Bad Air

My niece Shannon contacted me about her daughter Erica who is in a mountain area where a raging fire is going on. If she heads this way, would I be able to take in her, her grandmother and daughter. Of course I would take her in until she could return. My daughter-in-law Stephanie had a situation like this as did my daughter Shelley. I can't imagine saying no in a situation like that with fire edging up the front door. It is so scary. I do worry when they stall in making the move that life is also at stake.  Then my friend Janet's daughter Lori's family were to evacuate on Thursday afternoon. Her husband's boss was expanding their home for all the extra time he has put in to the boss's business.  As far as I know,  Lori's house has not been hit yet.  These fires are not just in one location. These are all in the mountains.  There is a question that at least one of them may have been started by an arsonist.  It makes it  less stressful if they know they have a place to go to when they are in a bad place.   There is so much smoke in the air that the air quality is very bad!  I am staying inside as much as I can.  My friend Barbara has not being feeling well, which she thinks is linked to the smoke.

Janet, Barbara and I went to see Florence Foster Jenkins (played by Meryl Streep- an excellent actor) a true story of a woman who saw herself as an opera singer. Those close to her hide the truth from her that she was a poor singer  which caused an amazing situation where the audience saw this as comedy. It reminded me of the beginning parts of the season on American Idol, when people who have been told they were wonderful singers by family and friends, but with the feedback, especially from Simon Cowl who is so blunt and often times cruel that they need to do their singing in a basement alone so no one else has to put up with it.  I find it so painful to watch and hear the comments, that I have to leave the room.  I have a hard time seeing people make fools of themselves. 

At my art class, Carol critiqued our drawings. She gives such useful feedback that I am anxious for her to see what I do. Linda, my classmate feels similar. Linda did say I could show the picture she did of a lizard's eye. She also sent a picture of a snake that is also excellent, so it is here also.  We also discussed changing to color pencils which will start in September.    We won't have class for two weeks and Carol said we really have to get down shading with colored pencils. So I will work on that. The pictures are Linda's.  I still need to work further on my peacock and snake.  I'm ready to frame the lizard and peacock feather I did.

Linda's Lizard Eye

Linda's Snake

I had been talking with the social worker Robin at Kaiser where I get my chemotherapy telling her how I found coloring in the adult coloring books to be stress reducing and very relaxing.  I had so many coloring books, I donated them to her to use for the chemotherapy patients.  Some of them are also in a lot of pain, and this can be helpful in reducing it.  So this last Thursday at Chemotherapy, I took in the coloring books.  I had some color pencils.  They still need pencil sharpeners and perhaps even erasers.  I have several of the little pencil sharpeners and a couple of erasers I will take next time. 

Janet and I got together catching up on the week's events.  She spent several days there with a friend. I would enjoy that, especially because of the heat and smoke here. 

Here are a couple of pictures of my great grandchildren, Conner, Kason and Nylah. Two more are on the way, one in September and one in January.  They expect boys. 

Conner holding Kason.  They are about a year apart.

Nylah is a very happy baby.  She will be a year in December 

So that is my week. I have spent a lot of time drawing in adult coloring books. It is very relaxing.  I hope your week went well and this next week is good too.     Rachel

Seeming to Get the Idea about Shading

My ex-neighbor Celeste called. The house she owned sold and the people who bought it are doing work on it before they move in.

 During our conversation, she brought up about a cat that may have been dropped off by her home.  Celeste said the cat is declawed.  She thinks it might be past youth. It is a male but he is not Neutered.  She calls him Clancy. He is white and black. He is not aggressive.  He has personality and needs to be an indoor cat and probably do better in a one cat home. She asked me to share this thinking maybe a person in Kern County might be interested. She lives near Tehachapi. 

Carol my art teacher could see how I'd grown in doing my art.  In particular, I really am doing better at shading.  She still had suggestions which were good and obvious as we looked at each one. So helpful!  I really appreciate it. Fellow student Linda also finds this so helpful.   So I worked on the pictures I posted last week. Next week I'll bring in pictures of snakes to choose my subject. 

