May 30, 2011 by Naomi.

After putting the carpet in place in the sun porch I was sweaty and showered off. I sat in a comfortable lawn chair looking over my scrungy back yard and pondered. Now pondering is no small thing. When I was in my teens still at home I would lay in a newly plowed furrow to ponder my future. The sky above the earth below. The future wide open. But I never once dreamed the reality of my life. Many decades later, I still ponder. The future is still wide open. Well almost. I will not jump over the moon. But I will do stuff. I decided long ago I did not have the financial resources to get to the moon. But my financial resources have managed to get me to twenty four countries around the world. Am I lucky or what? Well I’ve said that before. I am lucky. Now I am able to sit in my own home under my own steam and ponder what to do with the rest of my life. I have a lot of good stuff. The one thing that would have made this all more than it is, would be if Ron had lived to experience it with me. I do not believe the baloney that he is “up there” watching earthly progress. He died way too young of circumstances beyond his control but through me has left a legacy in five children and grand children beyond. I cannot begin to ponder the wonders they will find. Their creativity and curiosity will enrich the world.

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May 30, 2011 by Naomi.

Yes they were…

Hastings bookstore was a meeting place for Freethinkers on Sunday mornings a eleven am. The WE that showed up were Naomi Sherer, Alma and Jim, Jesse Spurgeon, Frank Smittroth, Al Stellwagon, Cecil Kindle, Dave Anderson, and occasional newcomers, atheists all. May 29, 2011. That group is about the extent of my associations any more. Today however, on our national holiday to remember fallen soldiers, I took up close encounters with the rooty kind – weeds in my front yard. I began innocently sunning on my back steps and remembered I planned to water the native plants Nancy and I got at Wildlands a couple of weeks past. I had to dress a little more formally than exposure out back but that wasn’t painful, although turned sweaty before I finished. A beautiful sunny day for a picnic which I won’t have unless I sit in my sunroom which I painted – at least the first coat – of white, an interior enamel. It will take another coat to hide the dark gray but even so the room is brighter and pleasant. I took out the carpet so my speed of painting and splatter could excel. The paint odor and I suppose the Russian Olive pollen will stuff up my nose and effect my ears as well. No matter. I must say that this activity will be remembered probably longer than a picnic. Although I wouldn’t bet on it. I earned the right to a few games of Mahjong or solitaire in which I now indulge.

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May 29, 2011 by Naomi.

2011May29Sunday
Two coats of white enamel is what I will have to put on the walls in my sun room to cover the dark gray that has had many years to harden. It is more work than I planned but now that I started the overall lightened effect I am anxious to go ahead. It is less than half done. I have no alternative but to finish. Well I could, I suppose. I’ve left other tasks unfinished never to go back but this is different. I will complete the paint job. From the full length window wall that looks out over the west part of my back yard I can see most of the Arbor Day seedling spruce and they are happily getting new branches. A couple of cats like that back yard. They get a drink of fresh water from the bowl I set at the base of an English walnut tree for a nesting robin. The calico cat looks wary and the tiger cat slinks away to the fence. They know very well I will not send them off with flying rocks. The clean paint brush is ready for another go but that will not be today. The forecast is for rain the entire next week. At least I will be indoors so might as well pick up the brush.

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May 28, 2011 by Naomi.

The nice weather got the best of me I guess. After breakfast in my sun porch I got at painting over the green I put on the rough boards there months past. It takes much more energy than I have to do the whole job. I worked past lunch and once I cleaned up my paint brush I decided that was all for today. Sadly the job looks like the painter was called away on a dire emergency. No one would leave it otherwise. I simply lost my oomph. The paint odor hurts my nasal passages which effects my eyesight so I needed to stop because of that. The ring fingers on both hands ache and I can’t clench my fingers into a fist. Good thing I don’t have to swing a hard upper cut to an assailant’s jaw for self preservation. I nuked a Stouffers Swedish meatball dinner and see what that does for me.

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May 25, 2011 by Naomi.

Fourth Wednesday at 7 pm the Tri-Cities stamp club meets at Charbonneau retirement center in Kennewick, rain or shine. And tonight it was raining big time. Well at least for this area my windshield wipers were doing double time. Not so much on the trip over but quite so coming home at 8:30. I had no milk at home so I detoured to Freddies. The parking lot was sloppy and I was glad to have my flip flops on. Easier to dry my feet at home. No socks to wash. And to think I will have milk for morning coffee. I left my hearing aids at home so I did a lot of lip reading at the meeting. As usual the presenter talked about cancelled cachets which were readily passed around giving me time to process his information. The dates on several of his examples was early 1900s. I remember I have letters from Ethel and some of my mother’s that are dated in the 1930s. I had better put them in plastic for protection if they should ever get passed around. All but two of the men at the stamp meeting were bulging over their belts. Sad. But I can’t throw stones. My belly sticks out way too much as well. Back to the rain which is wetting everything down nicely and guarantees tomorrow to be an indoor work day for me. I can sit in my sun room and watch my baby spruce stretch out their new branches. They really are cute little guys..

