Life on the High Plains

While staying with my brother in Memphis I decided to take a couple hours to myself one morning and go visit the home of the King, Elvis Presley.  I had been through Graceland 30+ years ago, but memory fades and I wanted to see it again.  The complex has become quite large with a huge parking lot, RV park, and even a hotel.  The Christmas decorations were beautiful. When I pulled into the parking lot I knew it was going to be a great visit.  There were only about five other cars in the lot and I got a prime princess parking space.  There are many options when visiting Graceland...from the mansion only tour at $44 to a VIP tour that is over $200.  I chose the mansion tour and added on a visit to his planes for an additional $5. You load onto a shuttle bus at the ticket center and they drive you across the street to the mansion.  From there they give you an audio tablet and headphones so you can move through the mansion at your own p...

It has been almost two months since I last posted.  Life can sure change quickly and without notice. On November 5th my oldest brother got sick and I mean really sick.  He collapsed at work and was taken to the ER.  It took a couple days for word to reach my other brother and I, but once it did we jumped into action. We arrived in Memphis and for the 10 days that he was in that first hospital we were in hell.  From the first moment we had doctors threatening to discharge him even though he was un-diagnosed and was getting sicker by the minute. Finally on day 9 he had a diagnosis--Viral Encephalitis caused by the Herpes Simplex Virus (the virus that causes shingles/chicken pox).  Basically, he had shingles in his brain.  This disease is so rare that many doctors have never seen a case in person.  This undoubtedly contributed to the length of time for the diagnosis, but that was compounded by the incompetence of some of his physicians includin...

I haven't gotten much hiking in this summer.  Between all the traveling we did and going back to work I haven't gotten out on the trails as much as is needed. We had snow on Wednesday last week followed by a beautiful day so Irv, Maisy and I loaded up and headed over to my go-to hiking place, The Garden of the Gods.  Maisy gets really nervous whenever we take her anywhere in the car.  This time she made it all the way to our destination without getting car sick.  Once we arrived she peed, pooped, and threw up all in about a two minute time frame, but then she was ready to go (she has to carry her own poop when she goes hiking). We saw several beautiful blue jays. While taking the shot of the blue jay I caught a glimpse of a deer crossing the trail right in front of us. This little guys was within an arm's reach. He was completely desensitized to humans which is not a good thing especially if they start allowing urban hunting to cont...