Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in D'nellin's LiveJournal:

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Monday, October 12th, 2009
7:32 pm	Anniversary Tomorrow will be the second Anniversary of Dan's and my wedding. It is hard to believe that time has flown so fast. It's been six years that we've been together and they've been good and exciting years--we've had a good time. The last year has been sort of rough with me breaking my hip, and Dan getting progressively sicker. He has been in a lot of pain and his overall health has been going down hill. He is taking physical therapy now, but today he has fallen twice. I suspect this may be the last anniversary we will get to celebrate together. We have plans to go to a Japanese Restaurant with his oldest son and his wife tomorrow night. Current Mood: worried (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 21st, 2009
7:41 pm	The fall migration to Colorado... We're back from our annual trip to the mineral show in Colorado. We did our usual drive across Utah and the San Raphael Swell to Denver. We started early, and spent a week in Denver and Golden. Sort of split our time between the hotel show at the Holiday Inn in Denver and the Colorado School of Mines Scanning Electron Microscope laboratory and Library--spent a few days at each and enjoyed ourselves. I managed to get an apophylite TN, a large specimen of Fluorite, and a beautiful mineral carving of a kingfisher perched on a large quartz crystal base, so I had a good time. Dan got over 500 pages of reprints, and he will be happily busy for several months sorting and reading his material. Dan has been feeling ill for the last four months--in pain and weak--so I decided to pass on the main show, and we came home a couple of days early. It's a three day trip each way and we are really happy to be home. Came home to a nicely-mowed lawn and a trimmed front tree. Dan's son had been here and the place really looked nice. He also replaced some sprinkler heads for the lawn and fixed a couple of electrical switches in the house. He's very talented, and a real sweetheart. At the show, I got to look at some preliminary pages for the book that is going to come out on our mineral collection. It looks like it will be very nice. I've been told that it should come out between now and February, so I'm rather excited about it. --EAGER!!! The weather here is still reaching close to 100 degrees + or - every day. However, the nights are getting much cooler. It's beginning to feel just a bit like fall. Time to plant things soon. Fall is really the best time to plant flowers, so they will have time to get established before the cold winter and the hot summer the next year. I will put out some chrysanthemum plants and a bunch of seeds I've got. Maybe next spring will be a riot of color--IF we get some rain this winter. We can always hope. The pomegranate tree has several beautiful fruits that are growing redder by the day. I picked the first two yesterday, but will have to wait just a bit longer for the rest of them. They're usually ripe in October. We were just a bit early to see the major beauty of the fall color in Colorado--probably next week it will be really nice. The weather in Denver was in the 70's, and quite pleasant. Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
1:06 pm	Perpetual Gloom Here it is about 1 O'clock in the middle of the afternoon and it looks like the sky does just after sunset when the sky is darkening into dusk. It has done this to us a couple of days lately--Sunday and today. Yesterday wasn't quite as bad because the wind was blowing the smoke from the La Canada-Flintridge (Station?) fire slightly to the east of us. Today is positively gloomy, and it is mixing with humid air from our Monsoon weather that is coming up from the Gulf of California. It makes a really oppressive combination--hot, sticky, and yuck! We are close to 100 miles from the fire, but the pall of smoke is truly appalling. I feel really sorry for the people who are having to fight the blazes. So far the communication towers on Mt Wilson haven't been burned, but it's been quite a fight. Most, if not all, the LA stations have their towers located there, and there might be a vast silence from this part of the state if they go up in flames. Current Mood: worried (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
10:12 pm	Long time passing... Again, it's been a long time between entries. In the meantime Dan and I have been to Washington State to see my Granddaughter graduate from High School. We spent about a week with the family, and really had a good time. On the trip up, we found some ripe cherries at a fruit stand just east of Stockton and gorged on them until we got tummy aches. Boy, were they good--perfectly ripe. We travelled by car through Carson City and Bend, Oregon. It's the first time that we took the trip in the spring and everything was really green. We hit a bit of rain south of Bend, but nothing very bad. I was really pleased to discover that the trip didn't bother my hip too much. On the way back from the family's place, we took a side trip over to Idaho to visit the University of Idaho at Moscow. We'd never been over in that area before and we went through the wheat belt of eastern Washington. --Rolling hills of infinite shades of green! --Very lush and soothing. We spent a day in the library, and came