12 Oakdale

The first day of our seventh year at 12 Oakdale Street. I hope this will be similar to the previous ones, with no surprises. At our age, surprises are rarely good. I will keep on shedding stuff, being optimistic about how much I will accomplish. I also continue shedding weight, since some crept back, definitely no surprise. Baking and eating sourdough bread has consequences. Will this year be when I get rid of all the grass paths? Sure, why not? Could happen. The freeze gave me an opportunity to rethink some of the plantings I’ve done. I will continue adding to my hedgerows on the north and especially south property lines. Since the lychee died back, I’m moving more bananas along the canal. Eventually that 2-story house will be built across from us. Grant is slowing down, although he is still doing his 2 mile, somewhat daily walks. I use a lot of my energy being patient (that’s definitely ironic). Sometimes I’m successful, often I’m not. A growth edge it would behoove me to work on. Bi...

I had opted to stay in Williamstown because I wanted us to see Ground/work 2025, a site-specific set of 6 large sculptures, each made by a different artist using a craft from her or his culture. Woodworking, fabric dying, sculpture, basket weaving, mosaic tile, and ceramics. Marvelous, but I hadn’t considered that not all places are flat like Florida. As we trudged uphill, Grant struggled to catch his breath. However, with a rest at a picnic table, he was able to get to the top of the exhibit layout. Downhill is our friend. On to the New Haven, CT airport to turn in the truck and be picked up by Deb and Rob. Note on the truck which we should have inspected better before driving away: there were no dents on the outside, Grant had checked. However, once I began driving, I realized my boot heel stuck to the flood when I wanted to move from gas to brakes. As soon as I found a pull off, we stopped. No floor mat, and perhaps glue or sticky tape where one h...

Betsy arrived from Switzerland Thursday evening. We picked her up after attending a dedication of a statue in a pocket park along the West Orange Trail that is maintained by Bloom and Grow members. Amazing how beautiful an area can be if 5-6 women work on it every week. Inspiring, but beyond my ability, even with CC’s help every 2 weeks. But with that in mind, Betsy and I weeded out the area by the boat house fence, laid newspapers, and mulched with pine straw. Looking good. We also went to Target to get her a bathing suit and a SIM card and data for her phone. Back to Target: somehow neither of us noticed she’d bought the wrong bathing suit, having placed the one she actually liked, and looked good in, back on the rack. The home is calling us. Plus, the SIM card wouldn’t work. Wrong suit returned, right suit bought, and tough luck on $40 data, no returns allowed. We moved on to Verizon, where Nick tried and tried, but couldn’t get the SIM card to do its thing, in the phone Betsy has u...

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...

The last day before we’re gone 6 weeks, visiting Betsy in New Zealand. I am so close to ready. My anxiety is peaking. I’ve worked like the devil in the yard, trimming back and putting down mulch to have it look good while we are gone. CC is coming 3 times to keep it pretty. I fear her spending too much time deadheading salvia and picking little weeds rather than yanking out torpedo grass. C’èst la vie. Note to self: print sign to remind yard guys to leave the cypress needles on the boathouse deck. Last year they blew it all in the canal before I could sweep it up for mulch. Also need to print sign reminding pool guy to keep the screen door closed so Gracie doesn’t leave. That one I’ll do in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I planted eggplant and southern pea (aka black eye or cow peas) in the vegetable garden. I hope the peas twine up the string I tied to the trellis on the side. My plan is to get them above bunny height. Might work. The rabbits are keeping the sweet potatoes trimmed ...

I don’t know if I caught something on our trip to Atlanta or some other place, but I’ve been dragging the past few days. I’d wake up with a scratchy throat, but a cup of coffee would make that go away. After a week, I was coughing. No fever. Wednesday and Thursday, I laid in bed and read, getting up to present a solstice invocation in Kip’s memory at EarlyBirds but skipping the Tree Board meeting after. They didn’t want to sit next to me coughing anyway. Before that, I was able to do some gardening in the mornings, then laze around all afternoons. We did get my sundial installed. My watercolor and other activities have been put aside. I called Delta and persuaded them to change our Sydney to Auckland flight to Wellington instead. That’s a relief. Another day, I reserved a hotel in Wellington, bought Zealandia tickets, and decided to take the train up to Auckland to meet Betsy and Keith. We will save money on that, because the upscale seats were all sold. Means we will have to bring our...

I’d been obsessing about testing negative for Covid, a requirement to join our birding tour. My anxiety level went even higher when a couple were forced to drop out because he tested positive. Yikes. Finally time to test, and all good. Both Grant and I are negative. Which I was sure we would be, since we really haven’t been around anyone. Except for all the people at Bob’s funeral 11 days ago. Surely, we’d have symptoms by now. Except Patten tested positive and didn’t feel bad. Round and round the hamster wheel turned. What a relief to be done with that! We drove really long the first day and got to Fayetteville, North Carolina, staying at the Baymont by Wyndham, mostly because it claimed a hot breakfast. That is always desirable so we can eat, then get on the road, rather than spending an hour debating where to go. Evidently, Wyndham and I have different definitions of “hot breakfast”. The cereal choices were corn flakes or Fruit Loops.  Another long day to Carney’s Corner, New Je...

Figuring we would be exhausted after packing the car for our drive north, we cleverly decided to do that a couple of days before, so we had a day to rest up. Pretty dang clever of us. The next day, having hung our final laundry on the line, Grant got a call. I could hear a son on the other end of the conversation explaining he’d come down with Covid. I knew it wasn’t Patten because he’d tested positive last week after attending a Miami Heat basketball game. Spent all week at home, symptom free. Sounded like Spaulding. I thought at least he and Molly were able to go on their hike at the Grand Canyon last weekend. Starting at 5:30 AM on the North Rim, they hiked with four friends down in and across, coming up out the South Rim by 8:30 that evening. He said it was so hot that they laid for an hour in the Colorado River at the bottom to cool off.  Nope, it was Jamey, with whom we planned to spend the weekend with on our way north. He’d started feeling lousy Sunday evening but fortunate...