Nov 2024

Rest in peace Opa. 

November had some heavy ups and downs. 

We got great squash from the garden and the CSA.  

The kids had celebration worth accomplishments. Kiernan did very well on his PSAT and Megan got on the honor roll. They both picked restaurants for their rewards. We went to Kpot and Ramen and ate like kings. 

Megan got some new books and as I was in the bookstore anyway I got a D&D cookbook to go with my hobbit cookbook. 

Behold Bilbos seed cake. 

Kpot was particularly tasty. 

We knew in November that Opa was not going to recover from his stroke. He entered hospice and we held an early Thanksgiving and were able to spend some special time with him before he passed away. 

On the morning he passed we sat and waited for the funeral home and hospice to get paperwork in order and finished up his last puzzle. 

We went to his favorite Chinese food buffet and for a walk and talked about him and were sad together. 

We will have a memorial service in December. Let me know if you need details for that. 

We watched the disappointing Tyson Paul fight. 

Kiernan started driving and taking Greg’s driving school classes. 

We finally loaded 3 fully sized and functional bikes into my bike rack to go make some progress on our C&O ride. 

My car had a fit on the way there and we had to turn around. 

All the warning lights went on and I started losing power (on 70) and then it started shaking. I pulled over and turned it off. When I turned it back on it was completely fine. 

I took it to the mechanic we usually go to at Mr. Tire and they couldn’t find a thing. They said to take it to Toyota because they have specialized diagnostic equipment. 

My class this year at FCC is a choir class instead of piano. I’ve been wanting to put up videos but my choir leader says she only paid for sheet music but not performance licenses so we need yo be careful about posting. 

We had a Pearl Harbor day performance at the end of November in preparation for an actual Pearl Harbor Day show in Hawaii for those who could go. 

I’m hoping to get a video from this up here as soon as they finish editing it. 

I’m enjoying singing with people. 

Pax got very very sick. 

She ate something she shouldn’t and got sever pancreatitis. The vet held out very little hope for her. We took her in to have her put down and he said I have something else to try. This happened nearly every day for a week. On top of the Opa situation we were all exhausted and gut wrenched. 

She lost so much weight that you could see all her bones but slowly she began to turn around. 

The vet has been amazing. We are very grateful. 

We went to repot Opas orchids. This sort of after life clean up is hard and helpful. That man had the greenest thumb. 

Orchids are basically air plants. We’ve taken a few home. 

I hope they make it. We will do what we can. 

We had regular Thanksgiving without him. 

We cooked all the things and set the table up fancy. 

It was delicious. It was low key for obvious reasons but we have a lot to be grateful for. 

I got my yearly mammogram. It was abnormal as it always is. I spend some already anxious time being just that little bit extra anxious. 

The follow up went well and I wish, given that all my scans are abnormal, that they would just let me skip to the diagnostic testing. Those weeks in between appointments really suck. 

My fancy Thanksgiving pie was lemon curd with a cranberry glaze and a giant Italian meringue on top. Wow it was fancy. Thank you Martha Stewart. 

I’m having some success with getting a few willow branches to root. 

Megan and David love weeping willows so when a neighbor down the hill trimmed his and put out the free wood sign I grabbed a big stick and cut it up to try. So far so good. 

My latest 3D print and paint project is this reading dragon book holder. 

It’s getting colder now and I’m putting a YouTube fireplace up on the tv for relaxation. 

Here is to a kinder December.