Members of the Family

Maytag Moments

07.29-08.07

Members of the family.

Throughout this edition will be Reader comments about their animals.

From Jeanne G.

I love your story about doggy-sitting Raven. I laughed when I saw the picture of the two of you sleeping on the sofa.  I love dogs (cats, too) and wish I could take care of a pet, but I can barely take care of myself.

My doctor/son, his wife, and 12 yr.old son (an only child) acquired a black labrador retriever puppy a few months ago through a program that has people train the dogs to be companions helpful to disabled and such. After the training period it will be tested and, if it passes, will be returned to start its job.  He is adorable and he and Trevor have bonded, as Trevor and his Mom are the trainers.  I’m thinking it will be hard for them to return him if they have to.  If he fails the test, they can keep him. They live in San Diego, north near Del Mar.

Sandra S. and her three service dogs. She trains them.

07.28.2020: Sunset from Brett Bench. The Bench gets used, especially at sunset.  I know: the power lines stay the same, but the clouds are always different.

A/C  STOPS! I contact Kent Mechanical (on Al’s recommendation). – My regular guy moved to Phoenix. They will send someone over tomorrow!  Amazing.  I thought I’d be lucky if they come next week. Their ETA window is between 0800 and 1200.

I give Al the extra key since we have a doctor’s appointment at 0900 tomorrow.

We baked these Flautas for dinner. I wonder if that’s the way Ana makes them?

07.29.2020: 0900 Off to our appointment with our PC to get PJ’s ears cleaned for new hearing aids. (I might as well have mine too.  I’ll be needing new hearing aids soon.) The nurse uses a powerful suction.

What was supposed to be a 30-minute appointment turned out to take two hours!  PJ will have to miss her PT appointment at Body Central. I called from the doctor’s office but only got their central office on Swan.  (We go to the Broadway site.) I’m happy Al has the house key! We finally contact BC and they move her time to 1215. Only my left ear needs clearing.  That means that the left side of my brain (the creative side) was clogged. No wonder! My writing will improve.

1155: Nathan Hogan of Kent Mechanical arrives with five minutes to spare in his 0800 – 1200 time window.  I like him, already. (One must always be friends with the A/C guy!)  Nathan’s on the roof; PJ is in the Buick driving to BC by herself.  She can put her seat belt on now, thanks to her PT. It was her right shoulder/arm that couldn’t reach back to click the belt in a month ago.  She had to do it twice today.  That’s a relief.  We now have two drivers in the family.

Nathan comes off the roof.

“Your unit is seventeen years old!  Their average life is fifteen years.  I put a Hard Start package on it, but it’s only a band-aid.  Keep the thermostat at 76º and the A/C may hold out for a few days. It may cool down the inside to around 80º if you’re lucky.  I’ll have Tony come out and give you an estimate on a new unit, tomorrow.”

The outside temperature today is 109º! If my A/C is going to have problems, today is the day.

07.30.2020: 0800: Tony from Kent Mechanical arrives and works on an estimate.  I’ll get the results Friday.

0930: I take PJ to Costco Hearing for her new impressions.  This aid won’t need a Dorky. She can work voice to print on her iPhone directly from the hearing aid.

I have an Android (that I’m happy to use), however, it doesn’t (yet) have the feature for voice to print from the hearing aid. PJ will be getting new Resounds.

We bought some salads and fruit bowls while we were at Costco.

 In the evening, we began watching the Frank Sinatra biography on Netflix. Fascinating!

07.31.2020: No word from Tony on the estimate. We spent the day inside. With a high of 111º, we wouldn’t have gone out, anyway. Watched PBS news. Then we switched over to NBC for local news. Had some chicken salad (that we bought at Costco) and continued watching Frank Sinatra.

Remember:  RABBIT DAY is tomorrow.  I’ll go back to regular T-shirts (No Marvin when July ends.) For those of you who may have missed it: The Month of July is our son, Robert’s Month – He died on 07.02.1997, at age 23. – Marvin the Martian was tattooed on his shoulder. Since his passing, we have accumulated all sorts of Marvin the Martian memorabilia from coffee mugs, ties, stuffed toys, and T-shirts. I rotate a fresh shirt every day for twelve days before having to repeat the cycle.

08.01.2020: RABBIT!  We received our estimate proposal for a new A/C. Our son Joe, who works at Raytheon in heating and cooling, agrees with the estimate.

We spent the day writing, drinking water with ice cubes – many ice cubes! – reading, writing, ending with the conclusion of the Frank Sinatra docu-biography.

08.02.2020: I spent part of the morning watching our service at St. Francis in the Foothills along with the Zoom Talkback at 1045. One good thing is that we don’t have to dress for the service and we can eat breakfast while we are watching. The Talkback is a way to see some of the members who we haven’t seen for some time (five months, now?). I’ve lost count.

1700:Got a call from Rose – a resident of Cascades – actually, from her caregiver, Ezekiel who has email access for Rose who is interested in Edgar Cayce Readings and Books. Rose is a vociferous reader! One day she might be reading Cayce; another day it might be Plato! She wanted to know if I had read any of Cayce’s findings on Parkinson’s.

Years ago, PJ and I read many of Cayce’s books. (Long before we knew about Parkinson’s. Back in the 70s.)  After she hung up, I Googled Cayce and Parkinson’s. It brought back memories of previous articles by him.  Look up Edgar Cayce and Golden Light.

08.03.2020: 0530: Starting the day at a cool 83º. We expect a high of 107º.  I took the Buick in at 0745 to replace my old Eclipse accordion window blinds with new ones. The process took five minutes.

Three wives, one son, seven daughters. Quincy Jones. A bio worth watching. So far, we have seen four bio-documentaries dealing with the music industry kinda/sorta from the inside. Some information, we knew, much we didn’t know. I knew that Sinatra was instrumental in breaking the racial barrier in Las Vegas.  So was Benny Goodman with his band.

08.04.2020: 0500: Still a cool 83º. We can expect a high of 105º today. 

If you feel something
calling you to dance,
or write, or paint
or sing, please refuse
to worry about whether
you’re good enough.
Just do it.

~Glennon Doyle~

                                                                  

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