Libations: Refilling the Social Calendar

We had a big Independence Day Party on July 4th. It was mostly outside, and we watched the fireworks show provided by the baseball stadium nearby. We grilled Beyond Burgers and ate potluck salads and desserts with friends we haven't seen in over a year. Everyone is fully vaccinated, so it felt safe, especially in the yard. I'm a very social extrovert, and one of my biggest fears about early retirement was that I would lose most of my daily interaction with other people. I put together a master schedule and added as many events as I could squeeze onto the pages. I joined the Board of Directors for Symphony Tacoma, a book club, maintained a weekly visit with a friend for "craft time" and set myself up with a Pilates class. When COVID-19 took all that away, it felt fine at first, since I was more concerned with other things and grateful that we didn't need to worry about our jobs or finances, but after a few months, my mood darkened. Looking back, I feel like I lost my optimism because I lost my social circle. After this past month, I can celebrate getting my mojo back.

Party around the fire pit.

Party on the deck.

Grilled hot dogs at Mom and Dad's place.

At McMenamins with a friend

McMenamins has some great lighting.

Relaxing on the lounge with a full moon rising.

We are still hiking regularly, of course, but now we also hike with friends more often. We do the outer loop trail and Point Defiance every Thursday with friends. One Thursday in July we finished our hike only to bump into more friends at a Model A Club of Tacoma event at the park. We also hiked at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge at the perfect time to see barn swallow chicks in their nests. We did the Naches Peak Trail at Mt. Rainier National Park during peak wildflower season and got some amazing views.

Nisqually delta boardwalk.

Feed us! Barn Swallows are messy and loud.

The twin barns field at Nisqually.

Bald eagle at Point Defiance.

Ford Model As

The parking lot was full of them.

Lupine and Paintbrush were abundant.

Dewey Lake. Note the flowers along the path.

Selfie with a mountain hat.

Mount Rainier.

In between the social events and hiking, I've been keeping up with the cooking and doing some deep cleaning chores around the house. Russ cleaned the roof (time to get rid of the moss), I dusted, decluttered and reorganized our main room bookshelf. I finally washed all the upstairs windows. The grow window in the kitchen and the big front window are the worst to clean We need the tall ladder for the grow window, but I got it done. Hopefully we won't wait another five years to do them again! We also washed and waxed the R-Pod, but I didn't get any photos of that - I was too occupied with scrubbing.