Some Thoughts

In the past 11 days we have lost three people from our extended family. First Mark's grandpa who died at 90 in a very peaceful way; just fell over. Then Kerry's niece's father, Jerry, 67. He ended up on life support with no brain function. And finally our good friend Steve lost his father at 89. It was peaceful in the end but still he ended up in the hospital for an extended stay. Never good for anyone.

With that much death around us, it has set me to thinking about life. I have always been someone who spent a lot of time thinking about the future. Everything from what will happen tonight to what will happen in six months.

Maybe being six months away from turning 65 and being surrounded by death has made me re-appraise my way of looking at life. The phrase, "living in the moment" is pretty trite but it really describes something that I need to do.

For the past few days when I start to "future trip" I pull myself back to the moment at hand and remind myself that this could be all I have so I'd better enjoy it. So far that has been pretty calming for me. I'm certainly not doing it perfectly but I'm giving it a good shot.

So on this Independence Day I'm declaring my independence from spending too much time worrying about and planning for the future.

Two other wonderful things happened on this day. Richard and Charlotte got married five years ago. Just so this won't be an entirely gloomy post, I've included a photo from their wedding. And Mark and Julia got married nine months ago on the fourth of October. And everyone is very happy.

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My Design Wall

It's a small quilt: 24-1/2 inches square for my stash busters class. I wasn't able to make it to class when we got this pattern so I'm not sure I did it right. I am not good at reading and understanding directions. Much better when I can see a finished product. The embroidery is called redwork. It's supposed to be done with several strands of red floss. I couldn't find any of my embroidery thread but I did find some other thread that was multi-colored. I like the affect. Class is on Wednesday afternoon so will have a chance to see where I went wrong.

Tomorrow I'll add the batting and backing and then quilt it.

It's going to be 106 today so I'm miserable with the heat. I just don't do well. July is usually the worst month; that doesn't start until Wednesday. Oh well, one day at a time and pretty soon it will be October.

One Local Summer: Week 4

Well we didn't do much dining al fresco this week. It's been in the low 100s so we eat indoors near an air conditioning vent.

Last night's menu:

+pork chops brined for about an hour
+butter lettuce with Greek kalamata olives; dressing oil and vinegar with sun dried tomatoes from last summer
+yellow chard cooked in olive oil, red pepper flakes, green garlic, onion, and kohlrabi.

Everything but the olives and vinegar is locally grown. While the heat sometimes reduces our appetites, we didn't leave anything on our plates last night.

Eat Well!

Our CSA Box

Just picked it up; full of all kinds of wonderful things. Lettuce, basil, red potatoes, carrots, summer squash, onions (both red and white) and green beans. Also found out that my CSA farm is now raising chickens and turkeys. They are housed in small buildings that can be moved around so they eat bugs and other things the farmer doesn't want. They will be for sale in a few weeks. Think I'm going to order a turkey. We've talked about getting a Weber BBQ so we can do things like turkeys and get the real BBQ flavor. Our gas grill is great for things but nothing beats real briquettes for flavor. I want to brine the turkey too.

We are going to be eating lots of vegetables this week. I went to the farmer's market on Tuesday and couldn't resist yellow chard and red butter lettuce.

Mark's Grandpa Died Last Night

I love this photo of the two of them at the Grand Canyon. Jack was 90 last November. Mark's grandma died 15 years ago.

His death was one I would wish for all of us. He stood up, fell over and was dead. My marriage to his son was rocky. Jack and I didn't get along very well either. Surprisingly at the wedding he was very friendly to me. Mark's father couldn't account for the change.

He lived with a wonderful woman named Betty, who is 95. Jack called it "shacking up."

Mark is very sad; he cried on the phone with me this morning. Julia is on her way back from St. Louis so he was alone when his dad called. That's always hard.


The good news is that his grandpa knew that Julia had won the audition and that they would be moving to St. Louis in the fall. At first they were going to wait until today to call grandpa but then decided to do a three-way call. He got to hear the good news from Mark and Julia.

His body will be cremated and his ashes interred in the National Cemetery in the Bay Area; he was a veteran of World War II.

Newlywed Update

I love the photo of Julia holding the heart shaped rock in the Grand Canyon. I also love the other picture because it shows how much my son loves her. That's at the Grand Canyon too.

The big news is that they are moving to St. Louis, MO from Albuquerque. This morning Julia won the audition with the St. Louis Symphony for a one year position as "utility" French horn player.

Mark has subbed with them several times including when they played at Carnegie Hall. He will probably get a lot more sub work because he will be local. I am so happy for them. He will take a leave from New Mexico.

It's a fairy tale story. She won the audition with the New Mexico Symphony where Mark played trumpet, Mark fell in love with her, she fell in love with Mark, they got engaged, she went to play with the Malaysia Symphony Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur right before the wedding (gutsy bride), they got married at the Grand Canyon and then both went to Kuala Lumpur to play for three months. They came back to Albuquerque, unpacked and prepared for the rest of their very exciting lives.

Who knows what's next. I do know that I am awfully proud of both of them. Their marriage is off to a good start.

We Never Made It to Colorado

Harleen was an extremely well-behaved puppy. Here she is sleeping on the floor in the boarding area. We got as far as lining up with the pre-boards when we were told the plane had mechanical difficulties: a fuel leak. Everyone sat down again. About an hour later we learned they couldn't fix it; the earliest we might be able to get out would be 7 p.m. It was now noon. The thought of spending seven hours in the airport with a dog was not appealing. We would get to Denver late and to my brother's house in the mountains even later. Monday we would have to fly home.

We made the very sad decision to cancel our trip; got our money back.

So we all went home and took a nap. Chinese food for dinner last night and then another good sleep.

We had the bulkhead seat on the airplane, which was Frontier. All the airlines have to give that seat to a service dog. Not all the airlines will do that for service dogs in training. Frontier and Alaska are known for being friendly to service dogs in training. And they were. We can vouch for that.