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| Aspen playing peek-a-boo with the new blanket from Martha |
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| A view of the coast near Bodega Bay |
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| Alyssum and Aspen admiring the view of the coast |
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| The sun is really bright! |
and headed for the farm near Santa Rosa.
The farm is run by Dan Revallo, Alyssum's
husband. It is situated on the grounds of
a Waldorf K-12 school. Dana runs the farm
and teaches there. He has a big responsibility,
at the same time it is a lovely setting. All
the vegetables he grows are available to them
to eat.
At present Alyssum is a stay-at-home mom and
busy landscaping their farm house. The house
is small, but has been remodeled for them. It
has everything they need although a bathroom
near the upstairs bedrooms would be nice.
We slept in the Van and Robert spent much of
his time there. We walked everyday which
was helpful. I visited with Alyssum and
enjoyed Aspen when she was awake. She is
a very personable little person and very
good natured. Clearly, she feels totally
secure in her environment and totally
trusting. Both Alyssum and I were amazed
at one point. Alyssum and Dana were headed
out for a bike ride; Alyssum carefully said
goodbye to Aspen and explained they were
leaving, but would be back pretty soon.
At 7 months it's unlikely Aspen understood
much of that, but it is still a good habit
to have. In any case I carried Aspen out
to the front porch and we waved goodbye to
her parents. She watched them leave with
no comment, not tears, just watched. When
they were out of sight we went back inside.
She happily played with her current batch
of toys while I happily watched. At
some point I took her out in the stroller
and she slept part of the time. She was
sleeping in the stroller when Alyssum
returned I hand motioned that Aspen was
asleep and she, Alyssum, would have time
for a shower. She leaped to it.
We had planned to leave on Saturday, the
16th, but Robert's arm was bothering him
and I had come down with a cold. It
started with chills like I have never had
before. I couldn't get warm! Finally,
I crawled out of bed and went into the house
wearing my down jacket. I was shaking
hard. Alyssum fixed me peppermint tea and
their kitchen was significantly warmer than
the van such that with all my winter clothes
on, I finally stopped shaking. After that
it was clear I had a cold, but it never
was a bad cold; just started with a bang.
It was hard to leave the farm, Alyssum, Dana
and Aspen. I felt so comfortable there.
We went on to Paradise, California which is
near Chico. Robert's sister-in-law lives
there and her daughter and family. We took
a really winding road. Unfortunately, it
was much slower than we had realized so
we didn't arrive at Priscilla's until almost
6:00 PM. She had mentioned that she had a
meeting and would have to leave at 6. When
we were so late, she arranged with her
daughter, Liza, for us to have dinner at
Liza's. We had about 20 minutes to talk
with Priscilla and catch up on family
doings. As she left we walked up to Liza's
house which is very near Priscilla's.
The new house is lovely. It is Wendell's
hobby I could tell. He works very hard,
but gets 3 days off one week and 4 the
next; that means very long hours in a
building that is not heated in the winter
nor cooled in the summer. It was 38 F.
the day we arrived so that he was chilled
through. We had an enjoyable dinner and
short evening. Both Liza and Wendell have
to leave early in the morning. Wendell
was off the next day, but he was planning
on just being lazy. Lucy, their 16-year-
old daughter is lovely. Clearly, very
bright and very hard working. She'll do
well in what ever she puts her mind to.
After breakfast with Priscilla and Wendell
we headed for Arcata, Califonia. Priscilla
was heading for the bay area.
We decided to make it a slow trip and spend
the night somewhere by ourselves. We ended
up in an RV park in Scotia, California.
When we called the Kelly's to tell them we
were on our way, Barbara said that Paul
was in the hospital with pneumonia. It
was bacterial and he was being treated
with anti-biotics. Hopefully, he'd be
home tomorrow.
I'll finish the rest of this tomorrow.
It's nice to be home.
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