Can’t put price on plenty of green

How sweet is the rain? Driving in from the desert, flying over Breckenridge and Bear Mountain, walking by the bike path, green everywhere. No brown, no evidence of past fires, just carpets and hillsides of green.

Green like money. Green like better than money.

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Mitch Styles responded to the column about trying to help grandchildren with homework.

“I was helping my grandson with math a year or so ago. I told him, ‘Grampsie isn’t too good with math.’ He said, ‘What are you good at?’ I said, ‘Hillbilly music, mostly.’ He said, ‘Where do hillbillies live?’ ‘Everywhere!’ ‘What do they eat?’ ‘Squirrels!’

“My friend Rodney Crowell wrote a song (‘Flatland Hillbillies’) about it!”

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Laurie Green responded to the column about selling my old truck.

“My husband and I sympathize with your torn feelings about selling your truck. We’ve always had one ... sometimes two of them back when he also had a truck for work. One of our sons (who doesn’t own one) has borrowed it many times for going to the dump or moving furniture. If we ever get rid of it, I know he’d take it!”

It was good to hear from an old neighbor, Bob Bellue, about the same column.

“Loved your truck bye-bye. Been there, done that with two lovable Ford PUS,” he wrote of his pickups. “Now it’s my treasured Land Cruiser.”

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Greg Burum responded to the column about wrinkly arms.

“As our bodies age, it’s important to keep exercising. This includes resistance training to stave off sarcopenia (age-related loss of muscle mass).

“I was a fitness trainer in the ’80s, and like you, still at it. I refuse to be a stereotypical senior; sitting on the sofa all day, watching TV, complaining about diabetes, being overweight, etc. We need to take charge of our health by exercising regularly, eating nutritious foods, and getting adequate rest. We can Re-fire, not retire!”

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Looking back on a visit with Andrew and Lillian, our La Jolla grandchildren, for 10 days, it was a humbling, fun, exhausting and educational experience. And if you want to establish a relationship with your grandchildren, probably necessary.

There were moments when I wanted to have a cocktail well before lunch (when you hit textured waters, don’t look at the clock), and it’s pretty much all hands on deck, but reading stories at night, making bread with them, watching them play with their cousins and seeing how much they enjoy their grandmother’s pasta carbonara seals the deal.

All good visits to Bakersfield end with a visit to Dewar’s. Lilly ordered bubblegum and Andrew had coffee laden with sour gummy worms. Dewar’s puts a cherry on top.