The last time we
went out to eat, I chose Dragon Shrimp. The menu said there would be
shrimp and broccoli on a bed of rice with a spicy sauce. The
waitress asked if I wanted Bleu cheese or ranch dressing to tone it
down. I declined, not knowing that I would change my mind in a
matter of seconds. I tasted the broccoli first. Yoweeee!! Steam
may not have come out of my ears, but tears rolled down my cheeks.
The shrimp and rice were fine, even though they had the same sauce.
The day was saved with ranch dressing, and I thought no more about
it.
The next morning
the temperature was cool when we walked, in the low 60’s (15.6C).
That’s what it has been much of the summer. I said to John, “I can
see my breath.”
Blowing out, he
said, “I can’t see mine.”
“I know what it
is,” I said. “It’s Dragon Breath!!”
Neighbor Logan and
his dad were waiting for the school bus as we walked to the top of
the steep hill. I asked Logan to pose for a first day photo, which
he did willingly.
Logan’s hands are blurred because he was still moving.
On the other side of the car, John and Bob were discussing whether they had missed the bus. John knew it took us ten minutes to climb the steep hill, and the bus had not passed us. Logan did the floss dance for a few seconds, probably letting off steam and excitement. He declined being videoed doing the dance, but he agreed to recording his getting in the car.
Silly things go on in our kitchen, but I guess that is to be expected. We spend a lot of time there. Grandson David and I remembered John stored boxes of cereal over the refrigerator. I asked him to look, and before I could fetch the step stool, he was standing on the counter. The cereal boxes were there.
Grandson Nathaniel gave me some of his sourdough starter, and I found a recipe for biscuits that I wanted to try. I quit using sourdough when we moved to England in 1980, so I was excited to have it again. When the ingredients were ready to stir together, I was careless and did steps in the wrong order. Nathaniel would have dumped the mess and started over, but not miser me! Oh, no! The biscuits did not brown, and I should have made them thicker. David and I ate them, anyway. Next time they will be a lot better.
When I was putting the leftovers away, I found the angry biscuit scowling at me.
Oregon is much
more beautiful than an angry biscuit. Rose took a photo of John
$pencer with a Sitka spruce tree. The Sitka is the tallest of
spruces and can thrive even when hit by the ocean’s salt spray. It
can live for 700 years.
Rose took my favorite shot of the dog – Sadie observing her kingdom in Glacier Peak Wilderness .
On an August
Sunday, our son and grandsons were on opposite sides of the United
States. Photos show a great contrast of urban living and wilderness
splendor.
Nathaniel and David
We went to church
in Tryon because we were there once before and enjoyed the
traditional Lutheran service chanted by the Pastor. We walked to the
edge of the parking lot to see the lovely stream that runs behind the
church. It’s a good thing I couldn’t see it from the sanctuary, or I
would have been greatly distracted. We had lunch in Landrum, SC, and
I took a photo of David and Nathaniel. David drove himself back home
to work, and we took Nathaniel to Charlotte.
Would you like to see pictures of his dorm? He worked at the university all summer and has just moved to the suite he will share with three others when the next term starts. I’m sure you can label the photos yourself – shots from the kitchen, the living room, his bedroom, and the balcony.
Nathaniel and Charlotte
Johnson &
Wales has an urban campus, smack dab in the downtown area.
Nathaniel’s suite is on the seventh floor. Neat Nate had everything
put away in the kitchen. The living room will come to life when the
others bring in a TV and decorative items. Everything is in place in
his bedroom. I wish I’d taken a shot of his closet where clothing is
sorted – cooking clothes on one side and civilian clothes on the
other. The balcony photo speaks for itself. Nathaniel will share a
bathroom with another fellow. Two bedrooms and a bathroom mirror
theirs on the other side of the kitchen. The four students will
share a washing machine and dryer in the common area. This bears
almost no relation to my college experience of dorm living.
Now for the
contrast. Look at John $pencer’s temporary quarters in Washington.
He was studying a map. They spoke of being surrounded by goats one
night and thankful Sadie didn’t bark.
Rose took a
picture of $ and Sadie on the trail. With a little imagination I can
see my son, but I can’t find Sadie.
$’s joy is visible
as Rose had him pose with a glacier. They heard low noises while
camping near the glacier and are wondering if glaciers make sounds.
Does anyone know?
We had a busy week
with our grandsons. On David’s day off, we went to Linville Falls.
We walked .4 mile on a gravel path and stood on a large flat boulder
to see the low falls.
David and John at Linville Falls
The wide pool
seemed to be a quiet place for the water to gather energy to hurl
itself down the gorge.
Back in the car,
David reveled in the space for his legs. The middle seats had been
removed so that he could sleep on an air mattress at the train club.
As a selfie, this was unusual. I held the camera and had him direct
me for the best angle. My gray hair was watching from the front
seat.
Nathaniel came for
the weekend and cooked breakfast and lunch on his one full day here.
I took a photo of his luscious biscuits. [Biscuit lovers Karen and
Al, wish you could have been here!] Not pictured were the strips of
bacon he prepared for John and sausage links for the rest of us. He
took orders for the eggs, so that everyone had what they wanted.
John chose an omelet, and David opted for scrambled eggs. Nathaniel
and I had our eggs sunny side up. I have never been able to cook a
presentable one, and his were perfection.
Nathaniel’s biscuits
For lunch,
Nathaniel grilled three kinds of brats and the lovely squash neighbor
Logan brought from the garden. I took a picture of Nate’s technique
of eating two brats in a foot-long bun.
