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Friday's Hunt v2.16

This week's prompts are:  1) Starts with P   2) Week's favorite   3) Whole My knees have been a hindrance this week, which means I haven't taken any photos. So I've chosen a photo I took a few weeks ago when the Husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Our present to each other was a soaring adventure! We each experienced a whole ride to ourselves in the glider plane.  It was a spectacular ride lasting about 35 or so minutes. In case it's not clear, P is for plane — the towing plane (the one at the bottom in the photo) and glider plane.  Heading into the sky is the Husband. It was a whole lot of fun!  Wheeeeeeeeeee! Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills . Click here to check out other participants. Or, to join the fun.

Harvest Time — Not So Easy Work

Harvesting crops is hard back-breaking work. Every time I pass by a field of workers, I'm very grateful to them. How can anyone not want to give them a living wage? It wasn't until 1978 that farmworkers on large farms were finally included under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which required their employers to pay them minimum wage. Still, in some states today, farmers can choose to give their workers a piece-rate wage rather than a minimum hourly rate. It's not a high piece rate either.  For instance, if a worker receives 50 cents for every bucket of tomatoes she picks, she would need to pick about 2.5 tons of tomatoes to earn an equivalent minimum hourly wage for a 10-hour day. I think all states ought to mandate hourly wages for farmworkers. I've got a Mama story for you. She always laughed when she told me about her first year working in the fields of America. It was either the first or second year that she was living here, so that was 1950 or 1951. She decided

Friday's Hunt v2.15

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with O  2) Week's Favorite  3) Eyes Don't you think this tree's "eyes" look owlish? Ha-ha! O for owlish. O is also for opposite. On the opposite side of this tree is young growth. Very cool, which is why this photo is my week's favorite. Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills . To check out other participants, please click here .

Mopping

Scuff marks, cat tracks, and stains. I no longer could ignore it. The kitchen floor needed mopping. Because I am hopping along on a cane, the Husband agreed to mop the floor. (My knees are alternating between being painful.) All I had to do was fetch the tools—the bucket and mop handle out of the shed and the mop head out of the closet. Problem was we had no mop head. Sigh . Snap! Light bulb. I had the answer in my hand. The cane! The Mama's cane, actually. She rarely used it to get around. What she did use the cane a lot for was shining the kitchen floor. She threw a rag on the floor and danced it around with her cane. Yup. Like mother, like daughter. I dipped a rag in a bucket of vinegar, threw it on the kitchen floor, and danced it around the worse parts with the cane. Ha! I'm quite late this week for ABC Wednesday . As the saying goes, better late, than never. Which the latter I thought it would be for the letter M. Seeing the doctor about my knees this morning got

The London Bridge

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down. My Fair Lady. In first grade, we sang this Mother Goose rhyme as we marched under an arch formed by the joined hands of two kids. The hands came down on "My Fair Lady" and the two kids would then rock the captured kid between their locked hands, as we sang a verse about taking the key and locking the kid up. When that verse was over, either the captured kid chose a side and stood behind that kid or took that kid's place, after which, we marched and sang the rhyme again. I don't remember what the point of the game was. For that matter, what the rhyme was all about. After three or four rounds, I would look longingly at the playground, even willing to climb up the jungle gym. And, that I disliked to do. I didn't become curious about the London Bridge until 1975 when I learned that a rich American had bought the bridge and reconstructed it brick by brick on Lake Havasu i

Friday's Hunt v2.13

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with M  2) Week's Favorite  3) Work M is for marriage . The Husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage on Friday by taking a glider ride.  M is also for more than a mile up into the sky, which is how high up we went.  The Husband and I each soared individually with Pilot Bill. The Husband flew to the west, while I flew to the east. I took lots and lots of photos. One of my favorite photos is the one of the little plane hard at work towing us in the sailplane towards the mountain ridge. When we got just above the ridge, Pilot Bill pressed a button to release the rope. Voila! We were sailing on the air at the greatest of ease. I loved it! Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills . To check out other participants, please click here .

