August 13, 2014 More of the Story

A view from the top of Claudia's walk. . .

. . . and back down they go.

Tuesday 8/12. Spent a lot of the day putting my trip paraphernalia away, doing laundry, reading newspapers and magazines.  Just relaxing.  I did help JB adjust the solar panels down, but that was the extent of our outside chores.

Our high for the day was 85, but it was very muggy and felt warmer than that.  Could barely see the clouds moving in through the smoke, but we had several short sprinkles throughout the afternoon.  Then just before 9:00 pm the rain began falling in earnest.  A few minutes later we saw a couple lightening flashes and heard our first - and last - thunder clap.  Rain fell off and on during the night and we awoke to fog.  Lovely, lovely wet!

My brother and his son were at their cabin while I was gone and left the same day I got back.  Was so disappointed to miss them.  They had breakfast with JB on Sunday.

It was good to see our dogs and they were obviously glad to see me.  It was good to see the girls too, but I'm not sure they even knew I was gone.

Regardless of what I had said, I came back from Idaho without seeing a moose.  Every time we were out and about we saw deer and wild turkeys, but no moose.  The scenery was awesome, but just as incredible was listening to Claudia and Nene talk.  They have known each other since their late teens and now they are 85 and 88, respectively, and have shared so many experiences.  Oh, the stories I heard!  I just wish I had had a recorder, as what they were talking about is family history and really needs to be saved.  Claudia is quite the one for such projects and I suggested that she get a small pocket recorder to carry around with her.  That way whenever she thought of a story, she could record it.  If she didn't have time to type it up, at least it would be saved.

One story that Nene told was about when she was growing up on the ranch.  It was her Grandparents' ranch and their homes were fairly close together.  Her Grandparents had a telephone, but they didn't.  She remembers her Grandmother calling down to her Mother when she received calls of major events in the family or nation.  She especially remembers when WWII started and she yelled down, "Edna, we're at war!"

The cabbage that Claudia sent home with us from her garden was HUGE!  She was telling us about one that she gave to a friend and they all tried to guess the weight of it.  Turns out it was 8 lbs!  Nene weighed ours when we got to her house and it was "only" 4 lbs.  I can only imagine how big the other one was.

And, speaking of cabbage, I heard two different ways to cook cabbage.  The family recipe was to brown it in a pan with bacon grease.  The one that Claudia's daughter told us was to cover it with olive oil and bake it in the oven.  They both sound good, but I'll admit that the one with bacon grease is probably the one I'll try first. . .

Wednesday 8/13. The temperature was a lovely 58 this morning.  The rain had stopped falling but it was foggy.  As I sit here writing, I can see that our fog has cleared and it is all Down There.  More thunder storms are forecast for today, but hopefully they will pass us like they did yesterday.

Thought for the day: You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make. Jane Goodall