Friday, May 15, 2020 - Where Has This Month Gone?; Rain, Rain Go Away!; Getting Out and About

Friday, May 15, 2020 - Where Has This Month Gone?; Rain, Rain Go Away!; Getting Out and About


Here we are almost half way through another month and it seems like it just started!  At least we have stayed busy during this "shutdown" of sorts.  I'm very thankful for that.

We had storm warnings last night, with an estimated start time of 1am.  I woke up at 2am to thunder, lightning and heavy rain, but I just rolled over and went back to sleep.  I woke up at 4:30 and it seemed to have let up, but I wasn't ready to get up yet.  It was closer to 5:30 when I finally rolled out of bed.  After starting the coffee pot, I did a few exercises.  It was raining, but it wasn't long and the storms started again.   

Taken out our back window at 9am.  It started raining around 1am and it's still raining.

I realized yesterday as we were getting ready for our Dentist appointment that I had not washed my jeans.  I had been waiting until I had a full load.  I don't even own any slacks/dress pants, and it was too cool for capris.  Fortunately, I remembered I had a pair of black jeans that I wear when I want to "dress up".  (I don't wear them often)   Later, when I went to pick up the kids, I walked out back to see the fence Marc & Jen had put up around their backyard.  There has been so much rain, that just inside the gate it was very muddy.  No problem, until their pup Cash came over and jumped on my leg - he left two little brown paw prints!  That stinker!  So before I went to bed last night I pulled my jeans out of the hamper and took them downstairs so I could wash them first thing this morning.  If this is what it takes to get warmer weather - Sunday to Wednesday forecast range is 72 - 78F - I'll gladly wash them.

It does not look good for a walk this morning.  Our weather forecast is calling for rain all day and there are flood warnings for low lying areas.  I will stay busy though as I can always find something to do.

Since I was able to post my blog last night, it was another good morning of having time to read posts of fellow bloggers.  I enjoy reading each and every one of them.

Dean had mentioned earlier this week he would sure like to have breakfast from Circle L, so I reminded him of that this morning.  I called our order in and 20 minutes later he was back with a nice hot meal.  He chose a sausage/cheese omelet, Hash Browns and wheat toast, while I had 2 eggs over medium, hash browns, bacon and wheat toast.  

After breakfast Dean went back out in the rain to pick up our mail at the post office.  I ordered more of the protein powder he likes.  I expected to get the order from my lung doctor for a test that needs to be scheduled, but it still has not arrived.  I'm now wondering if they mailed it to the correct address.  It's never taken 4 days to get a letter from Joplin before.  Oh well, maybe when we return on Wednesday everything will magically show up.  I can only hope!

Since I knew there was no way to get this second test done before my appointment with my lung doctor on Wed, May 20, I called their office today to cancel it.  I've rescheduled it for June 25 hoping it will be plenty of time to get the test taken and the results back to the doctor.  Next I called my health care provider at the Indian Clinic to see if I could move my appointment with her up one week, just to be sure I have enough time to get everything I need before I see the lung doctor.  However, they cannot tell me anything until June 1.  Due to Covid-19 it has really taken a toll on them and how they handle things. The receptionist was very nice and apologized for any inconvenience.  She said someone would be calling me on Monday, June 1 to either confirm or reschedule my lab work for June 8, and my appointment for June 15.  

Well the good news is, since I cancelled my doctor appointment on Wednesday, May 20 we decided to add another day to our camping reservation from 2 nights to 3 nights, arriving on Sun and leaving on Wed.   After several attempts to access their online reservation app, I finally had to call the office at the park.  They were able to fix me up, thankfully!  It was quite a morning trying to get things done.  At times it feels as if we are spinning out of control - is it me or them?  Maybe a bit of both?  

Around 2:00 Dean said he needed to run some errands.  He asked if I wanted to ride along.  Sure, I was ready to get out of the house for a little while.  Our first stop was to get diesel for the truck and order 2 back tires for my car at Bartlett Coop.  They were out of diesel, but we were successful in getting the tires ordered.  One of my HS classmates, Bill, was there to pick up a tire he had repaired, and I was able to visit with him for a few minutes.  Our next stop was at Cindy & Elmer's.  Cindy bought some flax seed for me, and she also gave me nearly a full container of Tide soap that I use, as well as a jar of peanut butter, so I needed to repay her.  Our next stop was at the garage.  Dean needed to get a few things to take with us when we leave on Sunday afternoon.  After we gathered those up, I suggested we drive through the park to look at the river.  Yes, that's what we do when the flood waters head our way.  There were a few fishermen along the bank.  We thought one might have had a bite, but if so, it got away.

The water is flowing right over the dam - as if it isn't even there.

 These pictures were taken from the overlook in our city park.

The field to the north is waterlogged!

It's nice that we can view the river from the overlook on the bluff in the park.  Oswego has no worries of flooding.  As we left the park, I suggested we drive east of town to the River bridge.

to the south

to the north - it sure looks calm here compared to the one above.

On our way back to Oswego I took one more picture - Horseshoe Lake.

As I looked at this picture later of Horseshoe Lake, I thought what a great puzzle it would make.  

As we drove into Oswego, Dean said we may as well drive to Chetopa and look at the river there too.  Well, why not?  What else is there to do on a wet, sloppy day.  It's too wet for him to work at the lot.  I don't have much to do at the RV and neither one of us really wants to be outside doing anything.  Its cool, damp and soggy.  Chetopa had a number of fishermen along the bank as well.  The river was up quite a bit.  Per the alert on my phone the river flood warning is in effect until Sunday at 1:18 PM.  There was quite a bit of rain north of us yesterday and through the night.  

If you enlarge this photo you can see the fishermen along the riverbank on the far side.

As we returned to Oswego I suggested we drive by Oswego Locker.  I bought 2# of Hamburger and a dozen hot dogs.  While they packaged things up I visited with Matt about how prices have increased on meat products.  It is just heartbreaking for the farmers, lockers, grocery stores and the consumer.  I told Dean instead of using a full # of hamburger for spaghetti, chili or other soups, we may have to use twice the sauce, veggies and/or beans and only 1/2# of hamburger to stretch it out.  

We stopped at Jump Start, one of our local gas station/convenience stores to get something to drink.   We rarely do that, but it just sounded good today.

It was 4:00 by the time we returned.  I laid out two hot dogs for our dinner tonight.  I warmed them in the microwave, wrapped them in a tortilla, then added the condiments of our choice.  I had a few small bags of chips we could choose from to go with it.

It has been a good day!