Belated

I started writing an entry last night, then got tired and went to bed . . .

Yesterday didn’t turn out like I’d hoped or planned. It’s funny how I’ll have a long list of stuff to do in a day, and I totally don’t take into account the fact that I also have a ton of stuff to do in the kitchen.

Right after finishing my morning tea, I was ready to start grading research papers, and then I remembered I’d had bone brother simmering all night (the carcass of the chicken) and needed to do something with it. Then I remembered I needed to make sourdough pizza dough. And a dessert. And peanut butter fudge.

So, somehow I ended up spending most of the day in the kitchen. All the other things on my list did not get done.

Walter and Jasper both had yard jobs to do in the morning, and then Walter still had our yard to do.

Sammy came over for supper and Jasper was also here—we’re never sure if he’ll be here on a weekend evening or not. Afterward, Sammy watched a movie with us. Jasper is very rarely interested in watching anything in the evening, so he ascended to his fortress of solitude, only coming down for tea and dessert later.

It was only after I had cleaned up the kitchen that I finally had time to do a tiny bit of grading before I became too tired.

Parting Shot:

A long time ago, I read in a magazine how you could make a simple geodesic dome out of rolled-up newspapers. So we tried it. It worked! And the kids loved it.

A Movie with a Friend

I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night, so I wasn’t too thrilled about getting up at the normal time this morning, but I did it anyway. Jasper got up earlier than usual as he had a yard job to do this morning. This meant I had the house to myself for a couple of hours—which I love.

I also received a very surprising phone call from an old friend, which I’ll tell you more about at a later date.

This afternoon I had arranged to meet my graduate student friend, who is on spring break, to watch a movie. When we go to a movie, we always go in her town of Marshall as it is so much cheaper there—especially if you go to a matinee. So what did we see? Kung Fu Panda 4. I was at a bit of a disadvantage, as I never saw #2 or #3, but it was a pleasant enough way to spend a spring afternoon.

It is about a half hour drive there, but it’s a drive I enjoy, and it brings back so many memories of the many many times I drove that route when Lina was a student there in Marshall.

I arrived home just in time to join the guys for supper, which thankfully consisted of warmed-up leftovers.

I don’t know if any of you watch Itchy Boots on YouTube. She is a Dutch woman who drives her motorcycle all over the world. I don’t watch regularly, but my husband does. And this week I do too because she is in Zambia! Oh, those African roads . . .

Parting Shot:

The azaleas are just gearing up for their big show.

Books

Happy Candlemas and Groundhog Day! I hear the groundhog predicted an early spring, but I also know that his accuracy is well below 50%, so I’m not making any assumptions.

Today we were again on grandgirl duty while Flynn worked this morning. After helping Ellie with her lunch, I set off to visit my friend Donita. She’s the friend I usually visit in Raton, New Mexico, but since her husband died last week she has been staying with her daughter here in Colorado Springs. We had a good visit and it was a little bittersweet saying goodbye, since by the time we travel this way again she will have moved to Indiana.

I got back to Flynn’s house in time to gulp down some tea while Flynn got the girls up from their nap. Then we all climbed into the minivan for today’s excursion to the library. Once again my job during the drive was to dispense snacks to Ellie.

The library had a fun (and rather crowded) play area which the girls greatly enjoyed. Eventually, Paisley picked out a new book and Flynn chose one for Ellie, and by the time girls’ supper was ready I had read them both books several times. It had also started raining.

Paisley objected strongly to going to bed and took a long time to fall asleep. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the shrimp stir-fry that Flynn had planned for us grown-ups, followed by watching another movie—the 5^th Indiana Jones movie, which none of us had seen before. It was okay.

The rain has turned to snow and they are predicting a couple of inches over the next 24 hours. I hope not enough to derail our plans for tomorrow.

Parting Shot:

The view from the library parking lot. I would love to live in a place with such spectacular views!

A Brief Excursion

Today started as usual with us babysitting the girls while Flynn worked. Jury duty is handled quite differently here than it is in our town. He didn’t have to go in at 8:00—but he had to check in with the courthouse at 11:30, and if they needed him he would have to be there by 12:30.

So, the morning went normally until 11:30, when Flynn learned he would indeed have to go in to the courthouse. This meant he’d be leaving right around the girls’ nap time, so he called in reinforcements. Tiffany’s mother came to help get Paisley into bed, which can be a tricky undertaking. I put Ellie down and she fussed for about ten minutes before falling into a deep sleep.

