Dancing together to my Danny’s beautiful piano music

 On the evening that we first saw each other, we were at a dance at the Deer Lagoon Grange Hall on Whidbey Island.  Neither one of us were looking for the love of our lives.  I wanted to immerse myself in the joy of dancing—moving my body gracefully to the rhythm of beautiful music.  Dan wanted to try out his “new foot.”  A few months before, he had undergone major surgery to rebuild his foot that had been causing him severe pain.

Everything changed when he looked across the dance floor and saw me jubilantly dancing.  He rushed over to ask me for a dance….and then another dance.  Love at first sight!

The rest is history.  We were married a few months later.  When I moved into his house, I discovered that he had a piano (in addition to a beautiful home that he had remodeled just for me—his love, his wife).  

I remember, all those years ago that, at times, he would play the piano.   Danny was an amazing piano player.   I was never a good piano player, but have always loved hearing sound of a piano, particularly the way that Danny plays….with wild abandon!

I could just request that he play one of my favorite oldies, and after a few minutes of figuring out the melody and chords, he would play the song for me.  One time he played and sang, “I’m Yours,” as a birthday surprise present for me.  By the time he finished singing and playing, I was so moved that I was in tears.

When we left our Whidbey Island home, we left our piano behind.  Danny said that he was “kind of done playing the piano.”

Then about a year and half ago, while at our cabin, I asked him why he never played the keyboard.  He said that it just wasn’t a piano, but he might want to play if he still had his piano. 

Sooooooo……..I immediately found a piano locally, and had it installed under the stairwell in our cabin.

He started relearning how to play his new piano….and played all summer long.  So I found another piano for Nuestra Casa, our home in Mesa!

He now plays in the morning when he has a few minutes, he plays in the afternoon, and he always plays for me while I’m fixing dinner.  I love it….and so does he.  It’s his new (old) hobby.

And when he plays, I come over to touch him and give him a kiss on the top of his head.  

A few weeks ago, Dan started recording the songs that he has been playing on the piano.  The plan was for us to dance to his music.  We were both very excited about this!

Every week we dance together to a playlist that Dan compiles from our favorite songs.  Today we danced to a playlist made from my love’s beautiful piano music that he plays for me….

It was heavenly…..dancing together with music created on the piano by my dear Danny.

Now he has to start recording more songs on his piano for next week’s dancing playlist.  I can hardly wait!!!

Our Turtle lost it’s shell!

 Here we are dancing in the Coconino National Forest….with our “Turtle” in the background.

Yes, the Turtle is our “gem” green F350 with a slide-in camper on it’s back, hence the “Turtle.”

Our truck has had the camper on it (with very few exceptions) since the day we bought it over 12-1/2 years ago.  We have gone on seven 5+ month long road trips and spent over 3-1/2 years sleeping in our Turtle. We have traveled all over our beautiful country, camped in dispersed areas far away from any other people, and seen sights and marvels that we never even knew existed.  

It has been a glorious journey…..traveling through life together!

This week we removed the shell from the Turtle.  We hardly recognized our truck. It is no longer our Turtle.  It is now just a big-assed truck, albeit a very dirty big-assed truck. Although the tailgate is remarkably clean with no desert pinstripes because it has been stored in our garage for the past 12+ years.

And the turtle shell is now nestled under the pine trees next to our cabin.

After all these years you may ask, why we disassembled the Turtle?  It isn’t because our road trip days are long gone as we near 80 years old.  No way!

It’s because Owen, Mila, and our four grandchildren, Hannah, Vernon, Robert, and our littlest grandchild in Mila’s belly are going to live in our cabin for the winter—while we migrate south to our sunny, warm home in Leisure World, Nuestra Casa.

Owen, Mila, Hannah, Vernon, and Robert playing around at the log cabin that Owen is building for them on their property north of Spokane:

So now our cabin will be their home this winter, and our snug little Turtle shell will be our winter retreat!

We have spent the last several weeks getting our cabin ready for Owen and Mila….AND child proofed! Which means emptying all our drawers and closets, removing all poisons and cleaning supplies, and storing all our possessions and breakable knickknacks in our shed (which our grandson Alden has named the Squash—don’t ask why.  We’re not sure, except that he said since their shed is named the Pumpkin, our shed should be the Squash. So Squash it is.)

We put a small oil filled radiator heater in the Squash to keep the pipes from freezing that run from the cabin to the washer/dryer.

We have spent days making the cabin child-friendly and safe, and installed beds in the spare bedroom (which we have renamed the Children’s Room).

Here are some photos of the recent transformations of our cabin….

Gate installed at the bottom of the stairs to the loft:

And a gate at the top of the stairs:

Wire and rope securing the china cabinet to the wall and preventing the little ones from opening the door:

Folding tables placed against the rail on the edge of the loft to keep the little ones from squirming through the rail and falling to the floor below:

Children’s table for crafts, writing, and play area in the loft:

Door locks on the kitchen cabinets:

Created a “dining room” for family meals:

The Children’s Room….

 

Inflating Hannah and Vernon’s bed:

Robert’s portable crib:

Children’s beds ready for a long winters nap:

More baby necessities:

We replaced our vintage mugs with colorful enamel cups, so our dear little grandchildren won’t need to worry about breaking Grandma and Grandpa’s cups….not that we’d care if they broke them.  They are just things, and can always be replaced!

