Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Heat Wave

This past week has been unbearably hot up here in the mountains.  We aren't doing much moving around because it's too gosh darn hot.  Westcliffe has been in the high 90s and if we go to Pueblo, it's in the low 100s.  The plus to going to Pueblo is that we are in an air conditioned car!  And we get to go to Starbucks!  (Thank you, Jim and Liz ... And Catherine!)

Not much news on the "Big C" front.  Marshall has pretty much decided to decline the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial.  He's been doing very good with the treatment he's been getting so far, so why ripple the waters?  My cousin in Minnesota, who has been battling cancer for a number of years now and who has done tons of research, called and suggested to Marshall that rather than get involved in a clinical trial to help others down the road (as generous as that would be), this is the time Marshall should probably be thinking mostly of himself and what makes most sense for him (Thank you, Tom!).

But the fatigue and the hot flashes are sometimes debilitating and he is trying to learn to live with taking lots of naps and knowing when to sit down and rest.  As far as the hot flashes, the oncologist prescribed a very mild dose of an antidepressant; supposedly that has worked with many men to banish hot flashes.  We went and filled the prescription, but he is still trying to decide whether or not to take them.  A glass of red wine before bed seems to have a good effect on the hot flashes (not fair, that certainly didn't help with mine!), so he's going to stick with that for a while.

And I would like to complain that Walmart has a deplorable lack of motorized carts (smile).  We get a lot of giggles from me pushing him around in a wheelchair, but it limits our ability to shop separately.  Yesterday, the little latch on the entry door to the wheelchair came loose when I was trying to maneuver a very tricky about-face and one of those center displays almost bit the dust.

The wildfires, even though they aren't near us, are providing a whole lot of smoke to our area.  Our beautiful mountain view from our deck is now a very smoky mountain view (see photo).
Our "smoky" Sangre de Cristo Mountain View
The greenhouse is doing beautifully, even in this intense heat.  We've got two fans out there and the temperature usually hovers around 100 and so far the plants are still thriving.  Time will tell.  Marshall is having a 12x12 deck built for me behind the greenhouse so I can have a little garden getaway.  A neighbor came up last week (thank you, Dave!) and worked with the tractor to make a level spot to put the deck.  That can be very difficult to do with all the solid rock we have here, but he worked miracles.  Now we are just waiting for the guy to finish making the deck.  Pictures below are of the beautiful plants and the leveled-off area where the deck will go behind the greenhouse.
Zucchini, green pepper, cantaloupe and Swiss chard


Green beans


Cucumber, strawberry plant, blueberry plant
 
Oregano, Basil and Parsley
Future home of my 12x12 deck




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