87. Simple, But Oh So Special!

Christmas eve was so very wonderful.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been  more family, especially  Trisha and  Robby.  We know they had a  lovely time too,  though.  Robby went to his grandparents home with his father and Trisha and her long time friend, Sherry from Calistoga, California, did the town in Switzerland.  Trisha told us that since life was so different now she decided to change things even more and had schnitzel for dinner.  She hasn't had meat pass her lips for thirty years or more and then she has VEAL!!  Imagine!  When she worked at Kuleto's restaurant on Union Square in San Francisco, if veal was one of the day's specials she wouldn't even tell customers about it.  When forced she quietly said it was made with small animals with huge brown eyes that stare up at you with great sadness.  We couldn't believe that she kept her job.  They must have really liked her.  Her daddy, who is the confirmed carnivore, said that was the best Christmas gift of all!

Holiday's are filled with tradition and  a special one at our house is the angel that tops our tree. Christmas of 1950 was a particularly lean one for Bob and his parents.  Bob remembers going to the Five and Dime Store and buying this homely little styrofoam angel.  She had her face and collar but they bought the little sparkles for her dress and glued them on.  She is simple, but oh so special. It's not Christmas until she is on the tree.  

Bud brought a bottle of Bailey's Irish Creme in remembrance of our dear old family friends, George and Audrea Ruptier.  For years George sent Bud the money to buy us a bottle for Christmas.  George had been Bob's daddy's best friend  since  before World War II.  Bob is his name-sake.  They were the youngest old folks we have ever known.  Our friend since school days, Marilyn, came from San Jose to celebrate with us, as well as Bud's girlfriend, Patty.  We had so much fun.  Marilyn brought the most beautiful ham that she glazed with orange marmalade and brown sugar.  Just plain YUMMY!  Preston who is ten now was just so gracious and delightful.  He had such a good time and fairly glowed when his Pepa made a fire in the Franklin and we had S'more's!  I can't imagine a better dessert.  (Continuing  special thanks to the Gammons for hi-jacking the stove.) Preston announced that he wanted his daddy to "keep" Patty.  We all concur!

We send our sincerest warm wishes to all of you.  We hope your Christmas stockings are as full of warm fuzzy memories as ours are.  Stay warm, stay full and stay happy!

86. Gurgle and glug!

Gurgle, gurgle, glug, glug!  My, oh, my, have we had the rain.  You can see the creek across the road from our back porch the water is so high.  We drove up the canyon yesterday to see the waterfall and we were not disappointed!  I don't know that we have ever seen it so strong.  A couple of days ago we were enjoying the incredible color of the leaves on the Golden Rain tree.  We have so few trees that turn fall colors, I can only imagine the beauty of the East Coast.  Well, anyway, I was enjoying the beautiful leaves, Bob on the other hand was thinking in terms of time with a rake.  

Our experience last week with Maggie and the Furry Friends was so rewarding and heart warming.  Villa Maria in Santa Maria is a board and care facility and most all of the residents just love the dogs.  The animals that were there that day were all experienced with Maggie being the exception.  She handled herself brilliantly, if I may say so my self.  One of the residents is blind and he really loved her with her long floppy ears.  Maggie just snuggled right up.  The sounds and smells didn't bother her at all.  We plan to go to two places on Christmas Day in the afternoon.  All of the members had their dogs all decked out.  Maggie had her hat, but I can see that we need to go shopping.  Gotta keep up with the "Joneses!"  A girl can't have  too  many outfits, now  can  she?!  There were lots  of other  dogs, but  I  started  taking

photos too late.  You get the idea though.  Oliver, to the right here, had lots of bells on his  legs.  He

is a rescue that, as you can see, is now very well loved.  We hope each and everyone of you can find something that warms your heart because if it warms yours, odds are it will warm the heart of someone near you.

85. It's the Best Medicine!

Sunday  the house was  filled with the  delicious and  yummy aroma of our annual batch of the much

maligned fruitcake.  To those of you who think of it only as the tin that gets passed from unwitting household to household..."Think Again!"  You just haven't tasted ours!  It is full of our favorite dried fruits, nuts, brown sugar and lots and lots of El Presidente brandy!  If you don't like citron, don't add it. It is about the only thing we make without fail at Christmas.  Our daughter, Trisha, was born on January 5th and as an adult orders it for her birthday cake.  We even send it to Switzerland.  This year we will coerce her friend, Sherry, to take it in her luggage.  Keep your fingers crossed that some dastardly fruitcake hater in security at the airport doesn't accuse  her of smuggling something  illegal. Maybe they will think that she is doing the country a favor.  But as for our house, we love fruitcake. Keeping Bob down to one piece a day will be the real problem.  

