Adieu Esther



Great Grandma Esther died.  Tuesday she had begun sleeping more than being awake and then late Wednesday she was gone, packed her mortal bags and moved on.  She had congestive heart failure and these last few weeks she was quieter and it seemed, getting smaller and smaller. 

 

 

Esther and my son David at a family Christmas.

 

She was my friend, Sally and Susie's mother, Great-grandmother to 8 kids, and a 90 year witness to some amazing history.  It's still startles me that the people we love can just poof, be gone, even when you know better, and even when you expect it.  I once in awhile find myself reaching to call my mother even though she has been gone 20 years.  Now we are busy with the afterwards.  "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more" - out of context but that's what I'm thinking this morning as we pull together.  PBS Shakespeare overload.

Community Event

Today a gentle rain is falling.  I am enjoying it after weeks and weeks of dry and 90° and above.  It was an abrupt change beginning with a huge wind storm on the 6th of September.  That  tree top is hanging from the power lines.  I love that the street closed sign is marked "Community Event."  You truly could say it was a community event. 

Picture from the Union Bulletin, Walla Walla, WA.

 

I have stopped taking in the news for awhile.  Between the tug of war over the budget in DC and the horrendous events in Nairobi, and events closer to home, my head and heart are full up for a bit.  

 

At home my niece's father was airlifted to Spokane with blood clots in his lungs, he's alive but we wait.  She and my nephew drove from Portland Oregon to be with him.  We'd welcome any prayers you could offer up.  My DIL's 90 year old grandmother is in home hospice now with congestive heart failure.  She is the great-grandmother to my 8 grandkids. She and I are shirt tail in-laws but I love her as one of my own and it's been looming for some time.  Our mortality is staring us in the face.  We, 14-16 of us, gather for dinner one night a week and Grandma joins in although sometimes from her recliner.  At times she is agitated and momentarily somewhere else but mostly she is still herself.  Last dinner while she was in her recliner her two-year old great-grandson climbed up in her lap and they sat there cuddling.  Two little faces looking across 88 years at each other.  This is our community event.

Mother Nature

 

We had a bit of a storm last night right after the big storm warning.  It landed with lots of thunder and lightning, then briefly big fat raindrops, then a huge dust storm blew in with 70+ mph gusts.  Time to buy that reciprocating saw  I thought would be handy.  Should have asked for one for my birthday last winter.  Meanwhile I need to go chase down a bucket I left and a garbage can lid.  It could have been much worse.

Quiet Time

Wally World looking east into the hills.

 

We're still getting a few clouds but it's dry and quiet, no much wind.  There's a dusty haze that gets worse as the farmers burn their stubble fields.  It's quiet at my house too.  I've given up the search for a new abode for the months ahead and am continuing to work on the house.  There really isn't much on the market right now.  I think many are staying put waiting for the economy to improve.  The bathrooms are much nicer with their new cabinets, floors, and paint.  Right now I'm slowly working my way around the house washing and re-painting the woodwork.  I'm still donating, recycling, and selling stuff out of the house.  I wonder how I squeezed it all in.  I am going to bring my books back out of storage.  Even though I packed them well, I don't like the idea of them sitting in storage over the winter.

The Walla Walla Sweets Roller Girls are having their last go of the season on my eldest son's birthday in October.  He's a big fan so we are cooking up an evening of celebration with him at this event.  I used to watch the roller derby on television Portland, Oregon when I was about 11.  It's kind of fun to see it re-emerge here.  It's more benign than the stuff I saw as a kid, and I am happy with that and the grandgirls love it.

Fall is waiting in the wings.  School has started and I am doing an art class on Tuesdays with our homeschoolers.   We delved into oil pastels last week and I had as much fun as they did.  I used a short introductory video I found on u-tube and that was a hit, and then we dived in, no pencils, no erasers, just process, it went well.  The next day I got the pastels out and fooled around with them at home.  Very satisfying.  Next time I think I will start them on their own sketch books and get us outside to draw both for more pastels, and to collect "found" stuff for a collage project. 

My pulmonologist put me in a pulmonary rehab program at the gym in our hospital.  The fall I took last year really left me out of shape, with noodle muscles, and breathing impaired by further inactivity.  This provides among other things some discipline that I lack.  I used to walk every morning and this morning I went for a walk before breakfast for the first time in a year.  I was thrilled.  I love to walk, that's when I took most of my photos too which provided me with material for art.  I feel like I have a get out of jail free card.  Woo woo!

Moo

Q:  Why do cows wear bells?

A:  Their horns don't work.

 

The Grandgirls made their annual trek to the Fair to show 4-H dairy cows of assorted ages, sizes, and temperaments.  Now if anyone asks them if they were raised in a barn they can say "part-time." Their 4-H leader is retiring so this is their last year.  She has provided them with the animals to work with and space to do it at her farm.  This fall her son and daughter will both be in college and she is closing her 4-H shop.  Our family is very grateful for all her work and the opportunity she's given our girls over the years. 

Q:  How do you make a milkshake?

A:  Give a cow a pogo stick.

The judging was at Friday morning and they all came home with ribbons and most of them with money including our fearless 7-year old.  They do shifts in the big barn from about 5:30am until almost 10pm at night, feeding and watering, and shoveling poop.  They make breaks for home intermittently for naps and showers.  In between they get to take stroll around with friends or family and eat things they don't normally see in their diets.  Like elephant ears, or Azar's marvelous Gyros and baklava.  They come home stumbling like the walking dead and most of them have been showing up for soccer practice as well between cow shifts.  It's been quite a week.  Sunday is the last day but everyone shows up Monday to clean up and pack everything out.  Isn't that what you do on Labor Day, labor? 

Q:  Why is a barn so noisy? A:  All the cows have horns.  

Blogger is also telling me my reader list is gone this morning.  Hopefully not, this has happened before.