Posted July 19, 2023: Son Scott came “home” for a week in June before his relocation to an island called Busuanga in the Philippines. This morning Scott and Sandra left from LAX for Manila. To be followed by a ferry to their island…and they’ll be home. More about that later.

Son Steven turned 60 while Scott was home.

And here they are in plant-rescue mode. Since Scott intends to be an organic gardener in his new life, he’s surely up to the challenge of rescuing a desperately-clinging-to-life Swiss Cheese plant.

Later on in June, I flew up to Rochester, Minnesota for a few days of tests to see if the good doctors who treat kings and celebrities, can de-mystify my stomach. I started baking cakes again. I continued to imagine the apocalypse, the edges of which we are experiencing everyday as the world passes the point of no return in so many areas. But THEN I think of the next big fancy cake I’m baking in a couple of days and I pretend everything is just hunky dory.

It is ‘hot as the hinges of hell” as we used to say up in Minnesota when it got up over 70 degrees. Little did we know. Here in the Southwest the sun shines and shines and shines and once inawhile for a change of pace the wind comes up and blows a lot of dirt and trash around.

If that makes me sound unhappy, the sun does that to me. I imagine my ancestors, the first neaderthals in their dark dank caves and envy them. However I must return to my pastime of public-journaling (which is what my blogging amounts to…). There will never be a blog-book diary of this time and place in my world unless I write and post. Also it’s cheaper than having a therapist. And there’s that great-great-great grandchild who will pour over the photos of ancesters and their strange lives in a world where there were books that actual people wrote actual words in and little pocket gadgets that captured real sights–when there were real sights.

Yeah, I am not happy. Right now. By tomorrow I will be. Probably. Not sure if anyone can blythly use that h-word to describe very many circumstances. HOWEVER, LET ME ADD A FEW MORE WORDS WITH SEVERAL PICTURES THAT WILL CHEER US ALL UP. I’ll return to my stomach and Mayo Clinic and the apocalypse next post.

Ahhh. My boys still love their toys. Happy birthday Steven. Everyone needs a Viking helmut. About my wayward son. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog, but here it is again. Scott’s wife inherited family land on the Phiippine island of Busuanga. Scott and Sandra decided to retire at their earliest opportunity-and go live on that land. Sandra has already been back and forth working on her religious retreat which involves a lovely outdoor space with the Stations of the Cross. She has also overseen the building of a small guesthouse for visitors to her retreat and their home.

Scott, with the vital assistance of Youtube and google maps (I think) has been pursing all possible cycling trails on Busuanga and beyond AND has become addicted to Youtube farming/planting/organic vegetable and chicken-raising shows. He is bringing one of his bikes and all this new found knowledge of farming to their relatively small piece of land right on on edge of a bay.

Scott has a new toy too-a drone! Imagine having your very own drone to hover above the chicken pen.

Scott and Sandra are youngish-enough, healthy, and so very excited to have a whole second life back and forth between the U.S. and the Philippines.

But here’s the rub…Scott has an elderly mother in Albuquerque, New Mexico and he’s just left her to travel halfway around the world. That would be me. And I’ve been kind of anxious, lonely, melancholy, and some more saddish words now and then. At the same time I am absolutely thrilled for their adventure and wholeheartedly support it and believe it’s the right thing. It’s a bit nervewracking, this emotional conflict.

To take myself out of this and future mournful moments, I think about my trip there next summer. Rainy season, maybe two or three months, sitting on the patio, reading and reading. Remember I lived in the Philippines as a young Air Force wife. Clark AFB. It is a beautiful tropical multiple-island grouping. I was back once in 1989 after I quit my City job and went out to seek the world and become a great travel writer. Oh well. But maybe I could try that scenario again. Me, big old hat, sitting under a thatched roof with my laptop, drinking San Miguel and picking at my plate of mango slices. And writing a great work of literature, finally.

Scott was here to hang out with Mom, Bro, and family for a lovely ten or so days. Sandra came for a weekend also. Scott hates having me take and post many pics of him…but tough…that’s what you get if you desert your your sweet little old mom… The family gathers:

Sandra made everyone’s favorite-that classic Filipino dish, pancit.

How can you not be proud of a son who can balance a banana peel like that?

And a couple days after Scott left, his brother toasted some pieces of the slightly odd pound cake his brother had baked. The end.