TEETH at last!

 I'm still having to learn to eat with them, but so relieved the ordeal is over. I think the dentist is great and did his best. Naturally, there are things I would like to have done differently, but I'm not complaining. After not being able to chew for 8 months my jaw is weak and doesn't have real strength to chew, but I'm hoping that will improve. I feel it's important to not overdo and develop some kind of painful jaw issues.

I went to Musquiz Lake a few days ago and enjoyed seeing this bobcat there. It's extremely rare for me to see one in the daytime, so always a treat.

An adult Allen's Hummingbird showed up at the town feeder yesterday. Still here today. I hope it hangs around for a while.

Countdown to teeth!

I finally have a sort of date now. The teeth are supposed to arrive to the dentist from the lab on Monday afternoon (Feb. 26). They'll call me the next morning to schedule me. Surely, they'll take pity on me and work me in promptly, either Tuesday or the next day! I guess that's progress. My mouth has now pretty much healed. Some soreness, but no pain, so it's all uphill from here!

I went birding to Musquiz Lake a couple of days ago, probably partly in desperation to divert my attention from my dental woes. LOL It was a fun diversion. I saw elk and got photos of a Black-crowned Night-Heron. Since winter is normally a bleak time, it doesn't take much to make me happy.

Back in Alpine, my husband watered the blue bonnets that were near the apricot tree... for days. Big mistake! Now the tree is in full bloom and it's only February.

Maybe we'll get lucky this year and no March freeze. Inca Doves are mating already.

I feel the excitement in the air! Lucifers are likely making their way toward the oasis as I write this, and next week I'll be able to eat! Life is good!

(My sister with her new book)

Happy oasis

When the oasis is happy, I'm happy. My son and I went down today to service feeders and water. All went smoothly, and the weather was calm and overcast. I'm still not up to speed health-wise so was really dragging after a couple of hours. But I'm happy to report the bear-proof feeder is working perfectly, finally. The birds are all over it, indicating they're getting plenty of seed out, yet in the past six days it looked like less than 20 lbs. had been consumed. That's way less than before the tweaking. Totally bear-proof and doesn't waste seed. All good.

We pumped some water from the rock above ground tank (the one that holds about 11,000 gallons) into the stucco tank because the stucco tank is almost empty. The birds loved the stream it made going into the tank. This photo contains at least seven birds.

The Anna's hummingbird is still present. Hard to believe that in two weeks Lucifers will be back, which to me signifies the beginning of spring. YAY

My dental curse

For more years than I can remember I've talked about my dental curse. Here are a couple of excerpts from old blog posts. This one in 2013: 

Today I had to drive to Odessa to the dentist. Here's how the conversation started after I got into the dentist chair.

Dr: What can I do for you today?
Me: My [implant] bar broke.
Dr: No they can't break. It's not possible. In my 20 years of putting them in, I've never seen one break.
Me: But remember, I told you once that I'm under a dental curse.
Dr: (after looking into my mouth): You're not under a dental curse, you are a dental curse!

And this one from 2014:

I had to go to the dentist in Odessa today. I hate that trip, but one more visit might be the final one. I say "might," because I'm under a dental curse and anything that can go wrong, does.

The last time I saw my dentist 2 weeks ago, he asked if I was excited about getting teeth in 2 weeks. Knowing my history, I wasn't acting excited, I guess, and I replied, "I'm cautiously optimistic." Best I could do.

I hadn't heard anything this week, so called to see if he'd gotten the teeth from the lab yet. I was told that he had a death in the family (his wife's father) and wouldn't be back in town this week. Next week he'll be way backed up. Of course on my first visit to him I warned him about my dental curse. LOL

My plan is to call Monday and implore him to squeeze me in, even if final adjustments have to be postponed to a later date.

The other day I was surprised to look out into our deer-proof fenced back yard to see a Gray Fox eating pecans. Never witnessed that before. I watched him jump the fence when he left.

I finally got to photograph the White-tailed Kite being seen north of Alpine even though it was too far away for a good photo. I try to focus on the good things in life. My mouth doesn't hurt much anymore, so physically I'm good enough, I guess. Shouldn't complain. It's not like one gets old and dies in perfect health!

Additionally, it's hard not to get down about the destruction and overpopulation of our beautiful planet. I read horror stories about it every day. Just this morning someone posted this photo on a local Facebook group about recent damage to a previously pristine hill in south Brewster County. I guess they hope that by publicly complaining, it'll help. It won't. If the rain forests can't be protected, a hill in Terlingua doesn't stand a chance.

