“70 for 70”: Weekly Report Two

As some of you know, I embarked on my “70 for 70” activities on the ramp-up to my 70th birthday on June 13, so this is my second Weekly Report on those activities. Please read the previous and upcoming posts for details on each week’s activities.

I hope you’re considering doing something similar or supporting what I do by leaving comments, encouragement, applause…. If you want to send money, use PayPay and I’ll donate it. The button is on the cover page of this blog: http://www.sallyember.com

May all beings benefit.

June 20
Happy Solstice (summer or winter, depending on where you are)! Today I helped my housemate get her children’s lunches ready for school, spent time with them at breakfast, and kept them on track to leave on time while she was getting ready to go herself. The older one gets promoted from elementary school to middle school today and I guess that is now a big deal. The younger one (finishing 3rd grade) seems a bit envious of all the attention her older sister is getting, so the rest of us are giving her some extra squeezes these days.
RANT: Unlike when I was young, or even when my son was in school prior to the millennium, there are now elaborate “promotion” ceremonies, “graduations,” and other celebrations for almost every school transition these days. Sheesh. That’s just too many times to be “honored,” IMO, merely for getting older and going to school as planned. I think it loses all meaning when pre-schoolers and everyone else have a “graduation” or some similar ceremony almost every year.
Rant over.

June 21
I spent a wonderful morning with my amazing granddaughter in order for my DIL to begin to trust me with her, and for my granddaughter to get familiar enough with me to happily let me stay with her while her mom and dad (my DIL and my son) are both working in the house. We had a BLAST!
The plan is for me to come almost every week and spend about 100 minutes alone with her. I am so happy to be doing this; it’s the main reason I moved to Seattle!
I have to travel about 90 minutes each way and take two buses to get there and get home.
Totally worthwhile.

June 22
Plans with my housemate’s daughters changed due to one of them getting sick, so we (her grandmother and I) agreed to have the well one here for longer and overnight instead of just for the original few hours during dinner.
I made popcorn for the three of us, we had fun talking and telling/hearing stories, I made dinner for her and her grandmother, and we told more stories and had fun before bedtime.

June 23
Usually, I get to use my housemate’s car about once a week to do major grocery shopping. However, due to her daughter’s illness and changes in plans, that can’t happen until much later today. Meanwhile, we’re mostly out of fresh produce.
So, today, after swimming, I went to the locally owned produce market right across the street from the pool and picked up two bags of produce for our house to bring home on the buses (two; about 20 minutes’ riding).
Cherries were the biggest hit. We’ll see later how the rest is received (probably very well) by both girls, their mom and their grandmother.

June 24
My housemate and one of her daughters have been having some kind of respiratory virus/cold (not COVID or RSV, thankfully), so I got to use her car. I took her older daughter to her play date, did all the grocery shopping for the week. After putting all the groceries away and getting one of her daughters to “help,” I made dinner plus food for the next several days for the adults (her, her mom, me) while also making the separate and different dinners for each of her daughters (don’t ask). They were all very pleased and kept thanking me. Nice.

June 25
The older girl I live with turns 11 in 11 days. After hearing about my “70 for 70” project, she decided to do “11 for 11,” which starts today. She already has four ideas for her 11 days.
I told her if she did all 11 and kept track of the deeds, I would invite her to be a Guest Blogger on my site and share her 11 good deed days with my readers. She is a very gifted writer and excited to be “published” for the first time online. I would be lucky to have her post, I told her.

June 26
At the pool today, the rope closest to where I wanted to swim was being repaired by the Spanish-speaking maintenance man I’d seen there often. I greeted him in Spanish and asked if he needed help. We continued to speak in Spanish. He said he would need help, in a few minutes.
So, I swam my first lap and then asked again. He said he was ready for me to take the rope and swim it to the other side. First, he asked me to attach it to the wall we were both near, but it didn’t work. Turns out it was the wrong end, which he figured out and fixed. Then I swam it down and it fit fine.
I told him all was “Bueno,” and he gave me a thumbs up and left.
Gracias to Señor Sellars, Señorita Queensen (and then Señora Kirchhoeffer, after her marriage in my junior year), and Señora Weiss for my four years of high school Spanish, which have stood me in good stead all these 50+ years later!

June 27
It has been important during these “70 for 70” days not to stress about what to do but to let it unfold naturally, and today was a great day for good deeds unfurling as I moved through the day.
The younger child who lives here (aged 9) was feeling a bit “at sea” with the second day of summer vacation, and her older sister was independently occupied quite happily. I decided to spend some of my free time playing/teaching her card games, which she really liked. She especially liked the one-on-one time and attention from me, and it was very fun for us both.