Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Resetting


It's Tuesday morning, the last of the garbage has been picked up, and the laundry has been done and folded.  Hoping this week will be better than last.

The picture above doesn't do justice to the way this view lifts my spirits.  It doesn't show the leaves blowing with a nice cool breeze after a warm night.  You can't hear the birds singing or smell the freshness of the air.  It's the perfect place for my first cup of coffee.

Life is just so scary and sad right now, and I need mornings like this.  Catching up on some emails.  Reading the latest Snoqualmie news. Reading a few sweet blogs.

Not going to Facebook has continued to be a good decision.  After checking in with my groups, I shut the door on the outside world, all the unnecessary things that waste my day, all the propaganda and gullibility that make me so angry and cause so much divisiveness.  If FB ever decides to be responsible about fact checking and keeping out foreign interference, I might get a little more enthusiastic about it.  But I kind of like my little bubble right now and need it.

Yesterday was warm, and I made myself not have any negative feelings about it, because this is what I've been waiting for.  I think not having air-conditioning makes me appreciate mornings like this.

My friend Noreen and I finally got to have our side-porch chat that we've been missing for weeks since she went back to work and the days have been so dreary and cool.  We talk about everything - and nothing - and it's so nice to be with someone who has a lot of the same thoughts as I do - worry about our family time and what's going on with schools.  Worry about the future of our country and what our grandchildren are going to be faced with.  But lots of laughter and hope and just getting pleasure out of the small things, like whether the guitar boy between our apartments is going to get loud that night or how long we'll be able to be comfortable without air-conditioning!

Just sitting on the balcony with the cats this morning though and hoping this is the last garbage truck run.  They come up our alley twice for the garbage, once on the right and once on the left and then later on come by twice for the recycling.  The truck seems to be within arm's reach and really, really loud.  The cats can hear it coming blocks away and take off for the safety of under the bed.

These are the same plants as always, but I never get tired of them. 


These purple wave petunias hang over the rails of the balcony, but I've turned a few of them around so I can enjoy them.  I hope I never have a summer without a red geranium.

Or a coral one.


I've wintered this geranium for two years.  I guess that's what you call it - dragging it into the house over the winter - and this fuschia has been an added bonus.


I know this tomato plant needs to go to the garden because it's overgrowing the pot, but I do love to come out and check on my "crop" of four tomatoes - and many, many more blooms.


I picked one of these little gnarly peppers for my salad last night.  It tasted better than it looked!


My clematis and bacopa corner just adds a softness.  I'm not sure if the clematis will bloom again, but it sure is traveling.  I have to unwind it from around the tomatoes every morning and send it back to the railing.


As I passed by the Hub this morning, I saw this, and it made me so happy.  And just a little sad.  This seems to be the first Christmas Ryan made the trip to Andalusia to meet the grandparents, and he's making the best of it with probably deep conversations with his future father-in-law.  I'm not sure if that's a forced smile or the joy of eating Eleanor's sugar cookies and drinking sweet tea.  I can tell from the Maxwell House coffee can that that's what they're eating.  I'd love to go back to that day just for a minute.


This is another picture that I've unearthed that makes me smile every time I look at it.


All the 80s things:  Plaid couch, orange shag carpet, paneling!  But the details.  In the bay window is a fabric-covered Vacation Bible School flower pot in a place of honor.  A Cookie Monster puppet on the lamp.  My color-blind son's outfit.  The yellow afghan made by my mother-in-law.  It was my birthday.  I'm thinking about 1984 or 1985, so I would have been in my late 30s.  Roz is seated on the couch with me after bringing over my gift.  I'm trying to remember what was in the little box.  I'm guessing Mike and the kids made the cupcakes and surprised me.  That striped top was one of my sewing projects, and I'd wear it now if I had it!

It's good to have these pictures to bring back sweet memories. 

And these will be memories one day.  Emily has been good about sending me some pictures every day since I can't see the girls (although I do get to keep them for a couple of hours this afternoon).

One night when the girls were allowed to put themselves to bed with books.  Katherine in her beloved 2T "cougar pants."  They're obviously more comfortable than they look.


Speaking of cougars, somehow Katherine lost her very special cougar claw that friends Anne and Bryan gave her.  I posted these pictures on the community page, but so far no one has found it.



 Parent sanity for these long days.






I thought the girls had gotten dressed up for a photo session, but Emily says that's just what they chose to wear that day and luckily came upon a pretty pond on their walk.







Sweet, sweet girls.  Hugging them seems like so long ago.

Adding this bit because I need to vent, and it's my blog!  And I want to remember how things had deteriorated in July of 2020.

I was on the Snoqualmie Ridge FB page where one person was lamenting the fact that people were actually sneaking into a store to avoid wearing a mask and how the manager was having to chase people down to keep them from breaking her store's policy.  One person shared a completely bogus idea but the latest one today about how masks are no defense against coronovirus and defended it to the end.  Actually, it was also believed by the president of our country, so who can blame her?  Do people actually read something on FB that they like and immediately believe it and spread it around?  Just because the article says "frontline doctors" doesn't make it true.  Do a fact check on those so-called doctors and see how respected they are.  You can always gather a group of people to tell you what you want to believe and take a picture of them.  I'd rather believe actual doctors and scientists and not get caught up in conspiracy hoaxes.  But that's just me.  I'm losing faith in human beings and am terrified for our future.

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