What they earned

It was a tough winter so everyone was outside on a beautiful day.

Lake Erie is in the background and CWRU's Peter B. Lewis Building is in the center.

I went with one my oldest friends (I have known her since first grade, D. has known her since kindergarten!) to the Garfield Monument in Lake View Cemetery.  I had been there before but it is good to learn something new every day, like the fact that he had seven children and was president less than six months before being assassinated.

I am not sure if this picture looks more spring-like than a couple weeks ago, but it was hard to leave.

On the road again

Less than two weeks after returning from a family visit/college tour I was headed back to Ohio, which had been planned long before the previous trip.  It was a fabulous trip.

I wish I had had the nerve to take a picture (or ask someone else to)
outside the men's room in the Phoenix airport.

Traveling alone gives me the chance to do whatever I want, although it does mean I have to watch my own carryon luggage.  I barely had any because I put a carryon piece inside a big suitcase along with another empty suitcase.

The plan was to empty my toy box, which had been sitting in the basement for ages.  I set it out on the curb but no treasure hunter picked it up.

This is the tip of the iceberg!  Not shown are wooden cars from a trip to The Montgomery Schoolhouse in Vermont in 1977 (1976?), baseball cards from 1990, and my high school letter jacket.

In addition to checking two suitcases on the way home I carried on important items.

Wise potato chips for D.'s brother and a Fisher-Price house (filled with small bags of potato chips)

To think that I saw it on my street!

On my way home I looked down the street and saw an odd sight.

A real horse!

My neighbor is an amazing photographer and usually uses inanimate objects with her subjects.

I liked watching the man with his arms in the air working with the horse.

It was a nice way to bring out the neighbors.

Houseguests

I didn't go overseas my junior year but took part in an exchange that waived the out-of-state fees, which made a year at University of Delaware about the same price as my home institution.  My R.A. was a friendly guy and we did some bike rides together.

You might have to enlarge this map to see my favorite ride, which was along 896.  I would start in Delaware, ride across the corner of Maryland, and arrive in Pennsylvania, which meant cycling in three states in a matter of minutes.

We also met up to cycle when we both lived in Texas and cycled with our families in California.  We had a chance to catch up when they were in town with their teenager to look at colleges.  Here's hoping for four years of visits.

Our other houseguest is different from our usual four-legged variety.  I can't remember the last time we had a cat in the house, but it is easy and mildly entertaining, too.

No one else is scheduled to visit, but life is full of surprises.  Maybe you will visit!

Spring

I was sorry to miss daffodil season when I was in Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts, but when I was out walking today (no nap = long walks with the stroller) I found plenty of beauty close to home.

tree collard

loquat
(related to kumquat only through their old Chinese names)

bamboo

sidewalk canopy

container garden
(I like the idea, but the plants keep growing and
require repotting and it all seems like too much)

birds of paradise

blossom in magnolia tree

flowering tree lawn

A glimpse into the future?

What do with A. away for the weekend and no soccer games?  We had to entertain ourselves and decided we were up to the challenge.

I forgot to take a camera for the first part of the day so just imagine a tandem ride with two cute people in matching jerseys.  Afterward we had breakfast at Some Crust in the village.

I had been asked to volunteer at an Earth Day booth and said I was busy so it was a little awkward to then wander through the celebration, but it was fun to chat with people without feeling the need to rush off to the next thing.  Plus we got coupons for a scoop from the new liquid nitrogen ice cream parlor.

We cycled home, showered, and decided that an air-conditioned movie would be a nice on a hot day.  The newspaper gave While We're Young a starred review, but I think we might have enjoyed The Woman in Gold more.  Either way we were glad to do something we seldom do.

When we came out of the movie I thought I would get a picture from the Earth Day
festival for the blog.  I was surprised to find this group performing
and was sorry that I wasn't able to learn who they were.
The bus in the background is electric, but I liked it because I could try the bike rack on the front, which I have never had the nerve to use anywhere we have lived.

Instead of driving to some place to hike we decided we would be just as happy to cycle to the botanic garden and take a stroll there.

Everyone was excited about the wildflower show and I could see the beauty, 

but some of it looked like a bunch of weeds to me.

I always like to visit the turtles, even if I can't get a good picture of them.

There was plenty of shade but it was still hot so we cooled off at home afterward.

After dinner we pulled out our old Scrabble set, which has all sorts of clippings and comic strips for entertainment while for the other person to place a word.  In an unusual conclusion, D. creamed me.

Now it is back to the reality of grocery lists and laundry, but it was great to get an idea of what might be in store for our future.

A few blocks away

In January I mentioned that the dentist office was still being built.

It is now open for business.

