Ireland/China 2025, continuing (36)

[aadler]

Twenty-sixth day in China – July 16 Wednesday

Unexpectedly, I got up before 8:00AM, though it took longer for Susan to join me. (She’d been up during the night.) She’d also eaten before I woke, so I just made breakfast for myself.

She was hungry around 11:30, so I went over to Baker & Spice and brought back lunch for us.

Traded texts established that Kevin would be working late tonight and so not available for dinner, but Jack (Mei‑li’s brother) and Joy (his girlfriend) would be there, and Logan wanted to know if we were coming. Susan wasn’t fully recovered from the problems she’d been having, but she felt she was enough better to make that possible.

We started off for the apartment complex something like 5:15PM. Susan sent me up to Kevin’s and Mei‑li’s to get some yarn Mei‑li had ordered for her; she would have come with me — to see and hold baby Ruby — but there was a barricade across the sidewalk while it was being repaired, so she waited while I went up on my own. I got to hold Ruby for a few minutes myself (asleep, never stirred), but I didn’t want to leave Susan alone in the summer heat for too long, so I went downstairs to her again with the yarn.

Over to the Yins’ place, we were heartily welcomed. Jack and Joy arrived shortly, and Amber was already there. Logan had made more dishes than usual — maybe seven, counting the soup but not the rice, that’s just a foundation for other stuff — and he insisted I have some of the Irish whisky I’d brought for him when we arrived from Ireland. Afterward, Logan and Jack started pulling out old family photos of Mei‑li, and I was surprised that she looked so young back when she was — you know — so young.

It was probably 8:15 or 8:30 when Susan and I started back to our own apartment. We said our Rosary, then settled into evening activities.

By 11:30 I was ready to wind things up and go to bed. Susan wasn’t yet, so I arranged everything she would need for her bedtime, then wound up my own routine.