I also wrote our Christmas letter yesterday, as well.  The Christmas tree  lights were twinkling and the fruitcake was baking and I decided that if the mood didn't strick me then it never would. We used to get the kids together and take a funny family picture at the beach, in the hot tub or some other wacky place in Santa hats.  When changes in family dynamics happened we tried taking the photo during the year when we were together.  Now we just have three photos and hope for the festive best.  Our heart's are in the right place.  It just takes more planning than it used to.

Tomorrow is Maggie's debut at a senior center with the Furry Friends.  We are excited and we know it will set the tone for our Holiday Season.  She is so friendly and sweet.  When we take her out and about people love to give her a scratch and she loves it.  We are certainly glad to have her in our family.  She makes us laugh and you know that laughing makes you live longer.  Especially those big belly laughs.  Those are the ones that stimulate your internal organs.  It's a proven fact...l
aughter is the best medicine!  So my prescription for the
holidays is make a fruitcake and laugh, laugh, laugh.

84. Frost on the Pumpkin

Well, dear friends, there was frost on the pumpkin this morning!  I guess we are in for a cold winter...well, cold by my standards.  I spent my formative years in Iowa and have many fond memories of childhood snow  fun,  however, I'm a  little older now and  am very happy without snow

Bones ache a little and we have enough trouble navigating the gopher craters in the yard as it is, snow and ice would just spell more knee surgery. 

I could tell you lots of little stories about my walks to school from our little acreage out side of Ottumwa, Iowa, like how we stopped at the brickyard office to warm our hands on their potbellied stove or how we took hot baked potatoes in our coat pockets to keep our hands warm.  (Only the first was true, my Great Uncle Reese always said that it was so cold that the cows gave vanilla ice cream.) Bob always rolls his eyes and says "And it was five miles and up hill both ways." But then he is a Dallas boy.

I remember one really cold afternoon in particular.  I always wore warm snow-suits and mittens with a length of ribbon holding the mittens together and strung through the sleeves so they never got lost.  When I left home in the mornings, my mom always carefully tucked my dress into the pants.  I was supposed to do the same thing coming home from school.  She also supposed that the teacher would supervise and help when necessary.  With 32 children to attend to...I doubt tucking in my skirt was high on her list.  At any rate, I neglected to tuck in my skirt.  On the trudge home, we all decided that rolling and sliding down the snowy and hilly country road sounded like a lot of fun.  By the time I arrived home my dress skirt was frozen solid and sticking straight out like some crazed ice ballerina.  Suffice it to say that I NEVER did that again.  My mom never believed in corporal punishment, but her angry eyebrows and deliberate words made future expectations reality.

With the weather so chilly, I decided to gather up all of the hats and sweaters I have made for premies  and other little babies who need to keep their little heads warm.  I didn't realize I had made so many. If any of you are so inclined to knit or crochet for these in need, I send mine to "Stitches From the Heart."

Stitches from the Heart                   
4572 Telephone Road, #909
Ventura, CA 93003
http://www.stitchesfromtheheart.org
Toll Free: 877 985-9212
 
 If this baby isn't precious, I don't what is!


Well, it's Taco Tuesday at Taco Roco where tacos are a dollar and we can dine al fresco so Maggie can join us.   Bob and I like the Chili Verde, Maggie prefers the shredded beef.

83. The Best Black Friday

Our Black Friday was better than any shopping excursion could ever be.  Bob and Bud installed the chimney that Bud had made for the Franklin.  It is fabulous!  All it needs now is a couple of coats of fire resistant paint and a few saguaro cactus blooms that Bob will create and apply.  The minute they were done with the installation Preston and I got the fire going and made S'more's for breakfast. They are the breakfast of champions with fond memories of many, many camping trips to far flung canyons where staying up late was the norm and brushing your teeth and combing your hair was never required, your sweatshirt and jeans smelling deliciously of camp fire smoke.

 The chimney draws the smoke beautifully now.  A few nights ago when we had the first fire it smoked a little bit out the front, but the tall chimney solved that problem. We bought some twinkle lights to hang in the trees for a little ambiance.  Now all we need are a couple of rock shaped speakers to hide in the planter so music can fill the air.  I found in a catalog a fruit jar with little lights shaped like lightning bugs that I want to order if I can remember which catalog it was in.  I hate  it when I do that. "Should I order?  Shouldn't I order?  I'll think about it...yes!  I'll order...now where is that catalog...Hmm."  I see a pattern arising. At any rate, the little patio is coming right along.  We need to move the "Buck Rogers" bar-b-que back there now, too.  We tend to not use it because it is out by the work shop and not so convenient.  More Heart's Desire gravel and flagstone and "Voila!" A bar-b-que pit!  Life is so good!

