A few days away

My computer will be getting an annual service or whatever. I will be reading blogs from another computer that doesn't want to let me comment.

Something that made my world a little nicer:

I was taking my daily, well almost daily, walk a few days ago. I walk through a nice neighborhood. A young mother and her baby--he is about 8-10 months old--were sitting in the open garage door. As I passed the baby was talking. I looked over and he was throwing me kisses--lots of kisses. I thanked him, threw a kiss back and smiled at his proud mother. My walk was no longer boring exercise.

week in review

Friday afternoon and I thought of taking a nap but there is too much to do. So...I guess I'll sit here at the computer for a while.

Wednesday a dance friend planned a surprise dinner for Paulette. She was surprised when we started arriving at the restaurant. She thought she was having dinner with one person. We had a very good time and as you might expect the conversation was mostly about dancing. I took two pictures of her and her eyes were closed on both of them. At least she had clothes on; at her third birthday party she wore only her underpants.

I bought tires on line. That was Tuesday and they are at the COSTCO warehouse ready to be put on. Must call for an appointment. That was easy and I got a good discount.

Smoke from Southern California is drifting up here and making the air kind of icky; but we do not have fires.

Not a very exciting week. Must make some phone calls before everyone leaves their offices for the weekend.

October

October arrives in the middle of my annual sad time. It starts about September 20th and continues until today, October 16. Yes on The anniversary of Bob's birthday my sadness begins to lift. Tomorrow Skyler will be six. I remember being in the birthing room and as the clock ticked past midnight and thought, He didn't make Bob's birthday. The deaths: Mom 9/20, Dad 9/24, Tony 9/25 and Bob 10/9. I'm not saying I curl up in bed during this time but I am aware of an undercurrent of sadness. And I can be extra cranky. Life goes on, and I'm glad.

My favorite month is October. Besides Skyler's birthday, The fall color in the mountains was so magnificant that year. A week later is Paulette's birthday; It was such a beautiful fall day when she was born in Mississippi.
The autumn trees are about to go into "full bloom", the rains have come, the temps are down and I have traded my sandals for shoes. Today the red trees on Highway 13 added a little cheer to the rainy landscape and the Ginko trees are turning lime green before they become giant golden bubbles or triangles.

Birds decorated the partly cloudy sky this morning and the western sky glowed orange and pink and gray from the rising sun. The waterways around Sacramento provide rest stops for the migrating birds and there are different ones every day. When I open a window in the morning the geese fly over with loud honks.

Sweaters and jackets litter the chairs in my living room and office. I don't know why I don't hang them back in the closet.

The first weekend of October Paulette and I went to the Ashland, OR Shakespeare festival. We watched Romeo and Juliet outdoors and it was a way cool play and the temperature was way, way cool. The next afternoon we saw On The Razzle, inside. I thought we were going to be inside on Saturday night but Paulette went to the theater box office and sent me a text message, Bundle up. She had traded As You Like it for The Tempest. Good trade and it was way, way, way cool at the end of the Tempest.

Last weekend we met David and his family in Placerville and went to Apple Hill. All of the orchards, wineries and the Jack Russell brewing company have open house from the end of September until November sometime. They bought pumpkins, apples, Indian corn and squash. I bought everyone a pint at Jack Russell. Paulette bought Apple Carmel Sundaes at High Hill Farms. Yes they are as good as they sound. Skyler and Shae rode the ponies that walk in a circle. A California substtitute for Bubba.

I had yesterday off and finally took my car in to have the driver's side window motor fixed. It cost a lot. I didn't work because it was Columbus Day. Yes I know that holiday was last Monday for most of the country but the Dixon School district decided on the 15th.

Hawaii pictures

OK so I haven't been to Hawaii for about thirty years. My MAC teacher David was amused when I said I think I'll mess with my family's mind. Grammatically that sentence is a loser.

Anyhow I was practicing how to get my photos into this blog form I-Photo. Those photos are random ones from the computer at the Apple store. Now I know. I'll be working on something this weekend.

I went skiing on the big island Then to maui and the beach.

Fall is just around the corner

Patty Sousa, our weather person, was right. It was necessary to be outside on Saturday and Sunday. Now I have lots of inside stuff to do. I'll get to it in a minute.

Sunday I joined my Sacramento Walkingsticks friends and we went for a hike in the foothills. We started at a place called Weimar. People with TB were sent here for treatment and kept away from the rest of the population. The hike was wonderful with a hill to climb called Cardiac Hill. We all made it just fine. We walked through a tunnel of manzineta trees. The reddish brown branches meeting over our heads. Then we walked past two of the cemetries. One by four boards with numbered brass circles nailed to them mark the graves. So many succumbed to TB in the past.

Today the weather continued moving toward cold. I will be out of my sandals by November 1.

good times

Last weekend I drove to Reno after work and lunch and a couple of errands. I left Sacramento at 2:30 with the knowledge that I would probably have to sit in slow and go heavy traffic--Yeah for the new lanes on I80 around Roseville or some miracle in the traffic world. I didn't even have to take off the cruise control from the time I entered the freeway. I made my stop for coffee in Truckee and there were many many parking places. They have pay parking on the street but it is so cool. There are these little boxes that take cash or credit cards and you can buy 15 minutes for 25cents. I put a 30 minutes ticket on my dash and dashed into the Pieper cafe for a cup of coffee. The help was indifferent to having a customer come into their establishment and I might have walked out except they have very good coffee. Coffee in hand I returned to my car with time to spare. I rolled into David's driveway 40 minutes later.

Skyler and Shae answered the door shouting "Grandma!" Nice. Sterling gave me the once or twice over from the floor and went back to her toy. Skyler wanted to show me his pitching skills and Shae wanted to show me the new cats they have. David told them "Let Grandma rest a little; she just drove a long ways and she's old." Later, Shae said, "Grandma, why are you old?"

We overslept so missed the Dawn Patrol at the balloon races but watched as they inflated the very colorful balloons and went home to breakfast.

WE played until everyone was tired and cranky and took naps. Sterling decided I was good enough to hold her and play with her.

I got home about 9:30pm Saturday night.

Spent Sunday doing all that maintenance stuff.

Our channel 10 weather person is so excited about this weekends weather--I want to find things to do outside. I will do some dancing and walking.
Janell have fun cooking. Sue, go golfing. Shirley, finish that remodel and get some pictures out there.