cheerfulmonk.com

April 25, 2025

We had forgotten about them but the Senior Center had a vaccine clinic Tuesday for Covid and other diseases. We made an appointment with our local pharmacy, because they already had our data and it was simpler. But bless the Senior Center for reminding us.

When I got home I was wondering about the flu shots this fall so I looked it up. According to the FDA website doctors from the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense, recommended vaccines for the 2025-26 flu season on March 13. (Apparently in the past an outside committee made its recommendations but that meeting was canceled and government doctors made the decision this time.)

Anyway, they expect the vaccines to be ready in time this fall. That makes us happy.

April 24, 2025

Click on the picture to see the video, and turn on the sound to hear.

I love that ending.

April 23, 2025

I don’t know why some people couldn’t see the weather forecast for last Saturday:

It predicted snow, and sure enough Andy didn’t go up to the land that day. Sunday he went to the mesa across from ours and took this picture of it, but didn’t go any farther.

We knew it would melt fast, so he went all the way up yesterday:

The temperature is supposed to be in the 60s for the rest of the week so the snow should continue to melt.

April 22, 2025

I’ve been taking a semi-vacation from Spanish. I’ve been streaming videos with English, not Spanish, subtitles, but I still try spend a few minutes each day doing a vocabulary exercise on Duolingo. For instance:

According to Duolingo, by yesterday I had spent 700 days doing something with it since May 6, 2023. I occasionally forget but when I do I try to make it up the next day. It’s only a few minutes a day, but I’m reviewing the words I know and am gradually adding a few more.

I’m not concerned about how little I’m learning — it makes me feel good just to stick with it. Hurray for hobbies!

April 21, 2025

Pinterest

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

April 20, 2025

This was the weather forecast yesterday:

We’re not complaining at all. It means the fire season might start later. Hopefully we won’t get a fire like the 2022 one — that started on April 22nd.

6:47 PM, April 22, 2022

No, we would much rather have cool temperatures and the chance of a little moisture.

April 19, 2025

The mother has a belly full of fish to bring back to feed her hungry chicks.

That had a happy ending!

April 18, 2025

April 17, 2025

gocomics.com/ben

gocomics.com/ben

For Andy, when we were foolish enough to have an outside garden up on the land, it was gophers and ground squirrels. We were happy to share, but they wanted everything. One cheeky ground squirrel would chatter at us if we spent too long in his garden. Eventually he would rush in and start eating in a part of the garden away from us. Then there was the day that we were looking at the garden from outside of it and we saw a plant get sucked into the ground before our very eyes. Andy grabbed a stake and rushed into kill that blasted critter doing it.

He didn’t. It was hopeless, and we had to give up the idea of an outside garden. That’s why we have our greenhouse.

April 16, 2025