HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. RALPH

Today marks Mr. Ralph's 87th birthday!

We used to go out for a special dinner at a local restaurant but it has since closed. Now the five of us go to a different local restaurant which is now open on the covered patio.  But I just don't feel it is safe enough yet and everyone here likes to cook, so we will do something delish.  

Vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert.  He is known world wide for having wait staff tell him all of the desserts they offer and then would ask "do you have just plain vanilla ice cream and lots of chocolate syrup?  NOT hot fudge or anything fancy, no whipped cream and no cherry so I can save calories".  Even at a wedding in England, everyone was served strawberries and Devonshire cream .... except him.  They brought him a bowl of vanilla ice cream and two small pitchers of chocolate syrup!  Everyone roared!

One of my favorite pictures ... teaching our daughter to nap!  1986

SOME OF THIS, SOME OF THAT

Our neighbors gave us paper white bulbs for Christmas.  I had no idea how fabulous they smell!  Kidults are keeping the orchid going and finally the Christmas cactus is blooming!

Speaking of plants .... remember the Yard Squad being here last Friday?  We've had no communication from them since.  It was my understanding they were going to put in writing what they were bitching about.  Fortunately, we had lots of sunny weather since then and the Kidults have made a LOT of progress.  Stay tuned.

I have never watched an inauguration in my 69 years but I'm so glad I did this year.  And the first press conference.  President Biden has done so much good in this first few hours than 45 ever did.  I am hopeful!

But Covid predictions on NPR were not good.  It seems it will be getting worse before it gets better.  100 days of masks is a good motto.  No vaccine around here ... I can't even get on a waiting list.  

I bought myself a baby yoda.  About 8" tall.  The boys have gone wild for him!  I love how they make him talk, yoda style!

 

ANOTHER MEETING WITH THE HOA

Yep, the HOA is still bothered by our yard.  

On Friday afternoon the NEW Property Manager (honest, we have had more that 10 in the past ten years!) responded to our request for an in person, on property meeting.  The HOA President, another Board member (the guy with 10 pink flamingos), the Landscape Chair and the rudest Property Manager I have ever had to deal with arrived...  At first, they only wanted to talk with me, not Kate and Jesse.  So I asked if I could just talk with just ONE of them.  Well, OK, they can stay. 

It's the worst time of year for plants and flowers in the middle of January and I asked them to revisit this summer when all these native plants entice hummingbirds, butterflies, lady bugs, dragonflies and so on.

The Attack Squad had obviously not gone to all ground floor units for awareness before coming to our condo.  They obviously had NOT read all the correspondence nor looked at photos from previous meetings before coming to our condo.  I had asked the kids to NOT talk much or offer any defensive statements, SMILE under our masks.  Nod attentively.  All of this diffused the anger first brought to the meeting.

The Prez is the one with a burr in her bonnet.  Maybe she does get complaints from other residents (although complainers do not need to walk by if things are so offensive to them) but mainly our style is not her style.  Things got even better when I asked if we could start at one end of the "common area" and logically make a list, East to West, instead of "this has to go and you were warned about this and you did not get approval for the this." The PM made Jesse SO MAD (and he is the most even tempered man in the world) that he had to walk away.  None of them wrote down anything!  

Why yes, Judy, you verbally agreed to this and that and over there.  As she started at the East end, giving her negative comments ... others on the Squad said "Oh, I like how that looks .... did you make that?".  "This grouping of pots and plants go very well together let's keep that".  Judy's face got redder and redder.

Yes, we do have too many smaller pots and doo dads, I agree with that.  Kate will now group them in a larger pot and ASK PERMISSION before we put it anywhere but our patio.  But honestly, ANYTHING will look better than:

Summer of 2019

Today

The Bird Fountain

The PM said we will be getting written notice and will have one week to get the work done.  Yada yada yada.  I took a walk around the complex today and my-oh-my they have a lot of enforcement to get done before I feel too rushed to obey their  commands!

BLESSINGS IN MY NEST

Things are blessing my nest.

FINALLY got Principal Bank to transfer that balance to Charles Schwab (now all of my eggs are in one basket!). It did cost me $50 to get my own money.  And ... they mailed the check ... in this day of instant delivery.

My sister and I now talk to each other every day.  Sometimes five minutes and sometimes half an hour.  When our cousin passed away, her sister was devastated ... they did almost everything together.  Family get togethers, card club, book club, Bunco, etc.  She confided she wished she would have talked with her more.  That's the nudge we needed.  We used to text or email almost every day ... but there is something about hearing her voice.

Remember my wonderful niece (daughter of said Sister) who moved to Portland last summer and is now living in her Tiny Home?  She asked if she could use my address for mail and deliveries.  Of course!  Someone is home 99% of the time.  We decided to use my name and either Tahlia for my middle name or second address.  She doesn't et very much and last time I opened an Amazon package without reading the name (habit).  OOOPS.

