Category: Daily Life in the USA

Bike Exploring

Today was a beautiful sunny day for [1] learning more about my new bicycle and [2] exploring old neighborhoods where I grew up. In the morning I rode about 19 miles to the Portland and Shawnee neighborhoods where I lived from 1950 to 1960. I was amazed at how the streets and everything had shrunk in size since I rode my bike there 65 years ago!

In the afternoon I rode from Nazareth Home to home of my sister Mary and husband Mike. The return journey from there (8.7 miles) is in the graphic above, taken from Strava, an app that records bike trips. Mike is a professional biker and introduced me to the app. Today’s graphic shows two personal records, which can only be made to seem noteworthy because this was the first time to use Strava and that journey is the ONLY one it knows!

Receiving mail again!

Since I moved into Nazareth Home Clifton two weeks ago, I have received three letters–the first mail I have received in more than ten years. Cambodia had no mail pickup or delivery before Covid. Mail could be received only in a post office box. Then with Covid, there was NO mail in either direction.

It’s strange to receive mail now. In past years if I wanted to send something to the United States, I had to use FedEx or DHL or another courier–at $40 per letter!

Bicycle Surprise

Today I got the surprise of my life! Because of macular degeneration in my eyes, I am not going to drive any more and was looking for an e-bike to get me around Louisville. I had borrowed my cousin Julie’s bike and today she asked if I could bring it back. I rode it over to her house and when I got there she announced that my cousins had collaborated to buy me a new e-bike! I was stunned–and most appreciative of their caring and generosity!

Nazareth Home Clifton

Office/Living Room
At Nazareth Home Clifton, this is my office and living room. I posted an earlier photo and it looked much neater but that was because I hadn’t unpacked anything. Now a lot of things, especially papers, are waiting to be sorted and a place found for them. One addition in this picture is the large monitor connected to my laptop. Previously I used two monitors but this one is wide enough to accommodate two pages side by side so I can still copy and paste.
This is a view from the window toward the door that leads to the hallway. The white folding doors on the left are a large walk-in closet. There is a similar closet in my bedroom so I have plenty of hanging space and some shelves in them.

Nazareth Home Clifton

Kitchen
This is a little common kitchen for the twelve priest rooms on the first floor of Nazareth Home Clifton. We eat meals in a larger dining room for those of us in the independent living section but this kitchen gets used for breakfasts and pick-up food.
It’s a quite small room but is perfect for us. I always eat breakfast here–we eat breakfast at different times–and occasionally grab a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a Coke Zero.