Things have been busy in my life. I'll post some pictures from my visit to Reykjavik soon. I hope.
In other news: my Mom's retirement community is closing because it can't be made fire-safe and is in a dangerous area for fires. So my Mom had to find a new place to live. Fortunately, the organization that runs her old community also runs others, and since my Mom has something called "life care," that's super important. So she got that news.
And then she got diagnosed with cancer. But for reasons that make total sense, the surgeon says they can't operate, and they've got her on some other drugs. As I understand it, she's likely to die with cancer rather than of cancer, if that makes sense. And she knows this. But it's still really upsetting, and she wishes she could just have an operation. But if a surgeon says an operation would be too dangerous, you know they'd like to operate if they could, so it really would be too dangerous.
At first my Mom said she didn't want me to come out and help. And now she does. And she's upset that my brother doesn't seem as concerned as she thinks he should be. And so on and on.
I need to get plane tickets to go out.
My violin teacher found a way better job, and is leaving the area. For me and the other students here, I'm really sad. For her, I'm happy. She's been a kind and enthusiastic teacher.
It turns out the partner of another colleague over in music can teach violin, and has been willing to take me on, among other students. He seems very good, and pays a lot more attention to detail. I'm adjusting, but still a bit sad.
I've been reading a lot, and now I need to just write. And write. Someone find me some writing mojo, please.
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts
Monday, June 24, 2019
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Week 14/66: The Year Begins... Again
I've returned from my adventure, about which I'll be blogging in the next few days, if only so I can enjoy seeing the pictures later. I had a fabulous time, but because of the fire, didn't actually go to Yosemite. Another time, I hope!
On Monday, the day after I got home, I started coming down with a nasty cold. Ugh. I've been coughing and sneezing, and barely sleeping. Today, fortunately, is way better, especially about the coughing.
There are now 52 weeks, one full year, to my sabbatical. I feel like I've wasted a bunch of time, but I had a great vacation, and cleared my mind, and should be ready to get back to work. (It would help if my brain weren't clouded by coughing and sneezing stuffs...).
Here's a quick rundown of the trip:
21 July: left home. Drove west.
23 July: arrived at Donner State Park for camping. My site was beautiful, and not too far from the water.
24 July: a semi-relative (in that blended family, not really a relation, but family nonetheless) came and we went white water rafting. I probably hadn't seen this person, E, since I was maybe 10 and she was 18 or so. Back then, she was a scarily cool teenager, and I was a not-cool kid. Now, she's just plain cool, and fun, and a pleasure to know better. In the morning, before rafting, I rode my bike around the lake. Glorious. I did more of that, too.
26 July: I drove down to Sacramento to stay with my cousin, M. The problem with living so far away is that I haven't gotten to spend a good long time just chatting with certain cousins since we're both adults. We corrected that, and M is more fabulous as an adult than she was as a kid, and she was a pretty amazing kid. We visited a used bookstore, REI, rode bikes, and talked, read, and talked some more.
29 July: On Sunday, M and I met her sister, A, and went to Big Basin State Park to backpack. M had made arrangements when she figured out how bad the air at Yosemite was, and that the authorities were evacuating parts of the Park (though not the part where we were planning to be). She also texted our aunt (who's more my generation than not), K, to invite her to camp with us. K texted back to say that she couldn't come Sunday, but would "run in" on Monday morning and hike out with us.
A is as wonderful an adult as M, though quite different. We drove together and had a lovely chat along the way. Our hike in (the long way) was about 8 miles, and boy was I tired. My tuna dinner was GREAT in that eating outside when you're really hungry way.
30 July: True to her word, badass K met up with us at our campsite in the morning and hiked out with us. It was so good to get to talk with her, too!
When she got there, A pulled a birthday cake out of her pack, lit it, and we celebrated my birthday. I was almost in tears because it was so unexpected and kind. (She'd backpacked it in!)
After hiking out, we went to have dinner with my Mom, and that, too, was very good.
31 July: Rosie the Riveter National Park.
1 August: My Mom and I drove over to Santa Cruz and then up the coast to Pescadero, where we stopped to visit the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, then up to Half Moon Bay and Princeton.
