The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

I'M STILL KICKING!

My title today is taken from the text of a cable sent by Mark Twain from London to the press in the United States after his obituary had been mistakenly published. Well I had a similar experience today, no obit, but my death was reported.

I had an appointment with the Social Security Administration this morning.  

After receiving half of my ex-husband's benefit for four years and letting my benefit grow, I'm finally going to reach the great age of 70 - in January - when my benefit stops growing and I can collect it.  It won't ever be more, so January is the time to switch.  I had scheduled this appointment a month ago out of curiously - what was I going to get at age 70?

Then I received the news that my ex-husband had died on August 14.  Since we were married for more than 10 years, I was technically considered his widow, eligible for widow's benefits.  Certainly more than what I was receiving now.  My list of questions to ask this morning changed.  

When I arrived at the office, I was taken back into the office, not in front of one of the windows where you sit and talk through the glass with the SS employee.  I sat down across from Frank, who was very friendly and talkative.  He wanted to know my name, birth date, address, why I was in New Mexico if I had a California address, etc. etc.  I practically told him my life story.  Certainly appropriate questions since I was there to get some personal financial information.  He stood up and said he'd be back, and after a while he came back with some reports.  

He said he believed I was who I said I was, but information had been submitted to the SSA that I was deceased.  My account had been closed and I had no more monthly deposits scheduled.  

I am so glad I made that appointment!  Frank said he would have time before the usual deposit on the third Wednesday to "resurrect" me and see that my account was again open and functioning with my deposit this month increased to my "widow's benefit."  

It turns out MY benefit, because I let it grow until age 70, will be greater than Jim's was when he took it at age 62, so I'll have to make another appointment  in December to switch Jim's over to mine.  Then that's it forever, or until I reach 105 and die, whichever comes first.  :)

Interesting, huh?   

And FYI - this I didn't know - if a person takes 1/2 of a spouse's Social Security at full retirement age like I did, they get 1/2 of the spouse's full benefit.  But a widow's benefit is exactly what the deceased was earning at the time of death.  In my case, since Jim took his benefit at age 62, that's what I get - not his FULL benefit - a difference of about $600 a month.  So, for those of you who haven't started collecting SS yet, it could be important when you DO start.  It might affect your spouse down the road if they are the lower earner.   Every month you don't collect your Social Security after age 62 adds to the monthly benefit.  All the way to age 70.  If any questions, since I'm not an expert nor an employee of SSA, call them.  They are really friendly and don't mind taking the time to answer any questions.  1-800-772-1213

WE'VE LEFT STORRIE LAKE STATE PARK

From the end of May until the 1st of September I've been at Storrie Lake except for a brief stay at Bluewater Lake State Park and one night at Heron Lake State Park.  It's definitely been "The Summer at Storrie Lake."  Katie and I had such a good time with all our friends, Jeanne, Nancy, Annie and Roxi - and also meeting up with new friends, Renee and Patti.  And of course, John.   Farmer John with all his chicks.  It's been really fun getting to know you all and/or getting to know you better.  A Wonderful Summer, for sure!

On our walk the other day Jeanne and I decided Riley should try out Katie's Stroller.  He LOVED it.  So cute.  :)

Katie and I both made new friends a few days before we left the lake, Patti and her three little pups.  They are just darling, and she walks them all together.  Katie got along really well with them, they were just her size. 

Patti's saying - they won't look at you.  All four dogs looking up at Patti - I thought this was cute:

Okay, here we go...  everyone look at the camera:

They were very interested in each other and there was a lot of nose to nose greeting and (the other end) sniffing going on.  Katie doesn't usually meet up with dogs whose butts are low enough for her to sniff.  Patti's dogs were very friendly.  Aren't they adorable?

I thought this was a great looking grasshopper - he was on Katie's stroller when I was packing up.

