HAVING BABIES AT THIS AGE?

You may remember that Ken and Laurie’s dachshunds were killed by a coyote last year. Well, they have new babies. Rider and Scout. A beautiful pair just 8 weeks old. Babies, just barely potty trained. Laurie swore they would not commit to another pet that lives for twenty years and then breaks your heart when they die. They are your fur children.

Ken has been really involved with these two, since Laurie has been working and he is the major trainer and he loves it. He feels they have really bonded to him.

This is Rider. He has a favorite stuffed toy just like all babies do it seems. He is guarding it from me and wouldn’t let me get near him or his toy.

Brother Clark and Sister-in-law Theresa came with dinner complete and joined us. The guys barbequed steaks and we had some good zinfandel wine. The foursome is headed for the Mellencamp Concert at Kautz. Even I know Mellencamp, “I live in a small town…”
Theresa is a great cook and so is Laurie. I am lucky because I don’t really enjoy cooking for just myself much anymore.

They were off to the concert by 5:30. And I baby-sat the babies. Ken and Laurie are on vacation and took the dogs camping. They socialized them with neighboring campers and bigger dogs. A perfect way. They also have a young neighbor near home who comes once a day to  play with them and take them outside. No diapers to change, but they need a walk.

Pink for Scout and Blue for Rider. They were straining at their leashes to go with Mom, Dad and the crew. Did they socialize with Gram? It was tough. Scout was good and took a long two hour nap. Rider howled and cried and I had to take him outside and walk around and around the house with him. He had to see for himself that the car was gone. He’d smell where it was parked. He was miserable for about three hours. Then, all tuckered out, I grabbed him and held him on the couch and he slept peacefully in my arms. We are sort of friends now. He still isn’t sure I wasn’t responsible for his missing parents. But, he is cautiously letting me pet him if Dad is nearby. Raising babies six years before retirement?  I’m glad it is them and not me. Like all grandchildren. You get to enjoy them when they visit and then send them home. Since I’m into quotes, the most common is “A dog is man’s best friend.”  From whence it came I do not know. This one is funny.
Groucho Marz said:  “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog you can’t read.”

Well, that’s all folks!

THE THREE M'S MINUS ONE.

Life is so condensed and exciting. My friend Michal Houston still has a house in Murphys but lives in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She loves it there. She came to visit old friends for a whirlwind week. Michal, Madelaine Krska,  and I, Mary, Maddie and Michal once called ourselves the Three M's. Maddie is retired and living in Arizona. For lunch, we went to our favorite old haunt, Camps in Angels Camp, and toasted our missing friend. I expect someday, the three of us will find ourselves together once again.
Michal and I had a great time looking over pictures of a trip we took to China. It was such a refresher course to read over my old journal and remember fun things we did, and stuff we saw.


Michal and I with a Chinese woman in a roadside village. What would happen if a bus load of tourists pulled up to your house in Murphys and asked if the people could come in and talk to you and see inside your house, and ask you personal questions about your life and how you live?
She lives in the country and is allowed two children, instead of one. Her boys both graduated college. She lives in her family home where she and her husband grow cotton. They have a hog to butcher, and a pond filled with edible plants shared with neighbors. The tiny house had two rooms a large gas wok in the kitchen with a table;  one bedroom where the bed was in a corner with little room to walk around it.


Michal with the ladies of a small Naxi (Nah-shee) village, all dressed for town to meet with a government official. Everyone friendly and accommodating.


I looked for a picture I had of Michal watching a talented cryptographer showing how to paint Chinese script on a papyrus, but I couldn't find it. Here, in the lobby of one hotel, we are both fastened by an ancient, intricate, carving in jade.
We talked about the places on our bucket list, favorite or memorable experiences on the road. I love what famous travel host Rick Steves said about travel:  "You cannot be a bigot when you understand other cultures." He is so right.

THE JOYS OF TRAVEL.

Another painting lesson with my friend Pam left me energized and excited. Now, let us see if I can do this at home on my own? Maybe I can find another friend to paint with. Would we have done this if we weren’t in one place on the road where I could visit her two days in a row? No. Pam lived in Mountain Ranch, and I live in Murphys.


Around 2:00 in the afternoon, our friends, Pat and Bruce Borad drove up from Jamul to spend a couple of days. They were having their driveway re-surfaced and brought Diego with them, a sweet dog. He had never ridden past the Vets and was very well behaved in the car.


