on the road yet again

Today is travel day!

We leave daughter one's comfortable and hospitable home, stop briefly at daughter two's house and head for home.

It was November 22 when we were home last. It must still be there, none of my three friends/neighbors has called to tell me otherwise and all have my phone number.

We will be glad to be home again, but we will never forget the joy and fun of this trip, of hanging with all of our grandkids, of hugging all of our daughters and then hugging them again.

It has been a good trip, but it is time to go home. Miriam has had spells of anger at me for wanting to move her, which was not a thought until she brought up the subject, but she has happily worked on jig saw puzzles and kitchen cleaning at every stop. Every day she has asked me when we were going home, and when I answered with a date too far ahead of time she would ask: "How come?"

As I look back at this year, we were away from home a month in the spring and a month in the fall and a few weeks in the middle. We were away about a fourth of the time. Nearly all of that was with family.

I am so grateful that it was possible.

Happy christmas

Happy Christmas everyone.

Emily told me to say it that way!

We are going back home Sunday. When we get there, we will be without internet, at least some water pipes are frozen (and most likely damaged), and my MacBook is off line.

So we will take things in order of importance and I'll figure that when we are there.

Coffee shops offer internet, so as soon as the Mac us up I'll be back on line. Meanwhile, top of everything to each of you.

To quote Tiny Tim: "God bless us everyone."

perseverance

there is a story in the NY times about a 94 year old lady who has been painting for six decades (that is 60 years!) and finally this year she is the hot painter in some circle.

I am not sure what all of the lessons should be, but to me it is just a mind blaster. She is still painting at 94, that her work that has been ignored for decades has suddenly become very "modern" (whatever that means) and wildly collectible.

And talk about dedication. Artists don't always want fame and fortune, but it is wonderful if a few appreciate your work. She made her first sale of a painting whenshe was 89.

Best to you Carmen.

She is a good role model for aging artists!

For the full story: http://www.discontinuedbrandnameyarn.com/

oops, try this one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/arts/design/20herrera.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=herrera&st=cse

true value

I am like a kid in a candy store.

Daughter one is a talented fiber artist. She has a large room stuffed with fiber stuff. I am hardly qualified to sweep the floor in that room, but she continues to find tools and gadgets and fabrics that work so well on my projects.

Daughter is also a MOM (capitals intended), a worker (she is caretaker for two challenged ladies), and a genuinely good person.

Sometimes we think we are doing art/craft people a favor by requesting a piece of their handiwork. Might be and might not. The problem is that it is easy to undervalue the final piece.

Right now she is working on an afghan that has a couple hundred in yarn and a month's full time work (there is no big blocks of free time in her life).

Will the receivers properly value the product?

Reminds me of an artists once who gave one of his favorite hand made pots to a friend for a wedding present. He visited later to find that they were using this prize ceramic gift as a water dish for the dog.

"Never again" said the artist.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

water and cold

The NW is just exiting a cold snap.

Portland was as cold as it gets, low teens. Idaho was below zero and E Oregon and Washington were as cold.

I think we have some frozen pipes in our house (they will be thawed out when we get there!) Friend David could not get water in the kitchen sink during the coldest part, so I had him shut off the whole system.

Daughter two lives on an acreage. There was a small leak from the pressure tank. The water got the insulation wet, so when it got good and cold, there was no insulation and everything froze up.

They have water now, but they were without any running water for well over a week while Cliff and the boys made repairs.

Meanwhile, Arline's house is warm and cozy but the washing machine broke, and a new part has been ordered.

So water wise, it has been an interesting week.

The hot tub worked well though.

We sat in the hot water one evening when the temps were close to single digits. Nice and warm, but get your hair wet and it freezes quickly, and watch those steps, they are covered with ice!

We had a good time.

I think that occasionally being without one of the things we think of as essential is good to remind us of how much we depend on them.

Which brings me to my computer. . .

back sorta

We are still 4 hours from home and will be until after Christmas.

I am writing on my daughter's PeeCee which has a strange feeling keyboard, so I will write slow and awkwardly!

We finished our "grandparent" duties on Monday, but a major storm landed. We have two passes to go through on the way home, and during a storm they can be treacherous. The grandkids pushed on me to promise to be here for Christmas, which I agreed to.

But with the storm, we could not go until Friday, and then we would need to be back here by Wednesday or so next week. Hmm.

Not the best use of time or resources, I figured.

So, we decided to stay here over christmas.

I will post daily, but my photographs are in my MacBook, so there will not be any here for a while.

We are well are having a good time with our grandkids, and I have a pretty complete book and paper box making studio setup, so I am busy and happy. Miriam works on a rather complex jig saw puzzle.

The complex puzzles take her longer, but she works on them steady until she works them out, even if it takes a month of 10 hour work days.

Yesterday the whole world here was covered in a quarter inch of ice and everything came to a stop. No schools, no work, no go. Today it is warmer and if you go off pavement, it is MUD, so today is a "normal" day. School, work and all of the usual.

Writing for some of us is a compulsive act and it feels great to be back at it here, even if it is with a crutch and an eye patch!

To miss quote Tiny Tim: "Have a roaring good day."

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.