But 1st, just in case you didn’t believe me, here’s the hot tub at bill’s:

The lights in the background are at dad’s house.

Ok, Wednesday…
Dad had to work, and I managed to sleeping until after 9:00, amazingly! Then matt called, and we talked for a while.

Coffee, shower, and started the dough for make-your-own pizzas. A little cleaning up and also making sure I had everything I’d come with, and clean laundry.

Finally, into town to fill up the gas in the car I’d been using, and run some little errands. Wandering the aisles at rite aid, I found the art supplies and bought some watercolors and paper for the boys. Then to Starbucks to do some internetting.

I’d forgotten that Washingtonians consider coffee shops social places, where you can in fact start conversations with total strangers. I remember that when I first moved to Minnesota I was really lost because people were really taken aback if i talked to them at coffee shops. So I didn’t know how to make friends and meet people, and it took me a pretty long time to figure out how to do it right for Minnesotans.

Anyway, yes, someone started talking to me, and we chatted off and on while we both messed with our computers. Linux geek, carpenter, works at hospital. One funny thing: What is it about how I seem to gather conspiracy theorists to me? Happens everywhere I go! Oh well, at least they’re interesting. None of that stupid small-talk, or at least considerably less of it.

Right, eventually I left to get the groceries I needed and get stuff ready for dinner. Dad was home early and we munched on goat cheese some guy he knows made, drank wine, read the paper, and waited for jack and glesy to arrive. They were a bit late, and had dori with them, which was unexpected, but I’d prepped more than enough of everything, just in case.

The pizzas were a big hit. The boys each made their own and ate them all up. Jack and Glesy were pretty surprised.

After dinner we just hung around a bit. The boys played with glesy’s camera. Iver is actually really good at it. Orin was just goofing off mostly. Eventually they were too tired and so it was time to go. Dad and I stayed up chatting for another couple of hours but eventually we were tired too. I tried to read late, but was falling asleep on my iPad pretty soon.

Orin getting a cute picture of his family.

Iver wanted to take a picture of me taking a picture of him, but Orin got in the way. 🙂

Iver upside down with dad and dori.

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Unless you count the earthquake.

I woke up early, 7ish, and was lying in bed around 745 or so when there was a noise like when the pressure change makes the doors shift. Then there was a huge vibration/shift, like the wind from last night was even stronger and a particularly hard blast had hit the house. But when I got up, dad had the news on and they eventually declared it a 4.2, near mossyrock. So there you have it, my first, if unexciting, earthquake.

Last night I discovered that I’d left my toiletry bag at jack’s. Oops. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I’ll explain: I THOUGHT it had been in the car when i’d stopped for groceries, and I hadn’t locked the door. This is a disaster because I am allergic to cocamidapropyl betaine, a common bubbling agent, and sensitive to many other common things found in shampoo, shower gels, and even toothpaste. Before discovering this I suffered regularly from huge sores that looked like herpes in some stages and impetigo in others. Nasty, in other words. The dermatologist helped me test some products that are safe for me, and trying to replace them here would have been a nightmare. Besides, I hate going to sleep without brushing my teeth. It feels gross.

So anyway, I was feeling pretty grungy today. No plans, though, except to find out if my bag was really at jack’s, or if I’d have to do a shopping expedition.

After coffee, dad asked if I wanted to go for a walk to one of the ponds back in the woods and see if there were any ducks (or grouse). He gave me a small 20-gauge shotgun, and took something else himself. We followed bear tracks back through the woods, lots of apples in the poop, and heard a grouse once but didn’t see it. At the pond, no ducks. Dad says he’s never seen NO ducks there, so I wondered if maybe the quake had something to do with it. Nice hike, though. When we were almost back, dad challenged me to shoot a few targets, and I’m proud to say that although it’s been quite a while since I’ve handled a gun, I hit each one. Square on. Oh yeah. I was always a pretty good shot, but it has been a long time, so I expected to miss.

