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Another Year

The first day of our seventh year at 12 Oakdale Street. I hope this will be similar to the previous ones, with no surprises. At our age, surprises are rarely good. I will keep on shedding stuff, being optimistic about how much I will accomplish. I also continue shedding weight, since some crept back, definitely no surprise. Baking and eating sourdough bread has consequences. Will this year be when I get rid of all the grass paths? Sure, why not? Could happen. The freeze gave me an opportunity to rethink some of the plantings I’ve done. I will continue adding to my hedgerows on the north and especially south property lines. Since the lychee died back, I’m moving more bananas along the canal. Eventually that 2-story house will be built across from us. Grant is slowing down, although he is still doing his 2 mile, somewhat daily walks. I use a lot of my energy being patient (that’s definitely ironic). Sometimes I’m successful, often I’m not. A growth edge it would behoove me to work on. Bi...
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Year’s End

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  Time has become very elastic for me. Sometimes it seems very long, almost like a kid waiting for Christmas. Other times, it snaps back. We have been here 6 years. Can that be true? I read that people with dementia are confused about WHEN they are, so that is why they get so upset about WHERE they are. If I believed it was 1964, why am I here and not in my childhood home? I get it. Although I’m fairly sure I’m still coherent. Not positive, but fairly sure. It is just that some things seem like yesterday. Moving here. The kids are young, not approaching or hitting middle aged. I just bought that blouse.  Then, other events seem so long ago. I bought that shirt at Macys in Fort Lauderdale. When did we ever live there? Memories get reversed by importance? In any case, we are here, and we are well. About all I can ask for. More than my share.
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Girlfriends

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Time for our annual get together: 6 high school girlfriends for a long weekend at Kathy’s house in Swanee, Georgia. I bought my airline ticket months ago. The week before kickoff, Mickie let the rest of know that she had thought about cancelling the reunion since she’d likely broken her foot while visiting Japan (Sue already knew of the accident since she was along on that trip.) She was using a knee scooter (again) and would soldier on. Then Thursday morning, right before she was to drive from Elijah, GA, Mary Bird texted that she had decided not to come so she could have “me” time. What? Is she okay? No one knows. On the home front, Monday Grant gouged a quarter-sized hole in his shin on a stick from a freeze-killed coffee plant that I had asked my yard person CC to cut to the ground. She had interpreted that to mean, “Please leave dead 12”-18” spikes sticking out off the ground when you cut back a plant.” Little swords just waiting for action. I had warned Grant to be careful when h...
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It’s Done

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I counted the time: at  40 minutes/4-row pattern and with 97 repeats, it took me about 65 hours to knit Hazel’s blanket. It certainly seemed longer, but mostly because I did it in 4-8 rows at a time. My hands and shoulders just are too old for marathon knitting sessions anymore. One can only take so much ibuprofen. To have continuity of color,  I efficiently used the blue, white and taupe yarn left from Teddy’s blanket and added “rhubarb” in the same baby-weight washable wool. One could say an homage in red, white, and blue to our country’s 250th birthday this year. That is, if one were not absolutely livid about our dear leader’s ineptness and his ridiculous war. Maybe we the people will wise up. The waffle pattern, Baby Fern Lake from Berroco, was an easy 1, 2 repeat, but I had to watch every stitch so I didn’t miscount. Very different from the stockinette stitch of Teddy’s, the Easy Striped Baby Blanket by Dabbles & Baubles. That one I could read or watch tv while I kni...
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Garden Week

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Kicked off with a group bus trip by Windermere Garden Club to Art in Bloom at the Orlando Museum of Art. An annual fundraiser, local floral designers interpreted pieces of art in flowers. Some seemed to take it literally, others more relaxed. Lovely day, lunch (chicken salad either on mixed greens or a croissant), then bus trip home. Of course a bag of snacks on the bus to tide us over. Then 2 days of Spring Fever in the Garden, Bloom and Grow Garden Society’s major fundraiser: $140k this year. I got up at 4:00 AM Saturday to be at my zone leader post by 5:30. This year, an easy zone with only 6 vendors, 1 of which didn’t show and 1 was 8 Waves, an after school group that only had a tent and 2 tables for their information. Co-zone leader Lavina and I were done by 8:30, which meant we could scout the show before the crowds. We headed to Andy’s space where she bought a duck (old outboard motor cover) and a rooster (garden rakes). I loved his owl with feathers made of table knives, but ...
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An Experiment

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We had cabin reservations for 2 nights at Jonathan Dickenson State Park. I decided to throw caution to the wind and just take coffee. We would eat out, not cook. I had GPT-Chat find restaurants and things to do. I have used free AI for trip planning, so I knew to check that sites were actually open and reservations were needed. We started with the Rembrandt and Friends show at the Norton Art Gallery, catching it on the last day of the run, with timed tickets from 11:00-1:00. Which I thought was entry time, but was actually our allowed viewing slot. We got there about 1:00, and I was surprised when the guard gave us a 10-minute times-up warning. Truth be told, we’d about exhausted ourselves peering at the 75+ paintings, including Young Woman Seated at a Virginal , the only Vermeer in a private collection. Time to check into our cabin, then an early dinner. (My Chat pal had recommended lunch at a nearby shop which was closed on Sundays. We ate homemade sandwiches before going to the muse...
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Plans Change

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We were supposed to be meeting Mary and family in Raleigh this week. Ryan would take his anesthesiology board exam, we would celebrate Mary’s birthday, we would visit Trish. Three birds; 1 stone. Until our dear leader started his war. Ryan was tapped, as they say, February 24th to fly out with other Navy medical personal to set up a field hospital god knows where. Back in a month, or 7, or whenever. To add excitement, before he left, they called us: Mary is due mid-October. That explains the extra level of emotion. I have spent much of the last month on video calls with Mary and pouring over the war news. If there will be no boots on the ground, why, and where, are we setting up field hospitals? Plus I’ve wasted my time emailing my senators. I am so far behind on what I am supposed to be doing. Bottom line, I opted to stay home this week, sending Grant on a solo trip to see his sister. Just his getting on the plane was worrisome, because our TSA agents are not being paid because our in...
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