Mules, dinners, and smoke.

I'm keeping my promise to tell you what I've been doing lately. That's a picture of Auntie Sharon's family at a recent dinner while she was visiting from Georgia. It's a big, loud Italian family that make me and my daughter and her family feel welcome, like we're a part of their family without the baggage. It's really nice to go to their gatherings since my family doesn't gather anymore, that since Mom passed we really have gone our own ways. I don't mind that, since we have a classic dysfunctional family and the gatherings were always fraught with tension, but I do miss the noise and the joy that exists in some families.



That's the view from the room Auntie Sharon and I stayed in at the Aquarius Casino in Laughlin a few weeks ago. That's the Riverside Hotel, the home of Don Laughlin who built the town. And that's the beautiful Colorado River that runs behind the hotels. One night we walked the length of the hotels along the River Walk and saw lots of ducks and one skunk. Really. We should have done more walking and less gambling, but it was a particularly nice trip. Sharon is my longest friend, like a sister to me, and I miss her terribly, so spending a few days together like the old days was really good. Below is a picture of Auntie feeding a mule in Oatman, a little town in the mountains just outside of Laughlin that used to be a thriving town during the days when gold was being mined, but now pretty much belongs to the mules who wander wherever they please.



And last week I had the flu, so there's nothing much to talk about and no pix. I worked most of the week and went home before I felt like falling over and it was a full moon and very busy, but it's over and so then there was the weekend. I hadn't made plans for the weekend because I didn't know how I'd feel, so I just took it easy and stayed inside. It was pretty weird though, with fires all over the place and the sky various colors of orange and brown and grayish and it felt like an episode of Twilight Zone, like I woke up in a movie or something. It was all over the news, something like 500 homes were burned, and I ache for the people who lost everything. The air was nasty and thankfully my daughter took her kids to the beach Saturday morning to escape the smoke and had a good time, except that she referred to the children as her aliens, so I figured she needed a break and told her to bring them to me on Sunday and they were a delight. There's something about walking through Gramma's door that makes them be good. I didn't know my grandparents at all, but I have to think that having me in the lives of my own grandchildren, with all the love I eagerly bestow upon them, is a good thing. Plus they're just the most fun. If I could bottle the sound of their giggles, I'd be rich. We even had a visit from my friend Kathy and her lab Onyx on their way to her little slice of heaven in Baja. Of course Onyx had to go in my pool, which I believe she thinks she owns, and the children had to hug and kiss her a zillion times. Here's a picture of the twins on my couch, pretending to be one of their stuffed animal friends.



So I ended the weekend taking the kids home and having dinner with my daughter, her husband, the kids, and my niece Debbie. We may not have a very big family, but we love each other a lot. Big bunches. Lots and lots. You get the picture.