More detail added and corrected the shading

Worked more on getting the eye on the feather corrected and
the downy feathers at the bottom, by showing some of the detail in the barbs.

Worked more on the head, the eye feathers and the shading.

I am considering cropping the picture also

Janet and I went to the Red Pepper.   She had told me of a rib eye steak that was very good. I don't eat meat the way I used to (daily or even weekly) but periodically it seems appealing. It was pretty good. Not the best, but better than I've had for a long time.  There were a couple of other choices and she thinks it may have been another way. 

I read everyday. I think I've been reading more this last week. Linda, who I have known since elementary school and is the main person planning our 50th reunion for our high school calls periodically . Linda calls me  and we talk about what we are reading. Linda recommended a series of books by C. J. Box, about a game warden Joe Pickett.  I think there are around 15 books. I'm starting book 9.  I can picture the mountains with his description. He is married and has two daughters. The females are strong. He loves his family and work and has had problems with some people especially in his work who are controlling and try to keep him out of things.  I've been enjoying it and in addition, there is some issue that you learn in each book. Fascinating. 

So that's my week. Temperatures are dropping some this week to the 90's. That may sound bad, but when it has been approaching 110, this sounds much better. I hope your week was good. I hope the next week is good for you.  I'll see you next Sunday.                   Rachel 

Seeing Old Friends

The traffic was clear going to Seal Beach to meet my friends from high school whom I haven't seen in almost half a century!  I drove fast also so the combination got me there a half hour before I said I'd be there.  My friend Barbara lives in Leisure World of Seal Beach. (I have many friends named Barbara and Linda-  I know who they all are. You just think "friend").  They have guards at the gate and they checked a board for my name and who I was visiting. They had letters for each apartment/house and I didn't have this. I called her and we met on the walkway. Though we have a lot of years on us, we recognized each other.  We ran into each other's arms. I felt there should have been a swelling of music.   Barbara has a caregiver, Debbie who lives with her. I was very relieved because Barbara is having memory issues.  It is a big problem. I brought up about our 50 year class reunion in 2017, but she does not believe she will be alive then. She is very open about the dementia and went to see a doctor, when after years of being a hospice nurse and driving all over the county, she had this experience of not having a clue as to where she was. She knew something was wrong.  I was just aware of her asking multiple times where we were going and about my nephew who was murdered, she could not remember this.  She remembered well when we talked about what we did when we were young.   In fact, her memory of that time was much better than mine.  When we made light of her statement about dying soon, she said "I don't fear death. I've had a full life."  I feel a sad, because now that I find her and I might not have her much longer.  I want to hold her and not let her go.  She was an important part of my life and I've been looking for her for a long time.  I hope we get more visits together. 

We met our friend Linda at the Crema Cafe. I spotted her husband and daughters because we connected on Facebook and she had many pictures of them. They didn't have a clue as to who I was and I explained.  Though I saw Linda on Facebook too and I knew how she looked.  She looked a lot like I remembered her.   Our other friend Toni did't make it because driving back home the day before from a Christmas gathering with family was a grueling eight hours because of many detours - the result of fires.  We had a group phone call as we waited for our food. I suggested that Barbara and I could plan a trip to see Toni with my picking up Barbara and then to Hesperia if we could stay over night with Toni.  I can't see heading home the same day. For me it will be at least four hours each way. I have to take breaks or my back starts really hurting.  I sent a message to Toni.  We will put it off until the weather is milder and she can put us up at her home when we come. Linda invited us to stay with her family in Honolulu on Oahu.  I haven't been to Hawaii for a while. That would be nice. I'm concerned that we may have to arrange these trips soon if Barbara is declining as fast as she thinks she is. It would be wonderful if we could do this.  We would have our own foursome reunion.

I can't believe we forgot to get a group shot of us!  I did get a picture of Barbara before we left her home and I got a picture of Linda on her Facebook site and I took a recent picture of me edited out of a group shot.  I have no current picture of Toni.   I think we look pretty youthful for 66 years old.

