NESTING

Four views of the living room in its current configuration

Being diagnosed with breast cancer is a wake up call.  Whatever the outcome of this particular series of medical procedures, it is clear that I am approaching the end of my life, and it's time to get serious about my bucket list, those things that I've always intended to do but have never gotten around to. As I've mentioned before, I have never been a nester, never created orderly and attractive living spaces.  So that's one thing I'm interested in accomplishing.

When I got the love seat and placed it in the middle of the room, where it had long been in my imagination, it didn't look right.  I had thought it would divide the room into separate living and dining areas, which it did, but both areas were cramped and awkward.  And so the bookcase got moved to the back wall and the love seat to the side wall and the result seems much better.  Also, after carrying them about in boxes for 30 years, I finally took the loose watercolors to Aarons and had them framed.  Linda was here last weekend and got them all hung above the wainscotting.  Furthermore, I have accepted that I will never be a house cleaner and have hired one.  She comes every other week and scrubs all the floors and the bathroom fixtures.  That makes an enormous difference, not only in the floors (which don't look that bad after all) but in the motivation it provides to keep things picked up and dusted.

I also hired a landscaper to design the backyard, which was awful.  The plants that had been there had died for lack of water, there never had been much grass, plastic bordering material was torn up and scattered about, and there was a makeshift fence of chicken wire and what seemed to be the sides of an old crib around one section. The young man, Domingo, who runs Rio Vista Landscaping had been recommended by Sam Richards, the real estate agent who rented the house. Domingo thought there was not much hope for grass as long as Amber would be out there and suggested crushed rock with a border of plants.  Here are the results:

The little plants around the edges should get a lot bigger

Amber digs little holes in the crushed rock, so I'm not sure how this will work out, but so far I've been able to repair most of the damage by smoothing the rock out with a broom.  Also I water the plants and the rock surface every evening.  Domingo says the surface will become harder, and perhaps the novelty will wear off for Amber so she will stop digging.  Meanwhile it is a very great improvement and quite a pleasant space.

I have already done the traveling and living in other countries, have been up in a balloon in Luxor, snorkeled in the Yucatan, travelled through the Andes from Chili to Argentina, gone white water rafting in Alaska...I'm glad I did that sort of thing and now I'm glad to have a chance to do a bit of nesting.

GUESTS

Amber and Jasmine together again

Linda arrived Friday with her two Shi Tzu hairballs, Jasmine and Butch, the latter a recent rescue that Amber and I hadn't met before.  Amber and Jaz began chewing on each other just like old times.  Also on Friday, in the morning, Dr. Ferrick called to give me the report on the breast biopsy that was done last Wednesday: it is cancer, so there will be that to deal with in the near future.  So far it is a toss up whether it is the malignancy or the Sutter Medical Foundation that seems more distressing.  But there will be plenty of time for discussing that.

Linda and pooches got a ride to San Ramon with her friend Chris and husband, who were going there for a family wedding.  I had thought I might have enough time in Antioch to get my car smogged, or at least washed, but between being shell shocked at the biopsy report and impatient at the congested traffic piled up in the highway construction at the Antioch exits, I drove on by and went into Richmond to take Amber to Point Isabel.  A beautiful day there, and lots of dogs and play.  We were there about an hour and a half before Linda called to say they were in San Jose and would soon be to San Ramon.  It took us quite a while to get there since I had been reading the map and decided to take the 13 to the 24, even though there was a large sign by the 80 saying to take the 580.  The 13, it turns out, is Ashby Avenue through the heart of Berkeley.  And by then it was rush hour on Friday.  But we got there at last, found Linda, mounds of luggage, and dogs on a grassy corner of a mall.  She drove back to Rio Vista.

Saturday Jacob took his car with Linda and the dogs--her choice since his car is air conditioned--and Amber and I took my car into Antioch to be smogged.  His passed.  Mine didn't, not because of emissions but because of problems with the computer codes in the engine.  Then when we left the smog place my transmission started clunking between the lower gears.  And I headed the wrong way on the highway trying to find a recreation area.  But we got turned around at last and found the park, Contra Loma.  Very nice, and Amber got to run and chase rabbits but of course wouldn't come back and led Jacob a fine chase over the hills, encountering clutches of wild turkeys besides rabbits.  He caught her at last and we headed back to Rio Vista to change for dinner at Peter's Steak House in Isleton.  We all had prime rib and it was excellent.

Sunday we lazied around, took the dogs to Val de Flores park a couple of times, got a movie to watch in the evening.  Linda got the pictures all hung above the wainscotting in the living room.  Monday morning Jacob took Linda and dogs back to San Ramon to catch her ride back to Oxnard.  It was good having them here, a very welcome diversion.

Linda tries to convince the three dogs to pose for a Kodak moment