We spent Sunday with the Reeds. Our highlight was a visit to the UNC botanical garden. It was a hot and sticky day. They had a Titan Arum (AKA rotting corps flower) in bloom. This plant blooms once every few years. The bloom lasts for about a day. The flower was in a small part of the greenhouse. Several small groups of people were in line to take their picture and smell the stink. I felt closed in. I stayed for the picture, then moved outdoors. I spent the rest of the time admiring the gardens and “sticking” to the shade. There’s more pictures in the blog.

Earlier, Liz spent a week with us at “cooking camp”, Bryon was busy with scouts. So we will spend a couple of days with Bryon in Fayetteville.

We had an uneventful drive to Jul’s house. We took the kids to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles followed by some ice cream. Both kids enjoyed the movie. Elizabeth couldn’t understand why Danita and I didn’t care for it. We’re staying in Monroe tomorrow. I’ll try to get some pictures then.

We had a marvelous morning. We visited the Frontier Culture Center, just outside Staunton. The Virginia Board of Education contributed a ton of money. They got a first class facility. For example, they disassembled historic houses in Europe and meticulously put them back together so we can see exactly how certain people lived. I knew that the Irish burned peat. They didn’t have wood, and peat was plentiful. I didn’t know the disadvantage is that it peat makes a lot of very disagreeable smoke. Below is a picture of a early settler’s house with a push-away chimney. It’s push-away because if when it catches on fire, they could push it away and save the house. It only takes a day to build a new push-away. If you decide to go, you should call first. The board of education is going to get their money’s worth. They have students from around the state visit. Sometimes they have 600 kids running around. We were lucky. There were only a few visitors. We had a blast, including a picnic lunch in perfect weather.

We had such a good time at the culture museum that we didn’t have time to play mini-golf. Don’t worry, we didn’t totally lose our priorities. We still had time to get some Hershey’s ice cream at the Pink Cadillac diner.

After that the day kind of fell apart. Our next stop was Blacksburg. There was an accident on I-81. One of the two lanes was closed. Traffic was extremely slow. After we got past the accident, traffic was still heavy and slow. Our plan was to eat at a downtown restaurant followed by the movie Oppenheimer. When we got here, downtown was closed off for an annual fair. There were heavy crowds and more very slow traffic. After we got out of the downtown area, we found a deli for dinner and went to CVS for candy bars. We went back to our hotel watched “Ticket to Paradise”. Today we will (eventually) make it to see the Reeds.

We’re on our way to visit the Reeds, but in the mean time we’re working on our goofing off. Our first stop was Harper’s Ferry. I was there 9 years ago when I rode the trail from Cumberland to Georgetown. Danita hadn’t ever been there. It’s certainly worth a stop. Harper’s Ferry has a rich history. The confluence of two major rivers. An easy path through the Appalachian Mountains. Lewis and Clark. The industrialization of the 19th century. (Making one rifled barrel went from taking a month to just a few hours.) Floods. The C & O canal. The B & O railroad. The civil war. John Brown’s raid. The Appalachian Trail. There’s so many stories here, how can anybody focus on just one? Here’s a pic of the most iconic landmark of the area, Jefferson’s rock.

We spent the night in Staunton. There’s plenty of good food in Staunton. We had a very nice dinner and are looking forward to good breakfast. The Shakespeare Theater was performing “Measure by Measure”. It was a delightful production.

We’ll get to Monroe later on today, but first, a little more goofing off is called for.

It was another quiet week. I’m on a team that counts donations for our church. We count once every four weeks. This week our count and cross-count checked matched perfectly. It was our first perfect count. Every other count we have done, we had to find and resolve one or two errors. It took a while for us to realize what we had done. It was a great feeling.

We had a food truck dinner with the Jonses plus two new neighbors. I took bike rides. Danita worked at the county food bank. It’s a very good thing we had a couple of quiet weeks, because August is going to be very, very busy. I don’t want to offer any spoilers, but I’m trying to read Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. I had forgotten how hard it is to read Shakespeare. Or maybe I’m just getting a little older. I found the best synopsis I ever here (play the video).

https://www.rsc.org.uk/measure-for-measure/the-plot

Not only is the synopsis presentation excellent, the synopsis itself mirrors the play — with an unresolved cliff hanger.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The big news this week is that Rick (Danita’s brother) is moving from Texas. He’ll be a few miles away from Ed. Rick was up for closing on his new house. Ed organized a dinner for all four of the siblings and their spouses. The food at the dinner was excellent — especially the ice cream. Here’s a pic.

In much less important news, I got new tires for my bike. I’ve been having problems with the fenders scraping the side of the tires. It looks like that is resolved.

We’re looking forward to a neighborhood lunch / concert Sunday afternoon.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Last week I offered raspberries to the weather service, which couldn’t tell me whether there would be a heavy rain within the next few hours. This week I am re-aiming my target to OPM. That stands for Office of Personnel Management. It’s the agency that manages retirement payments for federal employees like Bud. Danita has everything squared away to settle Bud’s estate except for the final payment from OPM. She’s called OPM several times. Calling them is a major investment because it always requires waiting on hold for hours. Finally, OPM told Danita the payment would be processed in a few days. Danita was as excited as I have seen her for quite a while. No payment was forthcoming. Concerned that there was an error in the bank account number, she called OPM again. This time the agent said that Bud’s payment has indeed been assigned to a processing person, but they have up to 60 days to do the processing. Our lawyer suggested Danita call back, which she did. this time the agent said that processing can take up to 16 months. The lawyer decided we can close everything except the OPM payment.

