June 18--Morning Glory

After stressing out about my project proposal revision for days, I woke up at 5:30 with the words bursting out of my head. I got up and started writing, and was done by 10. It's funny how that works. I can sit in front of a computer for hours without a single idea. But when it is ready to come out, it comes out relatively complete, and I rarely have to do much revision. I must compose subconsciously.

After I finished I went out walking in a town to the south of us. It was a lovely day. I came across a Morning Glory vine and admired how the flowers seem to have their own internal light source. There is a big Morning Glory vine in the old city cemetery in Sacramento, and I used to go down there and photograph the flowers after I got my first digital camera back in 2003. I decided I want one of these for my back yard.

I was all ready to write this last night, but something distracted me, and I forgot to write it.

June 19--Father's Day

We went to my step-sister Holly's place up in the foothills for a Father's Day lunch with my dad who is up there visiting. I got up early and made some au gratin potatoes, which everyone seems to like, since they always request that I make it. I tweaked my recipe a bit this time, and it turned out great, so I took the rare step of actually writing it down. I also took the even rarer step of going to the Walmart to get a mandolin slicer because I didn't feel like slicing a bunch of potatoes. Walmart early on a Sunday morning is tolerable. The slicer worked great.

It was a lovely day up the hill. They have a big spread--about 17 acres, a nice pool, a beautiful panoramic view, and so on. They lend the property below the house to the guy next door who raises alpacas. There must at least 50 down there, and maybe more. When you float in the pool, you can look down on the alpacas grazing.



It was good to see my dad. I have written previously of our often strained relationship, but it feels like we have moved past that. We stood out by the fence, looking at the alpacas and talking for about a half hour. We got called up for lunch and sat outside near the pool to eat.

There were only six of us. We had salmon, the potatoes, some steamed vegetables, garlic bread, and fresh fruit. It was delicious. We sat around and talked for a while, My other step-sister, Robin, was there. She was filling me in on the long lost half-brother they found out they had a few months ago. He will be up for the 4th of July, so I will get to meet him.

After lunch and conversation we got in the pool and stayed there for a good part of the afternoon. It was so relaxing to lie on a floating mat and just let the water gently rock me. My dad loves the pool, and when he is up there, he spends most of the day either in it or near it.



He is either 87 or 88--I think it is 88. His brother just turned 90.

In the late afternoon, everyone got ready to watch the NBA finals. My dad is a big Warriors fan, and was nervous about the game (turns out he had reason to be nervous--they lost). We couldn't stay because I had another assignment due this evening, and had to come home and do it. Anyway, it was a good day. Tomorrow will be getting caught up on stuff, and then out to the coast for a few days.