In Person in Everyday Ramblings

A pink Dogwood on the way to the garden.

Kes came up today to visit, drop off recyclables for my Ridwell box, pickup recyclable bottles for her bottle return, drop off cat litter and dry goods and nuts from Costco, homemade ginger snickerdoodles, pickup copies of the latest issues of the New Yorker and Atlantic.

She took me to the grocery. The Waldorf School in the next block was having their big May Pole celebration and there was no parking when we got back, as well as a bunch of the parents were parked illegally.

This year I didn’t hear the Morris Dancers that usually come. One of my old boyfriends, Angel Boy, is a Morris Dancer but he lives in the Bay Area. Sadly, there was a quite dramatic rain squall in the middle. I feel sad for the students as they have been practicing all week and the rain was not in the forecast.

Her health, my sister Kes, is a bit better. She has more energy and is doing more things. Her platelet count is up this week though and that may mean a higher dose of drugs that affect her energy.

With Most Honorable retiring they are looking at moving into a retirement community. There are wait lists. They have a close friend that just moved into one that is closer than where they live now to where I live, and she loves it. Everyone I know, (several students) who has moved there, love the place. Kes and Most Honorable are considering it.

Things change. Wow. Ms. E. graduating from college, Most Honorable retiring.

Despite the outside possibility that the vaccine had some influence on my recent hair loss I am going to get my 4th shot next week or close to that. Our B2 variant is surging here, and case counts are up, and my dental stuff starts the week after that. Waiting for a prescription after dental work in the local outpatient building with an ice pack on seems like a potential exposure to bad mask behavior.

Kes encountered some of that yesterday morning at the lab getting her blood drawn. It is more like mask theater where it is still required. I have noticed that now the mandates are down in stores and on the buses that the people that are wearing masks are wearing them well.

That’s something!

Yesterday morning I was standing in the kitchen getting ready to go down to the garden. I had noticed there was a black sports car parked on my side of the street, maybe a Miata. I look out a few minutes later and there is a modern bright red Volkswagen Bug stoped in the street a little past the sports car.

An older woman, light gray hair, ponytail, jeans jacket and boots gets out of the driver’s side smoking a cigarette with great gusto. Then her passenger, a bit younger, wearing a matching sweat pants outfit, a bit pudgy, (I got a view of her belly) gets out, also smoking enthusiastically and walks over and starts looking at the rims on the sports car.

They both look under the car. Then Ms. Sweatpants goes to the Volkswagen, still taking up more than half the street, opens the trunk and gets out a toolbox. It is about 9:15 AM. La de da.

I don’t know if they took the rims and the catalytic converter, but they were taking something. Particularly the older woman looked scary to me. Like she had spent time in jail and was most decidedly armed. No way I was confronting either of them.

When I left to go to the garden, I walked around the block the other way. When I came back, they were gone and the sports car was gone. Parking one’s car on the street here these days, not a good idea. My neighbor, she has an old green sedan, and she leaves the window open and absolutely nothing in the car. The police are logging the property crimes but doing nothing else.

We have an election coming up. Some of the candidates are suggesting terrifying solutions to stop the visibility of the houseless and the unprecedented property crimes. There is one guy running for Governor suggesting camps. Nice camps, of course, with you know, kitchens and drug treatment, but out in the country, far far away. Ugh.

It’s the weekend, the rhododendrons are peaking, and the wisteria is coming on. I have a date with the lilac garden and a long contemplative walk focusing on all the good that touches my life instead of all these challenging problems we do not seem to be able to solve.

Last updated April 30, 2022