Today is a sunny day, but quite chilly because of the wind factor. According to the thermometer, it's about 52 degrees in the sun. Molly the Cat came inside about 20 minutes ago. How about the Mama? The Mama says it's colder inside, even with the heater on. She'd come in if the garden happened to be inside.  Maybe.

Is it coincidence that there are dates in both the Husband's and my family that are common? Or, is it synchronicity? I prefer thinking it's the latter. I also prefer not figuring out how it's so. That said, November 15, for example,  is special for both the Husband and me. November 15 is the Husband's Dad's birthday. Jim would've been 97 years old today. Happy Birthday, Jim! November 15 is the Mama's and the Daddy's wedding anniversary. They would've celebrated 68 years together. Happy Anniversary to the Mama and the Daddy!

See Molly the Cat. See her sleep. She sleeps on what once was the Mama's favorite chair to sit when she read the newspaper or her novels and biographies. The once-upon-a-time favorite chair of the Mama's is now one of Molly's favorite places to nap. I don't think the Mama cares that Molly has taken over her chair. There's no more daily paper to read. We stopped it because it cost over $80 a month for mostly advertisements and selected pieces of old news. We still get the weekly local paper, which the Mama reads on the sofa between watcher her favorite games on television. Maybe the Mama will reclaim her chair from Molly if she decides to read her books when the weather gets too cold and wet to go outside. We shall see. 

Today ends the round of Alphabe Thursday hosted by the wonderful Mrs. Jenny Matlock. It's also the final round of the meme.  Jenny has decided to retire it due to her health, which I hope the doctors can resolve very soon. Thank you, Jenny, for being you. My theme this round has been the Places I've Been . Hence, for the letter Z, I give you some of the places that almost always put me in my Happy Zone. In the Water ~ Photo taken by the Husband. In Hawaii ~ Photo taken by the Husband. In the Mama's Garden At a Library (or Bookstore) Wherever the Husband and I Dance ~ Photo taken by Lisa Q. Any W here Tilda-Hilda and I Ride Around the House with Molly the Cat Any Place with the Mama And, Most of All, Everywhere with the Husband ~Photo taken by a friendly woman amused at our antics.   There you go, my letter Z for Alphabe Thursday . To join in or to read other Z posts,

It's not my birthday. It feels like it though.   Today, the Husband and I drove over to Freedom to buy food for Molly the Cat. Our task was done quicker than we estimated, so we headed down the road to Watsonville to visit the art store and bookshop before lunch. I'd only planned to buy a couple of new colored pencils at Wild Rose's Artists' Supplies and Custom Framing , but you know how it goes. I checked out the shop's art paper. Marbled paper. Oooooh. Wavy, corrugated paper. Gotta have that. Small rectangle-shaped suede paper. 25 cents, sold! My plan is to make masks. Yup. At Crossroads Books , I bought a mystery called Shaking in Her Flip-Flops . Can't go wrong with a title like that.  Another neat thing about the book is that it's written by Joyce Oroz, an author who lives in nearby Aromas . The Husband and I also decided to purchase a copy of The 2016 Farmer's Almanac . That's always fun reading. To top off getting all this coo

"You want to go outside?" Molly the Cat was sniffing at the front door, as I came down the stairs. I opened the door and out she tumbled into the morning. The ground was wet from yesterday's rain, but she managed to find her way through the maze of flowers to the sidewalk and her favorite patch of grass. The lawn, by the way, is starting to look like a lawn again. Thank you, rain! Molly had no interest in walking beyond the flowers. She would've seen the rainbow, if she had. "Stop with the camera," said Molly, turning back to the house. "It's time for food."

This morning I took Tilda-Hilda out on a spin because I wanted to get some early morning photos that I might use for my other blog, Take 25 to Hollister . I caught a scene that I liked, which is here . Tilda-Hilda and I pedaled through some of Hollister's original residential neighborhood and then out towards new development. All in all, we traveled about five miles.  It felt wonderful being out in the crispy Autumn morning. By the way, Tilda-Hilda is posing in front of the high school where I went. San Benito High School. Haybalers, aka Balers, are us!

