Read Hop on Pop ’s Bananas at Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Patch
“… she can say ‘Dan’,” I crowed to Nazy.
“I wonder if she can say ‘bad’,” Nazy thought.
Auriane gets frustrated if she isn’t able to clearly state what she wants. However during our trip, her vocabulary has exploded — she can say ‘Car’, ‘Shoes’, ‘Dada’ …
“.. and ‘book’,” Nazy interjects.
“Correct, my dear!” I replied. “I’ve read ‘The Tail Book’ 47 times and ‘Hop on Pop’ almost as many.”
“She can say ‘Pop’ and she likes the ‘Dots’ book, too.”
As you can see from the picture, Leandra also likes to read. Additionally, Leandra clearly understands Martin Family Household Practice in Bellingham. I was reading on the bed..
“Dan!” Leandra exclaimed. “In this house, we do not get on the bed in our clothes.”
“Really?” I replied.
“No, Dan.” Leandra repeated — waiting for me to get up.
“Ah. Do you have to pee?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.
“We do not say that in our house.” Leandra replied.
“Everyone in every house has to pee.” I noted accurately.
“We say ‘toilette’.”
“And I say: ‘C’est moi’,” I retorted, displaying the French I had picked up watching Camelot as I walked to the WC.
“You didn’t say that right.” Leandra concluded.
There are a couple of playgrounds near Darius and Christiane’s house. Luckily, Washington State is in relatively good shape on the COVID scale, so Nazy and I have enjoyed sharing time at playgrounds with the girls. They really enjoy climbing the ladder to the slide and playing on the swings.
The Northwest region of the USA is beautiful: evergreens abound and large mountains are often in view. Mount Baker is quite close to Bellingham. Visitors, like us, from parched and draught-stricken California really enjoy seeing …
“… rain?” Nazy asked.
“But not on the weekend, Nazy.” I replied.
This weekend, in fact, we went to a pumpkin patch and for a jaunt around Lake Padden.
“Jaunt?” I thought after writing the note. We hiked and we walked. Darius and Christiane brought the double stroller that Auriane mostly wanted to push, rather than ride in. It was a beautiful day and a delightful walk.
While we were circumnavigating Lake Padden, I was humming a Kingston Trio song:
“In the White House, the mighty White House, the Liar tweets tonight…”
When the Super-Spreader in Chief who can’t even keep COVID out of his Virus Task Force, loses, we can expect the GOP to rediscover ‘principles’. They’ll have to stop packing the court and resume complaining about court packing, they’ll rediscover fiscal responsibility and instead of ballooning the deficit they’ll whine about federal spending, they’ll detest executive orders instead of cheerfully invoking them, the Russians will, once again, be adversaries, ‘Family Values’ will re-include concerns about character. Some things will, on the other hand, remain the same — like the GOP’s core competency: hypocrisy, their efforts to create voter fraud by preventing people from voting, obfuscation about their unpopular objectives and their unwillingness to act like adults.
After our hike around the lake and before our trip to the Pumpkin Patch, Nazy and I stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up the ingredients for Nazy’s Persian Rice. Later, Darius and I were talking about Trader Joe’s:
“.. they’ve been really good at creating a culture and consistency,” I claimed. “Their parking lots are too crowded, but the employees are always pleasant. And everything is unit priced. You don’t have to figure out how much a banana weighs before doing mental mathematics to arrive at …”
“That’s right Dad!” Darius interrupted. “They brag that they haven’t changed the unit price of a banana, 19 cents, since they were founded in the 60’s. I don’t know how …”
“It’s simple, Dar. In the 60’s, they had to cover high transportation costs because they had to import from a Banana Republic. Now, we live in a Banana Republic.”
Because of the pandemic, it has been a l o n g while since our last visit to Bellingham. It was, in fact, a year ago … and a quick review of the photos from that trip…
“… show that the weather then was just as beautiful as it is now,” I remarked. “What’s with these rumors of drizzle and rain?”
“Well, Dad, if you look carefully, there are some mud puddles on the ground here.”
“You’re right!” I concluded watching Auriane jump up and down in a puddle just before Leandra slipped in the mud.
Naturally, my attention was focused on the food — specifically ‘donut’ — sign.
I begrudgingly shared some donuts with Darius and helped pull the wagon with our pumpkin selections from the field to the car.
Our dinner venue was a great restaurant — the Fork at Agate Bay which was appropriately located at a fork in the road (at Agate Bay). The BBQ pork ribs and the Northwest Cabernet were highly popular.
Back at Dar and Christiane’s, the ‘girls’, both children and adult, created memorable Jack-O-Lanterns. We were also introduced to the Apple TV+ series entitled: “Teheran” — an Apple TV series in which the protagonist, at least so far, is somehow able to create misery or death for every single person who helps her. We’ll see the season finale on Friday.
And, speaking of finales, the only way the country will ‘turn the corner’ on the virus is to vote the ‘president’ out of office. We've begun.
For last week's letter, please click here
