Month: May 2022

24 Hours in a day

They are slipping like sand through my fingers. I have 15 hours left if I get a good night’s sleep. And now, with the new exercise schedules and the regular house tasks, there is little time to write. So this will be a short post.

Jumping Ship

The Executive Director of our place has given two weeks notice after working here for one year. He is leaving the end of next week for a better job. And that just before the start of the long awaited renovation of the building. He leaves a lot of unfinished business. There is no successor. His new Assistant left a month ago without notice, after working here for two months. So there is no Assistant. There is a new Regional Director, who oversees three facilities in North Carolina, but he has not been introduced to the Membership yet; rumor has it that he mentioned to one person that he does not really like his new job. But that is only hearsay.

If I was a cartoonist I would draw a beautiful cruise ship in the harbor and next to it a ship, nose down into the waters and people jumping off. We can’t do anything about these things, so we’ll wait and hope for the best. We’ll have our life jackets ready.

Geese

Our little family of three geese is doing well. They traverse quite a distance between our pond and the pond in Wimbledon, where I noticed them swimming happily together one afternoon. The little gosling, born on Mother’s day, has little winglets, which he flaps up and down, and is still covered with yellowish hairlike fuzz. No feathers yet. I have no idea where they take shelter during the fierce rainstorms we have had lately, with thunder and lightning. One night it was so scary that Lani barked and we put her basket in our bedroom. Don’t think that she slept there! She jumped right onto our bed and spent the rest of the night between our feet on the comforter. She is such at sweet, smart little dog. We love her very much.

May your days be sunny and joyful

Until next time

Ronny

 An Empty Nest

The day after I took the amazing video through our bedroom window blinds, where Mom brings the food and removes the poop, the nest was empty. I was sorry I would not see the young birds again. But then, one of them landed on the fence around our patio, sat there in the sun for a long time, primping  and chirping for food. She must have been the littlest one, always getting the least of the distribution. I watched for a while, and in amazement saw that Mom came flying by with a worm and dropped in the little, wide open mouth. Post natal care, I call it. I hope that all went well for all four baby birds. IMG_4168     

Bucket List

I have a Bucket List, known to every family member, and I also had a secret Bucket List. It was more a wish that I thought I would never be able to fulfill. So why mention it, right? But I had that wish since the days that I was working in the acting world. Those were the years that I lived in Pasadena and I had Print Jobs, Commercials, Stage Leading Roles, a part in a black and white Pilot Movie, and Extra Parts in Television Series. My dearest wish was to get a PT, a Personal Trainer, so that I could look my best. After we emigrated in 1972, and the kids were growing up, I loved to exercise. I walked at least three miles a day around the Rose Bowl with the dog, I jump roped at poolside, but to have guidance, a focus on exercise just for my body, like all the movie stars I read about, was an ideal I thought I could never make a reality.

Until last week, on Friday May 13. I had an evaluation and signed up for an eight-week package with a lovely young Trainer and Yoga teacher. She has been subbing for the fitness instructor who quit a month ago, and when I saw her flyer, I went to meet her. It felt so good to do exercises and yoga twists with her, and I will be working with a guided schedule three times a week for the next eight weeks. That next to my daily walks of 3-4.5 miles should really loosen up my joints. And that’s not all.

In August we are having a Luau at Waltonwood and I have started practicing two new dances. The hulas I learned in Hawai’i were all in the Hawaiian language. Here, I dance hulas in the English language. Because of my knowledge of hula motions, it is easy to learn new hulas and apply my own interpretation of the words. Because I have danced these past four years in basically the same outfits with the same flower lei and haku lei, I changed from muumuu to a skirt last month, with a black kukui nut lei and an orange cigar lei. And because people like “a touch of Hawai’i” so much, I have ordered a maile lei and haku lei, plus wrist and ankle leis. Those are all green, so a totally different look. They should also be nice at Christmas time.

