard has not been kind to my Lumbar Spinal Stenosis; my back is in constant pain! But, we keep on working to get things in shape for late spring and summer, and we only lack a few more days until completion. Consequently, we were back at it on Friday morning, continuing to prune the significantly overgrown Creeping Juniper. It has just about creeped over the entire front “yard”. After about three hours of hard work, the rock and gravel work in the yard can be seen once again, and accumulated leaves and pine straw can be collected. Shredding/chipping will be put off until a later date.

On Saturday, we traveled to Conway to watch grandson Ridge play AAU basketball. They won their first game with outstanding three-point shooting, but lost the second to a much taller and older team. In fact each of their players was as tall as I am—about 5’ 10”. Of course, Ridge was quite dejected, but he played well, rebounding, passing, and playing outstanding defense. It rained most of the day, keeping us inside.

Though Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest, more yard work called after church. It’s hard to tell if progress is being made since work efforts are so slow!

Now that the total solar eclipse is history, chores need to get done. And, there is such a long list: prune Forsythia, prune Crepe Myrtles, cut back Pompas Grass, severely prune Blue Creeping Juniper, chip/shred resulting yard waste, buy potted ferns and hanging plants, fill bird feeders (both hummingbird and seed feeders), remove leaves and weeds, organize garage, catchup on blog, attempt to repair appliances and smoke alarms, and clean up office! Consequently, no golf will be played this week, and pickleball only for the HSV Pickleball Club ladder.

Tuesday, Kay and I embarked upon trimming the Forsythia on the north side of the house. It is the only plant that survived in a bed created several years ago, and it has gotten a bit out of control. Next was pruning the Crepe Myrtles along the “ditch”, in front of the house, and around the patio in back. The waste vegetation from all this pruning was piled onto the lot next door for further processing.

On Wednesday, my back ached (lumbar spinal stenosis) from all the activity the day before. Nevertheless, Kay and I severely clipped the overgrown Pampas Grass in the back near the lake. That about did me in. It must have been the action of using the shears to clip of the dead leaves. The hot tub helped, but the aches and pains were severe enough to render me pretty helpless. Kay was scheduled to play golf, but it was canceled due to the threat of rain.

She had Book Club on Thursday, and the members always look forward to getting together. This was their first meeting this year (2024). Meanwhile, I took it easy, and worked on writing and publishing a couple of blog entries, still capturing our recent trip to Big Bend National Park. In the evening, I played pickleball in the HSV Pickleball Club ladder.

Car shopping was the order of the day on Friday. Neither of us need a new/different car, but I wanted one with AWD and a few more bells and whistles. It looks like I may be moving away from Honda despite having been a loyal Honda owner for the last 38 years. The local dealer just didn’t want to earn our business even though we’ve used them to maintain our Hondas (currently three) for the last nine years. After car shopping, we visited a local plant nursery where Kay bought a few hanging baskets to liven up the deck.

The aches and pains had subsided somewhat by Saturday, and I took advantage to rake leaves from the sides and back (actually a blower was used), and to change our ceiling can lights to LEDs. Kay played pickleball around midday, after which we drove to Little Rock to shop at Costco.

We took advantage of an empty schedule on Sunday (we played hooky from church) to work on the dishwasher and continue yard work. After taking the dishwasher somewhat apart, the water intake valve I ordered was the wrong one. The cost to repair is such that we’ll likely buy a new one. This will be the third appliance (all Frigidaire) to be replaced since building the house in 2015. The fireplace fan has also worn out, but replacing it can be put off until late fall. After the unsuccessful early morning, we shredded and chipped most of the yard waste from last week with the newly purchased electric shredder/chipper. It did a great job, and hopefully we’ll have mulch and/or compost as a result.

And lastly, time was made to take a few photos around the yard. It’s still too early for many dragonflies to be darting about, at least here, but this one posed long enough for a shot.

And there were several wildflowers in bloom (some call them weeds).

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse moved across North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

The solar eclipse, also known as the Great North American Eclipse, was a total solar eclipse visible across a band covering parts of North America, from Mexico to Canada and crossing the contiguous United States. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the Sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk. Totality occurs only in a limited path across Earth’s surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a larger surrounding region. During this eclipse, the Moon’s apparent diameter was 5.5 percent larger than average. In Hot Springs Village, the partial phase started at 1:32.20 PM. The duration of eclipse totality lasted 3 minutes and 59.1 seconds, starting at 1:59:40 PM, with mid-eclipse occurring at 1:51:36 PM. With a magnitude of 1.0566, the eclipse’s longest duration of totality was 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds just 4 miles north of the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango.

I photographed the eclipse with Dan and Mike at Dan’s house. Thank you, Dan, for helping with all the setup and settings. Though I shot a bunch of photos, here’s a composite of a few showing the progression of the eclipse.

A fitful night’s sleep was enjoyed in our “sticks and bricks” house, waking up Monday morning to fast internet and a lake view. A quick trip to the RV storage bay was made to collect as many items as I could carry, particularly golf clubs and accoutrements and photographic and computer gear. I played pickleball in the morning at Diamante and golf with my old group at Magellan. And, the golf score wasn’t too bad considering it’s been almost a year since I’ve played 18 holes on a “big” course. It’s so good to be home!

I played pickleball again on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, while Kay attended to her social clubs and functions and personal care appointments. We were honored to host Kay’s sister, Nan, and brother-in-law George briefly Thursday afternoon and evening. It’s always good to see them and recollect memories. They left early Friday morning, even before we awoke, driving to Cincinnati and then Virginia.

We continued to unpack, wash clothes, and organize things over the course of the weekend. Saturday, though, was for watching Ridge play basketball with his AAU team. He is a really good, actually great, basketball player. He played soccer in the morning followed by two basketball games in the afternoon. He was exhausted! After getting our grandkids fix with the younger central Arkansas grandkids, we enjoyed a quiet evening and Sunday.