The Year of the Granddaughters

 Dean and I have six granddaughters and this year they all have special "promotions" that take them one step further along their life journeys. We are so proud of all of them.

Lettie just turned 9, celebrated at Disneyland, wins awards at school, plays piano and is as lovely on the inside as she is on the out.

Emily has just graduated from elementary to Middle School, makes good grades, is an outstanding soccer player, and as lovely on the inside as she is on the out. 

Megan has just graduated from middle to High School, won the silver principal’s award, outstanding achievement in AVID and 4.0. She is an outstanding soccer player, a certified referee, and as lovely on the inside as she is on the out.

Trinity takes that final high school step and will be a senior with really good grades, becoming an amazing cook, and as lovely on the inside as she is on the out. 

Carly takes that final college step and will be a senior and working on her certification as a teacher of learning challenged students and is as lovely on the inside as on the out. 

Kaitlyn is living and working in Germany and will marry her long time love on July 15th. She also is as lovely on the inside as on the out.

Grandpa and Mama Susan are very, very proud of all these young women and their accomplishments and who they are and are becoming. We love them all deeply and dearly and although we don't get to see them often, they are always in our hearts.

Respect and Hope

 We spent spring break week with Michelle's family in Oregon. On our way up, we had lunch at our favorite little restaurant. We were able to eat outside on their patio. My body has been very achy and just to be careful on unfamiliar ground, I used my cane all week. As we were leaving, I was heading inside to the restroom and was walking behind a server with her arms full of dirty dishes. As she leaned her back into the door of the restaurant, she saw me coming. She stopped until I reached the door and pushed it open for me. I thanked her profusely for noticing and waiting. 

As I was leaving, a young couple left just ahead of me. For some reason the young man turned back, saw me and opened and held the door for me. Again I offered profuse thanks for his noticing and waiting. 

There is not a thing that said those two people (a busy server and a young person at play) should stop and wait to hold a door for an old lady, but they did. I was So Grateful. 

Having fallen trying to go through a heavy door on my own with my oxygen in my hand, I am really anxious about doors. Several times over the course of the week, I requested someone open the door for me with a bit of an explanation beyond age for my request. The cane helped, I'm sure. Every time, the answer was of course, a smile, and gracious door holding. 

Not only was respect shown on their part but hope was raised on mine. We read so much negative news about how people treat each other these days, it was really nice to be a part of respect and civility and good old fashioned kindness.

RIP, Archbishop

 Archbishop Desmond Tutu has died at age 90 after a life of fighting apartheid and offering moral leadership to the world. I was incredibly fortunate to meet him once. I was stage managing a large church assembly at which he was the preacher at the opening worship. The processional was designed around the energy of African tradition with dancers holding a golden cloth over the heads of the participants as they walked down the aisle. In the Archbishop's case, he danced down the aisle. His red robes flowing around him as he kept the rhythms of the music. Bless their very America ministerial hearts, the preachers in the line behind him tried their best and were obviously so up tight about moving with that energy in church. My dancer's heart could but grin. 

In the huge convention center auditorium, my crew and I were stationed on the floor stage left of the raised platform. Even though we were in plain sight, we were also invisible as lights and worship participants kept congregational attention focused on the stage. As we moved into the celebration of the Eucharist, the worship leader invited us to pass the Peace to each other. I looked up to see the Archbishop leaning down to take my hand and offer me the Peace of God. He looked me in the eye and blessed me and moved on down the line of "invisible" crew. 

The Archbishop did in that setting what he had done all his life: he saw the invisible ones and blessed them ~ in our case with the Peace of God, in his homeland with a fight for justice and equality. No one from that stage (and I stage managed a number of those assemblies) had ever reached down and acknowledged our presence just off stage left in plain sight but invisible. 

The world was made better by your presence in it, sir. May your heavenly dance continue. 

ER

I had a rather nasty episode last week and went to the doctor to get an antibiotic. He couldn't find anything and, although he admitted he might be overreacting, sent me to the ER for a cat scan of my brain. Whoa! I admit to being scared. Well, they ran a battery of tests and everything was negative. You can be very busy in the ER as they take you here, there and everywhere, move you through this machine and that machine and poke you in this arm and then that arm. 

They found nothing except a rather low oxygen level. They ordered the oxygen too late in the day for delivery and so they sent me upstairs to an observation room for the night. Interesting situation when you left home at 11:30 am expecting to be home in an hour. I did discover the toothpaste and toothbrush they provide so that helped. 

