Good Bye, Bob!

As I am getting ready to leave, one of the things I want to do is spend time saying "Good Bye" to some special people. So I started making a list of those people. One of them is my friend Ruth's husband, Bob. I used to work with Ruth, she hosted a Christmas party at her house every year. (Which just so happened to be attended by many, though not all, from work; so she called it a Christmas party because it was her party at her house.) I remember taking Kai there when he was an infant. After she retired, I would stop by 1 or 2 times a year to say, Hi!, when I was passing through the neighborhood during a break. About 10 years ago Ruth passed away, she and Bob had been married for 53 years. I stopped in to see Bob for a few years after that, until my job changed and my field area no longer had me passing through their neighborhood. I kept thinking, I'll stop in on the weekend, but their house was outside of the usual area that I would be running around on the weekend. So on Sunday, I got on the Internet to see if Bob was still at their old house and found out he had passed away on April 14th; the service was this afternoon. It wasn't quite the way I had planned to say good bye to Bob, but I am glad I was able to be there.













One of the coolest things about Bob's service (I think) was towards the end, while the pastor was speaking. A pileated woodpecker was in the trees to the north calling, then it flew south across the area where the service was being held. Pileated woodpeckers have a very distinctive bright red crest; Bob's nickname in his youth was "Red" because of his red hair.

This morning I was finally able to get out of bed feeling somewhat alive. And went to a doctor's appointment, but that was okay, too; it was an acupuncture appointment that had been arranged before the oral surgery. I also took a look around the yard at what the plants have been doing while I have been sleeping. The Siberian irises and rhododendron Vulcan are just starting to bloom. Next week they should look spectacular!

Iris sibirica

Rhododendron 'Vulcan'

And I took some photos of the bees for identification. Here is what I was seeing when I thought they were honey bees and I was moving away to avoid being stung. But after talking with Jan, looking at them more closely (since the are not honey bees and thus less likely to sting), and looking at them from different angles, I could see a distinctive orange band. Stay tuned as I compare the other photos I took with the bumble bee identification information I found on-line.


















Soup du jour: Tomato Basil.


















Other things on the menu today. The good thing about the cashew milk is that it has 50% more calcium than cow's milk; the not-so-good thing would be the carbon footprint of shipping cashews to the plant to make the milk, then shipping the milk here; with cows the source is generally closer to the market. (I have not looked at the water use yet, that is one of the not-so-good things about almonds.)



















When I called Mom this evening to remind her to take her pills she was very confused. She thought it was morning. Apparently she dozed off and thought it was tomorrow already, even though they have not had dinner yet. I have found that she is more confused later in the day than she is when it is earlier.

Tomorrow is my first post-op check-up. If all goes well they will remove the surgical dressing (the thing in my mouth that looks like silly putty). If all the dissolvable sutures haven't, they will be removing those also. Hopefully, I will be doing well enough I can start eating easily chewable things on that side again.

Happy Birthday to Aunty Judy, Mary Ellen, Aletha, and Mary Danielle! Today was also Grandma's birthday.