Bruce is an attorney, but quit practicing for his first love, teaching. He teaches a computer class, but is retired as of yesterday. Hey, just in time to fix my computer glitches and give me legal advice. Everyone should have a friend like Bruce. We had a nice dinner at Coco’s, close by.  We talked so much catching up I nearly forgot to take any pictures at all.  I guess that is a good sign that I’m enjoying the company of very dear friends. The years since I’ve seen them slip away like we had just seen each other yesterday. I love it.

UGANDAN DINNER

It gets dark so early, the sky was already delivering a peachy sunset as I drove to town to attend a fundraising dinner for Ugandan Children with Aids.

I arrived early and the drum circle was practicing rhythms on some beautiful African Drums.

Three area churches joined in this humanitarian effort to raise money for aids afflicted children, most of them in orphanages, having lost their parents to aids. People lined up for a buffet dinner.

The authentic East African dinner was bunyaro beef and onion stew, braised chicken with curry and coconut milk, chorako sauce made with mung beans and peppers, and stewed spicey greens with tomatoes and onions.  The food was delicious and they had extra spice for those of us who like it that way. Dessert of coconut cookies and peach pudding with pomegranate berries. It was served on bamboo plates with a wooden fork and spoon. (Plastic is so unrecyclable.) Wine went with the dinner, donated by local wineries. Lovely.

I knew Tami Chestnut and her sister Teddi and husband, Joe Jackson, and the girls' mother, Melva Anderson, would be there.  They were so busy I didn't get a picture, but I was surprised at how many old friends I met. Joanne and Bob Reagan, above, I know through Community Club, and CCTV, just two organizations they  volunteer for.

Dianne and Fred Kett, old friends from American Field Service. Our kids went to High School together. Dianne and Fred had a student from Columbia at the same time as my student from Indonesia.
Carol and Nancy Burton, also AFSers.

I don't know the woman on the left, but she was with two good friends, Christyne Mollet and Pastor Jo Siders. Jo and I promised to meet for coffee, soon.

After the dinner, Pastor Hollenbach  (we've never met and I don't know that I have the name right) had the drummers pass out drums through the crowd so we could participate in an interactive drum circle. Hollenbach, I heard, did missionary work  in Africa.

Here, my friend, Nancy Stehura, who I met in an Investors Club I once belonged to, gets a chance to play one of the beautiful drums.

The drums are interesting because they come in many different sizes and shapes. They're made from an exotic wood we don't normally see. Each size and shape produces a unique sound.

Not only drums, but sticks, marimba and maracas were passed around.  Here, Amanda, who I met for the first time, has a go at the sticks. She was my dinner partner.
The pastor taught some African phrases in a song. Everyone seemed to enjoy it as did my friends Dave and Pastor Meg Self. I didn't get to talk to them, just a wave from across the room. Dave in the red jacket, Meg in the blue dress. Meg was my Vice President when we both served on the board of the East Calaveras Democrats Club. Dave served on the board at one time as well. Murphys is a very friendly community and volunteerism in our county is huge. A big part of why I love Murphys.

There was also a silent auction, with items donated. One necklace exactly matched a bracelet I was wearing. It seemed a shame to have them separated, so I donated my bracelet to the cause. It was a fun night and I very much enjoyed running into old friends, most of whom I hadn't seen in several years.

GETTING BEAUTIFUL.

This little doe comes to visit me each morning. She seems to know when I have the camera aimed at her and hides from me. My yard is Certified Wildlife Habitat, and between Karen and I, we’ve  seen every animal except a possum and a bear come to drink water. Cougars, bobcats, foxes, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, coyotes, dogs, cats, birds. Even bats and lizards. This low water year, the water in my pond, and other vessels,  needs to be replenished every other day, which Karen does.

I’m coming at my subject a bit sideways, here, but Jim brought this beautiful hammock all the way from Central America. It has hung between a couple of trees for the last two summers and a squirrel came down the tree and chewed part of the threads. Sorry, Jim. I was pretty amazed at that. She  chewed some of the support strings as well. I don’t blame the squirrel. I’m sure she is nest-building.  Red tail hawks decimated my squirrel population a while back and this one has moved in to begin a new generation.

I’m always bragging about Murphys being such a nice place to live, with its beautiful park with a creek running through it. But, San Andreas has a beautiful Turner Park too, with multiple entrances and areas to enjoy because it runs along a small creek. I met friends yesterday, with whom I worked at the Calaveras Enterprise in the 1980′s  and was reminded of the wholesome community we share. Dedicated park volunteers were blowing debris and picking up stuff people leave behind when I got there. How cool is that?

