portland

We are in Portland Oregon this week.

There are a lot of things back home that need to be done. Firewood cut and in the wood shed; garlic planted; potatoes dug; flour corn and beans brought in to dry, but when you think of the long run, being with a family trumps.

Our youngest daughter and our 2nd oldest granddaughter (Lia and Emily) live here in Portland. Lia works for a Moonstruck Chocolates as the art director. http://www.moonstruckchocolate.com/ She art directed or designed most of the graphics on that page, and if you notice on one page the chocolate has a name on it: “emily”!!

When we visit we get chocolate!

Emily attends a private high school and takes the bus and train each day to and from school. There is a parent teacher meeting and Lia and I will go. I would love to talk to her teachers. (“Emily is bright and capable, do not let her get away with sloppy work” that would come from grandpa).

In the northwest Portland is famous as the place it always rains. That title is shared with Seattle, though it does not ALWAYS do anything. In fact they can have serious droughts as well.

Dallas and Portland get about the same amount of rain. A 4 or 5 inch rain can fall in 30 minutes in Dallas and take weeks in Seattle or Portland.

Any way it is fall and the mood is cloudy and grey, but not too cold.

We parked our teardrop trailer under an old apple tree in Lia’s yard and made ourselves right at home.

Miriam keeps wondering when we are going home, but I work at keeping her happy, and content. I give her lots of hugs and compliments. Like the rest of us, she reacts to love.

Leo the dog actually belongs to Lia and Emily, and he feels right at home here.

Tomorrow while Lia is working and Emily is in school, Miriam and I will go visit Powell’s books. I have heard it said it is the largest book store I the world. We go to the one in a nearby superb. Used and new books are shelved together by topic.

A true bookliophiliac will go nuts there. We will spend a happy time and even if we don’t buy anything it is so much fun.

I had an uncle who lived less than a mile from Lia's house. My mother's brother, he was a dentist and a real fine guy. He fell out of a tree he was trimming (he had no business being there, but that is another story) which brought on head trauma and early Alzheimer’s.

He died when we were still in Texas. She died a few years later. They were really good people. I wish I could go visit with them.