This is Oceanside, Oregon.  I am not here, just wish I were.  I am in Walla Walla, sighing with relief that the hot weather seems to be abating.  There are rumors that by Wednesday it will be around 77 and the nights are cooling off and have been for awhile.

 

My year has been sprinkled with assorted painful mishaps.  I meant to keep with my blog but I didn't.  I have fallen twice not because I'm wobbly but everyday accident type things, slippery bath mat and a failure to see a curb through my bifocals.  Knocked myself clear out in the parking lot at K-Mart.  Not a good way to mark a 70th birthday.  The second fall some months later royally messed with my back.  I haven't kept up with anything except minimal housekeeping.  I've been reading your blogs, but haven't commented since my mind has been out to lunch: pain can be very distracting and I think I got depressed.  So I read a lot.  Got Netflix connected to my TV and watched and watched and watched, made it through 20 episodes of the Tutors.  Last week I had a go-round with a very painful kidney stone and realized that if I didn't get off my bum pretty soon my life was going to be very different that I'd hoped and not in a good way.  Time to snap out of it whatever this is. 

 

I've started walking in the mornings and doing floor exercises for my back.  A couple of weeks of that has improved my outlook no end.  I think one of the downsides of living alone is there is no one there to say "That's enough, you are being a dork, get up and do something."  So I'm cleaning out my house one box at a time since my back won't put up with any silliness any longer.  Also there's less to trip over.  I put the boxes in the van, fill them a little at time and then take them to the drop off and let them haul them away.  Where did all that stuff come from?  I released my grip on my VHS tapes and player and sent them away, this week's contribution will my my music on tape.  There's actually a small market for them.  Who knew?

 

I've started drawing flowers again.  I'd forgotten how intricate they are.  It's so amazing to really look at them and see how the stamens are attached, how many petals they really have, and how the colors blend.  One of my favorites classes in high school was botany.  Our teacher was a man named Hassenmiller who used to make himself coffee on his bunsen burner.  He shared though only two of us took him up on it.

 

Hope your new week will bring good things to you.  I hope the Floridians are not blown to Kingdom come, although I can't help but enjoy the thought of the GOP convention floating away.  I am what I am.