Life of Wry

There is something huge — really huge — that I haven’t been able to write about yet.

Today, I got a chance to spend nearly three hours talking with David’s sister. I’ve been needing that connection to begin the process of grieving. I need time now to process our conversation. A lot happened in Davis while I was gone — two people killed, another critically hurt, a town in a state of trauma and likely forever scarred. I need to think about all that. I need to feel. The space and time to do that has not yet been available.

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I like this tree. It’s a eucalyptus. It’s solid, gigantic, and pure muscle. It is reaching way, way up and almost disappearing into the vastness of the blue sky and the intensity of the hot sun. I find it comforting.

Vilken dag! Himlen är alldeles blå och fåglarna sjunger! **

** This is a snippet from a Swedish dialog… learned in the summer of 1976 when taking Swedish classes in Malung (central Sweden) in preparation for a year of Swedish-language college courses.

Translation: What a day! The sky is totally blue and the birds are singing!

These words did not come up in my anatomy and physiology courses.. but they have endured in my (ever shrinking) Swedish lexicon!

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These photos were taken about an hour ago in Central Park on an absolutely beautiful 75-degree morning at the Farmer’s Market.

I was sitting at Cloud Forest today — so incredibly lovely to sit on their cool shady patio on a warm day — and along came a mama duck and, I wanna say, twelve little ducklings.

(There were a few more around the corner.) They were a long way from Putah Creek… I hope they made their way safely back.

The scene reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books.. Madeline. Madeline is one of twelve young girls in a boarding school (orphanage?) led around by a nun.

In an old house in Paris
That was covered in vines
Lived twelve little girls
In two straight lines.

Jim’s latest invention is a Pecan Dandy: graham crackers, a layer of roasted pecans and a bunch of dandies (the brand of marshmallows we’ve been addicted to for the last few years). Put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Dangerous, but delicious. I’m planning to wean myself off of these. Soon.

So, I got back late Monday night, and on Tuesday early afternoon we welcomed a house guest! The timing was a wee challenging, but it’s just how it worked out with Kath’s schedule. And, in fact, it was just fine. It gave me an incentive to make quick work of unpacking, laundering, mailing, settling far faster than I would have otherwise. And, she was here for less than 24 hours.. a blur, but a good blur. We had time for a long walk, a nice lunch out, a nice dinner in, a nice breakfast in.. and then she was gone.

A couple pics of my old track buddy…

In our heyday, which spanned our high school years (but hit peak prowess in our last two years) we were the fastest two on our track team. She started the 440 relay, I anchored it. We were sprinting rivals (friendly) on our team, trading off between first and second in the 100 and 220. I had the slight edge on speed, but she had a quicker start. In our junior year, our high school relay team placed 3rd in the state in two sprint relays (the 440 and 880 medley). In our senior year, we placed 5th in both, if I recall. We were invited to run in a couple of exhibition races, one at the LA Forum (Sunkist Invitational) and one other whose name I’m forgetting (unbelievably!) in the mid-70s because we were so fast. Participating in these meets and hobnobbing with the world’s highest level Olympic track athletes was def one of the highlights of my athletic career. Over those years, our sprinting team worked out a LOT together (6:00am workouts plus afternoon workouts), traveled a lot, competed in hundreds of races, won most, and bonded deeply.

I think one of the funnest parts of our track history was the time we competed against one another in college… she ran for Chico and I ran for UC Davis and we faced off at the Woody Wilson meet on Picnic Day in 1979 (maybe 1978). I have a vivid memory of our relay teams lining up at the starting line, before being sent off to our zones and feeling so ecstatic to be competing together after 4 or 5 years.. even if on different teams. Not remembering the outcome, funnily. But, how cool was that?

I’m proud of us.

First day back after a month of travel!! (Got back late last night.)

Came home to a yard so thick in growth, I couldn’t even make my way around the path in the back yard. Put in an emergency call to Mary H, who’ll be here on Friday.

In the meantime…

I didn’t even know we planted this, but I believe it’s golden columbine and is just gorgeous in the front yard:

And.. after a couple years, the strawberries have hit their stride! I couldn’t believe how many we have in our now-quite-large strawberry patch!