My 70^th Birthday is a Snow Day

I woke up early on the 5th, but I did not hear Annie and Charis preparing to go to school.  A "two hour late start" turned into a full snow day.  The next day I woke up early and heard the normal off-to-school noises.  So I got up and went out and scraped off the snow from "Bluey," Annie's SUV.  We got about two inches of snow on the 5th and another inch on the 6th.  But most of it was gone by the two afternoons.

I got birthday email greetings from Randy, Laurie, first girlfriend Kathy (Finney) Anderson, and high school friend Karen (Niclas) Keith.  And any number of  banks and other vendors wished me happy birthday.  One's birthday is not private information.

My "present" was candy Nancy and I received from neighbors at Christmas time.  (Most of our neighbors are Chinese.)  Nancy re-gifted it to me.  Anytime we give anything to a Chinese neighbor, they seem honor bound to give a gift in return.  The February family birthday gathering will be later in the month.

The fact that the snowfall was meager on the 5th and 6th was no problem for Charis, Valerie, and Irene who made the most of their snow days. 

I checked on my garlic and found none poking out above the mulch and thin layer of snow.  Are farmers anxious in February?  Once the snow had melted, a few of the stiff garlic leaves showed just above the mulch on the 7th.

I didn't feel like a senior citizen at 62 or 65 because I was still busy teaching.  At 70, I'm beginning the feel my age. 

For lunch on my birthday I was making myself a fruit smoothie.  But as I was pouring in the juice, I discovered I'd not screwed on the lower cap that I'd just located moments before.  Juice poured all over the counter and kitchen floor. 

I misplaced my Chase credit card somewhere near my basement office computer.  Then I dropped my trackball mouse and the ball rolled away.  When searching for the ball, I found my credit card (thank you God), but the ball, normally easy to locate, wasn't found until days later.  And my SPU Emeriti Faculty ID card, "misplaced" for over a month, was found in my wallet very close to where it had always been kept.  Is it advancing age or just too little sleep?

Another Weight Loss Gimmick? Here's my recipe to lower my weight and blood sugar levels.  I'm again at 178 lbs. this month. Mix equal parts of Turmeric, Ginger, black pepper, and Cinnamon.  Add 1/4 teaspoon to one mug of hot Oolong or Green tea daily. This also finds a use for my WORSHIP teaspoon from my mom's collection. Be careful how you shop.  At Amazon.com, Oolong tea sells for anywhere between 7¢ and 90¢ per tea bag. I bought 200 tea bags of Oolong to start.

Dr. Robert K. Kelley Retires For over twenty years, Dr. Robert Kelley has managed to keep me vertical.  I really liked him as my doctor.  He retires at age 70 in April.  I had my final check up with him on the 25th.  I also appreciated his assistant Tony. It was unfortunate that my A1c rose from 7.6 to 8.7 for this last visit.  I was not careful with my diet over the holidays.

The Dishers in Guatemala

Bob and Kim Disher enabled international calling on their cell phones and Guatemala is two hours ahead of Bellevue.  So we've been able to let the girls hear from Grampy and Grammy and Mama Annie. 

Nancy has been good about driving Charis to and from school while I've stayed home to look after Valerie and Irene.  Most difficult for me is getting Irene to sleep.  On the 12th, the older girls decided to sleep on Annie and Thomas's bed and I put Irene on the sofa in the Great Room around midnight once I'd rocked her to sleep in my rocking chair.  The full moon helped.  Irene had had two naps earlier in the day.  On the 13th, all three slept on their parent's bed.  And on the 14th, Irene again kept me up and we ended up sleeping on my bed.

All four Dishers returned safely on the 15th, a late Saturday night.

1301 100th Ave NE
Begins New Construction

For the past year, we've expected the house just north of us to be demolished and to be replaced by a new upscale one.  It's what we were the first to do on our block back in 1992-93.  On President's Day Monday, the demolition began.  Only one other house on our block, 9977 NE 14th St., has yet to be replaced.

Charis is especially interested in the construction industry.  She, Valerie, and I watched the demolition work and twice walked around from our cul-de-sac, 99th Avenue NE, to 100th Avenue NE to watch the Excavator chew up the neighboring house.