I came home with several oxygen tanks and a permanent oxygen machine was delivered about an hour after I got home. So - for now I am on oxygen 24/7; I have home health care to work on balance because there is still some vertigo symptoms present; and I miss my workouts with my trainer. It is my goal to get back to those as soon as possible. 

ER observations: everyone is friendly, helpful and tries to figure out what may be wrong with you. They will feed you anything you want whenever you want it. If you are allowed food, you may have it. They don't want you to be hungry. However. when you don't get to order breakfast, you get the absolute worst omelet in the world. I found out it is prepackaged and tastes like sand. My egg salad sandwich for lunch was made with real eggs and the salad was crisp and tasty. 

A big sign on the wall of the room said "Call nurse before getting out of bed!" I kept Jorge, my night nurse, hopping. He was great though and stopped once to sit and visit which was really nice. I was very glad to get home. I'm getting better although still struggling with some vertigo and staying on oxygen for a while. Staying inside is easy right now as we are in the middle of an atmospheric river of snow. If I had to visit the ER, I'm glad I made it in and out before the river arrived!

 

Ta-dah! Just Like That ~

 ~ I have a treadmill!! 

Friday night I thought the exercise equipment we had talked about but had no where to go just might go on the front deck. Saturday morning I mentioned it to Dean. By Saturday afternoon, he had gone to Craig's List, found a treadmill for $100 in Tahoe City about 5 minutes from our house, made contact and plans to pick it up Sunday morning. By late Sunday morning, I had a treadmill ~ with some effort on Dean's part of course. 

It's located in the most protected corner of the front deck, covered in a never-before-used grill cover which is perfect in case the snow does blow. Last night it snowed, coming straight down but I was still glad the treadmill was covered. I'll just bundle up to take my morning walk. I'm so pleased we found it, bought it, and set it up before the snow came. Dean's timing around snow arrival has been great this year so we are ready for winter and I am ready to enjoy my morning walks on my front deck. 

Age Adjustment

 As I grow older, and I have to admit I am growing older, I am learning it is wise to make some adjustments to compensate for that fact. This week it came in the form of making apple sauce. 

Traditionally I would put the crate of apples on the counter and cut and chop and cook and blend until the whole crate was gone and apple sauce was in the freezer. 

This year I found lovely Apple Hill apples at our Farmers' Market and chose a lovely selection to mix into the blend for apple sauce. Then my body aches started - my personal trainer even sent me home from our session when he saw the way I was walking into the gym. I ached. And I had apple sauce to make. What to do? 

Well, think about it, Susan. The whole crate doesn't have to be used all at once. Solution: yesterday I made two pots of apples. Today I made two pots of apples. Tomorrow I will finish the crate. Once the apples were cooked, I let them cool while I ate lunch and took a nap. Then I blended them and put them containers to freeze. Done in a way that gives me my terrific (if I do say so myself) apple sauce and at the same time didn't wear me out and made me hurt even more. 

Folks, I don't like to admit to hurting and feeling bad and not being as active as I once was ~ and the fact is, that's the way it is. So, I adjust. I'm learning and every adjustment keeps me moving forward and staying in good shape for 78. I'm grateful for life and all it's flavorful adjustments! 

Country Ham

 

A North Carolina friend sent country ham. Or as my cousins used to say, "coun'ry" ham. We served it up with grits, red eye gravy and fresh squeezed orange juice. Delicious!! The only thing missing was biscuits but Dean had his usual pecan sticky bun and, as you can tell, I had my usual English muffin. So yummy!

So here's a Southern breakfast story for you. We were in North Carolina a few years ago and this friend and his wife took us for breakfast at a restaurant for a real Southern breakfast. I mentioned I was going to have the ham with poached egg. His wife said that North Carolinians may not know what a poached egg is. I tried to order it anyway and our server didn't blink an eye and my egg came perfectly poached and all was well. 

A little over a week later we took cousins to a diner for breakfast. Again I ordered country ham with a poached egg. The server looked at me like I was nuts. "Poached?" she said with a wrinkle in her brow. Quickly I remembered my friend's previous comment and said, "over easy, please". The eggs came perfectly done over easy and all was well. 

My childhood summers were spent in North Carolina where my uncle would also have a Smithfield county ham that he parceled out over the summer both for breakfasts and dinners. I miss having it readily available and am grateful for a friend who knows me well enough to send a care package occasionally. So good regardless of how my eggs are done.