Born on the 4th of July

I have two siblings born on Independence Day, my brother, Les, born in 1947, and my half-sister, JoAn Schooley, born in Penn in 1953.



















I drove into Port Townsend yesterday and while I was only gone from the house for seven hours, I was Exhausted with a capital E when I got home.  Lately, it seems like any activity I decide to participate in wipes me out.  I hope it's just because my body is wounded right now.  My shoulder has been bothering me for days and I'll be glad when the surgery is behind me.

Thursday I'll be driving myself to walk on the Bainbridge Ferry so Mary can pick me up downtown and drive me over to Issaquah to consult with my surgeon. I've got my fingers crossed that I don't have to wait weeks. The place where we're going is where her doctor is so she knows exactly how to get there. Depending on what the surgery entails, I assume I'll be admitted at Overlake in Bellevue or the place in Issaquah. I have no idea what to expect.  I figure with having four tears in my ligaments, it's not going to be a walk in the park as far as physical therapy goes afterwards.  Still, I can't continue on without it.

I stopped to visit Mary and Dave Gaboury for a few minutes as they were in town to see relatives for the 4th and work on her family reunion which is coming up July 26th at the fairgrounds. (The Deleo Derby)  I delivered this doll that a friend here in PA had asked me to give Mary (she gave me one too).
Faye Radley, who is now Catherine Critchfield, was a friend of ours in grade school.

I left Mike McConaghy's house (where Mary was at the time) and drove down to pick up my sister to take her to Marrowstone Island for a cookout and picnic at Kris & Bill Rust's house  in Nordland.  I love going here.  They are both so welcoming and I could live very happily at their house.  Really comfortable.  They have a couple dogs, a cat who rules the roost, two goats, and a llama.

 This is Louie and he gets in trouble a lot for chasing the goats. He thinks he's the boss of the pasture.

                              This is Max, Les' grandson, Brend'n's dog.  A real cutie.

Kris & Bill have a fire pit in the middle of their backyard so we cooked hotdogs and sat around outside
taking turns moving our chairs to try and avoid the smoke.  The wind wasn't cooperating and I had to throw everything in the washer when I got home. Like all good picnics, we had a ton of yummy food.
Kris made this terrific looking jello/cake/strawberry masterpiece that was especially noteworthy.

     One of my favorite things in Kris' collection was this Bill Clinton toy that played music.

Other views of the day.....

                                                 Brend'n, Les, and Eric Forcier

                                             Callum Grace, my sister's great grandson

                                               Our hosts, Kris and Bill Rust

                                                                       Max and Les

The drive down was busy with traffic (of course!) and coming home was even worse.  Especially after it started to rain.  I saw lots of State Patrol out and about, several stopping speeders.  Also saw a deer that had been hit but was still sitting up along the road. It made me cry.  Spied one dead raccoon, several stupid drivers, and bypassed one parade in progress in downtown PA. Too bad the rain was spoiling things.  All I wanted to do was get home.

I realized that getting a quiet sleep wasn't about to happen and I listened to fireworks and booms for hours.  Street is littered this morning.

Tomorrow I have a quick doctor appt to discuss my latest medical tests and Tuesday I'm expecting my cousin, Bonnie and her husband and son to stop in.  They'll stay the night in their travel trailer and we'll share genealogy notes as she's into the hobby, as well.

I probably inhaled a tad too much smoke yesterday as I'm coughing a bit today and very congested.  Don't plan on doing much more than watching movies and taking it easy.