After lunch, dad had some projects to do, but I was sleepy, so I stayed at the house and dozed with my book. Then we went in for dinner at jack & glesy’s, and dori and her daughter joined us. After dinner I made poffertjes for dessert. Yum. Iver really loved them. 🙂

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It’s Monday night.
I’m writing this from the hot tub at bill gross’ place. Dad went off to a fire meeting and won’t be back until late, so I thought, “what better opportunity?” and here I am.

At first I carried my swimsuit up here. Then I remembered that not only am I in the middle of nowhere with a hot tub, the lights are in in both my dad’s place and bill’s, and so no one’s likely to come to check out weird things either. The nearest neighbor is my 2nd cousin Doug and his wife. I can see their place from here, but only the lights. Not bad for privacy, in other words. So now I’m here in the hot tub under a cloudy sky, with the moon playing peek-a-boo. Nice.

Today I spent a little time driving around centralia, looking for a massage place. I could really use one. Yes, I know the Internet or phone book would have simplified that search a bit, but it was also entertaining to drive around town.

So I’m 2 days behind in journaling. Let’s sum up:

Yesterday I drove into town, and stopped to use the wifi in my brother’s place to check driving instructions, so that I could go visit Aimee in the hospital in Portland. Then I hit the road. About halfway there, I realized I’d forgotten to eat, so I stopped at subway. Yuck! Seriously. I will be abiding that from now on.

Got to the hospital just fine, and Aimee is definitely recovering, which I was relieved to see. I expected her to look much worse, but she actually only looked skinny. Oh, bacterial spinal meningitis, before I forget. Not good!

I only stayed about 45 minutes, because she was looking pretty understandably tired. My only other friend in town was in bed sick with a cold, or at least I hope only a cold, so I headed back north. On the way I stopped at target, just for a wander. Bad idea. Oh well.

Got back to dad’s at 4:15 or so, earlier than expected. Dori was cooking dinner, and jack, glesy and the boys were expected any time. Dinner was yummy; Chinese style pork spare ribs, sauteed chanterelles, and baked potatoes. Then we pulled out the karaoke again and got down to business. Glesy wanted me to do bohemian rhapsody again (I’d butchered it a few nights ago, to great appreciation), and jack and I tried to do in general fewer slow songs and more silly ones. Jack did a damn good job on some jewel song. Dad likes the sentimental “belly-rubbin'” songs. Orin danced and iver horses around.

I took some movies of Orin (and even dad) dancing, but no photos all day. Later I went to jack and glesy’s place, and I drove the boys while their parents went separately. It was fun; I had them screaming and holding their arms in the air with every turn (even though I was actually taking it slower than usual; I never passed the others in their car, and dori caught up to me pretty quickly in hers).

Glesy put the boys to bed, and jack and I kept on singing until we were both hoarse and butchering EVERY song we tried.

I didn’t sleep all that well.

In the morning, this morning, something had shorted on the pump for the well, so there was no water. Oh well.

I hung out with glesy until the boys came home from school, and it was really fun, actually. I think she has some things in common with matt. Well, we had a good time chatting and generally hanging out. I was really tired, though, so was glad to head out to dad’s place again (after the fruitless hunt for a massage, that is). Even better, dad wasn’t home, so I went out to get some kindling, built a fire, and sat around reading for a while.

Dad got home pretty soon, and we had dinner and tried to find the cable for the motion-detecting camera, so we could see if we’d gotten any of the bear. When it was time for dad to go to his fire meeting, he remembered that he’d last used it up at bill’s (2 cats, and a few deer while trying to get a foto of a cougar), so I came up here to get it and here I still am. 🙂

Now then, I think I’ll turn this thing off and relax in the water for awhile.

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Saturday, a better day

Not much really happened today. I woke up, hung out for a while with Dad, made juice and drank coffee. Then Matt called. He was happier today because things had gone well with the house-work and he feels satisfied. I’m really glad about the good day. I think he needs a lot more good days, and soon. Anyway, he was in a better mood, and that definitely helps my day start good.

I had to get off the phone because i’d promised Glesy that i’d babysit the boys, and so Dad and i headed into town to pick them up. Before leaving, we gave Bill the grocery bag full of chanterelles because he needed to head back up to Bellevue before getting a chance to pick some for himself.

