Latest flower:

I am back from a 9-day trip to Mexico City. My first real vacation since 2018!

It’s the first time I’ve been to the inland part of Mexico; all my previous times in Mexico have been in one coastal town or another. I quite enjoyed it. I stayed in the center of the city; at this holiday season it was crowded, but everyone was in an upbeat mood.

I traveled with a friend through a tour we booked with Road Scholar. We had terrific guides, and I would go back again as there is so much more to see.

Here I am in front of Frieda Kholo’s house with my Coca Cola Light:

Hope you all are having a fun holiday season.

Here’s what I’ve been working on lately:

Here’s what I’m printing up for mom’s service:

Yesterday is the first time I had to leave Brindy alone in the house for a few hours in both the morning and the afternoon. No problem when I came home from lunch, but here’s what I found when I came home yesterday evening:

The gray/green stuff is dried moss, about 3 lbs. of it. All the little colored pieces of paper had been in separate bags of each color. Not really visible, but hundreds of buttons on the floor, all my spools of thread off their spindles, etc., etc. And yet, she didn’t actually destroy anything, just opened everything up and spread it around.

I was most impressed that she pulled each of the bags of colored paper out of the storage box and yet left the storage box itself in place (it’s the one on the shelf next to the wall). Then she tore the top off the bags and spread them around. It took me quite a little while this morning to get them all resorted!

This is what my dining room table looked like when I left the house the other day (you can see Brindy curled up in her favorite chair in the background):

Here is what it looked like when I got home:

I have no idea why Brindy is so fascinated with the table. There is no food on it. And this is not new behavior; she has always done it, even though she never shows any interest in the table when I am there. She doesn’t destroy anything; she just takes a good look around.

She seems to enjoy climbing up on things like tables, chairs, weight benches, beds, balustrades, etc. She certainly has no fear of heights!

Someone asked me what they could do to commemorate mom in lieu of flowers. Her go-to charity was https://www.livingdesert.org/

I will have some sort of memorial service later, but I haven’t yet decided where or when. After Thanksgiving, perhaps.

Thank you all for your concern and best wishes.

Got the call I’d been both dreading and anticipating. Mom passed this morning. When I was with her yesterday, she wasn’t responding to me at all and the time between breaths was occasionally quite long. And it was obvious that even with the pain meds, she was still in discomfort, so I’m glad she doesn’t have to experience that any longer.

Here she is just last August. What a difference a few weeks can make.

This is my first commissioned floral arrangement. It took me a while because I designed the orchids myself. I’m quite happy with the way they turned out.

Last Friday, mom’s right femur broke. She was in the hospital for a few days. We decided against surgery as the orthopedist felt that even if she made it through the surgery, she would not be strong enough to participate in any kind of recovery efforts.

She came back to the assisted living facility on Wednesday with the help of a hospice company. The hospice people have been wonderful so far.

Mom looks much better now that she is back in her own room. All the IV’s are gone, so she is much more comfortable. Of course, having regular pain meds helps, too!