Musings of an Almost Octogenarian

Summer's passing swiftly .....

..... and I guess it's time I "blog" again.

It's hard to believe it's been a month since I returned to southern California, but when I look at my calendar I can understand why I have not been making much progress in the cleaning/sorting process. After spending a week in Laguna, I came home, unpacked again, sorted more mail and email, socialized with friends, had my hair cut, repacked, and headed for northern CA to celebrate the 80th birthday of my college roommate (she must be much older than I - ???), and visit with other friends in San Jose, returning home to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our long-time neighbors and friends, and have overnight guests of their family for a couple of days.

It was all good, and fun, a privilege to share these rich times with people who have been important in our lives, through many, many years. There was reminiscing, sharing of pictures of the days of our youth(s), and of course, an abundance of laughing. And the time together was made more poignant as we saw the pictures and told stories about the ones who are no longer with us .....

Now it's time to get down to business, and "accomplish" something, as I try to keep up this house and yard (where we have lived for nearly fifty years), without my lifetime live-in handyman around to help. While I was in the Midwest, my yard-person had forgotten to pay attention to the sprinklers in the back yard, and reset them when there was no rain (there was no rain here this year, all winter or spring), so when I came home, the lawn was brown and nearly dead. Two huge, old, gorgeous oleanders had also died, and had had to be removed, along with a lovely volunteer tree that was sending out destructive roots, so half of our concrete block wall is now exposed, and much of our formerly mostly-green and shady yard is bare and forlorn. I finally made contact with the yard- man yesterday, and he replaced worn-out sprinkler heads, reset the sprinklers, and promised to scatter some fertilizer and seed today. So - we should have lawn again, in a week or so - but it will take years for new plants to grow to any size, so I will just have to get used to seeing the rosy concrete blocks showing through the new bushes I hope to get planted soon. I pruned and chopped a huge pile of overgrown ferns and rose- and mock orange-branches last evening, and it felt good to begin to create a little bit of order in the chaos -

Meanwhile - summer moves along, with family celebrations coming up - wedding anniversary, birthdays - more time with friends, and maybe some actual cleaning/sorting, one of these days.....