The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Today we began apart with Mary going to retirement get together with two long-time friends and me heading to the new house. I shall call the new home Casa Valencia. This morning’s mission was to connect up the electronics. I brought in the security cameras and the Alexa’s and sprinkled them liberally throughout the house.
Long time friends!
I had the big Alexa playing 1950’s music, and I was beboppo=ing around the place when I heard voices, no, not in my head. Seconds later, Mary and he friends burst upon the scene, and I was pleasantly surprised. We showed them around the new place and had a good visit.
We thought for sure we had stopped the rain since we covered the cabinets, but alas, at noon, the rains came, and the tarps worked well.
Frustration set in when I attempted to put in the new thermostat at Casa Valencia. The WiFi-enabled Honeywell required five wires, and the current thermostat had only four, so tomorrow, I will be off to home depot to get six feet of five conductor wire. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at YouTube on how to wire the thermostat and got a step-by-step tutorial, the Internet is great.
Now that I understand, it goes in tomorrow morning!
We worked around the place for another hour before going to Mary’s to clean up and go to a birthday party in Banning for Annie’s 95th! Since I was driving the van, we took the “hot rod,” which I am starting to drive Precious without fear!
The party was great, the eight of us had a fun time, and Annie was doing quite well…the Bell of the Ball! Mary gets her plants as Annie likes them. Today’s plant was a Dracaena trifasciata, a flowering plant species in the family Asparagaceae, native to tropical West Africa from Nigeria east to the Congo. It is most commonly known as the snake plant, Saint George’s sword, mother-in-law’s tongue, and viper’s bowstring hemp, among other names.
The plant exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide using the crassulacean acid metabolism process, which allows them to withstand drought. The microscopic pores on the plant’s leaves called the stomata and used to exchange gases, are only opened at night to prevent water from escaping via evaporation in the hot sun. The NASA Clean Air Study found D. trifasciata can filter indoor air, removing 4 of the 5 main toxins involved in the effects of sick building syndrome.
Annie gets a Dracaena trifasciata (Snake Plan)t from Mary; the plant is known to clean the air.
Mary and Jonh have been friends for 50 years, and he is a great guy who assisted us in making a home buying decision early.
Mary and John (Annie’s son)
Virgil is a young 93 making Annie a Cougar! Not really, just funny. They are a cute couple.
Virgil and Annie
Taken about 1920, Annie was cute then!
Annie with her parents about 90+ years ago!
We departed the party around 8:00 PM and headed home to Mary’s, where we crashed. This week will be a big one for me, and I am pulling up steaks and leaving my home of 35 years. By the end of the week, I will be totally gone from home and turn back the keys.