One-handed double bratwurst
In the afternoon
Logan came over, and inevitably a balloon made its entrance. The
still shot shows Nathaniel, John, and Logan with the feet of Logan’s
dad.
Logan blowing up a balloon
We were batting the balloon while talking with Bob. I sat there, letting the pocket camera observe the action. Logan seemed to be in two or three places at once. My foot appeared for a second at the bottom of the screen as I kicked the yellow balloon back into action. My apologies to Bob for such a fractured conversation.
John, David, and I all got haircuts in town and shopped at the supermarket before David went to work. That was a rather full morning for us and an early one for David. After lunch I decided to go to Asheville with John, just to keep him company while he had the car serviced. As we tooled down the highway, my phone rang. It was my brother, in his car with Beth and their granddaughter Kate. They had been quite near our home, but they were in a dead zone and couldn’t reach us. They were stopping at the Farmer’s Market in Asheville, which turned out to be 1.6 miles from the car dealership. After our car was ready, we found them packing their shopping in the car. What timing! We drove up the hill to the Moose Cafe to have dessert and a drink. Very few people were eating in the restaurant, so we could stay and talk as long as we wanted to. It was marvelous to have such a pleasant experience when we least expected it.
John, Beth, Kate, and Bob at Moose Cafe
They had a two and a half hour drive back to Winston Salem, so we didn’t want to keep them too long. Good things never seem to last long enough do they?
Neighbor Logan (9)
was waiting patiently for grandson David to finish eating, because
David promised to retrieve the glider from the tree. As he waited,
he played with my free weights. I caught one episode where he
pretended a five-pound weight was terribly heavy.
Of course, Logan
can and did throw the eight-pound weight around. Later David
gathered six weights in one hand and lifted 24 pounds. He declined
to be videoed, but I was impressed.
When
John spent several days at the train club in Tennessee, I sometimes
got the hankering to read a book. Going to the library on the spur
of the moment was often not possible, so checking out an e-book was
the best option. However, it wasn’t easy. I had a Kindle app, the
Overdrive app that was supposed to connect to libraries, and another
one or two that came with the operating system of the computer.
Nothing ever worked seamlessly. I might have confirmation that I had
checked out a book, but I couldn’t find it or get it to load. There
was once when I could read only when the tablet was connected to the
internet. This time I went to the library website and saw a new app
being advertised – Libby. This app worked like a charm! A few key
strokes connected to my local library, registered my card number, and
found the book I was looking for. In addition, it was easy to get
back to the book the next day. It was very difficult to return books
with the other apps. I read this book and returned it on the third
day. Easy as pie!! Have any of you used Libby?
I met
neighbor Joyce while we were both out walking. She passed me twice,
coming and going. As she headed home, I said I could see she was on
a schedule, because she had her phone in her hand. She explained
she walks for a time and jogs for a time. I said, “I just wander.”
Without missing a step, she said, “I think that is WANDERful.”
We
were on the way to bed when David told us he had just seen a mouse
scurrying about his room. Silly us, we went to look at his room,
which was as peaceful and quiet as could be. David made sure there
were no edibles lying about, and I checked the internet to see what
we could do till morning. One article said to put dryer sheets
around. John fetched those, as I moved open packages of food from
kitchen cabinets to the dining table. David said it was about 4:30
in the morning when he heard gnawing sounds. The mouse was biting
down on the bottom edge of the door. Made us wish the paint had lead
in it! We’ll need a quicker death than lead poisoning, though.
On
our morning walk, we bought mouse traps at Sorrells. They still sell
the classic wooden and wire ones for less than two dollars! I opted
for two high-tech plastic ones, and John chose two bait boxes. We’ll
see who wins.
I
had gone to bed at 1 and got up at 6, so I took a nap after breakfast
and after lunch!
Neighbor
Logan (9) was with us for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We
knew his parents wanted him to stay away from the computer, so John
listed the things he did with us. He said,
“He
played checkers, helped do some outdoor work, flew the glider,
watched TV for half an hour, read for 20 minutes, and played a game.
A delight to have! Forgot to say he fed the horses, too.”
Logan
told me of the BEST flight of the glider. His words were tumbling
out of his mouth so quickly that I had a hard time catching them. He
moved his hands in descriptive circles, saying, “It flew around
FOUR times, and then it made a perfect landing on the grass.” Try
saying that in 1.5 seconds!
I
was lucky enough to catch one good flight in eight tries and present
it here with a silent trumpet fanfare.
The
goldfinch didn’t know how silly she looked, peering over the edge of
a yellow flowerpot. I was sitting at my computer and slowly pulled
the camera out of my pocket without disturbing her.
Batting
a balloon about is often too tame for neighbor Logan (9). This day
he made up rules for playing baseball with it. Logan was a blur as
he feigned going one way and then another, trying to make it to home
base without being tagged.
On
a more serious note, Logan forgot to tell us he was not supposed to
play computer games until after he had done it. As penance, John
asked him to read to him three times longer than he usually does. We
think Logan saw the fairness of that.
John saw hot dog rolls on sale at the dollar store. He didn’t realize they were meant for foot-long dogs until he brought them in the house. We laughed and intended to cut them in half, as needed. David stopped me as I approached with a knife, and he put the two brats on one bun. I predicted it would fall apart, but he held it all together until it was finished. David laughs readily at the silly things we say and do. I love that. Laughter is such a gift and is so uplifting.
My name is Suki, my human is a writer, and this is about my world. The world according to Suki The Cat. My humans smell funny, look weird, and I can't understand a thing they say, but they feed me, so hey, what are you gonna do?
Mehrling Muse 