12 Oakdale

We turned the air conditioning off yesterday. Day temperatures under 78°; nights in the low 70s. However, the humidity is running at about 94%. The AC may get turned back on. With it being less hot, I’ve been able to shift my gardening to later in the morning, giving me time to paint first. Better for my brain and energy level. I’ve also started knocking off some of the projects I’ve been avoiding,  First up was making the buttonholes in the Halloween shirt Stephanie made for Kyle. That began with a search for the shirt, which I remembered as a cream color, but was actually black. Overlooked several times in the hunt, but eventually found in one of my craft stashes. Next was reading the online manual to re-learn how to use the automatic buttonholes on Steph’s machine. Neither she or I could find the right pressure foot, but luckily she has inherited another machine which had one. For the life of me, I could not get the machine’s buttonhole lever to stay down, and the computer would...

Sunday, Mary and Ryan left at o’dark hundred so we said goodbye the night before. Never long enough. Up at my usual 5:00, I did my morning rounds of make coffee, feed cat, exercise. Then fill bird feeders. No watering, because the sprinklers run Sunday mornings. At 6:45, after making my daily little drawing, I went to the grocery store to stock the larder for Grant. He will be on his own for the first time since his fall. The drive began in heavy rain, which we desperately need, but couldn’t it wait just another hour? The northbound Turnpike was shut down 20 miles into my trip, so Google rerouted me through Mineola, sending me through a part of central Florida new to me. Back on the Turnpike, just as the rain stopped, I had to drive through a deep puddle in a construction area, which threw mud up on my freshly washed and now rained upon car. It has mud streaks all over. And of course, no more rain predicted for the week. I’d made a PBJ to eat when I got to S...

A quick trip to Fort Lauderdale to lunch with B. She is half way through 6 courses of chemo for ovarian cancer. She claims she fells good, with the usual side effect of hair loss, which is an excuse to wear absolutely charming hats. The infusions are 3 weeks apart, so Sunday was the day our schedules meshed. Patten and Ryann were using their pasta roller/cutter for the first time. Fettuccine for the mussels with nduja sauce (Grant was disappointed we weren’t eating with them) and capellini for later. Patten has a seal-a-meal which he uses for all things, including bait. He was complaining how long it takes to clean out the fish parts. A Christmas or birthday present idea to be tucked away.  We spent the night with Kristine since they now have roommate Phil for the next few months. For breakfast, I’d hoped to indulge with cinnamon rolls at Sticky Buns in Deerfield, but I was saved because they are closed Mondays. Dunkin breakfast sandwiches instead. Healthier, but not as much fun. I...

I hesitated to get on the scale. Yes, the 5 pounds I gained on our Christmas market cruise have been joined by new friends from our 4 days of cabin camping. Too much wine, desserts, and hearty breakfasts. My only consolation is the joy I had spending time with friends. This year we (Kristine, Diane and David, Donna and Bob, Scott, and us) were joined by Deb and Rob, Paige, Scott’s daughter Katie, and visited each day by Tina and Ken, members of themUU church when Steph and Mary were in elementary school. Grant and I mostly lazier around (why I’m not shocked about my weight gain). One day, the others took the glass-bottomed boat ride. This year, no manatees. They had already left the river for summer digs. Another morning, the healthier ones rented kayaks. I’d thought about joining them when the option was just a float downstream. When they decided to take a shorter trip that involved paddling back upstream, I opted out. My shoulders just aren’t strong enough for that. next year? I did ...

After a 5 year hiatus, I’m in Atlanta at a reunion with my high school girlfriends. We meet at Kathy’s house north of Atlanta. Sitting and talking is the agenda for the weekend, with 1 dinner out. In previous years, we who flew in, took Marta to the Avondale station to meet our friends. Next stop was the Dekalb Farmers Market, actually a big warehouse-sized grocery store. Many unusual vegetables, lovely fish and meat, plus a great bakery. A whole wall of spices in large quantities. We would start with lunch in the cafeteria, then bought food for the weekend.  Now the cafeteria is closed, a causality of COVID, so we stopped at Chat Patti, a favorite Indian restaurant of Mickie. I knew none of the dishes, so looking at the pictures on the wall, I ordered Behl Puri. According to the menu (which I read after I ordered), it is an appetizer made of puffed rice, crumbled crunchy puri, onions, cilantro, and chutney tossed together with pomegranate seeds, served cold. An odd dish but intere...