Paisley, however, never slept at all. I was watching both girls on the monitor after Tiffany’s mom left, and Paisley was everywhere except in bed.

Flynn was released and returned home while both girls were still asleep, and immediately jumped into preparation for the promised outing to the mall. Now, I haven’t been to a mall in years. Flynn and Tiffany bring the girls to this mall (about a 20-minute drive away) often in the winter because there is a nice indoor playground that is free.

We all piled into Flynn’s new minivan and I fed Ellie her snack on the way to the mall. Paisley was waiting for a special snack at the mall—cotton candy (candy floss). They actually have a cotton candy vending machine there near the playground.

I never heard of such a thing. We were all fascinated. You can select a flavor and color and then watch it appear.

The girls had a wonderful time playing on the playground and by the time we headed out, they were both very sleepy. Once we got back to the house, Flynn gave them their baths while I worked on making supper—a longtime family favorite Tex-Mex dish.

After their baths, the clean girls got to enjoy a video call with Mama before having some supper. I volunteered to brush out Paisley’s hair and she was pretty tolerant of my careful efforts. We had quite a conversation about how important it is to keep your hair brushed so it doesn’t get too tangled!  By then Ellie was already in bed, and Paisley soon followed. She fell asleep quite quickly after not having a nap and being very active all day.

We grown-ups had a late supper and then finished the evening watching a movie. Our time here is speeding by.

Not According to Plan

Walter went back to work today, so life returned to its normal rhythm. I headed to Walmart to get a couple of things for my trip and food for the guys while I’m gone. No one’s gonna starve.

I also finished packing my final belated Christmas box and then went to the post office to mail it.

This afternoon, I had to stop by the bank before heading over to Marshall to pick up my graduate student friend so we could go to a matinee showing of Aquaman 2, which was a fun movie with some great visual effects. The theater was so cold I was very glad to be wearing a hoodie with a hand-warmer pocket.

Afterward, we went back out to the car and I tried to start it, and it . . . didn’t. It just kind of sputtered and died. Now I had noticed that it was slow starting earlier in the day, but I thought it was because the weather was a little chilly. Clearly, that was not the problem.

I called Walter and let him know supper was going to be late and apprised him of the situation. Meanwhile, my friend called her sister who lives a lot closer to the theater than we do. Eventually her sister arrived, by which time I had found the jumper cables  (yay me!) which I do not know how to use. Fortunately, the two sisters did know what to do and five minutes later Quicksilver reluctantly started up. My friend left with her sister and I drove straight home.

After microwaving a bunch of stuff, we had a late supper, and after that, Walter went out to survey the situation. He soon came back in to tell me that the battery was a goner. I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, we really can’t afford to have to buy a new battery right now. On the other hand, I’m so glad it died today and not tomorrow on the way to Memphis!

Fortunately, changing the battery is a quick and easy, if not cheap solution. We learned that our three-year battery had lasted five years, so it really was time to get a new one. And I feel so much better leaving on my trip tomorrow knowing I have a good battery.

We had some rain this evening, and just as I was about to close out and get ready for bed, I remembered that I had planned to make something to take on my trip—so I went to the kitchen and made it. I can pack in the morning.

So be forewarned—I won’t be posting tomorrow as I’ll be on the road and I never bother with my computer when I’m at my cousin’s house.

Happy New Year!

Well, guess what? We all survived 2023. We did it. And now we make a fresh start . . . or just keep doing what we’re doing. Your choice. But I’m pretty jazzed to be here.

Yesterday was a very quiet New Year’s Eve. We went to church and a very poorly-attended Sunday School class. Then we returned home and I made some boiled custard (a Southern drink) and later filling for a cherry cheese pie, to go in the pie crust I so cleverly made and froze during the Thanksgiving baking spree.

I sent Jasper out with $11 (all the cash I had) plus instructions to buy sparklers. He went for size over quantity and came back with a few massive neon-colored sparklers.

We had a great Zoom with Flynn’s family and Lina. Paisley was in fine form. She tattled on her sister: “Ellie pooped herself awake. She did a big poopy-doopy and woke herself up!”

Later, I asked her if she had any drawings to show me, and she showed me one of a very impressive spider. Walter asked if it was a friendly spider. “It’s a lightning spider,” she explained. When we asked, “Will it bite?” she said, “No, lightning spiders zap people.” She hastened to explain that we were not in any danger since we live so far away.

All this time I’ve been thinking up story ideas in my brain when I could have been tapping Paisley’s. Lightning spiders! I love it.

