Make Strides against Cancer

Today we had a team of 8 for the Cypress Ridge Fitness Striders in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Cancer walk in San Luis Obispo, and we raised nearly $1,200. We had a great time with beautiful weather, lots of camaraderie and a great luncheon hosted by our wonderful team captain, DH! We even had a cancer survivor on our team - interestingly it was right on the statistic of 1 out of 8 women will get breast cancer. Some of us wrote the names of those we were walking for and taped it to the back of our shirts. Very uplifting event.

Food distribution

Yesterday a team of about 25 volunteers wrestled an enormous amount of produce and pantry food for 144 families. I am spearheading the distribution in partnership with the local Womenade organization, the Food Bank and the Nipomo elementary school. The average number in a family is 5 so we fed over 700 people with this distribution. There were many surprises with the process. We increased the food need by 50%. That translate to an inordinate amount of fresh produce - strawberries, huge onions, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, cut fresh greens, oranges, broccoli, loose salad leaves, bread. The pantry products included peanut butter, canned chicken, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, canned corn, peaches, prunes, beans, canned cut vegetables, diced tomatoes! There are many areas of learning that we will incorporate next month. The hardest part of the process is mapping out the flow when you don't know what fresh produce you will receive.

Sewing

The last week has been absolutely gorgeous. Early this morning we had a tiny bit of rain - yes rain. We really need rain. I'll say it again - we really need rain! Anyway, since I've moved the house cleaning to Fridays, Saturdays have become a great day for me to do anything. Fridays on the other hand have become packed with spin class, 6 mile walk, cleaning the house, working at the thrift shop in the afternoon, followed by grocery shopping and then making dinner before collapsing exhausted. This morning the cloudy quiet sky made for a great day to stay in and catch up on sewing. I am working on my Christmas project of gifts for the family. A few years ago my sister decided that we should no longer exchange gifts. Slowly the siblings have been sending token gifts. I started making things for folks when we stopped exchanging gifts. One year it was produce bags tied up into the shape of an angel. Another year it was potato bags and another year it was cloth napkins... and this year it's >>>>>>>> - I'd better not say in case any of you are reading this blog! Anyway, I just about finished as many as I need. It's fun to pick colors and designs of fabrics that you think go with the person. Then you can think of the person as you make the item.

More October summer

The temps were in the 70s when we got up this morning and the Santa Ana winds are in full swing with wind speeds around 25 mph. The current temp is 97.8 with 29% humidity. I passed another resident on my walk today who is from Illinois. I asked if the weather reminded him of Illinois and his remark was that it was the humidity that really got to him and I have to agree. Although I'm not a fan of temps in the high 90s to 100, I am glad the humidity is so low. It makes it a little more tolerable. Waiting until this evening to run any machines - laundry, cooking etc. It usually cools right down in the evening. Here's hoping. No air conditioning here!

Awesome weather

The weather here often turns to summer in October and this year it's doing it again and I love it. Temps in the 70s and 80s although much warmer inland. No complaints here. The rain last Thursday and Friday cleaned the air and it has been absolutely beautiful here.

Next food distribution

Our next food distribution will take place on October 23. We have increased the numbers we want to feed to 144 from 96. We can increase the numbers by increments of 12. The school counselor thinks that the word is out and there will be many more people coming for food. Last month we gave away all 96 portions. This is a 50% increase. The deadline for telling the Food Bank how many portions we need is the 20th of each month. Unfortunately our delivery date is the 4th Tuesday of the month and will always be after the 20th so we have to let them know two months ahead what we think our headcount will be. We are so new at this but I'm going on faith and asked to increase the numbers for November from 144 to 168. Here's hoping we have the packing process well under control by then. I have been chasing down leads on reusable bags to give the food away in. Our county has banned those t-shirt plastic bags and gone to reusable ones. We're hoping the families will bring them bag and we can use them the next time. We'll see. Last month we had gathered about 900 bags from various sources including Trader Joes, Walmart, Kmart, Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH). T and I went to pick up 600 bags from the Department of Social Services. The Integrated Waste Management Authority has a program that is making bags available for low income families. I explained what we were doing and they gave us 600 bags but it's a one time donation. Shucks. Here's hoping it all works smoothly. Volunteers are started to sign up to work that day so I'm hopeful.

Raining

Up til yesterday, we hadn't had rain for over 260 days! Then yesterday there was a small shower with about .03 inches - yes we measure in hundredth of an inch! and so far today we've had .26 inches of rain. Hopefully we'll squeeze out a little more from this weather front. Supposed to warm up for the weekend. The weather forecasters have been SO wrong about the weather the last 2 weeks - calling for cold weather and thumping about rain. Finally yesterday they got it right. We're not complaining as we really need the rain and everything looks so fresh and clean.