4th of July Weekend

 Last week's post was entitled 'Approaching July.' Well, we've made it; the 1st was two days ago, the 4th is tomorrow, and today is Terry and Judy's (Atherton) 50th wedding anniversary - congratulations and best wishes T, sorry we can't be there to celebrate. Some day Canada may let us back in.

This week, in New Orleans, has been another warm wet one and the forecast goes on in a similar fashion for the foreseeable future - temps in the mid-eighties, humidity in the nineties, and rain every day - or at least thundershowers. We try not to let all that bother us. I sometimes get home from my walk of four or five miles, soaking wet. If it starts to rain and I'm twenty minutes out I put my head down and keep going. Maybe around Audubon Park, or down Magazine Street, or Prytania, and back up St Charles Avenue, following the streetcar line, splashing through the puddles.

Sunday evening we watched Us on PBS, Masterpiece Theatre, it's now available online if you are interested. Monday morning, 4 AM, we were up for a trip to MSY, the New Orleans airport, to get Jean & Steve on their 6 o'clock flight back to Ann Arbor. Then I did a little more banking; still trying to get our various accounts straightened out. Took it easy the rest of the day.

One afternoon we visited John and Lois who have announced their betrothal with ceremony and reception scheduled for October 27th, God willing and the Covid don't rise - doubt we will be here for that celebration but 'Best wishes' guys. Lois is a very good cook, or perhaps I should say 'baker.' She made Napoleon's, or maybe they were Mille Feuille, anyway they were a lovely flakey French pastries filled with creamy stuff and cardamom, delicious.

Tuesday we walked to Earth and Fire, a pottery studio about five blocks from the house. We had worked there occasionally over several years, the last time being early 2017 when Melanie used clay as an escape from me while I was recovering from surgery. It's a nice studio cum gallery; I've signed up for a month of 'open studio.' I'm not planning to fire any pieces but do hope to get my hands dirty; it has been almost two years since either of us has done anything with clay, thanks to Covid. Yesterday I went in for a couple of hours. We got some plastic bowls from Wal*Mart and I like the shape of them. I'll try to replicate them in clay and let you know how they turn out - guess 'turn' is the operative word there.

Thursday we walked a couple of miles, leaving the house around 7 AM, to Toast on Laurel Street where we met friends for breakfast. After breakfast we said goodbye to John and Webb drove us to the World War II Museum where we exercised our membership, this time in the old building which was originally called the D-Day Museum. Both times we've been there it has been quite crowded, midday; we'll try to get there earlier next week. The museum has a lot of personal stories, focusing on individuals in the war. Now I want to read some WWII history to get a better sense of the planning, battles, and various parts of the war, a bigger picture. Or maybe it's that I don't know the history so the museum just seems that way to me. Again, we took the streetcar home.

Our daily life here at 8016 St Charles is taking on a pattern. Most days Melanie bakes or prepares something new and different for dinner. The results are generally excellent though I must admit I still don't care for stuffed mirliton. On the fitness front, Melanie does Zoom exercise classes while I walk the streets. We do a bit of shopping, eat dinner early and watch the news for several hours in the evening. Melanie reads books and I read Kindle. We're early to bed and early to rise, though not necessarily wealthy or wise, we do seem to be fairly healthy.

And so it goes. Happy July and we'll 'see' you again next week.