A Day with Kate

Daughter Kate was with me eight wonderful days. I took the most photos when we went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I said “up”, because that parkway is mostly on the ridge of mountains where there are glorious views. We stopped at my favorite waterfall, Sunburst, on the way to the parkway. I took one selfie, but Kate’s was better. As she explained, “I have longer arms than you do.”

We went through a little rain before stopping at an overlook. You can see the clouds behind her. I didn’t vote for rain, but I think the best views are not under a cloudless sky, but with mountains and clouds dancing together.

I often take photos when people are forced to stay still and quiet. Kate had requested deconstructed Norwegian meatballs for dinner while she was here, and here she is ready to eat. The ingredients were taken from my mother-in-law’s recipe. She always formed the meatballs, cooked them, and heated them in beef consomme to be served with rice. Her meals were beautiful, as well as tasty. My version is not pretty, but it is quick and easy.

Kate Arrives!

Daughter Kate drove over 13 hours to get here, and the following day we took it easy, eating barbecue at Butts on the Creek. She can’t get Southern barbecue in New Jersey. I grew up with it in Tennessee and am always eager to have more. We had a lovely view of Jonathan Creek.

Kacey loved all the attention Kate gave her. It’s still a marvel to me that Kate can touch a dog, since she was terrified of dogs when she was young. She has taken the dog outside quite often while I have been busy.

We took the obligatory photo of ourselves at the stop sign.

Our main project for this visit was to burn the garden waste to shrink the burn pile. Kate was watching it smolder, and we ate lunch under the big oak tree while attending it. She did all the hard work, setting the fire and pulling leaves and limbs to the center. We moved Kacey’s stake so that she could be with us all day.

Kate found a small inchworm crawling on my leg, and we couldn’t resist taking a video of it.

Later in the afternoon we worked on the family jigsaw puzzle, a lovely gift from Linda Schaub, writer of the blog Walkin’, Writin’, Wit & Whimsy. Daughter Lise said this year Kate should be the first to work it. She and I have enjoyed it, and I will have another chance to work it when Lise comes.

CAT isn’t Dead!!!

As we walked, neighbor Joyce looked at the house we were passing and said, “Look! There is CAT!”

Sure enough, it was my old friend that used to walk a few yards with me many mornings. I was delighted to see her, having thought she must be dead. I hadn’t seen her in months. She resumed our old routine of greeting, walking a few steps, and stopping for petting before walking again.

As she walked toward me, I took this quick shot. It’s blurred, but I have proof she is still alive. I wondered if she would wait for us to come back and walk with us the opposite way, but there was no sign of her.

Another Walk with Logan

Neighbor Logan (13) is irrepressible and keenly observant, leading to unusual happenings on a daily basis. Since the morning was quite cool for this time of year, he was wearing pants over his pajamas. We had just reached the next street when he suddenly removed his pants. I asked if he would tie the legs around his waist, like people do with sweaters, so that he wouldn’t have to carry the garment. He said, “No, I’ll wear them as a hat.”

A few feet further, Logan played with his shadow. I was laughing as I took this video and was even more amused when I looked at it later. It appeared to me that he was stretching and shrinking his neck! It must have been the angle, because the next few seconds I could see his shoulders going up and down. The first bit had to stand on its own, because the normal part ruined the illusion.

We reached the place where railroad ties hold back a steep hill. There are lots of wild flowers blooming right now, and Logan was looking at them closely. Two pipes help hold up the ties. He decided they needed flowers and promptly arranged some. The next day I looked as I drove past, and they were still there, looking perky. Only dog-walkers might be close enough to notice.

There are peony bushes half way to the stop sign. Logan picked up a spent bloom from the ground, letting the petals fall away. By the time we came back, only the inner petals were hanging on. It looked like a large clove of garlic. He squished it a bit and made it a vase for a daisy-like flower. He has watched the miniature garden with red blooms, just as I have, and that’s where he put his creation. You may not be able to see the red bits, but they are there.

Logan is Fun!

Logan is full of fun, but he can also concentrate on a goal, and currently that is to beat daughter Lise playing Boggle when she comes in July. He is winning consistently against me, but so does Lise. When the neighbors gathered for a Memorial Day cookout, Logan played the game by himself. He was deep into a game when I took his photo.

He quietly exclaimed, “I found an 8-letter word!”