We are so happy that this little, growing family will be nesting in our cabin for the winter….just a few hours away from us.  And when we visit them, we will “camp” out in our beloved Turtle shell. 

We will live close enough to see them often….and experience the marvel and wonder of the world through Hannah, Vernon, and Robert’s eyes.  And we will get to share in the miracle of new life growing inside of Mila.

The sign that we installed today outside the back door of the cabin says it all….

Phoenix Arizona broke a 1916 record for—believe it or not…..RAIN!!!!

Seven years ago we left the rainy Pacific Northwest and moved to sunny Arizona.

It seems that we brought the Washington rainforest down south with us!

It not only rained for days on end at our home east of Phoenix in Leisure World, but it also rained and hailed with thunder and lightning day and night at our cabin in the high desert mountains of Pine Arizona….

In fact, we are so unaccustomed to rain in Arizona that every few miles on the interstate this sign flashes in bold letters above the highway:

Not once in all the years that we lived on Whidbey Island north of Seattle did we ever see a sign warning us about “WET ROADS.”  The “wet roads” warning sign would have needed to blaze at us all 152 days a year that it rains in the Pacific Northwest.  

What’s more—in the Seattle area, where I lived 68 years of my life, the skies are overcast 226 days a year, with over 80% cloud cover.  “The bluest skies you’ve ever seen” are definitely not in Seattle!

We Arizonians can’t really complain much about breaking the 1916 record of the most days in a row of rain….with a measly five wet days.  In fact, it is so novel to see a downpour in Arizona that when it rains we get so excited that we all run outside and take pictures…..of RAIN!

Thank you, dear Danny, for moving us to gorgeously, beautiful sunny Arizona.  We love it here, even when it won’t stop raining….for 5 days once a century.

Making sweet lemonade out of lemons….

Last week we came down to the Valley to Nuestra Casa, our winter home in Leisure World, a week ago for three days filled with five doctor appointments.  

Then I had a call late last week that there was a cancellation, so I could get my MRI on Friday morning.  Great, since we already had appointments with our primary care doctor for later in the morning on Friday.  We could be back at our mountain cabin Friday afternoon!

Well, as you know, the best laid plans often go astray.  My MRI wa cancelled early Friday morning. The technician, who was already subbing for the regular technician, called in “sick,” or perhaps wanted a long, three day weekend.  OK, so we’re a little cynical, but we were also employed once upon a time…..a long, long time ago.

Meanwhile, Danny got a call….our heart doctor had a cancellation, so we were able to move his ablation appointment up a month to Tuesday.  This was great. And well worth staying in our beautiful home in the “hot” Valley for another week.

I was able to schedule my MRI for the day after Danny’s appointment.  Our three day trip to the “Valley” now became an eleven day trip.  Of course, we had stupidly brought only a week worth of Danny’s heart medicine.  So last Saturday, we enjoyed a beautiful 80 mile drive up to our cabin in Pine….and then 80 miles back down to the Valley.

Then yesterday, both Danny and I were told that the ablation and my MRI were cancelled as our insurance hadn’t approved our procedures yet.  Darn!!!**!

We spent several more hours on the phone with insurance agents and doctor’s offices listening to their abrasive “music” while being on “hold” incessantly. All to no avail.  Both our procedures were cancelled.  

And then this morning, Tuesday, we received a phone call from our health insurance.  They had approved Danny’s ablation in less than 24 hours!  So another hour of phone calls, only to find out that the doctor’s office (who had waited until the last minute to send to our insurance company the request for approval) had gone ahead and notified the hospital and staff that we wouldn’t be there for the ablation.  The doctor already had scheduled another patient.  

Meanwhile, the imaging center had ANOTHER cancellation, so we scheduled my MRI for Friday—we’ll see….

In the past week we have been scheduled for five doctor appointments and four medical procedures.  Three of the medical procedures have been cancelled.  We have spent more than five hours on the phone with medical personnel.  This is our life now….we would say that doctors and hospitals are our latest hobby, but hobbies are supposed to be fun.

The sweet part of our time down in the Valley is that we have taken several beautiful early morning walks and bike rides in our serene, quiet little bit of paradise in the middle of Mesa Arizona…..Leisure World.

And best of all….we spent Sunday morning in our home holding each other tightly, gazing into each other’s eyes lovingly, and dancing together.

Our granddaughter, Marina, sent us a recording of  her rendition of “Just the Way You Are.”  So of course, we danced to her lovely voice coming to us from Japan!

It was so wonderful dancing in our home here (where we have an activity room with a dance floor that we installed), that we just may dance together again, before my (if not cancelled again) MRI appointment.  

At our cabin we dance on the front deck….not exactly the best dance floor for us to dance our best, but we have an awful lot of fun no matter where we are or what we so, as long as we’re together!

Our letter on “regaining humanity” to Dana Milbank was published in the Washington Post….

Here is a small portion of our response to Dana Milbank that Milbank included in his column today: 

The following is the complete unabridged letter that Dan and I wrote to Dana Milbank for his newspaper column on how we maintain our humanity….or essentially how we continue to thrive, grow old with joy in our hearts, and love each other more each day.