We had brunch with Rick and Doug yesterday. This was Don’s first visit to their house. Well, actually, his second because we walked around the house and the grounds one day before they moved in. We had a wonderful time with them. Laughter, good conversation, a tour of the house, which is looking more and more settled.
And fun with Sam, their dog.
It’s truly a spectacular house, one-of-a-kind (it was featured in Architectural Digest years ago.) What makes me happy is seeing how happy they are to be here, to have found their retirement home in our little town. Sam is also happy; he loves the smells, the critters and the snow.
After brunch, we took a little walk:
Rick, Don, Doug and Sam.
Rick, yours truly, Sam and Doug. We’re crazy about Sam.
Both Don and I have remarked over the past couple of months how wonderful it was going to be when our friends officially came to town. Well, it is. When we moved here (out East) 16 years ago, we left behind some friends of long standing. Though we both have friends out here and certainly have a lot of colleagues and acquaintances, it’s not the same as having friends that truly know us. There is a comfort level, an ease, that can only exist after years of knowing each other.
We’re so happy they’re here.
I gave them a dozen chocolate chip cookies. Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies, and Rick really loves them.
Now, I need to bake some more, which I plan on doing today. And I think I’ll put up our little Christmas tree today, as well.
More snow on the way tomorrow.
By the way, Vicki has updated us on her status and her comments can be read on the last few posts. They are safe.
Happy Monday.
I made your “Christmas cake” last week. So good! Gave the recipe to my sister. She made it yesterday. Same response: So good! Thanks for sharing.
The coffee cake? Yay!
Your happiness shows through in the photos!
Yes, it does.
Claudia, So glad you have your good friends close by. It is nice to have someone we can turn to if need be., and visa versa. Enjoy the snow . Blessings to all, xoxo, Susie
The same to you, Susie.
I’m sure that your friends are happy to be closer to you guys, too. And now that I’m pretty sure that my NYC subway-riding boys would not have been in the subway at that early hour, I am merely angry about that stupid attack, rather than worried. People, it’s time to make America human again.
Glad they’re safe. I’m in the Port Authority quite often – it’s packed in the morning. I’m angry, too.
Long time friends are the best! I looked up the recipe that Linda was talking about…sounds like it might be the perfect compliment to opening presents Christmas morning. Enjoy your snow…we are to get 3 inches today….more or less! ;)
I make it every year on Christmas Eve so that it can chill overnight. Then we warm it up on Christmas morning.
I love your pictures and love all the smiles! A snowy photo with great friends and neighbors
is always a wonderful thing. Don is a tall guy; I did not realize how tall.
Glad you are feeling better too, Claudia!
He’s 6′ 4 1/2″ tall.
old friends are golden!
and sam…
well. no words for sam except huge happy grins!
everyone should know a sam! xo
Sam is adorable. We miss having our dogs, so we get a chance to have a dog in our lives and that’s good.
Good friends, from ‘way back; shared history; it’s very meaningful.
Claudia, I’d meant to say some days ago although the last week has been sometimes a blur, that I’m glad you were able to find out early-on that your friends in Ventura were unscathed at least geographically/physically from the wildfire (although none of us are mentally unscathed, not after this – have you heard of the Black Hills of South Dakota; well, we are now the Black Hills of South California). I hope that the 3rd friend you had mentioned, somewhere in the vicinity-near, is safe as well.
I, too, am glad you’re feeling better; you all look so happy in these photos. The snow is so inviting as I sit here in, I kid you not, a flimsy bathing suit cover up, bare feet, crunching on ice from my Diet Coke because my throat is so parched from our excessively-dry, now too-hot, windy weather. How ’bout if I jet over, coast to coast? (Oh, how I wish. Could Southern California just catch a break? Anybody know a ceremonial rain dance we could learn?)
Claudia, your hair has gotten really long! It’ll keep you warm on these wintry days in the Northeast. I sure hope I can someday enjoy a winter-white, Frosty The Snowman holiday. The snow is very pretty when it’s quiet and gentle. I’ve heard it muffles the sounds.