Finally, when we talked about different kinds of days—“work days,” for example, she explained, “There are sad days and scream days.” Everyone present agreed that scream days were the worst.

As soon as we ended the Zoom I had to get right to work in the kitchen making our somewhat traditional New Year’s Eve meal of ham-and-swiss cheese crêpes. I’ve been making crêpes for decades with excellent success, but what I haven’t mastered is a gluten-free, low-carb crêpe. I have tried so many different recipes culled from the internet. None of them have held their shape enough to be flipped, filled, or folded. What I ended up with was a pile of unappetizing sludge that not even the kindest critic would describe as a crêpe.

So yesterday, in addition to making crêpes for the guys, I thought I would just make myself a couple of chaffles instead. And then I thought what if I modified my chaffle recipe to make crêpes instead? So I added more liquid and whizzed it in the blender so it wouldn’t be chunky and guess what? I ended up with two very serviceable crêpes which I could flip and fill and fold at least in half. I don’t think they were pliable enough to fold into quarters, but that’s okay because this is a massive leap forward for me. I was able to enjoy the same meal as Walter and Jasper. And I was pretty proud of myself.

After the movie High Road to China came up in conversation during supper, we ended up watching it in the evening, after which we went out to try the huge sparklers, which burned for an impressively long time. Then I remembered our New Year’s Eve tradition of sending off the old year in the form of a sky lantern. I was pretty sure I had some, and indeed I did, so Jasper and I went into the front yard as our backyard is ringed with tall trees.

We thought we were well in the clear. Jasper got the fuel lit with his blowtorch, and off it went:

You can hear Jasper admonishing it not to drift into the pine tree. It didn’t listen. There were a few anxious minutes as we watched it burn itself out on the top of a very tall tree. Thank goodness the tree’s needles did not catch on fire.

After that it was just a matter of waiting for midnight, and hoping that the constant barrage of firecrackers and celebratory gunshots would cease at some point. They kept it up until 2:00 a.m.!

So, having had a rough night, I got up this morning once I could no longer get comfortable, and worked on portioning my meds for this week, including my upcoming road trip. I had arranged to talk to my friend Connie this morning, so she called after I had my morning tea.

Connie and her family used to be our neighbors but they moved away quite a few years ago now. They still live in Texas, but 750 miles away! We ended up talking for over two hours. It was good to hear her voice. She hasn’t been back for a visit in a long time.

Of course, I got my blackeyed peas going in the slow cooker this morning also. That is a Southern “must” for New Year’s Day. And Walter started work installing my new asparagus bed. My original asparagus bed is only 3×3 feet. The crowded roots are pushing apart the cinder blocks that form the sides of the bed. We can’t afford another cinder block bed right now, so I found a metal raised bed on Amazon for about half the price and ordered it. It will triple my asparagus-growing space! And it’s all for me! (Well, and Jasper.) Walter won’t touch asparagus.

We had our usual ham for our New Year’s dinner, very welcome after having turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And it was back to watching just a one-hour video in the evening, and in the morning Walter will be going back to work, while I work on getting ready for my road trip.

A Church Picnic & A Busy Day

I can’t stress enough how much I am enjoying this Tennessee weather! It has just been spectacular the whole time I’ve been here—including the rain.

Yesterday my dad and I went to church and then to the church picnic. I have very fond memories of church picnics as a kid. This one was the kind that I’m sure children will remember with fondness. They had a petting zoo with a camel and a bunch of other animals:

They had a bouncy house and pony rides and a mechanical bull and two beautiful mules pulling a cart around the parking lot. Dad and I sat and talked with a couple of his friends. Neither of us attempted the bull riding—there was a long line! But the weather was perfect—sunny, cool, and breezy.

After the picnic, I took him home and then I came back to the condo and had a short nap before hosting our weekly family zoom. I had hoped my dad would join us, but he had turned his phone off for church and forgotten to turn it back on, so he overslept on his nap and missed getting to see his adorable great-granddaughters.

Later on, we had another family zoom, this time with my brothers, two of whom I’ll be seeing in person tomorrow for the first time in over three years.

After returning to the condo last night, I realized that if I was going to get any meaningful work done here, I had only last night and today. So I stayed up emptying out drawers and deciding what was nice enough to go to a thrift store and what needed to just be thrown out.