So we headed into town. On the way, we passed Glesy, bringing the boys out to us. So Dad dropped me off with the boys, back at the house, and left for town to run a few errands. Glesy stayed and chatted for a little while, before heading off to work.

The boys are a blast. So funny, so creative. We were drawing and coloring, then Dad came back, and we took Bill’s little jeep thing back along the ridge and into some logging roads. We picked another bag of chanterelles and it rained on us a lot. Iver climbed into my lap for warmth, then fell asleep there, bouncing along. I can’t believe he can sleep while we bounce over big sink holes and occasional fallen branches. A deer ran across the road, and two grouse. When we got back, i thought for sure the boys would fall asleep, but no… they wanted to watch movies and cuddle on the sofa, but they didn’t fall asleep. We watched the Golden Compass, which was on TV, and soon afterwards Jack showed up to pick them up.

A pretty full day. Dad’s gone off to a Grange Hall meeting, and it’s only 8pm. I’m tired. I might be asleep by the time he’s home.

Tomorrow I might try to get down to Portland to visit Aimee and Ursula. Aimee is in the hospital with spinal meningitis, but improving. In the evening, Dori is cooking dinner, then I’ve promised Glesy that i’ll come spend the night so we can have some “sister time” after the boys go to school on Monday.

Did i mention i’m kind of dreading “sister time?” I’m not very good at it. I’d like to spend some more time with Jack, too. Maybe i can talk him into letting me see a bit of what he does for work.

Orin, Iver and Dad, driving through the woods

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Friday
Friday was a bit more depressing. Dad went to work, so i slept in, but not very late. It seemed late. I think it was about 8:15, which obviously isn’t very late at all.

I talked to Matt on the phone for a while. He was depressed. He’s been working so hard and having a rough time on a lot of levels. Then i went for a drive. I went over Michigan Hill Road towards Rochester, then followed Old Hwy 99 into Tenino, then back towards Tumwater to visit my grandparents at their Alzheimer’s nursing home. This time, neither of them remembered me at all. Last time i was there, Grandma didn’t remember me, but was comprehensible as she talked. Grampa remembered me just fine last time.

This time, Grandma was asleep getting her hair done, and so i went to find Grampa. He was asleep in his room, so i let him be and went back to where Grandma was. She woke up and i talked to her for a while. I couldn’t understand much of anything she said. She is so tiny and old. She didn’t seem very alive at all. She told me she was tired, so i wheeled her back to the hairdresser and went to check on Grampa again. This time he was awake, lying in his bed. I showed him some pictures, and every once in a while, he’d interrupt to ask “Now, who are you again?” I’d explain, and he’d get really upset. He knows he SHOULD know who i am, and is really upset that he doesn’t remember.

Both of my grandparents probably SHOULD have died a few years back, when they were both still living at home, and Grandma wasn’t remembering everything. There were some resuscitations around then, if i remember correctly.

Seriously, WHY do we keep people alive past the time when they’re enjoying it? Just because we CAN doesn’t seem reason enough.

Ok, so after that, i headed into Olympia, and had a little walk around then settled myself into a coffee shop with wifi for a while. Then just before 5, i headed out to Nathan’s place, to see what he’s up to these days.

By the time I left, i was yawning constantly. So tired! Actually, i thought it was later than it was. I didn’t really think about it until i got back to Dad’s. All the lights were out, so i snuck in quietly and went into the kitchen. The clock over the stove read 10:00, exactly. Dad came out of the bedroom. He’d been up at Bill Gross’s house all night, which is why the house was dark, and had just come home himself. I was so confused. I was really sure it was the middle of the night.

A panoramic view off my dad’s porch. The farm you can see on the right side is where I lived as a child, except that all of our buildings burned down.

Nate at his fireplace, NOT a butt shot!