I’m sitting here on the noon hour past, waiting for my husband to come back home from where he works in L.A. county. Something has happened to one of our toilets; all the parts inside seem to have exploded in the tank (I can hold that ball thing in my hand; it detached) and I walked in expecting to see a flood because it’s a lot of noise and spray – – but not yet. I’d noticed that we have city workers on many of the streets and they’re digging up lines so I’m wondering if the town has developed some water pressure problem due to the demand of water-need in the fire; we have old infrastructure yet are nonstop filling up so many fire trucks at the hydrants and helicopters for the water-bucket drops. I noticed when I turned on the garden hose this morning that it boomed-boomed at me, which was odd. So, SOMEthing happened, I dunno what, while I was gone from the house this morning. My poor dog was sorta nuts when I came in the door so I imagine she’d heard or felt something, too.
Poor hubby. He had a busy day today and it’s a long drive in both directions and that’s on a good day, not when he has to drive through fire zones; and he HATES plumbing problems but he forbade me to call a plumber; he’s a DIYer. So, yowie, I got an earful of frustration over the phone from him. Sigh. But it’s a small matter in these days (a toilet!) compared to everything else going on. ‘Tis life.
I said I wouldn’t talk about the fire but just before heading home to my house, I drove on a road which has had a ‘hard’ closure for the past week due to the fires. Haven’t know too much of what had been going on there. It is lined in one section with a long, long, LONG (and TALL) ‘wall’ of gorgeous magenta bougainvillea that has been there my entire life (which is now a LOT of decades) – – and it’s gone; just a pile of gray ash laying flat on the blackened dirt. I can’t believe that enormous stretch of lovely vine/natural fencing is Gone With The Wind (and Fire). And elsewhere, at a local cemetery, a gigantic, ancient, scorched-trunk eucalyptus tree fell over right on top of my great-aunt and great-uncle’s graves, the whole large section of which is now marked off with police tape. (I hope I don’t find, after I can ever get back in there, their grave markers cracked in two. That would be expensive to replace, and who suffers the cost I’m wondering? The tree was on adjacent ranch property; not the cemetery property.)
I know it sounds crazy – maybe I’m going crazy now from the stress of past and present days of fire crisis – but I felt a giggle bubble up from somewhere deep inside me because my auntie, pushing toward age 100, had a wicked sense of humor and, somehow, I’m thinking she’s thinking this is funny, that a tree fell on them. You’d have had to know her to understand. I think she was sending me that giggle as a sign to lighten up; I couldn’t suppress a grin, that’s for sure. I could almost hear her laughing.
Glad to hear you’re able to giggle, Vicki. That’s a good sign!
My hair grows very fast. It got long and Don likes it this long, so I’m going to let it be for a while.
I love your hair, Claudia! Grow it as long as you like; my gosh, I have gal pals at our age who are almost going bald, their poor hair has gotten so thin.
xo
hi, vicki.
hope you find good news (no tree damage to the markers) when you can get to the cemetery. and that the toilet is an easy fix. and you have peace.
sending a virtual iced diet coke, hug and prayers …
kathy in iowa
Thanks, sweetie; toilet is fixed. I’m still crunching ice; it was darn hot today. And the smoke smell last night was the worst yet; both my husband and I were coughing like crazy by bedtime, so I’ve barely left the living room today. I almost feel that the masks over my nose and mouth make it harder to breathe but it’s essential because the ash has asbestos in it because we’ve had so many burned houses over so many miles; there’s just so much char in general. The wind has just died down and the helicopters have all come in for the night as the sun sets at 5pm. And the fire rages on, north of me and also to the east. Our evac orders are mostly lifted now in my area. I continue to be safe. But it needs to be OVER now. Enough. Done. Fire Go Away!