We had to leave around 11:00 to go to Polly and Phil's for a special invitation to their family Thanksgiving dinner, so we were all buzzing around getting ready and suddenly realized the Maggie was no where to be found.  I know she is important to all of us, but those moments of thinking she may be lost were incredible.  We were all frantically looking in six  different directions. She usually comes the minute she hears us clapping.  You can hear her collar jingling as she makes a bee line to us because she knows she will get lots of scratches and hugs.  Well, there was nothing!  Finally I decided that I would go up the little canyon behind the motor home, as I have caught her smelling around back there before.  As I got near the motor home, I heard her jingling but couldn't see her.  I paused and called and clapped again and then heard a thump, thump on the window of the motor home!  There was her little face and her paws on the window.  When I had gone out there earlier to get the sticks to roast the marshmallows, I guess she must have sneaked in behind me.  I had locked her in and didn't even know it!  The poor little thing had been frantic hearing us call and not being able to come.  I felt terrible, but oh how relieved we all were.

I found this cartoon in the news paper and it just about sums up how we feel.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

82. The Bird, Bird,Bird...the Bird is the Word!

It's a chilly Thanksgiving morning here in Tepusquet Canyon!  Bob checked the thermometer outside and at 7:30 a.m. it was 28 degrees! Holy Moly, Batman!  For the first time ever we have been covering plants at night.  The gardenia that we planted between the hot tub and water heater shed is really growing! Imagine that?!  The coffee grounds, planter mix and crumbled leaves recommended really must be the ticket.  At any rate, we've (usually Bob) have been tucking in the gardenia, bougainvillea and the huge fern (I'm so happy :-)) for a warm night.  I thought that the fern would suffer because it has been on the porch for 9 years, but it turns out that it likes being free. It is so very happy waving about on the new gravel, sandstone and grass patio.

Bud, Preston and hopefully Bud's new lady friend and her granddaughter are coming later today to share the feast with us.  Preston usually goes to one of his other grandmother's house for dinner earlier in the day.  To make it special for him to go to yet another fete on the same day we decided to have our meal late in the day...say around 5 or 6 and end up out in front of a nice fire, thanks to Polly and Phil and Mr. Franklin, and toast marshmallows for So-more's.   

It doesn't matter how much time you spend with loved ones, it's what you do when you spend it.  We hope you spend your time well and remember to have fun.  Don't worry about making the food perfect, relax and make the fun perfect!  You can buy turkey dinner anywhere.  Just remember what my Great-Uncle Reese always said, "If you want to have a good time, take it with you!"

                             Happy Thanksgiving!

81. No Run of the Mill Heart's Desire

I've had lots of heart's desires over my life time some big, some small, but until now gravel hadn't been one of them.  It turns out that gravel can really be important in one's life.  We have had a dirt driveway most of the time that we have lived in our cottage, mainly because of the cut in the bank across the driveway.  After many years of trying, we finally have it stabilized with plants and more plants and bender board.  It has been a struggle mostly because of a sweet little bird with a long curved bill that methodically digs up anything we plant.  We turn the soil to plant or seed and the bird says "Yippee! Those suckers have set up the buffet!"  An entire flat of carefully planted Red Apple ground cover on the upper meadow was un-planted by the little buggers.  

When we plant the upper meadow,  we water from the driveway and by the time I made the trek up to find out why I couldn't see any evidence of green it was too late.  Each plant had been dug up and cast aside to perish.  Bird screen just gets tangled in the sage and ends up tearing out what it was supposed to protect.  Finally with perseverance and really big daisies and lavender aided by vinca (which I'm not particularly fond of, but we have a big side yard full of the stuff) we have stopped the constant flow of dirt!  

 Pat, our landlord and friend, ordered up a huge truck load of gravel.  Bob and I were so happy that we danced a jig!  There was more that enough to gravel in our new  patio out our bedroom.  The Franklin stove had been sandblasted and repainted, but was a long way from the patio with rain soaked ground in between.  The stove weighs A LOT but with determination, a plywood road, 2 x 4's and a hand truck, "Voila!"  We laughed a lot and remembered Bob's daddy, Cotton.  He and Bob could move 3,000 lbs of dry cleaning equiptment with two pieces of galvanized pipe and a 2 x 4, 4,000 if they  had a skate board!

After the dinner dishes were done, we fixed a  hot cup of Yeagertee, (farmer's tea from Switzerland full of alcohol) bundled up and sat smugly, with Maggie squeezed between us, in front of a roaring fire! We were thoroughly proud of our accomplishments and happy to be proud graduates of the "Cotton Hunt  School" of moving heavy and odd shaped items with a pocket knife and  Q-tip!  It's good to receive your heart's desires even if they aren't run of the mill!

