In May, I got an email from 23nme (a DNA website that Vladi and I submitted samples to last year) telling me that a Dianne Davidson wanted to connect with me. It turned out that she was the daughter of my first cousin, Cindy, who is the daughter of my mom’s brother Jim. Because my mom passed away when I was very young, and my mom’s siblings lived in Texas and West Virginia, and my dad didn’t put any effort into staying in touch with them, my relatives on my mom’s side have mostly been a mystery to me.
The trip that Vladi and I had been planning to take to West Virginia for Memorial Day (before the pandemic burst on the scene) was going to be a first time meeting with the daughters of Charles, another of my mom’s brothers. So to hear from someone from Jim’s family was a surprise and delight.
When Dianne contacted me, I was thrilled to be put in touch with Cindy. We began a torrent of back-and-forth emails. Over the next month or so we were comparing stories, sending pictures, and telling each other about our families. I learned that she had three grown kids that are about the same age as my kids and that Cindy has two siblings that also live in Texas. She is the only one of her family who married and had kids. As I got to know about Cindy and her husband, I kept thinking that they would get along famously with my sister Barb and her husband as they seemed to share an interest in travelling and adventure and they share an active lifestyle that keeps them fit and healthy. Cindy and her husband have even climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa!
Even though our emails to each other covered a lot ground, I feel like we only scratched the surface of learning about each other.
I don't know if I can adequately express how much it meant to me to be able to communicate with a cousin from my mom's side of the family. I've always loved the cousins on my dad's side, but there is a whole part of my identity that feels hazy. Cindy expressed similar feelings. At one point she said, "I just wish we had known about each other sooner. We could have been spending time together." Exactly! Because of the pandemic, I still haven't been able to meet her face to face, but as soon as we are able, Vladi and I plan to visit all my new-found cousins. Since Cindy and her husband live in Texas I mentioned to her that I’d love to visit where my mom grew up (which is not too far from where she lives.) She seemed excited to do that with me. I hope it will work out.
These are some of the pictures that Cindy shared with me.
This is Cindy with her husband at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which they subsequently climbed.
And here they are at the top
And this is Cindy with her daughter Diane. Diane owns a meal delivery business in San Francisco.
As I was writing to her, I also started writing to my cousin Frankie, who is one of my Uncle Charles’ daughters. We sent quite a few messages back and forth as well and I even spoke to her on the phone. If the virus is under control by Memorial Day 2021, we are still hoping to attend the reunion in West Virginia. I wish I could get all my sisters there with me. It would be such a grand family reunion!
Also in May . . .
One of the businesses that was considered non-essential and therefore closed was the nail salons, and by mid-May, I desperately needed a pedicure. Christy had been learning the skill in cosmetology school and offered to give me one. I was so impressed with the thorough and professional job she did!
On May 20th we purchased a second avocado tree on the 10th anniversary of planting our first one. We are hoping that the 2nd one will increase our chances of getting a better harvest of avocados. We always get a few fruit, but not very many.
For my friend Janeen’s birthday in May, we had her and her husband Ralph over to have dinner and play games on our patio. We ordered food from Cisco’s Mexican restaurant. Their Cabo Taco sampler is made up of a shrimp taco, a grilled fish taco and a battered fish taco with cabbage and baja sauce. Janeen and I like them with crispy shells. They are muey bueno! The weather was pleasant enough to sit outside and the health authorities had said that gatherings held outdoors were preferable to indoors.
At the end of May, the news temporarily shifted from the grim statistics of new coronavirus cases and deaths to a story from Minneapolis, of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by a police officer, who knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds (the news was very specific) while Floyd was saying “I can’t breath!”. Most of the country was outraged and protests erupted in cities across the nation. The “Black Lives Matter” movement gained recognition as people pushed for changes in policing policies that were disproportionately harming men of color.
I think it was in May or June that Vladi expressed a desire for his own treadmill because we had joined a gym in November of 2019 and had not been able to go to it since March, when gyms were one of the places that had to close due to the risk of spreading COVID. He found a treadmill that wasn’t too expensive and placed an order. This began a months-long effort to get a decent machine. The first one came with the box all mangled and parts sticking out and when we refused delivery, the delivery guy got upset because the thing was so heavy and he had struggled to get it off the truck. Vladi tried to order a different one but I guess there was a big demand so it was very difficult to find anything in stock. He finally did get one several months later.
June
I don’t have many pics from May, June and July because I’m pretty sure that Vladi and I tried to stay home.
On June 8, we went out to eat for the first time in months. Some of the restrictions had been lifted and we were able to eat indoors, but seating was very limited and we had to use disposable cutlery and single use condiments. We went to Los Dos Amigos on Thousand Oaks Blvd. The food was good, but it was definitely a different experience than usual.
We did take the dogs to our favorite dog beach on June 14. The parking lot was packed, but when we got down to the beach there was plenty of space for everyone.
These pictures are looking in either direction on the beach.
The following weekend, June 21, we decided to take a drive with the dogs in a direction we don’t normally go. So, we headed south. The first part of the drive was through L.A. and the scenery was not great but when we got to Dana Point and Oceanside it got much nicer. We got out of the car and walked around and had a nice lunch at a dog friendly restaurant. The day was a little overcast but that kept it from being hot. We had a good time.
We did have the pleasure of having birds make a nest on a cross-beam on our patio, in a perfect spot for us to see them as the babies poked their heads up to be fed.
It was so much fun to watch the mother bird sit on the nest and then, when they hatched, bring food to the babies. And the papa participated, too, first as a guard and then taking his turn to bring the food. Their chirping was such a sweet sound and it got louder as they got bigger. We could always tell when it was feeding time. They eventually grew big enough and flew away. We hope they take up residence again next year.
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