I’m so glad I went right to the table and took a picture. We needed proof of his great find. I texted Lise the photo and challenged her to find that word. She wrote back, “Challenge accepted.” She said later that she found it in 10 seconds. Just in case you want to look for that word, I won’t give you the answer right away. The letters have to be connected by a corner or side, and you can’t repeat the same letter block.

One morning Logan walked with neighbor Joyce and me. He was catching up with me, and I told him I couldn’t see him, but I could see his shadow gaining on me. We were walking by a woody area across from Joyce’s house. I noticed a very loud bird song and said to Logan, “It sounds like someone wound up that bird up too tightly.”

He showed me it wasn’t a real bird. He was twisting a small bird caller to make the sounds. That fake bird tweeted every once in a while for a whole mile!

Another day Kacey suddenly barked toward Logan’s house while we were on the porch. A dog barked back. I thought a second and said to myself that it didn’t sound like Izzy, Logan’s dog. I looked, didn’t see anyone, then spotted Logan facing the other way, cleaning the top of a wall. It was Logan’s “Woof! Woof!” that fooled Kacey and me for a short while.

The 8-letter word on the Boggle board is “remotely”.

One Silly Raindrop

I told the dog that I was going for a walk, and I would be back. When she hears “be back”, she knows I will disappear for a while. She has programmed herself to jump around and act goofy when I return. There had been no rain showing on the radar, so I proceeded confidently. As I stepped out of the garage door, one big drop hit me. My eyes were looking at the windshield of the car, full of big drops, sitting there taunting me. Ugh! I was not going to give up walking just for one falling drop, but I had to consider the hearing aids. Being doused with water could kill them. Turning at the walkway, I went in the front door to pick up a rain jacket with a hood. Kacey was there on duty, throwing herself in the air and having the zoomies. You’d think I’d been gone a week! She sobered up quickly when I went out again. I wore the jacket to the top of the street, then I had to carry it the rest of the way. For the record, not another drop fell on me while walking.

Fog and mist were hanging around, but I wanted to plant a “rocket” Lise had bought at Dollar General. She saw it in the seasonal section, but I read the instructions and waited until the ground was warm enough. Would you assume, as I did, that the item would be rocket shaped? It was a soft, flat mesh full of wild flower seeds. Although the box showed a flower pot for planting, it was too big for that. I cut it in three pieces and put them in the oval bed where Lise had planted tulip bulbs last fall. The tulips had bloomed and disappeared. In the distance I heard thunder. The closer it sounded, the faster I went. I picked up tools and the rocket box, freed Kacey’s tether hooked on a rock, and went inside before we’d been hit by more than 20 drops. We did get a nice spring shower, followed by sunshine a few hours later. I suppose that first silly raindrop knew what was coming.

School’s OUT!

Logan came over the evening school let out for the summer, and playing Boggle was his choice for the half hour we had. We must have played about ten games. Guess how many he won. He beat me nine times!!

He remembered our saying that daughter Lise’s brain was sharper at one part of the day, and my mind was best at the other end. He wanted to play me at my best to really hone his skills. Morning was the answer, so he left, saying he planned to walk with me the first full day of vacation. I looked for him, but he had overslept.

I was walking back from the stop sign when Logan appeared on his scooter. We chatted as I walked, then he said he’d go up a hill and come back. I had already gotten out my camera when he suggested I take a video. He knows how I think!! Or maybe he wanted to avoid repeats. He is very spontaneous, so he often does things as I’m fumbling for the camera. He has always been compliant when I ask him to repeat it. It’s good we caught it quickly, because there wasn’t enough battery charge to play it back.

As we came home, Logan wanted to know what I was going to have for breakfast. I said summer oats with banana and fresh strawberries. Would he like to have some? He agreed, but as we walked in the door he went straight for the Boggle game. First things first! After two games, he said he really had to go home, because he was supposed to take care of the garbage. He left, repeating his scores. I wish I could remember numbers, because those were impressive. We had limited ourselves to four letter words and larger. He had a high teen number and one in the 20’s. I went back to look at my sheet. I had 5 and 13. I hope he went home delighted with himself, because he earned it. He might have been thinking it’s too easy to beat me, but only practice will make him ready to spar with Lise.

Logan’s Boggle Strategy

Last year neighbor Logan (13) wanted to try some new games when he was tired of the old ones. One of my favorites is Boggle, finding words from contiguous letter tiles on a grid. He played it a couple of times, but it didn’t strike his fancy. Weeks later daughter Lise was here, and she invited him to join us in playing the game. This time it appealed to him. We played until she went back to Denmark.

