How about a little color this gray winter morning?

Pipe fittings are fascinating.

back home

I am back from Portland.

Portland Oregon is one of those cities that people love because it is so green. The green is, of course, the result of rain, a lot of rain, a lot of drizzling rain. Gray gray gray.

But it is winter and that is how it is.

It was a good trip. I bought a couple of books at Powell's (can't go in there without buying more than I should! I also got a much needed battery for my fairly ancient MacBook. This MB was new in '07. In the computer world that is Model A vintage. But it works and does what i need and i don't want to put down a grand on a new one, so I make it work.

The weather has warmed up a lot here at the tiny house. This morning it is 45 outside, compared to 21 one morning last week. We will be colder by weekend, but I have demonstrated that this little house can take cold weather and be livable. That is a good thing.

Miriam was glad to see me and knew who I was, but was not sure how long I had been gone. I was really tired, so when I got her to bed I laid down beside her and slept a couple of hours before returning to the tiny house.

Meanwhile, our dingy rooster jumped the fence and is at the neighbors. It is still dark, but he is crowing. Not sure he is capable of learning much.

As spam goes, it was not terribly offensive, but just annoying, so I took it out!
Still like the looks of this old car!

I'd take the touring car in this trip, but it is in the shop (PhotoShop, that is). The car is British, but I don't know beyond that, but what an awesome looking ride. 

break time

I am taking a break later this week.

As far as AD caregiving goes, I am about as lucky and blessed as can be. Daughter is my lifeline.

But daughter 4 in Portland is also a lifeline and she throws it out every few months: "Dad, you are about due for a trip to Portland, right?"

So Thursday I am driving to Portland. I'll spend several days with daughter and her husband as well as see quite a bit of two granddaughters.

Daughter 4 lives right down town, which is about as opposite as can be from our country life here. But because she is so downtown you can walk almost any place. Her car stays in the parking garage most of the time.

I'll walk where I want to go. There is a Ben and Jerry's across the street, a dozen or two restaurants of various size, one huge book stores, a couple of decent art stores and REI within walking distance.

It will be a walking break!

That is me a LONG time ago, maybe 50 years ago. Not totally sure.

Trombones

Yesterday was Miriam's birthday.

It was one of those numbers that Meredith Willson associated with trombones! Let you figure that one out!

She got a shower in the morning and afternoon we went to a restaurant for her birthday dinner. We were the guests of my aunt (my mother's baby sister) and uncle.

It was good. We had a good time. The food was good, though not quite as wonderful as the price, oh well.

Of course by the time we got home Miriam could not remember we had even eaten. That is how my life works now.

Today we are sitting side by side in the white leather chairs that we brought with us when we left our Idaho home. (Daughter 4 bought the leather set new and bequeathed it to us a few years ago, so it has been well used and well loved.)

I hold her hand.

That hand fit into my hand so easily so many years ago and still does.

She cannot remember who I am for sure. She thinks I am her brother.
Inside.

I cry.

I saw this gentleman in a Museum in Portland a while back. I am sure he was very important in his day, and it is a very good Roman copy of a Greek sculpture.

What amazed me was that I was ALLOWED to take pictures at all. Museums have not taken to cameras kindly. When I asked the friendly guard about taking pictures she said it was OK as long as i didn't use flash. Since I would rather chew on barbed wire than use flash, that was not a problem.

grandaughter

I have three granddaughters about a year different in age from the oldest to the youngest.

The last one had her 18th birthday about Christmas time and she decided it was time to spread her wings. She moved to Portland where she is living with Daughter 4, getting ready to go to Chef's school and enjoying her new life.

There are times when we all need good mentoring, and this will be no exception.

Granddaughter sent me a card for Christmas. In part she wrote: "Thank you for treating me like your other grandkids." She is adopted, so that is not an idle statement.

I was a step child and have an inkling of what it must be to be adopted. But when I got word that this child was going to be adopted into my family I vowed that she would never say that Grandpa took better care of the other grandkids than her.

Seems that my wish and determination have come true.

Pizza

About the time you think you see a big turning point in this disease it changes.

A few weeks ago Miriam had trouble with most everything. But now not so much so.

She knows who I am almost always, and at bed time. After I tuck her in bed in daughter's house I ask her if it is OK now if I go to my little house to go to bed. She says "yes" but asks to be hugged first, which is surely not a problem.

Yesterday we drove to a nearby town, an hour away, to look at a wood lathe (I did not buy it). Miriam went with me. She enjoyed the trip, and her walking to the restaurant was slower than normal but we got there alright.

We had Pizza (the fist pizza I bought in a LOT of  years).  After we had both eaten a good bit there was one piece left. "I'll split this last piece with you," says I. "No, I'll eat it all!" So I split it 1/3 2/3 and gave her the big piece.

It quickly went away. She was happy, and later I had a roaring gut ache!

This is how my ancestors came to this double named valley, about 150 years ago. They arrived with less freight than many of us take camping, but they survived. Great-great-gandfather had just mustered out of the Union Army, as I can pick up the story. He had had enough of the east and wanted to go west.

Life should have such a notice, I suppose.

winter update

It is winter here in the valley they liked so well they named it twice.

Not many places have a compound name that repeats itself. But we are unique here, sorta.

I have seen it terribly cold here (-35) and I have seen it horribly hot (117) in the past living here, but now it is winter. I am living in my tiny house. Miriam lives in the house with daughter and her family.

Seems like everything I build is at least somewhat experimental, and this tiny house is no exception.

It is well insulateld, but it does not have any thermal mass, that is it does not have heavy stuff that holds the heat. Our Idaho house had tons and tons of masonry, so if it was comfortable when you went to bed at 10 or 11, it cooled down only 8 or 10 degrees by morning.

Here it cools down more dramatically. Usually it is in the low 50’s when I get up. I start up the propane catalytic heater in the kitchen (6000 btu) and the one in the “big” room (3000 btu) and for the first hour or so I may use a 1500 watt electric heater, but it does not take long to be very comfortable.

I have well water coming into the house, that is I usually do. The cold last week went down to about 20 and froze the water line. Grr. Another experiment I get to work with. It won’t be too hard to fix the water supply as soon as it thaws a bit, which will be this week, I think!

Gray water runs out on the back lawn at this point, but will go into a mini-leach field soon. The toilet is composting and operates with a compost pile at the back of the property.

So, I am comfortable. 

Last night, as I was talking to Miriam before returning to my tiny house, she kept saying that she did not remember us getting divorced. When I pressed her a little she said that since we did not sleep together that were probably divorced, but she could not remember it.

She stays in the house and has not been in the tiny house in a couple of weeks. It will continue like that. Getting around is very tedious for her. She doesn’t read, she doesn’t do puzzles, she just sits and stares straight ahead. And she sleeps a LOT. 

We get her to bed between 8 and 9, and she will sleep until at least 10 the next morning. Then while she is sitting in her chair, she will doze off.

Daughter is a knitter, big time, and she made Miriam a cute wool hat with a pair of fingerless gloves to match. When it is cool, we put those on Miriam. She looks cute in them and it helps her keep warm.

So my and our life is good. We are comfortable and warm. We are well fed and well loved. What else could we ask?