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Thursday

Today was a holiday, but i didn’t realize it. Last night i had a horrible nightmare that woke me up at 4am. i couldn’t get back to sleep for a long time. I tried reading, but couldn’t keep my eyes open. Then when i’d give up and turn off the ipad (where the book is), i’d lie there awake. Ugh. I hate that.

Anyway, Dad woke up first this morning as a result. And made coffee. But i noticed that he did it the way i described (the required equipment was sitting out) and it tasted just fine. Yay!

I made watermelon juice for breakfast, then got to work on the brown bananas that were sitting on the counter. After the banana bread was done, we went for a walk along the property line, and into cousin Doug’s as well. Just in case we saw a grouse (which we did, but were a little slow to react), Dad brought along a .22.

First we walked up to the stream where i used to play as a child. There had been a small waterfall back there, about 3 feet tall, but it’s long gone. The beavers have changed the path of that stream countless times over the years. This time, though, one of their dams had made a nice waterfall, not far from where we used to play, so dad and i took a few pictures at it.

Later, in the woods, we found tons of different kinds of mushrooms. We picked some lobster mushrooms, which we were pretty sure were edible, but wanted to check in the book when we got back. Unfortunately, the book said that they are only edible when growing on “safe” host mushrooms. They are parasitic. So we ended up throwing them away because we hadn’t noticed what they’d been growing on. We’d found them growing up out of the mush in the path.

There’s a bear who’s been hanging around (dad and his friend bill accidentally destroyed its den a couple of weeks ago while clearing windfall) and we saw that it’d been sleeping right alongside dad’s back road. There was fresh poop all over and tracks, and several bedded-down areas. We also saw deer, coyote, raccoon and elk tracks. The elk was so fresh we’re pretty sure we startled it. Dad’s looking forward to elk season starting up. We also followed a pair of grouse for a while, but they were a bit smarter than most grouse, and didn’t just fly up into the tree and cluck at us.

I got kind of crazy taking mushroom pictures.

When we got back, there was a message from Glesy that she’d been called into work, and could we come get the boys. So we rushed into town and picked them up, then hung out with them for the rest of the afternoon. Jack and Glesy came out in the evening and i made them spek-kaas-gember (bacon, cheese, ginger) pannekoeken. After they left, Dad and I played rummy, which i won. I’m more tired than i think i should be, so it’s 8:45 and i’m already in bed. I’ll probably read for only a short while before crashing. 🙂

Dad works tomorrow, so i’ll try to sleep in, then go into town (Centralia or Olympia) and work in an internet cafe for a while before visiting my grandparents in their nursing home and then heading over to hang out with Nathan. If i’m up early, maybe i’ll call Katy and see if i can drop by her place for a while.

Me by the new waterfall

A really pretty mushroom that we didn’t pick.

Dad in the area we first heard the grouse

Big dark ugly mushrooms, and a little one.

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Wednesday, day 3

But before i begin, let me just say that hot oil is bad. No really. I was cooking up some fry bread last night to go with the clam chowder and sauteed chanterelles, and managed to splash my left wrist really well. The inside of my wrist is blistered pretty badly now, and i managed to break the blister tonight goofing around with the boys. Oops. Thank goodness their mama, Glesy, my sister-in-law, is a proper mama and had bandages and neosporin handy. 🙂

Last night after Jack, Glesy, the boys and Dori all went home, Dad and I stayed up late (10pm, haha) singing with the karaoke machine. Fun, but we were hoarse by the end of it.

Today, again i woke up first, but i lounged in bed reading until i heard Dad up and about. I wanted to make (good) coffee, so i jumped up then and got busy. We chatted and hung around until about 10, then got ready to head into town. Matt called somewhere in there, and it was so nice to hear him sounding happy and self-satisfied. I guess he’s getting a lot accomplished on the house!

First we headed to the fire station up the road, where dad is the volunteer chief. The district maintenance guy was there, and they chatted (well, me too) for a while, talking about various things, then we went into town to run a few errands.

For lunch we went to Burgerville, which is like any other fast food place, but i think there are only a couple of them. Maybe only the 1, but i thought i remember a couple of other towns nearby have them too. I ate a double cheese burger (with Burgerville special sauce) and sweet potato fries.

