Home on the range....

Eileen preparing the feast for the 6 cats, of which the one on the floor managed to eat as often as we were not looking.  Koa is on dinner restriction when the cat food goes down.  Robert on the phone looking for car parts - he had saved some upgrades, repairs, for the US and did everything in Eileen's driveway.  The HOA and the neighbors think the white van is loaded with Clampetts.



George and Gail in Green Valley and tired Bobbie.  When they left Az., we really missed them and have kept in touch through emails.  It was wonderful visiting with them- as if the time between had not happened. 



Carolyn, Robert, Eileen, and Debbie:  I kept wondering why the plates looked familiar and the salt and pepper shakers.  Seemed we had a lot of garage sales here.

Part of being in Arizona is seeing friends and sleeping in the best bed ever at Eileen's house.  The dog and cats have a truce of sorts, with Cleo and Sammy thinking that Koa is a big play toy.  Catching up with friends helps rid me of the ache of missing them when we are wandering around on the ocean.  I asked Robert what did we do when we lived here.  Carolyn quietly responded, "you did this" as we sat around our old table, eating at Debbie and Harold's house.  Yes, we spent time with friends.  And church.  It is difficult to feel patriotism when the wars are in places like Afghanistan and Somalia and such, when we hear words that the newly dead died for our freedom.  Ok, they support our freedoms, but what the hell are we doing in Afghanistan? Yet, hearing the Navy hymn sung at the end of the service yesterday brought goosebumps.  We need reminding sometimes that our young are being sacrificed to support freedoms, whether or not we agree with the foreign policy.  I was miserable at Arlington, thinking that we don't seem to learn from history, and seeing all the graves, thinking of all the sorrow.  I would hope that we will learn, soon, that the transformative love we hear about in sermons can help heal our world.