Lovely K's

I entered 5 k's in the Google search box just now and this mathematical equation came up: k - k - k - k - k = -5.52259408 × 10 -23 m 2 kg s -2 K -1 Gulp.  I hope it refers to something full of kindliness. Best to think that way.  After all, an OK is a better thing than a KO (knock out). kind - kinder - kindest - kindly - kindness  = -5.52259408 × 10 -23 m 2 kg s -2 K -1 Giggle.  Keep on keeping on. Peace out. You got it. It's the letter K on ABC Wednesday . Click here to check out what bloggers around the world are writing about K.  Thanks, ABCW team!

Friday's Hunt v2.12

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with L   2) Week's Favorite   3) Critter Looky there, it's our critter, Molly the Cat. She was completely in zen lick, lick, licking herself clean and pretty.  How could that not be my favorite photo of the week? Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills . To check out other participants, please click here . If you'd like to join, you can until Sunday evening.

I Kid You Not. Just

Just kidding around. Just feeling like a kid again. Just who do you think you're kidding? Just a punk kid. What's just that, kid? Just a new kid on the block. Just saying, "Hi, Kid!" The kid just said, "Bleeeet." Just handle with kid gloves. Handle just with kid gloves. Handle with just kid gloves. Handle with kid gloves—just. What are ya? Just some kind of whiz kid? Just kidding aside. Yup. I drew a picture of just how I recall my small barefoot kid self. J is this week's letter for ABC Wednesday . Click here to read other J-themed posts by blogger from around the world.  Thank you, ABCW team!! P. S. Uhm, I thought this week was the letter K. Like how I just barely put the post back on the right track? 

Changing Landscape

May 12, 2016 The Mama was quite proud of her lawn. Green. Manicured. Weedless. When she no longer could take care of the lawn, she hired a lawn guy, which was a great luxury for the Mama. When that got too expensive, she sighed and accepted that the lawn would be cut during my monthly visit. Then, when the Husband and I moved in with the Mama, the lawn became the Husband's job. As the drought became a real thing, watering the lawn was a luxury, as well as an ongoing skirmish between the Mama and me. The Husband continued watering it, but not as often or as much. The Mama took to watering it when we were gone, if she felt the lawn was fading. I was very happy when the City finally decreed a water rationing and a $500 fine for using too much water. "You have to decide," I said to the Mama, "water for your vegetable garden or the lawn. You can't have both for now." The lawn faded. The Mama sighed. The Mama complained. Fortunately, the lawn came b

The I's Have It

What do the I 's have? I don't know. The idiom just came to me. So, let me go look it up. . . . Oh, it's not the I 's, but rather the ayes.  Now, that makes sense.  The ayes have it.  In other words, the majority of people who voted in favor of something won. Okey-dokey. Pondering and writing about that idiom interrupted my original intention for this post. The thought started the other night.  What came first: Ink or inkling? Did someone have an inkling and needed ink for her pen to write about it? Or, perhaps, hmmm, she spilled ink on herself because someone surprised her by whispering in her ear. She stood up quickly, saying with much irritation to that person, "Inkling!" She was too polite to swear, you see. This morning, while the Husband and I sat not impatiently in the doctor's office (simply a routine visit for the Husband), I wondered what came first: Imp or impossible? And, Id or idiot? Intriguing, aye? The inspiration for

You Call That Singing? Meow.

Almost every morning that I start off the day at the computer, Molly the Cat saunters into the office. She acts nonchalantly, ignoring me at first. She goes around the room, rubbing her body against the doorway, the chair legs, and whatever else may be in her path. Then she stops beside my chair. I know what's coming next. Jump! Molly struts back and forth before me. She doesn't care if she has interrupted my writing, my scrolling, my whatever-I-am-doing on the computer. "Come on, Molly. Let me click this link." I reach under her body to the keyboard. "Just don't step on the keyboard." Ha! She will if she wants. Purrrrrrrrrrrrrr. She rubs her head on the edge of the printer, along the pencils in the cup, the umbrella plant that stretches toward the desk, and everything else she wants to mark. Like she hasn't already. Molly also wants me to pet and hug her to her heart's content. Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Okey-dokey with me. Most mornings.

