Albuquerque's 2016 4th of July Fireworks Show as seen from Corrales on the west bank of the Rio Grande.

The Sandoval County Princess, Sweetheart and their lovely friend welcome you to the 2016 Corrales 4th of July Parade

All the classic cars were queueing up along Target Road because the school parking lot wasn't available this year

Queued up all the way down to Price Lane

A fast Farmall came by...

...and went into warp speed

Waiting

The beginning

The 1776er's

Real men wear skirts

The Village Fire Department

Lots of horses

Lots more horses

Ninety-nine horses' buns marking time on Corrales Road

Uppity Book Nerd

Rock and Roll

Sandoval County Princess

Miss Duke City

Miss Duke City's Teen

Line of Thunderbirds

A real mustang

A Ford Mustang

Rebel Charleston band

A literal float

Lawrence

Americana

Paper skirt

gimme three stars, gimme three stars miss...

I put a little "WET PAINT" sign on the board I painted out in the catio the first thing this morning to see if it would help keep the mosquitos from landing on it and getting stuck in the paint. One skeeter was not a reader, and ended up in the paint. Not bad for the hundreds of mosquitos that were swarming around after I finished the can of spray paint. The spray can probably has a C02 propellent that attracted the attention of so many mosquitos.

I go out and walk the garden every morning, and there has been a lot of dew on the roses after our evening thunderstorms.  The bees have been working the wild flowers, especially the mini sunflowers. As many of our roses have faded, the various lilies are starting to bloom, and I caught sight of movement in the darkness on the ditch at the end of our walk this evening. I got out my flashlight to discover a tiny toad hopping across the ditch bank in front of us.

Touch of Class

Lynn Anderson

A bee on every flower. They have so much pollen on their legs they look like spiders

Two bees working the same flower

Delphinium

Backlit spider lily

Tiny toad with its back to us

Sideview of the tiny toad.

Hummingbird in the dark shadows of the trumpet vine.  Another busy day. I am getting a post in between what will be late night goings on.

Spunk and Sasha practicing their kitty soccer moves

If you haven't seen the music video Ready to Monday: The Band Of The Bold (part 2) w/ Splack JoJoe Tyrone Chauncey Stubbs set to "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gee's it's wonderful.

I've never really followed soccer at all, but after Iceland beat Austria and Britain, I started following it a little because we are into all things Icelandic these days. Then I noticed that Wales played Belgium (the Red Devils) today so we watched the end of that game. While I have Welsh ancestry, I was welching on my ancestry and rooting for the Red Devils in support of Herman and Mr. Bowie. Unfortunately, the Red Devils lost, which after a little research, turns out to be a huge upset, as the Red Devils were placed something like 5th in the Euro Cup, and Wales wasn't even on the radar (correct me if I'm wrong, Herman). So Wales is staying alive along with Iceland.

In celebration of Wales' win, I thought The Band Of The Bold's music video especially appropriate, and then Spunk and Sasha wanted to play some kitty soccer, so we set up a make-shift goal: I put a backdrop over the mirror and they went at it.

Spunk tries a long shot and misses the goal

Spunk practices his surprise move from behind the goal

Sasha tries a side kick and Spunk actually blocks it

After a block by Spunk, Sasha dribbles the ball around and scores a goal while the goalie Spunk watches

Spunk: "Didn't you get me anything?"

After all the care from Laurie and the kitties, all your well wishes and positive thoughts, gargling douche every four hours, going through the complicated process of taking a brutal antibiotic, and Laurie's mom making a special trip to get us primordial yogurt, I woke up with a normal temperature of 97.3º F and started a busy day. By 7:00 am I was on the roof getting the specs on the cooler motor that had gone out. I drove to Lowe's under dark, threatening clouds to get a new motor and belt, got back from Lowe's at 7:45 am in a light rain. I put the pulley on the motor, gathered up tools and was back up on the roof in a slightly heavier rain to replace the motor by 8:00 am. Thirty minutes later and only 4 trips back down the ladder to get the more tools, lubrication, and the new belt (duh), I had the motor changed. After I got all the tools back in place, I showered, dressed and was ready for work. I got in the car and the low tire light reminded me I needed to put air the right rear tire. I backed the car near the power, got the compressor, plugged it in and waited for it to get up to pressure. After I got the tire aired up, I put the compressor away, and was finally off to work.

I got to the office at 10:00 am, left at 5:30 pm and was back home by a little after 6:00 pm.  I helped Laurie unload her car from her trip to Costco, and after we unloaded all the bags Spunk searched them thoroughly and was disappointed Laurie hadn't brought home anything that was specifically for him.  At 6:20 pm I took my third round of anti-biotics and started the routine for making them work.  After organizing a little, I went out and lowered the gate to irrigate, got all the plugs and water routing set, and then walked the garden to get photos for today's post.  The ditch rider was thoughtful enough to text me to ask if I wanted water since I hadn't texted him on Tuesday asking for water like I usually do, and he made water available for me this evening. Once water got going, I had to go out and plug a few holes, beat back some gophers and play with the baby skunks.

