12 Oakdale

Forty-eight hours after my alarm was set for 3:00 Monday morning, we were back in bed, exhausted. We had arisen (I always sleep badly before an early plane trip), flown to Las Vegas, driven to Alamo, Nevada, toured Michel Heizer’s City , and returned home on the red-eye, to collapse in bed exactly 48 hours later. To break it down, and process all that: the first part of the trip was our usual get out of bed at o’dark hundred, dress, maybe eat, drive to the Marriott to park our car, shuttle to MCO, fly to wherever. We usually do this because flights are cheaper before 9:00 AM and we get a full day at our destination, especially if we head west to new time zones.  Then it got weird, not just because we were about an hour’s drive east of Area 51, home of the famous UFOs. For someone like me used to subtropical foliage and now central Florida’s coverage of green, the starkness of the scrub north of Las Vegas seems so barren. Plus no cell service. I definitely felt I was in a twilight z...

For the past couple of days, Grant and I have been hearing a chirping sound. He was convinced it was crickets, but since we’d heard it in the car, I knew it was something from his phone. Every time I’d hear it, I’d try to find an alert. No luck. He still went with crickets. I countered with my car argument. Perhaps it was some sort of warning from his hearing aids, like those expensive babies were in their death throes. He turned them off. We heard the cricket sound. What could it be? We sat down to watch a movie on TV, and he took something out of his pocket that he’d found recently on a morning walk. I don’t know what it is from, but when I switched it on, voila, our cricket. I am adding it to my pile of found objects. We are so nuts. I have been teaching the oldest little girl across the street, Vera, how to crochet. I encouraged her mom to buy a Woobles kit even though we both think they are pricey. However, the kit does have everything, including videos with step by step instructi...

I was wrong that on our country’s 250 birthday, our dear leader would announce the end of his little excursion in Iran. I guess a good thing I hadn’t laid any money out in the “predictions” market. He seems to have forgotten we are even involved there. Certainly the newspapers have dropped all updates below the fold. We started the day at the annual pancake breakfast at Town Hall, graciously put on by the Town of Windermere, his honor the mayor flipping the pancakes. All free, however the Police Foundation did take donations for the mimosas they were pouring. We were delighted to support them. I took my thin papered sketch book to practice sketching in public. Following an Urban Sketchers commandment to always finish a sketch, I used my water brush to add color when I got home. With that non-nutritionally dense start, we were ready for the day. I had already blanched and peeled 20 peaches: 12 for the cobbler, then cut the rest up for the freezer. That was about half of the Georgia Peac...

After trying every single time one was offered, I finally nabbed a reservation at Michael Heizer’s land art work City. Sunrise, July 21, which means we will meet our transportation at 3:45 AM. Ouch. At least it will be cool. I immediately made flight, car rental, and motel bookings for a 2 day trip. We are crazy. This weekend, Patten took Brightline up, bringing 2 mangos (first crop ever) from his tree. He made us daiquiris to celebrate Father’s Day and Grant’s 83rd birthday. Stephanie joined us for lunch on Sunday, bringing a delicious chocolate cake.  Clara painted flowers on my rain barrel, and I channeled Dad, creating a stand for it from wood I already had and painting it with the purple paint left from our back door. Only expense was $8 for white spray paint, which Clara covered with brown, and the $20 tip I gave Rodrigo for installing the rain chain ($150 from Wayfair). In 2022, he had replaced the lanai gutter so it came out through the screen (Terry from Integrity Screens ...

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Dang, GPT-Chat and I are getting good at planning trips. I give the basic info, and it organizes it. This time was a trip to New York to see Maya Rudolph in Oh Mary!  before her turn at lead ended July 2nd. We agreed end that a Costco vacation was the most economical, or at least what I wanted. First class Delta flight Wednesday morning at o’dark hundred to La Guardia, private car to Martinique Hotel, then reverse on Friday evening. Wednesday went off without a hitch. The flight was easy, breakfast good. I had a potato frittata, Grant the salmon plate and a Bloody Mary. A representative from My Sedan met us at the welcome desk at La Guardia and took us to our car. A long, slow drive in rush hour to the city and our hotel. We left our bags with the bellhop rather than paying $75 for early check in. First up was walking the High Line which has really changed since we visited in 2018. Bigger trees, much more seating, and lots and lots of people. Since the World Cup is happening, many ...