Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Happy belated Valentine's Day! As the day fell on a Friday, which was a work day, we just stayed home. But, Saturday morning, John took his car in for an oil change and other maintenance work (cooling, transmission, and brake service) that ended up running over $900! Still, we went on a date to REI, where we rummaged the clearance racks, and John checked out a few backpacks he was shopping and bought a locking carabiner. Then, we went to a Himalayan restaurant for a long lunch. We shared an order of veggie samosas as usual, then we both ordered something new: Ondine had Chicken Bhuna and John had Daal Bhat Tarkari and veggie Thali. Both were fanatastic! By the end of lunch, John's car was ready to be picked up.
Today, John did the big grocery shop, making the rounds to three different stores (Sprouts, Aldi, and Albertson's). Ondine had a video visit with Barbara from Germany, and in the afternoon visited her Mom at the board and care, taking with her our neighbor Ofelia and a letter from her Uncle Peter.
We all visited Ondine's Mom a couple weeks ago, and Bea was down for a week or so as well, which really helped Ondine and her Mom in getting settled in a new place. Bea is actually returning this week, she's been such a great moral support!
John was off work for three days last week due to rain. He could've gone to the lab in Carlsbad again to work on sorting and cataloging finds, but he decided it wasn't worth the drive of over an hour each way. He used the time to watch a video refresher course on NAGPRA, start our taxes, and to get together for lunch with his friend Dave at Troy's Greek Restaurant. He started taking Lisinopril to control his high blood pressure. So far, the starting dose seems to be working fine with few, if any, side effects. He also drove Ondine to the mechanic to pick up her car, had his own car serviced, and drove to a different auto shop to pick up Leo, who left his Chevy Volt at Courtesy Chevrolet to resolve an issue with the charging port that started immediately after having the car detailed. And, he worked out every morning, getting in a short warm-up on the rowing machine before cranking a solid hour on the exercise bike. All of which has him wondering how he ever found time to work?
Ondine returned to work on Wednesday (which was John's first day off work due to rain). It felt good to get back into the swing of working, and she was very happy to have referrals well into next week! The NUHW remains out on strike, and little progress has been made toward a contract agreement. Kaiser seems pretty determined to break the union. In other news, Ondine cleaned and dried out the New Year's fish scales so we all have them in our wallets, so that should bode well for our finances, right?
The news lately is very depressing. The United States seems to be sliding faster and faster into overt fascism thanks to an ever-growing right-wing Christian nationalist influence on politics, legislation, and social policies. Already databases of scientific data have been scrubbed from public access (including vaccine and climate data), and entire chapters of American history, including the rounding up and placing into concentration camps American citizens of Japanese descent, have been erased from the National Archives. The U.S. is also now in a tariff war with the rest of the world, so prices are about to skyrocket, along with corporate profits. It's scary to look around and consider that more than half of the people around us agree with what's going on; the danger is real and closing in fast.
So, a change of subject: We started thinking about our next vacation, another walking trip perhaps in 2026 or 2027! On our short list so far: the Herriot Way through the Yorkshire Dales in England, and the Rhinesteig and Moselsteig, two different long trails along the mountains overlooking either the Rhine or the Mosel river. We also recently learned about a volcano route in Germany that is a short detour from the Rhinesteig, and which could include a Roman mine! It's very exciting to think about our next trip. It'll be a much shorter trip than the Coast to Coast, probably no more than two weeks total, which with a couple days at either end means only 8 to 10 days there. We'd like to have a couple layover days to explore off piste, including time to get together with Dax and Juergen, so that realistically leaves about 6 walking days or stages. We're hoping the kints will be able to join us for the trip!
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