This weekend sees our son, Steven, and his family, up north, enjoying what has been our family’s cabin, which he just remodeled with central air and heat, a third bedroom, a garage and a wrap around deck, so that while they’re BBQ’ing, he, Celina and Ravi can sit outside, behind the cabin, which acing been built on sturdy stilts, overlooks Mother Nature’s tall Ponderosa pine trees with huge boulders, scattered below throughout the wash (ravine) instead of BBQing and relaxing, facing the street. Phase two of their remodel will tackle the kitchen and bathrooms at a later, undetermined, date.
I love that, counting my parents, Ravi is the fourth generation to enjoy the cabin, which has long been my magic place, and with the addition of another bedroom, Barry, Marie, their boys and David hope to drive over from CA, this summer, so our grandsons, Tony and Ray, can enjoy building a fort in the wash along with Ravi, as did our three sons, several decades ago.😊
Steven has a four wheeler, which his family enjoys along with hiking in the woods with their two beautiful Rhodesian ridgebacks, so time spent enjoying the cabin, near Flagstaff, offers their family’s sense of adventure an outlet as well as providing a relaxing get-a-way from daily life within a major metropolis.
This weekend sees them up north, playing amidst lots of snow, and I just received a text saying they’ve returned to the cabin after sledding with Ravi, so now, I’m picturing them with rosy cheeks, warming up in the great room, their hands wrapped around three steamy mugs of hot chocolate, and that vision makes me smile with a gentle sense of nostalgia, being that Barry was the same age as his boys are, now, and Steven was close to Ravi’s age, suggesting David was a toddler whose crib was seen between his brothers’ twin beds in the second bedroom, when we purchased the cabin, 42 years ago—chosen, over all the others we’d been shown, primarily because of its location, the greatroom and the wash, out back, which offered a huge rustic play space inviting three high spirited boys (and their friends) to exercise their lively imaginations before returning inside to woof down dinner and roast marshmallows after which Will made up super hero stories enjoyed, just before bedtime, by four or five mellowed out, young guys, who’d nestled down for the night in sleeping bags unrolled cozily close together on the carpeted floor within the larger expanse of the great room, where, over the next several decades, family life enjoyed leisurely meals, board games, crafts and charades—everyone’s favorite—with nary a tv or computer screen, anywhere in sight.
Currently in the valley, Will and I enjoyed a quiet, yet busy week, with friends coming for patio visits, every day. Late yesterday afternoon, the warmth of our electric space heater proved necessary when Andi and Mike and our mutual friends, Judy and Julian, all masked, relaxed on our covered patio while rain fell, which thankfully stopped, before I’d tired, and our dear friends made their way back to their cars.
I’m welcoming a quiet day, today, while looking forward to enjoying another couple, our very first friends upon moving to AZ, who plan to come on Monday when the high is predicted to be 50 and rainy, which may be too inclement for those who’ve basked in the Vally of the Sun for close to 50 years, so we’ll not be surprised if our dear friends decide to postpone till later in the week when the temp is forecast to rise to 60 with sunny skies above ‘my’ mountain peak, arising majestically, day in and day out, directly behind our home.
I believe a winter storm is predicted for the Midwest—so, hopefully, when family and friends gaze wistfully through their windows at a winter wonderland, glistening, outside, each one will feel as relieved as I do now that we can count on Biden/Harris and their carefully chosen team of men and women, whose experienced expertise has begun to brainstorm our nation’s way through every crises exacerbated by the lies of the smarmy creature, who has crawled back into the swamplands where, hopefully, he’ll be swimming his way through legal troubles, over his head, thus hampering this lying charlatan’s reptilian brain from inciting yet another violent insurrection aimed at harming our nation, anew, while we place our faith in our current administration, composed of diplomatic states-persons, who prove capable of resolving highly complex, national problems, given time.
Personally, each time I’ve watched Biden address the nation as POTUS, my confidence in the strength of our democracy swells with a sense of patriotic pride, which I’ve not felt, over these past four deeply trying years.
My country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing!
And though a midwest/northeast/southeast winter storm may be imminently in store for many of my loved ones, hopefully, your hearts can feel mine holding Ravi’s magic wand aloft in hopes of guiding fluffy white clouds buoyed on the wings of doves to fly peaceably from D.C. toward each of you as intelligent steps taken to end this pandemic free all of us from quarantine, thus miraculously jump starting our nation’s economic recovery, at long last!
🙋🏻♀️❤️😊🌟🇺🇸