away with 20 copies of articles to help Dan with his mining project. The people there were very friendly and helpful when we explained what we were looking for. From Moscow, our trip home took us through the Salmon River Gorge. It was lovely scenery. We came south through Jordan Valley and Winnamucca, NV, where we spent the night. Then we went west over Donner Pass and back to a town just south of Stockton to spend the night. Then south to Bakersfield to pick up some "meds"--the bane of our existence. We stayed with the family there for a couple of days then came home to the desert. The whole trip took around two and a half weeks. Not bad, and we had a good time. Our fig tree here is beginning to produce ripe figs now, and they are very good. The pomgranate has a nice showing of future fruits (ripe in October), and the grape vine is simply loaded. Next month we might even get a few, IF we get to them before the birds do. I have put a bunch of new succulents on my North Bank and, overall, the yard looks pretty good. I'm glad to be able to do a bit in the yard again. Probably in a year's time I will have full motion in my legs and hip--not bad. Current Mood: optimistic Current Music: Summertime (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
4:41 pm	Almost Ready to Dance It has been a long journey since December when I fell and broke my hip; but things are definitely looking up. At long last I am able to walk without a cane and I'm working on getting rid of my limp. It's much better when I'm moving slowly. Overall, I don't hurt now except when I make the occasional movement I shouldn't have. --That has come a long way! Our spring is here. That means the temperature is in the 80's and 90's and the wind blows every day. One day soon the wind will stop, the temperature will soar over 100 degrees-- and summer will have arrived. We're getting sort of tired of the wind. My grapevine is covering most of the back of the house and it is covered with small clumps of grapes-to-be. If they all ripen we will have quite a crop of grapes this year. Or more likely, the birds will enjoy a bountiful year. We enjoy watching them through the windows gorging on the ripe berries. The fig tree is beginning to produce fruit which should ripen in August, and the pomegranate is in bloom and starting to set fruit. They will ripen in October. The olive is also in bloom, but I don't know what kind of a crop we'll get off of it yet. The almond and peach tree are both producing a crop and I hope we are around this year when the peaches ripen. I haven't had any peaches off this tree yet, and I would like to know what they are like. As you can tell, when I landscape I think of flowering and fruiting plants. I've never been very good with a vegetable garden--however for about 20 years we had a good crop of asparagus. I miss it. --Should try again. We had a lot of wild bees hovering around our fruit and flowering plants this year. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, January 16th, 2009
9:33 pm	Hello! Just a short note. I didn't give up live journal. I just fell and broke my left hip and had to have it replaced. This happened mid December and I didn't get out of the hospital until the last day of December. I'm just now getting back to my computer, so I can visit again. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
11:30 pm	Catch-up time... It's a good time in our lives. Dan and I just got back from another one of our trips. We went over to Laughlin to our annual old timers' reunion and had a very good time visiting with our friends. It's hard to believe we have had our first wedding anniversary-- it was the 13th of October. It was just before the reunion last year. This year Dan was very lucky at Keno much to our delight. It was about time. From Laughlin, we traveled up to Carson City to see some of Dan's Cousins, and then over to Grass Valley, and finally to Windser, CA, where we attended the wedding of Dan's grandson and his new wife. The wedding was out-of-doors in a massive old oak tree-covered garden. It was very beautiful and it was followed by a nice dinner and dancing. All of the family was there and we had a marvelous time visiting together. Revar made it up to the ceremony, too. We were all staying at the same hotel and we had most of the third floor, so it was a lot of fun seeing one another. I just got a beautiful couple of pictures from one of the relatives by Email tonight. We have a couple of short trips before Thanksgiving, when the whole family will get together at Dan's oldest son's for the Holiday. Revar will be coming down then, as well. It's nice to be in a close family. Current Mood: happy (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 21st, 2008
