’23 January

Anya and her excellent roommate Olivia…

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Roommates! Emily, Cali, Katie, Michelle.

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That’s Oliver and his half-brother Dude. Dude is sleeping over for a couple nights – he’s the one with the spot on his head.

Due to me being away in Mexico and then returning with an ankle sprain, and on and off illness with DAR&L, this is my first chance to visit in six weeks. Awwww. Rome and I had lunch together on Friday and then we went to three fun second-hand stores.

Rome took the picture on the left and I took the one on the right…at the Same Time!

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Then the next day, on Saturday, D&A put on a party in celebration of Angela’s birthday. Liz, Gary, and Dev came in from the desert and it was delightful. Oh Yum, tiramisu, entirely homemade even the ladyfingers, by D&A.

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And THEN Lilly had some friends over for a slumber party. They made this sweet treat by melting Jolly Ranchers in the microwave, then you take a grape on a toothpick, dip it in the Jolly Rancher then in Pop Rocks and then you eat it. It was a kick and you could even hear the Pop Rocks popping, but I’m failing to get the video to load in here…

I subscribe to a service that sends me a poem every day in the middle of the night and I look forward to waking up so I can see if there’s a new gem or a ho-hum or a what-the-heck. This was today’s and I’m still picturing those last three lines. (This is one of my photos on the pier from 2004.)

Davenport The man has chosen that he wants his ashes scattered from the end of the pier where he used to fish with his buddies. They’d sit on overturned paint buckets. Sometimes the waves gusted up and the hems of his pants got wet and salty. He liked the gulls that stood on the railing, all puffed up with sky. Having made the decision, he walks at dusk to the end of the pier and looks out at the sea. As he turns away, he sometimes gives a small, happy nod, like a man thinking yes, I will buy this house.   Copyright © 2023 by Chloe Honum.

It takes some time to get through 4 1/2 seasons of a TV show, trying to keep my foot up. Yellowstone, oh my goodness, as someone on the internet said, and I was thinking to say, ‘it’s a red-state Succession’ featuring a dysfunctional backstabbing cast of unlikable characters and their efforts to control an empire. And I can’t stop watching…

My new paloma is happy in the window.

Here are some decor enhancements from Mexico, mostly from Cynthia, and they’re so cool!

Sunday will be four weeks since I sprained my ankle. Level 1 sprains are supposed to heal within 1-4 weeks and the doctor in San Cris said that’s probably what I had. (Level 2 sprains are supposed to heal in 4-8 weeks.) I also saw a couple of physical therapists in San Antonio to confirm I wasn’t doing anything wrong. And I have an appointment to see another doctor a week from Friday to check in and get a referral for physical therapy.

So I’ve been taking it easy. My sisters have been around, and Jo Ann and Muriel came over for a meal, I’ve visited with my tenants, and I’m getting better by millimeters every day. I can easily stand, and easily walk for short distances ever so slowly. The bruising seems gone but I’m still a little swollen.

Oh so much more than anyone wants to know (the last physical therapist put the tape on but most of it has fallen off already)…

The welcome home view out my back door.

I arrived home so comfortable from my first class flight that Cynthia sent along with all the other first class flights she sent as part of my gift, a wonderful trip in Mexico which included 5 nights in Mexico City and a week+ at her home in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Each leg of the journey went without a hitch so here’s cheers and Thank You to Cynthia and thumbs up to Aeromexico.

Thanks to Michi too who hosted me for a week at her home in San Antonio Tlayacapan.

Coming home I luckily hit the timing perfectly between California storms and the day after all those flight cancellations due to the FAA computer ‘glitch’. Windy picked me up at LAX and I’ve been lazing around ever since.

Now three days later I did unpack my suitcase, run the wash, order a load of groceries… Marsha stopped by to get some oranges and grapefruits from the bounty of the backyard, and I am able to walk with almost no limp, slowly, but I’m feeling good that I will have forgotten about it by next Sunday, which will be four weeks since the sprain.