12 Oakdale

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 ...

According to our dear leader, we have “a memorandum of understanding” about the war, I mean little excursion, in Iran. Details TBD. Please let that mean our people are coming home. Here we are sweltering. For some reason, I’m still getting heat alerts for Miami-Dade, but all good since they remind me to take care. I’ve started mixing electrolytes in my water, (leftover trial packets from races last year) which even half strength still tastes terrible. One was chocolate which was a disgusting surprise. The print is very small on those packets! I’m also cut back on my work time. Slower progress but seems necessary. My eyes get blurry if I do too much. Last week was National Garden Week, as proclaimed by the National Garden Clubs. Always the first full week in June, obviously a northern idea. Van, 2nd VP of Bloom and Grow, organized tours at 4 of our club gardens and 1 private home. Grant and I went to 4. Danged hot, even in the shade. Tuesday morning, we rescued the young red shouldered ...