Trying to look on the bright side, even if I had my teeth this week, I wouldn't be able to chew normally until my gum heals from the damage that impression-making ordeal made

Tweaking

Too old to twerk, but not too old to tweak. Or watch my son tweak, I should say. LOL We made a short visit to the oasis today to assess the "ground" feeder (the bear-proof one) and hopefully improve its functionality. The birds had gotten some seed out, but not much, after we had filled it only a third full during our previous visit four days ago. However, we need to be able to fill it all the way full in case we can't get down there for a week sometime.

So we emptied the heavy feeder, once again, removed it from its base and stabilizing rocks, and shortened the interior hoods. Not clean cuts like he usually does because it was so difficult to get the proper tools into such a tight space, but I think now the feeder will work perfectly.

In the above photo you're looking down into the tank. The white is the cone that directs the seed toward the ports. Light is shining through the two ports at the top of the photo. They hadn't been shortened when I took this photo. The two hoods on the left and right sides had been cut down. Now the hoods aren't so close to the cone so feed should flow much more freely. We topped off the feeder (80 lbs.), so will see how it looks in a week. I tried to observe while we were there, but I had spread some seed on the ground for the birds while we were working on the feeder and they were feeding only on that. Until it's gone they won't come to the feeder. The hanging feeder is topped off too, so they should be fine until we get back down there.

Here is what was cut off, to give you a better idea.

I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling much better today. Mouth pain not as bad, vertigo gone, and getting a bit more energy. My blood pressure is perfect with the Amlodipine. My plan is to reduce my dosage once I can eat lots of fruit again. I don't expect to ever be able to eliminate the meds totally, but who knows. (In other words, I'm taking 5 mg and my goal is to get it to 2.5 mg.)

After we got back to town, I made my 3rd trip to find a White-tailed Kite that's being seen north of Alpine. No luck again. Gonna try early AM. It's fun looking. Treasure isn't always the result of every treasure hunt.

The first time I chased the kite (Feb.5th) I got a nice photo of a Ferruginous Hawk. So that was fun.

The second time I went with Dale (Feb.7th) and got my best Merlin photo, which was fun too. 

Today was nice weather and with me feeling better, it couldn't have not been enjoyable.

A new feeder glitch

The forever a "work in progress" bear-proof feeder is now BIRD-proof too. Gotta tweak it AGAIN. I didn't know that could happen, but when we got to the oasis yesterday morning the feeder still had the 80 lbs. of seed in it that we had filled it with a week ago. NOT GOOD! (I'm sure the hanging feeder only kept the birds going for a few days.)  Best we can figure out is that when we put the cups below the feeder ports, the birds couldn't get their heads inside the ports to bring the seed down. And maybe having so much seed in it with a large portion of sunflower seeds caused it to pack in too tight also. Whatever, it has to get fixed.  I had not realized what a fine line there was between letting too much seed out and not letting enough seed out. Notice on a commercial feeder there are "hoods" inside at the top of the port holes to keep the seed from all pouring out. 

We did that too. But maybe because our port holes were at the base of the feeder, the seed was being shoveled out by thrashes and whatever. By installing the external cups to contain the seed, apparently it prevented the birds from getting their heads in far enough to shovel out the seed. So, I'm thinking that since  the hoods aren't adequate in our situation, and the cups are needed, we can't have the hoods. Lee would have ground down the internal hoods above the ports if he'd have had his grinder with us. We'll go back Friday and do that.

There's the internal cone too that might be a factor. The hanging feeder, which works great, doesn't have internal hoods over the ports, but does have a cone. However, its port holes are a bit smaller. Maybe with external cups the hoods aren't needed. I hate that it's so much work for Lee. The bottom line seems to be that in our situation, we can't have the internal hoods. Scary to remove them, and find out we needed them, so the plan is to just modify them to be smaller. Fingers crossed. Just removing the feeder from its stand to work on is a big undertaking. (Have to remove the stabilizing rocks and lift the heavy feeder off its stand, after emptying the seed out.)

I woke up yesterday morning with vertigo and still have it today. Am able to keep it under control with Meclizine, but really dragging, especially watering yesterday. My mouth pain is lessening a little. I do think the vertigo is related to the Herpes Simplex sores I'm dealing with.  I'm sure I caught it at the dentist's office. It'll be with me for life now. And what ever other symptoms it causes, maybe my tinnitus and essential tremors, which seem to have worsened since I got it. (Herpes lives inside the nerve cells.) I did have the H Simplex years ago*, but not since the cocktail of antivirals I took for the Hep C. I was so thrilled when it got rid of the herpes, knowing I'd never have to deal with it again. But little did I "know." And not having it for over a year (even through 3 torturous dental surgeries), probably weakened whatever immunity I had to it, so it really whammed me. I will recover, and more than 50% of the world deals with herpes, so I shouldn't complain.

