Karen's Birthday

Today is my sister's birthday. So of course I couldn't let the day pass without notice. I gave her, her actual present several weeks ago She had been sleeping on the couch in the living room for who knows how long because it had the only television in the house. She really wanted one in her bedroom, but wouldn't buy it for herself. Then we were in one of the local stores and they had smart TVs for almost black Friday prices. My brother and I went halves to get one for her. She has been enjoying it and sleeping on her bed, in her room ever since. But still, she needs a bit of something to mark the day. I left her a goody bag on her key chain hook after she went to sleep. And I adorned her FB page with this cartoon. You know, I just have to remind her I'm THAT SISTER...

Yeah. you've just got to celebrate the day, ya know.

Happy Thursday.

Early Morning Conversations

I was knitting and watching a documentary on Netflix about how the brain works. It was about 11:00 pm Pacific time and I was thinking that I needed to get to bed so I could be up in time for the Wednesday Sit and Knit group. Then I got a text message from Mollie.

"It's a bit strange but I just watched Stepmom with a couple of friends after work. I want to know what you thought of it when you first saw it, when you were sick, and now."

What a loaded question. The movie came out when I was getting a divorce from my ex-husband. Within two years, I was a single mom battling cancer. Mollie was roughly the age of the daughter in the movie. That was about as similar as the movie got to our own realities. But she found a dvd of it at a second hand store and watched it incessantly.

We talked until 5 am Pacific time, discussing a lot of our perceptions and feelings around the time. What we decided is that Hollywood is very good at making life look neat and pretty; wrapped up in great houses and happy endings. It rarely gets divorce or cancer right, and wasn't a good measure of what our reality was. Does divorce ever leave peoples lives that unscathed?  I'm fairly sure that it would have been impossible to hide my cancer treatments. Especially after my hair fell out. Magical mid-night horse rides on snowy nights are hard to come by. And people who are dying do not have the energy to create memory quilts. Or even the time between medical appointments.

Mollie told me that she was embarrassed to be re-hashing 11 year old feelings again. I told her that she was 11 and that the situation she was in was too complex for an 11 year old to deal with. She needs to work it out now that she can comprehend the reality of it.

The good thing for her is that I didn't die, leaving her to be raised by the evil stepmom...;0)

I Stand Corrected

After I read from everyone that they didn't think people could get colds from pets, I did the logical thing. I Googled it. Turns out, in fact people can't get colds from pets. Pets do get colds, but they aren't the same viruses that infect people.

This shows the kind of thinking I grew up with concerning health. With seven kids we were taught to cover our coughs and sneezes, wash our hands and not to share food or drink to prevent spreading whatever grunge that was going around. But we were also told a lot that can only add up to superstition. You know the kind of things like covering our ears in cold weather to prevent ear infections and not going outside in cold weather with wet hair to keep from getting colds and flus. If we did get sick, it had better be able to be cured with baby aspirin and gingerale, or we'd likely die from it. So as a result, my sister and I have some strange ideas about health. Disabusing myself from most of it has taken time. And as you can see, the process is ongoing. My apologies for spreading false information.

The Heir and The Spare

The cats (the real ones, not the three little kittens) had a cold and sneezed on my sister. So Karen got the cold and had it all of last week. I tried very hard to follow precautions. Nonetheless, my brother got the cold on Thursday and I woke up with it on Saturday. Saturday was the day that the three little kittens came over to go to the festival. It wasn't a great time to be sick, but I was. I went to bed after the kittens went home and slept through most of Sunday and very late today. I woke up after noon feeling greasy and smelly because I sweat out my fever overnight.

After showering I decided that my grungy bed linens needed a good wash too, so I changed them and put fresh linens and a clean quilt on my bed. I no sooner had the bed made than Max (the cat looking at the camera) decided it was safe to take a nap on it. And since he'd made himself comfortable by the window, Ghost had no choice but to take up residence in the center of the bed. They are comfortably napping free from my grungy cold germs. I on the other hand am still washing the other set of linens and wishing that I had room to curl up too.

As a side note. On Friday, thinking that I had dodged the cold I got my flu shot. So now Karen is convinced it caused me to come down with the cold. I just don't understand the thinking. Now in her mind, the flu vaccine not only causes the flu, it causes colds too. Never mind that the whole household came down with the cold sans the vaccine. I just have to wonder.

