New Beginnings

August brought a little more bounty from the yard. I've been figging and pearing out. Our poor orchard got a monster pruning before spring, so most of our stone fruits didn't produce this year. But figs and pears!! They came through. I'm hoping for persimmons and a few pomegranates later this fall.

August also means Butte County Fair and back to school. Valerie showed a goat this year at the fair.

She also had her officer retreat prior to school starting. Here are some photos of her and her team. She is president of her chapter this year. What a great way to wrap up senior year.

Valerie and Amira had some quality friend time with Ruth before school started. Valerie met Ruth as a 3rd grader so many years ago. 

Our big change this year is that Rex is moving down to Long Beach to start a program at UTI. We got the family together one last time before his big adventure.

Not long after this, the girls headed back to school. Michael started traveling for work again. And I followed Rex down I-5 headed to Long Beach to get him settled into his new place. He is renting a private room/bath in a house. The woman who owns the house, Ms. Garcia, rents out rooms to international students and professionals. She lives there and often looks after her grand children. I think it will be a good space for him.

We ran into a bit of traffic even at 8pm as we headed through L.A. on the 405 on Friday night. The slowdown added about an hour to our commute. We left Chico at 12:30pm and checked into our hotel in Long Beach by 10pm. Now, traffic was not the highlight of the trip down here. We stopped for food at the base of the Grapevine around sunset. As we climbed up the pass, the full moon with a strip of smoke rose up like a huge lantern in the dusty sky. That was quite a show. No photos of that as I had to have both hands on the wheel.

On Saturday morning we drove over to his new neighborhood and packed him in.

The room is pretty small and sparse. There is a bed and desk and hard tile floor. We made a stop out at Target and Ikea in Carson to get a few things to make it his.

Once we got his bedding washed, added a rug and hung up the wall art he brought from home, it felt like his space. We picked up some succulants to add a little vitality to his living space. (He even has a venus fly trap plant now).

After a full day of nesting, we went out to Long Beach Thai (just a short walk from his house). It was very good! I'm sure he'll be back.

As we had our evening walk back to his new digs, he discovered a flock of feral parrots living in the neighborhood. There is a brown squirrel that lives in the trees in the front of his house. A house around the corner has a cage full of parakeets set outside their front door. The merry chirping and singing of those birds has a familiar ring to it. Maybe he'll think of Wasabi when he hears them.

Sunday morning I took him grocery shopping before pointing the minivan back north to Chico. I left around 11am and got home by 7pm. Fortunately I had lots of podcasts and an audio book for the trip. 

Today Rex will have orientation at UTI. The girls are back to school. Michael is working in Las Vegas. And I have a ton of work to catch up on since I stepped out for most of last Friday.

This autumn will feel different from the years gone by with only four of us in the house. I hope that Rex sends us some photos of his adventures. But I know how difficult it can be to capture all those moments when you're busy living them.