12 Oakdale

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 ...

Turns out the 40+-year-old VHS player does work, and I found a store-bought tape to try. Picture quality not great, but we plunged ahead. Unfortunately, the 2nd cassette would not eject. I am pretty sure we pushed buttons faster than that analog machine could handle. After watching  many YouTubes, we figured how to take the cover off and remove the stuck cassette. Unfortunately, it meant cutting the tape, but there were more to try. Which we did without putting the cover back on so we could watch what was happening. Play, rewind, fast forward all worked, but it was obvious my treasured tapes of Stephanie as a baby, my learning to wind sail, kids’ birthday parties, etc were all too damaged to keep.  I had hoped to play them on the big tv and take some short shots with our phones. No one wants the hours and hours we recorded when having a video camera was a novelty. Sigh, I accepted the reality. To the trash.  Years ago, I had transferred some of the tapes to a thumb drive....

I find it takes me at least a day to recover (somewhat) from a trip. I had paid for upgrades to first class, $221 each, for our red eye home. Although it was nice to have dinner, I wasn’t impressed. Perhaps there was a footrest I could figure out, but I have slept better in the narrower seats in premium. Meh. We slept most of the morning, had lunch, then napped. By the next day, I was somewhat myself. Not quite on East Coast time, but getting there. Now it’s catch up time. Yard: I must take down the lychee and get the bananas planted across the canal-side in its place. They are starting to work on the opposite lot, and I want my privacy plants up and tall. I’ll plant more elderberry at the water’s edge, and clear out around the swamp maples and cypress, which are natives. But first, bananas. I harvested my onions: Texas Sweets, Red Creole, and Texas Early Whites. I’m pleased with the crop. Next year, I hope to do it a little earlier, so I can braid the tops. Since I hadn’t dug up all t...