Getting Older

New flowers for the kitchen table. 

 Saturday we had a family gathering to celebrate Tom's brother David's 80 birthday. He and his family live in California but most of his extended family live here in Puget Sound country and so it was fitting that we gathered at our Whidbey Island retreat. 

This is Dave, the birthday boy, and his bride Vicki, the party planner, enjoying the beach.

We all enjoyed the party and the visiting and the catching up and the laughing and, of course, the eating. 

Dave's actual birthday is Monday, July 17th, and so is mine. I thanked him for having a party this year so that I could skip it next year when I turn 80. 

I think for this birthday we'll go to Red Robin and collect my free burger and maybe we'll make a stop at Starbucks for a free birthday coffee, a fancy one. 

Yes, as our blog friend DJan likes to say, tomorrow marks another trip around the sun for me. I would love to leave a little baggage behind on the next one. 

This morning we got up, slowly of course, and got out to our berry patch to pick the raspberries and blackberries before it got hot.

We have a smaller patch now, not so hard to keep up with. This picking gave us enough for two quarts of raspberries for the freezer and one plus the blackberries to eat fresh. My lunchtime yogurt and my evening ice cream will get berry toppings. 

After that I spent 45 minutes doing my morning session of physical therapy. I spend a lot of time each day trying to combat getting older. Sigh. Facebook reminded me on the 14th that it was just 3 years ago that I had my second spine surgery. Since then  I have also had two hip replacements and an aortic valve job. A lot for three years!

But as several of us now old folks said yesterday at the birthday party, we are still here, showing up, and having fun. 

And speaking of having fun, I got a brief text from both Jill and Irene overnight, where they report that they are doing great and have reached Arrow Glacier at 16,000 ft. Tomorrow they climb nearly to the summit, camping at 18,700 ft, before summiting on Tuesday July 18th at 19,340 ft, the top of Africa, and then descending quickly to their last mountain camp at 10,500 feet. After that they will go on safari.

Meanwhile son Jake has set out this morning on a camping road trip into northeastern Washington, a fun place for a geology buff like he is. 

We will be at home, where we are mostly quite content.