August 15: the day the Japanese surrendered
We hung out the flag, as we have done as long as I can remember. I held my presentation in the Waltonwood theatre, like last year, and had a full house. There are so many people who know nothing about the Japanese oppression in the Dutch East Indies, that I keep telling my story and showing my slides. The next one is for the First Baptist Church in Raleigh in September and another one for a women’s group in Sanford, where I have been twice before. Word of mouth is a wonderful way of getting requests, and I like the fact that there is time in between, because I always have to get my things together, books and flyers, and copies of interesting things like the Document of Surrender and the Seal in the Deck of the Missouri, plus of course the Japanese War Crimes Files. Each time I also make new book markers, because they fly off the table, like my business cards. This time was the first time that I showed an introduction to my Audiobook so people could hear the voice of the narrator. One of my listeners was interested in an audiobook, which, I heard today, he wants his grandson to download onto the computer and then cut a CD. That sounds complicated to me. Older people here usually listen to books on CDs; downloading an audiobook is for the younger generations.
In the past few days I combined my walks around the building with walks inside, because of the heat. I combined my walks inside the main building with visits to old friends in Assisted Living, and I gave each of them a beautiful, large peach from Costco. I had fun conversations with three of them, showed them my mushroom pictures and to Janice I revealed the secret of my skort when she admired the colors. Well, that was something she had never seen before and the word skort was foreign to her. We had a good laugh. Yesterday my Fitbit gave me a badge: I had walked the full length of the Sahara Desert, being 2,983 miles! Now that was not what I accomplished in a week, but during the total time I’ve had this Fitbit to measure my steps, about 14 months. That was such a stimulating message that I promptly reached a personal high yesterday, 15,000 steps or 7.6 miles. I know one friend in Prescott who walks about 20,000 steps a day, but she walks everywhere she needs to go. I don’t think I can even keep up with my personal high, with all the things I have to do, but it will be nice to know that I can set that goal!
A STAR IS BORN!
Many things happened in the past week that I will have to update you on later, but one thing takes priority here. Pepper, the Goldendoodle mother we have been watching, whelped twelve puppies on August 20, last Monday. We received this picture the day before Mike’s birthday, a welcome surprise. She was five days early, easy to understand with four male and eight female puppies in her belly! We opted for a black female, so we have the choice of three. In a few weeks we will drive to the farm and take a look. I bet the grandsons, who will be tracked out from school, will happily come along.
It’s a Wonderful Life!
Until next Time!
Ronny