On fabric cutting party

I have embarked on a project to design and make new coverings for the fitness center rebounders. After 2 versions, we have a pattern. It seems to work pretty well. The most time consuming part of the project is the cutting out of the pattern and secondly the serging of all the edges. Yes all the edges. There are 16 rebounders and I've completed 4. The owner of the fitness center pulled a small group of people together to help cut out the pattern and we met at the gym with 4 of us. We alternated roles, one pinning, one cutting, one serging etc. She bought us all lunch and we cut for about 3 hours and got 5 of them cut and 1 fully serged and ready to make. I figure if I make one a day, I should be done in a week and a half.

You know you're getting old when....

I started looking into Long Term Care coverage. Many people I know bought it a long time ago when it first came out. I guess we didn't have so many assets we needed to protect at the time. We've reached that point where I think we need more asset protection than life insurance - at least that's my current way of looking at things. It appears that both the AARP and State of California Partnership for LTC feed us to the same insurance agency in Atascadero. I've done some research and have made an appointment to discuss options.

You know things are bad when....

The other day at the Thrift Shop, a man came into the store and asked if anyone had asked about some lost keys. We said no and he said if someone did he had them and found them out by our dumpster and they were for a Honda. So we asked him to leave them with us. He said no that he would keep them and stop in every day as he wanted $20 for finding them! So right after he left someone came in asking about lost car keys and we said that the guy on the bike had found them and we relayed the story. He chased the guy down and the guy claimed he didn't have them on him but would be right back. By now the keys' owner's father and uncle had joined him at the Thrift Store. We weren't sure if we were going to need the police. When the keys finder returned with the keys there was a lot of conversation and fortunately they resolved things without our having to get involved. I don't know if this is standard procedure around here or a sign of the times!

Memorial Day

We had a quiet memorial day. There were many flags flying throughout the area. I was surprised to see that our landscaper worked today. He comes on Mondays and I haven't figured out which holidays he doesn't work. Our fitness center was open this morning which was a real treat as it is usually closed on holidays. I led a terrific "spin" class followed by an ab workout and some hula hooping. Great fun. Working on the cover for the rebounder at the moment. It's been fun designing it.

Arroyo Grande 26th annual strawberry festival

When we lived in WH I looked forward to the Memorial Day parade and the strawberry festival the church put on right in front of St. James's on Farmington Avenue. The parade goes right by the church. I had so much fun working at the tent and in helping to prep the strawberries the day before.

In Arroyo Grande, we are celebrating the 26th annual Strawberry Festival. There are 2 and 1/2 days of everything strawberry. There is a cook off with over 40 entries, a 5 K road race, 5 live entertainment venues with everything from gospel to jazz, rock and blues. There are vendors of every description. They expect over 150,000 people to visit this weekend. Hotel rooms have been booked for over 6 months.

Many of the local restaurants serve food from carts in the municipal parking lot and of course there are many carts with strawberry shortcake and all other kinds of strawberry drinks and treats. Very creative. Face painting is a huge business with over 10 booths offering face painting for anywhere from $6 to $20. The big item this year was Egyptian 1000 thread count sheets for any size bed either $20 a 4 piece set or $35 per set.


The cookoff included everything from chocolate covered strawberries to strawberry enchiladas. The weather was perfect with the sun shining fully and temps in the mid 60s to low 70s.

The rebounder cunnundrum

The fitness center has a rebounding class three times a week. There is a flaw in the design of the rebounders. There is a cover that goes around the outer circumference of the unit and it tends to get ripped pretty easily by the pressure of people's shoes hitting the cover. The company that sells the rebounders doesn't sell the covers separately. A "legitimate" cover costs about $50 when you can find them and the less expensive models don't last very long. I am going to try to design a simple solution.

On spring cleaning

T and I usually do the housecleaning on Saturday. When we moved here we gave up our weekly house keeping service for a weekly landscaping service. Having an open floor plan and little furniture, we can generally do the cleaning in about an hour. Our garage is also sparsely populated and I got industrious this morning. It is another beautiful sunshiny day so I dusted and thoroughly vacuumed the garage. Before I went to the East Coast I had the windows washed (no more ladders for us) so now with garage cleaned, the house has officially been "spring cleaned". I don't know that many people still formally do a spring and fall cleaning but it sure feels good to give everything a thorough once over.

