12 Oakdale

Our Toyota Tacoma arrived and is in our garage. Sebastian called yesterday mid-morning. Could we come pick it up, and, of course, pay for it? Absolutely, if we could be guaranteed to be finished by 2:00, because our screen guy Mike was finally coming to fix pool screen panels which had blown in during a cold front 2 weeks ago. He was supposed to come Friday, but bad weather earlier in the week had messed up his schedule. Saturday, he ran late. Finally, Monday for sure. We’ve had a couple of birds fly in, which, thank goodness, were able to find their ways back out. Not so lucky were the 10+ butterflies who died before finding the huge opening they’d managed to fly in through. I’ve been able to grab a couple and throw them out. The rest avoided my trying to guide them out with our long handled pool skimmed. They now are displayed with other bugs, wasp nests, snake eggs, etc I’ve found in the yard this year. My deadline is not a problem. Should be quick in and out. We were paying cash, p...

The sharp pain in my left shoulder is due to my shoulder capsule being inflamed rather than a rotator cuff tear, so that was good news. According to Kirsten, my physical therapist, this can be alleviated with stretching and exercise. She stretches; I exercise. At home, I have an app to follow which Kirsten can monitor and change remotely. Every time I use it I can send a report and get a virtual gold star.  This was problematic while cabin camping at Myakka River State Park this week because our Sprint phones have no bars in most of the park. I exercised at the cabin, then when I was near the concession stand’s WiF, I ran the app to get credit.  The previous Friday we went to a Toyota dealer to look at Tacoma pickups. I wanted to see if the extended cab rear seats would fit Clara. Not hardly. They are smaller than airplane jump seats for the flight attendants. So crew cab for us. There were 2 2018’s on the lot with some 2021 trickling in over the next few months. A computer ch...

Our flight home was as uneventful as the one out, although looking out the plane’s window, I was dismayed to see how much we humans have spread all over the desert. Is it even worth the effort to plant natives when developers just scrape entire areas off to build new homes? It has been ever this, because it’s so much cheaper than clearing individual lots. That’s what they did at the lot for the house my father built in Naples in 1959. That’s what they are still doing now all over Florida, and, I assume, the rest of the country. No different than slash and burn in the Amazon. When Mary picked us up and when we said goodbye, I realized that as much as I adore our grandchildren, who I have missed is my daughter. I enjoy her company so much. Now Spaulding has taken a job in Utah, so he also will be too far away for a weekend visit. Plus Stephanie has been called back to work in her Lakeland office, which is crazy since her working on the computer from home has been fine for the last 9 mont...

Now I know why people use raised garden beds rather than in-ground plots: rocks! I’ve spent hours clearing weeds from Mary’s backyard to get ready for paths and planting areas. Often I can’t get the shovel more than 1/2” before hitting rocks. Big rocks, little rocks, smooth rocks, rough rocks. I will never complain about my Saint Augustine grass and its matted roots again. Mary has dug a 10’ x 40’ strip to have steppingstones, mulch, and a little bridge over a dry stream bed. She’s found enough nice rocks to line the stream plus many, many more that she hasn’t decided what to do with. Perhaps a stone wall. Yesterday, Grant spent at least 2 hours digging the hole for the dwarf mandarin. He and Ryan also went to Home Depot and bought a circular saw to cut the boards for garden beds. I had already used 12’ pressure-treated boards for the first one, but they had warped so badly, the concrete end stones wouldn’t hold in place. By cutting them to 8’, we hoped we could use the straighter part...

We dyed eggs and made Rice Krispie treats with spring pastel colored sprinkles. Grant grilled butterflied lamb and served it with asparagus and smashed potatoes. Bella and I had rolled out and cut cookie dough that Mary mixed up. We were going to frost and decorate the bunny, chick and egg-shaped cookies, but we ate them before that happened. Best of all, I didn’t have to help the Easter Bunny hide eggs, never a parental duty I particularly enjoyed. In Fort Lauderdale, we hid 100+ eggs for the kids to find.  Nowadays, the eggs are all plastic, but when I was a child, my mother started about a month early and blew eggs which we dyed for decorations, in addition to a couple of dozen hard boiled eggs. These were hidden throughout the house along with some individually wrapped marshmallow eggs. Inevitably, an egg or two wouldn’t be found in the mad hunt Sunday morning. Eventually, our dog Bootsie would find and eat the missed ones, including shells or wrappers.  When our children ...