2 August: We had lunch with my Aunts, four sisters who are just lovely.
3 August: San Juan Bautista
4 August: New Almaden Quicksilver Mine
5 August: Up to Pt Reyes, and then to Fort Bragg
6 August: North to Richardson Grove State Park, the Avenue of the Giants, with a detour to Shelter Cove (because on my map it looks like you can go north, but you really can't without much more serious four wheel drive than my Subaru. Or so said the locals hanging at the volunteer fire department). Ended the day in Eureka.
7 August: Drove through Redwood National and State Parks, and up to Coos Bay.
8 August: Drove up to Tillamook before heading inland to Portland, where we had dinner with my second cousin, D, his wife and son. So long since I've seen D!
9 August: North on 5 to Seattle Area, where we had a snack with old friends of my Moms, and I left her with them before continuing up to Bellingham to see my friend C and her husband, D.
10 August: with C, went to Mt. Baker for a short hike.
11 August: with C, went to a local fair
12 August: with C, went kayaking, then decided to try out paddle boarding. So fun!
13 August: started back home, spent the night in Idaho
14-15 August: Glacier National Park!
16 August: Drove to Yellowstone and camped with thousands of loud people.
17 August: Drove through parts of Yellowstone, then out through the Lamar Valley, and out the North East Gate. Then I took 212, the Beartooth highway, east. Holy cow, it's beautiful but sort of scary (WAY scarier than Highway 1!). Drove all the way to Miles City.
18 August: Visited TR National Park, and drove across North Dakota to Fergus Falls.
19 August: Home!
On Monday, the day after I got home, I started coming down with a nasty cold. Ugh. I've been coughing and sneezing, and barely sleeping. Today, fortunately, is way better, especially about the coughing.
There are now 52 weeks, one full year, to my sabbatical. I feel like I've wasted a bunch of time, but I had a great vacation, and cleared my mind, and should be ready to get back to work. (It would help if my brain weren't clouded by coughing and sneezing stuffs...).
Here's a quick rundown of the trip:
21 July: left home. Drove west.
23 July: arrived at Donner State Park for camping. My site was beautiful, and not too far from the water.
24 July: a semi-relative (in that blended family, not really a relation, but family nonetheless) came and we went white water rafting. I probably hadn't seen this person, E, since I was maybe 10 and she was 18 or so. Back then, she was a scarily cool teenager, and I was a not-cool kid. Now, she's just plain cool, and fun, and a pleasure to know better. In the morning, before rafting, I rode my bike around the lake. Glorious. I did more of that, too.
26 July: I drove down to Sacramento to stay with my cousin, M. The problem with living so far away is that I haven't gotten to spend a good long time just chatting with certain cousins since we're both adults. We corrected that, and M is more fabulous as an adult than she was as a kid, and she was a pretty amazing kid. We visited a used bookstore, REI, rode bikes, and talked, read, and talked some more.
29 July: On Sunday, M and I met her sister, A, and went to Big Basin State Park to backpack. M had made arrangements when she figured out how bad the air at Yosemite was, and that the authorities were evacuating parts of the Park (though not the part where we were planning to be). She also texted our aunt (who's more my generation than not), K, to invite her to camp with us. K texted back to say that she couldn't come Sunday, but would "run in" on Monday morning and hike out with us.
A is as wonderful an adult as M, though quite different. We drove together and had a lovely chat along the way. Our hike in (the long way) was about 8 miles, and boy was I tired. My tuna dinner was GREAT in that eating outside when you're really hungry way.
30 July: True to her word, badass K met up with us at our campsite in the morning and hiked out with us. It was so good to get to talk with her, too!
When she got there, A pulled a birthday cake out of her pack, lit it, and we celebrated my birthday. I was almost in tears because it was so unexpected and kind. (She'd backpacked it in!)
After hiking out, we went to have dinner with my Mom, and that, too, was very good.
31 July: Rosie the Riveter National Park.
1 August: My Mom and I drove over to Santa Cruz and then up the coast to Pescadero, where we stopped to visit the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, then up to Half Moon Bay and Princeton.
