Late June Update

I had a few moments this morning, and so I thought I'd mention a few things I had missed in my last post or had happened since then.  

I had forgotten to mention that Ro and I had a dentist appointment in Bakersfield during the second week of June.  This visit had been postponed from August 2020, then Februrary 2021, and May 2021.  We were going to go in February, but B thought the visit wasn't necessary during COVID, and he also needed the car for work to go to an election training.  I postponed to May since I knew that B had also made concessions since there were things (and still are things) that I didn't want us to do during a pandemic.  I then changed it again because I didn't want to ruin Ro's perfect attendance at school.  

The neat thing about postponing to June was that everyone except the kids were vaccinated by then, and so Ro and I had a nice lunch on the patio (we had a whole section to ourselves) at the Social House with my friend Lindsay (my old Starbucks coworker who got me into Goodwill books, fruit trees, and blood donations) before the dentist appointment.  I really look forward to visiting Lindsay since her hip keeps her taking the drive alone to Fresno.  She had a hip replacement with a cadaver bone when she was 12.  We joke around that her hip might rebel during a zombie uprising.  I have a feeling her illness might be worse than she lets on, too.  She was finally approved her disability benefits since there's no way for her to sit at a desk or stand all day.  

After the dentist appointment, we got milkshakes and candy from Dewar's and then went to Shafter to drop off diapers with my old friend K.  She had posted on Facebook the week before complaining about the prices of diapers at Costco rising up by $7.  I hardly use Facebook anymore since I prefer looking at pictures on Instagram, but I happened to see this one.  I offered to give her a full box and an unopened half pack of size 6 diapers since Ro had stopped wetting the bed overnight.  We ended up talking for almost another hour through the open windows of the cars.  K said that her family pretty much does their own thing.  Her sister M lives with her boyfriend almost across the street from the Gosford Costco.  K's mom is living in her grandmother's house in the Laurelglen area.  She didn't mention if she was still married or not, but she was about to retire from the County when they offered her a bonus is she stayed on until she turned 67.  They must be really short on nurses.  K is still working dispatch for CHP out of Bakersfield, and her family lives in Wasco.  Her husband lost his job during COVID, and they have his little sister helping look after their kid to give them breaks.  K was on leave from work for a foot surgery, and the pain meds weren't working very well, but she's been trying to stay away from the opioids.  We said we'd try to keep in touch and meet up again, but I'm scared of getting sucked back in.  It wasn't bad being friends, but I was always in danger of losing myself by trying to help her so much.  

At the bottom of the trail next to the river. 

Since then, B, Ro and I have been taking it easy lately with as many bike rides as possible when it isn't too hot.  B rides most Sunday mornings with some Saturday mornings, too.  I took last Wednesday off to hang out with Ro while B, Grandpa Ron, and Grandma Wanda went to Grandpa Ron's sister's funeral.  Ro and I took Boose with us towards Woodward Park.  On the way, I saw a path through the dirt behind the Palm and Nees shopping center starting from Alluvial west of Palm Avenue and had a "Hey, I wonder where this goes." moment.  We rode through the dirt until we got to a steep area.  I had Ro get off the bike to reduce the weight and towed Boose and Ro (who was hanging onto the back and the bike kept him from sliding too much down the dirt hill).  The hydraulic brakes on the bike are still really nice and the bike didn't slip as we slowly made it down.  The path ended at the driveway going to from the shopping center to access the river.  I took a few pictures and then we rode the rest of the way to Woodward Park.

The crazy route we took.

The ride to Woodward Park was much less eventful.  Boose, Ro and I did a hop-on-hop-off tour of all of the playground equipment.  Ro played, I read, and Boose peed.  We also stopped at the dog park and tried to get Boose to play with the other dogs, but Boose kept following us around instead of chasing after the other dogs.  Once we made it around the park, Ro and I were pretty tired and hungry, and so we went to REI to return B's bike shorts from Father's Day.  He didn't wear them and said the padding was too thin.  We then went to Panera for tea, lemonade, and salad, and sandwiches for lunch.  Ro didn't eat all of his turkey sandwich, and so Boose was able to have a turkey lunch.  Ro didn't want to go home, but it was getting too hot.  I talked Ro into going to Rubber Soul to get B a new set of bike shorts.  They let me wheel in the whole bike with the kid and dog still strapped in to shop.  The clerk who helped us happened to be the same who helped me hitch my hybrid commuter to the cargo bike when I picked it up awhile ago.  B says I like to make a skeptical of myself there.  I think the clerks are amused wondering what I'll try to carry on my bike next.  After the bike shop, Ro and I made it home to cool down and watch TV.  

Ro and I refer to this spot of the trail as “The Enchanted Forest.”

B had gone to his aunt's house after the funeral since she didn't have a chance to go.  I didn't hear if B would be back in time for Ro and I to go to ninja class, and so we rushed back off on bike.  It was hot at first, but ended up being a really nice evening ride.  It was warm enough to scare people away on the way there and cool enough on the way back that the bike trail was full of people.  We stopped by at the food trucks on Willow and Shepard.  Ro got an impossible burger and I got a chicken alfredo that took awhile to fix.  We returned home around 8:45pm.

We also made it to Morro Bay yesterday with Grandpa Ron.  We left around 7am, Ro did pretty good with the bathroom breaks, but we all sprinted to the bathroom in Cayucos.  After getting cookies, we went to the Morro Rock beach, had lunch at the Galley bar and restaurant, and then went to Moonstone beach for Ro to jump the waves there.  Ro had a lot of fun and we realized that the extra clothes weren't for when Ro had an accident but for him to have dry clothes after playing.  Ro was pretty tired and hungry by the time we made it to In-N-Out in Kettleman City.  He said he wished this were a three-person trip instead of a four-person trip.  B and I were horrified thinking he meant that he wished Grandpa Ron wasn't there.  After a whispered backseat discussion, I found out that Ro was just sore that he couldn't have a foot rest. 🤦‍♀️

I love you and miss you.