On the 19th, our house shook as efforts were made next door to break up the foundation.  Then a crew came and took down the three pine trees near the neighborhood mail boxes.  We feared for our power line.

2025 Gardening Gets a Slow Start

While a January start is preferred, some progress came this month.  In the basement grow space, I've started three types of tomatoes: Early Girl, Sweetie, and Nancy's choice, Baby Boomer Hybrid.  I've also started two types of peppers: Jalepeño and Cayenne.  Upstairs, the five small pepper plants I'm over-wintering are surviving, but I don't recall their type. 
I'll find out once they bear fruit.

I bought a 50 quart bag of potting soil at COSTCO to use when I repot the tomatoes and peppers later in March.

After the freeze in early February, most of the garlic is finally up above the mulch and I have high hopes for a July harvest.  So far, I've counted at least 47 sprouts of the 50 cloves Charis and I planted on November 8th.

On the 27th, I planted seven 7-gallon grow bags with my own seed potatoes left over from last year.  Irene "helped" me.

Charis Plays on the
SCS 1st/2nd Grade Team

Charis got her first taste of team sports this season as a member of the Seattle Christian girl's basketball team.

Modified ball handling rules and a lowered basket made the game more fun for its newest players.  Each girl wore a colored wrist band to indicate which member of the opposing squad to defend against.

All the games were far south of us.  The one I attended was at Life Christian Academy in central Tacoma.  While the team officially has eight members, on this day only five made it to Tacoma so Charis played the full game.

The picture on the right made it into the SCS school newspaper on the 28th.  Annie is newspaper advisor and publisher.

February Birthdays Celebrated on the 23rd

Earlier in the week, we expected over twenty folks on Sunday the 23rd at our monthly birthday celebration.  In the end, only Randy and Heidi and Dave James came as lunch guests.  I was happy for the less hectic afternoon.  Below:  Charis helps Dick (5th), Annie (28th), and Randy (14th) blow out their February birthday candles on the cake Jean baked.  Randy shows David and Nancy a large Washington State railroad map from the 1920s he intends to have framed.  Heidi reads a Fancy Nancy book to Valerie and Charis.

I was very pleased with the machete Annie acquired for me in Guatemala.  The blade is a product of Columbia, but the scabbard was made in Guatemala and features its national bird, the quetzal.

Annie at 38 on the 28^th

Annie was happy that the latest edition of the SCS school newspaper got published on her birthday.  She is the faculty asvisor for that publication and is also a writer, editor, and photographer for it. 

After Irene decided to go to sleep, we celebrated her birthday at home.

Grandkids Corner

           
     
        
                   
        
        
                   

On the 27th, I spent a fun and tiring eight hours with Galen along with time with Jadzia after her nap.  He and I had lunch at Wendy's, shopped a Fred Meyer and Walmart,
played at the Covington Community Park near SE 240th St., had fun in the backyard, and with Galen's help I installed two outdoor lights on his house by the kitchen and dining room doors.
Then we watched a movie in the basement and Jadzia was very well behaved during movie time once I picked her up after her late afternoon nap.

I spent the last day of the month entertaining Valerie and Irene at Wendy's, at the Bellevue Square Kid's Cove, and shopping.  Valerie makes friends easily.

        
     
    

Bits and Pieces

On the 1st, the Men's breakfast and study at Hope Presbyterian had a turnout of thirteen.  I went at 7:00 AM to see what the breakfast preparation process looked like.  I'd signed up to bring fruit and juice, not things that required me to arrive so early.  Few men signed up online to bring stuff but we had donuts, pastries, bananas, mixed fruit, a potato and hash dish, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, coffee, tea, and juice.  New to me this month were Andrew from Mill Creek, a young man I'd met on Tuesday night that week, and Craig, taller than Winston and with a better kept full beard.

Randy stopped by on his birthday, but not to celebrate.  He'd managed to inadvertently instruct his new laptop to display all the Microsoft Office prompts in Greek.  He could type in English but then had no way of knowing how to use the menu system.  With the help of Google, I used my modest knowledge of Greek and my more extensive knowledge of Microsoft Word to navigate down Greek menus until I could make English once again his default language in Office.

This may be a new record.  Nancy submitted our 2024 federal income taxes on the 27th.