It’s so good to hear that you are alive and well and still in your home Vicki…I have worried about you all weekend while watching videos of the fire in your area online…what I saw was just horrific…Thank goodness for whatever fate that kept the fire away from your home…Take care…
Thank you. I just had a conversation with an 87-year-old lady I know. We finally touched base. She took one look at the fire north of her on Mon., Dec 4 (a day ‘which shall live in infamy’ in the lives of Southern Californians, seared into our brains forever) just as the power went out, grabbed her dog and some essentials, got on the road, no lights except her headlights, drove to another canyon (I hate that canyon; it is treacherous even in daytime, no guard rails, very steep road and curvy, and this was like 1am and smoky; I have never driven that canyon myself and never will, I hope) to get over the mountain to an area called Thousand Oaks which is off the 101 freeway south, a crazed owl from the fire almost plastered himself against her windshield while she was driving, and she just waited things out over there, once she arrived safely, for five days. She is amazingly resourceful. When I’m age 87, if I wind up alone and on my own like her, could I please be as resilient and smart? Her home is okay; she is okay. There are 10,000 stories like this and hers is mellow compared to those of others. Thanks for thinking of me, Nancy.
You all look so happy with each other’s company. Friends can be such fun and a comfort when needed. Those photos show how much you all love each other.
Marilyn
We do. Thanks, Marilyn!
Oh- How wonderful. Glad that Don finally got to visit (inside), too. lol
You are right- there is nothing like “old” friends that know us well–that we don’t have to stop and explain WHY we are the way we are at some given moment. Old friends just “know”.
Hope you have a great night- I can almost smell the cookies baking. xo Diana
They just know – you’re so right, Diana!
I am so glad Vicki and family are safe! I have a cousin who has the car packed and they are ready to go at a moment’s notice. She is near Santa Barbara. These fires are so terrible.
They are horrifying!
It is so, so scary for them right now. And Carpinteria and Montecito are the most beautiful places to live. I pray for the safety of your cousin, Tana. I hope they have somewhere to go. I read of people in Ventura who fled the fire last week, having to go as far as Buellton (north of Santa Barbara; it’s of the movie “Sideways” fame) to find a motel room. That’s an hour and a half drive at the very least on a good driving day, with no evacuation panic and slowed cars; clogged roads (the ones which are still open). There are thousands upon thousands of evacuees/displaced people. Thank you for your thoughts of me. I wondered where my next-door neighbor took his big trailer and it’s parked at Point Mugu (this is a beach area) which is an hour from here; he has a wife and three children (one is a newborn) and he wanted them out of here. He’s decided to not bring them back for another week. The situation for a lot of counties like mine is that we still don’t exactly know what this fire will do; nobody’s resting completely easy yet even if the fire has already run through here once. Just be reassured that they’re fighting it really hard in Santa Barbara county now; the planes with the slime ran all night long from what I understand. Firefighters are doing their best to get the upper hand.
It is lovely to have good friends close by! Enjoy time together as I can see you are. Oh who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies! Hugs!
Hugs to you, my friend!
your happiness and comfort show in the photos and are nice to see. i am happy for you, don, rick, doug and sam. :)
are you feeling all better? hope so.
i am going to search for that recipe, too. sounds yummy!
kathy in iowa
I’m still not feeling tip-top- the worst of it is over, but I’m definitely still recovering.
What happy pictures of you all…Sam looks like a beautiful dog…I think it is wonderful that your old friends…who could have chosen most anywhere in the country to retire…chose to be close to you…that tells me a lot about your friendship Claudia…I wrote a bit to Vicki above…I think it’s just amazing that her house was spared…
It’s a miracle. Thanks, Nancy.
Five blocks was a little too close. But it makes me feel a bit awkward to keep talking about myself when other people I know have lost everything. You know how our governor Jerry Brown was saying that Trump just doesn’t seem to know or understand about the wrath of God when it comes to climate change. He’s not going to do it, and I don’t want to see him, but Trump SHOULD come here to Southern California and see firsthand what it’s doing to us; maybe he’d become a believer and not mock global warming.
Thank you both, Nancy and Claudia, that I’m even on your brain; it makes me feel comforted. There’s going to be a lot of post-traumatic stress in Southern California in the months ahead as people try to process what’s happened here after such a devastating disaster as this fire.