3:21 pm	Fall It's officially fall now and the weather here has changed accordingly. It was really cool last night and we even had to put a blanket on the foot of the bed. The change in the weather isn't all bad tho'. I was able to get out and replace some of the cement pavers in my kitchen patio that were removed when the back fence was rebuilt. I've had to use my rock hammer to remove some of the concrete they put down as footings when they put in the fence--they weren't very neat when they poured them. It's a slow process, but it will be OK when I'm done. I'm also delighted to find that the Cecil Brunner rose I thought they had killed has put up a new shoot about 5' high. We'll see what it is when it tries to bloom nest season, but I suspect it will be a Cecil Brunner. It's an old and hardy rose. Bless it's determined little heart. We went to Denver to the mineral show there after we got back from Alaska. It was a nice trip, though Dan had a nasty cold he picked up in Alaska and he didn't get over it while we were in Colorado. The leaves on the trees hadn't changed color yet, but on the way back some of the low bushes on the San Raphael Swell in Utah were beginning to turn red. I wish there had been more color, it's always so beautiful when the leaves are changing. My editor is done with the book she had to finish before she started serious work on the book about our collection, so maybe that will be back in the loop now. We saw her at the Denver show and she sounded encouraging. They were selling the smithsonite part of my collection at the Denver Show this time. I think it went well. Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 31st, 2008
4:17 pm	Where did August go... Starting with August 1st Dan and I took off from the desert to visit points north. We started our adventure by going up to Idaho to visit Dan's nephew and his wife in some of the most beautiful country you'd ever want to live in. They have a home on the top of a mountainside and it looks out over miles of rolling hills and evergreen trees--fabulous! We had a nice visit, and then continued our trip over to Washington State to see my son, Mike, and his family. We spent several days there and enjoyed everyone including our two teenaged granddaughters. They are so busy! The oldest girl is getting ready to go to college next year, and so they are visiting the colleges she is interested in now. She only had to take 2-3 courses to graduate this year, so she has filled her schedule with music courses of several types to make up a full program. She is very busy with band--she and another student are in charge of the "drum line" for the band. The school band works very hard and is in several competitions every year. Last year, they were second in their entire region. The younger girl has just entered high school this year. She has joined the color guard and is very happy with the choice. It really takes up a great deal of their time with all the practicing. Anyway, back to my tale. Last year Dan and I decided to go to Alaska on a Tour/Cruise--in August. We flew off from the kids place in Mid-August and flew to Fairbanks, Alaska. The change in weather from our desert summer +100 degrees to the 50-60 degree weather in Alaska was a bit of a shock to my system, but the countryside was nice and green. Generally we had good weather for Alaska--the first day in 38 days that it hadn't rained. It's been a wet year up there. We did a week long land tour from Fairbanks through Denali Park to Anchorage and Seward. The sky was beautiful, a combination of sunny and cloudy the whole way, but no rain. When we were in Denali Wilderness we saw the great mountain (Mt. McKinley) shining in the sun at several points. We were among the fortunate 30% of people who get to see the mountain at all. Usually it's shrouded in clouds or the weather is poor. It was lovely. We saw bear, Caribou, the tail-end of a moose headed behind a small tree, pika, arctic ground squirrel, ravens, eagles and Dahl Sheep (at a great distance). There weren't as many animals as I had expected to see. However, it was pointed out that there is much less for the animals to eat in the harsh climate, so the land doesn't support as many. It does make sense! The scenery was fabulous--wide valleys with rivers (lots of rivers) surrounded by gorgeous high mountains covered with snow. COO-O-O-L--both ways! After our day trip through the park, we went to see Jeff King's Husky Homestead. Jeff has won the Iditarod four times now, and has no plans to quit running it in the near future. We got our picture taken with a husky pup--maybe a future Iditarod champion--and learned a lot about how the dogs are trained and how the Iditarod is run. --Sounds like sheer guts and determination. I can see this is going to have to be several tales. I'm only up to day 4 so far, and I haven't even seen a glacier up close yet. More later! Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
10:41 pm	Progress Things have been moving right along here. The fence is done--looks very nice by the way. There are a few things about the project I would have had done differently, but we shall recover from the disasters to the yard along the way. When we get back from our vacation I will relay the "kitchen patio" pavers where they had to be removed to do the footings for the fence and all will be well there. The grass will be reseeded this fall when it is cool enough for it to take hold. And the soulth bed will eventually have all the cement dug out. It will take a while for the ivy to regrow there. The fig and pomegranate trees will probably benefit from the necessary pruning that was done to build the fence--we'll see next year if we get a bumper crop of fruit. The grape vine that had to be trimmed to the ground last year has loads of grapes all over it this year. We are also about to have the first crop of peaches from our volunteer peach tree. It's about 5 years old and has eight to ten peaches on it. I hope we get at least one before the birds do. I'd like to know what we've got. So far the fruit isn't very big, but neither is the tree. They are getting a nice blush on one side, so it shouldn't be long. I like plants that get fruit on them. The termite work has been done, and we hope all will be well there. I am going to take a bunch of the rubble from the old fence and pave an area at the north of the house that ordinarily doesn't grow grass. That way there will be less to water--a virtue in drought stricken California these days. All these projects are for fall when it is cooler. The days are still reaching 100 degrees mid-day most days now--a bit too hot for me to work out in. Current Mood: busy (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
