bruceb

Mom's back home now, and our visit was thoroughly satisfying. We got some time out, as I wrote up previously, and had a lot of good time at home. Each of us has made some big progress since our last visit, and so we had a lot of admiring exchanges about that, and we find ourselves thinking more clearly than has sometimes been the case about upcoming challenges, with good advice for each other.

Looking forward to the next one. :)

Today Mom and I went to Woodland Park Zoo with dhw and kalluna, and it was great. I'm pretty slow and Mom is slower yet, but we managed. Dave and Kathy are patient, and full of interesting things to talk about in between exhibits. :)

The zoo was crowded, what with Easter hoorah, but it was a very good-natured crowd. We saw a goodly number of animals, and were there to see gold lion tamarin monkeys and lemurs get Easter baskets of treats. Both were tremendously entertaining to watch.

I'm all tired and stuff, of course. But we came through it a bit better than we expected, and thoroughly satisfied.

Mom's coming for a visit—we finally got to a point where she feels up to the trip and I feel up to hosting her. She'll be here from the 9th (Thursday) through the 13th (Monday). Still got a few things to work out, like reviewing the options for getting from train station to here and vice versa, but surely these things will indeed work out. The big-picture stuff is all very much in order, for both of us.

Posting may be light between now and then, as I take advantage of warmer weather to get some rearranging done, and all the things prepped as needs prepping. Likewise, posting will be light during the visit, and then probably as I take some recuperation time. There may be flurries of activity here, or there may not.

I am very, very happy about this.

When Dad retired from NASA in 1993, his office gave him a neat gift. His work on ranging system for the Deep Space Network meant, over the years, a lot of time out in the Mojave desert, at the Goldstone complex. In 1988, the 64-meter radio antenna dish got upgraded into 70 meters, and there were bits and pieces of the old ones in storage. His gift was two of the massive six-inch nuts from the old dish and the brackets they'd held in place, chromed.

After he died, Mom felt that she didn't quite know what to do with them, and asked if I'd like them. I said yes indeed, but then I didn't exactly know what to do with them either, and they've been in one of the closets, in a handsome wood carrying case.

But tonight they're out again! I've cleared off enough books, DVDs, and what-not that I have significant open space. I was puttering around gathering up things I have that are intended for use as bookends, realizing I could use more, and thinking about what else I could press into service, and it struck me. Dad's gifts.

Now they're front and center in the wall of shelves facing the front door, the chrome mirroring the colors around them, and looking altogether wonderful. I am really, really happy about this.

#1. Sing we now the praises of split-pea soup. This is one of my longest-standing food traditions, actually: when Mom and Dad come to visit (well, just Mom now, but the tradition careth not), I put on a crockpot's worth of split pea soup. If anything delays their trip, it doesn't matter at all—there will be good food waiting for them whenever it is, and my home is filled with its smell. We can each have a little or a lot and there's plenty left over for later meals, while they're here and maybe afterwards. Split peas, carrots, celery, potatoes if I feel like it, onion, either ham or something veggie from Boca or Morningstar Farms, and salt and seasonings: really hard to get wrong, and a great pleasure and comfort to me.

#2. Thanksgiving dinner came out really well this year. There weren't any innovations in ingredients, or at least no big ones, but I used the microwave less and my new hot pot a lot more, so everything fixed in it was that touch juicier. Mom found particularly pretty harvest-themed plates and napkins, and as I remarked to her, "It's not necessary to emblazon Thanksgiving in words on something for me to know that it clearly is Thanksgiving." It all fixed up smoothly and we ate happily, with my nice round table set up in the living room. Now it's all cleared and we're each at our laptops, gabbing and sharing links and such, with a Java log in the fireplace and Montano prowling contentedly. Pumpkin pie waits in the fridge for later.