New Year's Eve

A New Year's tradition: dinner with friends, this year at Olive Garden. L-R: Esther, Corrine, Steve. Steve is Dick's brother.

L-R: Jack, Uncle Fred, Cookie (Esther's sister).  Fred is Corrine's uncle.

L-R: Lydia, Dick, Arlete.  Dan (Lydia's husband, brother of Steve and Dick) was at home not feeling well.

After dinner, most went back to Steve and Corrine's for dessert.

This was followed by a rousing card game of "May I?" a version of contract rummy.

Low score wins, congratulations Dick who said he basically guessed at how to play the game.  Yeah, sure.  This was one of our funnest New Year's Eves ever. 

Winter in E Nicolaus

The leaves on the walnut trees are gone.

Abandoned birds' nests remain.

Crape myrtles half-pruned.

Justin taking a break to walk to the neighbor's with a gift.

Dick and I?  We're on the road again, relocating to San Jose for a while.

Clark Family Gathering

This afternoon we drove to Tudor - "a populated place" according to the only reference available online, near Olivehurst and Yuba City, about 30 miles north of Sacramento - for the annual holiday gathering. It's been years since we've been able to attend. It was held at the home of Steve and Grace:

On Dick's father's side of the family, there were 3 kids: George (Skaug), Thelma, and James.  James was Dick's father.  Thelma Skaug married Merrill Clark and had three children: George (Clark), Steve, and Merrilyn.  Thelma was also a much-loved teacher and principal in the Rio Linda Union School District. 

George (Clark) married Shirley, they had three children: Here is one of them, Missy with two of her children, Monique and William.  Missy and I taught together at Sierra View for the last 3 years of my career, Missy still teaches there.

Another of Shirley and George's children, Julie:

George married Opal and had two children, Lynne and Jim.  L-R (ignoring the back of that bald head): Steve, Jim, Bob Hirsch, and Tom Skaug (Dick's brother).

Dick with Lynne:

 

L-R: Clara (back to camera), Christy (Lynne's daughter), and Christy's boyfriend

 

Bob and Merrilyn.  Bob and I both worked at Westside School long ago.

L-R: Shirley, Clara, Julie, Merrilyn.

L-R: Julie, Terri (Jim's wife).

Steve is a phenomenal artist. He's carved and painted at least 3 carousel horses, there's a bit of one two pictures above. A wall of the family room showcases his paintings:

My favorite: a wood carving of three yellow birds on sunflowers.

A watch-frog on top of a wardrobe:

We had a great time! Thank you for hosting this family event Steve and Grace.

Update on Dick's health

Today, the cardiologist released Dick to return to many daily activities like riding a bicycle, rowing a dinghy (gently), drinking caffeinated coffee, eating the occasional Polish dog at Costco, carrying groceries in from the car, opening/closing his own car door ... yay!

Dick:  "I feel like my whole world has opened up to me again.  Hardly any restrictions as long as I keep the dP/dT low to moderate."

 My response to that was "Huh?" Dick loves to explain these things in great detail, but I will rephrase in my own non-calculus terms. d stands for "delta" which stands for "change." P = pressure. T = time. In the words, it's ok for Dick to increase his blood pressure during exercise as long as it's slowly. It's an abrupt big change that's dangerous.

Now he wants to plan a trip to check on the boat which has been facing its own challenges in the past couple of weeks.  The bridle on the anchor failed and was rescued and repaired by a couple of local guys from the Nawiliwili Yacht Club.  Five boats have dragged anchor and broken loose, one of them hit our boat and caused some damage.  Needless to say, the boat needs some TLC from Dick and now he's been cleared to go and do it. 

Exploring Irving Street

We've been staying with Dick's son, Greg, and his wife, Nicole. 

This week we've gone or will go to 3 doctors' appointments and Christmas happened, but today there was nothing on the schedule so we decided to go for a walk.

Beautiful homes along one side of the street

but what's that on the other side of the street?

Aha! A one-acre demonstration garden dedicated to urban agriculture and education.

Six different varieties grow on this espaliered apple tree which is only about 4 feet high.

After harvesting, fruits and vegetables are donated to a local shelter for homeless youth.

Almost every weekend classes in sustainable agriculture are offered to the public.

School groups come here for field trips.

Onward.

Bagels at Posh Bagels!

Ooooh, a fabric store.  This was an unexpected surprise. 

Cute store. All cottons, but unique prints.  I just had to buy something.  I'll let you know when the project is finally sewn, I have a few other things to finish first.

Excellent pizza at Pasquale's.

What a fun day! with a bit of exercise.



More Christmas pictures

Christmas Eve. Grandma Carolyn and granddaughters Ryland and Karas. They'd just finished presenting a shortened version of the Nutcracker ballet.

I gave Carolyn a set of embroidered dishtowels.

 

                                  

 

 

 

Carolyn gave me a warm hat and wool socks - my head and feet will be so happy. 

 

Christmas Day.  Brunch at Justin's 

After dropping off my mom, we stopped to visit Dick's brother's family in Dixon.  Ladies L-R: Julie, Clara, Ann (Julie's mom), me.  Gentlemen L-R: Dick, Kevin, Jeff (Julie's brother), Tom.