September 2023

 My Dear Family and Friends,                                                                             September 1, 2023

    Remember when I said last month that we had acquired a cat? Well, she has succeeded in making herself at home, all right. She is on my bed each morning wanting to be rubbed by the roller thing I have. At first, being a two year old cat, she wasn’t too gung-ho about playing with toys, but when True started to shine her laser dot around, boy, she was jumpin’, hoppin’, and chasin’ that thing all over the place. Being curious about everything, she has learned to open kitchen drawers and cabinet doors and roam around among the pots and pans and other things. She’s an inside cat who doesn’t go out even when the door is open, but loves to sit on window sills and watch the birds and people outside. She does climb, but is careful not to disturb anything and doesn’t scratch the furniture. Funny thing though, she prefers to drink her water from the free-flowing “waterfall” in the living room. HaiKu is mainly True’s responsibility, but I’m now her self-appointed litter-box cleaner, ‘cause I don’t mind doing that at all.

    True was doing some more traveling in August. She went to San Diego to give a class and to be with her friends, then on to Tijuana for more dental work. Then off to Spokane for Cedar’s sake, and lastly to Portland to house & dog sit for Kathi. She always drives straight through in covering those 800 & 900 mile drives, but doesn’t seem to mind it. But this time to Spokane, she chose to fly. Airline delays were happening all over the place and in coming home, she was caught by one, which stranded her and others of the Medford flight at Portland. But, fortunately, through the kindness of one of those passengers, who called his wife in Ashland to bring a car to rescue him and others, True was able to be delivered right to her doorstep. Wasn’t that wonderful?

    I’m always glad that True knows she can leave any time she feels the need to be elsewhere, because I don’t mind being alone and kinda like being on my own once in a while. I remembered that my mother had used a little 3 wheel walker to get her around and did very well with it, so wondered if one like that would be better for me to use, than the four wheel one we had from HASL on a 3 month trial basis. So Linda checked, and they did have such a one, but with big tires and heavier framework than Mom’s. We are using it anyway, and it is okay on the level, but I’m afraid to use it on either going up or down the ramp, due to the free-wheeling of those big tires. I like rear wheels on a walker, though, because it keeps me moving along with no stops in between, making it seem more like I’m really walking. So, I guess we’ll keep on using this one until we find one even better.

    Actually, I haven’t been able to use any walker very much, due to the tricks my stump has been playing on me lately. For several days, some nerves inside decided to get active again and made the stump so stingy to the touch that I couldn’t bear to put the prosthesis on over it. Then another time, the stump started jumping and jerking around every few seconds, and kept it up the rest of one day, all through that night and part of the next day, until it finally decided to settle down and end all that fooling around and let me get some badly needed sleep. Later, I guess to make up for it, I fell asleep in my wheelchair while reading the newspaper at 6:00 pm and didn’t wake up til midnight, had nothing to eat, but prepared and went straight to bed and slept til 8:00 am the next morning and was still drowsy all that next day. Strange things like that have happened before, but nobody knows why nor what causes them. I know there is nothing I can do except just be patient and wait it out. But there goes any walking time with my prosthesis Buddy. Too bad!

    Our regular DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers) meetings don’t start until mid-September, but the president called for a special one to be held in August at Elmer’s Restaurant. I wasn’t aware of why, but evidently others were, because, after eating, she began giving out awards to ones who were prepared with responses. When she came to me, I was pleased to be recognized as a charter member in the founding of the Grants Pass Camp in 1977 and to receive my 47 year pin, but was completely unawares of what to say regarding how I was influenced by the life of a certain ancestor. I managed to stumble through, but was embarrassed and wish that kind of a ‘surprise’ had not happened. My spoken words don’t come out right most half the time any more.

    Each August, we look forward to the “ Picnic at the River”, when the residents gather at the river and are treated to a fried chicken feast by the management of the Riviera Mobile Park. But this year, it was almost canceled because of the extremely hot (triple digit) weather, plus heavy breathing air of smoke from a raging wildfire a few miles away, thus making it difficult to enjoy being outside. So, it was changed to the clubhouse with its air-conditioning, where it was able to be enjoyed, along with one of my puzzles, by most of the residents of the Park. Fires are terrible things and True was concerned about the one in Spokane that made Cedar evacuate, but is better now.

    Dan and Cathy have arrived at their mission headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, which is separate from Maui, but they are very much aware of the terrible after-effects of that very devastating fire. Dan will still be able to email these letters for me, even from there. It’s amazing to me.

    When Dan was here last August, he and Linda had gone to a place where blackberries grow wild on nearby Leonard Rd. and had gathered bucket loads of berries which he then managed to make into delicious jam. This August, Linda took True to the same place and they came home with their buckets loaded with berries which True was able to make into a large, tasty cobbler that I was able to nibble on for a long time.

