Spring

It’s now spring in our part of the world and it’s obvious everywhere around us. We are suddenly getting much warmer weather and most importantly the pollen counts are high. All but one in the family is taking anti-histamines and I just bought nasal sprays today. I have had long success with Beconase and that’s what I got today. It worked almost immediately and turned my stuffy nose almost into a drippy nose. Not quite but close…

With the beginning of September I enter into the birthday season. There are several friends and family members with birthdays this month. The first birthday was on the first and was for a friend who has kept out of touch. Our sons have been in regular contact but she has not. There are things going on in her life that have been problematic so I can only hope she one day returns. But I did send her a message on her day and even did a bit of an update.

On Saturday, it was my dad’s birthday and I did call him that night (my time) and got hold of him easily. He’s been suffering massive pain after he fell of his bike recently and hadn’t had much relief until recently. Apparently he’s back to work and feeling much better but is looking forward to getting a pain injection in November. Frustrating he has to wait so long but it’s great that he’s feeling pretty good right now. I hope it continues.

A dear friend had her 70th birthday on Saturday also. I can always remember her birthday since it’s the same as my dad. She had a lunch at a local restaurant with seventeen of her friends and family, of which we were included. We’ve been to the restaurant before and it’s been good, so it was no surprise that the meal was really nice. She was a really good hostess and moved around to different groups at the table so that she could enjoy the company of all present. We ended up sitting at one end of the table with a mutual friend and across from a couple that are former neighbors. They’re a bit older than her but it was really quite fascinating to talk to them. They are originally from the UK and they spent much of their youth going off to see up and coming bands like The Beatles and the Who and various other groups. It was quite neat to think of them being some of the first to see these bands in their youth. But it was also weird in a way to think that that era is now so long past that these people are well into the 70s and beyond. I don’t equate rock music and older people but these were some of the people that were in it in the early days. The other fascinating aspect of their lives is they both came to Australia as 10 pound Poms in the late ’60s. This was a program started to increase the population and the passage on the ship was a mere 10 pounds. So they were neat to listen to on two counts. The only downside was there was a lot of noise and I found it hard to follow a lot of what was going on. It was quite exhausting after a while. After we’d been there for 3.5 hours a few of us joined our friend at home for more cake and coffee/tea. I will note the Scientist made two special cakes to make sure there was enough and they were both delicious.

On the 10th it was my great aunt’s birthday and that was a bit of a sad occasion since she died just before her previous birthday from lung cancer. This aunt was particularly close to my mom and also one of my second cousins. It’s been over a year and it’s still been difficult for them. Even for me it’s unsettling to think this aunt is no longer around.

And that’s just the first couple weeks of the month. My mom’s birthday is tomorrow and further along my college roommate. And then we get a bit of a break.

Getting back to the spring weather, I will note we had to open windows and turn on the fan and later the air conditioner. Part of the reason for the a/c was to try to pump some of the pollen out of the house. But it was also already getting rather warm. And it’s now 11:30pm and the fan is back on to bring a bit of fresh air inside.

Our bottlebrush trees are starting to bloom and soon the branches will be heavy with red flowers. Afterwards I need to prune off branches as they are getting kind of low to the ground. Plus I need to get out and mow the backyard again. And still need to do something in the front yard. Hopefully it will stay dry long enough to make some in-roads for both.