two days ago I drove up to Bunny Flat with friends and sat on a bench there and said Goodbye to Mt. Shasta for at least a month before I need to go see my specialist in Redding there again.
Yesterday my wife and I having packed up all our goods from the last month and a half or so up there recovering from my robotic Hernia operation got in our car with our dog and drove home to the Greater SF Bay area once again. A friend of ours working in Santa Cruz met us at our home on the coast and played Spades with us (a card game). My wife had never played it before and said how similar it was to Bridge in some ways because of the Bidding?
IN spades you have to estimate how many tricks you are going to take and if you overestimate you lose points instead of winning them. So, if you keep your estimates of tricks low enough you keep gaining points but unless you bid enough tricks you cannot win the game either.
I tend to be pretty conservative and don't like losing points so I don't usually risk enough to become one of the winners. However, my wife almost won the game but eventually our friend did because he has been playing this game with a mutual friend in Mt. Shasta since around 1980. So, he is very used to playing this game.
I'm not a competitive Game player because that is not my interest. My interest is socializing with friends. However, I was very entertained watching my wife and our mutual friend compete playing this game. I laughed a lot and so did they during the turning of these tricks in the game of Spades.
The most surprising thing traveling south was just how much water there was everywhere and just how green and beautiful all the trees were traveling south. I went from the snow at Bunny Flat 2 days ago to the totally different weather of the SF Bay area today which presently is overcast and drizzling.
So, it was really nice to have our friend from Santa Cruz visit us on the coast at our home and share some time with us. His boss is ill in the hospital or else he would have come to my birthday party in Mt. Shasta a few days ago now. We had a nice party there with many friends there to wish me a happy 78th Birthday.
I'm grateful just to be alive at all after almost dying in the emergency room on January 4th here on the coast.
So, from my point of view just being alive for my wife and kids and grandkids and friends is really wonderful in an of itself.
By God's Grace