We have a couple of baby skunks who play this game with me that when I'm on the walk, taking out compost, or turning off drippers in the the dark, they run up right up to my feet, like "surprise", run off and then do it again. The other night when I walked out to turn off the drippers, they followed me and I about stepped on one when I turned around to go back in. They are so cute and seem to have a lot of fun with their little game. Unfortunately, my carry camera is out for repair, so don't have photos of the little skunks.

It will be midnight by the time I'm finished watering and get everything shutdown and the gate lifted, ending a very busy day.

Banzai

One of the side effects of chemo is that it messes up the probiotics in my system, and I ended up with a yeast infection in my throat, which is very painful making it really difficult to swallow. Since I figured that my sore throat was most likely a yeast infection, I went right in and they turned me over to Willow, a rather forceful, straight talking nurse practitioner who was rather impressed when I told her I thought I had a yeast infection, which turned out to be the case. My temperature was only 99.5, which is a degree below the temperature I was supposed to have before going in, but I figured I should go in before I hit 100.5.

Willow and the doctor figured my mild fever would continue to rise, so they gave me a prescription of Levofloxacin, which I was only to start if my temperature got to 100.4 or higher.  She also prescribed a bottle of "Magic Mouthwash", a name given it to make the douche concoction seem more palatable. I have to "swish and swallow" the Magic Mouthwash every four hours as a topical solution to treat the sores in my throat and esophagus. I had already taken a couple of doses of Magic Mouthwash, and then my fever hit 100.6 at 6:30 pm.  

I started the Levofloxacin, but I can't simply take Levofloxacin, as it came with a complex set of instructions, which included not taking any of several meds or foods for two hours on either side of it, because they would bond to the Levofloxacin, making it less effective, but after an hour or two of taking it, I need to eat yogurt and take probiotics.  Levofloxacin is brutal. The first dose gave me a headache, and seemed to intensify the pain from the fever and Neulasta®.  The instructions did not recommend ibuprofen, but since they did not mention problems with acetaminophen, I took Tylenol® to help deal with the pain when I went to bed. I also have to drink a lot of water with Levofloxacin, so between the pain and getting up to go to the bathroom every 30 to 45 minutes through the night, I didn't get much sleep, although my fever had gone down by morning and the various pains had subsided into the background.

The easy part was the yogurt. We have been getting an Icelandic yogurt that is very high in probiotics and protein. Icelandic yogurt is special because Icelandic cows are descendants of the primordial cow that created the universe.

After the first dose of Levofloxacin, continued use the Magic Mouthwash, and eating Icelandic yogurt through the day, my fever finally subsided and I'm back in the "normal" temperature range, but it's still much higher than I normally run. I'm on my second round of Levofloxacin, and I'm thinking I should have a better time with it tonight since I don't have a fever.

Checkered Beetle on wildflowers

Bee on a carrot bloom

Bee on cosmos

Spunk making dramatic lines in his "sculptural cat" project

Sasha working on her "Conceptual Box" project

Najar on a hammer as part of her "Construction Cat" project

Tiger Swallowtail

I lit the grill at 7:30 am, rubbed the meat with seasoning and had it on the grill by 8:00 am. I went in and grabbed my camera, popped back outside to round up hoses, pull them to the various connections and start the weekend watering. I made the rounds through the garden and got photos of a Tiger Swallow tail checking out some wildflowers and a Pearl Crescent frolicking in the cosmos. After breakfast, I worked in the garden and pulled sunflowers and weeds growing in a couple of the main paths through the garden. I made a trip to Lowe's, stopped by and photographed a car show and the Hooters across the parking lot from Lowe's, and then went to the grocery store to get a few more barbecue ingredients. Photographing the cars at Hooters was as close as I have been to a Hooters in my life. I have never been inside a Hooters. There patio was packed with people taking lunch breaks, it seems to be a popular place. 

Back home I laid on the couch with the cats and read a novel to cool off, and then I got up and helped Laurie prep chicken, sausage and vegetables to grill on the "hot" side of the grill while the brisket was finishing its slow cooking. We spent the rest of the afternoon prepping and grilling, and got everything done and off the grill by 7:30 pm. The brisket is the best Laurie has done to date, very tender, spicy and tasty.  We went for our evening walk a little after 8:00 pm and the light was strange and magnificent. The glow at dusk was intense to the west and it made an interesting set of mottled pinks with purple stripes on the Sandias. I had never seen colors displayed like that on the Sandias before tonight. It was a really nice wrap up to a long day, and needless to say, I ended up with over 15,000 steps on my Fitbit® by the the time the day was over.

Happy Pearl Crescent on a Cosmos

'57 Chevy with a mohawk of '57 Chevys

For One Man, his Mustang, and Mustang Maniacs in London, England

Early Ford with that comes with the original owner

Cooked to perfection barbecued brisket

Zucchini and squash
 

Some of our pots and pans dangling on their hangers

Zucchini and squash, grilled chicken thighs, barbecued brisket and ingredients for more cooking

Glow at dusk long after the sun had set

Mottled pinks and purple stripes on the Sandias

Close up of colors on the Sandias