May gray

I can tell we've been here for over a year as we now have year over year things to compare. Last year the spring was very dry and starting the end of April through the end of June we had heavy marine layer that came in for part of many days. This year we have again had a very dry spring but we have been fortunate to have escaped the "May Gray" until today. The benefit is that it is in the 60s and 70s here where we have the marine layer and in the 90s and 100s just a little inland!

On dining rooms

I went to 4 open houses in our neighborhood this afternoon. The houses were all immaculate, 3 and 4 bedroom homes. Interestingly 3 of the 4 houses had pool tables where one might put the dining room table. One of the homes is a vacation home so I guess it's understandable, but the other 2 were year round homes. Interesting. We did not do that much entertaining when we were in CT so we could have had a pool table there. Since coming to CA, we've entertained a lot more and we really use our dining room space.

Habitat for Humanity

There is very little affordable housing in our area. There is an "Apostle Project", so named because 12 churches in the area are uniting to build 4 houses in Grover Beach City. Earlier in the month our choir joined with the Santa Ynes Chorale and put on a concert at St. Barnabas to raise funds for the project. St. Barnabas is one of the 12 churches involved in the project. The choir/organist at St. Barnabas is also the director of the Santa Ynes Chorale. They raised $2,500 that evening from a combination of ticket sales and a silent auction. It will take a while at this rate to raise all the money needed. If memory serves me it costs about $80,000 to buy all the materials to build a house.

Slow goin' at the Thrift Store

I guess the economy has gotten worse as people aren't even shopping at the Thrift Stores. Before I left the donations had dried up and the shopping had dropped sharply. Three weeks later, the donations are back up again but the shoppers are still few and far between. The weather has been unseasonably warm and perfect beach weather which may also be affecting traffic. For all I know this may be typical for late April and early May. The store doesn't have great records of trends, which is not surprising since it's run by a bunch of 80 and 90 year olds! There was an article about the Thrift Store in the local paper on its 35th anniversary:

St. Barnabas Thrift Shop celebrates 35 years

By TPR Staff

The St. Barnabas Thrift Shop on Brisco Road is celebrating 35 years of service and support to the Five Cities community and the Episcopal Church in Arroyo Grande.

The thrift shop opened in January 1974 in the basement of the Episcopal Church, after the church’s late Rev. Dan McHugh urged his parishioners to gather used clothing to give away or sell at low-cost to community residents in need.

Thirty-five years later, the thrift shop has built a large clientele and operates out of a former residence at 114 Brisco Road, which the church owns.

An all-volunteer crew of church members, ranging in age from 45 to 100, spend a few hours every day at the thrift store, where they accept donations for sorting, cleaning, pricing and selling.

“The shop volunteers are the heart of the long-term success of the shop,” said St. Barnabas Thrift Shop Manager Twila Erlewine.

She added that Lucille Shepherd, 100, still volunteers weekly at the store, as she has done for the past 33 years.

Money raised at the thrift shop is in turn donated by the church to local nonprofit organizations such as Meals on Wheels, Hospice Partners of the Central Coast and the Women’s Shelter.

A committee of volunteers reviews the work of area nonprofits and selects a different charity every month for an average $1,000 donation, Erlewine said.

Some of the goods donated to the thrift shop are donated to groups such as the Five Cities Christian Women and Arroyo Grande Care Center for re-use. Like-new clothing donated to St. Barnabas has also been sent to disaster victims across the United States, Mexico, Asia and South Africa, Erlewine said.

For more information about St. Barnabas Thrift Shop, call the store at 489-0199.