80. Precious Remembrance

I have been fortunate to have received many wonderful and lovely gifts over my lifetime, but few are as precious as the one I just had the pleasure of opening.  It arrived via priority mail on this rainy, rainy day.  When I saw the return address, I knew what it contained as I had the honor of being involved in a little of the design.  Our dear, dear friends Bruce and Dorothy Lacey made it all happen.  Bruce's cousin, Tamara,  is so very talented in so many ways primarily with copper foil glass windows and very, very special jewelry.  The jewelry is simply breathtaking and each piece is truly one of a kind.  Each piece is individually hand crafted and lovingly encases a tiny amount of your loved one's ashes.  I can't even begin to express how precious this remembrance of Tracy is to me.  There is one for our daughter Trisha and two small pieces that are not necklaces that we will give to Robby, Tracy's son, and our son Bud.  I've tried to photograph one of the pieces, they are both almost identical, which is amazing as glass is so fluid.  They measure about 1" x 1 1/2" and are placed in a ring of silver with the small silver tag that says "made with love." 

Please visit Tamara's web site and see for yourself the wonderful pieces she creates!
http://glassmajik.net

79. Shooting Stars

The other morning, or night, if you will, we set the clock for 4 a.m. and traipsed to the hot tub to watch the Leonid Meteor showers. They were to be visible in the eastern skies after moon set and before dawn.  We lived at the beach for so many years and there was always a cloud cover and city lights so we couldn't see them.  But out here the sky is usually pretty clear and it can get REALLY dark, so some years they are spectacular.  One year comes to mind about 10 years ago when we had just moved out here we were having a little dinner party. We moved out to the front porch in hopes of seeing a few shooting stars.  That year the event was earlier in the evening, around 10 p.m., as I recall.  As we searched the heavens a few smaller ones  were visible and then all of a sudden a most spectacular meteor arched across the sky right in front of us.  You could see pieces falling from behind and it was ever so bright.  It's beauty made us gasp.  We went back inside because we knew we couldn't top that.

This year they must have been lower on the horizon and behind the ridge of the canyon because we saw only a handful of what I would class as shooting stars. The  kind we see on any given clear night.  Shooting stars always make Bob a little saddened because he feels that something very special has ended before his eyes.  I've always had a sense of excitement and pleasure being able to look up at just the perfect time to witness the event.  I sometimes wonder how many other people on earth were able to look up  at just  that moment  and share it  with me...a  hundred, a thousand...or  just me.  We were just a little disappointed, but warm and happy we tumbled back into bed.  It certainly wasn't a waste of time, besides sometimes it's fun to make your own shooting stars!

78. Does Any One Have a Calendar?

Sunday was exquisite and just a little bit...interesting. The sun shone and life was fine!  Any where we go with Polly and Phil is always sure to be fun.  The Halcyon store fair was much larger than usual and boasted twenty or more booths complete with Tarot card readers and an Angel Channel-er.  Crystals, organic cosmetics, bird feeders, bat boxes and dark chocolate covered tiny pieces of brandy cheesecake!  That's right even down to the graham cracker crust.  Talk about labor intensive!  We ate hot dogs and drank lemonade that reminded me of my daddy's.  The lemonade was a mixture of lemon, orange and grapefruit juices they called a Twister. My daddy always added the juice of a couple of oranges when he made his summer pitcher full of lemonade on bar-b-que Sundays.  It makes a little sweeter, more like lemon-orangeade.  Very refreshing. 

Two artists really caught my interest.  Cynthia's larger framed pieces that aren't on her web site were particularly impressive. Her work is done in Femo clay.  She makes wonder buttons, too!
Crimson Heart Studios

Tuscan Road Designs
Holly had some nice designs in her
booth.  Her web site has a nice and
reasonable selection.

 After lunch we headed to Tiber Canyon to be wowed by truly fine glass blowing demonstrations and  artisans of a different variety and, of course, warm hugs and kisses from Will and Chris.  As we pulled into the canyon we began to be just a little nervous because we were able to get front row parking.  NEVER possible.  We parked and ventured out to the barn when Will met us in his grungies.  Lucy and Ethel burst out laughing!  Excitement had sucked us into it's vortex!  The classy affair is next weekend!!  One bad thing about being retired is you're never really sure what the date is and don't really care for the most part. The good part is that we will meet up with Fred and Ethel there next week end for more fun, food and friendship!  I was able to get my olive oil bottle refilled with the fabulous elixir from  the Lemon Olive Oil Goddess! 

Don't forget to check out Tiber Canyon !

