Calming the storm

I feel as if I've been in a war this past week. A resistance within and without to us getting in that car tomorrow morning and heading to the airport. So many details to attend to for mom before I could actually prepare to leave on Sunday for Nova Scotia and New England, the long-anticipated trip that felt like it was going to get aborted at every turn.

Ben has been holding his breath.

Yesterday mom was confused, disoriented, wasn't processing language very well, or simply couldn't hear. It's discouraging. But today she is sounding stronger. She is lucid...she just can't hear worth a darn. Going there this afternoon to "fix" her television.

Brother Stan arrives in six days. Amen to that.

I actually packed last night. Now just the last minute stuff. Ben needs to pack, which will happen 30 minutes before we leave.

Went into the garden this morning with Jake. The peas I planted in August (from the dried peas from the first crop) are beautiful, with many flowers. If we don't get a hard frost, there should be another round of delicious peas, soon.

We cut into the second watermelon last night. It weighed 35 pounds!! I said we should have entered it in the fair, but Ben wasn't going for that. He says it's the best he's ever had. The McCrackens, came to share the bounty and took the remaining watermelon home.

We still have many tomatoes. Again, depending on weather, we'll have more. But cooler weather is moving this way, finally. It's been in the high 80s, feeling much like August, except for the telltale gold tree, the first to turn in the fall in our neighbor's yard. Today it feels like a Santa Ana wind is blowing, except this is Washington and not Southern California. I'm listening to Nora Jones, and "our song," "Come Away with Me." Appropriate. The chimes on my patio are playing harmony.

We head from here to 50s and rain. I don't care.