Litwit Lounge discussion

Just a quick note to get a general discussion thread going and to say Hello! in it, too. It has been a long time, I know. The shortest move of my life (only 3 miles away) has turned out to be the most momentous, and now it is behind me. I survived! :)

So good to be getting settled, and glad to be back online! How is everyone? and what's happening in your corner of the world?

Glad you are able to enjoy the bounteous blooms there, Charly. We had more rain than usual this winter and the desert also is "blossoming like a rose". I was able to take a hike last weekend and see many cactus and wildflowers in their glory. The hike was very strenuous so I didn't get many pictures but we did get to the top: Picketpost Mountain.

Still settling from the move, and wondering which box has the attachment for my camera so I can upload...

Have a great day!

Glad to hear you're both hanging in there.

March winds have showed up here in April instead (ew!). I'm going through the process of trying to buy a car. I drove my old one for too long, so I'm quite unfamilar with all these newfangled features, so I'm going to have to do quite a few test-drives, I think.

Beautiful picture Reggia. I'm glad the winds have stopped too. So many blooming trees and flowers here too. I don't get out much so it was a joy to see. My husband is "a gentleman cactus farmer" because he hates yardwork. They also bloom well. Glad winter is over. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons.

Teehee, "a gentleman cactus farmer". :-) You may be getting a cloudy day with slight breezes as we did yesterday which cooled things down from the 90s temps we hit on the 15th. We should be back in the highs 80s today.

Beautiful weather but after a walk, I will be working on my essay and studying. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

"gentleman cactus farmer" -- cute!

Glad to hear that Reggia survived the move, and Charly came through the flooding! Here, we've had a flu virus going around; I've had a siege of flu/heavy cold, and missed two days of work this week (and should have stayed home the two days before). But I'm now off the sick list, and can officially say, it feels GREAT to feel good again! :-)

Thanks for the heads-up, Charly!

Reggia it's good to hear from you it's been a little while for me I am getting ready for my son's preschool
graduation.www.bookaddict4real.com

Sorry to hear you've been ill, Werner. I wish everyone a healthy, happy Spring!

Hooray, my husband retired yesterday!

I finally found a fairly-new used car that I could live with.

Hooray! With temps in 90s glad we got rid of swamp cooler. Nice to see leaves on trees again.

It may snow here tonight at 8,000 feet. We can hardly believe it.

Barb and I will be leaving on vacation in about half an hour, and we won't be back until this coming Sunday, June 27. While we're gone, I'll have to be pretty much offline. :-( But I'll catch up when I get back, and hope you folks all have a great week in the meantime!

Too late to wish you a good trip, but hoping for it all the same.


Hmmm, I suppose it's time for a Summer Hello thread now -- see you all there!

Thanks, Reggia! :-)

Anyone hit by hurricane or oil spill? Seems like the hits just keep coming. Heard the govt flood ins. is broke. Guess we need some good old WWII sacrificing to get back on track. My husband has ridden his bicycle or scooter to work for 40 some years so he's been doing his part. I just go to doctors and PT right now haven't driven in 3 years myself.

We had a big dark storm here this afternoon which really dropped the temperature! Its very nice but was a surprise. I wonder if it came off that hurricane.

Albuquerque seems to be under a bubble and very little stops here just floats by over head. Though this year we have had a few nice rains that reminded me of Michigan and Virginia. But then 2 inches of snow sends them into a panic even tho it usually melts by noon! You want snow you go to Upper Peninsula of Michigan! 250=300 inches. Now that is some snow!

Syra wrote: "Albuquerque seems to be under a bubble and very little stops here just floats by over head. Though this year we have had a few nice rains that reminded me of Michigan and Virginia. But then 2 inc..."

Michigan is way too far north for me (too dark)! I lived in Newfoundland for two years and got SAD. I LOVED the ABQ area when we lived up near Tijeras.
They had the best library I have ever been around. I could get rare and expensive medical books that were just out! Do you love ABQ? The only problem there is the heavy wood smoke in winter.

I like light powdery snow.

