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Almost Wordless Wednesday
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Visiting Aunt V
Sunday afternoon we all visited husband’s Aunt V. She’s 97 now and doesn’t get out much unless it’s to visit a doctor.
Yes she’s really 97.
She was excited to see my sister.
We talked a bit about her last stay in a rehab facility and how glad she is to be home again. She mentioned that she had called me and I hadn’t called her back.
“Did you leave a message?” I asked.
“No” she said. Doesn’t your phone tell you that I called?
“Only if I look,” I say…’and I rarely look.”
She thought that was funny.
Husband gets out his smart phone and shows his Aunt. “She has one just like this,” he says, “But she’s not very good at using it.”
“Look,” he says, “I can post photos of the family on my Facebook page.
Looking at family photos
Then he shows her photos of her parents on their wedding day, his sister as a baby, groups of people from years ago. She recognizes many of them, hadn’t seen some of the pictures before, hadn’t seen others in many years.
At the end of the pictures she grins and said, “That thing is pretty good!”
She’s more in tune with technology than I am. Guess I’ll have to check my phone more often.
The girls.
Busy weekend
It’s been a busy weekend here. Friday night I played with the community band as the warm up act at a local park.
Playing in the park.
The main act was “The Magic Bus,” a group of guys playing 60’s and 70’s music.
Member of the Bus.
We stayed and listened to them play…
Dancing to memories.
…and watched the happy dancers of our generation feeling the beat once again.
Giant dancer puppet
Saturday Katie’s Aunt B and I took Katie to doggie school where she got to practice heeling and jumping and circling and such.
Exercise over!
There’s another sheltie in class now and they seem to like each other pretty much. As much as shelties like any other dog I guess.
Toby and Katie
Saturday afternoon we got Katie’s agility stuff out and she ran and jumped some more.
Heading for the tunnel!
She doesn’t like teeter, but the rest was pure fun.
Jump!
Sunday morning we went to the farmer’s market, Katie tagged along and she got lots of petting.
Walking at the park!
Then we went to her favorite park and had even more fun!
Sharing the park with my Aunt B!
But Sunday night Aunt B found a tick on Katie! OH NO! This is her first tick ever! So now we know we have to be vigilant. Katie was so good, sitting still while her Aunt and her Dad put alcohol on the tick and pulled it off.
She’s such a good girl. She wants to know what we’re going to do for fun today!
Sunday husband, sister and I went to visit husband’s Aunt V. She probably deserves her own blog post…so I’ll write that one later.
At the park
Happy Father’s Day
From my sister and me…
Me, Dad and my sister read the Sunday comics.
…to all of you!
Katie’s excellent day
Katie here. Guess what? My Aunt B came to visit me! First thing we did (after I sniffed her a bunch and approved her) was go out in the back yard to play! (Mama says you can click on the photos to see more details.)
This is my tunnel. But I’ll share.
They got my tunnel out! I haven’t seen it in two years! I got my Aunt to go through it first, just to prove she could. But after that it was all me!
This is my Aunt showing me how it’s done.
I remembered all about the tunnel. Mostly I remembered that if I ran through it when my Mama yelled “TUNNEL!” I got a treat. So I ran really fast.
Then you know what they got out? My CHUTE!! Heck I haven’t seen that in like forever! And I wasn’t scared at all. Nope, not me. I ran through it right away and then every time they said “CHUTE!” I ran through it again.
Here I come!
Then I got hot and ran through it and then ran over under a tree and laid down. I was done!
I love this game!
No more playing for me today! I need some serious ear scratching and tummy tickling and I know just the Aunt to do it too!
Aren’t I cute?
See you guys later….we’re going to school tomorrow and my Aunt is coming along to see how spectacular I am.
Smile!
But for now I just can’t stop grinning!
Rush hour musings
The traffic was stop and go on my way to work today. So I had a lot of time to contemplate the license plate on the car just in front of me.
IOALOT
Say it out loud. You’ll get it.
After I got it I started looking at the car itself. Was it a Lexus, a BMW, a Cadillac? No. It was a very very old Oldsmobile. They don’t even make the Oldsmobile anymore…and this wasn’t one of the last ones built.
It was big as a tank, square, low. Probably rides great and still looks pretty good except for the rust around the bottom of the trunk lid. So. He owes a lot. Obviously not on this car, so must be somewhere else. Which made me wonder. Aren’t vanity plates expensive? If you owe a lot why would you spend money on a more expensive license plate?
Oh. Wait. Maybe he compulsively buys things. Like vanity plates. Maybe that’s why he owes a lot.
You know, I bet there’s more to this story.
Mishmash Monday more wildlife
Wildlife watches each other.
It’s turtle time
This morning outside my window I saw this:
Mama turtle on a walk.
I left Katie inside and went out to see what she was doing. I think she was headed up our hill to lay eggs.