This morning I was up relatively early to finish sorting and putting stuff in bags. I loaded all the bags in the car and drove up to my dad’s house. Four of the bags went right into his big trash bin. It’s unbelievable how much “stuff” there is in this house that is not worth saving. It’s kind of depressing to be going through a house that the owner will never be returning to.

It took my dad a while to be ready, but eventually we set off on the day’s adventures. I took him to the bank, and then we drove up to Goodwill to drop off the four large bags stuffed with clothes and linens.

Then we drove to my dad’s favorite diner to meet up with our friends Stretch and Eunice for lunch. I was tickled to see they had corned beef and cabbage on the menu. I almost never get cabbage at home because Walter does not like it.

After lunch I brought Dad back home to get his phone and then we left right away to go visit my aunt (his little sister) in the nursing home. She has dementia, but can still carry on a conversation and was very glad to see us both.

Believe it or not, we were both tired after this. We went back to Dad’s house so I could have a badly-needed cup of tea and we both dozed off in our chairs for a few minutes.

Then it was back out to the car for the drive to Cookeville, a town about an hour’s drive away. One of Dad’s friends had secured tickets to a movie that’s only showing tonight and tomorrow night: Route 60: The Biblical Highway. It’s a documentary about the Biblical locations along this one highway in Israel. The camera work was stunning and we all really enjoyed it.

Afterward I still had to drive back to Crossville, stopping for gas on the way so I’ll have enough for the drive to and from Nashville tomorrow. Speaking of which, I should probably try to get some sleep first!

Quote of the Day:

While we were waiting to be seated for lunch, Dad and I were sitting in the entryway of the diner when an elderly couple walked in from the parking lot. The man was clearly struggling to walk and used a cane. I got up and offered him my seat. He plopped down next to my dad and said, “Am I older than you or are you older than me?”

The stranger won. He was 92, and my dad is only 88!

Good News

I had a glorious lie-in this morning. It is so rare for me to be able to just sleep until I wake up naturally. Then I enjoyed tea and conversation with my aunt, before we set off on the day’s excursion—a trip to a nearby Goodwill. They have a discount on Tuesdays. I didn’t get anything exciting, but I didn’t leave empty-handed either.

This afternoon we ran a quick errand and watched a movie and then I had to get ready for my two monthly writers’ Zoom meetings. While I hosted the first meeting, my aunt was making lovely fajitas for supper. So tasty!

After the second meeting, we watched another movie. My aunt is not able to be very mobile as she is having knee replacement surgery next week. But I do not mind sitting and visiting for hours! I don’t see her very often.

And right as we were arriving back from our errand this afternoon, I got a phone call from my cardiologist’s office with the results from my heart CT scan that I had on Thursday. “Good” news would be if my aorta stayed the same size and didn’t get any bigger. In actuality, my aorta is a little smaller than last year, which is GREAT news. It actually improved instead of staying the same or getting worse. So that is a huge answer to prayer.

Babysitting

Today didn’t start with a nosebleed, which was an improvement over yesterday. I often get nosebleeds at this altitude, and with this level of aridity.

It is hard to describe a day in which you are mostly playing with a baby and a toddler. Flynn and Tiffany had some errands to run this afternoon, so we stayed with the girls. Walter took Paisley outside to play in the backyard, and also managed to prune the crabapple tree so Flynn could check that off his “to-do” list. Ellie and I played inside for a while, before going out onto the deck to watch the action. She loved it.

Once Flynn and Tiffany returned, I sprang into action in the kitchen. I had offered to help with cooking, so Flynn asked me to make one of our family’s favorite meals—Sombrero Dip. By the time both girls were in bed, the dip was ready to come out of the oven for our adult supper.

Afterward we watched a movie—The Dungeons & Dragons Movie—which none of us had managed to see when it was in theaters. A great light-hearted romp and I assume more enjoyable if you’ve played a lot of D&D. (Flynn is a dungeon master and has been for years.)

Quote of the Day:

Actually there are two. This morning Paisley was trying to get one of Ellie’s new electronic toys to work, and she asked, “Why is this thing not musicking, Daddy?”

And later, a neighbor’s cat was lurking on the deck and Tiffany told Paisley to shoo it away. She successfully scared it by banging on the patio door, and then turned to brag to us. “I’m a kitty shooer!”

Knitting Success, Rugby, Sun, & Wheels!

It’s been quite a day. After a rough night, I slept in a little, then had a nice breakfast and a mug of tea before tackling the binding off of my cardigan. I even allowed myself to listen to my audiobook while doing it. Normally I only allow myself to listen to an audiobook while exercising, but I figured the final bind-off of a big knitting project is basically a victory lap.

