Week in Review

It's been a busy week, at least for me. Adele, David's sister, came in Wednesday, and has been working through all of their Mom's stored stuff. Mom Farr moved a 4 bedroom house, garage and shop into one big garage here. There are lots of things there, from the beautiful handmade pieces of furniture that Dad Farr created, to really old toys and games that have been with her since the 50's. Adele found cancelled checks from the 1940's, how cool is that? She and her Mom have been going through boxes, divying up treasures between the 5 living children, and pulling a few things out for Mom to keep. It's a really tough job, Mom Farr gets a little overwhelmed with all the decisions she has to make, but at least she's finally decided what to do with a lot of it, and the kids are trying to pitch in and help.

I drove Nic to the airport on Thursday night, he flew to Salt Lake for the weekend. His flight left at 4:50, which meant we had to be there in the middle of rush hour. One of the reasons I left Phoenix 30 years ago was the traffic, and trust me, it hasn't gotten any better! I decided to take advantage of my strapping son, and stopped at Costco for a bulk grocery run. No frozen or cold stuff, I'd be traveling too long to carry them, but lots of laundry and pantry items. I love having Nic here to help with the heavy stuff!

We got him into the right terminal and I left the parking lot about 3:20, and it took an hour to drive 10 miles. Stop and go, jostle and dart, the traffic is snarled and awful! I decided to try driving up I-17 instead of going east to the 101, I have no idea if it was any better. All I know is that I'm very, very grateful to live in the sticks, where the traffic can get busy, but the roads don't look like a spaghetti bowl! Besides all the afternoon traffic, the roads are torn up and there is roadwork going on for miles on the 17, which is the only way home for me.

The puppies are growing fast, cavorting and wrestling with each other. They have free run of the back porch and backyard now, and they're doing really well, getting lots of excercise. It's tricky for humans though, to walk out there without tripping over a puppy, or stepping in 'droppings'. Cara is already starting to wean them, they are drinking formula from the bowl and munching on puppy chow.

We've had beautiful fall weather, at least for Arizona. The nights are cool and crisp, the days are in the very manageable 80-90 degree range. I've planted broccoli, red cabbage, spinach, turnips and radishes, so hopefully we'll have a nice fall garden that will make it to Christmas. We had a frost 8 days ago that killed my peppers, while we were at my Mom's. The tomatoes got bit, but survived, so I'm covering them at night, hoping to harvest the tomatoes still on the vine. All quite bucolic, but it's my life and I love it.