Views by Valerie: August 2014

An entire month since I've done a blog entry. It just seemed like it would have been more of the same old same old. I'm considering changing the slant here, more of my insightful personal writings or stories. And if someone doesn't like that or thinks I'm a nut case they can change the channel. I doubt I would quit taking and sharing photos. I'm working out where I want to go with this in my head, time will tell.

Larry was gone for a whole two weeks on a fire over in Mendocino County. It flew by. I had a birthday while he was gone but it was a great day of communicating with family and friends. Because I had no plans and was home all day it was easy to take the time. Our credit card was compromised, AGAIN! Second time in less than a year and third time in three years. Fraud is huge and hundreds of new scams every single day...so annoying!

Hmm, what else is new? Our new neighbors moved in at the end of the road, their house is on the hill above us. They have three munchkins and a big dog. The first week was painful to our ears as the dog barked a lot! Our other neighbors complained to us, but we said we were trying for patience, every dog has to adjust and we were giving it a week. And lo and behold, we hardly hear the dog at all now. We have yet to trounce up the hill to meet them, they seem to work and our timing has just been off.

Annie and Robert, here last year.

Yesterday we got more sad news. Larry's Aunt Annie passed away, she had been battling cancer. We were really sad to miss her and Uncle Robert's 50th wedding anniversary in July, but we knew when they were here in May that would be the case. I'm really happy that I texted Annie on the 16th, she hadn't returned a phone call, had sent a text and I suspected she wasn't feeling so well. In response to my text Uncle Robert called me so I got to talk to him and Annie for a short time. We had some laughs and I didn't keep them long. I was just really grateful to have had that last visit with her. In the past I might have not picked up the phone, I am really glad I did this time. They were remarkable throughout her fight. They planned for the worst, her death, but lived as normally as they could. She would talk about whatever was going on briefly and matter of factly and she just kept pushing through. It was hard to remember she wasn't well, which is how she preferred it I'm sure.

The weather has been all over the place this past month, more wind and humid,cloudy days than we ever remember. The drought carries on and yet our neighbor across the street has her sprinkler go most all day on sparse grass under oak trees. I'm sure we should all be bucketing water out to our plants but many of us aren't yet.

That's pretty much it for us. All's well with us and our girls families. Oh, yeah, we had Ian here for a week too, love that kid. My favorite 11 year old!