Appointments, Taxi Service, Planting and Picking Flowers

 On Monday I had a brief dental appointment to confirm that, yes, I need a root canal. Since I already pretty much knew that, I had already scheduled an appointment. That will happen in two weeks, before I go back to have my permanent crowns put on. I am weary of dental work.

On Wednesday I had a phone appointment to report on the results of my hip flexor injection. It worked and there is much less pain. Now I need to get in touch with my physical therapist to make sure I am doing strengthening exercises before the steroid wears off. 

On Tuesday Jake took us up on our offer to get him out of the house for a walk. While he still has pain from his broken ribs, he is doing pretty well. We went to the marina to enjoy the sunshine and the "refreshing" wind. 

Then we stopped for coffee and tea at the Quarterdeck, where we were mostly out of the wind and soaked up some sun. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday we spent a lot of time in the garden, cleaning out beds, getting ready to plant tulips. I spent a lot of time on my knees, so by today it was time to stay off my knee, which was now hurting, even with plenty of padding under it.

Today we got all of the tulip bulbs into nursery cans, ready to put into the ground. This is just one bed. 

We were going to plant this afternoon, but Jake called needing taxi service, so Tom went off to do that. I went outside and collected yard art to store in the shed, and I picked flowers for the kitchen table. 

Tom's Trident Maple bonsai is starting to put on it's autumn show. So pretty. 

Now I am sitting at the computer with the office TV on, watching baseball. The Mariners are playing the Toronto Blue Jays for the American League Championship. 

The Mariners won the first two games in Toronto, and now it looks like Toronto will win the first two games back in Seattle. Watching baseball has too many highs and lows. High hopes are being crushed. But there are at least two games to go. When your team is losing you need to remember that sports are fun, right?

 

Seattle Is A Sports Town

 All last week we watched baseball. Seattle was obsessed with baseball. The Seattle Mariners were playing Detroit in the American League playoffs. On Friday they won game 5 and advanced to the ALCS. ( American League Championship)  The victory caused an earthquake at the stadium. Really, it measured 3 on the Richter Scale. 

That same evening the University of Washington Huskies played five miles away in their stadium and beat Rutgers.

On Saturday there were lots of college football games. I watched some. Unfortunately my other Oregon and Washington teams lost.

Saturday evening the Sounders played a home match against Salt Lake. Jill and Tom were there.

I watched at home. They won.

This morning the Seahawks played in Florida and beat the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

After that was over we had lunch and then went for a walk. Now I am trying to get this post finished so I can watch the Mariners again as they start their playoff against the Toronto Blue Jays. There will be baseball all week again, or as long as the Mariners can hold out. 

But just in case you don't care anything at all about sports, here is Tom working on one of his bonsai trees, which he's doing right now in the garage. 

And this week I finally put my dried hydrangeas in vases. Here are some of them.

And there was at least one more bouquet of summer flowers left to be enjoyed on the kitchen table.

It's cold, 52, and spitting rain, but we'll be warm inside as we watch sports. It's time for more baseball. 

Walking Is Hard

 

It was a beautiful day Tuesday as I went out for my walk in the park after our Zoom meet up. Walking a mile is hard work, but it also makes me feel good.

It just so happened that son Jake was also out, on a vigorous bike ride, enjoying the morning, until he wasn't. I got a call in the early afternoon, "I need help". He was on a local bike path, going full speed, when he hit a bump he didn't see because of fallen leaves, went flying, and landed on his handle bars. I had him call 911 and by the time Tom caught up with him he was already being transported to the nearby hospital. 

He's OK, not life threatening, but he has three cracked ribs, strained abdominal muscles, a partially collapsed lung, and scrapes and bruises. He lives with Jill and she is tending to him. She brought him home today to begin the painful healing process. Yes, walking for him will be hard too. 

I have stuff from my many surgeries, so we brought over a bed wedge and a bed tray from our supply in the attic.

We visited him for a short time last night in the hospital. He is managing.

Tuesday afternoon, while I was listening to Mariners baseball, and trying not to worry about Jake, I decorated. Tom got the Autumn tub out of the attic and I set everything out, pretty much where they go every year. 

I still have summer flowers. They'll soon be traded for dried hydrangeas. 

The 120 year old pumpkin candy jars, from my mother-in-law's childhood, are still a treasured feature.

Today we went to a farmer's market, then dropped stuff off at Jill's. My exercise today was doing 30 minutes on my stationary bike. No crashes on that bike.

Does that look like rain? Nope, still not yet. Maybe this weekend we'll get some much needed rain. I should have gone for a walk, but I didn't have enough oomph. Walking is hard.  

Another Birthday

 We celebrated Tom's 84th birthday this week.

On Thursday we went to a local nursery to look at plants for our porch planters. Since we only buy birthday presents for each other that we pick out ourselves, I encouraged him to find something he liked and call it his birthday present. He did.

Of course it was another "pokey" plant, a Mangave named "Purple People Eater". He bought the little side kick too, but I don't remember his name. We bought the big blue pot to put the people eater in, but then at home we discovered that we had an empty lavender pot, perfect color, so that's where the new plant is now potted. I'm sure the blue pot will get a resident soon enough. 

We had to go to Home Depot for the plants I wanted for the porch.