It's great that they kept the style of the old sign and it is nice to have a business on the corner 

instead of having it sit empty.  I am not so fond of the fact that they over water.

I also find it odd that the entrance is only on the side street and the exit is onto a major boulevard.

The problem is that the painted arrow directs people leaving the parking lot into oncoming traffic.  There is no no-left-turn-sign.

Right across the street is another business that has an entrance on the side street

and an exit onto the boulevard.

They also have no no-left-turn sign, but they do have an arrow showing the flow of traffic.

I hope people pay attention and that there won't be any accidents.

Breathe in, breathe out

I am trying to be happy with what I have.  I filled out a post-surgery survey that asked about headaches, dizziness, pain, and ringing in the ear and was grateful to check the not-applicable box.  Things like that help me remember that things are not ideal (and they weren't pre-surgery, either), but they could be a lot worse.

Last month I wrote that I signed up for a 5K, which was great since it was not long ago that I was working my way up to walking around the block.

I had great friends who agreed to run with me and lots of people who supported me in my fundraising efforts.  The weather was not too hot, which was important since I had returned from a week of wet and cold weather.

It was not the most beautiful course, but I was happy to be able to run the whole thing.  I hadn't been doing any track work but I could tell I was working hard based on the way I had to focus on my breathing.  I had set a few goals (finish with a smile, run faster than a 12-minute/mile pace, and a dream goal of running faster than an 11-minute/mile pace) and was pleasantly surprised to complete them all.  Unfortunately, immediately upon seeing my time (10:16/mile pace) I wanted to have run faster.

I guess I still need to work on accepting where I am and being happy with my progress!  Or I could turn that competitive drive into training for the next event.

Back to routine

I felt very brave driving in the rain, in the dark, and on the streets of Boston for the last leg of our trip.  My good thing of the day was getting a big hug from relatives when I arrived at their house.

It was probably good to go on a campus tour on a wet and cold day so R. could focus on what was being shared instead of the beauty of the campus.

While she attended an economics class about game theory I poked around the campus museum, which was having an exhibit of works by the Iranian sculptor Parvis Tanavoli.  I could definitely imagine visiting again.

But then it was time to pack up and drive to Logan Airport, which I did without being cut off or having anyone honk at me.  Ta da!

It was great to be home - to hang the laundry in the sun, to swim in the sun, to watch a soccer game in the sun.  To sit inside and finish taxes.  The only sad part was forgetting to do my Duolingo on the last day and breaking my 105-day streak!

Here and there

The adventures continue but we are taking the night off to catch up a bit.  Here are a few random photos.

There are just over one hundred Ben Franklin discount stores left
("A penny saved is a penny earned,") and some have become craft stores.
This one seems to be doing well in small-town Ohio.

Congratulations to Oberlin for being vegan friendly,
in addition to serving food grown by local farmers.

90% of everything is crud - Sturgeon's revelation (commonly Sturgeon's law)
-from the science fiction author in 1958
as seen in Gates Hall for Computer and Information Science

CNF - visiting D.'s former colleagues 

Whole Foods - not in Claremont anymore!
Not shown - organic whole wheat matzoh.

It has been great to see family and friends and a few colleges, too.

Local library

What is a trip with a stop at a library?

It is only a block from my relatives' house and I love not only the collection but also the art.  Right now there is a display of creations from a book by Salley Mavor.  Each one accompanies a nursery rhymes.

This was new to me.

Molly, my sister and I fell out,

And what do you think it was all about?

She loved coffee and I loved tea,

And that was the reason we couldn’t agree.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

All the King’s horses, and all the King’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe;

She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.

She gave them some broth without any bread,

And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,

Rapping at the window, crying through the lock,

“Are the children in their beds, for now it’s eight o’clock?”

On the road

Last year I dropped R. off at Smith College and drove to Ithaca, soaking up the views of places I had seen so many times before.  At the same time I mourned the idea that I would never have the opportunity to drive from Cleveland to Ithaca, which we had done innumerable times.  Life is full of surprises!  This week I did that drive and soaked up every view, every turn.

We enjoyed seeing snow, and not just a pile of it but in its natural state.

And look how empty the road is!

We stopped at my favorite rest stop, which currently has a view of the ice-covered Chautauqua Lake.

photo stolen from the internet

The first zillion times I saw this sign I looked only at the white part and tried to make into the shape of NY.  Finally I looked at the green portion and saw the person.

also taken from the internet

Many signs in this part of the state have the English words and the words of the Seneca Nation.

We saw lots of signs telling people to not text because there was a stop in a few miles.

What I can't capture are the rolling hills, the small towns, and the memories of driving with D.  We'll see what surprises are next.