That's it for now - we're in Santa Fe doing some errands for a couple of days.  It's HOT.  I went to Sam's Club and got a bag of four large Artichokes.  I boiled one of them and it's cooled off a bit and is sitting right in front of me, ready to go - so I'm done blogging for now.  LOL  YUMMMMM!

From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Update on the baby bird

I really didn't expect the little bird to make it, he was just so small and not moving unless I picked him up.  I checked on him in the nest after a couple of hours, and he seemed in distress - not breathing very well.  When I went back later, he had died.  But at least he had a loving hand holding him near the end - assuming that gave him warmth and comfort and didn't scare him to death.  Anyway, I tried.

Katie and I are in town for three days, and look what I found in our shelter as I was loading the chairs into The Palms for our short drive.  His head is on the left, and the little horn is on his tail.  In the first photo he's stretched out, moving along the wall:

Here he is by my fingers - he's more scrunched up here, between stretches as he moves forward.  He's a big guy - these worms used to give me the creeps, but now that I know the beautiful White Lined Sphinx, or Hummingbird Moth comes from them, they don't seem as ugly:

Here's what they turn into - these photos and more were posted  HERE.

I was so amazed and excited when I first saw these Sphinx Moths.

I couldn't resist two more photos of the goats in the yard behind the campsites:

Every time I see the male, I think of my maternal grandfather.  LOL   I don't know why, maybe the forehead?

And finally two shots of little Katie, and I'm out of photos.  I'd better get out a little more - and remember to bring my CAMERA!

But Mommmmm, I don't want to get up yet!

Every so often, Katie gets frisky and runs into the kitchen and starts messing around with the little rug in there.  Then she stops to see if I'm paying attention - little brat:

From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  (PBS has a good (I hope) Masterpiece Theater tonight - the first of three episodes.  I'm going to watch...)

Poor baby bird...

When I was outside this morning I noticed something by the truck tire and went over to see what it was.

Isn't he a cutie pie?  He is really small and must have fallen out of the nest.  Look at how pretty his feathers are from his back:

I picked him up and placed him in the crook of a tree:

And he fell out; luckily I caught him.  It was starting to sprinkle, so I brought him into the shelter and semi-wrapped him in a towel to keep the breezes off him and make sure he was dry if the rain really started.  

He wasn't moving except when I picked him up, and then he moved a little and opened his eyes.   When I noticed John was across the road I asked him what he would do, if anything, to save the bird.  I can't feed him or give him water, and while I didn't want him out in a storm, I also didn't want to hide him from his mom.

John said maybe if the bird was in a tree his mom would find him and start feeding him.  Since I had some good trees in the site, I built a nest in one of them that had a good flat area in the crook where the branches began.

I put some yarn on the bottom then cut some grasses for the floor...

... and put the bird in the middle:

Then I put some rocks in the openings so he wouldn't fall out and filled in with more grass.

That's a nice looking nest - for a first try, anyway.  I hope he's comfortable.

Poor little thing.  I haven't seen any adult birds flying around, and when I checked on him after a couple of hours, he didn't seem any more lively.   I hope he makes it, but I'm not too hopeful.

Here are a few more birds from the campsite

 

These little ones were "fighting" over nibbles on the ground:

A little hummer sitting on the truck mirror:

 A Lesser Goldfinch:

And some lovey Eurasian Doves on a post:

Grooming:

So sweet.

Today is our last day here in the park, and tomorrow we'll be joining Nancy and Jeanne in town (Las Vegas, NM).  I need to do laundry while I'm in town, but other than that it will just be hanging out for three days, then back to Storrie Lake for another week.

Here's our site this time around - I really like this one, but most of the sites are good here at Storrie Lake. 

From me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)

Poor Katie's face plant / skid :(

The other day when Katie and I were talking a morning walk with Jeanne and her dog Riley and Nancy, we saw a little dust thing crossing the road.  It was about the size of a large orange, and was made up of mown grasses and dust and lots of air.  As it rolled across the road in front of us, it slowly lost it's materials, and by the time it was at the edge of the road in front of us, it was gone.   Riley and Katie saw it and were super excited and for the first time, ever, Katie jumped out of the stroller and she and Riley ran to the grasses in the field, sniffing around and looking for the "thing" that was on the road.  They didn't seem to realize it had disintegrated into nothing before it reached the edge of the field.

