Sunday June 22, 2025
Morning prayer:
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for mulberry lemonade.
- Thank you for people.
- Thank you for insights.
- Thank you for love.
I love you!
Dear Diary,
I awoke at 5:30 AM. I wrote my blog notes and let the dogs out. Then I attempted to go back to sleep. At 6:30 AM, I was still awake and I got up. I got Angel up and put the sheets in the washing machine on quick wash. I got dressed and packed up our stuff and put it in the truck. By the time I was finished with all that, the washing machine had finished its cycle. I put the sheets in the dryer and went outside. I fed the ferrets and gave them fresh water. I filled up the horses water trough and fed the cat. I let the sheep out and let the ducks out. I filled up the duck pool with fresh water and collected eggs. I went in the house and cleaned the eggs, then I made the bed with clean sheets. Then all the chores were done.
I carried Little Bit to the truck so the big dogs wouldn’t get him and we went home. I walked with Little Bit to get my gratitude sign from M&W. I took a picture and wiped it clean. I took the sign home and will set it up again when I get back from being down in the valley. My daughter Savana is flying into Boise from Texas today and we are going to be down in the valley until Thursday. Then we will come back up to Council and play in the mountains. Monday morning will come back down to the valley and Savana will fly out Tuesday morning.
I made Angel breakfast and made myself tea and a smoothie. I packed up food and clothes and loaded it all in the truck. We drove to my friend Camille’s and dropped off compost to her chickens. Camille was outside and we talked for a few minutes. Then we hearted (headed) down the mountain. We listened to inspirational music on the drive and I enjoyed looking at the beautiful scenery. We drove through farming country and rectangle hay bales dotted the fields and for some reason seeing that felt comforting. It’s interesting how seeing random things bring up different emotions. My grandpa was a dairy farmer and I wondered if the comforting feeling I got from seeing hay bales was connected to visiting my grandpas farm as a child.
I drove the back highways to Boise and turned off of highway 95 onto highway 52 when I got to Payette. I followed highway 52 through Emmett. Then I followed highway 44 which turns into State street once you get into Boise. State street has so many memories for me. I lived in that area for a lot years. My first job was at Westside Drive-In when I was 16 and amazingly it’s still there. At that time I lived on 21st street in the North End and as a teenager I ran wild in the North End neighborhood. My friends and I would go out at night and steal things out of peoples unlocked cars that were parked along the road. We called it “jockeyboxing”. We never found anything that great, just some cd’s usually. It was a short lived career in thievery, though. One night, a motorcycle gang caught us in action and started chasing us. I don’t know if I’ve ever ran faster than I did in that moment. I was sure we were all going to be beaten to a pulp. At the end of an alley, my group of friends ran one way and I ran the other, thinking that the motorcycle gang would follow the majority. It worked, no one followed me. I ran and ran, then I climbed into some bushes. I hid for a long long time, terrified. When I thought the coast was clear. I went home and never went “jockyboxing” again. As a matter of fact, I stopped hanging out with those friends and found some others that weren’t into petty theft, instead they were into other shenanigans but that’s another story for another day. Years later I had someone steal my CD collection out of my truck when I forgot to lock it and I figured it was karma balancing things out and letting me know that I was forgiven for the sinful ways of my youth.
I drove down State street all the way to downtown and met my daughter and her dad at the Boise co-op. Her dad had picked her up from the airport and they got to spend some time together before I arrived. It was great to see Savana and her dad. Angel was elated to see her sister and they had a happy reunion. Savana was tired and wanted to take a nap. Rather than take the back roads, I took the fast route to my moms and drove the interstate to Caldwell so that Savana could take a nap sooner.
We got settled into my moms and Savana laid down in the cottage. Angel, my mom and I got into the hot tub but I didn’t stay long. My mom turned on the TV next to the hot tub and it was loud and chaotic. TV is so chaotic, I don’t know how people can stand to have that racket going on in the background all the time, programming their minds with garbage.
I went inside and fell asleep in a recliner. I slept hard and was woken up an hour later when my phone rang. It was my nephew Christopher. He was coming over with his son Isaac who is the same age as Angel. Savana came inside and had just woken up as well. My mom and Angel came in from the hot tub and my mom said she also took a nap while sitting in the warm water. I told everyone that Christopher was coming over with Isaac and they were all excited.
Christopher arrived and the kids played in the hot tub together. Then we all played a game of What’s the Point. The kids were really hyper and my mom kept telling them to sit still, which they did for a few seconds before squirming around in their seats again.
When we finished playing the game. The kids ate and Christopher and Isaac left. Savana and my mom went on a walk with the dogs while I took a shower. When they got back from their walk, Savana left with a friend. My mom, Angel and I sat in the living room and talked and shared and prayed. Then we all went to bed and I fell asleep right away at 10 PM.
Monday June 23, 2025
Morning prayer:
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for my children.
- Thank you for laughter.
- Thank you for cities.
- Thank you for love.
I love you!
I awoke at 6:30 AM. Angel was up already and playing on her Nintendo switch. She knows she’s not allowed to randomly be on it at home so she was seeing what she could get away with at Grandmas. I didn’t say anything to her and put the laundry in the dryer and got dressed. My mom got up and we said good morning. I made tea and fed Angel breakfast. Then we left to go to my mom’s church to sign me up to work in the kitchen at the churches family camp. Everything went well at church, then we went to the dollar store, my mom’s bank and the grocery store.
Savana was getting up when we got back. She got ready to go and we left to go to Boise, while Angel stayed with my mom. I took Savana to visit her godmother and while they spent time together, I drove around a neighborhood I used to live in when I was 13 and 14 years old, off of Five mile road. I went down memory lane and remembered so many experiences I had living there. My best friend Cassie lived on the corner down the road from me, then we moved again across town and Cassie and I slowly lost contact. I’ve looked her up several times over the years to see if I could find her but had no luck. Who knows what her last name might be now or even if she is still alive.
I picked up Savana from her godmother and we drove past our house in Garden City, where we lived before I moved to Texas. It was still there but looked pretty rough. I was happy to see that a bunch of the fruit trees I planted throughout Garden city were still alive and full of ripening fruit. I used to save my money and buy a few hundred dollars in fruit trees every spring. My yard was full of fruit trees and didn’t have room for more, so I would go around and give the freshly bought fruit trees to people. I would knock on their door and offer them a tree, then I would plant it in their yards for them. That might be something fun to start doing again.
Savana and I went to downtown Boise and walked all around. We ate at Bittercreek Alehouse, one of my old hangouts. I used to get their food scraps from them and feed them to my cats. Then we went to the Record Exchange, Taters and Flying M. Savana stopped by and said hi to her voice lesson coach that she took lessons from for 4 years.
Next we went to the Egyptian Theater and saw Gillian Welch perform live with her partner David Rawlings. It was a great show and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. When it was over, when we to Pie Hole and Savana ate while we listened to a street performer. It was getting late and I was ready to go to bed, my stomach hurt from eating junk food again and I was tired. Savana wanted to stay and hang out downtown to enjoy the city night life but I am not a night owl and I told her that I needed to get to bed.
I drove to back roads to my moms in Caldwell and it was almost midnight when we arrived. My mom and Angel were already in bed so we were extra quiet when we came inside. I went to bed right away. I wrote my blog notes and fell asleep at 12:30 AM.