Work, Heat, A Visit and Air Conditioning

Today we were up bright and early – beating the heat – to work on items related to our estate business. We were able to be efficient and busy in the cool before the sun rose above the 14 story building across the street. This is so far the only real advantage of having that…

Heat, Heat and More Heat

Lordy. We are melting over here. Even in our air-conditioned bedroom, it feels warm. And it’s 9 o’clock at night! Today, I had a whole series of students – college essays – in my den. One fan for my student; one fan for me. Curtains pulled tight. Ceiling fan on. Sweating, nonetheless. We couldn’t even…

Heat Wave

First day back to work after the Labor Day holiday. The temperature soared today, hitting a high of 97 degrees in Los Angeles. I saw students downstairs in the part of the house where there is no air conditioning. In the morning, I met with students in the den with the curtains pulled tight and…

Last Day with Our Texas Friends

Our friends are leaving early tomorrow morning. We headed back from Ojai this afternoon and spent the late afternoon and evening visiting first at Liz and Ron’s house and then at Sarah and Gregorio’s. These are old family friends so they know our kids well and vice versa. It was important to spend time together…

My Day with Little Luna

Grandma is tired. We picked 2 1/2 year old Luna up at 7:30 am at the parking lot of the Barnsdall Art Center (Sarah is working at Children’s Hospital on a rotation for the next ten days and the hospital is a block away), then returned Luna to that same parking lot this evening around 6:30…

Lost Art: In Defense of Hardbound Books

I stand firmly in the camp advocating the importance of hardbound books. I realize we can save trees if we go entirely to a digital format for all books, but all I can say to that is, “Bah, humbug.” While I understand the value of reading on a digital device, I do not especially enjoy…

Heatwave in LA

LA is experiencing a heat wave and it’s been tough on all of us. The temperatures over the past few days have been high. Yesterday is was 97 degrees; today close to 95. Plus the humidity has been up so the heat feels even hotter. Add to the mix all the asphalt from the roads…

A Busy, But Fulfilling Day

It is 11:28 pm and I have had a very long day. I had my writing friend here at 8 this morning. We wrote for 1 1/2 hours together. This was, of course, wonderful since we are both excited to have a designated time to work on our works-in-progress. For much of the rest of…

Our Visitor Tonight: Daughter Liz

Liz came over for dinner tonight. Ron is off in Argentina with his Spanish class and that left her a little more free to make the trek over from Glendale after work. I made her one of her favorite meals: noodles with homemade tomato sauce. The fact that my children were fed this meal every…

The St. Thomas the Apostle “Breakfast Club”

First thing this morning – 6 am – Ray and I headed over to St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal church in Hollywood to help cook for the Breakfast Club, our homeless feeding program there. We joined other volunteers to make and serve homemade bread pudding, scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, grilled leeks and onions, and sliced…