We have ban on smoke on hazy days - very still, no wind. But I wish ppl would clean their chimneys. We have a smelly one near us. But burning Mesquite smells great.

I about died once when friends barbqued over mesquite. I am violently allergic to it! I left Texas and got away from it so very glad about that. I had to take 3 times the amount of asthma meds allowed as I didn't want to go to the ER. You are lucky to tolerate it.

Now the smoke smell that I love which is probably still very bad for me is pinion. I never lived around pinon trees until I lived near Tijeras and I was careful never to eat the seeds/nuts so I wouldn't get allergic to them. Pecans are super deadly for me. To me the smell of pinion is like a sacred incense and the thing that Taos smelled like. Hubby kept telling me it was cedar but I said "No!" and finally it was confirmed by a man I was buying Christmas ornaments from in Taos. He said everyone in Taos burns pinon as it burns hotter and makes a very warm fire. I even spent the night at the Sagebrush Inn once with it blowing under the door and was fine (no asthma). My husband was awake watching me as he thought I would be very sick. The one who got sick was my poor little dog. She got very sick.

Altho I would like to I doubt I could ever live in ABQ. Wasn't the Wild Oats there great? I sure miss it but heard its gone now?

Pinion is good too but not much here in ABQ as up north. Love pinion nuts. Even had them in meatloaf in Santa Fe once. My nephew was deadly allergic to everything was he was little but has grown out of a lot of it. One lick of butter pecan ice cream cone sent him to ER. She had shirt made that said I am allergic - don't feed me. Haha but it worked.
Upper MI amazed me in the summer when the it was still light outside at 10 pm. When we went to Fairbanks, AK on cruise several years ago, my husband went out at midnight and took pictures. So strange all the different places.

Suffolk amazed me like that too. I was simply flabbergasted in the spring when the sun was up at four am and the cuckoo was singing. I thought I had entered into fairy land. (or some fairy tale)

I used to go to the ER all the time too. I have to be very careful. My lips swell and I get fever blisters, asthma, migraine and now arthritis due to corn, corn syrup and soy beans. (plus other things) Wish I could eat a pinion but I dare not as nuts are so risky. I am OK with pistachios.

I would love to see Alaska and especially wolves there.

I never saw so many animals not in cages - bighorn sheep, moose, grizzlies, otters, dolphins, whales (mostly tales), deer, foxes, and many eagles. Well worth the trip. A very different and dangerous world.

I have seen every one of these animals except for grizzlies in the wild! I really do not want to see a grizzly as they are too scary for me.
Bighorn Sheep very close at Mount Rushmore!
otters at Carnel, CA
dolphins quite often in FL
whale on the ship going to Japan, everyone went out on deck to see it,
emdless deer in my front yard most everyday,
this area is full of foxes which I do love,
and eagles in Utah!
I counted over 100 wild pheasants in SD a fantastic sight.
I lived next door to a free roaming wolf in NM but he was very tame and super polite. His name was Wolf.
Seen javelina in Texas wild.
Marmots on Pike's Peak and other places in CO.
(never seen a beaver but only their dams)
about 7 bears here recently a golden in the front yard which went around the house, then a golden one on Raton Pass. Black bears in the front yard. There are also mountain lions here but never seen one and that is another one kinda scary as every so often they do eat someone.
I do love to see animals in the wild and would love to visit Alaska.
I am also a bird watcher, are you too?
I have a birder's Life List in a special book I bought in The Big Bend. Its not a very impressive list tho.

Wow sounds like you've really been around! We took a cruise to Seward then train to Fairbanks with stopover in Denali park. Saw grizzly from ship on the edge of the water when we went up in the fijords(?SP). In binoculars he was huge but gorgeous honey color. Ranger said he was looking for shellfish, mussels maybe. I forget. The salmon were running then also and the change in them is amazing from what they looked like at the start and when they get upstream. Poor guys. They got jipped in the circle of life. Visited a hatchery and watched they swim up waterway.
Also heard horror stories of Boy Scout falling in crevice and never found; honeymoon couple in Anchorage who got stuck in Cook Sound when the water (tide) came in the she was killed. Wild country.