She’s hissing at me.
This is the third snapping turtle I’ve seen over on this side of our yard this week; the other two were even larger than today’s mama. Pretty soon we should be overrun with baby turtles. But it rarely happens that way. Usually I find one or two a summer somewhere in our yard and I take them across the street to the pond where their mamas live.
You can read about one of my baby turtle adventures and a time we tried to help a mama. I learned a lot that day!
Meanwhile after a quick photo I left her alone to do her job. I hope she makes it back across the road when she’s finished. I know I’m not going to be helping her back to the pond!
PS: More than 4 hours later I am weeding a bed at the front of the house when I realize there’s a nest in a crab tree and a robin is sitting on it. That’s nice. But it’s in the middle of where I need to weed. She’s watching me. I go inside to discuss the problem with husband who is planning on rotatilling that area this afternoon. I don’t think that is a good idea. I think we should let the grass grow there till after any babies fly away. I go back outside. She’s not sitting on the nest. I work for a little while and she starts to scold me from a nearby tree. I move my wheelbarrow, myself and my shovel to the front porch and watch. She flies back to her nest.
Maybe I should give up on this garden and move to the one at the south of the house. I go inside and over to the window overlooking that weed infested garden to see if the sun is there yet, hoping for shade. And I see this:
Might be same mama. Might not.
She stops and sniffs the air, then makes a beeline for the garden.
Didn’t want to weed today anyway.
I watch her walk through the garden right up to the house. She’s staring at me in the window the whole time.
I see you!
She’s under the deck now. Hopefully laying more eggs. Katie is inside, the door to the deck open. Suddenly she’s barking and staring down between the deck boards. I shut the door.
Wildlife 2. Weeding 0.
That’s fine with me.
Stunning
A visitor is coming!
My sister is coming to visit us!
She’s certainly visited since this was taken!
She hasn’t been here in many years. Katie was just a youngster during her last visit.
Katie and her Aunt long ago.
Katie is waiting impatiently.
I find my self doing something my mother used to do when she was preparing for a visit from us northerners. I always seemed to arrive just after the azaleas were in full bloom. Or after the dogwood or wisteria was finished for the season. She always told me how beautiful they were and I tried to imagine it.
Today as I was weeding I wondered if our Koosa dogwood would still be in bloom when she arrives.
Prettiest this tree has ever been.
Will the clematis still be as spectacular?
Pretty in purple
Maybe the poppies will be opening.
Getting ready to burst!
Hopefully the begonias will still be beautifully orange. She says orange reminds her of Mom who had an orange front door and when we were kids an orange kitchen sink. I hadn’t thought of that when I picked them out for our front entry. But I think of Mom frequently as I come and go now.
Remembrance orange
Katie says I should stop worrying about what will be blooming. She says whatever is blooming we’ll all have a great time together. Katie has all sorts of plans for things to do with her Aunt. She can’t wait.
I’m waiting…..
Me either.
Hey Mom
Beyond brutal
If work last week was difficult, this week it is impossible. Since mid February there have been three women in our department whose husbands have died unexpectedly overnight. This past Sunday it was the husband of someone in my region. The resultant pain and grief among our small group is overwhelming and we all feel so helpless. Each of us wants to help her. None of us can. The work must still get done, and the volume of emails and phone calls has intensified as people hear and want to know what happened. And, of course, how to help. Today is only the third day of this never ending week. We were exhausted before. Now we are plodding, a painful slow hobble; we’re just getting through each day. Our exhaustion and pain is all consuming but nothing like what she is living through right now.
So it surprised me a bit tonight to find I could still smile and sing, even tap my fingers on the steering wheel. The CD from our spring concert arrived last night and I listened to it on the way home this evening. What a great concert; it was full of happy, fun, upbeat music. Stuff you can sing (or at least hum) along with, sway with, nod your head with, snap your fingers to. Good fun, great memories, heart singing music.
Here’s a sampling of what we played (found on youtube and played by other groups for your listening pleasure). For Lassie and Benji’s mom I give you Lassus Trombone. (She plays the trombone so I figured she’d get a kick out of this.) And New York 1927 was really fun to play. We featured the trumpets in Bugler’s Holiday …including one of our oldest members at over 70 featured as one of the soloists. We even showcased the clarinets with Pie in the Sky Polka…a piece I spent way too much time practicing.
The whole evening was really fun, and the memories of that concert kept me smiling tonight on my long commute home after another very long and sad day at work. For the concert we invited 10 or so 7th graders to play with us on a couple of the pieces. The kids looked so young. The young man sitting with us in the clarinets said as he took his chair that he was nervous. We said that was OK, we were nervous too. Afterward his grin, and the grins of most of the other kids went from ear to ear. Amazing what music can do.
I wish it was this easy to lift my friend’s spirit.
Change Is Hard 