The peace of the Sunday...

Up at my usual time.  It has been pouring rain since yesterday evening.  How I love that sound!  Sunday and it is raining and dark. All the above is very soothing.  Will meet friends in Tacoma later this morning.  In the mean time I'm going to sip coffee and listen to the sounds of rain.  Not a bad way to begin a new week.

 Yesterday the lovely lady who cut my hair and hid the silver roots (bless her!) commented about how much she hated the rain and wondered when I would tire of it as well.  For me the answer is probably NEVER!  It reminds me of other places that I love: New England and Utah (the State where I was born).  Central California was so dry...too dry.  For some, that dry heat is attractive but for me it is depleting,  I know now that I will never make a good "desert rat".  Winters in the Central Valley are wonderful and when I need a dose of sun both the star and those daughter-friends that I left when I moved north - that is where I will go for a visit.

Many of my tasks were completed yesterday.  Still have to do a bit of grocery shopping but that will be accomplished when I meet friends at the wonderful Metropolitan Market in Proctor!    Must also head to to laudramat to dry the clothes I washed yesterday (dryer died just after carting it a 1000 miles north...of course).  I notice that there is not a legion of folks lining up outside to vaccum the floors so that is also on the TBD list.  Once the house is in order, I will grab the camera, rain coat and head to Tacoma.  Friends and adventures await!

Saturday's gentle rain - a sleepy morning

Morning usually calls me and my dogs out of slumber and into the day at an earlier hour...say 4 AM.  Today the gentle splattered of rain was "white noise" to my tired mind and body and I let that hour and the next and then the next pass by unheralded.   My canine companions were willing to not stir as well.  It feels as though perhaps we've lost something but not so large that grief or fretting is required.  Only something nagging to be acknowledged.  At this moment I think it is simply Daylight pouting that she did not have the usual audience as she pushed her way over the Island..."Mommy, look at me, look at me".   Normally I bare witness to that arrival.  Not today.  Today I slept through the drama of Daylight at dawn and it was delicious!

The earth sits still out side my office window.  She is quietly bathing in the gentle rain.  Leaves are silently busy turning yellow, waiting their turn to finish their job and then float to the ground.  The blackberry vines have wrapped their prickly limbs around the near by trunks of trees.  There is a bounty for the birds out there in a wet world. The grass is too long...alas, I've not yet purchased a mower.  Now that task of urban farming (the mowing), of tiding up green space, will be quite a chore.  Still, the rain has handed me a free pass 'no manual labor for one day'.

There are a few items on the To Do List: get nails done, do something about hair whose roots no longer match the wild un-tamed profusion at the other end (a ridiculous problem to have in one's 6th decade); visit Weight Watchers to tackle the excess adipose tissue related to poor eating habits AGAIN; find a slip cover for the couch preferably in black as lime green is not working for me or the dogs :) ; visit the grocery store as there is precious little to make a meal with on anyone's food plan and finally pay the bills to keep the peace in my world .  Time to move on with this day.  I can see a few cars and trucks move by on the street outside - just beyond the rim of trees and vines that surround the house.  Get up - get on with your day!  My neighbors are busy on this rainy day. I sigh in reluctant agreement.  Alright then...forward, march.

PS:
Please note, "buy a lawn mower" was not on the To Do List

RAIN! A TGIF Gift!

Rain! The perfect way to begin a Friday in June. What a gift! I had resigned myself to not hearing the sound of rain until October. A small grace to hear that sweet sound in the early hours of the morning. This has been a difficult week. Systems have been reshaped to improve patient care and staff have been anxious and fearful of the change. The monitoring, coaching and supervisor has been tiring. Sleep has been rare and fitful. Long term care looks more like hospital care each day - but without the funding for that acute level of staffing - more about that on another day. So we work with good intention, integrity and a small touch of magic. The reward this morning is RAIN and I for one am deeply grateful for it!

The Peace of Saturday

"No canvass absorbs color like memory."

Willmont

Saturday and it is raining. The sound of rain on the yard is sweet. The computer sits near the window and even in the dark of early morning the rain is musical and playful - just out of reach. Remembering boys growing up. The sun just thinking about rising and little children whispering in their rooms. Past Saturdays that promised soccer games and friends and perhaps a favorite TV cartoon show. Rain or no, soccer happened. The whisperers are long gone. They are out in the world doing busy grown up things. Mom is at home with the critters. Dogs, cats and birds that are all still asleep.

Just the Mom, with grown children who are else where, and her keyboard are up - listening to rain. Thinking about fleeting past moments and moments to come. There is a bike in the other room waiting silently for it's passenger and a DVD that will coax the watcher with a bit of yoga. Odd how one can still learn things about the body even in the 6th decade. The mind is imagining the back yard with grass and flower beds. Something that helps ease the blistering heat of the summer that is knocking on the door. Making rounds at the local garden shops is on the to do list. 'What grows here? What is draught hardy?' A small smile...for all my complaints about the heat and the dry unforgiving climate, there is a reward! The patio tomato plant is exploding in growth and already four small flowers have appeared - in May. It is a lovely thing to be amazed in the 6th decade.

Exercise and Stretch are calling from the other room. Then the list making. Time to think and write out the Must Do of the day. All the check marks that must be attended to before I can call the week end my own: laundry, cleaning, rent and other bills, a bit of study (the work week nearly crushes any opportunity to think about history and language), and a vanity (manicure). Sunday will be free for a journey and photography. What will be seen and digitally captured? That is the incentive and the prize for getting Saturday organized.