April Showers - I Don't Think So

 AJ, AZ    High 97  Lows in the 60s

Spring ????? hit with a vengeance as far as temperatures go. Easter Sunday we reached 97 degrees. I am NOT ready for 100 degree days yet.  It cooled back down in the middle of the month. On the 26th it was only in the 50s when we got up and only warmed up to 69. By this Saturday - May 1 - we should see our first 100 degree day. Temps are all over the place.  We had a couple of brief showers. We need all the rain we can get. The desert is so very dry.

An April sunrise

 

Easter was another quiet day for us. As are most of our days. A special day to thank our Heavenly Father for giving us the gift of His son and eternal life.

April 5th we received more news to be grateful for. It was time for Jim's six month visit with his oncologist, Dr. Gordon. For those of you who may not know, back in 2012 Jim was diagnosed with lung cancer. The surgeon removed his lower left lobe and he did not have to have chemo or radiation. A couple of years ago a nodule appeared in his right lung and the doc has been keeping an eye on it. For the last two years there has been no change in the nodule or anywhere else in his lungs. We will see the doctor again in six months and then hopefully we can go to yearly visits. The only bad news is that we are losing Dr. Gordon. He has been selected as the Head of Honor Health Research for cancer, covid, and cardiology. We are really excited for him. His partner will be our new oncologist.

Dr. Gordon also made the statement that he did not expect Jim to ever have any more lung cancer. What better news could we get.

(I started this post the beginning of April)  Skitz is having breathing problems. Dogs are supposed to breath about 28 to 30 times per minutes. She is taking double that amount of breaths.  Her appetite is good - some days better than others. 

I think she looks so uncomfortable, but this is how she usually sleeps.

We had x-rays taken and they found that her heart was so enlarged it was pushing on her sternum and her diaphragm leaving her lungs no where to expand so she couldn't take a deep breath. We had to make the hardest decision ever.

 

As most of you already know, we lost our Skitz on April  16. We are slowly adjusting to life without a dog. It is very sad and lonely but we will not be getting another dog. At our age, taking care of each other is about all we can handle. And the heartache of losing another dog is more than we can endure. This will be the first time in almost 33 years that we have not had a dog.

Our next door neighbor, that is just here temporarily, made the mistake of asking me how I was doing the day we came home without Skitz. I burst into tears and explained why. They had to say goodbye to their 18 year old shih tzu a week and a half earlier. They were very kind and a little later she brought me some beautiful flowers to let us know they were thinking of us. Nice people. They still have two rescue shih tzus but both of them are getting older.

 Jim decided to get out of the house and went to a car show which was being held outdoors here in Apache Junction. There weren't very many cars but he enjoyed getting out. He wore his mask and stayed socially distanced.

He didn't realize he had taken this picture. 😃

 The Cars

 We finally went out to eat. For the first time in over a year. We went to Los Gringos Locos here in AJ with friends Paul and Paula. We sat out on their patio and had a wonderful time. Arizona has opened up and I will admit that seeing the servers without masks made me nervous. Wonder if going inside a restaurant to eat will ever be a comfortable experience for me.

We are planning to head out on May 12 for our summer travels. We will wander around until we get to Canyon Ferry MT for the months of July and August so Jim can do some fishing. 

We've been getting necessary work done on the truck and the Bungalow. Roof of the Bungalow needed new coating - check. Wheel bearings on the Bungalow needed to be greased - check - but - they showed Jim that we needed new tires. So new shoes on the Bungalow - check. 

 Our truck has been getting louder so Jim took it to a muffler shop and we needed two new mufflers - check.  The only thing left is having the transmission serviced on Monday.  

The Bungalow needs to be cleaned and packed and Jim needs to replace a dump valve and replace the anode rod. Then we will be ready to go. I will definitely be doing more blogging once we get on the road.