Mixing colors and textures is my thing.

I had kind of a rough week, with a painful hip injection on Wednesday, and sometime in the night last Sunday night something, probably a spider, bit me in my sleep, and I ended up with six quarter sized welts that hurt and itched like crazy. It was Friday before I got these plagues settled down, so I was happy to get to help celebrate Tom and his twin Jan on their actual 84th birthday, with lunch at The Fish Peddler on the Foss Waterway in Tacoma. 

Of course there was dessert.

Then there was a walk along the waterway.

Here we were on the waterway side of the Museum of Glass. 

The do-it-yourself music was fun. Jake and I enjoyed it.

It was a great outing with the family.

Later that day Tom and Jill went to the Sounders game at the stadium. It was a big sports day in Seattle: Huskies, Mariners, and Sounders all at home. The Huskies won, the Sounders won, and the Mariners did not.

Now that I am cooled down from our morning walk, I'm going to go out in the yard and pick flowers, and then I'll settle in for Seahawks football and then another Mariners playoff game. 

Sports and birthdays and flowers - all fun. 

Back to Flowers and Other Pretty Fall things

 

The pumpkins are back at Safeway. I love orange!

It's past midweek already and I'm trying to catch up with last weekend. I'm still enraged at what's going on politically, but I'll spare you, and myself. 

Last Saturday I led our garden group on a tour of our local Highline Botanical Garden. 

I only took one photo. I was busy "herding cats", our members who are more into talking (visiting) than gardening. But they were enjoying themselves and that's what matters. I was on my feet on uneven ground for most of 1.5 hours so I was exhausted. I sent Tom to lunch without me. 

The rain was still holding off and we went for a nice walk in the park on Sunday. Fall is happening. 

With rain in the forecast, on Monday I picked flowers. 

Then I filled vases. 

Monday was house cleaning and laundry day. Tuesday was Costco day. I found fresh figs, which we love, so today for supper we had figs with goat cheese, walnuts, and honey, with some wonderful walnut cranberry bread we found at Costco. 

I have been back on the stationary bike when I don't get out for a walk. I can read on the bike. Today I started a new JA Jance book. 

Today I also got an injection in my hip, a steroid injection to try to calm down my hip flexor that has been plaguing me for years now. This is a second try. I thought it was supposed to be numb for three hours, but it's just hurting from the injection. So it goes. 

I'm missing my baseball, which I got hooked on when the Mariners were doing so well at the end of the Season. But they'll be back on Saturday, in the AL West series. Go Mariners! And go Sounders, who are winding up their season soon and going to the playoffs. And Yay Seahawks, who are on a winning streak. 

Can you tell I am working at keeping myself happy as well as moving?

A Political Post Because I'm Outraged

President Trump has been outdoing himself lately as he tries to get back at any one who he thinks wronged him. That includes elected officials, judges, mayors, governors, cities and states. Of course most of what he has been charged with he is actually guilty of.

A couple of days ago I posted the following on Facebook. The quotes are from the New York Times, or from the man himself.

He's talking about moving World Cup Games out of Seattle and San Francisco, because, you know, they aren't safe because they have "lunatic" mayors. They are liberal cities.

He's invading Portland, OR, sending troops in, because people there picket ICE actions and offices. He has to "protect war ravaged Portland" and protect ICE facilities that are "under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists". I guess he hasn't heard that antifa means anti-fascist and isn't an organization. When I join peaceful protest rallies full of kind and friendly old people are we domestic terrorists?

I wonder if Trump has ever been to Portland, that terrible liberal city on the west coast.

"The president has repeatedly spoken negatively about Portland, including saying on Thursday that “anarchy” is taking place in the West Coast city."

“You go out to Portland, people die out there. Many people have died over the years in Portland. Portland is, I don’t know how anybody lives there. It’s amazing, but it’s, it’s anarchy out there. That’s what they want. They want anarchy,” Trump said during remarks in the Oval Office on Thursday."

"Last week, in separate comments in the Oval Office, the president said people in Portland are “out of control.”"

“Have you seen Portland at all? If you take a look what’s happening in Portland. It’s, it has been going on for years. Just people out of control, crazy. We’re going to stop that very soon,” Trump said.

He says we are "run by radical lunatics who don't know what they're doing". If he's speaking about our federal government, I guess he got that one right.

I have a voice and I will use it.

Fall Flowers

Table bouquet of asters from the garden.

Another blooming of the Brugmansia - Angel's Trumpets, in the front yard. 

Our "picked" glass flowers, now washed and stored in the attic over the garage. 

Dahlias and Marigolds. 

Another crop of Poblano peppers, now roasted, diced, and in the freezer. Some set aside for a chili relleno casserole for dinner. 

Hardy fuchsias along the front walk.

Fall blooming hardy cyclamen in the front yard. 

Fall blooming crocus. 

Cutting garden. 

Sedums

Black eyed Susan vine. 

Angels Trumpets on the patio. 

Today we stored the glass flowers and checked out our emergency kit, adding replacement food stuffs to the grocery list. Tom has been out picking up fallen branches and general debris. Autumn clean up is beginning. 

I was going to write about politics, and freedom of speech. I still might, since I don't think I am in danger of being fired or suspended, but flowers are prettier. You have been spared for now.