77. Fun, Friendship and Olive Oil

What gorgeous weather we had today!  After we fed the Stowell's menagerie, we headed to town to get a few pieces of sod for our little back patio.  The quail fence is complete and painted now.  We wanted to have part of the area in grass and sod is so inexpensive and quick that we headed for Home Depot to buy a few pieces.  Some how while we were there a new table saw managed to follow us home.  Bob's old one died a horrible death and just to replace the motor was $150. plus tax and shipping.  That doesn't seem to make much sense.  So, there you go.  If I intend to get any more wood projects out of the old boy, we had no recourse but let the saw follow us.  I have no intention of letting him sit on his laurels.

We have a few pieces of sand stone for the remainder of the patio area.  Not sure what to put between the stones.  We've thought of gravel and there is a creeping moss that is pretty.  The Franklin stove that Polly and Phil hauled down here for us is coming along nicely.  Bob is sand blasting the rust off and painting it black.  It is a beauty and we are pleased as punch to have it.  We are anxious to try it out.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we are going to take the day off and go to a couple of local craft shows with our friends, Polly and Phil.  Not just ordinary run of the mill holiday craft shows though.  One is held at the Halcyon Store and Post Office, a metaphysical, crystal selling hot spot where you can buy just about anything along those lines.

 http://halcyonstore.com

Then we are off to Tiber Canyon.  This one is really a treat.  Their enormous barn was built with no, that's right, NO NAILS!  Will and Chris are artists in the true sense of the word.  They are glass blowers, metal workers and run a very successful olive oil business complete with the olive orchard.  They have a magnificent place for weddings and the occasional intimate concert under the amazing canopy of oak trees with the stage banked with huge eucalyptus.  Besides all of the above they still manage to keep a sense of simple beauty in everything with a large portion of "old hippie".   They are dear old friends from Bob's long ago glass blowing days. 

 

 http://tibercanyon.com

They have the most wonderful lemon olive oil and the mandarin orange is fabulous.  Do yourself a favor and buy a sampler of their four flavors.  It's $20 I think.  Check out the website.  You won't be sorry.  I love the lemon on a baked potato with nothing else but salt and pepper! OMG! Their craft  fair is an  amazing event  that  we try not to miss.  As you can see, they are not  the usual "craft fair" artists.  The day will be filled with fun, friendship, and food and if I'm lucky a bottle of lemon olive

oil just might follow ME home.

 Will and Chris

76. Feeding Time at the Zoo

The weather in our canyon is simply lovely this morning with that fall feeling in the air.  It would be hard to describe the feeling to someone from say, Saudi Arabia, who has never had the sense of pleasure that the cool breeze brings when it passes down the road through the oak trees.  I'm  sure they, like most of the middle east, have their sense of season's passing, but I'll bet it is mostly hot and hotter.  The fall breezes here fill you with the most delicious feeling of well-being and makes me particularly happy to be alive.

We are caring for our neighbor's, the Stowell's, menagerie for a couple of weeks.  Our Maggie loves it because we have to walk their dogs morning and evening and she gets to accompany us.  My thighs will thank me when it's all over because their road is like a mountain goat trail.  I know it's working because the climb isn't as difficult as it was when we started.  We love Maggie and are so happy to have her, but Rudy and Cheryl have ducks, chickens (two lovely black Crested Bantam),  two Basenji dogs, eight finch, fish, turtles and let's not forget about a bizillion humming bird feeders.  You can't miss feeding time at the zoo.

The Basenji are a breed from Africa and are called "barkless".  They can make sounds but don't bark

like a normal barking dog.  Newt and Maggie are very old so we keep our fingers crossed that they

stay the course until Rudy and Cheryl return. One of the finch went to meet it's maker last night.

They are old and inter-bred so we were told to expect that that might happen.  Still...I felt bad.  I wrote a short obituary on the calendar. Bob tends the out of doors animals and I take care of the rest.  I'm not crazy about cleaning out duck ponds and chicken pens, but Bob is ok with it, so, there you go!  It's all about team work.  So, we've got that going for us!  With lettuce that has seen better days and a couple of like apples from our crisper drawer in hand, we head out to tend to the masses.

75. OOOO, Those Visuals!

Sometimes life and economics interferes with everything.  It has been too long since my last post and for that I apologize.  We went to Pomona for the Engineer's exam which has a half day of orientation and two twelve hour days on concrete.  It becomes abundantly clear that we are aging or at the very least that we are really out of shape.  I'm choosing to think that we are out of shape.  I don't feel my age until we do something like that or, of course, when I catch myself in a mirror.  Then it comes crashing in on me how much I have aged.  I'm ok with aging I just don't like being reminded.