2 August: We had lunch with my Aunts, four sisters who are just lovely.
3 August: San Juan Bautista
4 August: New Almaden Quicksilver Mine
5 August: Up to Pt Reyes, and then to Fort Bragg
6 August: North to Richardson Grove State Park, the Avenue of the Giants, with a detour to Shelter Cove (because on my map it looks like you can go north, but you really can't without much more serious four wheel drive than my Subaru. Or so said the locals hanging at the volunteer fire department). Ended the day in Eureka.
7 August: Drove through Redwood National and State Parks, and up to Coos Bay.
8 August: Drove up to Tillamook before heading inland to Portland, where we had dinner with my second cousin, D, his wife and son. So long since I've seen D!
9 August: North on 5 to Seattle Area, where we had a snack with old friends of my Moms, and I left her with them before continuing up to Bellingham to see my friend C and her husband, D.
10 August: with C, went to Mt. Baker for a short hike.
11 August: with C, went to a local fair
12 August: with C, went kayaking, then decided to try out paddle boarding. So fun!
13 August: started back home, spent the night in Idaho
14-15 August: Glacier National Park!
16 August: Drove to Yellowstone and camped with thousands of loud people.
17 August: Drove through parts of Yellowstone, then out through the Lamar Valley, and out the North East Gate. Then I took 212, the Beartooth highway, east. Holy cow, it's beautiful but sort of scary (WAY scarier than Highway 1!). Drove all the way to Miles City.
18 August: Visited TR National Park, and drove across North Dakota to Fergus Falls.
19 August: Home!
Friday, June 16, 2017
Progress: Floors and Summer Projects
As of last night, the floors are laid, sanded, and stained. At this moment, the floor folks are putting on the second coat of finish. Then it dries for the weekend, and on Monday, they'll come put up baseboards and such. It looks every bit as good as I hoped!
In other progress, here's what I had to do, with the done parts stricken out.
Now I need to finish
1. Studying Victorian lit and culture (I should probably make a whole list for this!)
2. Repainting some woodwork on the back, outside of the house. (Last year I did some in the front of the house.)
3. Finishing a paper and sending it out.
And some other projects, small and large:
1. Learning the next violin song. (and working on shifting, vibrato, and double stops)
2. Planting my garden (yep, it still isn't in. Maybe tomorrow...)
3. Updating hard drives.
4. Getting rid of some old electronics stuff (after checking the hard drive and emptying it... I hope!)
5. Doing a book of pictures for my friends' kid's third birthday
6. Making all my reservations for the UK
I've made MOST of my reservations for the UK.
Between Birding and Starting << suggestions? I'll be in Scotland for birding, near Cairngorms National Park. Should I go to Glasgow? Inverness? (I've been to Edinburgh, and while it's wonderful, I'd like to see something new.)
In the violin world, at my last lesson, my teacher agreed that I'm ready to start memorizing and working towards my Book 3 test.
So, lot's to do this weekend, and then in the coming week, I get to move back into the rest of my house!
Monday, August 22, 2016
Solo
My neighbor had offered to pick me up any time he's around, in his pick up. So I called him when I was on land again. It worked out GREAT!
(To the right of the green dot, it looks like that's another river coming in, but it's really a little lake, separated by some land, with probably an open pipe under the road between the little lake and the river.)
Monday, June 13, 2016
Blink
Just like that, and ten (plus) days pass. I've been happy, busy, stunned, and horrified.
I want to read more about the men of color who were killed in Orlando. I think we need to see the intersectionality of the gay community, to recognize it purposefully.
And I think we need to end male violence.
Meanwhile, in more peaceful pursuits, unless you're a weed in my garden, I've been weeding and weedwhacking. It felt like there was the end of the semester business, then other business, then a week of rain, and my garden was just buried in weeds. So I weedwhacked and weeded.
I whacked the back greenspace so that I have a path by the fence, and also can get to each of the trees I planted there (and cleared around them so they have more light and less root competition).
I weeded a small 6'x6' area I've come to think of as the "weedy area" and found a surviving asparagus plant. I left that, but weeded the area, then got myself a couple of hostas, a couple of astilbes, and some cedar mulch, and planted. In fall, I'll put in some bulbs, probably. It will still grow weeds, but there's a big improvement.
