Steve and Judy's Travels!

They don’t happen often in the United States.  They’re a Central and South American bird.

They do pop up in the U.S. once in a while though, and one popped up here.  We went to see it and found it last week with the help of the guy at Valley Nature Center who knew how to locate it.  It’s that little yellow dot just off-center in the photo.

Zooming in.

That crown doesn’t look so golden to me, but I’ll take it anyway.

Golden-crowned Warbler.

Four times.  Four MRIs.  One success.

Last month, the ortho ordered an MRI on her sore shoulder.  Judy doesn’t do MRIs.  She’s a claustrophobe.  Over the years, we’ve tried the MRI stone cold sober.  That didn’t work.  We tried the open MRI once, with a Valium, before the second shoulder surgery.  An open MRI is not open enough.  One Valium is not enough.  For the third shoulder surgery, she tried the MRI with two Valium.  Score: Valium 0, adrenaline 1.  It’s getting worse.  Every previous time she’s gotten shoulder surgery they’ve had to do it without an MRI first to let them know what to expect when they get inside.

This time she tried the MRI with general anesthetic.  It was an all-day process, and she slept through the afternoon, evening, and night afterwards, but ding ding ding, we got it done.  We’re claiming Judy conquered the MRI!

Next week she gets to find out what the doctor thinks about her shoulder.

Egyptian Goose.

Okay, maybe not exactly elegant.

And family.

Yesterday we were sitting on the deck having morning coffee.  Today, the temperature didn’t get out of the thirties!  Ouch!  Oh, woe is us.  We’re not exempt from the polar cold.

Except that it won’t be like this for long.  We’ll hunker down for three days of arctic blast, then we’ll be back in the eighties, enjoying extended warm weather.