“When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.” – Anon
We were so lucky as we both would go out of our comfort zone to be with each other. I went to many “doll shows” over the years, and that is how we acquired the Vanderbear Family. Below we were in Hawaii, and I wanted to go ATV’ing. Sue said, “Let’s go!”. Off we went for two hours of riding all over the ranch on the big island. We went off-roading, ATV’ing, in South America, Mexico, Alaska, Central America, and even Australia! She was an adventurer enjoying new sights and sounds anytime she could. I could not have asked for a better partner in life. I miss her so very much! Seeing these pictures and revisiting the adventures is terrific!
Together! Always! Here we are on the Big Island exploring and land!
My garden is getting bigger every day, and I noticed a lot of “self-inflicted” weeds (because I did not wait to age the straw bales). So, Joe, my wonderful son, has a friend that was looking for some work because of the slowdown. I texted the person and, “Come on over and pull some weeds.” At 10:00 AM this morning, right on schedule, the doorbell rang and the work began! Five hours later, my yard and garden look like a model home! NAry a weed to be found! I am thrilled with the results.
This part of the yard had a lot of weeds, as it is challenging to get to. Now it is weedless!
I did some rearranging of my outside storage sheds while the weeds were getting disappeared. I took one of the Rubbermaid high-boys and emptied it, moving the tools to the side yard. Then it was moved just outside the garage, and I filled it with boxes that I seldom require from the garage. Now, I have more room for the boxes I use all the time plus the workbenches are cleared of “stuff”!
Perfect location! The rest of the mulch is now gone, distributed in the yard!
Now the things I do not need every day are stashed away, waterproofed, but still readily accessible! The LED lights are spares which I got on sale a few years back. Each box is labeled and those boxes have saved me many trips to the hardware store!
The container and its contents are about 8 feet from the workbench, which is just right.
Today was David’s 96th birthday, and to celebrate it, we did a Zoom meeting at 2:00 PM with members of my family as well as members of David’s family. David is Greg Leach’s stepfather, a very nice gentleman, so we wanted to do something special for him. We sang the “Happy Birthday Song” which almost caused the Internet to crash!
After the 2:00 PM call, I returned to the garage to do the final cleanup. Wow! I can see clearly now; it sounds like a cute name for a song! Each of the toolboxes are fifty inches wide so I have almost fourteen feet of work-area,
The next step is to drywall the garage and rearrange the three roll-around tool chests to be against a window for light! That will occur later this summer!
It was time to eat, so I found last night’s pot roast. I took out just 1/6th of the total meal and nuked it three minutes in the microwave. It was a meal fit for a king! The meat was so tender only a fork was needed, and the onions and carrots were simply delightful! I was as proud of that meal as a new papa, imagine, Paul the pot roast chef!
Now it is approaching 5:00 PM and time for the family get-together. I checked in at 4:50 PM, and people were already there talking. We try to do a family “check-in” once a week now with everyone giving us their updates and plans for the upcoming week.
Yeah, yeah, the gang’s all here! Top to bottom left to right we have: Dave, Paul, Colleen, Robin/Bob, Joe/Amy. Zack/Becca, Cassie, and Pete/Lisa.
Who are the players you might not recognize? Well, Dave (upper left-hand corner) is my first cousin, once removed, his father was my first cousin. Dave fits right into this group like a glove!
The picture below is just one more snapshot of the Zoom meeting and as you can see people come in and go out of the picture as the meeting progresses. I have been the “master of ceremonies” for these meetings and decided I would keep my eye the clock and after one hour I begin to close the meeting down. Next week, we hope to have a couple of Dave’s kids online with us so they will get to meet their second and third cousins.
Another shot in time
We chattered for an hour and ten-minutes (I was the meeting chair, so I have the official timer). Great fun and lot’s of teasing underway. We shared some old pictures of family, who are no longer here, and some individuals that choose not to be here?
Time for a walk in the garden and relax before watching TV! As you can see, the plants are getting bigger every week. The tomatoes are coming on strong. I heard the little vegetables talking amongst each other saying, “it is sure nice to be weed-free”!
The weeds were still gone, I just needed to check!
The eight tomato plants should be producing in another six weeks or so. I am patiently waiting for the tomatoes to become ripe because I now know how to make salsa in several different forms. From a distance, the sunflowers look to be growing quite tall. I proceeded to walk over and examine them carefully.
And another week this will be 3 feet taller and the flowers will get quite large.
It’s 7:30 PM and time for some phone calling to the dance gang! Irene is doing fine and Jan the same. I was so proud of myself telling Jan about the pot roast. I must’ve sounded like a kid at Christmas time after opening up a gift. I still can’t get over it, I made pot roast
The girls told me they were getting very tired of being locked up! I think I’m going to find a way to go visit them on either Monday or Tuesday. We can meet in their driveway staying many feet apart but at least to be able to look at each other’s eyes and smile. Perhaps I will provide a treat and have Mike Andersen join me! Then it would be a visit by “Beauty and the Beast!”, I am not telling who is which one!
Tonight I watched “Jumani, The Next Level” and it was funny with a lot of twists and turns. By 10:30 PM I had it and headed for bed. I don’t watch much TV in the bedroom but I do listen to the radio, KFI on AM. 640 is a great station.
But first, a little humor to cap off the evening! It is about five minutes long and a very cleverly found pieces of old shows that fit today’s nonsense, please enjoy.
