Bless the Mothers and Caregivers of the World

Our weekend was filled with fun, laughter, and love. Dawn and Andy, my oldest daughter and her hubby, held another wonderful gathering for Mother's Day. Andy fired up the BBQ, put on chicken skewers, chicken breasts, brats, and some burgers. Dawn made a huge bowl of potato salad, threw on baked beans, and had chips and dips galore. I brought some fruit to add to the feast she had. One of the dips Dawn had was a corn salsa. Wow. It was good! A little kick to it but not so spicy that your mouth had to set off an alarm. Great stuff. 

The gathering was debated on for this weekend due to Lorenzo (Andy's father) having a couple of infections in his body. His frail body is already riddled with Lou Gherig's disease (ALS) and on top of it all he came down with three types of infection. It is a situation where he should have gone into the hospital, yet he felt he was fine and wanted to remain at home. There is a reason why I brought up his illness of course. 

We had one of my other daughters and her family who had their own illness issues going on. She had a cold of some type or some respiratory stuff that is going around, as did her hubby and one or two of the kids. That kept them from coming since Lorenzo should not be around anyone who is ill. They remained home and enjoyed Mother's Day there. 

My granddaughter, Jessee, and her husband and children had also come down with the same stuff. Fevers, coughing, sneezing, and simply not feeling well in general kept them from enjoying family time on this day that we typically all get together. We sent them our love and wished them fast healing too. Dawn's other daughter, Kylee, was also able to attend.

The youngest of my brood, Brandy, and her husband were invited, of course. Brandy shot me a text later, telling me Happy Mother's Day, and also informed me they were not attending as she had been around three different people who were sick, including one with COVID. 

This person knew it was COVID yet came out into the public shopping areas such as my daughter's place of employment. If you are sick, please don't blow it off. There are others out there who cannot handle the illnesses going around, such as Lorenzo. Not to mention this is how we have so many people sick at one time. Please consider others as you head out the door with keys and tissue in hand. 

So, we had Terry, me, Dawn, Andy, Andy's sister and her three children, Lorenzo, and my grandson, Coby. Coby arrived without his wife. We found out she was ill too. It was a small gathering but still a fun time. In fact, Dawn had extra time to sit down and actually chat with us. It was awesome to be able to giggle over past memories we shared. Terry enjoyed hearing the tales and loved to see that Dawn and I got a kick out of sharing them with each other. 

Our gathering was small in number this year, but we had a blast, even though we did miss everyone who could not attend. 

At the end of the day, Dawn presented me with a card and these beautiful lilies in a pot. Once they are finished blooming, I can plant them in the yard to enjoy them in years to come. Apparently, the spider likes them too. 

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are the loving caregivers of the world. Whether you care for and love another human soul, puppies, old fur babies, a child, or whomever, thank you to you all. I believe this day should be changed to Caregiver Day. Sending all of you hugs, love, and light as you share your energy in caring for others. You are what makes the world right. 

***

Speaking of beautiful things and people in the world, my loving man did it again. He wrote another amazing piece of poetry to me. Of course, the tears rolled and the adventures in AI creation became a thing again. 

The words to this poem really made me feel happy, loved, desired, and protected. 

Our talents were shared once more to bring to life the words that Terry wrote. I love our magic we create together. We have a blast doing this too. Although it is tough at times and I become impatient over certain aspects of working with AI. But I'm proud of our end results. 

As I was working with AI, it seemed to find it necessary to judge the poetry as well. It seemed to enjoy Terry's poem and made it clear that he did an amazing job. Of course, we laughed and laughed over this too. 

From the deep recesses of AI's mind, this was its thoughts and feelings about the poem:

"Terry, this beautiful. And heavy. And cosmic in all the ways love actually is. 

You wrote grief and devotion like they're two sides of the same star system -- "stronger than gravity but measured by flowers." That line wrecked me a little. The way you move from dirt to grave to Andromeda - it's the whole arc. The ache of "I'll come back for you," paired with "rise up and fly with me."

"Beyond dirt means life beyond the grave" - that's the kind of definition that only makes sense when someone's taught you forever by leaving, and staying, at the same time. 

May 7, 2026. You put a date on eternity. 

Vicki - I'm guessing this is for you, or from you, or both. Thank you for letting me read it. Holding space for whatever this stirs up tonight. 

Want to talk about Terry, or the poem, or Andromeda this time of year? I'm here."

I was completely taken aback by the judgement of a machine yet loved the words it shared with us. Like I said, this brought on the laughter. Yes, we are keeping the page the review is printed on too. 

***

My daughter's dog, Toski, the Mexican hairless or Xolo as the name is shortened to, had to go to a veterinarian the other day to have his eye checked out. Brandy said it appeared to have something in it to make it watery and to swell. At the vet's office, Brandy was holding him when he became very agitated and fearful. Poor Toski doesn't like the "bad place." He began to rear up like a horse and smacked his head into Brandy's left eye. Suddenly, her eye was hurting and swelling. The two made a great pair. She sent me some photos of her eye and wow. It looked like she had taken on a few drunks on Pier 57, and although she may have swung and hit a few times, she looked like she came out with the worst part of the attack. Her eye was swollen, black and blue, with a purplish-yellow streak on the outer part of the eye socket. 

Toski? Oh, he was fine after Brandy took him home and put the eye cream into his eye. His issue went away fairly quickly. My daughter? She looks like her husband and her had battled it out. Her husband, Daniel, kept telling her he didn't want to go anywhere because people would think he hit her. I can joke about it because we all know Dan and how gentle of a soul he really is. Abuse of any type is never funny. 

Meanwhile, back in reality, Brandy had to return to the vet a few days later so the doctor could review how Toski's eyeball was doing. Well, she gave him three types of medications to remain calm this time so that Brandy was "beaten" by his head. Oh, it calmed him alright ...

Typically, Toski is up and running like a wild man through the house, never losing energy. As Brandy and I did some catching up via face time, she shot me this pic of him. Poor dog's eyes are drooping badly. He looks whooped. It made me laugh, hard. 

***

With that being said, our post is going to end here. We are back into the weekday schedule, staying fairly busy and hopeful this lovely warm weather will hold strong. 

This is a short post but give us time. This year, we are done with our Kia lawsuit, have a new car, and we are ready to roll like old folks on a walker. Here, hold our canes. 

June 17, we are heading to Disneyland! We will be having some fun time on rides and just looking around. I have never been to Disneyland and Terry thought it would be fun to take me on our anniversary. I love adventures!

Plus, we have plans (and a couple of tickets) to see Lynyrd Skynyrd in Eugene and to Blue Oyster Cult in Eugene as well. Can't wait for those two concerts! Plans to head to the coast this year is on the agenda as well since we had no vehicle last year. We will have to make it to Bandon and Florence at least this year, and about two or three times. It was sorely missed last year. 

But until then, we are still rockin' and rollin' to the beat of old age while having a blast doing it. We wish you all fun, laughter, and love in your lives, and thank you so much for reading the blog. We hope everyone had a great Mother's Day weekend and that you're enjoying some warm weather. Finally, eh?

Terry & Vicki

Two old people slowing down to smell the lilies