NOTES ON A SUNDAY MORNING

           It’s a beautiful day in the Gorge. 69 degrees with a slight breeze. A far cry from the heavy rain/windstorm we had last night.  I'm skipping Church this morning to keep an eye on Vale.  He's had a cold/sinus/allergy problem for several weeks, and yesterday, he was a lot worse than he's been and felt even worse this morning.  I was ready to take him to the ER for a prescription of anti-biotics, but he seems better this afternoon  Still, I felt I should be around just in case!!  I've heard numerous complaints this season:  "I've never had allergies until now."

 

Dad has spent a lot of time in the yard this spring. Most of his efforts have been to trim back our many trees which were damaged in the ice and snow this winter. We can see that we’ve lost one or two bushes/shrubs but no trees. 

See the lilac bush by the shed?  It has a triumphant tale to tell.  We've had the bush for about ten years, and it's never been more than about the height of the wall, and it's produced exactly one bloom each year.  I think the experiences of some of the other bushes who've been trimmed way down to their underwear taught the little lilac bush that he'd better do something or he may suffer extinction.  So he's shot himself right up there.  Hope he continues and starts a family--I've always wanted lots of lilac bushes.

In addition, as soon as there was one moderately "good" day, Dad loaded his truck with his saws and awls, his compadre, Astro, and his Gene Autry cd and headed for the woods.  To my delight, his trips to the woods are in full view of our friends the Kings and the Matosiches, so I don't worry about him quite as much.  In addition, he's bought several cords of wood from the Boy Scouts. There's more wood behind the tree.  Now he has to split all of it.  Since Vale won't be here for Scout camp, he hasn't been in on the woodcutting project.  When the Scouts came to deliver the first cord, Dad sent the entire troop in to the house to roust Vale out to unload the pickup.  They were quite impressed with Vale's new man cave.

   The picture's a bit dark.  The black head in the middle is Vale with his headset.  On his right is Uncle Garth's old recliner which is where Vale usually sits.  On his left is all of his "stuff...clarinet, guitar, game cds, etc.  It's a touch life Vale leads.  If you look right in the center of the other picture, you'll see Vale.  He's in Concert Choir.  .

As for me, in addition to being Vale's chauffeur and taskmaster and the housekeeper, I'm into my usual:  genealogy, indexing, and quilting.  On the genealogy front, I discovered Mark and Debbie's mother's genealogical line.  Turns out there's a lot of blue blood running through those veins; they're descendants of the kings and queens of France and Spain.  For Indexing, I'm working on the 1940 Census.  Indexing is a job of processing the original sheets into the computer, which has been interesting and quite informative, as well as dull.  For 2 or 3 days now, I've been doing a neighborhood in Brooklyn which is full of surnames from many Eastern European countries.  I indexed the family of Samuel Cohen, whose son is Isidore Cohen.  I knew Isidore Cohen was a famous name, and, sure enough, he was a well-known chamber musician and violinist with the Julliard Quartet.  I also indexed a family in Bremerton.  The father in the family was Merton Wells, who was in his 80's when we knew him.  The ward was so desperate for Scoutmasters that Mert was still a Scoutmaster when Mark joined.  When Mark got ready for his first hike, we simply couldn't afford a backpack for him, so Mert brought his over for Mark.  It was his WWI pack made of canvas and boards!  As a mom new to Scouting, I dutifully packed every single item on Mark's list into the pack.  The list for the overnight campout included a set of winter clothing even though it was July and enough packaged meals to last for a week!  As Mark got ready, I was trying unsuccessfully to hoist the monstrosity onto his tiny back.  I could hear Mark yelling, "Julie, please quit pushing down on the pack!!"  Fortunately, one of the other Scoutmasters heard of our plight and brought us a different pack.  However, I've never forgotten Mert's kindness on that occasion.  I'm also still quilting.  I'm still working on Tom's quilt, which I mentioned in an earlier blog.  Half of the queen-sized quilt has been hand-quilted.  I'm also making quilted couch covers for our old couches.  They are designed, one top is finished, and I have 27 blocks out of 64 done on another, so I'm cooking along.

We are always concerned about all of you and wish we heard more from you, but we know how busy your lives are.  Both of us have become hard of hearing.  It makes for lots of jokes between us, but it is also a challenge.  We often don't hear the phone even though we're home.  If you call, and you don't receive an answer, try again.

Love from here to each of you.  Mom

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.  "It's the same thing," he said.