We calmed the dogs down and I lifted Katie back in the stroller and we walked on down the road to the river.  As we were walking back, John came up on his bike.  He slowed down and we all talked together down the road.  All of a sudden Katie stood up in her stroller and again jumped out the front of it.  I don't know if she saw something that made her jump out, but it seemed like she just wanted to RUN.  Unfortunately as she hit the ground, her knees buckled under her and she skidded on her face and knees until she stopped.  It was so comical and so sad at the same time.  We all ran over to her and I picked her up.  She let out a little whine when Jeanne touched her leg, and I checked her over.  She looked fine.  Somewhere between her skidding and being put back in the stroller, she ran madly down the road a little bit, turned around and ran back, happy as a clam.  I think she just had a burst of energy she had to get out.

When we got back to The Palms and she was laying down, I checked her a little closer and found two skinned areas, under her chin and on her knee.  Fell down and skinned her knee - like a little kid. Poor baby.

I put some antiseptic cream on both places and she's fine.  If she does that again, she's going to have to be tethered inside the stroller.  Her injuries, as you can see from the photos, weren't much, but you just had to be there to appreciate that face plant and skid.  It sure stopped our conversation cold.

Here are the dogs in the flowers and grasses - you can see our recent rains have really helped the foliage around here; the poor park workers are constantly mowing down the grasses in the fields and around the campsites.

And here's Katie and her Baby later in the day - both looking at the camera.  Katie looks kind of serious:

Along that same road I got some photos of a hawk up in one of the trees:

And away he goes - I'd have loved a close-up overhead shot, but it was not to be:

I decided to do Camp Wal-Mart for three days. Instead of 14 days in the campground, and then taking the required 6 days out, I've changed it up a little.  It's just so darn hard to spend 6 days at Wal-Mart (of course leaving during the day and then returning to overnight), so I decided until I leave here the beginning of September, I'm going to camp for 7 days, take 3 days out, 7 in, 3 out, etc.  There's no problem getting a good place to camp here at Storrie Lake.  As long as you don't need electricity there are tons of places to put RVs and enjoy the landscapes, so that's what I'm doing.  For one of the weeks I might camp right along the edge of the lake, I haven't done that yet.  IF the mosquitoes aren't too bad.

While in town I spent a large part of one day in the Las Vegas Carnegie Library where they offer free, fast wi-fi.  I needed to download the large Windows 8.1 Updates (thanks for the heads-up, John!) and also needed to update my Garmin Maps.  Both would have taken forever, and I don't know if I would have gotten the maps downloaded, so this was a great place to relax and use their wi-fi.  The Maps were over 2G, and even though I have unlimited Verizon data, they've been throttling my account big time lately, and have even cut me off so that I had no Internet a bunch of times, so I'm trying to be very frugal with my data.  And for me, that's not easy!

I had some bad news last week.  My dad, who is 93, fell and broke his ankle on Wednesday and was taken to the hospital in northern California.  He is now in a rehab facility, and not very happy about it.  From the news I've gotten he seems to have a minimal break, everything is in line, and they may not cast it.  He's in a 4-piece boot thing, he said, and when the swelling goes down, he might get a cast.  Either way, he's well taken care for now and hopefully will heal fast.  My brother and sister are in the process of moving my dad to Northern California and selling his house, and this adds another layer of stress to the plan. He's scheduled to move into a nice apartment care facility in two weeks where he'll be near my sister and brother-in-law.