10:40 pm	Fencing...no not that kind We got home from Bakersfield today and the footing holes for the fence are coming along well, I suppose. However the yard may never be the same again, There are big piles of rubble from the old fence in the back part of the yard and large piles of dirt along where the fence will go. My ivy is all tromped down and the Cecil Brunner rose is flat on the ground, having been dealt what looks like a death blow. Hope not, we'll see. There must be a better way to do things. I suspect it will take a long time to get things back to some semblance of normal when the crew is done. The good thing will be getting the fence back up between our yard and the one next door. They've got a really messy yard. ...And it's HOT and the swamp cooler doesn't seem to be getting any water. Supposedly, it was 109 today. The house was really hot when we got home, and it takes at least a day to cool off, so I'm less than happy at this point. The front bedroom where I'm working has a room air conditioner, so at least it's cool. Tomorrow's got to be better. Current Mood: distressed (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
8:19 pm	Bits of this and that. Well, time really does fly when you are having fun, and are busy. It's been four years on Tuesday since Dan and I have been together. --Seems impossible! Time has absolutely flown. We've had a very good time, and it looks like we actually may have more time ahead of us. When we got together, Dan was a very sick man, and I decided to be together for the time we had. I had no idea that we would have four years--a couple seemed more realistic. And I decided to take the time we had and enjoy it. --We have. And several operations later, Dan is doing better than either of us had expected. I am doing much better, too. In fact, I doubt that I would have been alive now, if we hadn't gotten together. It's wonderful what two people looking after one another can do. Love is a great thing--I recommend it wholeheartedly. Today has been another hot desert day. This afternoon we had a new refrigerator delivered--the old one died after a goodly number of years. Of course, the timing was great as always. Tuesday we are having a new block wall put in around the back yard. It, too was absolutely necessary. The old fence was crumbling, and getting dangerous. After fifty years, there are a lot of things that are needed around a house, including taking care of the termites we found at the north of the house and are going to have to have exterminated the middle of this month. Everything happens at once. --What next? Nothing to do with the house, I hope. We have other things to do. I am done writing for the book, I think. Now I will start writing some of the other things I want to get done. I think I'll write down the story of Dan's and my wedding for our family history. It's about time. Current Mood: thoughtful (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
3:59 pm	Hot, hot , hot... OK, so summer has arrived! It's about 106 degrees out today--right now. Needless to say we are sitting around watching TV and not exerting ourselves much. Just watched a program about excavating a wooly mammoth from the Arctic tundra in Russia. A great program for a day like this. We will wait for evening before we do much in the way of activity. It was nice for our daily walk this morning about 9:00 AM though,--probably in the mid 80's at the time with a warm breeze. Not bad at all. You just have to learn to live with the desert, and take it easy when it gets over 100 degrees. The agave plant in our back yard is well over 20' high now and is well on its way towards being in full bloom with lovely bright yellow flowers. It gets prettier by the day. Last week we were seriously looking at buying a house over in Bakersfield, but at the last minute had to decide against it. We will stay here a while longer. Something else will come along when we are ready. Current Mood: warm (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 1st, 2008
12:19 pm	Mom... We have had my almost 90-year-old mother up visiting with us for two weeks, and we've been having a good time. She is wheelchair bound, but is sharp as a tack mentally, and we have a lot of fun with her around. We took her over to Laughlin, NV, for three days and stayed at the pioneer hotel there. They have some river view rooms that are great for looking out at the river and the birds that gather at the hotel to live and be fed. Mom had a good time feeding the pigeons, grackles, sparrows, and ducks (mostly mallard). There was even a one-legged sea gull that showed up one morning. They're fat little birds. We also played a lot of video poker. Mama enjoys it, and if played right, it demands a lot of mental acuity--a good workout for the brain. We didn't win this round, but still had a good time. It was a restful vacation. Laughlin is set up to be Senior Citizen friendly, and it makes things easier to take Mom places. Current Mood: working (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
