And the Cats Are Too in Everyday Ramblings

I love this late spring mash up of lilies and clematis a few blocks away and yesterday the light was finally okay to get a decent shot. As we move towards the equinox in a few weeks it is more difficult to get garden light that works.

It is way too hot to be out now.

This morning I went out early to my Weight Watchers meeting and then walked to meet S and Frieda and then had a lovely walk with them and a tea at a coffee shop near the Farmers Market. I brought a dental biscuit for my poodle friend because unlike many of the coffee places her Mom goes to, this one does not have dog cookies. This is Portland, you know.

They wisely do not allow dogs at the market so we part ways after our tea and I braved the throng. Today it was wall-to-wall people and somewhat dangerous to navigate. I bought beautiful eggs from the potato farmer with the Australian accent that I talked to last year about why it is hard to find fresh sweet potatoes here.

I looked longingly at the nut butter stand. I can eat nut butters but I had given money to a street cellist and didn’t have enough. They will be there next week. I am going to try pistachio butter. Oh yeah it seems a reasonable spurge for those of us dentally challenged.

After Sammy and Stella I got rid of the well-used sisal rope scratching post I had. I have a long sisal runner rug that Carlo uses for his nails but Diego has over the last few weeks taken it upon himself to personally destroy three boxes I have in the closet by using them as claw maintenance aids.

It is no big deal but I will have to repack all the stuff in the boxes and one of the things is this color printer that my oldest sister got in a giveaway gosh maybe 7 years ago that does photos. I haven’t touched it since I lugged the darn thing home in the snow one holiday they were passing through.

Most Honorable has a toxic recycling station on his campus and I am hoping he might be able to take it and get it disposed of properly. I am sure after all these years the toner is no good and it would probably be impossible to find a driver for it.

I was mentioning the bare outlines of this to S as we were walking because I told her I was thinking about going across town tomorrow after church to an independent pet store I know that has a wide selection of towers and posts. She offered to take me as we are meeting at church. That is so cool. I could take the bus, was planning on this but it will be fun to be with her.

Her best friend has Shingles and she is going to spend the rest of the day with him.

She is truly an excellent role model for me. She retired 18 months ago and right away, as a retired hospice and home health nurse (and nurse manager) got drafted to help friends and colleagues with their end of life management on a volunteer basis. She went through the whole process with one of her mentors, (even though this person had a partner), from finding foster hospice care and disposing of property and all the details of the funeral service.

She is now embroiled in property divestment of another friend who is ill and so when the partner of the first woman called week before last to say she had reoccurrence of breast cancer and could she help with all the logistics, she took a very deep breath and said…no.

Wow. We can’t do it all. Energy management becomes critical as well as after working so hard all these years (she was a Navy nurse first) she is allowed and I would say even should be encouraged to just plain have fun. Her husband is 10 years older and a wonderful kind and very unique man but he is going to need more care soon too.

Anyway I love it that these vibrant direct women are including me in things. There may be an outing to an island near the beach my oldest sister loved so much in southern Washington near Astoria in a few weeks with them. They go the coolest places.

They keep trying to tempt me to take days off work. Ha! Not a hard sell but we shall see.

As we head towards 37 (100 degrees F) this afternoon I am just glad to be inside and that I have a fan.

The cats are too.

Last updated June 05, 2016