Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

The Weak Has Started!

No kidding!!

We were up at 5:00 am and getting ready for the trek to Paul’s dermatologist. After a thorough exam (with Mary’s help), Paul left the office with thirty-eight bandages and a significant loss of blood! Or was it thirty-seven bandages and a considerable amount of band-aids? Either way, Paul’s dermatologist visit became a dress rehearsal for a major medical play!

Tomorrow, we will get the report on the findings.

We stumbled out of the doctor’s office at the ungodly hour of 7:00 am, and then, like sleep-deprived geniuses, we had a stroke of stunning brilliance—we phoned Vicky and subjected her to breakfast with us!

The call was placed, and fifteen minutes later, we met at Hof’s Hut in Seal Beach!

Girl talk… I have no idea!  I was sent to the bathroom twice!

We met the new waitress, Rosie,  who brought us our meal!  She did a great job!

Hoffs’ Hut in Seal Beach, California, uses Rosie the Robot to deliver food to the table.

Mary and I shared breakfast as we attempted to watch our weight.  Note: The hashbrowns and ham are Paul’s!

Yummy!!!

We had an excellent breakfast and talked about Starlighters, family, and friends!  Vicky is truly amazing and such a creative person!  She brings sunlight into the darkness!

Vicky, Paul and Mary!

We brought Jeff a small peach pie, which he dearly enjoyed!

After breakfast, we made our way to H&H Nursery in Lakewood, our surefire way to plant the seeds of happiness! We pushed around the cart and harvested a trunk full of treasures to sow in our garden of dreams!

Push push!

We got everything in the trunk, and the remaining plants went into the back seat!  It took me three wheelbarrow loads to place everything in the backyard.

What you may not see is three 100-pound bags of potting soil in the bottom of the trunk. It takes three bags every year per vegetable bed (of which we have five), so we have another twelve bags to get and distribute in the garden!

Stop! My tummy is full!

Mary’s wheelbarrow was loaded three times, and the contents were placed in the garden area in the south-40 for planting as soon as it cools down tomorrow morning. Those trips put 2/5ths of a mile on the odometer!

Poor Precious, her tummy is too small to go to the nursery!

We messed in the garden for an hour before it got too hot to work!   It was hot all day.  (It is 8:42 pm right now and 81 degrees outside).

Another week of heat is coming our way!

Mary picked leaves from our Bay plant and slow-dried them in the oven; we placed the dried leaves in a Mason jar. In addition to cooking, Bay has been cultivated since ancient times; its leaves constituted the wreaths of laurel that crowned victorious athletes in ancient Greece.

Great! When I work hard in the garden, I was expecting Mary to crown my head with a bay leaf wreath. What do I get now? I suspect she will glue the Mason jar to my head!

They were amazing.

I went to the market to get some apples and returned with $250 worth of goodies, much to the chagrin of my beautiful bride! I got two beautiful breakfast steaks, and at dinner time, we decided to share one; it was perfect! Two ears of corn somehow jumped into my basket, so they were part of dinner also!

At 2:00 p.m., Ray from the acrylic gate company dropped by. We ordered our gate for the side yard, and he gave us some suggestions for the front yard! I learned what a pergola is! It is a shade that stands on its own and is NOT connected to the house!

We watched a horrible movie called “Bone Tomahawk.” Bone Tomahawk is an unusual Western with some gruesome parts. The brutal, gory violence includes slicing, digging into wounds, severed limbs and body parts, shooting with guns and arrows, dead bodies, and other grisly things.

6:00 pm and time for dinner!  The steak that jumped into my grocery cart suddenly became dinner!

We had steak, corn on the cob (courtesy of Paul’s trip to get apples at the store), and salad from the garden for dinner!

We were supposed to go to  Jeff’s but he called and said it was way too hot to sit on the porch!  We stuck our heads outside and he was right!

We decided to swim but I had to sit this one out because of all the cuts he made on me this morning.  Last night, I almost turned my swimming pool into a hot tub without realizing it!

Apparently, I accidentally ordered my pool heater to go into overtime, aiming for a toasty 114 degrees. I think my pool was about to turn into a giant cup of tea. Crisis averted as I managed to hit the reset button just in time. Now my pool is back to a refreshing 88 degrees, perfect for a dip without feeling like a human teabag!

Splish-Splash, she was taking a bath long about a Monday night!

Tonight was a Super Blue Moon! A supermoon is uncommon, and a blue moon is even rarer. But with the full moon tonight, both these events are happening at the same time. In a phenomenon known as a “super blue moon,” Earth’s natural satellite will appear both bigger and brighter than usual.  This will not happen again until 2064!

The three of us enjoyed the moon this evening (three? Scout, Mary, and Paul!)

Scout walked around the pool many times looking for those pesky elephants but to no avail!  He has already befriended all the local lizards and the lizards have formed a Scout Fan Club!

“Do not worry, Mom and Dad, I will find them and keep them away!”

We sat by the fire for a while before deciding to retire for the night.  Tomorrow, the God willing and the creek don’t rise, we will attack the garden at 6:00 am well before Old Sol casts his shining light on us!

Good night all!

About Paul

Just an old retired guy trying to finish out my last years on this planet. I lost my best friend and wife in early 2020. I was blessed again by reconnecting with Dr. Mary Côté, a long-time friend. Mary and I got married July 28th, 2021, and are enjoying life together and plan to spend the rest of our lives being a blessing to our friends and family.
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