I also cleaned up generally in that area, weeded another weedy area (smaller, much smaller) and found that my lavender plant is still alive. So that was rewarding.
I put in some little concrete ornamental sort of barrier things to keep the soil off the cement paved area. And weeded that, poured vinegar on the weed parts that looked likely to come back fast.
Right now, there's a pile of weeds on the cement area (I like to let them dry a bit in hopes that they'll actually die for real before I toss them out to fertilize the green space). But after I toss them, and sweep again, that whole area will look a lot better than it has in ages.
I'm so out of shape that all the weeding and such (paddling, weedwhacking) has my arms feeling like lead, sore lead. Ugh.
I need to get off the couch now and get some stuff done.
Goals for the week:
Vinegar on the weeds surrounding my garden raised beds. I can't physically get to them well because of the fence and retaining wall, but I'm going to try vinegar and them a big load of mulch down. And hope.
Weed one more over weedy area. That would pretty much clean up the back. Then back to the front, where there's a bunch of dead heading and such to do. Because it really does never end in summer here in the garden. That's okay, on one level, because it sure is nice to be outside!
Practice violin. I missed a day, and boy can I tell. But I'm very slowly improving, memorizing my new pieces, and working on the hard parts.
Work on a talk I'm giving at the end of the month.
Reread a student paper, write comments, and send it to them (because they asked, and of course, I'm happy to do it.)
Ride my bike, paddle my kayak. Good stuff! Maybe head out camping if the rain stops for a couple days in the middle of the week. (Weekends seem way busier at the state parks.)
Stretch every day. I should start with this.
Work on a paper for SAA. I have an idea, I think.
I want to read more about the men of color who were killed in Orlando. I think we need to see the intersectionality of the gay community, to recognize it purposefully.
And I think we need to end male violence.
Meanwhile, in more peaceful pursuits, unless you're a weed in my garden, I've been weeding and weedwhacking. It felt like there was the end of the semester business, then other business, then a week of rain, and my garden was just buried in weeds. So I weedwhacked and weeded.
I whacked the back greenspace so that I have a path by the fence, and also can get to each of the trees I planted there (and cleared around them so they have more light and less root competition).
I weeded a small 6'x6' area I've come to think of as the "weedy area" and found a surviving asparagus plant. I left that, but weeded the area, then got myself a couple of hostas, a couple of astilbes, and some cedar mulch, and planted. In fall, I'll put in some bulbs, probably. It will still grow weeds, but there's a big improvement.
I also cleaned up generally in that area, weeded another weedy area (smaller, much smaller) and found that my lavender plant is still alive. So that was rewarding.
I put in some little concrete ornamental sort of barrier things to keep the soil off the cement paved area. And weeded that, poured vinegar on the weed parts that looked likely to come back fast.
Right now, there's a pile of weeds on the cement area (I like to let them dry a bit in hopes that they'll actually die for real before I toss them out to fertilize the green space). But after I toss them, and sweep again, that whole area will look a lot better than it has in ages.
I'm so out of shape that all the weeding and such (paddling, weedwhacking) has my arms feeling like lead, sore lead. Ugh.
I need to get off the couch now and get some stuff done.
Goals for the week:
Vinegar on the weeds surrounding my garden raised beds. I can't physically get to them well because of the fence and retaining wall, but I'm going to try vinegar and them a big load of mulch down. And hope.
Weed one more over weedy area. That would pretty much clean up the back. Then back to the front, where there's a bunch of dead heading and such to do. Because it really does never end in summer here in the garden. That's okay, on one level, because it sure is nice to be outside!
Practice violin. I missed a day, and boy can I tell. But I'm very slowly improving, memorizing my new pieces, and working on the hard parts.
Work on a talk I'm giving at the end of the month.
Reread a student paper, write comments, and send it to them (because they asked, and of course, I'm happy to do it.)
Ride my bike, paddle my kayak. Good stuff! Maybe head out camping if the rain stops for a couple days in the middle of the week. (Weekends seem way busier at the state parks.)
Stretch every day. I should start with this.
Work on a paper for SAA. I have an idea, I think.
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