We went to Safeway, where Dori works, and i browsed the aisles, exploring American grocery fun, until we decided to go over to Jack and Glesy’s. Jack was home working on the new super-vacuum he’d bought for cleaning out old insulation in people’s attics (if it’s full of bat shit). He was hooking it up and seeing if it works ok, and if he’d need to make any adjustments to it (it needs to have a shorter wand at the end of the hose).

The boys got home from school, then Glesy got home from work, I played outside with the boys and the neighborhood kids, then Kyle and Katy (Kyle is my other brother – Katy is his wife) came over. We all had dinner, then played Settlers of Catan. And that was the whole day! 🙂

It was a pretty good day… busy but with nothing much. Still, i’m exhausted. I haven’t gotten any of my “personal homework” done. Oh well. Still time. i’ve got more than 2 weeks left! Maybe tomorrow i’ll find some time at a cafe with some coffee and wifi, and get some work done.

Jack with his new toy.

Iver and Orin in the leaves

Jack, Kyle and Katy – playing Catan

Dad, frying up razor clams Tuesday

One bag of chanterelles.

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i woke up early today. i think it might have been the first time ever i’ve been the first person awake at my dad’s place. arlene was always such an early riser, that even jet-lagged like now, i couldn’t get up before she did. but i woke up early today, and had a chance to make coffee first. nice. Ceese was so kind as to get me some decent coffee from Seattle, so i don’t have to drink the canned stuff my dad buys. Yum.

Pretty soon everybody was up, and Dori and i went to pick apples from the tree down the road while Dad and Ceese got started cleaning the clams. I made fresh juice from the kind of dilapidated winter apples, a mishmash of sad leftover carrots, and 2 lemons. it was ok, but not really the best juice i’ve made. We fried up some of the freshly cleaned clams and munched on gevulde speculaas.

Dad’s new girlfriend, Dori, is really subservient in a lot of ways. I had to very firmly send her out of the kitchen. She was cleaning up AROUND my cleaning up. I was trying to clean up the mess i’d made using the new juicer, and she insisted on washing things i was washing while i was washing them. She’s nice, but that was getting ridiculous.

After we’d all eaten and cleaned up, there was some sitting around, then Dori went home. Dad and Ceese and I started to make some clam chowder, and while that cooked, i took Ceese for a walk around the property. Around then, Ceese was going to leave, but Dad revived and got to thinking about the chanterelles.

We took the quad up the ridge, and it is really mushroom season. There were all kinds of mushrooms all over the place. We picked tons of chanterelles, just kept finding more and more of them. I found the mother lode NOT where Dad specifically took us to look for them. He and Ceese were up this one ridge that was steep. I hadn’t wanted to climb it for fear of getting my good pants as muddy as Ceese got climbing it, so i wandered down the path a way. There was a huckleberry bush there, and i walked up the somewhat lower ridge to check it out. When i got up there, i found a really big stump, so i walked over to check THAT out. The chanterelles around it were the size of my face, huge, with water collected in them like vases. They were gorgeous, but i didn’t have a bag with me. So I lifted up my rain coat and filled it in minutes. I was examining a huge amanita death cap the size of my head when i heard the quad approaching. Dad and Ceese had loaded up their 2 bags and were coming to find me. I shouted out and they came up and helped me get the mushrooms out of there.

It took me nearly an hour to clean all those chanterelles, and i sent half of them home with Ceese uncleaned.

It’s late afternoon now, and Dad’s rummaging around. Jack and Glesy and the boys are coming by for dinner, and I think Dori and her daughter are coming too. Dori’s going to bring her karaoke machine. woo hoo! It should be a fun evening. We’ll drink some of Jack’s jack and watch the munchkins tear around the place.

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Gray’s Harbor.

Dad, jack, dori, Ceese, horrible Addison, Teresa, and me.

A couple of weeks before I was scheduled to visit, I got an email from dad: “too bad you’re arriving on the 8th. There’s a nighttime clam dig scheduled that night, but I’m afraid you’d be too tired from traveling to go.”
“hell no!” I typed back, “let’s do it!”

