an anniversary of sorts

Vicky in 1951
02/03/1947 ~ 08/31/2009

back on the grid

A very nice young man (he looked about 15!) was at our front door to fix the pesky air conditioner.  It took him about 15 minutes to figure out what was wrong, fix it, replace the filter and be on his way.  So we now have nice, cool air.  And just in time.  It's going to be 109º here in the lovely Central Valley this weekend.

New reading recommendation:  A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor.  Short, elegantly written, family saga.

a cool Tuesday

To keep cool during this incredible heat wave we are having here in the valley, we went to see this film today in an air-conditioned theatre.  It's well worth the outrageous cost of two senior tickets.  The scenery is magnificent, the acting superb (Jeremy Renner is a pleasure to watch; his slightest eyelid flutter tells volumes), the rest of the cast is excellent.  There's a lot of mayhem involved; if a REAL FBI agent and a BLM agent engaged in anything close to the shootout we see, they'd be tied up in court for the rest of their lives.  But hey, it's the movies.  We both liked it; we both recommend it.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the reason we needed a cool spot is our air conditioner went out on Monday.  We did suffer a bit yesterday when it was 108º.  We are now in a cooling trend; it's only going to get up to 98º tomorrow, but up into the triple digits again on Thursday and over the weekend and into next week.  Perfect for a nightly swim, though.  Fortunately the repair guys are coming tomorrow morning so we may get back on the cool side, at least indoors, by tomorrow afternoon.

the fevered travel agent

I spent almost the entire day yesterday making arrangements for an October trip to New York City with daughter Caitlin.  The last time I was there was with my sister, probably 20+ years ago.  The precipitating reason is to visit g'daughter Emily, now living at a chic address in Harlem, working and going to school.  I have found us a veery interesting looking hotel on Central Park West, gotten us tickets to two musicals ~ Come From Away and Beautiful (Dear Evan Hunter is sold out until sometime in late December, unfortunately) ~ and the rest will be walking, eating, museum-going, a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, a visit to the 9/11 monument and museum.  That will probably take care of the 3+ days, don't you think?

and then the ceiling fell down . . .

I got a message from our realtor in Mexico that he had taken some prospective buyers to the house for a walk-through.  Lots of oohs and aahs when they walked into the front garden, lots of nods and smiles when they went upstairs and saw the beautiful views, but a gasp when they went into the kitchen.

Yikes!  I don't know when this happened but Fernando did not tell us, if he knew.  It's not as bad as the original message portrayed it; I thought the whole thing had fallen.  But today I talked to the agent and he advised that indeed the entire ceiling may have to be torn out and replaced.  Don't know what has caused this, but most probably water has gotten into the space, the rebar has rusted and contracted, the cement has pulled away, and KABOOM!  Needless to say, the Se Vende sign has come down, the web advert has been pulled, and there's work to be done.  Our agent will get our favorite contractor in to take a look and give us an opinion, a plan, an estimate.  We may have to get a structural engineer in to have a look, too, and see if the entire house needs to be jacked up.  ¡Dios mio!

As a result of this disgusting turn of events we will be leaving for the beach a month early so we can take care of this before the "season" begins.  This was NOT in our plans; it is now.

it's good to be a hostess

Like all other sentient beings in this great country of ours, I was outside yesterday morning, gazing open-mouthed at the breathtaking magic occurring in the sky.  We had about an 80% eclipse here in the valley.  It was everything every other gazer has said, so I will say no more.  Except, however, that the light seemed to be different for the entire day and that was downright eerie.

But moving on to more mundane things.

Hostess gifts from my guests; bright sunflowers from Bobbie's beautiful  garden and a bottle of my VERY favorite SB by Kim Crawford from Carolyn.  Erin brought beautiful salad; we ate it.  No photo!  Sorry . . .

Last evening I hostessed (sic) a little dinner party poolside.  Four of us who are neighbors sat out in the warm night air and enjoyed a lovely picnic dinner of salad and bread and fruit and cheese.  And a nice Geyser Peak SB, of course.  I so enjoyed the hostess duties; I don't get to do this very often, but when Mr. C is off on his frolic and detour, I take advantage of the opportunity.  And speaking of Mr. C, he returns today, eventually.  Since he flies standby, one never knows.  He didn't get a seat on his connecting flight from Minneapolis (over booked) and has been routed to Salt Lake City.  We'll see what happens there.  I think the airlines are busy bringing eclipse-ties back from wherever they went for a better look. I expect he'll be home late this afternoon or evening.  Or maybe an o'nite in SLC is in his future.

bounty

This morning's farmers market had so many beautiful fruits and veggies it was hard to choose.  But since I am here alone ~ Mr. C is on his annual pilgrimage to visit family in Ohio ~ I had to restrain myself.  These are the things I brought home to enjoy; bag of beautiful green beans, six peppers of differing colors and flavors, ripe tomatoes, a big melon , two Fay Alberta peaches, one Babcock peach, one plum (a freebie!), and four multi-colored pattypan squash.  Can't wait to get started!