My usually trusty MacBook crashed last night.

Nothing that a reboot from the OS disc, but mine is another state, so it will be hit and miss for a while.

Such is life in the digital world. Oh well.

jay and kay

I took Emily to school then we left for Olympia.

It was a two hour drive. A bit of traffic, but not bad.

It was about noon when we got there. They were so glad to see us. Miriam and Kay hugged. It had been half a year since they had seen each other.

Kay is still a beautiful red head. She looks younger than she actually is. Jay is 76 and right now he looks every day of it.

When we got there Jay was sitting in on his end of the couch with a shoe box sized tray of pills. Since his by pass surgery he has been on a lot of them. He was washing them down with orange juice. He smiled as we came in.

Jay is about 6' maybe a bit taller. He is a barrel chested big man, who weighed in at about 280, but while he was in the hospital he lost a hundred pounds and he looks a bit gaunt.

He is not as healthy as he should be. He has smoked most of his life, in fact when I saw him last spring he was still smoking. Now he is off. But he does not look good, really.

The day before we visited he took his 3 wheel motorcycle (a real work or art, powered by a 2 liter Dodge engine!), on a parade. The trike is built to look very good and to be eye catching, but it is not too protected from the weather and Jay got pretty cold.

Kay has memory issues. She won't admit it and won't let any one else admit it for her (Miriam is about the same). Jay and I talked in hushed tones. She is a decade younger than Jay and she is worried about what might happen to her if something happened to Jay.

It is a legitimate worry, unfortunately.

I relayed a message from a daughter: “Kay is family. If she needs help we will do all we can.”

He was reassured by the message.

Seeing them was good and sad both.

And I worry a bit.

I worry about all of us a little bit.

old and older yet

stuff

How to you put more gear a tiny trailer?

The question was asked on the teardrop forum. The owner had a small car and a beautiful small teardrop but he had it all filled with gear.

Suggestions were made to put a rack on top of the trailer. Others suggested a fiberglass pod, but one answer was THE answer: “Take less stuff.’

Three wonderful words. Easy to say to some one else.

Horrific to put into real practice.

Lia/Linda just moved from a house she had lived in for several years. She had a big yard sale, she sold stuff on Craig’s list, she gave away, and she threw away.

Her example encourages me.

We moved into our house 34 years ago. We took a few years off for an adventure in Texas and Washington State), but we have lived in that nutty little house a LONG time.

Now lets talk about “take less stuff.”

Yea, let’s talk. Lol.

OK, I cheated.
I did take the picture, but it was at a science museum and the critters were well lighted and VERY still.

more changes

A few days ago I sent an email to Dale. We will be in your town.

So today we touched base, and then spent time together.


Dale had been to a friend’s wake a few days earlier. The friend had not hit the 60 year mark and suddenly he was gone. Dale went out of his way to make sure we could spend time together.

You never know, he said.

Tomorrow we are driving 2 hours north to Olympia Washington. Miriam’s sister and brother in law live there. Kay is showing every sign of Alzheimer’s. But the big thing since we saw them in the spring is that Jay has had serious by-pass surgery and along the way his weight dropped a hundred pounds.

They were coming down here today, but he was not feeling well. He does not have the strength he used to have he said hand he just was not able to make the trip.


Suddenly it seemed important to me that we made the trip to see them. Jay is a life long smoker and that is not good. He was a big strong powerful man. Now he weighs what I do. “You won’t even recognize me,” he said.

So tomorrow we will take Emily to school then head north. We can’t stay too late, but it is essential to me that we make the trip.

Jay was glad when I told him of our decision.

“Kay will be so glad to see her sister.”

hmmm

hill top houses

A few years ago worked on a house on a hill.

South of our valley are what we call the desert hills. There are some good vistas out there and views and MacMansions are drawn together.

So this one house was sitting on top of the hill and it had a commanding view, though most of the view was a good ways off.

I was there on an early fall day. It was cool and the lady was not in a good mood. “The wind always blows around here,” she opined.

That is why the old timers who settled in these areas put their houses down lower, much lower, survival and a degree of comfort (this was before they invented insulation, weather stripping and caulking) and even survival.

We are staying in a rental house in Portland. It is an 80’s house I think, with recent extensive upgrading. It is pretty nice, and quite tight and well insulated, except for those aluminum window frames. The glass is double, however.

But it is cold out. Not quite freezing, but with a nasty wind and high humidity, so it feels cold. And as I sit here I remember the lady complaining about the wind in Idaho.

This house is built on a pretty severe incline and today it faces right into the wind. As portland houses go it is well built, but in another area it would be considered way under insulated.

So I sit here looking out at the wind, being a tiny big nostalgic for my little burrow house with the wood stove.