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.