Things To Tell

Summer heat continues but one delicious thing about the approach of September is the approach of cooler overnights. We have been able to open up the windows at night and let things inside the house cool down. I love the temperature drop, but also the fresh air. (pet peeve: rooms with no ability to open a window and let some air in)

Birds are constant in our back yard. Despite the noisy noisy streets closeby, the bird song is always louder. How grateful I am for that.

We are spotting different birds. The garden scenes are shifting. The sunflowers and dahlias are drooping. The harvest is different. When at first we were inundated with peas and lettuce and chard, and so many cucumbers and zuchinni. Now we have peppers and pumpkins and delicata. Our tomatillos are all ready, the string beans have proliferated, the potatoes are big enough to eat.

I never planted potatoes here. There is a garden bed at the very back of the property wherein the previous owners dumped a lot of kitchen compost. Scraps back there have grown into an avocado plant (I dug it up last year before winter frost and that killed it – sigh). The old compost has also grown into cilantro and tomatoes. But in our third autumn since we’ve lived here, the consistent thing that volunteers to flourish is potatoes. They are tasty and all kinds of sizes, which are fun to cook with.

Oh! I was trying to use up food the other night and did a stir fry of a potato, half an onion, and a delicata squash. It was so scrumptious! The skin of the delicata was totally soft and we just ate it. I am certainly making that one again.

I spotted the scene above from the back yard. I went around later to the front yard, to see the rest of the sunset, because it kept getting redder and purplier.

I finally, finally met the final living sibling of Pedro’s eight siblings. Miguel and his family live in Kansas City and they are both busy and it’s hard to connect. Miguel’s wife Kate is from Portland, and her parents still live here and when they came into town this summer we managed to get over to the coast and meet them all at the family’s beach house in the town of Manzanita, which is darling, like many Oregon beach towns. I had never explored this town.

We all put on warm jackets to go to the beach, and walked down to the water’s edge. Kate and Miguel are fluent in English of course, so they were able to accommodate my inability to speak Spanish. I’m still working on that!! But for now, I was grateful for the chance to get to know them a little. We walked along the beach for half a mile, then cut up over a dune and walked into the town of Manzanita.

We talked, got coffee, explored shops, and a bookstore, then walked back to the beach house. One of Kate’s brothers was having a birthday, and their mom wanted to treat everyone to dinner. She chose the place and about 16 of us gathered and ate. It was a huge crowd for the small restaurant in a small town, and the staff was exceptional despite that.

We drove home to Portland but had to stop for some stunning ocean views.

Back home, we are always met by the kitty Jupyter, who is healthy and sassy and very adored. She does not understand any reason why her humans need to leave the house. She has her watch stations, depending on which door we exited from. She will stay there till we return. Jupyter places great value on being next to one of us at all times.

A dear friend of mine has been undergoing chemotherapy for a couple months. She had cancer years ago, and beat it. I understand that when a person has been found to be cancer free for 5 years in a row, it can finally be declared gone. When Jen went in for her 5 year and supposedly celebratory landmark CANCER FREE! doctor visit, they found something they wanted to follow up on… and that turned out to be new cancer. A new place and a new type. Can you imagine how awful it would be to get that news?

Pedro and I have been missing family. It is hard to stay close when we have to travel so far to see our family. We did enjoy a quick visit from Tanner when he stopped on his way through recently. We got to see Miguel and Kate. Ian and Karen live in Walla Walla, Washington and we have plans to visit them at the end of September before I head out for a backpacking trip (I’m SO excited for backpacking). And we will see Tanner and sister in law Laurie soon when we meet up the first week of October in Spokane, Washington to see a concert. (Then we will drive over to north Idaho from there and visit Bob and Jim, my two step dads who happen to live in the same town. Isn’t that funny?)

Pedro and I are getting ready for the Tigard protest tomorrow morning, Labor Day. We are thinking about our signs, and what to put on them. I have a “Chinga Tu MAGA” T-shirt to wear (means pretty much F*** your MAGA). Pedro might wear his “Gulf of Mexico” shirt again.

Because, the punctuation at the end of the sentence is still our horrible president. We are living the life I outlined above. We are loving, and harvesting, visiting, eating, cleaning, ….and worrying on top of it all, every. single. day. Things are very bad at Pedro’s place of employment and he began working on his resume this weekend to have it at the ready in case he needs it. We have changed plans to spend less and save more, just to be thoughtful about our future.

Things are especially good right now for Pedro and me, and our kids, compared to others. So please do not worry for us. It’s just that America is off the rails and it gets worse every day and it is frightening, even for a privileged family like ours.