Spring?

Hello. The trees at my condo are in bloom. My nose is stuffy. It must be spring. This is the view by my van. Not bad for parking lot.

I have not blogged in eons.  Not since November of last year.  It has been a difficult year for my family and then I came down with Covid this February for the first time. It really knocked me off my feet. I can't even recall the first week which was spent in bed. Who fed me? Must have been the kids. I hope I said thank you. In March I got pneumonia, My mother used to call it Phew-new-cough-ya. This was my first time though. Not a bad score since I'm over 80. Kicked my derriere. 

Oops. I see my Grandson Adam walking up. We are going to shop for some flowering plants for my patio. Probably petunias, they seem to do well on all that concrete. It's looking pretty bare, just a pot of tall grass.  Wish me luck.

What Is That Strange Light?

The sun is blinding today. Yesterday the fog was so thick I could not see the buildings across the street. My building is about a third of a block in from the street so it seemed a little denser than it really was. Still a bit of a driving hazard in the low spots. All in all typical November weather. Gorgeous fall foliage peeking through. 

Turkey day is sneaking up on us. I got my cheesecake recipes out. I haven't made one for awhile so I thought I'd practice. If the practice turns out OK I'll take it to my Great-Grand son's birthday party on Sunday. He turned two. 💖 He is a sweet little, non-stop dynamo.

Grand-girl Bel is into ballet and needs new pointe shoes so she is making Macrons to order and selling them. I ordered chocolate ones. Yummy.

The upper right photo is Bel in the color guard leading people in for the Veteran's Day Assembly at her high school. Besides ballet and macrons she is a sharpshooter in ROTC.

Thank you Veterans. So many of my high school contemporaries went to Vietnam and the ones who came back were deeply changed. They gave so much,

Autumn, aging and Daylight Savings Time

It's been a long time since I posted. Last July I believe. We finally got some leafy color but many of our trees have just dropped dried up unautumnal leaves due to the months of heat and lack of rain here. But the few that someone watered, such as the city park department, have prettied up better. Those above are trees lining the street in front of apartments and a couple of businesses that water more than our condo association does.

It's (2023) been an up and down thing.  My youngest sister by 20 years lost her beloved husband Michael to cancer. It was swift, diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Six months and he was gone. Then she lost her teaching job, diagnosed with early onset dementia. Noticeable enough for the district to require her to be tested. We/she are still not sure how much is dementia and how much is the impact of multiple serious losses. She is managing on her own and working her way though the impact and piles of paper to be processed on her own and help from friends and her young adult kids. 

I am eldest of four sisters and at this point (81) am the only one without a diagnosis of dementia. I've been tested, but what fresh hell is this? My two years younger sister has had it for a few years and is in the care of her very loving children now. The nine year younger sister has been diagnosed and has appointments with a geriatrician which she has repeatedly cancelled and is very angry about. Neither of our parents had it. Mom, a life long smoker, died of emphysema at 74. Dad was 84 and died of heart disease. I thnk life is kind of a crap shoot. 

I seem to have most of my marbles but I'm physically slowed, arthritic, etc. some of the common physical malfunctions of 80+ people. I cannot pick up or chase one of our bigger blessings, my Great-grandson Issac. He will be two years old in a few days.  He is a darling, very busy little boy said every grandparent on earth. He makes us all smile. Although as he turns two he doesn't always think we are so wonderful, just roadblocks to a larger world.  But he is wonderful.

A not always perfect service I use is ordering groceries for delivery online. Do any of you use one? I like to go shop up my own but some weeks I am less than physically up to it. It costs more but they drop it right at my door, Doordash I think. I try to give the drivers a nice tip especially when is was snowing. Funny enough both my grandmothers had delivery available to them. One in a very small WA town whose owners routinely delivered groceries to the elderly, and the other in Portland, OR where a small neighborhood grocer a few blocks up the street delivered. Everything changes and also nothing changes. I could order for pick up and send my liscensed grand-kids but most them work after school, at a large grocery, haha!

My own personal goal for next week is to try to stop reading the news. It has been my habit for years to drink my morning coffee while reading the New York Times, the Guardian and BBC as well as the local news sites. The Israel/Palestine war is scaring the beejesus out of me. And the grandkids in my family are reaching draft age. Two are/were in ROTC and one is a sharpshooter. I still remember the Gulf War when my boys were that age and all their friends wanted to join the Marines. I also remember when my own friends went to Vietnam and those that came back were never the same. I'm praying for peace.