Dear OPM …

We went out to dinner to get gyros at Tino’s Wednesday. Thursday, I decided we should eat out again. We wanted something good and cheap, so we went to Jason’s Deli. They include free soft-serve ice cream. That allowed us to skip the gelato food truck, which charges $5 for a “just OK” gelato. (The only place I have had great gelato is Italy.) I proclaimed we saved $10 and had our dinner for just $11. Yesterday we had a neighborhood cookout with hot dogs, hamburgers, and drinks. Residents brought a side or desert to share. Hopefully this will hold us for eating out until tomorrow morning, when we have Sunday breakfast at IHOP.

That’s all for the week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The first order of business Saturday was to get Liz on the plane to Charlotte. We went through check in, security, and got to the gate at the very end of the C concourse. Then we waited. The flight attendants were arriving on another flight, which was delayed. When it arrived, it came in to the A concourse. The crew had to walk the length of the airport. By the time the plane was loaded, they had missed their takeoff slot. They pulled away from the gate, but sat on in the gate area until the rush of morning flights was over and they could get off the ground. The rest of Liz’s flight was unremarkable, so it was time for the next adventure.

We drove up to JaMM’s for an overnight stay. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. Everything we planned was cancelled. Mark and Jiajia were remarkably flexible and we ended up having a good time. Coming back, the forecast was for more heavy T-storms in the afternoon. So we left earlier than planned and encountered … no T-Storms until after dinner. Raspberries to the weather service that can’t forecast rain 6 hours in advance. It wasn’t the weekend we planned, but we got to visit and we got home safely.

I made the final payment for our Turkey trip. I read that some international travelers would get Covid and not be able to get Paxlovid. So I got two prescriptions to take with us on our travels. People on statins (such as me) should suspend their statins while taking Paxlovid. Our doctor explained the restrictions quite clearly. When Danita picked up the Paxlovid, the pharmacist went over the restrictions again. CVS hasn’t been my favorite business to deal with lately, but I was favorably impressed with their performance this time.

We got good news this week. Our clubhouse is open. We can go back to having parties and gatherings in air conditioned comfort. Swimmers who don’t attend gatherings are also happy. If there is a gathering that includes alcohol on the pool level, we have to close the pool. Now swimmers can be assured the pool will be open all day. Provided there are no T-storms, of course.

The right front wheel of my bike started scraping against something the other day. After playing around with it, I found that I had a broken spoke. I decided to let the bike shop fix it. They did a good job, but then my right front brake started making a terrible noise. I didn’t want to take it back to the shop, so I spent a couple of hours this morning playing around with bake adjustments. I learned a lot. The next time, adjusting the brakes should take only a few minutes. It was a good time to get the brakes squared away. We’re expecting several days without T-storms. I’ll be spending some time on the road.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had an exciting week. Elizabeth, Suzanne, and Addie came for a week of cooking challenges. Elizabeth took an early flight Monday morning, up from North Carolina. The excitement started before we left the airport. Her suitcase didn’t show up. The plane she arrived on was going on to San Juan, so we know her clothes traveled to some exotic locals. Southwest was pretty good about it. The offered a $200 voucher. The suitcase arrived Tuesday morning, and Liz got some new clothes. Suzanne and Addie joined Monday afternoon.

Danita wrote cooking challenges, and the ladies were up to it. Each day had a different theme. The ladies had to prepare balanced meals. (Although one day onions were billed as a vegetable.) Each day they selected recipes, went to the store to purchase ingredients, and turn the ingredients into delicious food. And delicious it was. One day the theme was a cuisine from a country. The ladies picked France. We had French bread with goat cheese, mixed berries, quiche, and for desert, salted butter caramel chocolate mousse with whipped cream and caramel bits topping. The pictures of the mousse did not come out, which is a real bummer because it was a really great desert. Here’s one pic. There are more on the web site.

Addie and Suzanne went home Thursday afternoon. Friday Kathryn made a luncheon, which we shared with Mom. Unfortunately, Mom’s doctor called and asked us to arrive early, so I didn’t get pics. But Elizabeth, working solo, made a wonderful lunch.

All good things must come to an end. Early tomorrow morning Elizabeth will fly home. The cooking challenges have been met. But closing one door allows us to open another. Stay tuned …

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It’s been a rainy week. Unfortunately, it was mostly drizzle, with little accumulation. Our area is in a severe drought. We have more rain in the forecast. Here’s hoping…

It was a pleasantly relaxed week for me, not quite so much for Danita. The play at Essex was very entertaining. We had a great time. Monday we had a Greek food truck. We ate a Greek dinner with the Joneses. Today we had neighborhood ice cream bars. That was a nice half hour.

Danita agreed to be the chair person for the pool for three years. This is her first year, and things aren’t going well. Lifeguards are doing things they shouldn’t do, and not doing things they should do. The pool heater isn’t working, and the water is down to 77 degrees. The guy that used to be the pool chair is running around saying “What are we doing?” I can’t blame the previous pool chair too much. He wanted to be on the neighborhood board. To do that, he had to give up the pool. It helps prevent a conflict of interest when voting on expenditures for the pool. He’s having a hard time letting go.

Next week promises to be considerably more exciting. Stay tuned …

I hope this finds everybody doing well.