Can I land a helicopter on your land?

Steve's photo of a butterfly on my marigolds

new barn swallow babies ready to fly

cleome grew large while we were gone

Maya paid us a visit yesterday

rainbow salad at the cooking class: lima beans, nectarines, corn, orange peppers, tomatoes and avocados. Lesson: the more colors: the more nutrition

my harvest: rainbow chard and yellow squash

more sunflowers

bought a shadow box today of a miniature violin

The nice young couple next door came over yesterday. The woman's father flies helicopters and would like to land on the area between our houses which is about the size of two soccer fields. Maybe our grandsons would like to watch? (Sunday 3-4 pm) Should be interesting.

 

Gradually getting back to normal. Delta will give me my miles for my late luggage. Deadheaded flowers, pulled weeds including 2 poison ivy plants (where do these come from?), picked vegetables. My flowers survived thanks to Naomi watering them as there was only one day of rain. The birds seem to have deserted us faced with a week of empty feeders but the hummingbirds quickly returned and resumed their wars. A few stray finches are making their way back to the thistle holders.

 

It is so different running on a deserted country road versus facing half of Seattle even at 6 am running around Green Lake. It has been cool and the biting flies have not been out but I am sure they will return with the heat tomorrow. I even got out of the bike combining exercise with garage sales. I was able to get that shadow box, roughly 12x18 inches, and a pretty glass dish back by threading the bag to my fanny pack though I assume I looked silly.

 

Not much action on that house though we have a viewing coming up. This house is the bane of our lives. We went there today to mow, water and weed. I noticed that the new buyers of the house across the street have continues the tradition of no lawn work whatsoever. Three foot high weeds cover their front yard, trash fills their front porch: why does this house attract such slobs?

 

So sometimes magical thinking works.  Things don't get done around here in the hopes that things will magically take care of themselves especially concerning the cars. Two months ago, Steve backed out into the driveway forgetting that Naomi's car was there. Big dent followed by a much smaller dent when that crazy old lady hit me (and then said it was my fault because I wasn't there when she first looked) just a few days later. Well the big dent magically disappeared while we were gone. Go figure. Steve didn't even think the cars was ours without the dent when he went up to it in a parking lot. And the rattling heat shield on the other car? Haven't heard it either since we returned.

 

I will take my friend to chemo tomorrow. The chemo prevents her leukemia from getting worse while they dicker around with insurance approvals. She was finally approved to get the bone marrow transplant but then they told her they would not cover the donor's expenses. I have no idea what it costs to screen the donors and then let them sit as this system sorts out the stem cells from their blood but I know how much it costs for the 3 doses of Neulasta they give the donor to encourage stem cell production: $10K a pop, even more in a hospital setting. After much protesting and appealing, now the insurance has agreed to cover the donor expense. So far her brother has not been excluded as a donor (only 25% of siblings match) so here's hoping he passes the next round of tests. Much better outcomes for sibling matches versus unrelated donors.

 

Back to my cooking class for cancer survivors. I was surprised and happy to see a classmate return who 6 months ago, had a third cancer (all completely different)diagnosis. This one she was told, was untreatable and she had only months to live. When they irradiated her to relieve pain, the tumor surprisingly shrunk to a manageable size and it hasn't grown since. Plus a new drug targeting her cancer just has been approved should this monster start growing again. I had been feeling guilty about not visiting her. Her chief friend is gone a lot (who gave me all the information). I did give her number to various classmates and they called so at least she has that. But she looked happy to be there. I tried to give her a ride home but her walker would not fold up small enough to fit in my microcar. A really bad design. I did make a new friend last night with a woman who loves to bike. Her husband has a theoretically treatable cancer but the treatment itself nearly killed him. What things people go through. It makes my petty concerns seem so......petty.

 

Our teacher tried to incorporate as many colors in our dishes. Dessert was easy: raspberries and blueberries over almond milk ice cream (dairy seems to be considered evil). Then these rosti, sort of like a potato pancake with zucchini instead covered with a carrot, corn relish. And the multifruit and multivegetable ceviche pictured above. Yes as someone recently pointed out, I should be eating these things every night instead of once a month. Baby steps.

 

So what is in the future for itchy foot Sue. Babysitting Allie and then attending a Pig Roast in Kalamazoo with former co-workers, having a helicopter land near me, celebrating Daniels's birthday, finding a way to display my new glass pretties from the trip. I do want to go to the east coast this fall but most of all, I want that house gone. Hard to plan when we constantly have to check in on it. I also need to fix my blind eye (no I haven't called the eye guy yet) and decide whether I want to have my breasts fixed..appointment is coming up in 2 weeks