I'm Sorry!

I'm sorry about the delay in posting -- Howard and I have been leaving at 7 in the morning most days and not getting home until 9 at night. That makes it rather hard to keep up here!

I'm working with some delightful older people, but sometimes things happen that tickle my funny bone.

The other night I was helping one of them as she decided what to wear the next day. As it had been chilly, she had laid out some sweaters to wear. She told me that she wnted the white one with big flowers on it for the next day. I brought out the only sweater that matched the description. It wasn't the one she had in mind. I brought out the only other white sweater -- still wrong. Finally I brought her ALL of the sweaters that she had put out. She pointed to the grey, light blue and cream argyle and said triumphantly -- THAT'S the one I told you I wanted!

I didn't laugh. But it was close! :)

The fire didn't destroy any houses and was out that evening. We stayed away another night, so the smoke wasn't in the air any longer. Well, there was still a slight smoky smell in the air, but it didn't get into our things. That was a big relief!

I'm knitting away on the Plisse. Still haven't finished the first half.

Oh My!

Yesterday, we were doing laundry at Serena's. (We gave her the washer and dryer with the understanding that we could do laundry at her house.) Howard went outside to put something in our car. He was surprised by the neighbor calling out "Hey, be careful, there is a bear in the area!" Sorry, that just ISN'T something that happened anywhere else we have lived! Yes, in upstate New York there were occasional bears. But that wasn't anywhere in our neighborhood, although there were church members who saw them. Our house was too surrounded by many others. We did have deer who slept in our yard (we could tell by the grass) but that was it. In Iowa we didn't even have that. There was an unnerving reality of "you have now changed locations" to that warning! grin

We were driving home this afternoon when there was a sign on the freeway saying something like "Fire on Green Mountain, visible smoke". Okay, we didn't know where Green Mountain was. Kept driving. Got closer to home, we didn't pass the fire. We turned off at our exit and there were so many cars going our way. Hm. Looked over to the foothills and BLAST! We saw the fires. Oh dear. So THAT is the name of the mountain! Bad words. The smoke was blowing away from our apartment, but we knew that could change. Text messaged Serena,"Can we stay with you tonight?" She wrote back, "yes, but why?"

Got home, started packing a suitcase for the next few days. Closed all of the windows, hoping that will keep the smoke from adding its essence to our things. Debate as to whether how many days we should pack for as well as what exactly we should take.

The last we had heard, the fire was 85% contained, with cooler weather and perhaps rain expected. The bad news? As we drove by on our way to Serena's, the wind had shifted and was blowing straight toward our place. But the windows are closed (also good news!)

We bought bookcases today, to replace those which don't fit in the elevator. I don't know if we bought enough, but we bought as many as we thought would fit in the apartment. Tomorrow was going to be a day of bringing books upstairs, unpacking then going back for more. We'll wait to see if the fire is contained before we decide.

Life is certainly interesting!

Bragging Grandma Alert!

Look at what he is trying to do. Just before he turned 7 months, he is working on crawling. Doesn't he look as if he is having fun?




They went to Duluth today, and Daddy seems to be packing him around. I think he's teething again, don't you? grin Well protected from the sun! When Nathan was about this age, we went into a restaurant around Sacramento. The waitress enjoyed being around the 2 children. Nathan grabbed for her apron strings every time she came by. I don't know if she noticed or enjoyed the game -- he undid the tie each time, each time she tied them up again as she left our table. Justin did the same thing today -- like father like son?

Views from our deck

Storm coming in!
As it was raining, we realized there was a double rainbow...
The other side of the rainbow...the railing on our deck isn't really secures, we are on the fourth floor, so I didn't try too many times for this side!
I REALLY wish this one had turned out right -- the end of the rainbow was in the tree next to the building directly below us!