After Logan was here yesterday, I texted Lise, “Logan came over late this afternoon to play Boggle. He won more games than I did, and he certainly had much better words. As he was leaving, he said his goal is to practice on me to get good enough to beat you.”

Of course, Lise and I are delighted. I lose more than I win, but I still enjoy playing the game. Lise is always eager for a challenge. Bring it on, Logan!!

A Short Visit

John’s sister Barbara and husband Thom came for a 27-hour visit. I’m sure we crammed in a week’s worth of visiting in that time. After they left, I sat down and immediately reveled in all the memories. It had been my goal to get news of each of their children and grandchildren – four children and eleven grandchildren. I’ve met all but two. I think at this moment I could tell you at least one distinctive trait or accomplishment for every one of them. That’s due, not to my memory, but to their love of a very accomplished set of people ranging in age from early 50’s to 4. They also told me of church friends in New York that I will always hold dear.

I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed this visit. They took two short walks to counterbalance the hours of sitting in a car. Out on the street they met neighbor Joyce and enjoyed talking to her. I noticed a big difference in Kacey. She didn’t ask to go outside while they were here! She didn’t want to miss a moment of being with them. Barbara should not have touched the dog because of allergies, although she did pet her. Thom made up for it, paying lots of attention to her. She adored him.

We attended my church on line, and it was wonderful to have them singing with me. I was a bit flustered signing in and didn’t think to write in the chat area that they were with me. Both of them assist with communion in New York, and they were interested in seeing how it was done here. We then listened to the Lutheran Hour via computer and a devotion by their favorite speaker. After eating at Bogart’s, they drove to visit her sister Chris and Steve in South Carolina.

Appointment Trials

I think I may have sagged with relief when I came in the house after getting the injection in my eye. One week ago, at 7:12 a.m., the doctor’s office called to cancel all appointments that day and said someone would call after noon to reschedule. Around 10 I was weeding in the garden and fished for the phone in my pocket. I agreed to a new time a week later. As soon as I went in the house, I let Vaughn and Marylynn know that they wouldn’t have to take me to Sylva, a town in the next county. They had kindly agreed to take me when they found out the bus will not take anyone to an out-of-county appointment after 2 p.m. I had no idea they quit so early. The new appointment time was 12:35, and I booked the bus right away.

It’s a bit nerve-wracking to sit near the window watching for the bus. I have to be ready for pickup 1.5 hours before the appointment, and the bus is often in my driveway at that time. On occasion the bus has arrived only half an hour before the deadline, and I argue with myself whether to call and check on it. Then there was the time it came two hours early! Someone had made a mistake. I was basically ready, anyway, and I knew I’d have to sit in the waiting room a long time. Mostly the system works well, but I have to be ready for anything.

I told myself to relax as the bus began to move. The drive to Sylva is a beautiful one through mountains. This day there were two cloudbursts that erased the view almost entirely. Following directions from a tablet, the bus driver turned left instead of right. He didn’t think that was correct, and neither did I. After a short tour in a poor area of the town, we turned around and easily found the office. I was stunned that the waiting room had only a few people in it, since there is often standing room only. The receptionist looked for my name on her computer, and I knew something wasn’t quite right when she wanted my birth date.

She said, “That appointment was canceled.”

I was stunned. How would I know it was canceled? She replied, “You should have gotten a phone call and a computer message.”

I may have told her that I had neither and that I had to call the bus three days ahead to get there. She had pity on me and said she’d check in the back. It seemed to take forever, while my mind was spinning, wondering what was happening. Coming back, she said they were looking to see if they had the right medication in stock. They did! Gratefully, I sat down to wait.

Within five minutes another patient stood at the counter and was told her appointment had been canceled. Aha! I wasn’t the only one left in the dark! The medication she needed was also in stock. Surely that was all that would go wrong. In the treatment room, the assistant made my next appointment for a June date. I agreed to it, then asked her to repeat it because I didn’t have pencil and paper. She reassured me that I would get a notice of it. That reassurance erased the information in my head. I must remember to call and ask for the time and date, because I have no faith at all in their system.

The ride home was uneventful except that sometimes my right eye worked, and sometimes the vision was totally blurred. That was not unusual. At least this time I didn’t have a cobalt blue bubble bobbing around. I never plan anything else on eye injection day, because anything could happen. I had held myself together all day and just had to get inside the house without stumbling. Luckily Kacey didn’t knock me down as I opened the door. I think we were equally glad to see each other.