Dear Family, Friends, and Diary,
It's just one week since the last diary, but it seems longer, despite not much happening. Cameras reveal that my normal things are happening; puzzles and Peloton. My bike view included Japan on the screen and our very stylish bedroom in real life.
For non-Peloton exercise days, I walk. On one stroll, I was distracted by the destruction of a neighborhood landmark: an old gas station, from the days when our neighborhood was on the far north side of town. It was like watching a giant red dinosaur gobble up shrubbery.
Otherwise, the neighborhood is getting more and more colorful, so my cameras end up with plenty of pictures. I don't suppose these are much different from dozens of other shots over the years, but I enjoy the process, independent of the products.
Marianne remains active with her things: art, Zumba, friends, and visits to Kaiser facilities. No pictures, and not too much new story here. Art work has included several classes, generally from her Montana teacher. Zumba Tuesday (& Thursday?) and daily PT-prescribed exercises keeps her flexible. Good idea for any of us.
We did have a visit from a special friend. We met Priscilla a few years ago when she bought a piece of art at the Los Banos Library benefit. She and her husband had spent a life overseas in the State Department and we always wanted to hear more stories. Unfortunately, her husband Bastion passed away before we could get his tales, but Priscilla had her own on Wednesday. We spent some interesting time hearing of her time as the chief of USAID in Egypt, but we barely had time for stories from elsewhere.
Priscilla's friend Anne, visiting from Virginia, also had stories, including evacuations from Bosnia and Afghanistan. We all remarked about the fun of "foreign talk", an activity that is boring to most friends who have not had those experiences.
Otherwise, our one new experience this week was a visit to the Tower District Farmer's Market, a new development for our neighborhood. We bought some great spicy pickles from Al, wandered through a few stalls from local farmers and several food trucks offering calories galore from locals from various nations: Venezuelan, Peruvian, Tai, Cambodian, Chinese, and many kinds of Mexican and American. Our last stop was at Cacau Bakery, a Brazilian and Swedish bakery operated by Katia, a charmer from Bahia who allowed us to share more foreign stories, hers and ours. We need to make "the Tower" a regular Thursday destination!
Next up will be a Pacific Islands' Luau, but that's another story.
Stay tuned,
John and Marianne
Postscript: On the elephant front, the good news is no bad news, the bad news is no good news. The Thursday PET scan to look for wandering cells never happened because nurses could not find veins adequate for inserting the radioactive dye. Try again next week.