A nice male Anna's Hummingbird has been occasionally visiting my Alpine yard.

If all goes according to plan, I'll have teeth within 10 days. Soon it'll be spring and I'll be a whole new person. 

___________________________

*Throughout my life I've spent endless hours in the hands of dentists, and in my poorer days, many not very hygenic. Most likely that's where I got the Herpes Simplex in the first place. As for the source of the Hep C, it had to have been from a blood transfusion I got 50 years ago before they screened for it. I'll never know for certain, but I never used drugs. Not ever, not once. Not marijuana or anything. I recall having a bad allergic reaction to the transfusion, but may not have been related, other than to show the blood hadn't been thoroughly tested.

I had a friend who a mere twenty years ago had a blood transfusion after a car wreck and got HIV from the transfusion and died from it, so I'm very lucky.

Crazy yesterday!

Too exhausted last night to blog, but here goes. I had Alpine doctor and Ft Stockton dentist appointments in the same day. The doctor was running late for my 8:30 AM appointment so I was crunched to get to my 12 PM appointment in Ft Stockton with the dentist. (My dentist appointment had originally been for 3 PM, but he had to move it up and skip his lunch due to an emergency in his family.) Turned out he was running late too, which is most unusual for him. He had squeezed too many people in before having to catch a plane flight. But I didn't know that, so ate my lunch while driving. Using the term "ate" to mean my diet of mush. Hadn't eaten anything before then since I expected the Dr. to check my blood sugar. Had a difficult experience at the Dr., with a nurse, which I'll spare you the painful details. The good news is my Dr. said it was alright for me to reduce the dosage on the Amlodipine as long as I monitored my BP and increased it if it went too high. This morning it's perfect, so good there.

Early yesterday morning when I had tried to check my emails (lots of birders contacting me about oasis visits for upcoming spring migration), my computer wouldn't work. Just made an alarming beep.  So on my way to Ft Stockton, I dropped it off at my grandson's work for him to fix. While driving to FS, he told me by phone that it was working fine. Dentist did final fittings for teeth, which I'll get as soon as the lab makes them, hopefully in two weeks. Good there.

Back in Alpine I picked up my computer, rushed home to plug it in. Hurrying because if it didn't work and my grandson needed to come by, he could do it after he got off work, which is closer to my house than he lives. That gave me less than 30 minutes to see. I couldn't get it hooked up in place, had to pull it back toward me to see the connections. Hunching over hurt my back so I picked up my heavy computer, intending to sit in my desk chair as I did the hookups. As I sat back down into my chair, it rolled out from under me. I fell to the floor with the computer on top of me. I was lucky to end up with no more than a goose egg on my elbow.

When I finally got the computer hooked up, it still didn't work. Too late to call my grandson, but my son Eric, not as expert on computers, came over. He couldn't figure it out, but it worked for him. After he left I noticed the H key was sticking. My grandson had told me if it didn't work, to hook one thing up at a time to isolate the problem, but I hadn't done that. Anyway, grandson came over with a new keyboard and all is well. No broken elbow. I feel great other than the sore in the back of my mouth. Dentist called it a "shiner."

Also yesterday, my sister's book came out. I missed the ceremony, but when I got home she had left a copy for me at my house.

Andrea (Ann to me) had been an archeologist in New Hampshire when she moved next to me (near the oasis) on a piece of land that I had sold her. In between building her house she worked for the Center for Big Bend Studies as an archaeologist, starting in 1996, while finishing her degree in Anthropology at the University of New Hampshire.

Most of her work was done at Middle Archaic sites throughout the region. She started her book in 2009 and finished it in 2014. It took 10 years before it finally got published. Long story there too, that I'll spare you. Basically, it's a comprehensive synthesis for researchers, a compilation of all that has been learned about the period of 3,000 to 4,500 YBP (years before present) in the Trans-Pecos region. It's not a book to read unless you're doing serious research on the subject. I will never read it. Here's an example of typical pages.

My husband is on his 3rd day of a 4 day fishing trip to the Rio Grande River at Black Gap (adjacent to Big Bend National Park). He lives to fish and hadn't been fishing for 6 years, he claims. I don't think it's been that long. Maybe. I know it's been at least 3 years though. His bad fall a couple of years ago slowed him way down. He no longer can go alone, and couldn't find anyone to go with him before now.