February 2023

Max’s birthday had to wait a week because his jazz group had a special fundraising event the first weekend in February. The six members of the group played for 2 hours and we enjoyed chatting and listening while eating the desserts they served. It was a great evening and their group is incredible. Such talent!!

We also trekked up the hill to the Elks Club for a memorial service for our neighbor. There had been a 5 car pileup on I80 at noon and by the time we got up there at 2, the freeway and all of the surrounding roads were blocked almost solid. It hadn’t eased up much by the time we left but we made it to the service and home. Just took a long time. Max celebrated his birthday with the family a week later. Doug gave him a great challenge using butter cubes. We gave him a map of the US so that he can keep track of his hikes and backpack trips. We went out back and he started up the truck. His big wish was to be able to drive it by his birthday and Eric took a day off work to make sure they were able to do it. They got the truck running just before it got dark and he got his ride in!

Rog and Ryan spent a few hours at the gun range honing their skills which meant they also got to go out to lunch together. A return visit to Dr. Giza for his toe surgery resulted in flying colors for the right toe and a new surgery scheduled for the left toe on March 10. He finished up PT for this first go-round as well. Bev came by with Ed to pick up her new surgical caps and they had lunch with us. Fun to chat with them. Ed is recuperating nicely from his back surgery and Bev is enjoying her new job as the DaVinci tech at UC Davis.

I finally decided that it was time to get a new email address. We have had earthlink forever but the price has tripled and I just didn’t see the advantage. So that meant going in and changing all of our web connections that use email as a login for username as well as sending out a mass email to everyone. It was fun to get phone calls and emails from folks we haven’t connected with in a long tie. Now the challenge of learning a new email program. Karissa decided that she wanted to do breakfast with us this month so we picked her up during her President’s Week vacation and went to Huckleberry’s. For her special “date’ we will be going to the Clay Lounge to learn how to use a pottery wheel. She popped over a few times this month just to visit as well. What a bubbly gal…and really considerate. Genuinely a nice young woman. We enjoy her so much.

Rog ended the month with a four day trip to Indianapolis with Jay to visit John Terramoto, leader of the Shotokan Karate Association in the US. He got a lot of insights as well as meeting new SKA folks. Overall, a good trip. Meanwhile, I did a couple of sewing projects; a wheel cover for our wheelbarrow and a cover for the Weber grill. Then I tackled cleaning projects. I cleaned the stove, spot cleaned the carpet and scrubbed grout. I did a lot of streaming shows as well. While the cat is away, the mouse can play!

February ended with another wet and windy storm making all of us anxious for summer weather.