Something borrowed, something blue...

Today is our anniversary, and we have reached 39 years together. I wrote at length last year about important personal dates in June, so I won’t repeat myself.

Some things have changed since then. The Father’s Day celebration they had this year did not include a celebration of my parent’s anniversary which would have been the next day, because our mother died in October. This would have been their 65th year together.

They did send these pictures though!

Lots of movies have been made about dysfunctional families trying to cope with crises. I am so blessed to have a very functional family who, even if they can’t be here with us, are here in spirit and on the telephone, and with cards and e-mails. They really do love us, and we know it.

My sister sent us some money to have dinner out. But we have decided to defer our anniversary celebration for the weekend before we go to consult with the oncologist at Barnes-Jewish hospital in St Louis. We are planning an overnight stay at Eureka Springs, a touristy place in Arkansas. We need some time for us...

Today I am remembering my wedding. I do actually remember quite a bit about it. I remember the soloist arrived an hour late, so I did not have a singer. I was not upset by this, because the church had rules about what sort of music could be sung at the wedding. My dad had always dreamed about the “Hawaiian Wedding Song” being played, but it was not among the music that the church permitted. I chose what I thought was the best of a selection of horrible songs, and was actually very glad the singer got confused about when he was supposed to come. 

I remember walking down the aisle to the most amazing organ music I had ever heard – and it was not “Here Comes the Bride,” which was the only song most of the people who attended the wedding had ever heard. Years later, people who had attended would mention to my mom how amazing the music was. The man who played the organ was a professor of music at the college Richard attended, and it was nothing like the typical church organ music one usually hears.

I remember that I had a blue garter on my leg. I do not remember what I borrowed. But in that theme, and obviously changing the subject completely, I am borrowing a couple of pictures that my friend Sue in California, who was a bridesmaid in my wedding, sent  late yesterday.

I have tried on several occasions to take pictures of the dragonflies that zip around our pond, but the reaction time on the camera I use is so slow that it is next to impossible to get a shot of one of them when they land before they take off again. 

So, here is a dragonfly her husband took.

The other thing I find so interesting is that in the midst of the megalopolis that is the greater Los Angeles, here sits a red-tailed hawk on her garden fence. 

And it lets her take a picture of it. Many red-tailed hawks stand sentinel along the highway where we walk every day, sitting atop telephone polls or perching on the road signs, scanning the rights of way and the median, and the sky (!) for a potential meal. A small flock of pigeons have nests on the girders of the highway overpass, and the other day a hawk sat several hours on a road sign near there, I suspect watching for a potential meal. 

But the hawks here are very people shy, and getting a picture of one without a significant telephoto lens isn’t going to happen. Last year when I visited my Dad, a hawk landed on the birdbath in the back yard but my attempt to get a picture of it failed miserably.