And in case you were wondering, I did suggest that it might not be a good idea to have the three little kittens over on Saturday. But no one was having any of that. I'm sure they come up against worse germs every day at school.

Thank goodness for ginger tea and honey. I think I can cope.

Three Little Kittens

There are three little girls who visit our household regularly. Their mother is my nieces ex-lover, and they came to view my sister as a grandparent. Their father and the other grandparents choose not to participate in their lives and my sister is more than happy to fill in the gap. Fortunately for them neither my niece nor their mother see any reason to deprive them of the one grandparent who chooses to be there for them. So the three little kittens still visit often.

They came to visit on Saturday to go to the Main Street Festival with us. Karen particularly wanted to take them because the last time they visited we were in the park and a private party had a bouncy house set up, but the girls were not invited to the party. I hate to have to be the one to tell a kid that they can't play with the others. The festival offered a bouncy house and this was the opportunity to make it up to them.

My sister went to pick them up early in the day, but when they got here they didn't want to leave. They wanted to do the things that they can do here that they can't at home, which is watch TV, eat ice cream and take a bath. They do not have a television service at home. They have a shower, but no tub and their freezer is too small for tub of ice cream. My sister provides a constant selection of new books, puzzles and art supplies for them, that they enjoy. And my brother made them a swing and bought them bikes and a wagon to play in the yard with. So they like to be here...a lot. It was just as well, because it was the middle of the afternoon by the time we made it to the festival. All the other kids had come early and gone home for naps by the time we got there. The three kittens had the bouncy house and all the games, face painters and sand crafts to themselves.

We let them play until they tired out and then treated them to a lemonade and a cupcake. I tell you, I need to start a bakery. The baker charged us five dollars each for the cupcakes It was nothing fancier than piped icing with a mallow cream pumpkin on top. The cupcake itself was dry and the icing was way too sweet. There was nothing about it that was worth the price. If you think of it, there are 24 cupcakes to a batch of cake batter. So if you do the math that's $120 for a cake. A decent cake mix and the frosting might have cost me $10. A whole bag of the pumpkins can be had anywhere for $2.50. The girls could have had a tray full of cupcakes for less than the 3 we bought.

 But here's the truth about it, he didn't have his prices listed. And if he did I would never have offered them to the girls to begin with. You can be sure that I will never stop at his booth at another festival. Even if he'd sold them for $3 each, I wouldn't have been so offended by his price and would treat the girls whenever he was around. His greed has lost me as a future customer both at festivals and in his store. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who feels this way.

My niece works in a bakery, and my sister used to do catering. I am seriously considering renting a booth at future festivals to give him a run for his money. Two and a half to three dollars is a fair price. And I'm very confident that I can make a better cake and my icing will at least have flavor beyond sweetness. I really think that I can do better. I might even call my booth "A Better Slice of Cake"

#OverProtectiveness

My brother got a package in the mail yesterday. I'm kind of surprised because he doesn't shop, not even online. But I suppose this was something that had been bothering him. If he had told me what he was going to do, I would have told him not to. He's been concerned about my safety on the bike and the safety of my sister while she is out after dark. He bought us stun guns. They are more like heavy duty stun flashlights. Really, just hitting someone with this thing will cause damage without discharging it. But it's discharge is fearsome. I don't know what to think about this. He was so proud of himself, I hate to say something negative about it to him. What's more, my sister is actually excited about hers. And he also bought one for our niece and his daughter. Serial killers in the PNW should be wary of people sporting flashlights. They may be more potent than they appear.

After I received my unexpected gift, I was off to the evening version of Sit and Knit. I had planned to ride my bike, which unsettled my brother. It would be dark for my half mile ride home. He insisted that I take his van. Dinner took a bit longer to prep than I had anticipated, so I took him up on it just to not be late. I like this group more than I liked the afternoon group. There was no assortment of fake service dogs peeing on the floor. And the conversation was more of normal things, children's homework woes and car mechanics, etc. Unfortunately this group only meets every other week.