    True takes care of all my meals and when she is gone, I only have to warm in the microwave the things she has left for me to eat. So, I don’t really do much in the kitchen. But when some of the Relief Society sisters of our Redwood Ward were having a luncheon, to which I needed to supply a dish, with True being gone, I ventured to bake one of the three Ready to Bake peach pies she had recently found on sale. When seated in my wheelchair, I have two free hands to work with, but only at a low level. Our oven is an above the head type, so to reach up high I have to stand, either on one leg or two, it is the same. I need to keep my balance and brace myself by using one hand to hold onto something secure, so I can have the other hand free to use. This is kinda tricky stuff, but I have to do it all the time in the bathroom, getting dressed, etc., so I was able to turn on the oven to 450 degrees, place the pie, on its cookie sheet, into the oven and set the timer for one hour. No problem. But, lifting that hot pie tin out of that hot, hot oven, and with the oven door down, would be a problem! The instructions said, let it cool for 2 hours, so I could just turn it off, open the door and let it sit there for two hours before lifting it out. Problem solved.

    At the luncheon, I was very proud of my beautiful peach pie with all of its thick, closely woven lattice work on top, but was surprised when it was not served along with other desserts. When it was given back to me to take home, I was told they weren’t able to use it because they were unable to cut through the thick lattice work. It was hard as a rock! So much for all my good intentions. At home, the bottom was not much better, so I scraped out the peach filling and threw away the rest of its ‘flaky’ crust. I don’t know what the other pies will be like, but I was sure disappointed with that one. I should have complained to the company, but I didn’t.

    Another little episode in the kitchen while True was away, was the Egg Bomb! I decided to boil a few eggs. I put them in our sauce pan with enough water to cover all four, turned the burner to high, waited for them to boil, then lowered the heat to a simmer to finish their cooking. I looked at the clock and told myself to be back in about 10 minutes, as I went off to the bathroom and to my room. (You’re already ahead of me, aren’t you?) Yes, I was in my room reading, when all of a sudden I heard a Pop! and said “Cat, what are you up to?” Then another loud Boom! and said,”Oh,no, the eggs!” and rushed off to the kitchen, turned off the burner and put the pan in the sink Then turned, to find egg parts and pieces splattered all over, from an egg that had exploded itself right out of the pan and sent pieces flying everywhere. My next door neighbor Shirley happened to walk in with my mail at that very moment and was able to help clean up the mess. I looked at the clock and saw that it had been a full 45 minutes. One of the other eggs had its insides scattered but still in the pan, and the other two were cracked wide open and scorched, but still edible. Then, I turned my attention to the pan, which has had a few other burns, but this was not too bad, so a little Brillo was able to do the trick easily this time. Thank goodness!

    I rarely receive any replies back from my monthly letters, but August brought three from very special friends who shared information about themselves and their family that was timely and very much appreciated. Two will be acknowledged personally. But I’d like to share with you the one that gave me not only a giggle as I read the first handwritten page, but also a full belly laugh when I saw and read the second page. I can’t include it, nor can I fully explain it so that you get what I did from it. But let me give it a try. You know I always try to include an appropriate puzzle with each monthly letter. I hope those with email are able to retrieve it and use it, as that is the point of me sharing it. Those who receive a printed copy have direct access to the puzzle, but I never know what they think about it. Well, Pat Duffin, who was our DUP president until she recently moved to Idaho, let me know how much she thought of the July one, all right. She told me about how 53 of her family had gathered at her place for their family reunion, and began to describe each of the things that occurred by using the words of the Summertime puzzle she had received. But it was done in such a clever and spectacular way, that I was in awe and couldn’t help myself from letting out a big WOW! She had Enlarged, Capitalized, and Underlined all the puzzle words to tell her tale, and had managed to include every one of them, somehow, in it. It was such a sight to behold that I did break into laughter. Thank you, my dear Patsy.

    In fact, because she did that, I thought maybe I could send this month, along with the Labor Day puzzle, one that I have about Methuselah, which also uses puzzle words to tell its cute tale. However, I found it to be very hard to finally finish because of all the tiny words scattered throughout. In fact, it will probably end up driving you crazy before you do complete it, if at all. But, be brave. Take the challenge. And give it a try. Okay?

    And with that, I will bid you farewell, finally. I know it’s now a long one, again. I always seem to get carried away thinking I have to cover every detail of every thought that comes to mind. But I hope you did stay with me, and will accept the Lord’s blessings that are being sent to you via my prayers for you, along with my love for each of you and a desire to hear from you, if at all possible.

‘Til we meet again... 

Love,

Marie