This cute elephant bridge leads to a playground for the kids. Part of why this is such a great place to live is the huge body of volunteerism that makes places  like this possible for everyone.

Sue Walker has a new last name since we met at this same spot last year. I was surprised my friends knew about my accident on May 27th.  We spent an hour playing catch-up while we ate our bag lunch.

We manage our visit in an hour since Deborah Mullen comes from work during her lunch time.  I heard that our former editor, Sandy Lema died while I was on the road, and I forgot to ask them if that was correct?

That hour went by way too fast!  I’m going to make an effort to get home earlier next year to attend the main event. We grabbed one of the friendly park volunteers to take our picture before we parted.

This is a group photo of Enterprise staffers from Reunion 2011.
After leaving the park, I had some blood work done and then went to the beauty shop to get my hair cut. I reminded Sue, who was cutting my hair, that the purpose of a beauty salon is make people beautiful.

I thought she did a pretty good job, don’t you?

Then I stopped in Angels Camp to visit my friend Linda Foster. She is painting her house and needs help deciding what color to choose.

The picture doesn’t show all of her possible choices.  But, I think it was more than nine.  Decisions, decisions. And you know?  She didn’t even notice my beautiful new look? The older we get, the harder it is to get beautiful.

THIS I BELIEVE

Yesterday, we had an after breakfast visit with an engineer, lunch with a comedian, and caught up with a couple business women friends of Jim’s.

I have to admire couples who celebrate 59 years of marriage, like Jim and Joan Belluomini. They are rare.  From their home base in Lacey, they are avid ramblers and road warriors.  Jim B. sent  us on a quest for a new telephone, claiming you CAN get good service with the proper equipment. Never argue with an engineer.  We visited an AT&T store in Lacey and learned that newer phones connect to towers that older phones cannot. Jim’s phone does everything but wash the dishes. I expect to quit complaining about my poor phone service, at home and on the road, soon.

Shawn Newman, an attorney Jim met during their Public Access Television days in Olympia gives these Vietnamese sesame balls the evil eye. In fact he came hustling through the door and said, “Do you like Sesame balls?” his prelude to a comic monologue all through lunch. He took his dog to the vet because she had bad breath. So bad that when she sat on his chest in the middle of the night it was a command to get up and go outside.  The vet  handed him a  bag full of dog teeth,  “…they gave me the teeth like a car part?…”  but, it didn’t cure the problem.  Like me, an adventurous eater, we tried White Gourd Tea, and Penny Ginkgo Leaf Tea, (I may be fracturing the name.) . Both good, different. White Gourd tastes like caramel corn. The other more like pumpkin, wheat.

Whenever Jim hits his old hunting grounds, he looks up Kerri Kauffman, a long time friend. He teases her that she is dating the same guy after 13 years with no plans for marriage nor do they  live together. That is unusual in this day and age.

Then over to the CCTV Studio, where Debbie Vinsel has been manager for 22 years. They play catch-up with old friends, where they are, what they are doing  now, as old friends do. However, Debbie and I share a mutual friendship as well, Paul Moeller from CCTV Calaveras County.
I forgot to mention that Shawn reminded me of the program (radio) begun in the 1940′s called This I Believe.  And, I have to say, This I Believe, I learn something from everyone. The program is now available on-line.

FRIDAY EVENINGS IN THE PARK.

What a fun place Murphys is to live. Beginning last night and through September, the town puts on  free Friday Evening concerts in the park. The locals and tourists both love this event. People gather with their lawn chairs and ice chests.  For me, it was great seeing old friends I hadn’t seen in a year or more with my new traveling lifestyle.

Some folks enjoyed just hanging out by the creek and listening to the music.

The kids enjoyed the chance to play in the creek.

The band, Swing Gitane played good music but their sultry voiced singer was a popular standout.

A great place to meet old friends…
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...or teach your grandson to dance, as Suki Tutthill did.

If you prefer, instead of carting your own dinner to the park, a local caterer, restaurant or in this case, Val du Vino winery  prepared roast pork in an orange glazed chiopotlte sauce  with orzo, fruit and brownie.  Local wines, beer and water are available to drink. Delish!

Friends I attended with, Joyce,  Clare, Jan and Janet, shared ribs, wine, and snacks. I couldn’t resist the Roast Pork.

Four spoiled, well fed ducks kept begging for treats.

The sultry singer took a break and rested her feet. What could be more perfect? Music, good food, friends and a gorgeous setting!   I’m going to miss the next Fridays Music In The Park and catered dinners. Its one of my favorite events.  If you can go, don’t miss it.