Lately, I've been using a facial cream made up of tallow from grass-fed cows and organic extra-virgin olive oil. Every time I rub the stuff into my face, I think of fried steak. Yummmm. That's the smell of the cream. And, that's what my face smells like. The Husband has no sense of smell. Poor guy. He doesn't get to smell how deliciously like fried steak I am. Why am I using this yummy eau de fried steak ? I have a horrible case of facial eczema and experts say that tallow fat mimics human skin, has minerals that help heal and protect the skin, and has natural cleansing and anti-inflammatory properties. It's too early to say if eau de fried steak is working. No. I haven't been eating a lot of fried steak lately. But, I do think about it each time I apply eau de fried steak on my face. P.S. Tilda-Hilda and I did a quick pedal around the neighborhood this morning. I totally got myself out of breath. Maybe, I'll talk myself—and the Husband—into

My Alphabe Thursday theme: Places I've Been For many years, I've wanted to visit the Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs, a once-upon-a-time very popular resort in the foothills of the southern end of the Diablo Range. Now part of the Henry Coe State Park, this historic landmark is about 10 miles northeast of Gilroy, California, which is nearby my town of Hollister. Unless there are special events or planned guided tours by the all-volunteer, nonprofit group Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs (GYHS), the place is not open to the public. Two weeks ago, GYHS held a special event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the hot springs being made a historic landmark. (It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and also designated as a California Historical Landmark.) Yup, the Husband and I attended the event. The grand hotel, club house, swimming pool,  soaking pools, and other magnificent structures of long ago no longer exist. Many of the guest cottages still stand. The

Klunga-langa-tank. Klunga-langa-tank. Klunga-langa-langa-langa-lagna-langa-tank! That's the Husband's and my new song, based on the sound my purple pencil makes when I push on the end of it. Over and over. And over. And, over. Words are on strike in my brain today. Or, maybe it's my brain that's on strike. The words are simply in their cubbyholes waiting to be put together into a story. So, if you please, I hope you'll come back tomorrow for my Alphabe Thursday post about the Gilroy Yamamoto Hot Springs. Ciao. And chow, I would definitely like right now.

I've been seeing a lot of yellow vehicles lately—yellow sedans and sports cars, school-bus-yellow RVs and trucks, and bright-yellow vans and motorcycles. Yellow must be the new popular choice. I like that. My first car was a lemon-yellow 1971 Dodge Colt.  That was my high school graduation gift. I fell in love with it, at first sight. There were two colors available, and the Daddy liked the other one, which color I no longer remember. He was a great sport and let me have the yellow Colt. I think the Mama was disappointed that I didn't want some kind of flashy, sporty, or more feminine-looking car. The Daddy seemed to have no problem with the Colt being a boxy subcompact, as it ran perfectly and it was new. (The Daddy liked buying new vehicles.) It was also cheap. Very cheap, as I was happy with no radio, no air conditioning, no anything extra. Emeline is what I called her. We definitely had some great adventures. The first was learning how to drive her. She was a stick s

The big news is that it has been raining today. Those glorious drops of water on the Mama's rose are raindrops. Hurrah! Showers were steadily beating the rooftops and roads between very early this morning (maybe 1:00 a.m.) and just before noon.  It looks like more rain is on the way. Maybe even a thunderstorm or two.  Whoo-hooo! I got happily soaked twice, once walking around the neighborhood, taking photos. As I was bending down by a gutter taking photos, a  driver at the stop sign called over to me, "Are you okay?" It took me a moment to realize he was speaking to me. I stood up and turned, pointing to my camera, "I'm fine. I'm taking photos." He laughed. "Thanks very much," I said. He waved and drove away. The second time was a quick dash over by bicycle to the godmother. When I left her house, I felt like bicycling more in the rain. I was good and whooshed straight home. The Mama said it the best about our good fortune today, &q

