California Dreaming

It's official. I am retiring.  No more scary driving along cliffs, no more vertical hairpin turns, no more roads without guard rails.  After a few days at Yosemite, in the flat valley near Fresno on the way back to Annie's, I wondered out loud why they couldn't put a park there, and sell the views of fields of grass, with an occasional cow thrown in.

Once I did recover from the driving, though, Yosemite is pretty magnificent.  I kind of remember that Peter and Sean climbed up Half Dome. Say it ain't so.  Isn't looking at it from the parking lot good enough?

We were there three nights and did eight different hikes (from a book called Easy Hikes). We ended up at Big Trees Lodge in the southern part of the park, and we both thought the place had Grandma and Pop written all over it. White porch railings, battleship gray porch floors, old window panes.  Just wonderful.

We had gone to Yosemite to give Annie a little break from hosting her parents. She took us to a Friday night museum event in Oakland that was a lot of fun (with food trucks) and a very diverse crowd.  We also met up with some Peace Corps friends, and we all went to a Giants game on Fathers Day. Then, we got a sneak-peak at Doordash headquarters (very cool, lots of computers and free food and nice colleagues, with an emphasis on youth).  

I'm not the first person to notice that California is a little different, a bit of a trend setter.  For example, it was the first time I saw an animal relief station at an airport (SFO).  I can't imagine, don't really want to imagine, what it looks like inside.  Are there fire hydrants?  Also, I should just take a picture of the shoes we saw and post it. I think the economy is booming on just the different styles of footwear.  

A wonderful trip but we were happy to get home, even though the grass is long.  The garden survived our absence, thanks to Timmy scaring the groundhog(s?)  We have our best crop of strawberries - red all the way through, and have enough lettuce to feed all of Pittsfield.  Asparagus too. 

On the red-eye flight home, I woke up to see Mary watching Free Solo, the movie about Alex Honnold climbing the face of El Capitan without ropes.  Of course, we watched the whole thing again that night at home.  It was easier since we know he made it. Recommended watching even from someone so queasy about heights as me.  From the safety of your living room sofa.  It doesn't mean I'm not retired from scary driving though.

Joe got home on Saturday too, after a summer break in Portugal with Leonor's family.  Thomas has been there for the month of June and is picking up a few words in Portuguese, and his soccer skills have vastly improved. Lots of time at the beaches, which look spectacular and with friends and family. 

We talked to Margaret who had spent a week in Uruguay, and she got home just before the country shared a power outage with Argentina.  Otherwise, she might still be there.  Pretty nice country to get stuck in, though.

Mary's still struggling with her hand/arm issues.  The therapist said that the recovery was slow and setbacks followed signs of improvement.  Frustrating.

Other than that, can't go through June without thinking of Pop's birthday and their anniversary, as well as David and Paula's anniversary.  Nice memories.

Hope everyone is well, and thinking Poconos!  Love from up here.

Really?

The whole month of May without a weekly letter?  Inexcusable.  But still I have a thousand excuses: gardening, exercise, travel to DC, visitors, lifelong learning classes, Mary's operation.  Wait a minute, that's what the weekly letters are supposed to cover.  Two more comments on letter writing:  first I read a story about the lost art of letter writing and how we're communicating digitally with an emphasis on short and quick content.  Second, I just finished a short piece on Richard Holbrooke, the diplomat who negotiated the Dayton Peace Accords to end the war in Bosnia.  That article drew heavily on letters that Holbrooke wrote as a young Foreign service officer in Vietnam.  What will historians have to draw on in the future, without this kind of letter?  Tweets, I suppose, sadly.

Anyway, the letter has been on my list for some time, so here goes, finally.

What's on your coffee table?  Andrew sent along the picture here that goes a long way of summing up both our times (Muellar report) and his times (grandparenting and taking care of elderly parents.)  

