Sunday the 2nd

After Farmers' Market today, Mary conducted a video conference to New Zealand with her granddaughters, Madelyn and Emma. This is a picture over Mary's shoulder while Maddy is on the screen. There are different services that do this, iChat on Mac, Google has a video chat and so too, Skype. It certainly helps keep in touch when the granddaughters can show the treasures they collected while visiting a zoo in New Zealand on Sunday! There were some strange animals you don't necessarily find in our zoos!

Saturday was the funeral event for our neighbor Wendell. His wife of 57 years, Janie, and his son, George, arranged a very nice funeral service at our local funeral home and then held a catered party at Wendell and Janie's home. Wendell was 94 years old, had lived a long and happy life, and retired from the Santa Clara School district in 1972. As the minister relayed Wendell's long history, I loved the quote, "I am always ready for a party, even if its a party for just Janie and me."

His recessional was that great song by Frank Sinatra, "New York, New York" and from there we went to their home to continue the party!

Mary attended both the service and the party and I was amazed by how well she did. We came home from the service, she had a little snack because she wasn't sure about the food that would be served, took one of her nausea pills and we walked over to Wendell and Janie's. The nausea pill she took has a signature behavior for her: She is perfectly normal the first hour, acts "loopy" or "tipsy" the 2nd hour and then falls sound asleep the third through 6th, 7th or 8th hours. We spent a full two hours at the party, Mary tasted lots of the food that was served and as we walked home held onto me for dear life because the tipsy part was in full bloom. She got out of her dress up clothes, put on casual duds and crawled into bed. I didn't hear from her for a long time after that!

Today we got up a bit late because someone wasn't sleepy last night for some reason. We watched movies until 1:30AM because of her long afternoon nap. Anyway, we did make it to Farmers' Market, bought our fresh wild caught salmon but we were too late for the fresh corn because it was sold out. We picked up fruits and veggies for the week, walked to the bakery for some lemon cake--someone likes strawberry shortcake desserts, and then made it home in time for the video conference to New Zealand with Mary's two granddaughters and daughter.

We are all set for this week's driving team: Ingrid (x2), Marge, Terry and Pat L#2. Again, I wish to thank all of our drivers for their incredible contribution to the cause! Thank you, thank you.

Mary's son Daniel called today. He is on maneuvers in the desert west of Fort Bliss, El Paso Texas. That area is called New Mexico. And, for some reason, he had phone coverage today. Daniel grew up in Phoenix so he plays desert ace with the rest of the crew. Although he admits 115F in full army gear isn't quite as easy as 115F in t-shirts and shorts. When I was on the phone with him, he was interrupted by someone and responded, "Its a scorpion, no big deal as long as no one was bitten." Desert ace calms the troops again!