Then I received a call from my son on Thursday that his dad had died.  Jim was my first husband, and the father of my son and daughter.  The kids had a good phone conversation with each other, and I talked to them both also.  They had both recently had a good visit with their dad and spent some quality time with him.  Jim was an avid golfer and collapsed on the golf course.  After trying to revive him in the hospital for 30 minutes they let him go.  If he could have scripted his death, I can't think of a thing he would have changed.  I'm so sad for my kids and their families and even though he was my ex-husband, I knew him for over 50 years, and am very sorry he's gone.  The service was yesterday - Rest in Peace, Jim.

Our closest full moon of 2014 was the other night and it was beautiful:

WELCOME to our newest Follower, Greg, who has two blogs, Travels of a Rambling Van and The Random Rants of a Rambling Man.  Greg says, "I’m a lifelong camper and now that I’m retired can enjoy even more camping, hiking, and exploring in my customized Sportsmobile Sprinter van, all 19.5 feet of it. Come along for the ride and see what we get up to!"  I think I'll just do that!  Thanks for following along with me and Katie, Greg, Welcome Aboard!

My numbers show another new Follower, but it must be out of order on my Followers list, because I don't see another new name.  If you are the other new Follower, I'm sorry I can't welcome you by name - but please feel welcomed!  It's always exciting for us to see that number go up, and whether its a new follower with a photo and description or an anonymous person, we're happy to have everyone join us.  :)

From me and Katie, have a good weekend, everyone!  :)

And here's why they tell us....

...not to put levelers down when we're overnighting at Wal-Mart.  I always wondered what difference it would make - I don't have levelers so I don't worry about it, but it doesn't seem like a big deal.  Well, I saw the other day why they ask is not to put them down. 

So I took a couple of photos.  I took pictures, too, of the huge truck towing a large fifth wheel with the addition of a car in between, just because it was so different and cool looking - I've never seen that type of configuration before.  Then I thought, I really can't post their photo, that wouldn't be fair and they probably don't even know what they did to the parking lot.

The whole surface of the lot is perfect, except exactly where their levelers were all night in the soft paving material.  That spot now looks like this:

I guess that's why they tell us not to put levelers down when we're parking lot camping.  Now I know, and maybe by posting this, some people reading it won't put their levelers down while overnighting in parking lots.  I'd hate to have that option taken away from us.

TINY LEAK

After a huge rainstorm a couple of weeks ago, everything seemed okay until the next morning when I went to unplug my camera battery charger from this outlet under my overhead cupboard...

... and a few drops of water were on the battery charger.  It wasn't WET, just a few drops, but that worried me.  Especially after the ferocious rains we had the night before.

This is where the outlet is:

 under this cabinet:

So I pried off the outlet cover and pulled the plug down and there was ONE drop of water in that area.  ONE.  I checked the plug and the wires and everything was dry.  I got out my hair drier and blew some hot air in that opening, on the wires, and on the plug.  Then I blew more air on the battery charger.  They all seemed dry and just fine.

Then I climbed up on the roof and checked everything out; all the connections seemed fine until I found this (and it's right above that cupboard):

See the crack in the material around where the wire enters the roof?

I figured that had to be where the water came in from, and put a ton of GOOP all over that area.  No problems since then, but I think I'm going to have to take off all the waterproofing sealant soon, and re-apply new material to keep the roof water tight.  That's going to be a job!  This was just a "fix" for now, and it should be fine until I do a permanent seal.  I was lucky I found that small leak before it got worse. 

I guess since it's Sunday, I can be a little preachy:  remember to check your roof once in a while to make sure eveything is okay up there.  Wash your solar panels, check the seals, make sure everything is still on tight. 

And by the way, I was a little hesitant to use that plug for a couple of days, but when I did, it worked fine.

Here's a beautiful sunset we had the other night:

On a final note, there's a saying, "Nice guys finish last," that has always bothered me.  Bad boys usually seem more interesting and they often get the girl or the job, but they don't usually keep pace for the long term.  This morning I had a quote e-mailed to me:

It is not true that nice guys finish last.
Nice guys are winners before the game ever starts.  -- Addison Walker

I like that, it's so true!

And that's it for today - From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  :)