Once that was done, I had to spring into action to get laundry in the washing machine and get pizza dough started for tonight (sourdough takes all day to rise). I was hoping and expecting that Sammy would come, but when I contacted him he gave me the sad news that he has shingles. And I think we can all agree that we don’t want him anywhere near us as long as he might be contagious.

Meanwhile, Walter was out in the hot sun trying to get the mowing done before noon—which of course he did. He needed to take a shower afterward, but as he was getting ready for that a jailbreak occurred. His parakeet, Victoria, was flapping about in her cage and she happened to bang into the door. It popped open, and Victoria saw her chance made a break for freedom.

Several exciting minutes followed, during which Victoria landed in various inaccessible locations and Walter tried to catch her. And when he did finally catch her, she bit him very hard.

So thanks to that little adventure, we arrived at the rugby field a few minutes later than planned. This event marked the debut of my new spectator chair, which so far is not as comfortable as my much-lamented jousting chair. But, knowing the game started at noon on a hot and sunny day, I managed to locate my silver shade umbrella and I wore my good sun hat as well. My mistake was to wear flip-flops on my feet which are still peeling from the sunburn I got three weeks ago.

I set up the chair and popped open the umbrella, but immediately discovered to my dismay that with the sun almost directly overhead, my feet could not be shaded unless I held the umbrella at a weird awkward angle that made it much more challenging to watch the game. Still, what choice did I have? I did the best I could. I looked around for Jade and didn’t see her anywhere, so I figured she must be on the other side of the field.

I never have to scan the field to try and figure out which of the players is my son. He is easy to identify—pretty much always the tallest and biggest guy on the field. Can you guess which one is my son?

I tried to get some photos whenever the players were relatively close to my position. (I don’t have a telephoto lens.) Spencer was the designated kicker for the alumni team and he did a good job.

At some point I noticed that someone new had arrived and sat down next to me—someone with a big camera and very bright pink hair. She had her face behind the camera but I recognized the tattoo on her arm. Jade! I hadn’t seen her sit down and she hadn’t noticed me as she was focused on photographing the game.

The teams had to take several water breaks as the temperature was in the mid-eighties and the sun was fierce. Poor Spencer was also dealing with allergies and was already sunburned from hanging his arm out the window of the car during the drive from Georgia yesterday.

The game ended with an alumni win, and since Walter and I are also alumni, we were very pleased. At the end of every game, the players and spectators all gather into a big circle and sing the doxology, followed by a brief prayer. That is my very favorite tradition and I get choked up every time.

Spencer and Jade were meeting up with friends (they still have a lot of friends here and we are very far down the priority list) so we came back home to gulp down some water and I also got my clothes out of the washer and hung up to dry. Then we took off for the north side of town on a special errand. On Wednesday night at church, we sat at the same table as a couple who were part of the university for many years, so of course the husband had known Walter for decades. And he mentioned that he had a vehicle he was trying to get rid of and offered it to Walter.

So we drove up to his house and picked up this 2005 Ford Explorer.

It seems likely to become Walter’s new work vehicle. It’s very well used, but to give you some perspective, it’s fifteen years newer than the van which is Walter’s current work vehicle!

So that was a pretty exciting addition to our day. Over the years, many of our vehicles have been given to us, and we are so grateful.

We came home to some badly-needed tea, and then I made a very nice pizza even though it turned out no one was coming over. Walter will be eating a lot of pizza in the coming week.

We finished up the day by watching a movie and I had a sudden dilemma. What to knit? I can’t just, you know, sit there watching a movie and doing nothing. So I fell back on my standard mindless knitting and cast on a dishcloth.

After the movie I spent a few minutes blocking my new cardigan. Acrylic doesn’t block like natural fibers, but a little heat definitely relaxes the fibers.

A fellow knitter dismissed my new cardigan as “just a kimono.” Yes. That’s what it is. But that’s what I wanted. I actually looked for patterns for “kimono cardigans.” It’s very big and boxy and shorter than I wanted, but when you get a kit you don’t get to choose the length. And the point is it should keep me warm in even the most frigid air-conditioned buildings. It would be nice if it was also flattering, but sometimes you just can’t have it all.

Oh, and to top off our day—it got up over 90 degrees today, and we really had reason to finally turn on our air conditioning. The only problem is, our thermostat has chosen this time to die, so no air conditioning for us. I may have to sleep on the sofa under the ceiling fan tonight.