Be well, be kind. Hugs.

Hotter and hotter

It is crackling hot here. It's about a month early here. Forgive me, I know we are not as bad off as those in Texas and some other places. We are under a Red Flag Warning. Fires popping up all around us. We are in that pointy dark pink area E of Kennewick. I like how it highlights "ick" on the map. Prayers and good wishes for all our firefighters and cohorts out working with them. 

Meanwhile, my youngest son's family is camping farther north in the light pink area. That's about normal for that area. They are on a reservoir on the Snake River with his boat hauling in Salmon. Every one who can hold a pole has a license and they are bringing in salmon that he and his wife freeze, can and dry. My 12 year-old  grandkids as well as my son's 83 year old father is there and my son's 21 month old grandson. It's one of the highlights of the summer. Lots of swimming and cooking outdoors on camp stoves (no fires allowed). Hopefully they will send some pictures soon. I'm a wimp, it's too hot for me. Grandpa however in his wisdom has opted for a motel room for the nights. Smart.

This is my now 12 year old grandgirl three years ago. And yes, she reeled that in herself. Yum, yum.

Hope you are fire free where are you are. 

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July

 

Late Father's Day Post

I joined my youngest son and his family for Father's Day burgers at his home. His father is 300 miles away in another city. It was a coolish but pleasant evening. We ate inside as we have unusually cool temperatures for this time of year in E.  Washington and the wind is blowing steadily, strong enough to bring down branches and a some power lines. This is the child who in high school said he never have any children. Hahaha. He has three homegrown ones and six more that he and his sweet wife adopted. At this time they have two more 16-year old foster kids as well. Five of the first bunch are long out of the house. And they are grandparents of an 18-month boy. Happy Father's Day son.

Below is a photo of my younger sister and my Dad about 1949 in Honolulu where we lived for two years. That's part of Diamond Head behind them. He must have been about 33 then. That's where I acquired my taste for Akira Kurosawa films. He used to take us girls to see them. After we moved to Seattle he still took us to see those films downtown. He had a favorite Japanese restaurant he took us to and because he spoke Japanese the staff always looked after us well and stayed around to chat. 

He was a fisheries researcher and those two years we spent there were two of his favorite years. It's one of my favorite pictures of him.

He was a complicated person, maybe we all are but he was bright and well educated scientist. He never understood how he could have produced four daughters who in spite of good grades avoided math and took only the required Algebra and Geometry. I did okay with geometry but he coached me through Algebra 2 or 3 nights a week the whole year I had to take it. Shaking his head every time. I eventually got a B out of it never knowing why. Many years later I worked for a software education company and was given the assignment to do a video for teaching, you might have guessed, Algebra! Sigh, I was quite surprised to find that my Dad's coaching of my 13-year self had actually stuck. 

It was from him I got my love of the outdoors. When we were fairly young he took us with him on fishing boats, visiting hatcheries everywhere we went, We lived for awhile at the now long defunct fish hatchery that was in Deception Pass State Park in the mid-1940's. We hiked with him through the woods in many places while he did fish counts and inspections early in his career. Down stream from him my sister and I would swim and play. To this day the smell of fish food in a hatchery overwhelms me with nostalgia. It certainly is not to most folks taste but it smells like home and my Dad to me. Just writing that made me cry a little, good times.

Happy Father's Day Daddy. 

Fabulous Sunday

My Grandgirl Isabel just started ballet this year.  Yesterday, Sunday, her school The Walla Walla Dance Center did their big show and she was in it. The opening dance was Isabel and all the tiny little kid dancers. It was beautiful. She is beautiful inside and out.

She just amazes me. Here she is with one of her "co-stars."

I went with my daughter-in-law, her Mom Heather, Sally her other Grandmom, and assorted friends and relatives, Her very proud Daddy missed it cuz he's away at school himself this week, getting his Captain's license (that's another story) but hopefully there will be another show, It was excellent, those kids are so talented. Great music too,  This was one of the best Sundays ever. I am so impressed with the quality of the ballet and the show itself. Nothing amateur about it at all. What a good day. Amazing what a good day of the arts can do for us,