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May 25, 2011 by Naomi.

So far another gray day looms ahead. I have no confidence in the forecast for rain. I watered my baby spruce in the back yard. I intended to mow the front driveway but macho Cooper was out barefoot moving his garbage bin around and I was too intimidated to work out there making eyes at him. At forty-seven degrees there is a chilly breeze and since I watered my seven arid plants last night the remainder of the yard, front and back can suck in their roots and prove they can live without much water. Al and I spent a long lunch yesterday at Burger King discussing our zero landscaping, philosophy, and his excuses for not attending Sunday Freethought meetings.  I will work now on my May Moth story. A mystery popped out in the narrative yesterday that bears deeper examination with many adjectives and other parts of good sentence structure. Could be another novel.

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May 21, 2011 by Naomi.

Mr. Squirrel was on the run. A determined robin followed it to the outer edge of Wade’s carport where the squirrel leaped to the lilac bush with the robin close behind, forcing the squirrel into the maple tree from which it ran up and leaped to greater heights. At the top, the robin appeared satified that the squirrel was no longer a threat and flew across the street. That was today’s drama from my kitchen window. I assume the squirrel was teasing the bird but I noticed yesterday that it had changed its nest site from the cut off branch of the apricot tree to the end of a higher branch on the red maple by the sidewalk. No sense in tempting certain destruction of eggs not yet laid. The robin took on the ambience of an English butler, stiff and regal and in control. From the look of the robin it was not about to be lowered in society, simply maintained a lofty attitude and went about its business of food gathering, stopping on the edge of a water-filled dish to wet its beak. I set the dish out several days ago just with that in mind. Tom had a fountain set up in his back yard for the birds which I planned to do in mine. It would also be a watering hole for all those thirsty. The calico cat took her drink when I was having coffee on my back porch. She came from the shelter belt and under my fence before and had chased the squirrel up the apricot tree. She was miffed that the animal leaped from the tree to the fence but decided not to follow through the air and gave up the chase. When she left I checked the ten Arbor Day spruce now growing new limbs ever so beautifully since their arrival two weeks ago. It will take some years before those twigs will grow big and well branched to be included in such a chase.

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May 20, 2011 by Naomi.

There is no big hurry to get up these days but I wake up at dawn and that is quite early. I turned off the heaters several days past and jumped up to close the window. Forty degrees does not feel like spring, even though the calendar insists that it is. Cuddling back in bed I pondered a plot for the May Month Novel. Because it would be set outdoors I stepped out to think it over in my backyard forest. I checked out the new ten spruce seedlings I got from the Arbor Day Foundation. They really were doing well. New tiny bright green branches stretched out to the morning sun. I water them several times a day, not that they require that much water but it gives me the opportunity to keep a frequent eye on them. This is a very fine plan to follow each day and somewhere along the way I will have to factor in the weed eater. I can live in and even relish my over grown plants in the back yard but to prevent pitiful glances from my neighbors I must pick up my boot straps and manicure the part of my lot visible from the street.

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May 14, 2011 by Naomi.

At 7 pm I must write an addendum – thunder is rumbling and rain is falling – nicely. How sweet it is. No watering on the morrow, however the passenger window is down (only about three inches) on the Hyundai so I will have a wet seat. The rain makes the air smell so fresh. And the thunder is nostalgic of my childhood in Minnesota. It is rare here. Lightning is seriously cracking the sky. I hope it and the rain lasts for hours. Rain is hitting all windows on the south, west, and north so the only one I can keep open to enjoy the freshness of the air is this one in my computer room. Wind is blowing from all directions and knocks on my loose front door. It is dark enough to put the birds to roost for the night and it is still over an hour until sunset. Weather is tonight’s adventure.

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May 14, 2011 by Naomi.

At 7 pm I must write an addendum – thunder is rumbling and rain is falling – nicely. How sweet it is. No watering on the morrow, however the passenger window is down (only about three inches) on the Hyundai so I will have a wet seat. The rain makes the air smell so fresh. And the thunder is nostalgic of my childhood in Minnesota. It is rare here. Lightning is seriously cracking the sky. I hope it and the rain lasts for hours. Rain is hitting all windows on the south, west, and north so the only one I can keep open to enjoy the freshness of the air is this one in my computer room. Wind is blowing from all directions and knocks on my loose front door. It is dark enough to put the birds to roost for the night and it is still over an hour until sunset. Weather is tonight’s adventure.

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