My dear friends from the Shepherd Canyon Band came to Graniteville for their annual 4th of July visit. Last year Bernie was in the hospital and insisted that we carry on without him, so it seemed only right that they joined me again this year. They filled the house with music and delighted the town with their singing and playing. On Sunday morning, they eagerly and enthusiastically ate my buttermilk pancakes which thrilled me to no end since I’ve been making pancakes for my family since I was a kid.

One highlight at the picnic was the dedication of a flagpole at the School House with a plaque honoring Captain Bernie Bishop and Chief Paul Stone for their service to the Graniteville Volunteer Fire Company. I was truly touched, and I can’t think of a better way to remember Bernie and Paul for their special friendship and their service to the people of Graniteville.

The big news in Oakland is that I’ve decided to put my house on the market with plans to move back to Napa. I say “move back” because I consider it my hometown. I still have many friends there that I’ve known since I moved there in 1970. Bernie and I had been talking already about making Napa our next “home”, so it seems like the right place and the right time to go. Our family moved to California in 1964 so I’ve officially lived here now for 60 years.

The surprising thing about selling your house these days is that it appears you have to move out before you can sell. Once I’m out, they paint, change carpets, stage it with furniture etc., a process that will take most of September. I plan to move out in August and live in Graniteville. Once it sells, I can start looking for a new place. Not to trivialize a tragedy but it reminds me a little of the Donner party – I need to get out before it snows! As the crow flies, Graniteville isn’t too far from where they spent the winter.

I don’t know yet when or where I’ll live in Napa, but I have faith that it will all work out for the best. I’m also grateful that Graniteville holds so many wonderful memories of Bernie’s and my life together and I’m looking forward to spending the rest of the summer in the place that he loved so much. I still miss him every day, but I don’t land on the pain of it as often or stay there as long. Grief is not linear, so I still have some bad days, but I’m starting to smile more when I think of him and I’m grateful for the wonderful life we had together.

I just spent my longest stint in Graniteville so far this year and it was peaceful and rejuvenating. It took a few days to detox from city life and relax into the quiet serenity that came from being in the mountains. Chica and I settled into our daily routine during one of my favorite times of year. Everything was green and vibrant – the long days and bright sun served to remind me that summer was on the way. It’s harder to remember that it’s summer in the Bay Area. That’s why they call it May gray and June gloom. There was nothing gray or gloomy in Graniteville!

With the help of a wonderful neighbor, additional batteries and a new controller box for the Solar was installed that I can now access inside the house. I used to have to go down into the basement. The even bigger news is that I now have Starlink internet so I can actually stream. It’s not just for watching British mystery shows, it also allows me to watch “how to” videos on YouTube. The HughesNet satellite I used for the last twelve years was terribly slow. Downloads and streaming were impossible. When I told my neighbors that I too had finally cancelled HughesNet, they cheered. I think I was the last one in town to get Starlink. For my geeky friends (Steve), the latency is 60ms vs 1000ms which explains it.

I went out one day to start up the Tundra truck and the door wouldn’t open with the remote. I swapped out the battery with the battery in the meat thermometer to make sure it wasn’t the battery (it wasn’t). Then I pulled out my recently purchased portable battery charger – incredibly small and compact. I watched a YouTube video on how to use it correctly and was able to jump start the truck in less than two minutes. Quite a thrill to have the right equipment and be able to get it started so quickly. I also learned that the alternator takes 30 minutes to charge a typical battery (what would we do without Google?) so Chica and I took a drive up to Bowman Lake. All in all, a satisfying learning experience for sure.

Bernie and I loved to sit in our lawn chairs in the morning, sip coffee and look at the garden. I felt him there very strongly, in a comforting way rather than in the more bereft way I feel about him not being in our Oakland house. When my neighbor was installing the new charge controller for the solar, I said that I wished Bernie were there to see it. He said without hesitating, “Well, he can see it because this was his favorite place in the world so he’s here.” It was such a sweet and comforting thing for him to say and I realized that it was true.