Coffee, Cats, Cactus and Coke

Friday, April 18, 2008-

Cheeto and Earl Grey are waiting at the guest house door this morning when I wake up. They have to revisit and resniff the house before settling down once again at the foot of the bed for a morning snooze. I am soon up and dressed and sipping freshly brewed coffee and am reading morning meditations on the sofa. I let the cats out and stroll up the walk that leads to the mudroom at the back of the house. At the front side of the guest house is an assortment of cactus plants -- broomstick, adobe, and prickly pear. Inside the mudroom cozy cat beds line one side of the wall while Kate's washer and dryer rest on the other side.

In the kitchen, Kate has prepared breakfast and we enjoy conversation around the center aisle, its top covered in blue and rust tile. She has a refrigerator and a freezer too just like our Mother does in South Carolina. She points out her Ph.D. books now relegated to a lower shelf in the bookcase on the opposite side wall. I browse wonderful cookbooks too from Martha Stewart's Everyday Foods. I am going to subscribe to them on KB's computer after breakfast so I can enjoy cooking good foods again that are simple and healthy. KB is proud of her German made coffee contraption which is a size larger than a large bread machine. With the press of a button, the steaming aroma of freshly made coffee soon fills up the room.

After breakfast, Kate guides me on a tour of her garden. She has inherited our Mother's love of gardening and has plenty to show for it: irises (standard and Japanese) of every imaginable color; red, yellow and white roses, and snowball and lilac bushes. We stop to taste and smell the petals from her sage and rosemary bushes. She also has "mint galore," she says.

Jim's his new buddy- Hans from Germany- arrives to take Jim out for lunch in town. In her backyard garden, Kate and I lunch on vegies from yesterday's feast. She has placed two green lawn chairs in a warm and sunny spot at the edge of the walkway that leads to the guest house. She wants to get a haircut and I am happy to bask in the backyard sunshine and pet the cats while she is getting beautified at the beauty salon. Jim returns from lunch and sets off again for a round of golf with another friend.

This afternoon Kate and I visit her office where I meet one of her assistants, Angela, a sweet young mother who is proud to show me pictures of her children, before Kate tests my hearing. Good news. I have borderline normal hearing with some beginning loss. Kate prints out reports that show my hearing is in the normal range though on the borderline. She assures me I do not need hearing aids yet and explains that hearing loss occurs gradually over time. She "blew out her ears" during her college years in Florida on air skies and wears hearing aids now. I have my camera and have taken pictures of the office to share with our Mother for Mother’s Day. Angela has promised to e-mail me a photo of "Dr. Kate."

Tonight, we all go out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant – I am treating us to shrimp fajitas, fried beans, guacamole and Mexican coke. I lap up the beans and guacamole but cannot finish the shrimp fajitas. The Mexican coke is delicious - not as sweet as the American version. At home we end another wonderful day together with a dessert of ganoche I had bought at Sam's this afternoon and some delicious New Mexico wine which Jim says I can order online.