RETURN OF THE RAMBLIN’ MAN.

Jim arrived at my house late in the day on April 22nd, only to find me embroiled in projects unfinished and little time to spend together, other than finally having dinner together. On Thursday, it was more of the same. He walked, did fix-ups on his Bronco and I didn’t even know he was gone. For now, that  is just the way it is.

Doug, came by to pick up a kitchen counter I had had built locally and went over paperwork and indoor paint choices and sku numbers for flooring I picked locally that he will  look over when he returns to Oregon in the same chain store.

I gave him a belated birthday present, a rug that I made him 30 years ago was damaged by his cat and needed repair. After six years, the same number of years Jim and I have traveled together, I finally fixed his rug.

The job was much harder than I figured, cutting out old pieces without cutting into the lacing that holds the whole thing together and then adding new wool to old wool for a new border. Lumpy in places, but it will flatten with use.  Lacking  blue wool I used black and then went to a thrift store and found a beautiful blue wool skirt and was able to add some of the right color. It’s useable and in better shape now. I know he treasures that rug.

We don’t normally give birthday gifts. But, while rummaging through my stuff as I try to downsize the junk I’ve collected, I found a greeting card my sister gave Doug at his graduation from High School.

 

It was the biggest greeting card I had  ever seen.  He  got it twice, once from her and now from me.

He is on the road to Oregon this morning as I write. I won’t need to make a return trip  until May 8.

In the meantime, the projects never end. I’m pleased to announce that Mark Miles got my well running and the drought will be much more manageable. It is impossible to know how much water is left in the well, thus I will  be using it judiciously.  Today, I have a helper coming to prune trees that should have been pruned in March. And, so it goes. The march of the responsible home owner. But, I do have wisdom at my finger-tips:

Life is short-Live it.

Love is rare-Grab it.

Anger is bad-Dump it.

Fear is awful-Face it.

Memories are sweet-Cherish them.

 

Bye, for now.

 

 

TWO LESSONS LEARNED

I went to lunch at the American Village in Mesa with my friend Joan Higgins  on Wednesday.  The pies here are renowned and I intended to try a piece.  But, the entree was so filling I never got a chance. Their sign  is really good advice.

I hadn’t seen Joan in two years and that happens with my ramblin’ lifestyle. Joan lives in Miwuk, near me in Murphys.  She’s a snowbird and spends winters in Mesa.

But, on the other hand, ramblin’ means I get to see people I wouldn’t have seen in many more years than that. My cousin Karen lives in Apache Junction. Still in her hospital uniform, we had breakfast when she got off shift on Thursday morning.

Yesterday, I did some  yoga, went swimming while the washing was running, and late in the day, watched an episode of PBS’s Downton Abbey on my computer, a program I’ve become addicted too. It has one more episode to the conclusion.

Joan gave me a great line. She said, “I’m not going on a cruise, I’m not getting a face lift, so I might as well spend it on my kids.”

Two lessons learned:   Eat dessert first, I can do that.  And, I’m not going on a cruise or having a face lift. Might as well spend the money. (It works like manure and makes things grow.)

CONNECTIONS

My neighbor, Jan Stewart, invited Jim and I over for a second Thanksgiving Dinner with her family. Jan is my friend and neighbor.

Her son, Brian, went to grammar and high school with my youngest daughter.

Brian’s wife, Debbie Pendergrast and my daughter were best of friends and have children close in age.

Jan’s oldest grandson, cammeron, is now married with a child of his own and he lives on the road above me and is also my neighbor.

His mother is Jan’s oldest daughter shown here with her first grandbaby. That makes Jan a great grandmother. It sneaks up on you. Suddenly we are the matriarch’s of our families and it only gets better and better. When I was growing up, grandmothers and great grandmothers didn’t look like these two women, youthful and full of fun. May it ever stay that way.

I like the connections and roots of friends, family and neighbors. But, as Jim prepares to leave, I know that you don’t lose those connections by becoming a gypsy and ramblin’ about the countryside as we did most of 2009 and 2010. You just gain friendships and connections as you go. How grateful I am to have met and got to know Jim’s son and family, cousins, Donna and Bob Parker, the Di Paola family, Diane and Bob Comollo, Jackie and Ray Nichol and their daughter Rebecca, Simone and Pat Purcell. Friends, Dolly Giordano and Arthur, Bill and Loretta Gallagher, Jim and Ginnie Palumbo, Sue and Art Lambart, Ted and Sandy Walden, Leo and Fran Perth, Ted and Judy Price, Al Penta, Beverly Malland, Randy Vining, Bob Gambol, Horst and Margo Schnieder, Barbara De La Fuente, Helga Geday, Jan and Larry Seaberg, Debra Vinsel, Kerri Kaufman, Donna Huffer, Bob Parker…I’m probably forgetting someone. Each has become a connection and gives life that same solidity as the roots of home.

Now I have new names to give to my plants. My wandering jew I’ll call Randy…