12 Oakdale

Amazing how difficult it was to find empty time on all of our calendars to be able to schedule a visit to see Jamey and April. I decided short was better than none, so we flew up Sunday morning and returned Tuesday afternoon. As an experiment, I bought Main Cabin tickets rather than Comfort + for our 2 hour Delta flight. Yes, we do need those extra 3”.  The theme of the trip turned out to be Art and Exercise. Jamey and April met us at the airport. They live .3 miles from a Metro station. I had brought our refillable cards I’d stashed after our last visit, so we added money at the airport, rode 2 stops and walked to their Alexandria townhouse.Their 4-story townhouse. We left our suitcase*, then walked to lunch at a wine bar in Georgetown, then a walk through the colonial section, admiring all the wonderfully maintained old homes. It’s spring in Washington. The azaleas, clematis, and other flowers are at their peak. We rested back at the townhouse (stairs), then a short walk to dinne...

I can blame some of it on the rotten colds we brought back from California. We were coughing and wheezing for a week, then bone-tired for another. So I’m sure a lot of our crabbiness was due to feeling lousy. Some. However, more than half was from my gradually loosing my ability to be patient, and Grant’s increasingly being annoying. Or perhaps he hasn’t changed, and I’ve just lost way more patience than I’d thought. Plus, I’m feeling so isolated and lonely, which is realistic, because I am isolated and lonely. After living in Central Florida almost 4 years, we are making no friends, barely any acquaintances, and I’m discouraged about that ever happening. This is an insulated community. Nice people, but people who have lived here all their lives. People whose children and grandchildren live here. They have their tribes. In any case, a knockdown drag-out fight after what one would consider a small snippy exchange, but what was probably a cover for all the pent up emotions we both have b...

 A list of what I moved out of our house; stuff I let in; the things I considered, fondled, thought about, yet didn’t allow to join our household, at least so far; and items replaced. OUT: 01/5: Returned Trtl travel pillow to Amazon. Just didn’t quite fit, and why do I need something I’ll likely leave on an airplane like all the others I’ve bought? I sleep just fine without it. $51.11 back. 01/6: Christmas decorations. Although they are in cardboard boxes sitting on shelves in the garage for donation in October, I culled a whole big tote of decorations we haven’t used since we left Fort Lauderdale. 01/7: Red exercise bands left from PT that have sat, unused, on my nightstand for a year. To the trash. I’ll get new if ever needed. 01/23: Returned small messenger bag. Cute, however I couldn’t get my hand easily into the zippered opening. $89.90-$6 USPS return shipping. 01/28: Eight IKEA chairs out of our garage to Stephanie’s. New Year’s Eve tiara missing the “New”, found when we live...

The Windermere Garden Club organized a field trip to Southern Hill Farms in Clermont. For $10, we would get our choice of a sunflower or vase of nasturtiums, a farm tour, and a blueberry mimosa or soda. Sounded like an opportunity to get to know club members while visiting a you-pick blueberry farm, plus have a fun drink. I signed Grant and me up. We dropped Clara at school and headed west. Rain threatened, but was supposed to hold off until afternoon. I’d brought my rain jacket just in case. Lake County is rolling sand hills, I think scrub oak areas originally. Almost all of the citrus is gone, replaced by blueberry farms and, increasingly, housing. Barely a tree in sight. Which means the winds came screaming down the plains. Good thing I’d brought my jacket, since it was fairly cool. Dang, I left my jacket at home.  In addition to picking blueberries, visitors can pick vegetables, strawberries, and flowers. There is a huge pole barn with food trucks and seating for several hundre...

I had saved 1 pair of eclipse viewing glasses from our trip to Seattle in 2017, and I knew where they were, so at 2:30 I walked out to see how the eclipse was progressing. We were in a 57% coverage area, and amazingly, our skies were clear.  For a few minutes a couple of months ago, I had considered flying to Texas to be in the path of totality, but we seem to be so busy that even a short trip was more than I could add to the calendar. Now I was glad I hadn’t bothered to arrange one. We’d seen the total eclipse 6 years ago, and while interesting, I wasn’t overwhelmed. I had been amazed how even the tree leaves’ shadows showed the moon moving across the sun.  This time, standing in our road with Grant and our neighbor, we watched the leaves make the eclipse shadows again. It was fun showing the 3 little girls who love across the street how they could look down to see the sun’s effect. I taught them to cross their fingers to make shadows too. The school aged ones had been given ...

We flew the red eye home Thursday morning, landing just a few hours after Spaulding and Molly arrived with Teddy. They were in town for the weekend to celebrate Randy’s wedding. Stephanie picked them up at the airport, and they were all asleep when we got home. With our colds, we were reluctant to hug when they woke up and had to avoid cuddling with Teddy, just admiring the cutie from afar. Grant took Spaulding to pick up a rental car while I slept, then Molly shopped for food to cook. Teddy’s gut is extremely sensitive. Since he is only breastfed, she is on a non-dairy, non-gluten, non- processed foods, non-some other stuff diet to help soothe his tummy. Brava Molly, and it seemed like the regime would be a good one for most all of us to follow. Very healthy. However, it means she really cannot eat out, hence she cooked all her meals for the weekend at our house before they moved to the B&B in Howey in the Hills with the rest of the wedding party. She planned to carry little conta...

What I assumed to be allergies while we were in California turned out to be colds. Both Bella and Remi were coughing but with no other symptoms. Either they were sick, or maybe we picked up a bug from the flight attendant on our airport shuffle who was complaining of a head cold. I wanted to say, “Lady, no one wants to hear that. Complain of a sinus infection, if you have to say anything.”  In any case, my sinuses filled up, and I joined the TB ward brigade, hacking and wheezing away. On Tuesday, after Ryan’s overnight shift, we drove out to Anza Borrego State Park, a 90 minute drive up and over the mountains. Going there and coming back just about did me in. A bunch of the snot in my nose drained down to my stomach, so in addition to my sinus headache, I was nauseous. Delightful.  But it was worth it. The rocky scenery looks like pebbles in a stream, but house-sized. I guess the remnants of glacial action? We saw a wild turkey crossing the road on the way. The desert flowers ...

At o’dark hundred on Tuesday, we drove to our parking space at the Marriott to catch the hotel limo to the airport. Our 7:00 flight was delayed about an hour, while a mechanic fixed something or other. Slightly nerve racking since Alaska Air had a door come off inflight within the past month, then a wheel fell off another Boeing plane. I guess other people weren’t as sanguine as we were, since the plane was only 1/4 full. Grant and I each had an empty row. Would that the airline would lower its prices. I plan to watch to see if I can get some cheap flights. This time was our annual companion flies for $99 plus $37.63 of taxes.  I'd used previous years companion flight to go to Calgary for our Rocky Mountain train trip and Evelyn’s wedding. Going to California was the best I could do before the deadline to use the coupon came up. Next year, I plan to go to Fairbanks and see the northern lights. Or Hawaii, if the Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines goes through by then. Our project this vis...