After last night, we slept late. My eyes did not open until 7:45 am, and Mary was still sawing logs. I crept into the office and began work on the Ireland Adventure website. Soon after that, Mary came in, reminding me we had to leave the house in 20 minutes to get to the gym! GYM?? On no, I forgot.
We were running on “gym time,” so we made it to the gym a fashionable 60 seconds late. We did our best and managed to lift a bag of chips to our mouths numerous times, so I’d say it was a successful workout. After that, we headed to CVS, the land of endless receipts and impulse buys, where I picked up my prescriptions for a cough that sounds like a pack-a-day habit.
From there, we went home and changed into our fanciest banana costumes. Mary packed a picnic basket with all the essentials – bananas, banana bread, and banana-flavored smoothies – and we were off and running to beautiful downtown Victorville. The locals gave us some strange looks, but we didn’t peel under pressure!
The drive was pretty!
Why Victorville? After Leon Brander passed away, his wife of 150 years was placed in a care facility in Victorville to be near her daughter. When we met up with Marcia, she was doing great – much better than the last time when the change in her lifestyle was new to her.
We sat together and reviewed the status of all her friends: Vicky and Jim, Donna and Bob, Mike and Bridgette, Jan Mongel (no change there), Ed and Betty Roberts, Neda, Nill and Mary Capps, Bob Carlson, George and Beverly, and a host of others.
Marsha says, “Hello to everyone; miss you!”
We returned to civilization around 3:30 pm and worked in the garden!
The squash was easy to pick as they were huge!
The squash here is out of control!
Mary calls me “Scruffy”! She wanted me to grow a beard for Christmas, so I started right after the wedding. Two weeks in and I still look like I got in a fight with a lawnmower! Mary’s solution? She puts a Von’s bag over my head when we go out – I guess that’s her way of saying, “don’t worry folks, he’s normally better looking!”
Happy in the garden; where was Grumpy?
We enjoy spaghetti squash because it makes delicious spaghetti and meatballs with a third of the calories.
The spaghetti squash is waiting to be picked.
Ah ha! I found Grumpy. When the garden gets overgrown, I suddenly develop “back problems,” Mary heroically offers to dive into the foliage with her machete to retrieve the goodies. The foliage is so dense that she ends up diving in headfirst!
I found Grumpy busy picking more quash!
No, really. That is Mary behind the squash and in front of her Sweet Peas. Next time, I plan to put a tall stick with a flag so I can find her in the bushes.
She is back in the bushes, finding the pesky veggies.
This is the first truckload of the harvest. While picking, we filled up two ninety-gallon waste containers that will make their way to the dump tomorrow.
It was loaded to the gunnels! The kitchen will be busy today!
We stopped at 5:30 p.m. because we needed to rest, and my gardening uniform was not keeping me warm! We had a glass of wine on the patio and just talked. What’s nice about living with your best friend is that we can just sit together and enjoy ourselves.
By the way, she took the bag off my head when we sat down, although she did turn her chair the other way!
After a brief glass of wine, we went into the swim spa for three cycles to relax our backs. Today’s never-ending picnic basket prevented us from having to make dinner. We were in the sack by 8:30 p.m. and slept through the night!