My skin is a dead give away.  I'm happy, really happy that I have lost thirty pounds, however, if I was wrinkly before I'm really wrinkly now.  It's a small price to pay for the increase in energy and the ability to get out of the recliner without having to rock back and forth to build up momentum.  I guess you have to take the bitter with the sweet and it feels soooooo good to slide on jeans that have hung on the closet door waiting patiently for me to get small enough and brave enough to try them one more time.  Close your eyes and feel pure bliss when the zipper just slides up without having to lay on the bed and suck it in and pray for success in zipping.

At this weeks  Weight Watcher's meeting the leader passed out a poem  penned by the ever prolific Anonymous and I think most every dieter could agree to.  I hope you get a good laugh like we all did.

                                                A Dieter's Prayer

                              Lord, grant me the strength that I may not fall
                              Into the clutches of cholesterol.
                              At polyunsaturates, I'll never mutter,
                              For the road to hell is paved with butter.
                              And cake is cursed and cream is awful
                              Satan is hiding in every waffle.
                              Beelzebub is a chocolate drop
                              Lucifer is a lollipop.
                              Teach me the evils of hollandaise,
                              Of pasta and gobs of mayonnaise.
                              And crisp fried chicken from the South...
                              Lord, if you love me, shut my mouth!

74. Trips, Old Times and an Itty Bitty Book Lite

It is a blustery day in Tepusquet Canyon, it isn't cold just windy.  The kind of day that usually blows the cover off of the hot tub and sends leaves scattering.  Bob is working on the fence for Maggie again, anxious to finish the job.  It is going to be so sweet with the little quail and their top knots running across the top.  I can hear the e-z up thumping against the house...just as I thought...Bob hurried in to ask for assistance in taking it down before it ended up in OZ. We definitely need to think about a patio cover of some inexpensive kind.  I don't want the plants that are used to protection and the bent willow furniture to experience the elements any more than necessary.

 Our excursion to Monterey was just great.  It is always a trip down memory lane for Bob as they lived there during the war.  His daddy, Cotton, was a cook in the Army and spent the whole time cooking on the base there, so  Bob and his mom could live nearby.  They lived for a while in the Sea Breeze Motel in Pacific Grove where the Monarch butterflies migrate.  It was a wonderful time for them in spite of the circumstances.  The Asilomar over looks Half Moon Bay where they would play with balsa airplanes.  The planes came with a big rubber band and a stick for launching  them into the wind and out to sea where the plane would catch an air current that would then return the it to their feet like a wind powered boomerang!  We passed where the little corner grocery store used to be where they bought their Christmas tree that made the cottage smell like sardines.  We marked the spot where Bob up-chucked a pear because of the flu.  He has never willingly eaten another pear. 

We ate our fill of clam chowder at Kokomo's on the pier and grinned later with warm pleasure as we walked arm in arm in the rain.  We drove by the house on Pearl St. with an ocean view that we almost bought for $18,000 and each gave a heavy sigh.  Memory Lane behind us we decided that we needed some mindless entertainment and the Asilomar doesn't even have radios in the rooms so we headed for the movie theater in Pacific Grove.  We saw RED the new Bruce Willis film.

http://www.moviefone.com/movie/red/10020540/main
If you love Bruce Willis like we do, you will really enjoy it.  Helen Mirren is just fabulous!  Check you brain at the door and sit back and love it!

Years ago my car was a turquoise and black 1955 Plymouth Belvedere. Probably my favorite car ever.  We were in Los Angeles and Bob said "Check it out, Sharon, someone likes your car."  I looked and Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were looking and giving us two thumbs up from the car next to us.  I sang all the way home.  What a treat.  I received many compliments on that car but none I remember as well as that one.

When we got home at 2:30 on Monday, we promptly lost power and it stayed lost for twelve hours.  Now we had already talked for two days without television so we had quite a time finding more to talk about.  We drove around till we found the PG&E repair trucks and solved the mystery of the lost power, went to town to get Maggie and an ice cream  and then hit the sack early to read by an Itty Bitty Book Lite and be very glad the bed was soft and the book was good.

 

73. Silver and Gold

In our opinion, the weather this time of year is near perfection.  The angle of the sun, the temperature, the crispness of the air makes it just marvelous.  An industrious gopher is having a blast cultivating the lower meadow.  

We have had some slight rain and the ground is very easy to turn now.  Bob is happy to feel better and is industrious, as well.  He is putting the quail fencing that used to surround the front porch that is now our laundry room and dining room out the back door for an enclosure for Maggie.  She usually goes everywhere with us, but on a rare occasion she needs a safe place to hang out.  She is quite the jumper, so it needed to be a foot taller than before to make sure she stays put.  We also don't want uninvited guests to get in.  It will be lovely when he is finished. 

