Happy 24, Danny! (August 24, 2024)

Danny celebrated his golden birthday on August 24. We started with birthday cake in the Stephen F. Austin Hotel bar, followed by dinner at the Roaring Fork. Then two improv shows at the Hideout, just around the corner.
 

Al, Joyce, and Danny in the very Texan Stephen F. Austin Hotel lobby. The hotel, first known as "The Texas," opened in 1924 as the first high-rise hotel on Congress Avenue. Only the Capitol was taller at the time.

Time to sell the Krugerrands (August 21, 2024)

Originally minted in 1967, the 22-karat South African Krugerrand coin is one troy ounce of pure gold. Dad gave one each to Tom and me shortly before he passed away in 2020. Thanks, Dad! 

Because the coins look a lot like Mardi Gras doubloons, I feared that when Tom and I died, the Krugerrands would be thrown out with the Mardi Gras beads. So when gold reached its all-time high of $2,531.70 on August 20, we decided to sell. 

With the end of the gold standard in 1971, the price of gold rose from the set price of $35/ounce to $850/ounce by 1980. The price rose and fell with world events. In 1990, it was $400/ounce and fell to $280/ounce in early 2000. Value spiked to $1,899/ounce following 911, then dropped as low as $555/ounce before spiking again with the onset of the COVID pandemic, to $1,686/ounce.

Very long way of saying it seemed selling at the all time high was a good idea. 
 

Leeloo (Sunday, August 18, 2024)

Amon and Fox brought Leeloo over. Such a good girl! She no longer jumps on you to greet you. She's learned to stay and sit. Amon's teaching her other commands. He had her off leash in a parking lot near their house, working with her, when she spotted a deer and chased it. Amon couldn't catch her. But guess what? She was waiting for him outside their front door. Good girl!
 

When your broken nose leans to the left....(August 15, 2024)

You get to have it "recentered," aka rebroken and straightened. Ugh!  Had to wear the splint for a week and sleep with my head at a 45-degree angle. 
 

Kebabalicious and East Austin Comedy Club instead (August 9, 2024)

Papa didn't get to celebrate his 73rd at the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye, as planned. But we enjoyed great food at one of our favorites, Kebabalicious. This was the first time I'd seen a shared kids and seniors menu.

We caught a show at the East Austin Comedy Club after dinner.

Papa was wished a happy birthday by the comedians and audience too.
 

Scotland? Not this year (August 6, 2024)

Due to Hurricane Debby, flight all along the East Coast were canceled. We were supposed to fly from Austin to Newark, then Newark to Edinburgh. Dear friend Roy dropped us off at ABIA. We were all checked in and found out our flight from Austin to Newark had been canceled. They booked us on a flight to Houston with a connection to Newark. But the Houston to Newark flight was delayed and we wouldn't get there in time for our Edinburgh flight. When they told us we could probably get to Edinburgh in two days, we opted to cancel our trip for a refund. Good thing, because about an hour later we found out the Newark to Edinburgh flight was canceled. 
 

United pulled our baggage off the aircraft and locked it up for us in baggage claim. We were disappointed about Scotland but grateful to have found out before leaving Austin. Much better than crisscross applesauce on the Newark airport floor for a couple of days waiting for a flight to Edinburgh or back to Austin.

We weren't the only ones with canceled flights. I guess if we'd made it to Newark we could have pivoted and done NYC instead of Scotland. Dear Roy kindly came back to get us.

8 days out (August 2, 2024)

We met our friend Greg Pratas for breakfast tacos to celebrate his birthday. Still looking rough but so much better 8 days after. The human body is amazing at healing itself.
 

Time to go home (July 30, 2024)

 

St. Mary's bell tower poking through the mist behind Fox, Willoughby, and Mya. 

Leaving on a jet plane from the San Francisco airport. Thanks so much for a wonderful time, Ryder, Brandy, Mya, River, Piper, Willoughby, and Mylo!

Surprise visit from nephew Justin Lewis (July 28, 2024)

 I missed out on the trip to the Muir Woods on Saturday, July 27, but got to visit with Justin, who visited on Sunday, July 28. Ryder, Justin, and Fox, and Brandy's hands and phone.

Cousins Fox and Mya at dinner on the patio at the Lewis' house.

Incomplete 71st birthday hike (July 26, 2024)

I fought the rock and the rock won. About two hours into the Joaquin Miller Park hike, I face planted on a big rock. Lesson learned: even if there are no public restrooms, don't refuse to drink water. Dehydration leads to lightheadedness. I was walking toward the rock to sit down but blacked out before I got there. I broke my glasses and my nose. The glasses jabbed the side of my nose requiring two layers of stitches. Medical care was a team effort. Mya and Fox directed Brandy to the nearest hospital and came inside with Papa and me. The doctors and staff at the Highland Hospital ER in Oakland were fabulous. It could have been so much worse: cracked skull, teeth knocked out, etc. Luckily I fell to my knees first (evidenced by skinned knees) and landed on my right hand (evidenced by huge bruise on the back of my hand). Probably would've gotten away with a broken nose if I hadn't been wearing glasses.
 

