November Family Gatherings and Political Chaos

Our granddaughter Kellie was married on the 5th of November.  We flew to Seattle rented a car and drove to Cle Elum where the wedding took place.  It was a grand time filled with celebration and reconnecting with family and friends.  There were also some family from Sweden that we were very happy to see.

We laughed, cried, exchanged stories, hugged, and danced.  We had great food and wine with people we love and care for.  It is a wonderful life.

November also gave us a new President Elect.  We are in a very unstable and scary time in our country.  This election period was filled with anger, hopelessness, great hope, arrogance, corruption, sadness, and a feeling that for a long time now we have all felt left behind and marginalised by the political and corporate establishment and corporate media of Washington DC.  Most people in politics and the media I think are good people who think they are doing the right thing.  But, they have been swimming in the same dirty and murky water for so long that they need to climb out, take a shower and step away and take a good honest look at what they are doing.

Some might say, "so what else is new"?  "This is the way it has always been."  The difference today is that so much ugliness is being tolerated and accepted to the point it is becoming almost normal.  To this I say be careful, watchful, and very aware of what is happening in our country.  The silver lining in all of this may be that we as a people will become more involved in standing up for our own well being and that some of the establishment will have climbed out of the murky water taken a shower and will see the light of day.  We are hopeful that in the end all will be good.

On a happier note we are preparing for Thanksgiving at our house with family.  It is always such a great time for us when our kids, grandchildren, and friends are gathered together for a feast.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  And, if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving, have a happy time with your family and friends.

Faire and Floors

Yea,  a crazy combination for a title but the two biggest things to report this time around!

When the Photographer invited me on our first date we went to The Renaissance Faire near San Francisco.  It was amazing!  Since then we have attended the event at various venues including Hanford, California, Casa de Fruta close to San Jose, plus  a sweet version of Medeltids Festivalen in Ingelsträde, while we resided in Ryssmöllan near Helsingborg, Sweden.

This time, in late September, we had the pleasure of having "the future Chef" tag along for a day of fun in the sun!  And hot it was!  It was a great day inspite of the temperature!  Cooling off with appropriate spirits and tasty food.  Garbo had fun too, spending the day with her doggie cousins Buddie and Gemma.

The days flew by and it was time to turn the page on the wall calendar to October!  The air is crisp, pumpkins, scarecrows, and tomb stones are turning up on doorsteps, in drive ways and front yards.

Apples are on sale and I find myself thinking about stewed cabbage, brussel sprouts with bacon and  Pumpkin Espresso Cake and such!

We have new floors!  The cream colored  all to wall carpet have been removed (thank goodness) and wood flooring installed.  We love it!  I think Mister Kitty and Garbo does too, except when Garbo gets into her  streaks of excess energy and starts her wild sprints, well..... she ends up with all four paws in four different directions as she has NO traction!  It gets outright scary!

It was a lot of work removing furniture, emptying hutches and the refrigerator, and moving and disassembling a few things but we did it!  Getting things cleaned up and dusted off and ready for the next "Go Around". Now we are back to normal. What ever normal is?

One of the hardest things during the installation phase was keeping track of Garbo and Mister.  With Rocky, the installer, obviously having to run in and out with doors open it was important that we always new where Mister was.  It is harder to lose track of Garbo :-)  Mister felt unhappy about not being able to hang out in the garage during the day.  He likes to hunt out there. He proudly catches mice and we thank him profusely! We shuttled him from the back deck to the bedroom and or to the Photographers office and back again, it all worked out in the end.

It was all a pleasant experience. Not many can say THAT about a home inprovement project!  Rocky did a fabulous job, on top of the fact that it was a pleasure to have him around!  We will seek his help again, whenever we start our next home improvement project, whatever that might be!

Our next big adventure is THE wedding!  We can hardly wait!

Back To The "GRIND"

Should one even utter such a sentence in my situation?  Is there such a thing, when you no longer have to go to work everyday?  It is true, the summer zipped by.  A summer cooler than we can remember.  So for us Scandinavians it was a good kind of summer.  Not too hot.  Not too cold.  Just kind o' perfect.

Presently the tomatoes are ripening at record speed allowing us perfect Lettuce Bacon Tomato Sandwiches.  A summer favorite to be sure.  The kids in the neighborhood are back in school. Working people are getting into their regular routines and traffic is back to the normal snails crawl in  the morning and even longer at evening rush hours.  How so many have to live with that is a bad and sad situation.  Yet there are more cars.  No busses and no other forms of transit, in or out of our little part of our world.

Before returning to our normal rhythm, we had the youngest of our grandchildren here for a weeks visit.  He was brave!  No Ipad, no "gaming" on his Mothers iPhone, no album full of Disney movies and no X Box!  Just the two Old Grumps, a Mister Kitty and Garbo!

We all managed to be entertained to one degree or another anyway.  We went to the movies!  To the dog park of course!  Drove shuttle traffic to Baskin Robins for ice cream and Elliot did not order vanilla once!  We did spend time doing some cooking...... but for now, I see no Chef interest brewing there. E informed us that when he grows up he is going to eat pizza every night!:-)  E flew around our lane on his rollerblades at a speed faster than lightening.  Causing me shivers of fear, making me pray and look the other way!

There was a birthday to celebrate!  A visit from the Seattle duo!  Family dinners on Sunday as is our custom.  A girls night out with some of the yoga and Pilates gang!  Dinner with friends!  And more movies with "Captain Fantastic" getting two thumbs up!  "Hell or High Water" also met with our approval.  Now "Sully" remains on the wish list for viewing.

A fun day was spent at The San Benito Historic Park watching another "chapter" of the civil war reenacted!

We had a great time at the dog park with Cathy, a dear friend from our Mariposa life.  She brought her two young Pyrenees boys Teddy and Paddy for a play date to the delight not only for us and Garbo but everyone  else that regularly hangs out there!  Three Pyrs at the same time is far from the norm!  It was a great afternoon.

Then home here for a well deserved lunch.  It was so much fun!  Fall is in the air.  My favorit season for sure.  Time for stew, soup and more hardy fare.  Good books.  Movie rentals.  Lit candles and snuggle time on the couch.

Farewell  to summer. Welcome autumn!