And another week gets by me. What I have been doing since last Monday:
Monday, Feb. 27th- worked at the library. The temperature reached 74F (23.3C). It was a beautiful day, which everyone who came in the library just had to tell me about. After work I took a long walk on the river. Who wants to stay indoors on a day like that?
Tuesday, Feb. 28th- temperature gets up to 81F (27.2C). That's right 81F (27.2C)! I open all the windows in the house and spend the day outside watering trees and bushes, walking, and enjoying the sun and warmth.
Wednesday, Mar. 1st- temperature only reaches 65F (18.3) but I still spend most of the day outside. These warm day are not ones to be wasted by sitting in front of a computer down in my basement.
Thursday, Mar. 2nd- my niece's 16th birthday and my husband and I drive to Denver to help her celebrate. We go to dinner at Benihana's, a Japanese style restaurant that my niece loves. The place is always packed and the main draw is the show the chef at your table puts on. My husband called it "Hooters for families." No one goes to either restaurant for the quality of the food served. We still have a great time.
Friday, Mar. 3rd- my husband and I drive up to Fort Collins and spend the day with his father. Always good to see him. When we get back my niece has just arrived home from school with a friend. She asks if she can spend the night at her friend's house (We stayed to take care of my niece while her mother and step-father spend the weekend in Las Vegas) and I say it's fine. She then asks if they can get a ride and my husband says he will drive them. Now that my niece is sixteen she can drive as long as there is an adult in the car with her so my husband asks her if she would like to drive instead of him. She of course jumped at the chance.
Saturday, Mar. 4th- spend the day shopping. One of the things we are buying is a new vacuum cleaner. My old one stopped working about a week ago. Note to anyone with a vacuum cleaner: First, if it seems like your vacuum cleaner motor is getting louder, then it probably is. I started wearing shooting ear muffs when I vacuumed. Second, if it seems like the vacuum is not picking up dirt and debris like it should, then it probably isn't. Both of these things are signs that the vacuum cleaner is dying. We stopped by Sears and bought a new vacuum as we made our shopping rounds.
Later we went to Whole Foods to pick-up something for dinner. Whole Foods bills itself as "the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods." I hated the place. The food is good but it is also over priced. The store was a sensory overload for me. There are too many high power lights hanging from the ceiling with most of them positioned so that they are blinding you as you walk around. The entrance into the store is open (no doors) with high power fans used to keep the heat inside the building. Those babies are loud. Then they have the ubiquitous music tape playing just a little too loud so it can be heard over the fans. I don't know if it was the building or the people in there but the energy inside the store was chaotic. It was like being locked inside a small room right after a Super Ball had been thrown at one of the walls. I couldn't get out of that store fast enough.
Sunday, Mar 5th- Today we visited a couple of my husband's almost relatives. These are the people who are friends of his family and who he has known all his life. My niece came with us and acted as our chauffeur. It's kind of nice to have someone else do the city driving. I had to point out one stop sign and remind her that when pulling away from a stoplight or stop sign she did not have to use warp speed. All in all she is doing a good job.
One family friend we visited is about 65 and still lives in the house he grew-up in. The house was built in 1937 in a Spanish style. The front window is in the shape of a triangle. A very large triangle. The upstairs bathroom is in an Art Deco style and had both a shower and a tub. The tub had been set into the floor. The shower door was made of glass wrapped in chrome with the upper quarter of the door made up of chrome bars. The upper half of one wall of the shower (which faced into the bathroom) was also made of glass.
Since my niece had never been in the house before I took her on a tour. We walked though all the rooms in the house and when we stepped into "Dave's" bedroom I had the feeling we were not alone. Dave is what used to be called "a change of life baby" and was born nineteen years after his only brother. Dave's father died when he was young and for most of his life he was raised just by his mother. I have been told she was very protective of him. The room we were in used to be his parents bedroom. Family is very important to Dave and the walls of his room are covered with photos. There are a couple of his mother when she was young and as I stood looking at one of them I thought, "What a beautiful woman." At that instant I felt like I had been wrapped in a blanket of love and I knew the presence in the room was Dave's mother. I told my niece that I thought Dave's mother was in the room and she said she thought so too because she had felt someone was in the basement with us when we were down there.
When I told Dave that I thought his mother was still in the house he was surprised and a little shocked. I did not want him to be frightened so I told him that what I felt was very loving and...I could not think of the other word I was looking for and when I hesitated my niece said, "protective." That was it, protective. Dave is talking about selling his house and my niece and I said we both would buy it in a second if we had the means to do so. My niece was a little worried about the house having a ghost but I told her I thought that where ever Dave went his mother would go with him.
Monday, Mar. 6th- we drove home today and one of the first things I did was get the new vacuum out of its box and vacuum the living room carpet. The big surprise was how quiet the thing was and the second surprise was how much stuff it picked-up.
Tuesday, Mar. 7th- temperature now 77F (25C)and I am done for the day. Tomorrow it is suppose to snow.
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