30 January …

 

Paul’s birthday was yesterday.  He is now seven-years-old.  We had a full house with pizza for dinner followed by brownies. 

 

I measured him first thing in the morning and he seems to have grown about two inches since last year.  (The numbers are dates, not inches.)

 

The party with his school mates will be next Saturday at the radio clubhouse.

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Last Wednesday I had lunch with a friend from my Emergency Department days.  It was interesting to note that our children are now the ages we were when we first met. His wife and I are also friends and I hope to see more of them in the coming times.

 

Lunch was at Jefferson’s Road House in Yreka.  I’d never been there before.  Not fancy, but nice (maybe because it isn’t fancy).

 

Then I had to get back down to Mt Shasta for the food sharing at the church.  I made it only ten minutes late. The person in charge of the food sharing changed last time and there is a new routine.  It used to be that we gave each person a bag and let them fill it themselves from a line of tables with the food stacked up.  Now we fill bags and line them up on a table.  This time the sharing (which is mainly dried or canned this time of year) was oatmeal, mushroom pasta sauce, two kinds of beans, peaches, pears, carrots, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, frozen salmon, frozen Alaskan pollock, chicken soup, frozen strawberries, rice, dry milk, pasta, dried mashed potatoes, velveeta-style cheese, peanut butter, cheerio cereal, grape juice, canned tuna, and boxed milk.

Quite fishy this time.

Great Northern, our supplier, uses government funding but they had already received the 6-months check (January through June) so we’re good for now … not affected by the government shut-down.

As usual, the volunteers get to take what is left after the last sharer is served.  I brought home an entire salmon fillet … head to tail … plus some canned fruit and some of the other odds and ends. 

I also brought home sore muscles.  Age I suppose.  It took an Aleve to get me going thursday morning.

Next sharing date is in March.

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Weather has been iffy.  Cold, but not too cold.  Wet with rain AND melting snow.  Frost on the ground in the shade at lower altitudes.  And thin, very thin, ice on the reservoir.

However, there is a lovely coat of snow on the Mountain.  It captivated me so that last Friday, on my way to Dunsmuir, I was so busy looking at Her I missed the onramp to I-5 and had to go into Mt Shasta to turn around and try again.

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For you football fans … a gift from an inspirational blog I read …

Annual Superbowl Joke

A man attending the Superbowl sat next to an empty seat. Incredulously, he asks the woman sitting on the other side of the seat, “How is it possible that you and I are sitting next to the only empty seat in the stadium when they’re being scalped at five thousand bucks a shot?” The woman replies, “The seat belonged to my late husband.” “Oh,” said the man, “but, I would have thought a relative or a friend would have jumped at the opportunity to use the seat.” The woman responded, “I would have thought so, too … but they all insisted on going to the funeral.”

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The narcissus bulbs I have growing at my desk are doing their thing … beautifully.  And outdoors there is a lot to see.

The wet weather has brought out some very green moss …and the fact that a lot of dead leaves have not yet dropped and disintegrated (oak and bracken mainly) is providing a brown backdrop for the coming Spring. 

I wonder if there will be room on the branches of the oaks for the buds.

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The neighbor in charge of maintaining our main road out was busy last week laying gravel.  This is the time of year to do it so it can be pressed down into the road bed.  It is nice. The jaw breaking, suspension wrecking potholes are mostly gone. Let’s see how long it stays that way what with the speedsters who live out here now. 

Aaawwwwwwwww …optimism.

~~~

Here’s a Japanese word for this week.

Mono-no … it means the quietly elated, bittersweet feeling of having been witness to the dazzling circus of life knowing none of it can last forever.

Taiko lessons begin again next week.    So … ‘til then …