For six weeks after my surgeries (the last one on my lower leg has almost healed) I went through a period where I did not accomplish anything. I slept a lot, read some, but did not get anything done other than the usual things in the house. I had no energy and even hired help for kitchen and laundry. A very unusual feeling.

But now?!! I got a second wind. And it feels marvelous. From being adrift on an ocean, I have set sail for the future, guided by a secure compass. And I secretly wish that some day I will land at a white sand beach with palm trees and warm blue water, and can stay awhile.

May your life be happy!

Until next time,

Ronny

Wonderful visitors

The plans have been made, the flights are booked, and in July, our daughter and granddaughter from California will come over for a week, and our daughter and grandkids from Canada will come over for ten days! It’s official! We will have another mini reunion. We haven’t seen them for so long that it will be a real celebration. We have rented an Air-B&B for them ten minutes drive from here and ten minutes from our son’s house, and we are looking forward to great times together.

Outings to the Club

On Monday afternoon, we enjoyed an afternoon in the theatre watching part of Carmen. It was too long to watch it to the end, for it was time to pick up dinner, but we will watch the end on YouTube at home some time. Mike can walk the distance now, and that is part of the joy.

Celebration in the Private Dining Room

Because they do not yet allow tables of six, we were served in the Private Dining Room last week, with our two other friends couples, and that was so wonderful, being served in quiet, so we could hear each other and have great conversations, that I requested to have that again this week. I told the maître d’ that on Tuesday, May 10, Mike and I would be celebrating our arrival at WaltonWood five years ago. Could we possibly celebrate that with our friends on May 10 if there was a sit-down dinner again? Well, it was arranged: a sit-down dinner on Tuesday, table for the six of us in the PDR, and we would bring he champagne.

Young Life and a Mother’s Love

If you have time to watch this video, please do. Three or four robins, almost ready to fly, are getting the ultimate care.

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May your days be full of wonder

Until next time,

Ronny

Babies!

On Sunday, May 1, we were happily surprised to see a small, fluffy baby goose in the pond. It is wonderful to watch how the parents protect and guide it; the gander always standing erect, watching for approaching danger, and mother goose constantly scurrying around her little one. They swim, get ashore, and Baby shakes out and jiggles her barely visible little tail just like Mama. On Monday afternoon, to my great surprise, the three of them came walking across the intersection of our cul-de-sac! Would it be possible they went all the way to the Wimbledon pond and back? Or did they just walk around the house through our back yard?

The Robin’s nest in the bend of the downspout behind our bedroom is filled with little birds. Watching through the blinds, unseen, we first saw the two parents fly back and forth with worms dangling from their beaks. On Monday, I saw one little head with a big, wide open mouth, ducking up above the nest’s edge when a parent arrived. On Tuesday, I saw two, then three of them, big mouths on thin necks, that seemed barely able to carry the weight. If I open the window tomorrow I will probably hear them too.

Flowers!

By the front door, our little patio has pots with a red, yellow and pink Hibiscus – three colors on one plant – and a red Dipladenia. Two Basil plants and the volunteer, the pine tree that I rescued one day, that grew to a height of 6 feet by now, with 6 inch “candles” in the top. It is ready to be planted. The white gardenia is blooming with two fragrant blossoms, and is ready to replace the one in the border, that died because of the freezing weather we had this winter. It is a cozy spot to sit and enjoy  nature before the sun gets over the trees and after it has disappeared behind the house. The early mornings, when it has rained a little in the night, are like Hilo mornings, and I can imagine us back in Paradise.

Hula!

I wore a different outfit for my dances this time, and it felt great. A better way to wear my long wig made a difference too, and people were amazed at how young I looked. Two days later, someone asked if I had had a haircut 🙂 “Well yes, on Friday my hair was longer,” I said, “but I did not cut it.” Some people said I looked like a teenager. All those comments are fun to hear; that everyone loved the dances, too. But the next day I took it easy, because my body told me I am definitely not a teenager anymore!

Exciting news!

Will have to wait until next week, because it is bedtime, and I want to know a little bit more about it when I tell the big news.

May your days be beautiful

Until next time,

Ronny