9:14 pm	Rain,etc. We got caught in a rainstorm today--over at Bakersfield. It rained about half an hour. It's a welcome storm, we haven't seen very much moisture lately. Unfortunately, the rain didn't get as far as the desert. We just had high winds and lots of clouds here. Oh well... The only problem is that the winds cool things off a lot. Last weekend was very hot, and now it's quite cold--no happy medium in the spring. Current Mood: hungry (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
1:03 am	Mallards... We looked out the window this morning as we were getting ready to go out to breakfast and what did we see--a mated pair of wild mallard ducks sitting on our front lawn in the shade of our arborvitae bush. They seemed very comfy and as we went out, they didn't even move much as we took a bunch of pictures of them. The neighbors said they had just been in their swimming pool. --Wonder if they were blown off course by the winds yesterday. They seemed a bit out of their usual flight path. They were still there when we got back from eating, but left shortly after that. Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
8:54 pm	Moving day Today Dan's nephew and his wife came over and got two big show cases and three map cases out of the mineral room. We donated them to the historical society of the nearby city where they live. The cases were each about six feet long and seven feet high as they sat in the mineral room. Fortunately, with the removal of a few nails, screws, angle irons, and a piece of plywood or two, they came apart in two pieces each, top and bottom. The various pieces just barely fit out the doors, and all the many parts went on a flatbed trailer. They merrily went off with it all, and we waved goodbye with a sigh of relief. For a while, we weren't sure we would ever get the cases out of the room. It's amazing how big the room looks now without all the excess furniture. This is the first time in about 25 years we've seen portions of it. It has POSSIBILITIES! We are planning to outfit it as an office where Dan and I can both work. Dan wants to take our time and see just what we want in there before we go out and buy a lot of furniture; but I plan to get a couple of file cabinets rather soon. We need them. This is a real sign of the changes in our lives. I never thought I'd see the day when the room wasn't filled with minerals. However, I'm sort of excited about what we are going to do next. Current Mood: amazed (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
7:24 pm	Wind... As I sit here typing, the wind sounds like it's going to tear the house apart. The air conditioner is creaking, and the wind blowing through the trees outside sounds like heavy beating surf. Small limbs and leaves are getting blown off. --And it's cold! Tomorrow or the next day will be time to clean up after it. --Typical spring! This is when you get tempted to move away from the desert. (Comment on this)
10:57 am	Minerals Just realized when I was printing up some pictures of the Ex-mineral collection that other people might enjoy the pictures too. If you want to see some of the specimens we had in our collection, go to www.danweinrich.com and click on the Dawn and Jim Minette Collection. There are 11 "pages" of minerals on view there. They took beautiful photos of the pieces. More will come up from time to time. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2008
9:26 pm	Spring... At last the weather is warm, even though it's windy. I've been working in the yard planting some marigolds and stocks. I hope they like it enough to grow for a while. It's always hard to tell whether they will like the desert or not. The succulents are doing well, and my century plant--which is more than 45 years old-- has finally decided to bloom. The main plant has put up a stalk about 15 feet high and about 10" thick. It's a beautiful thing and it's just beginning to put out the blossoming stems at the top of the stalk. It will probably be another week or longer before it starts to blossom. I can hardly wait to see it in full bloom. Dan's first wife and I planted our agaves (century plants) at the same time. The one she planted bloomed three years ago, and I have been waiting for mine to decide to bloom. I will take pictures of it to record it's progress. Sometime back I broke my favorite small Cannon camera, and I got another very similar camera. However, it doesn't take such good pictures. I think I've figured out what the problem is. The auto focus doesn't seem to hold; consequently the pictures aren't as sharp. I'm not quite sure what to do about this--I may have to get another camera. --That's a pain. I'm working on the last story I've planned to write for the book. If the editor wants something else later I will fill in the blanks, but this is pretty much "it" as far as I'm concerned. It's been fun, so far. The mineral pictures for the book are turning out to be fabulous. Good minerals--excellent photographers! Dan got a clean bill of health from his doctors, and so have I. Our life together is GOOD. What more can we ask for. Current Mood: satisfied (Comment on this)