What a Beautiful Day!

I’m sitting on the deck in the late afternoon enjoying a most pleasant, windless day with a high temperature of 73º. The garden soaked up 1.5 inches of rain yesterday on a day which seemed to be perpetual night. Today there a few wisps of cloud in a still, still sky. ¶ What is even more unusual is the fact that this is Sidewalk Arts Festival Day. This is a major thing for the Visual Arts Center where I work at the Pavilion. Artists of all kinds rent booths in the area surrounding the Pavilion and “sh

oppers” and viewers from near and far descend on the city center. Usually crowds of >10,000 appear. The weather could not have been better. The usual weather for the event is either a major rain storm or a heat wave exceeding imagination. ¶ Hopefully, all went well. The Cathedral youth rent out parking spaces in the Cathedral parking lot as a fund raiser. The law firm across the street allows the kiddos to sell additional parking there. I was lucky enough to get in the Cathedral lot for choir rehearsal this morning. ¶ Friday afternoon I completed my third Gamma Knife treatment. I will have two more next week followed by chemo on Thursday. Seven new “spots” showed up on the last MRI plus one more elusive one that appears and disappears on alternate films. We’ve finally arrived at tolerable form of music to help pass the time. The first attempt was “contemporary religious” which turned out to be revivalist country and western. That made the experience far less than pleasant. Once in while one has to pay the dues for being a musical snob.

¶ My appetite has not improved much. I attribute that to the antibiotic I take for sodium retention. It must be taken an hour before eating. After waiting an hour my usual attitude is “why bother.” It does help with the grocery bill. ¶ The Chihuly pieces are complete in the Visual Arts Center and are beautiful. How fortunate I am to be able to enjoy them whilst volunteering.

¶ I would like to come up with some method of identifying the beast in the garden. What ever it is comes along and cleanly nips off leaves or blossoms leaving a totally unharmed stem. It also leaves no garbage behind. This week it completely denuded a holly hock, leaving the flowers and buds but absconding with the leaves. What it consumes is usually too tall for a rabbit or a squirrel and no stems are broken down in the process. Any ideas are welcome. ¶ Sophia is on the prowl for bugs when she is not resting. Prowling and resting consume her days. It’s a busy life, she says.

¶ Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and for reading my ramblings. I hope your week goes well.