Silver Linings

It’s October! And the weather has cooled down. This means golf! It feels so great to be back out there enjoying the game and my group of golf friends. My new shoulder is bionic, so I’m hitting the ball well, but the rest of me is old, creaky, and stiff, and I need to lose some weight. It does help (a lot) that this course has added gold tees for us oldsters.  It’s hard to describe the joys of playing this wonderful game. Maybe I should say of being able to play this game. Tijeras Creek, Hole #1, par 5 Tijeras Creek, Hole #5, par 3 I got a hole-in-one here.  I have also been playing bridge a lot. I play with the girls on Fridays and Jim and I play with friends on the weekends. Jim has gotten back to playing duplicate bridge. What’s duplicate? It’s tournament play, and everyone plays the same pre-dealt hand, hence the name “duplicate.” The person who gets the most points out of that dealt hand gets awarded master points. In the picture below, the player plays both his hand and ...

And something about soda and pretzels and beer. Nat King Cole. It took a while to remember the artist although I could hear the song in my head. Memory is a funny thing. I notice that more and more as I age. Jim will start a sentence about, say, a certain restaurant for example, and the name or location will immediately fall out of his brain, even though he knows it. You know, that one over by… I’m sure we can all relate.  This is NOT going to morph into a blog about aging. (Not yet, anyway.) We had our [old] friends down from Los Angeles and we went to The Coach House to see a blues swing band called Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Lotsa horns. Loud horns. I had my fingers in my ears toward the end of the evening and a headache, too. It’s a band that could play a big amphitheater but this was a small indoor venue. Still, we had a rollicking good time.  Next day I made my version of Machaca con Huevos. Easy and tasty. Sorry Alan, I caught you mid-thought. When we were younger we would h...

 Summer has finally arrived after months of chilly, overcast weather.  We celebrated my 75th birthday a little early because the kids would be in Croatia on the actual day. So sad that the picture is so crappy. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time. We’re a motley gang.  Michelle brought me flowers. Aren’t they lovely. She’s an angel. I haven’t played much golf, mostly because the weather has been too hot. (I’m such a golf snob these days.) Not because of my shoulder surgery, which is great, I don’t even realize that I have that fake joint in there. I wish they made fake neck joints, my neck arthritis really impacts me in a big way. But not every day, only when I do something for a long time. Like quilting. Sigh. But boy, can I make it pop and crack. Shocking.  We play bridge often, and these two guys (below) play duplicate, which, if you don’t know, is tournament play for master points. Bridge is huge, a worldwide pastime. You don’t need to speak each other’s languag...

 We went on a cruise up the coast with friends. The idea behind it was simply to play bridge and not have to cook or make the bed for a week. We weren’t interested in any of the ports or excursions as we’ve been there and done that many times. So we stayed onboard the whole time except we got off in Astoria, Oregon only to snap this photo and walk back.  This was one big-ass ship! Our room was close to the front, and all of the restaurants, bars, entertainment, etc., were in the back half. So we got in our walks going to and from. Except for playing bridge, it was all just meh. Granddaughter Savannah celebrated her Sweet 16. She celebrated with her friends on the weekend, but her folks threw a little family dinner on the actual day.  She has her driving license and a new car already.  Shortly after that, we celebrated Easter.  We celebrated Tom’s 80.5 birthday in Carlsbad.  It’s too cold for us old folks in December. Our dear friends Mike and Marty drove ov...

Spring is busting out all over. We had a very wet winter so there is snow on the mountains, the creeks are overflowing, and the wildflowers are showing their happy faces. They are saying that this year will be another “Superbloom.”  The orange is California golden poppy, the yellow is mustard, and the purple is blue lupine. The hills are alive… This week is Swallows Week, when the birds return to Capistrano. Great flocks of birds darken the skies as they descend upon the historic little village of San Juan Capistrano on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19.  This is a myth, of course. All the swallows are up in the Central Valley, building their disgusting mud nests on freeway overpasses and homeowners eaves. Lord help you if they decide to build a nest over your front door. Of course they are protected, so they have rights and you don’t.  But we celebrate them nonetheless, with parades and stuff.  And this beautiful angel, my stepdaughter, runs the Mercado where you go to get...

Good news! I’m turning a new page!  You may know that I had total shoulder replacement surgery in January. As I write this I am just passing the six-week mark. It was painful for a while, but that’s another milestone I have passed—I have very little pain except when I’m doing my exercises—then it hurts a lot.  So, I have spent the past six weeks in my chair, reading, texting, playing games on my iPad, and being waited on hand and foot by my wonderful husband, who has been an enormous help, doing the cooking and chores, and he is also my chauffeur to physical therapy, all while he still attends biweekly cardiac rehab from his triple bypass surgery in October. He’s doing great, by the way. I have started walking again. I just didn’t have the oomph to get outside and move. Not to mention it has been cold and raining most of the time. But yesterday I went. Just one street, and it wore me out, but I did it. It’s amazing how much energy a surgery takes to heal and, at my age, I don’...