Fire season

The Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara is now 80% contained. The sundowner winds started up again last night and pushed back the full containment by many days. Like many of these catastrophes - hurricanes, tornadoes, noreasters etc., the press coverage is intense for a few days and then people get disaster coverage fatigue and the press moves on. The fire is still threatening many homes and the 100 owners of destroyed or badly damaged homes are struggling with the disasters. There was a small fire in SLO county up in Cambria today. It burned 4 acres but was successfully put out. When it's in your own county you really pay attention. The golf course and association are busy getting rid of all the growth within 100 feet of all the homes in preparation for June 1, the deadline for such activity. So we're still praying for much needed rain but it's past the rainy season.

On yellow ribbons and red shirt Fridays

The son of one our new friends has just left on his second tour of Iraq. His enlistment period was up but he was not allowed to get out and his service was extended like so many of our soldiers. I have not experienced the impact on a family until I watched our friends go through this very difficult process. It is heart wrenching and frightening. Their son received a bronze star for his service on his first tour. Many of his platoon were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD as a result of the IED explosion that killed so many in his platoon. He was redeployed on Mother's Day, couldn't they have waited one more day? Our friends have tied a yellow ribbon on their front gate. It is a grim reminder that there are so many soldiers in harm's way. We tied one on our front gate to remember their son and the other soldiers.

There is a grass roots effort called Red Shirt Friday. The idea is to wear a red shirt every Friday to quietly let our service people know that we appreciate their service and sacrifice. I started wearing a red shirt on Fridays a few months ago.

Back in the saddle again!

It felt really good to get back in my routine today. Had a very productive day starting with a 7:15 spin class, followed by some hula hooping, weight machines, a 6 mile walk, grocery shopping and work on A Hand Up. Had a great talk on Skype with K and now going to make dinner. Yay!

Mother's Day

T and I stopped celebrating "hallmark" days many years ago. I find that many of these days create lots of tension and too much anticipation which become increasingly difficult to satisfy. My cousins invited us for brunch today, and P and C did the cooking. It was a wonderful treat. C made what he was calling egg mccroissants. They were croissants with an omelet on one side and smoked salmon, avocado and capers on the other and dressed up with a beautiful strawberry. P made bananas foster and even made a batch without the alcohol for me. Everything was so delicious. Aunt L and caretaker joined us once she awoke from a nap. K and C's son surprised K by showing up for the day. He was in Las Vegas for a bachelor party for a friend and thought that since he was so close he might as well come for a visit. We took a walk around the neighborhood after brunch and visited on the front porch. Beautiful company, food and weather.

What's new

I miss my friends but I'm glad to be home. I went to spin this morning and found that after a week off the spin class was more difficult than when I left even though I think I walked a million miles while I was in CT. A couple of houses went under contract while I was away and no new homes are up for sale. My neighbor's sister lives in Santa Barbara and had to evacuate because of the Jesusita fire. I think they are letting people back in again as of this afternoon. My friends, D and R's son is being redeployed to Iraq any day now and they've tied a yellow ribbon on their front gate. Last time they had one up the whole 15 months he was there. Pray he stays safe and returns safely.

I found this picture I took on one of my walks of an old farm house in the countryside in Bloomfield, CT. It looked so abandoned on the gloomy, rainy day when we passed it.

Back from CT

I'm back from my spring trip east. Thank God for the church as I was able to see so many people at the coffee hour. I almost felt guilty as it was a great little party atmosphere and I got to talk to almost everyone and anyone who wanted to chat. I participated in the sandwich making after the 8 service and felt like I was "holding court" at the coffee hour after the 9:30 service. Many a day I had 2 or more walking dates with various friends. I had coffee dates, lunch dates and dinner dates. We had an AHU board meeting and held a couple of interviews. On Thursday J took me to the Hillstead Museum in Farmington and we had a personal 1 1/2 hour tour. It is only just over 100 years old but it is in fabulous condition. Theadate stipulated that nothing was to be lent out from the museum so there are many pieces that you will only see there. It was wonderful being in CT and seeing old friends but it is wonderful to be home again.

Back in Hartford

Well, I'm back in Hartford and it feels like I never left. My friends are wonderful and I have spent lots of time eating, walking and talking. Even had time to take some household items to the warehouse, help pack those away and admire the great organization going on at the warehouse.