Now I'm more careful reading the whole address.  A day or two ago I got a small box addressed to Jean Buss Lockhart (Jean, is my given Christian name, Buss was my first husband's last name). And it used to be that not many people knew all of those!  Definitely no Tahlia anywhere.  Imagine my surprise when it contained a pair of iPod Pro blue tooth ear pieces.  I went back to the box to be sure it was not for Tahlia.

No card, return address was Apple.  My now name, JB Lockhart, engraved on the tiny charger box. First I called Janet (sis) but she said "nope, not me".  Then I called a friend (who used to work for Mr. Ralph) as her ex works at Apple and he still gives her the big discount.  Still, even at half price that's a very generous gift.  She said "nope, not me".

Then she texted she might know who.  Ayo and his wife.  Mr. Ralph met Ayo through Gina while they were getting their Masters from Columbia University.  The degree was mostly online, all day Saturday group classes and once every month or every other month, the whole class would meet in person.  They even had a class project in Hong Kong.

Gina asked Mr. Ralph to mentor Ayo.  By then, he had cancer and his heart wasn't in it. So Ayo got jipped.  He moved to Florida, met the ONE and got married.  After Mr. Ralph left, we kept in touch once or twice a year. They took a trip to the Hawaiian Islands for their honeymoon.  He called and wondered if I would be a tour guide for one day.  It was short notice, but why not!  It also happened to be Valentine's Day so I made a reservation (9pm!!!) and we had that afternoon to show off.  Fabulous gourmet dinner and they spent the night.  The next day was all day warm, monsoon rain but we made the most of it.  Then I took them back to the airport in the afternoon.

I have no idea what prompted them to give me such a gift!

Their little miracle baby ... hard to conceive and 

then six weeks early at 3 pounds.  

He's now 6 months old.

'Koya

 

SELF CARE

 

Several times a year I love to have the house to myself.  It's important to recharge.  I enjoy the quiet (although I do hear strange noises ... is that a raccoon under the building?  The neighbors do make noise ... I can feel the bass.  I enjoy their cooking smells and roaring fires)

Self care is not being selfish.  Everyone has different ideas about how to enjoy their time.  I enjoy sleep, long showers, massaging lotion on my whole body.  Doing tiny little chores that no one else cares about (did the windowsills today).  Mating all the lonely sox.  Washing all the rags.  Taking slow walks with our old dog.  Eating when I'm hungry instead of "normal" times.  Created a Mr. Ralph homage on the top of my desk.  Read all the online papers I could get my hands on.

I love organizing the fridge.  It doesn't last long but if I do it once a week we can find the leftovers and the last bits of cut up fruit is all in on one shelf.  I try to get the kidults to label each container and mark the date they opened something ... I'll just have to be more diligent and ask them each evening.  Mmmmm, I had leftover homemade fried rice with an over easy egg for breakfast.  So yum

While I don't read books much, I love scouring the internet to see what to do with that leftover ricotta cheese.  Trying to get in a short meditation (nap) every day and today it was in the morning!  So luxurious.  

2021 hasn't started well ... my cousin in Ohio died of Covid, my sister broke her toe and is stuck in Louisville while he is stuck in Cincinnati being on call every night.  Having trouble getting a prescription refilled.  Almost impossible to have a rollover IRA moved to my main financial institution.  And then the thugs that attacked Washington, DC.

Yet we move along.  How's your month going?

RECLUSE?

Oh it doesn't really matter what you call it, I am still enjoying my solitude.  Probably because I have built-in company any time I want.  My kidults are also introverts which makes us one big happy family!

The boys now enjoy music while playing indoors.  Happily, the parents don't like it too loud and my room deadens everything but the bass.  I think the kids mostly enjoy bossing Alexa around.  (She's helpful with school work as well but the parents caught on to that quickly).  

Just when I think it might be safe to GO somewhere (indoors), another story comes in the news that makes me put my keys away.  Now that virus is morphing?  Will this be a hundred year pestilence?  

Thank goodness for the internet!  Anything I would ever want to read or listen to or learn is right at my fingertips.  And plenty of entertainment.

RESTART, REFRESH, and RENEW

We celebrated NYE til 1:00 am.  The boys were SO excited to stay up til "the next day".  Lots of low key fireworks in the neighborhood.  Snack food from 8:00pm and they each had a soda!  (The 8 oz size)

Hats/crowns, streamers, noise makers, champagne glass for sparking juice, etc.  Mom didn't put out the junk food til later.  They slept til 11am!

(A WLLO friend brought a tiny bottle of champagne, a candle and scented soap 

which I set up in my room on my desk ... to mellow down)

Now we are S-L-O-W-L-Y starting to get back to a more socially acceptable routine.  Although, maybe we should go with the flow about bedtimes and wake up ... as long as they get the required amount of online learning done.  

No need of desks here!