More books

I finished the third and final book by Barbara Thacker, who drove a Toyota Chinook from New Mexico to Canada and back, down to Baja California where she stayed for 13 months, and from NM to Washington and all points in between.  The books were written in the 1990's and while she has settled in New Mexico I don't think there are any more books to be written.  They are excellent reading if you are interested in traveling long and leisurely over this continent.  I especially enjoyed reading about the National Parks she visited.  A few things are irksome, including references to lady rangers as "rangerettes".  Mostly I really enjoyed her writing.

Since I've read all of Nevada Barr's books that our regional library system has to offer, I visited a local used bookstore and purchased 4 more, including two that take place on the Natchez Trace, and one each in the Dry Tortugas and Rocky Mountain National Park.  Neither the library nor the bookstore had the one featuring Yosemite, so I will probably order it from Amazon.  All these books were available used from Amazon, for $.01 plus S/H, making each book a total of $4.00 + tax.  I decided to give the business to a local trying to make a living and paid about the same for the four books.  The thing that ticked me off was that I was trying to order all four from the same used bookseller in Oregon, thinking they might give me a break on shipping charges.  No breaks available!

I found the I Caps (vitamins) at Target and bought a bottle of 100 for a fairly steep price (at least steep to me).  When I got home and compared it with the sample packs given to me by the doctor I found they weren't the same at all, although similar, same brand and advertised for the same purpose.  It would take two tabs twice a day of Target's, but only one capsule twice a day from the sample version.  I will try to find the ones I want someplace else and return those I bought from Target.

My daughter recently underwent bladder surgery as I wrote in my blog a few weeks ago.  Saturday she and Donald went hiking in the Desolation Wilderness on a fairly strenuous trail.  On top of it they went a little out of their way when they missed a turn off, with the result that she overdid it and has to have the surgery repaired next Wednesday.  So I will be staying overnight at her house on Tuesday and driving her for the 5:45 a.m. appointment.  Since it is dark at that time and the surgery clinic is an area I'm not familiar with, she drove my car from her house and I was able to get us back, and we will do the same thing this time.  I don't think my eyes have improved to the extent that I have good vision in the dark again.  The doctor had told Jeannie that she could hike, but I don't think they realize how strenuously that girl exercises!

I'm determined to walk every morning I can and try to get off the blood pressure meds if possible.  If past experience can be counted on, I get really bored with walking around this community I live in, so I don't keep it up.  Either that or I am in travel mode.  At least the walking seems to prevent leg cramps at night, but I still have to get up every two hours or so.  You can't get a decent night's sleep doing that.  I wouldn't trade travel mode for leg cramps at any rate!  I'm itching to go someplace again.