The bent willow furniture needs a new home too, so I think we will put gravel and flagstone down where he is making the fence.  We can work around budget constraints with that rather than a concrete pad, plus I think it makes for a little more pizazz.  Right now we are using our ez-up for a cover just to keep the rain off.  A couple of boring beetles made holes in three of the legs on the furniture, so as soon as the leaves fall off the willow down by the creek we will repair them. 

Our wonderful friends, Polly and Phil, came to spend the night on Wednesday and brought us a fine cast iron Franklin stove for the patio.  One of their neighbors had cast it aside and they rescued it.  After contemplation Polly decided it didn't suit her lovely garden's plan and thought of us.  We are delighted to be the recipient of such a fine item.  They hauled it down to us when they came along with a beautiful floral arrangement for my natal day.  We talked and ate and drank and talked and ate and drank the night away.  We have been friends for so long and are getting so old and forgetful that we can tell the same stories and laugh like we have never heard it before.  It is marvelous to have friends like that.  The safety of old friends is a wonderful gift, friends you can tell your deepest, darkest secrets to and know they will be in safe keeping, even if because of declining memory.  In Brownies the girls were taught to "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver the other gold." We are truly blessed.

72. Back Under the Covers.

When the dentist talks about a "dry socket" the next time I have a tooth pulled, you can be sure I will have a healthier respect for his instructions.  I chose to have a tooth extracted (highly unlike me, I want to go to my "Celestial Fandango" with as many of my own teeth as possible) because it was very slanted and was causing problems with my tongue.  Paul told me to keep the gauze pack in place for two hours with pressure.  I am so very literal that I followed the instructions to the minute.  The gauze looked like I thought it should when I finally tossed it and my lunch was half of a Costco frozen yogurt.  All things seemed well until about seven that evening when the rest of the local wore off.  Good Grief!!! That was eight days ago and it is still unbelievably painful!  I have taken so much pain medication that now it feels like someone has punched me in the gut.  My darling sweet dentist says it will last like this until the gum grows back over the gaping hole.  Bob says it doesn't look gaping...but what does he know?!  At any rate, I'm not worth a darn.  Ice packs, heating pads...you would think that I just had major surgery.

I feel like such a baby!  I've gone outside and tried yard work and fresh air; shopping doesn't even sound appealing.  I have two ten dollar coupons for Kohl's and I don't even feel like going there.  This is serious, really serious.  Free stuff doesn't even sound like fun.  At least last night it didn't wake me up at three a.m., so that must mean progress.  I've run out of soft foods to fix and Bob's not fond of soup.  He never complains, but always welcomes a grilled cheese, corn bread or biscuits as an accompaniment.

I knew I should have just put up with the weird enlarged gland in my tongue.  Nerve damage deterred me from having it removed instead of the tooth.  Only time will tell if I made the right decision.  Children in China are starving and I'm whining about a dry socket.  I guess it is all perspective isn't it.  At least this will eventually get better.  So, now I've put it in perspective and I feel better already, or is it just that the pain meds have kicked in.  I think I'll go back to bed with Maggie and pull the covers over my head, that always makes me feel better.

71. All We Need is the Tutu!

Tonight is Maggie's debut at the Kennel Club meeting.  She  is all scrubbed and smelling sweetly.  She is so funny, when she sees water running in the kitchen sink she stays  about ten feet away.  If I move toward her she moves an equal distance back.  It's just a little game we play.  I always win, but still she tries to evade the inevitable.  Yet when we get into the shower she sticks her head in like "Gee, that looks like fun."  She has no mental image of her in the shower, just us...the kitchen sink?  That's a different story.

A vet on television the other day said when bathing a dog to keep them from shaking to put your hand gently around their muzzle.  Apparently the shake starts from the nose.  Well, it's not entirely foolproof.  She still shook, just not as hard.  Maybe I wasn't quite quick enough.  The vet also said that seventy percent of dog owners sleep with their dog.  I'll bet the other thirty percent have Great Danes or Wolf Hounds and the like.  Bathing the animal once a week really helps reduce dog dander, the cause of most pet allergies.  Given the opportunity, Maggie would definitely sleep with us, but we sleep in a double bed and she's not getting my third.  What Bob does with his two-thirds is up to him and he's not good at sharing much of anything.

At the Kennel Club meeting next month the members present vote and then we can start taking Maggie to senior centers, etc for training.  We are looking forward to participating in a couple of visits a month.  There are about nine opportunities a month for involvement so I'm sure we can find a couple that suit us.  Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara has a children's wing that might like some entertainment, but first I want to make her a pink tutu.  She has a tiara.  I know it's a little bit crazy but life is short and getting shorter all the time and it's time for a little pay back and nothing says fun like a twirling Cocker in a pink tutu and tiara.