Good grief. On our way north, I saw parts of Florida I hadn’t seen in years. Between construction on the turnpike and accidents (Kathy’s phone said 4), my GPS app Waze routed us along backroads hither and yon. A stop for a coke and to pee after one of the suggested side roads was closed, and we had to go even further afield. Finally, we got on I-75, slow but at least moving. Originally planned as a visit to my dearest friend, coincidentally it was Gainesville Fine Art Association’s annual showcase weekend. After our dinner at the Top (gnocchi with pesto sauce for me), we stopped at the opening reception, met some of the artists who are Sally’s friends, and perused the map to decide on which studios we wanted to visit the next day. Up at not o’dark hundred, followed by leisurely breakfast. First stop was a group of artists that rent studios at a Presbyterian church which no longer needs the rooms as Sunday school classes since the congregation doesn’t have any young people. The greying ...

At my Friday watercolor class at Leu Gardens, (13 people), I realized Kathy, a dear friend of my dear friend, was sitting at the table behind me. Not really that unexpected; she and her husband had moved into her father’s Orlando house and renovated it after the old man had died. Caught up on our respective children and made real promises to get together. They live on the east side, but doable. We will see each other at our mutual friend’s son’s celebration of life in February. Note: the technique we tried in class was coloring with white crayon to make places where the watercolor couldn’t attach to the paper, in this case, as snow on the trees. Since I couldn’t see where the wax was once I drew, it was a surprise where the snow appeared. I’m not sure this technique is for me. Sunday, Susie and Joe came to lunch. La Leche League, homeschoolers, Clara daycare, they were a constant in our younger Fort Lauderdale lives, they too now live in Central Florida. We caught up on children, grand...

We received an email from our friend Rob that he and Deb’s son Sean had died in his sleep early Saturday morning. Rob’s amazing, beautiful letter said they had had a nice evening playing cards with their granddaughter, then Sean said he didn’t feel well and asked to be put to bed.  The same age as Patten, he had caught/developed multiple sclerosis when he was a preteen. It robbed him of what we would consider the normal parts of a young man’s life. No sports, no easy trips, much medical intrusion and loss of privacy. He must have been angry at his fate, however he maintained his curiosity and kindness.  I think the last time we saw him was when Betsy was visiting, and we stayed at Hollywood Beach. They drove down, and we picnicked at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park. 

The beginning of our third year in central Florida. I’m sure it’s mostly due to still hurting from lifting too much, however, I’m beginning to feel old, I’m sleeping more, and tiring sooner. There certainly isn’t a spring in my step. But I’m not ill, I just hurt. Goals for this year? Definitely, feeling good, even if it means going to the doctor again. I’ve gotten back to exercising with our personal trainer Denny and hadn’t lost as much core strength as I feared. Kristen at PT assigned me some exercises and stretches to get my butt muscles stronger without damaging them. This too shall pass. Just not as fast as I’d like. I can’t work as long in the garden, but that gives me the opportunity to learn to pace myself. Two vegetable beds have their summer crop of okra, cow peas, and sunflowers. The other beds will have cover crop of hemp, or may be just some mulch. The two wild bunnies seem to have eaten all the new corn shoots. I enjoy watching them so I don’t begrudge them this round....

Crisis averted? Every Thursday, I Zoom with 5 girlfriends, all 1967 graduates from Naples High. One I’ve known since early elementary school, perhaps it was first grade; the others moved to town by junior high. Sixty years of friendship. My high school class was the last under 200 graduates. We all knew everything about everyone, or at least we thought we did. In our last Zoom, at the very end, our most conservative and quietest member said, not once, but twice, “You all are too radical for me.” Wow. It passed without comment. We said our I-love-you's and goodbyes, but that stuck in my head. For her to say that was a big deal. What to do? I let it buzz around in my brain, several nights waking up and thinking about my response, because I knew I couldn’t just let it be ignored. This was an opportunity to deepen our conversations. I decided to write the group early in the week about how important I felt it was to hear each other’s political opinions. Not to try to change one another,...