Consumers be alert! This afternoon,  I shopped for the Godmother at the pharmacy, as there werelLots of things on sale that she wanted—cereal, instant coffee, vitamin D3, and more. The vitamins were not on sale, but it still was cheaper than the similar item that was on sale. Pretty good. After I left the counter, I checked the receipt. Something didn't feel right. I thought the price on the coffee was wrong. It was correct. But the price for the vitamins was wrong. The cash register rang it up as $24.99. The tag on the shelf said $14.99. I brought everything back to the counter and told another clerk (because the first clerk was gone) about the difference. Huh? The clerk looked at me blankly. So, I told him I'm going back to check the tag again. He told me that if the tag said what I thought it said,  then I should bring the tag back. Ha! I was correct. The second clerk checked the tag. "Okay, we'll give you a refund," he said and handed it over to the

This morning, I got up before the sunrise to take a photo of a neighbor's Halloween decorations. My hardworking point-and-click no longer takes pictures well at night or very dark settings. Poor guy. Since I was out, I thought I'd wait around for the sun to show itself, so I walked a bit around the neighborhood. But, the sun didn't pop up until I got  home. Oh well. I did see some cool morning sights, including the bird of paradise hiding behind tall grass that look like cat tails. By the way, if you're interested, click here to see the neighbor's Halloween decorations. All Hallow's Eve to you, one and all.

Dear Blogging Friends, This is for you! Hugs with much love, Su- sieee ! Mac

Santa Ana Valley We use the term Xanadu to refer to "an idealized place of great or idyllic magnificence and beauty".  So, today, I'm posting photos of the real paradise where the Husband, the Mama, Molly the Cat, and I live—Hollister, California, our Xanadu. Nearby Southside Road Fairview Road Enterprise Road Garden at the San Benito County Historical Park Monterey Street Sixth Street nearby Versailles Drive Today is the letter X on Alphabe Thursday , which is hosted by the awesome Jenny Matlock. Thanks, Jenny! To participate in the meme or to read what other bloggers have written about the letter X , please click here .

Rattle, rattle, rattle. "Sounds like the Mama is playing with the ladders," said the Husband. We were in our office in the front of the house. Fortunately, we can hear the rattle of ladders through the window. I sighed. Looking away from the computer, I said, "It's time to give her medicine anyway." * * * * * The Mama stood holding onto the fruitless persimmon tree, the six-foot ladder propped on the ground next to her feet. She looked both guiltily and defiantly at me. "What are you doing?" "I need to prune the persimmon tree," she said. "Here, take your medicine," I said, handing her a cup of water and the pill box. "Move away. Let me do it." "I can do it," she said. "Yes, you can. But, I'm doing it," I said, struggling to put the ladder in the narrow space. "Just those two branches shooting straight up," she said. "Not the one with the fruit." Climbing

The last several days have been wonderful for the Husband and me. Yup.  Lots of activity—walking, talking, being with great friends, talking, enjoying relatives, talking, eating yummy food, talking, discovering new places, talking, meeting new people, talking, seeing a high school play, laughing, talking, and much, much more. I'm pooped.

Here's a treat for you and me—a photo of the Mama's vegetable garden in the late 1990s. I'd say this is probably late February or early March. Are you as surprised as I am how few fruit trees and flower bushes were back there? The Miracle Tree, by the shed on the right, was spindly. And, the apple tree way in the corner wasn't visible. Only the lemon tree, on the left, was going strong. The Mama's vegetable garden was much bigger back then.  She was in her mid-70s. A youngster. Here's how her garden looked this morning.  It's smaller and much of it is not visible. The lemon tree is hidden behind the apple and avocado trees. You still can't see the apple tree in the corner, which is now very tall, because of everything else. I can hardly wait to show the Mama the photos.