Friday's Hunt v2.10

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with J   2) Week's Favorite   3) Surprise J is for jaunt, which is what the Husband and I took last Saturday. We went over hills and down dales, around curves and straightways, and along creeks and through forests. Our goal was to purchase tomatoes at the u-pick-your-own organic farm in Santa Cruz County. It took longer to get there than to pick the nearly 50 pounds of tomatoes, of which most are now in the freezer waiting their turn to be part of some delicious recipe in the winter and spring. I simply wash the tomatoes, let them dry, pack them in bags, and freeze them. When it's time to use them, I put them straight in the pot to melt into the other ingredients. No fuss, no muss. That said, you would think my favorite photo this week would be of the tomatoes, the tomato fields, or the Husband frolicking through the fields picking tomatoes. Nope. I was to busy plucking the juicy fruit myself to think of clicking away. My favorit

The "H" I Say

The other day I decided to keep a daily Have-Done list. For awhile, that is. Until I no longer need to let myself know that I have accomplished something each day. Every day, I add things to my To-Do list. As you can see in the photo, the items don't always get done right away. Sometimes, not for weeks after I put them on the list. The Have-Done things, so far, were not on my To-Do list. That's okay. They were usually stuff: •  I would've distracted myself to do so I wouldn't do anything on the To-Do list. For instance, dig up a narrow piece of the front lawn to create a new home for a bunch of jade plants that no longer fit in their pots. •  I would've discovered I needed to do before I could do a To-do item, such as clean the freezer in order to start it up again. •  I needed to do that moment because they needed to get done then and there. We needed to pay that water bill, you know. •  I would've eventually put on my To-do list. That would'

Friday's Hunt v.2.9

The cues for Friday's Hunt this week are: 1. Starts with I   2. Week's favorite   3. Pink So, here's my week's favorite picture: The pink-faced Husband quickly inserting himself into the photo I was taking of the apples and lemons that I harvested from our trees.  I love that silly guy. Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills. To check out the other participants, please click here .

Happy Birthday to the Mama!

The ever loving, curious, generous, and unique Mama would've been 95 years old today. Shoot up the  fireworks! Bang on the walls! Pick some tomatoes! Dance up a storm! Sing, sing, sing! I searched through my archives for a story to share about the Mama. This one is my favorite, which was published on June 18, 2010. Originally, it was entitled Talking about Sex with the Mama . The new title says it better. Some Kind of Wonderful   Yesterday the mama asked me to explain something she was reading in an AARP flyer. It was a short article about what a woman can do about vaginal dryness so that intercourse isn't so painful. Uh. The mama is a voracious reader. She likes to learn. Both things I didn't know until the husband and I became her roommates several years ago. English is not her primary language, and I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, her English reading comprehension is about a 4, more or less. She doesn't let complicated or unfamiliar words

Gutsy Guys at Work

I had a few G thoughts to write about for ABC Wednesday this week. Alas, the day comes, and those ideas are lifeless. So, for today, I give you a photo of construction guys. They're working merely feet from the highway. Their job is one that requires a lot of guts. To check out this week's ABCW participants, please click here .  

A Sloth Who Likes to Read

"Stop reading," ordered the Mama. "Go outside." I'd probably been lying on the bed reading for three or four hours that sunny summer weekend afternoon. I was probably 12 years old. That's what the Mama got for buying me a bed with a bookcase headboard. It was packed full with paperback books that I purchased from the monthly Scholastic book catalog during the school year. Three or four dollars bought me a lot of books back then. I shall always be grateful the Mama and the Daddy let me buy so many, and for leaving me alone to read the books over and over most of the time. Reading was my favorite thing to do in summer, followed by riding bicycles, watching movies, and eating. Except for the bicycle riding, I seem to have slipped back into my once-upon-a-time summer routine. I'm not getting much done, I admit. And, yes, my clothes are feeling snug. Again. I really do need to urge me to step outside and do something. There's still time today t

The Season of Plenty

The other day, the Husband and I drove around Pajaro Valley in Santa Cruz County (next door to our county) just because we felt like it. The fertile Pajaro Valley has fields full of strawberries, cages full of raspberries and blackberries, and still a few orchards full of apples. We stopped at Gizdich Ranch , which is well-known for its apple juice and homemade apple and berry pies. You can also pick your own apples and various types of berries, if you want.  Our mission. My mission (the Husband was a captive audience) was to purchase hollyhock seeds. Unfortunately none were to be had yet. But, we did come away with four cobs of corn for a dollar and a look at a bunch of fancy buggy-looking Bugatti's that one of the guys said were each worth $2 million+. The Bugatti guys (5 or 6 of them) caused a traffic jam at the ranch. Not because they couldn't find parking spots, from what I saw, but because the drivers and passengers stood in the path of us, drivers, trying to fin

Friday's Hunt V2.8

This week's clues for Teresa's Friday's Hunt at Eden Hills are: 1) Starts with H  2) Week's Favorite  3) Single. My favorite photo this week shows hands as in the Mama's hand and the drummer's hand.  As for single, the Mama's single focus at that particular moment was feeding her baby a delicious treat. To check out other Friday's Hunt participants, please click here .

