Tuesday

Talk about a plenty of action day: Mike appeared at my door at 6:15. He hadn't texted or called me first, knowing I get up early, but still--! No prob, although I was stlll in my bedclothes and hadn't had breakfast yet. I dressed and we zoomed off to Ellen's for breakfast.

After, we hung out for while, Greg and I went to Bart's  Books, then Mike, Violet, and I (Ellen and Greg declined) went to the Fourth of July parade. It was kinda fun, but hot as hell, and it lasted two hours.  Some pics from the parade:

Back at El's, who had slaved in the kitchen while we were at the parade, Greg fired up the barbeque* while Mike read in the backyard:

. About 2:30, we had a great meal of salmon, sea bass, hamburgers, and sides. Later, Violet and El played digital chess:

After that, Mike and I joined them for several cutthroat games of Blokus:

That lasted until after 7:00, then El drove me home after speculating about getting me back in Ojai. This entailed getting Uber and Lyft on my phone and lots of other discussion. When we discovered driving me there via Lyft, I put my foot down. Finally, I went next door and asked Susan if she'd simply take me to the transit center and I'd get a bus. She asked where I was going, I told her and she offered to drive me to El's. I refused unless she's take some remuneration, which she finally reluctantly accepted, so good.

*It was nice of Greg to ask me to call Jim and invite him, too. I did, and he was grateful to be asked, but in his typical fashion, declined, saying he "wasn't pulled together" and so on. After we hung up, Greg called himself, but Jim--ever the way Jim is--still declined. Okay, another time.

IMPORTANT: Well, maybe not to the world at large, but here it is: We're leaving for Morro Bay at 8:00 am this morning for an overnight stay. I will not be taking my laptop with me. That means I won't be posting on this blog until maybe Thursday night or Friday.