Turn Turn Turn in Everyday Ramblings

This is the view from the bus stop I wait at when I come home from the grocery store. It is always lovely in the fall, particularly as the eye makes the colors even richer than the camera.

On the occasion when it is clear enough to see Mt. Hood there is also a view from this stop if one turns to the right. There is often quite a bit of traffic, which is the downside of this spot, our big interstate highway is behind the area where I wait, down a hill and the traffic in front feeds into and off of the interstate.

At least our emergency service personnel do not have to clean dead fish off the road like they needed to do in North Carolina after the storm surge and flooding.

So Sunday was Mrs. Sherlock’s 70th birthday. We were originally scheduled to walk with Frida on Saturday and then I was going to go over to her place for lunch and spend some time with Mr. Sherlock either watching a movie or reading out loud to each other.

I was fretting because I am often flummoxed about gift giving and we had been talking recently about how we, and everyone we know our age, needs to get rid of stuff, not take on more and so I wanted to get her something she would enjoy that is consumable.

Her mother owned a string of gourmet food shops when she was growing up and she is incredibly knowledgeable about specialty foods and I wouldn’t even know where to start…I thought about an assortment of vinegars and olive oils, something like that….

Much anxiety ensued, as I still hadn’t decided by Saturday morning. She likes bright colors and I had found her a flashy shiny blingy card to mail but no gift.

Then it turns out it was raining Saturday morning and she suggested I just come over later, which was brilliant because the big Farmers Market is on the way to her house!

I got her this huge bouquet of dahlias in pinks and deep red and eucalyptus branches (for not a lot) and brought them with me to many cheerful comments from passersby in the drizzle, most of them going to a professional women’s soccer game with our team the Thorns.

I picked up some of my favorite tomatoes too. The woman at the stand wrapped them up tenderly when I told her they were a gift.

It was a three-mile walk so I spent a fair amount of time before I left trying to figure out what shoes would hurt the least. Luckily it didn’t rain too much, I got wet but not soaked and same with my feet.

The bursa inflammation has subsided a bit. It was a mild afternoon here, though windy and I was able to wear sandals to class last night. Sandals that had hurt two days before were manageable. I am thinking I must have banged my foot late last week without realizing it. You know how one does that in the course of doing things, it is like ow and then you go on to the next thing.

Stating the obvious, as we get a bit older these minor impacts matter more.

Anyway I had a good time at lunch. We talked politics! I read a poem in translation by Tomas Tranströmer, Mr. Sherlock read us a political analysis from the Atlantic and Mrs. Sherlock a very short story by a much beloved local author about a moment of lasting kindness in a first grade classroom that was funny and sweet and emphasized the lifelong power teachers can have to set values in a child.

On her actual birthday Mrs. Sherlock went on a bike ride with her group (she had to ride Mr. Sherlock’s trail bike because someone came into their backyard last week and stole her bike off the back porch!) and they took her to lunch and then back to a member’s house for wine and chocolate. She is having food related events with friends all week.

As we nestle in to the new season Kes and Most Honorable are dealing with a onslaught of acorns from the big old oak next to their house (apparently a very good pollen year), the colleges are back in session and big books to read seem ever more appealing.

Last updated September 25, 2018