ami's place blog

Michelle arrived from Thailand

Michelle arrived from Thailand last night. She had been teaching there for almost two years after two years in Dubai and four years in Russia and one year here. This morning we all had coffee and then she and Jon hopped into downtown Seattle to drop off two suitcases that will go to Spokane. Michelle will keep the other two which will go with her tomorrow when she flies to Alaska to visit her sister.

 Jon is out now looking for garage sales and at 3:00 we will be picking up NMancy and taking her with us to our monthly District Buddhist Meeting. Because she is in a wheelchair no one has tried to get her to a meeting. I used a chair while I was ill and didn't let it keep me from going places. When we said that we would take her, she lit up. She feel very isolated in the retirement home with no other Buddhists in residence. Jon and I will try to keep her better connected. Tough to do with so many folks busy all of the time. That is a whole other story. I have a difficult time with how busy everyone must be to keep their lives together these days. Perhaps that is what they feel they must do. More on this later.

 When we deliver Nancy to home, we will then take Michelle to Whole Foods for dinner. I am still going through the photos and deciding what to put onto the disk for Sally.

Holiday and the ocean

Jon took my birthday week off and we spent the time being lazy, going to our favorite book stores, seeing movies and just enjoying each others company. What a wonderful week.

This past weekend we went to the ocean, Pacific Beach, for a reunion and memorial service. My dear friend Sally lost her mother recently and her sister a few years ago and so we all gathered together to say good-bye to them. With a gathering of the friends we have had for over 40 years and our children and our children's children it was an amazing time. Our kids live in the same town and our grandchildren are about the same ages. It was fun to watch the generations carry on our traditions.

The beach was proclaimed not to be a good one for driftwood. I understood what they meant when we saw it as there was very little large driftwood, but the pieces that we wanted were the little ones and they were everywhere. I collected a huge bag full for my mom. She lives in Florida and paints Santa faces on them as tree ornaments. They sell very well in the Art Coop. I will be working on the pictures from the adventure and posting some of them soon. I think we managed to take around 300 between the two of us.