Life of Wry

I got to spend a few minutes with Peter today. He’s been working on picking out Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide on the guitar. He’s making good progress! ‘Course, I’m the mom and would listen to and love Mary Had a Little Lamb, but honestly, he’s pretty good and it’s a joy to hear him play.

So, yeah, that was the highlight of my day.. so here are some stealthy screenshots that I took….

Look at that HAIR!

~~

Speaking of Covid hair… I was the last person to give Peter a haircut, which happened on July 26, 2020, the night before he left on his Ann-Arbor-or-bust road trip with Ray. Check this out!

It was so entirely, yummily dark and wet and stormy all day today (and not too windy, so I really, really enjoyed it without fear of falling redwoods!). I spent the day in that leather chair over there. I’m over here at the moment (window seat… because the sun suddenly popped out and shone right in my eyes), but, oh, did I enjoy sinking way down into that corner, reading stacked up articles most of the day.

Most of the time it was plain old water falling from the sky, but there was at least one instance of hail… (look closely for ice pellets)

Tsui, ever artful, posted on FB a far better photo of hail this afternoon….

My weather app says Peter had 69-degree weather in wintry Ann Arbor today… go figure.

My go-to when there’s not much to write about, and/or it’s a rainy day so there are no new photos to draw from…. is to go to the archives! I love to go through the archives. Here are shots of Peter, my favorite subject, from Marches of yesteryear.

March 2002: He loved being thrown in the air…

And another from March 2002, just because I love this Little Mouse costume…

This is from March 2003. We used to take him to the playground at Cesar Chavez so he could feel comfortable there before starting kindergarten…

This is the first day of T-Ball practice, March 2004. I’m not sure I’d have identified him as a future high school varsity pitcher…

Ooops.. another from March 2004… I loved hanging out in the hammock with Peter…

March 2005… A rare skiing shot.. rare because we didn’t ski much as a family, but he enjoyed it:

Jumping ahead to March 2008, here’s Peter feeding a bird.. I think in Arizona…

We visited downtown LA on a trip south in March 2009.. (you can’t tell, of course, that this is LA, but take my word for it). ..

And here are P & me on a Marin hike in March 2010…

Here’s a random set of funnies-of-late… all statements on the times we’re in… (the last one’s more a statement on the times that I and my aging brethren are in).

Across the street, taken on our way to brunch at Bernardo’s…

And a couple versions of the same shot, taken in the ditch this late afternoon…

The full color version:

And the B/W version…

And in other happy spring news, I noticed that my bulbs are coming up! I thought perhaps I’d lost the whole lot of them… but they (and bunches of weeds) are coming up in the backyard. Boy am I excited to see what I planted!

And yet another in the great look up series…

So, Jim and I are sitting on the edge of a cold stone planter box in the garden area of Central Park, enjoying Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning, as we do….

I throw back the last of my coffee, which, since my eyes are open, brings this into view. I almost gagged on my coffee, it was so pretty.

For the millionth time, the moral of the story is always look up. It’s probably more like: keep your eyes open, open your heart, be present to your surroundings, be grateful, life is a gift. Stuff like that. Truly, be mindful of those things and you’ll be rewarded over and over.

Speaking of life. Jim told me he found a life expectancy predictor in a New York Times article today. He completed the extensive survey — all about health and fitness practices, family history, stressors, past behaviors, basic demographic and geographic factors… etc — and learned that he will live to be 96. I’m like, whoa dude! That’s fantastic! So glad you’ll be around to feed me, clean up my messes, and detangle my confusions.

Then I completed the survey and got this:

Now who’s cleaning up whose messes?

We’re not going to be a pretty sight.. but with any luck….

I fessed up about how much candy I eat, how much wine I drink, etc.. who knows how long I’d live w/o those pleasures.

We’re going to make a new tile table. (“We,” she said.) I picked up the tiles today.

This will be the top (it’s 16″x16″):

The four surround tiles are leftover field tiles from our guest bathroom remodel a couple years ago. We had tons of this stuff and ended up giving it all to Donna the ceramic artist (whose eucalyptus-themed accent tiles we used in our bathroom), who has since been using it to design beautiful tile-top tables. And because we gave her so many tiles, she decided to thank us by giving us an arty arrangement that we could use to make our own table (including four of our original bathroom tiles!).

Donna’s also the tile artist who helped us design a coffee table for the living room.. which I can hardly take my eyes off of.

The bathroom:

The coffee table:

Anyway… the field tile surrounds a center mosaic of tiles that I just love! Here’s a close up. Eventually, we’ll bind them all together with some kind of mortar and mount them on some kind of base… wood or more likely metal. It will be an outdoor table, part of our new backyard where we hope to spend lots of time!

Neato, huh?

See? Oh! No! Thus…… (as seen in Central Park this afternoon).. they are rich and beautiful this time of year! (And yeah.. when I’m not trying to be clever: ceonothus.)

And these are my new favorite spring bloom.. aren’t they sweet?

I totally feel like things on every front are looking up…

And, boy, do I love walking into the house and seeing this view of late afternoon sun pouring through the windows..

It’s been a good week for digital housekeeping.

Replace battery in my 6 or 7-year-old iphone: Check!

Replace battery in the 5-year-old Macbook Pro laptop: Check!

Here’s Jim fulfilling his in-house network administrator role.. so grateful. All of those flat rectangular things are parts of the battery system. Isn’t that amazing (and mysterious)?

There is always a YouTube video to guide you.. which… how on earth did we ever survive without Youtube how-to videos?

Ruben is extremely pleased with himself. So pleased, he brought his wife and daughter to see it this evening. I’m pretty pleased, too.

I also got an email from the metal panel people in LA letting me know the panels are done and ready to be picked up. That’s what those four 4x4s will support. The tops of those 4x4s will be cut off, of course. The metal panels will be shorter than the wire screen. And then there will be a new fence on the south side. We have a few more plants to get into the ground and a large plant that will be in the copper planter… oh, and our address thingie, which will be next to the sycamore. And that ought to complete the front yard! Ruben thinks we ought to add lights. I’m sure that’s a non-starter with Jim.

Eventually, the pistache will grow and the dwarf strawberry tree.. and the flowers and scrubs will fill in. Should only get better….