Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
John is writing and posting this in his last few hours of being able to see normally, or what he's called normal for the past 50 years, because he's going in for cataract surgery today at the Kaiser in Otay Mesa! Of course, he already heard from Kaiser postponing his early afternoon appointment to late afternoon, sigh.
Fortunately, he has sick time to cover the couple days it'll take before he's back out in the field.
We had a busy weekend! On Saturday we went to the Living Coast Discovery Center thanks to ticket vouchers from Danielle, who works there! She gave us an awesome behind-the-scenes tour that included feeding the rays, scratching the back of a sea turtle named Emerald, and feeding grapes to an opossum named Oscar! Afterwards we all went to dinner at Aqui Es Texcoco in Chula Vista for some traditional lamb bbq tacos! We also ordered a side of guacamole with chapulines, or grasshoppers.
Then, Sunday morning, we took Shadow on a fairly long hike on the mountain, going to the top of Cowles Mountain and then over to Pyles Peak, a little under 8 miles round trip. More training for the Coast to Coast, which is coming right up!
Coast to Coast Walk update. We received a package from Mickeldore containing our detailed, personalized itinerary booklet, a guidebook, and the Harvey topographic map for the entire route! John also downloaded slightly more detailed, geocoded topographic maps on his phone. Ondine's knee is getting better, and we're settling into our gear, with very little left to get. We've been watching CtoC videos on YouTube just to get a feel for what kind of trail conditions we'll be faced with.
What else has been going on ...
A couple weeks ago we went to a big clan Easter gathering on Saturday at John's cousin Nancy and Jay's house in La Costa. It really RAINED all day! They had a taco truck plus ceviche and desserts, plus of course everyone brought something so there was the usual overabundance of food. John didn't have time to make his usual farro mazezushi, so we just took a Julian Mountain Berry Apple Crunch pie. Claire had brought some of Aunty Maria's old photo albums, and John's Mom and Aunty Grace pored over them, sharing memories. They're the last of the original set of five Ishida siblings. John's Mom is going strong at 95. Aunty Maria made it to 100 before dying a couple years ago, but her husband, Leon, is still going at 100 years old this year. It was especially good to catch up with the Washington branch of the clan!
Ondine hired a writing coach to work together on some short stories, including guidance submitting them for publication! And, she got together with Lucy a couple times just to catch up.
Speaking of catching up, John got together with his friend Dave for lunch. John also finalized our income taxes, getting them filed before going in for surgery.
Leo has been doing great in his classes at Grossmont College. He's been enjoying going to the philosophy course tutoring because he finds the tutor more clear than the instructor. And, his English professor said his essay was the best she'd ever received, and asked to use it as a model!
We just got word that, like tens of thousands of Californians, our homeowner's insurance is being "non-renewed." John called our Farmer's agent, who is also having her home's policy non-renewed so we're all in the same boat. Anyways, after making a few phone calls it quickly became apparent that no one is writing homeowner's insurance in our area due to wildfire risk, so, barring major systemic changes to the home insurance landscape in the coming weeks, we'll be joining the burgeoning herd in the soon-to-be-insolvent California FAIR Plan. Shikata ga nai, yo?
The next time you see John, he may be able to see you too!
Neighborhood gas prices are about $5.29 per gallon.
Visit us often - this journal is probably the world's oldest continuously updated family blog, having been updated regularly since 1998! Who else has a 26-year-old active blog?
Back to the Kuraoka Family main page, with lots more stuff, including photos!