“A Normal Week”
I’m not sure what a normal week is these days. But this seemed like one.
On Monday, I visited Tony to get my hearing aids cleaned and adjusted. As is typical, we spent the first 30 minutes talking about who we had seen performing at jazzfest and veered off into other musical discussions. The only problem was that my appointment was only for 30 minutes, the poor guy behind me had to wait a while.
I took advantage of being in Metarie (a solid 6 miles away, but seems like a totally different place than New Orleans, and we complain about having to drive that far) to make a Trader Joe’s visit. Diana was quite impressed with the fullness of the fridge on return.
We followed up our trivia win last Tuesday with 2nd place this week. We were quite pleased with ourselves.
Diana arrived home at 1:20am on Wednesday morning. She had delayed flights and had to sprint through DFW airport to catch her flight to New Orleans. I couldn’t sleep until I knew she was home. Thankfully I didn’t have any “important” work to do on Wednesday.
Wednesday was health care day. I had my teeth cleaned – good report of no issues. Then I drove Diana to an appointment over at the Jefferson hospital complex – less than 5 miles away and less than a 15 minute drive, but again it feels like a long way to us these days. We routinely drove 30 minutes to do anything at all in Dallas, but things change when you can walk to most everything you need.
Coming back from the store, we ran into this second line parade on Prytania Avenue. There a lot of weddings in May, and it did seem a bit hot for them to be walking too far in those fancy outfits.
Diana suggested a route around the parade to avoid following it all the way home – good thinking D.
The Prytania movie theater shows a classic movie each week at 10am on Sunday and Wednesday. This week was “Moonstruck” with Cher and Nicholas Cage.
The talks before the movie starts are a very enjoyable part of this experience. The detail and background provided on this occasion was very impressive. I have no idea how the gentleman memorized all that he shared.
My big take away was that I didn’t remember the film being so funny and corny.
After the movie we had lunch at our old standby – Juan’s Flying Burrito.
My book this week was “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy. This is a murder mystery set on a remote island near Antarctica, but it’s a lot more than that. I learned about emergency seed banks, and lots of nature, including deep details about penguins. A very good read.
“A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.
Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.
But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.
A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.”
I really enjoy this band – always a little bit different:
Something folky and quiet:
And finally, a song from 1976, back when the music could play for over a minute before the vocals start – not suitable for the attention spans of today:
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!
This was the week that we said “Goodbye” to Clorinda. “Bye, with Love” is how she finished every phone call. I joined Diana in Pacifica, CA in time to get dressed for the vigil service on Wednesday evening. I hadn’t attended a vigil before and wasn’t really sure what to expect. All of the siblings spoke, including a very nice tribute from Diana. Several others spoke, including an entertaining and clever speech from Jeff. However, the highlight for me was Luciano, age 10, with a very touching tribute. He had nothing prepared and saw his Mom go up to speak and decided he should say something too. What a great job he did.