Barbara

Linda

Me

Kate offered that I stay at her home instead of driving home (a 2 1/2 hour drive).  That was a 40 minute drive. There was a possibility of rain the next day, so weather would be a factor to determine the time I would leave. I ended up looking at my calendar on my iPhone when I was at my stepmom Kate's home around 8:30 pm and I read "if you left right now, it will take you two hours and six minutes to get home."  How does it know I haven't left yet? 

Kate picked up chicken and salad for the evening and we watched Holmes, which was a somewhat sad movie.  Kate gave me a record album I had given my father.  I have a copy somewhere, but I don't know where somewhere is.  Here is a picture of the album. We were called the dance band in high school The Naturals.  The band leader was Mr. Eugene Szilagyi.  I have fond memories of him. I used to babysit his son who had become brain damaged from having measles. 

In 10th grade, they made an album of our playing.   I remember they played it on a local radio show and said it sounded like Tommy Dorsey's band.  That would be our parent's generation.  I need to take it somewhere to get it changed into a CD. I no longer have a record player and I would like to listen to this.   I remember this one riff in one of the pieces. I wish they had chosen the other attempt at playing this, because I did the other one better. The problem was that the rest of the band felt they played better on this try. When I get this copied, I will put one of the pieces in my blog. I played the bass in high school and in college until I changed my major to social work from music.   When I finished my junior year of college majoring in music, I changed my major to social work so I did six full years of college before getting my Bachelors degree  and then continued to get a Masters in Social Work. 

After a continental breakfast and a shower the next morning I was up to the drive home.  I am so appreciative of breaking up the drive.  There were some sprinkles and it looked like it would snow in the mountains. And, it did start snowing in the mountains about three hours after I got home. I was fortunate in my timing. 

When I went for my chemotherapy, my nurse told me the results of my MUGA scan which checks the pressure of blood flow through the heart. It was 67.1 and the one before that was 74.1. No one here understands why it was up to 74.1 which is good. I had the same activity, diet and rest. That was a good number, but so is 67.1. I believe he decided to make the baseline 60.  If it drops below that, it probably means stopping the Perception.

I worked some on drawing this week.  I know the last picture was off on proportions.  I did a close up of a horse, so this is what I did:

Here is a Flirtatious Mare

I gave my grandson Billy a Life Straw, that filters bad things from the water.  For every filter bought, they supply one child safe water for a year in Africa.  I was thinking the drought here could lead them to getting water from an unsafe source.  So what does he do?!  He tests it on a mud puddle!  Ugh! 

https://www.facebook.com/rachel.jerdin/posts/10153862313144036

My daughter Ronda made several jams which got redirected in the mail to the east coast. I finally got it and have been trying her apple butter. Very tasty!

After meeting Janet at Mexicali's, we decided to get together New Years Eve and I was going to stay the night, but she slept bad and was not feeling well. I said I would call her the following day. I had already planned to have eggnog and rum and was set for the evening. My plan as always was to read when I'm home and that is what I did. 

My cat Daisy loves to sit next to me when I'm in my arm chair. She usually leans into me.  Here is a picture of her. Pepper also does this but she falls on her back leaning over the seat trying to hold on. 

Daisy who wants body contact.  She really loves to
pin down my left arm by sitting on the arm of the chair and
pushing into me.  This is her second favorite position.

Crystal is getting wonderful pictures of her daughter Nylah with the help of her cousin Heather.  She loves looking at her. 

One Week Old!

One Week Old!

This article was reflective of what I noted with others when I was grieving over losses in my life.  I also decided that these were not hurtful people. They just could not give me the support I needed. It helps to understand what is happening.  This is by Paula Stephens. 

http://www.positivelypositive.com/2016/01/02/why-we-lose-friends-when-a-loved-one-dies-and-what-to-do-about-it/

8 Simple Words to Say When Someone You Love is Grieving,  also a very good article by Tim Lawrence. 

http://www.upworthy.com/8-simple-words-to-say-when-when-someone-you-love-is-grieving?c=reccon1

I did get a fair amount of rest.  I'm glad.  It made for an easier.  So, that is about it this week.  I hope your week went well and I will see you next week.              Rachel