Jen (the owner of the knit shop) signed me up to help the store with a Yarn Crawl that is happening the first weekend of October. I'm not getting paid, per se, but I can taste the wines and will get the patterns and mini skeins that will be given to participants. Also, I will be able to meet a lot of people in the crafting community in the area. I'm hoping that there will be more people like the ones who are in the evening group than the morning group.

Blustery Day

The weather has definitely changed, and I did not sleep well last night. So the blustery weather lulled me all day. I did nothing of use. Mainly I watched the rain outside my window and drank some ginger peach tea that I bought at Pike Place Market at the beginning of the summer.

The weather reminds me that I haven't gotten my flu shot this year. I mentioned it to my sister and she rather proudly told me that she and my brother never get one. If I have to sit through one more person telling me that lie story about the shot giving them the flu I think I'm going to scream. A dead virus did not give you a live infection, period. If nothing else, all those chemicals everyone goes on and on about should kill anything nasty lurking in the syringe. Give it up. Tell me why you really don't want the vaccine. Is it that you enjoy having the flu every year? Please just admit that you don't like being stuck with needles and we can both walk away from it with our pride intact. Tomorrow my task list includes finding a pharmacy that will give me the shot and returning the 7th season of "Game of Thrones to the library. I'm glad that I tested out my rain poncho. I will need it while I am out and about.

I will probably try to attend the Sit and Knit session at A Little Knitty, the yarn shop that I have been going on and on about. I have made friends with Jen, the owner and I think I'd like to give it another go. If for no other reason than to encourage the new found friendship. Hopefully I can find a few other friends while I'm there.

Speaking of friends, I've just received news that 2 more of my breast cancer support group friends have died. One from an apparent heart attack and the other from treatment related cancer.  Years ago I was close to both Kathy and Rosemarie. Though I lost contact with them, it still makes me sad. There are so few of us who remain from that group that held my hand while I went through treatment.

Early Morning

It is the early morning. Last night was the first chilly night of the season.  The temperature went down into the lower 50's. For the first time since I arrived in June all the doors and windows were shut, the fans had been turned off. Princess Pippi slept on my quilt. She wasn't interested in spending the night out chasing mice. Soon, the heater will have to be turned on.

Last night we filled the house with light and celebration. It was my niece's 24th birthday. My sister and I agreed that from our experience, it is the first real year of adulthood for most American kids.  I know that all these transitions are hard for my sister. I went through it 3 times already. But for my sister, it is the barring jolt of the first time, and the emotional sting of the empty nest all at once. But last night we had my niece, her two life long friends, a partner and a child all over to celebrate with us. They are all vegetarians, so I made vegetable soup and French bread. My sister brought home a beautiful cake and some ice cream. There was a party, but mainly it was just a room full of people who deeply care about each other.

Interurben Trail

Saturday started with a visit from my niece. She comes over quite often and it always is a welcome change of pace here. We have been wanting to try out a local café in town called Zola's. So we went there for lunch. I am really so glad that we did. This is a restaurant that I will be frequenting. It's like an unscaled Starbucks with much better food and minus the smell of burnt coffee. I got a nice bowl of ham and bean soup and a pot of tea. It was delicious. The best thing is this place is about a half mile from home and on my way to the knitting store. While we were there a family came in who were vlogging their day out and about. I did not recognize them, so I'm pretty sure that I have never seen their vlog, but they were all dressed out in hip clothes and had a fantastic camera. I like watching family vlogs on YouTube, but still they seemed a bit silly to me, walking around with a large camera pointed at themselves. I wondered what they seemed like to others who may not have understood what they were doing. 

After our outing I decided that I'd needed to get some exercise so I took my bike out for what I thought was going to be a short ride. Then, since it was a good chance to see if the new rain poncho I bought myself was going to be an acceptable solution to riding in rain showers, I decided to try to find the bike trail I'd been looking for. The problem was that I'd been looking for it near the Transit station. But the trail is actually about a quarter of a mile from there beside a different set of railroad tracks. I decided to take the trail south a bit to see if I could find the Outlet Mall. It was a fairly easy ride, but I wonder about the wisdom of it's use. The trail, though well maintained, seems to be a corridor for homeless campsites. While I was on it, it was well travelled, but I'm leery of using it after dark. It's too bad really, because the trail offers bike access to several of the nearby towns. A Google search doesn't really show much crime reported on the trail, and one person on a forum put it intellectually, "Most homeless don't want to mess with others because they know that reported crime will cause them to have to move." I'm glad I found the trail, and I will continue to use it in day time hours until I feel more certain of it.

