News and Views

Gisele and I are in Snowbird, Utah for 5 nights. Snowbird is a ski resort about an hour outside of Salt Lake City, at about 8500 feet. The weather is very nice, but a little warmer than I expected. I came up to attend a Botany convention. My friend Les and I are giving a […]

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Gisele left early this morning for her annual month in France. She is only taking 3 weeks of class this year, in the city of Tours. The other week will be spent traveling around the country. Angela happens to be there at the same time, so Gisele will get to spend some time with her […]

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After 4 days of vacuuming up bees, I decided it was time to get serious. I went to Lowe’s and bought a can of “Wasp and Hornet Spray”. They can’t advertise that it kills bees because they are protected, but they assured me it would work fine. I found the most likely place for a […]

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I am having problems with both birds and bees. First, the birds: My peaches are ripening on the tree in my back yard, and there are lots of bites and nibbles. The worst part is that birds will eat them at a greener state than I will, so they spoil them before they are ripe […]

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It was just about 100 days ago that I found Apollo in the throes of a seizure. Shortly after, he was diagnosed with Valley Fever and put on twice-a-day doses of Fluconazole. Initially his infection level was 32, severely infected. This week we were informed that his level is down to 2 — barely infected! […]

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We’ve had a swarm of bees move into the attic and garage. Gisele noticed them swarming around a small hole in the wall this afternoon, and by this evening (6:45) there are hundreds of them in the garage on the ceiling and walls. We can’t get to the cars. I called a bee service in […]

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The last test results on Apollo came back positive for Valley Fever. In fact she said the test came back strongly positive, so it’s fairly serious. Dogs in the Southwest get Valley Fever just like humans do, and as in humans usually just infects the lungs. But in some cases it will break out and […]

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Apollo has epilepsy, or at least appears to have the dog version. I was on my computer when I heard a thumping sound outside. I found Apollo stretched out on the ground on his side, with his front and rear legs swinging around like he was trying to run. His hind legs kept hitting some […]

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For several years, every Monday Gisele has driven to Scottsdale for a small advanced French class that met in the home of one of the students, Angela Morley. Gisele mentioned to me that Angela, an elderly lady, was a composer and had won some awards. Angela died last Monday, and I looked into her past […]

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I posted previously how Apollo can run beside the bike, using the special “Springer” attachment. As he gets older and stronger, he is taking on his hereditary role and has started to pull the bike. As we leave the driveway, he is running as fast as he can — up to 15 MPH with my […]

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