happiness and sadness

Overall it has been a lovely day.

Started with an on-call night with no calls.

Sat in the living room this morning after breakfast, reading and talking about Ireland.

Went to the farmer's market, which is one of my favorite activities of the week. Here is a picture of our market basket back in March.

Came home for lunch. More time looking out the back door with a view of trees and blue sky. Harper has discovered birds, complete with the cat bird chatter and bird stalking activities. Normally he is very skidish cat outside. Today it has been us asking, "where's Harper?" Only to discover that he is on the opposite side of the small back yard, staring at birds.

Drove to Sequim for a 2 hour conference on concussions. It was mainly geared for parents and coaches but I found it useful as well. We have had several high school athletes with severe concussions in the last several months. There is a new state law that requires an athlete not to re-enter the game the same day as a concussion, requiring a doctor's note to return to play. There is something called a second-impact syndrome, in which someone with a concussion without full resolution of symptoms, gets re-concussed can develop severe, life-threatening traumatic brain injury.

Came home. Checked email for a rhubarb pie recipe and discover an email from my father announcing that my grandfather had died this afternoon. He was diagnosed with a frontal meningioma (benign brain tumor located behind the forehead) last March. He was "given" 6 months to live back then. Lived most of the last 15 months in my aunt's house. No one could put him in a nursing home. He gradually began sleeping more and eating less and was put in hospice about a week ago. He was 92. (As an interesting aside, he was born 5 days later than Daniel Shorr, senior new analyst for NPR.) I don't have a better digital picture of him when he was healthy. This is a picture from last July with his children (biological and ex-step). My dad has been up to Bothell twice this week to see him. I'm sad to lose a grandfather but sadder for my dad losing his father. My dad's mother died of breast cancer when my dad was 13. They haven't decided on a funeral yet.

After discovering that news, I found the rhubard pie recipe I was looking for. We had an excellent dinner tonight, mushroom ravioli from the farmer's market (yes, it had cheese, more on that later), arugula salad with the arugula from one of Mike's co-worker's gardens, and rhubarb pie (yes, this had eggs, again more on that later). Here's a picture of the pie. It was an excellent dinner.

Overall a day filled with happiness with a little sadness around the edges.