70. Who Needs Electricity!

We awoke this morning to a sweet, cool breeze and no electricity.  This happens periodically and I suppose with more frequency than it does in town.  When it happens here, however, that means we don't even have water because of the electric pump on the well.  We can't even have our one cup of morning coffee.  

Oh, that's not entirely true, we could pretend we were camping and go to the motor home and fix it.  That's why we keep it, really, we don't camp much since we have stopped doing art shows.  It was a financial life saver then though.  If we are ever evacuated again it would come in handy, as long as we remember to keep the battery charged.  The only time we have been told to leave the canyon we only had thirty minutes and of course, the battery was dead.  Lesson learned!

Certainly it is a wonderful earthquake emergency kit to the tenth power.  Trisha used to use it for her little cabin when she visited from Switzerland until she found out that we have mice occasionally.  Hello...we live in the country.  Guess it never occurred to her.  She would really stop visiting altogether if she found out that Maggie cornered a tarantula in the spare bedroom a couple of months ago.  

We've only seen...maybe three of the hairy little things, but one would be in the bedroom.  They are harmless but just a little alarming I have to admit.  Bob captured it with a kitchen towel as it pretended to be invisible and put it gently in the flower bed.  Maggie is always so proud when she corners something.  She is like Lassie when Timmy fell in the well, not happy until you come and see what she has discovered.  I feel very comfortable that she would wake us if anything untoward were to happen in the night.  Things out of the ordinary get her attention and she lets you know.  She doesn't normally bark so we always seek her out.

The electricity issue wasn't expected to be resolved until about nine-thirty so we decided a breakfast run was in order.  It's something we rarely do because of the seventeen mile drive but what with no electricity and all it just seemed the thing to do.  We tried a newer place and boy was it good.  Tri-tip and eggs for $5.95!  We will definitely go back there.  Isn't it fun to do something out of the ordinary, get a little crazy and just jump in the car, no make-up just a comb through the hair and a smile.  It was rejuvenating and just felt plain good.  Now I'm going to enlist Bob's help and go out and plant the new gardenia in the corner between the water heater closet and the hot tub.  Keep your fingers crossed, it will need all the help it can get! 

69. Slip Sliding Away...

This morning it is gray and drizzly out my living room window.  It was so hot for a while that it is rather pleasant to have things rinsed off and cool.  I'm trying to teach myself to enjoy the day no matter what the weather, to try to be glad when it is hot because the plants will grow and I can squirt to my heart's content early in the morning or after dinner when there is a little breeze.  Then be glad when it's cool and drippy so I can stay inside and tackle a chore like a closet or cabinet, while a big pot of chili simmers on the stove. 

You might guess that I have just returned from a visit with my dad.  I guess when I visit him I think a lot about trying to enjoy each day and not miss something because I'm cranky for no good reason.  As he slowly goes slip sliding away, the reasons to pay attention to each and every day become more apparent.  He doesn't even sit outside to count the cars that go in and out of the medical building parking lot across the street anymore.  It's sad when you sink to that level of entertainment, sad to me at any rate.  Six months ago he was still an avid Soduko fan and really loved 1000 piece jig-saw puzzles.  He struggles to do 300 pieces now and I'm too much like an ostrich to ask about the Soduko.  He did manage to play Bingo on Tuesday and that made my sister, Becky, and I happy. 

Life has zigs and zags and ups and downs and we have to accept our fate.  It's the in between's of all those zig, zag, up and down times we have to remember to simply enjoy.  A little gay abandon should be thrown in amongst it all and what would be wrong with some crazy squealing?  You know the kind that they show girls doing in the movies when something really exciting happens to one of them.  Let's not be shy with our excitement and pleasure in the little things in life.  My daddy always told me not to act so silly and be lady-like...I'm choosing to believe he was very, very wrong.

Taken two or three years ago.                                         

68. Simply for the Birds.

It's still scorching hot here today.  The bird bath caught my eye and boy did it need attention!  It hadn't been painted for quite a long time now and today was the day!  Bob put a wire brush  on the drill for me and I gave it the once over.  A good douse of muriatic acid to remove the calcium, rinse, rinse, rinse and it's ready for paint.  I chose a nice teal color for the bowl and the outside  is a cream color.  It's not a fancy bird bath, only a concrete mold.  It was given to me by my father-in-law, Cotton, one of the sweetest men in the whole world.  He thought I hung the moon and didn't mind telling me so.  So even if it's plain and occasionally needs a paint job, it will always have a special place in the yard right outside the window.  There we can watch the birds big and small drop by to have a bath and a drink and I can be reminded that I hung the moon.