Month: January 2021

Day 161: Several Delights

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

New Deck Furniture

The Friday before last, after cocktails, Dean and I decided to order the outdoor furniture he’d been eyeing. It arrived yesterday. Dean put it together today. It’s lovely. It will be delightful when we can use it in the spring. It seats up to 8 when expanded with the leaf — maybe even 10!

Window Appreciation

When we were planning the kitchen remodel we had to lose a window. Dean wanted a window on the west side, but I didn’t want the window since I thought it would look weird right next to the sliding French doors. I was wrong and I readily admit it. The afternoon sun is delightful and it delightfully holds my plants and the Salt and Pepper chefs.

Andrew and Alex’s Anniversary

Andrew and Alex invited us over for dinner. Everything about it was delightful, especially the company but that cake was a close runner-up.

Day 159: Photos from Mom’s Friend Patti

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

I wrote a little about Mom’s friend Patti on CCL, but so you don’t have to click on that link, here’s the backstory.

My mom and Patti were school friends and when Mom started writing to sailors, so did Patti. Mom ended up writing exclusively to Dad and Patti wrote to B., a good friend of my Dad. Mom ended up marrying Dad and Patti ended up marrying B.

While Mom and Dad stayed married, B. and Patti divorced after Patti gave birth to M. He couldn’t deal with being the father of a child with dwarfism.

After that Patti married Bill, the love of her life and had two more kids. We’d hang out at their house or they’d come to ours. I didn’t know that M was any different from me. To me he was just M.

Then Bill died suddenly of a heart attack. I don’t remember going to their house after that any more and when I talked to Patti about it she said they just drifted apart.

Anyway, Mom remained friends with Patti — especially after their grade school class starting having monthly lunches. I went once and talked to Patti and saw her a few more times, including both my parents’ funerals. Patti and I remain connected on Facebook and recently she asked if I would like some photos she found of my parents. Of course I said yes.

They arrived today and are delightful.

Day 158: Misunderstanding Understood

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

A few days ago I had what I thought to be an awkward phone conversation with someone. I didn’t want to ask the someone if something was wrong because I didn’t want them to feel awkward. So I let it stew and I worried about it and I had a couple of dark dreams about it and it made me feel down for days.

I spoke to a couple of people about it. One person said to call the someone and the other agreed that not calling the someone was probably wise, but to tell the someone I’d like more regular communication.

I wrote the someone a letter, not about my feelings, but just because I wanted to write to the someone. It helped.

Then, out of the blue, the someone called me this afternoon and we had a wonderful hour-long-plus talk. This someone called again later and we talked some more. Two delightfully non-awkward conversations in one day.

This pandemic has not only separated me from a very special someone in my life, but has given me vast amounts of time to overthink things, even more than I did before.

Another delight: Emily in Paris. I binged on 6 episodes tonight. Plus I watched it on the big TV in the family room instead of my phone.

Day 156: Another Book Delight

~ Dona ~ 1 Comment

After finishing A Constellation of Vital Phenomena on Saturday I needed a new book to listen to. Again I looked at my very long list of unread/unfinished audio books and decided I’d try the oldest book on my unfinished list: A River Runs Through It.

Eight or so years ago when Clare and I drove cross-country to move her to Olympia, WA I bought the audio version of A River Runs Through It. I was not really a fan of the movie, and could barely remember what it was about, but I knew that it took place in or around Missoula, MT where we were going to stay for a night. Clare and I didn’t get far in the book, it was just too relaxing for a long drive. I’ve since tried to listen to it and it was not until this morning that I finally started enjoying it. Interestingly, the narrator, Ivan Doig was the author of a bookgroup read (The Whistling Season) I only barely liked. I like his voice though.

What is it about our penchant to enjoy something at one point but to not enjoy it at another? Mood? Age? Experiences?

The photo at the top of the page is the Clark Fork River in Missoula. It’s the “river that runs through it”.