Flight

On the afternoon that the Mama died, the Husband, Long-time Friend Kathy, Molly the Cat, and I sat on the patio and ate our lunch. The Mama's apple tree and her butterfly bush gave us shade from the warm Spring sun. The sky was blue. The Mama's roses, daisies, and other flowers were in bloom. The birds serenaded us. The Mama's bedroom window faced the backyard. I like to think that she could see, smell, and hear the day as we did and that she enjoyed listening to our relaxed cadences and tones. At one point I leaned back in my chair and gazed at the sky. A crow was lazily flying back and forth. It was like a photo, the crow framed by the foliage of the Mama's trees and bushes. As I watched the bird, I felt like I could see the Mama's spirit flying up towards the crow and dancing alongside it. When I finally looked away, I saw a white butterfly fly out of the Mama's garden by the  rose bushes. That was the first white butterfly I saw that day, which, eve

Baaaaaaaa

Good ricotta? I think it is made from sheep, because that's the artisanal stuff we bought at the independent, natural goodness supermarket in Santa Cruz last week. I forget that cow's milk isn't the only source for cheese until I eat cheese that's made from other animals. Maybe if I'd been more careful, I could've found the good ricotta made from cow. For breakfast I ate a peanut butter-ricotta-honey sandwich. As I chewed, I thought of sheep, their wool, their face, and their hooves. I recalled the Warner Brothers cartoon in which the wolf wore sheep's clothing to get closer to the sheep. The sheepdog always beat the wolf at his game. Of course. The funniest part about the cartoon was the end when both the sheepdog and wolf clocked out of their work shift and said, "See you tomorrow." Molly the Cat came mewing to see what I had for breakfast. She likes cheese, too. I gave her a pinch of the ricotta from my sandwich.  Sniff, sniff. She w

It's Elementary, My Dear.

"Make an effort." This morning I read that line in Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith). I felt like the character, and the author, was talking to me.   Please make an effort, Susie.  The Mama said it another way about herself when she felt tired, which was every day for her last several years. Plain and simple, she used to say, "I push myself." After we buried the Mama this past April, the Only and Older Brother said to me, "Keep on living." I scoffed at what the Only and Older Brother said. Of course, I'd keep on living. Why would I not? Lately, though, honesty keeps trying to surface. Drat that honesty. For that matter, dang to introspection, rumination, and heart-searching that show up in my dreams. Sigh. So, this is my effort today for the letter E for this week's ABC Wednesday : a story that I shared three years ago (April 5, 2013) about an amazing thing that reminded me of the wonderful effortlessness of life.

Happy Birthday to Our Molly!

Molly the Cat is six years old today. According to her adoption paperwork, that is. Molly doesn't like cake. But, we do. So, the Husband drove to the bakery to buy a slice each of chocolate cake and lemon cake for him and me to share. What's a birthday without cake, right? Molly got an extra pouch of chicken breast and beef mix. She licked her plate clean after eating both pouches. She's a big girl now, our sweet Molly. I'm hooking up with Seasons , a meme hosted by blogger and artist Jesh. Click here to check other Seasons participants.

Friday's Hunt 2.6

The cues for this week's Friday's Hunt , hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills , are: 1) Starts with F  2) Week's Favorite  3) Shiny It's been a busy week—high school class reunion stuff (45 years! Tonight is our dinner-dance.)—so I'm doing a stretch with my entry by using a photo I've posted last year. This morning I was looking at the print of it on our kitchen wall and thinking this is one of my favorite photos. Light bulb! I have my week's favorite photo. Some of you are familiar with the Husband, and maybe even this photo. There you go: Familiar . Shiny —the sunlight reflecting on the creek. To check out other entries for Friday's Hunt , click here .  Gotta run. See ya.