Liz and Ron, Rachael and Ariel came over this morning to celebrate a mini-Father’s Day with Ray. The “mini” is because we are going to officially have this celebration next weekend when Sarah is not working nights at the hospital. (A resident’s life is hardly worth living, I’ve noted.) Ron and Liz arrived with food. Ron made waffles for everyone, Rachael and Ariel made a fruit salad, I scrambled eggs. Liz and Ray chatted in the room next to the kitchen with Liz occasionally coming in to see how the meal was progressing. When the food was ready, she headed off to set the table.
This was a relaxed event with not much fanfare. Just six of us sitting down to enjoy a meal and chat for a while. Rachael had to leave to go babysit at noon and Ariel left to go join his family. Ron and Liz stayed until 4 when she had to head off to volunteer for a couple of hours at the yoga studio where she takes classes. She was then going to Ron’s family’s house for their Father’s Day event. (She dropped Ron off there on her way back to Glendale.) After our meal, Liz, Ron, Ray and I sat in the den and watched a recorded CBS Sunday Morning and talked about the primary topic on everyone’s mind in LA right now: the heat wave.
Liz texted on her way to Glendale that her car thermometer was reading 109. At our house it was in the high 90’s. Tomorrow will be just as hot or maybe a little hotter. We Southern Californians are not equipped for this. Many of us don’t have air conditioners at all or only in our bedrooms. (Our case). We had to move from the living room to the den in mid – afternoon because the sun was pouring in from the west and we were too hot.
Ray is now upstairs in our air-conditioned bedroom. I am downstairs sitting in a room with all the windows and back door open with a fan pointed on me that is on high. It is 9 pm and the temperature is not cooling off very fast. Our house is stucco so it’s slow to heat up and slow to cool down. Particularly when tomorrow is due to be so hot again.
My Texas friends are no doubt rolling their eyes now. “You want to see heat,” they’re saying, “then come on over here. We’ll show you real heat.” However, I would contend that in Texas nobody is surprised by hot weather and is geared up for it. Most people have air conditioning in their whole house. Here, we all start melting when we even hear the words, “Heat wave,” and many are not properly prepared. Plus, here there are miles and miles of concrete that start absorbing the heat, which makes everything even more miserable.
But it is not attractive to whine… (That is a message straight from my mother).
Despite the heat, I believe Ray had a very good mini-Father’s Day. I assume that Gregorio did too though I suspect it was filled with baby and toddler needs. That’s okay. He’s a good sport about his babies. I look forward to next Sunday when we will see the Pacheco Beaty side of the family (along with Liz, Ron, Rachael and Ariel) and have our real wing-ding.
Until then, I may have to go buy some frozen peas to put on my neck to keep me cool.
Okay, okay. No more whining.
I hope you had a great day, regardless of the weather and/or your father status. These “parent” days are not happy ones for everyone. If you are among that group, then I hope you diverted your attention to something that brings you some happiness.
On that note, I’ll say good-night.
I’ll be talking to you again tomorrow.
Ray’s Mini-Father’s Day Breakfast
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