Here is a blurry photo of me taken in 1984, from the top of El Capitan in Yosemite Park. I have a perm, so likely it’s a good thing it’s blurry. We didn’t have digital photos back then, and this is from Rosemary’s point and shoot. You may have seen pictures of people scaling up the face of El Capitan with ropes, but there is a trail that gets you to the peak that you can do in a few hours, without ropes and so on, and this site has great pictures and a description of the hike. This is El Capitan. If you climb up the face, the ‘nose…

Today was a day of ‘firsts in awhile’…I haven’t done any of these things since SIP started in March. 1. Got $$ from the ATM 2. Went to the Farmer’s Market 3. Went to a movie I haven’t needed cash, really the place I spend it most is at the Farmer’s Market. I don’t know WHY I haven’t been going there, it’s obviously even more safe than the grocery store, but I did worry about being around too many people, and then there was smoke and hot days and blah blah blah. It wasn’t crowded, everyone was wearing masks (even though the guy selling grapes had his under his nose…)…

This is a somewhat blurry picture of my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Mata, taken when she was much younger than when I knew her. She retired just a few years after I was in her class. I don’t remember a lot from that year in school, but I do remember her being a very good teacher, kind and involved and helpful. And short. I found out today, via Facebook, that the Stockton Unified School District has named their newest school (opening this school year, what a year to open!) for her. Here is the bio, from the school website, which is also where I got the photo. I had no…

Ally had a post the other day about her rules for how to live her life, and in the comments, Nance mentioned that the only rule she lives by is to be kind. Then I saw this meme on FB, and it got me thinking about the difference between being nice and being kind. According to this post, the main difference is in your motivation. Nice is about how you want to be perceived, whereas kind is about genuine compassion and caring. From the post: “If you get offended when people don’t offer you praise for being “nice” then you can be certain you aren’t being kind.” I agreed with…

“All were unconscious that this experience was a test of character, and, when the first excitement was over, felt that they had done well, and deserved praise. So they did; but their mistake was in ceasing to do well, and they learned this lesson through much anxiety and regret.” ~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women California did so well at the beginning of all of this, we crushed the curve. At least, it felt that way. I felt sorry for the people in New York and Louisiana and so on. I felt a little smug, actually. And now, here we are, mid-July, and hospitalizations in my county have tripled since…