This reminds me of one of my favorite parts of the Sunday NYTimes that asks authors to list what they have on their night stand.  Unfortunately, for me, my nightstand is filled with guilt, all those books and magazines I haven't read yet.  What does your reading table (by the bed or in front of your couch) say about you?  Send your photos to popsweeklyletter.bubba@blogger.com and we'll all get to see what you're up to, through your books and magazines.

Here in western Mass, our lives are still revolving around Mary's ongoing health (back, arm and hand issues) and I know she doesn't like to dwell on them.  Her second surgery to free up space on an impinged ulnar nerve in her elbow went well, but she was disappointed in the lack of immediate or even quick recovery.  Now, a few weeks later, she is starting to see signs of progress, but as doctors and other medical folks have told her, nerves take a long time to heal.  She has a good occupational therapist now and she is conscientiously doing weird exercises with foam blocks, silly putty and broom sticks (there's a Jeopardy clue, for you - what are tools to help you recover from nerve damage in your hands.)  

Speaking of Jeopardy, we did manage to catch a couple of recent shows of Jeopardy with James, including one where he almost lost (if not for a late daily double) and the one he did lose, to a Princeton graduate, I might add.  

 

Speaking of Princeton, we saw Peter handsomely regaled in his reunion jacket, and it looked like they had good weather for the P-rade and other festivities.

And, speaking of other festivities, we went to a noted bar/performance venue in Shirley Mass called Bull Run, and saw Sage Leger (Cara and Brian's daughter, John and Marilyn's granddaughter) as lead vocalist in her band do the opening for a New Orleans Blues Band.  Quite a performance, and we admired the 10th grade Sage carry off guitar and vocals for the band.  And, she had earlier in the day had a vocals recital.  What did I do with my youth?  Don't go there.

Earlier in the month, John and Marilyn had come north and stayed with us for a couple of days.  Johnny too is slowly recovering from his shoulder surgery.  They came up for another granddaughter's (Hayley, Heather's daughter) graduation from University of Rochester,  Hayley will do a year of medical research and is planning on applying to med school.  I ask myself the same question form the previous paragraph.

And, of course, speaking of Rochester, David called one night to ask about going in on a house in Indian Hill that was for sale.  Former owner?  Marvin Lewis, former coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.  

As hard as I am trying to find a transition, I can't, so I'll just head off in another direction: Washington, where we headed last week for our monthly check-in on children and one grandchild, before he is off to Portugal for the month of June.  He is growing up so quickly, with words now and much more sure-footed.  We had the joy of picking him up at day-care a few days, and didn't even mind the traffic going in and out of the city, since he regaled us with squeals of delight whenever he saw a piece of construction equipment.  We stayed with Margaret and Andrew, and it was nice to see Andrew with more free time, now that his classes are over.  Leonor made us dinner one night and we had a barbecue at Margaret and Andrew's another night.  We also had time to check in on friends, including the man from Libreville who helps set up our projects.   

We had hoped to see Peter and Janet on the way down, but Peter had a crunch day with legal filings and other assorted things that I am not sure I would ever be able to grasp.  (Aside, I am reading through the Muellar report myself - just finished volume 1 - and am amazed at all the lawyer details that are included.  Among other things, I should add.)

In between, we were able to get the garden up and running. That means compost and mulch hauling and raking out flower beds. We have added two rhododendrons and a dogwood tree to the yard; we have been eating asparagus, rhubarb pies, lettuce and we see strawberries on the way.  Optimism includes beans, tomatoes, carrots, beets, more lettuce, squash and cucumbers, if we can keep the groundhogs at a distance.  Timmy is helping with that as he comes over and is poised to hunt down the groundhog he calls Stubby; actually, they're all Stubby.  I've used bear spray, ammonia and moth balls in their holes. so it's an all-out shock and awe campaign.  I think we all know how this is going to end.  

Looking forward to this month, with trips to the Cape, California and northern Vermont.  July and August we plan on sticking close to home.

And happy birthdays, to Sean and Matthew and did I mention Mothers' Day came in the middle of all this excitement?  IF not, happy belated day, as we're still in the month-long festivities.

And that wraps it all up.  Love from up here.