Ready for my post-fight with the rock (not The Rock, thank goodness) interview.

The day started so wonderfully though. Piper presented me with this card that she made. Thanks, Piper!

Same pose on Tuesday, July 30, four days after the fall. The good news was that on my follow-up at Highland Hospital on Monday, I was given clearance to fly home. Apparently cabin pressure can be an issue for broken noses. 

Joaquin Miller Park Overlook (July 26, 2024)

 On my 71st birthday hike at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. To represent his belief in the Ten Commandments, Joaquin Miller erected this pyramid to Moses in 1892.

River, me, Piper, Papa, and Mya in front of the pyramid. Fox and Brandy were there too. Joaquin Miller was an American poet, author, and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras," after the Sierra Nevada, about which he wrote in his Songs of the Sierras (1871). In a fight with Native Americans, he was shot through the neck and cheek with an arrow. While a newspaper correspondent in the Yukon, he lost two toes to frostbite. He was also a mining camp cook, lawyer, judge, Pony Express rider, and horse thief. 

Mya and Piper atop another of Miller's monuments. Willoughby stands by.

Papa views Oakland Bay and San Francisco from the park's Lookout Point.

Mya, Brandy, Willoughby, and Piper at the Lookout Point.

Mya and Piper in the Lookout Point tree.

River and Willoughby with Papa and me. Fox was on most of the hike with us but had returned to the car by this time.

Mya caught a lizard.

Piper in the Lookout Point tree.

The Winchester Mystery House (July 25, 2024)

Fox and Papa in the garden room of the house constantly under construction from 1886 to 1922. Sarah Winchester, the widow of the Winchester repeating rifle heir, believed the souls of all those killed by the rifle would haunt her unless they were driven away by the constant noise of sawing and hammering.
 

Piper with our tour guide. The original 8-room farmhouse is now 24,000 square feet with 160 rooms, including 13 bathrooms, six kitchens, 47 stairways and fireplaces, and 2,000 doors. 

The bell tower behind Fox was used to call the spirits to a nightly seance held in the seance room. The room has a "secret" entrance/exit through a closet.

The mansion has 10,000 windows. Sarah Winchester's lucky number was 13, like mine, so designs usually incorporated 13 of something. In her living room, the chandelier has 13 globes. The saddest part of the story to me is her years of grief following the death of her infant daughter and her husband in his 40s. Upon her death, her safe was opened. It didn't contain jewels or cash. It only contained the obituaries of her husband and daughter, and a lock of her daughter's hair.

The grand finale was a visit to the Cheesecake Factory, a few blocks from the Mystery House in San Jose. Piper, Mya, Fox, me, River, Tom, and Brandy split orders of chocolate chip, mango keylime pie, chocolate cherry, and coconut creme cheesecake. To me, the whipped cream was the best part.

Pool time in Moraga (July 24, 2024)

Mya and Fox in the pool, as viewed from the second floor balcony. A very productive beehive buzzed next to the pool. A few weeks later, a beekeeper would remove it, first calming the bees with a smoker. He left the Lewises with at least of quart of sweet smoky honey.
 

Visiting the Moraga Lewises (July 24, 2024)

The original height chart was left on the pantry door frame at 1101 Chicory in Asheville. But Brandy made a portable copy to use in the Moraga house and to never again be left behind.
 

Fox's turn!

Mya's catching up with Mama.

What do you think? Is River there?

Fox's beautiful hair (July 23, 2024)

My hairdresser Brittany is the co-owner of The Room, the only totally organic salon I could find in Austin. Fox wanted purple and pink in her hair, which would have to be bleached for the colors to be vibrant. Here we go!
 

Brittany cut and colored Fox's hair. Those are natural curls, lucky girl.

Curls all over!

Celebrating the Sharon birthdays (Monday, July 15, 2024)

 Sharon relaxing on Lynn and Bill's deck. Her birthday is July 7th; mine is July 26th. Her friend Lynn had us over to celebrate. Sharon brought fajita fixings and I brought honey for everyone.

Sharon Reed. We rode past the ranch that used to belong to her great-aunt, before the Colorado River was damned to form the highland lakes. Much of the ranch is now under water but with about a mile of lakefront property.

On Lake LBJ, close to the 60th anniversary of LBJ himself signing the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964. 

Jimmy, Sharon, Bill, and Lynn behind me, The Other Sharon

Our very special visitor (July 12, 2024)

Owls nest in our next door neighbor's pecan tree. Yet another reason to bring the cats in at dusk! We regularly find owl pellets with tiny bones on our deck. The owls must dine in our elm tree. 

 

One bee sting to the forehead....(July 8-11, 2024)

 I've had dozens of bee stings in our 5 years as beekeepers. Anywhere else on the body, the stings are barely worse than mosquito bites. But one sting to the face, and the eyes swell. 

The hives were mad as hornets when we took the girls sugar water on July 8. See all the stingers in my gloves? Somehow, about four bees got under my veil. One of them stung me before I could mush (sorry!) them all while running down the dirt road to get away.

The miracle of healing. All good again on July 11.