We were up early, relatively. I did a long ride on a cool park trail along the Willamette River, then swabbed Shirley down (she was a little buggy up front), and did a few financial chores.
Kari did her best with her yoga mat to get some exercise in. She’s been a really good sport so far in dealing with her foot. It’s been pretty limiting. Although the situations are obviously dissimilar, seeing Kari hobble around in public spaces reminds me of my Dad and all that he confronted over his 60+ years in a wheelchair after contracting polio. Unless you’ve watched it up close, it’s hard to appreciate the incessant nature of overcoming a physical disability-it’s with you every minute of every day. Every minute. Every day. Simple things often become very complicated. It’s always good for me to remember the obstacles Dad overcame beginning at the age of 21, in small town Ohio, in the 1950’s. Those were not exactly the salad days for accessibility and societal acceptance. His courage and stamina to henceforth go to college (business school at the University of Illinois), get married to a widowed woman with a young daughter, have 3 more kids (I was the youngest and almost surely a mistake), start multiple businesses, and live a life as normal as anyone I know, still inspires me.
We had one of our best meals for lunch today, at Rosmarino https://www.osteriarosmarino.com/menu in Newport. It was outstanding. I gorged on shrimp in arrabbiata sauce, Kari on bucatini in amatriciana sauce. The sauce was so good I asked our waiter if he’d ever bathed in it. This led to a discussion with restaurant staff on soaking your dog in tomato juice/sauce if they are sprayed by a skunk. This meaningless conversation is further proof of the amount of time retirees have to fill…
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