My ride on Saturday had me riding about 10 miles all totaled. And yesterday I was a bit lazy, though I did give the dog a walk. My sister wanted me to go shopping with her and it yielded a revelation to me. Since I've gotten here both my brother and sister have been offering advice: "Stay off of the alley ways." "Don't go on Auburn Way, Main Street, etc." "Avoid the underpasses" Then I noticed that while driving, she was going in circles around town. I do believe that she wanted to think that some of the stores in the area are much farther away than they really are. I was a bit put off by that, but I do know she means well. I can see the benefit of caution.

Today I decided that I did need to get out a bit. I rode over to Safeway, about a half mile away and picked up some bread and items to make soup this evening. While I was riding I noticed this tree. So much of this area is forested with evergreens that I don't see many signs of fall. This was the first that I have noticed turning for fall. There are other signs that Autumn will be on us soon, birds flocking and squirrels harvesting the seeds from the beautiful sunflowers that I have enjoyed watching all summer. But this is the first solid sign that I've seen that it is here. I thought about calling Beverly to send me pictures of the beautiful fiery foliage that Atlanta can have, but then remembered that they are still at least a month out, and are having temperatures in the 90's.

I have been warned that there are more warm days ahead, but it's kind of hard to believe when I'm looking at scenes like this.

Pseudo Autumn

It was 2:30 pm and a yellow jacket flew into my room. It was looking of a supply of nectar to ensure survival for the hive through the winter. In the south they get mean this time of year and will sting without being provoked. I'm not sure if that holds true here, but I don't want to find out the hard way. So I put away some essential oil soaps that I bought earlier in the week and opened the window wider to let it find it's way out.

As thoughts do, mine have a way of intertwining in ways that probably makes sense only to me. I realized that I had not eaten anything since 8:00 pm yesterday, and while I wasn't really hungry it isn't wise to go so long without food with diabetes. I suppose it was the influence of seeing the bee that reminded me of the honey cake still sitting in the refrigerator. I cut a large slice even though it isn't the best cake I've ever had. After eating it I realized that I didn't check my blood sugar before I ate it, so I don't know how bad such a large shot of sugar is going to be. I have gotten very sloppy in my management.  It was 154 an hour after eating the cake, so I'm not too worried.

The temperature yesterday got back up to 80 F, but wasn't too unbearable because of a nice breeze. I decided to go out for a spin on my bike. It wasn't too bad considering the weather and getting myself lost in neighborhoods that I've never been to before. Overall, the experience has given me new confidence that I can find my way home. Though I'll admit I considered flagging down a police office to ask for assistance. I have found that Waze does not work very well if you are a pedestrian. I think that the satellite isn't sensitive enough to tell you are moving if you are travelling below a certain speed limit. Anyway, the screen is difficult to see when I'm outside. Today only got up to 61 and was overcast. The weather stations say that this is the last gasp of summer and fall has arrived, but my sister says not to trust it. She says that it can get quite warm sometimes if  October. It seems weather is fickle no matter where you live. 

There is a pedestrian and bike trail in the area. So far I have been unable to find a point to get on it. I was looking for it yesterday when I went out. If I could find it, other than on a map, I will have a reasonably flat access to most of the towns nearby. I plan to keep looking. but I did not today and I was glad for it. About 20 minutes after I thought about going out it started raining hard. It did so for about 45 minutes and then stopped. 

My sister and I went out to the grocery store afterward. Then we took the dog out for a walk. He wasn't behaving very well today, wanting to pull on the leash and go to areas that we didn't want to walk him. We brought him home and he immediately went to his bed and dug himself under his blanket to mope about the shortness of his walk this evening. That only lasted as long as it took my brother to go to the local Pick-Quick to get burgers for dinner. The dog loves hamburgers and fries. It is one of his favorite things. 

We spent the evening watching a show on Netflix called "The Family". As a Christian Democrat, I find the show very unsettling. It speaks about how a secret cult wrapped in Christian teachings has been controlling Washington DC for decades. It's good to know about, but I'm not sure what can be done about it. Now I just want to do something mindless for the rest of the evening.