The night before I flew I stayed up as late as I could. In the morning I didn’t drink any caffeine before the flight. On board, as soon as we took off, I put on my earplugs, wrapped myself up in layers of blankets, and closed my eyes. There was no one in the seat beside me, so I had space to stretch out a little as well. I drowsed, waking briefly for a snack, then again for dinner. After dinner, I slept more deeply for a few hours. I woke up with only 3 hours left of the flight, and read and listened to music for the rest of it.

All of which meant that I was completely fine when Ceese picked me up in Seattle.

We had a nice chat driving down, and made excellent time. When we got out to Dad’s, he and Dori were there and we weren’t there 10 minutes before Dori’s cousin and her husband showed up. They were joining us for clam digging. Jack was expected, too, but he took his time showing up.

We loaded up a bunch of warm clothing, and waders and boots, etc., and headed out, getting to the beach around 7pm. It was dark and there weren’t a lot of people there, but we saw a few lanterns out there along the water line.

I love nighttime clam digs. It’s a real adventure. You look for a show, the little blow hole in the sand, stomp near it to see if the clam reacts and is near the surface. Then you dig straight down really really fast, on the side closer to the water. When you’ve gone down about 8 inches, sometimes more, you fall down on your knees and reach in, fast as you can, to try and pull that clam out before it can dig itself deeper and get away. Razor clams are big and fast.

I’m really good at finding them and getting them out of the hole, but i’m pretty bad at the digging part. You have to be fast and accurate. Everything is about speed. So i make a good partner. Dad could do it alone. Jack thinks he could do it alone, but they get away pretty often. He spends a lot of time with both arms up to the armpits in the hole, and still comes up with nothing. 🙂

Dori’s cousin and her husband kept losing their bucket. Every time a wave would come up, it would catch their bucket, drop out all the clams, and carry it away. They spent a lot of time chasing clams. It would have simplified matters simply to keep a hand on their bucket.

Ceese made a good game of it. She was determined to learn it, and insisted on digging over and over and over, even though mostly she didn’t get anything. SHe’s a good digger, though, and when we teamed up and i stuck my hands into the hole she dug, we did better.

My own favorite part is seeing all the groups huddled around lanterns down in the wet wet sand. I walked 2 buckets up to the truck, and came back. The stars were bright overhead, with patches of stars in between patches of clouds. The Big Dipper was bright and perfectly framed off to my right as i walked back out to our group. I had to scan all the groups to guess which group was mine. And i guessed right. I wished, just then, that i’d charged my new camera already. As i got close to them, it would have made a great picture. 6 people dressed in raingear and waders, huddled around while 2 people dug, 2 people scanned for little holes, one held a bucket and another a lantern. Very nice.

After we’d all caught our limits (15 each), we drove to a nearby restaurant and had a late dinner, then drove back to the house. Jack came in for a little while, but soon enough went home and I went to sleep. Pretty long day!

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I’m feeling pretty positive about things lately, even though i’m sick at home at the moment and feeling pretty useless while Matt works on the house like a demon. Here’s why:

1. Today i mailed off the application to study to be an aesthetician. Class will be once a week (monday) starting in February. It will be 1 1/2 years of study, which isn’t really long at all.
2. My own aesthetician, Marianne, who is awesome, and who was incredibly enthusiastic about my interest in doing this, emailed me the other day in reply to the email i’d sent her. You see, she wants to open her own salon, connected to Dr. Hauschka corporate, and had asked me to help her with her business plan. I’d done some research for her, to get us underway, and she’d finally had a chance to read it and think about it. She is really excited, and wants to know how my application to Instituut de Korte has gone, because she’s thinking maybe we’d even partner up in that. I’m down with that, completely.
3. I gave my notice at work 1 1/2 weeks ago, in order to stop working there at the end of the year, unless possibly as freelance in the parts i’m really interested in: namely, research, presentations, and specialty projects such as transmedia advice and funding. This was well-received, and i’ve been given a bonus which almost completely covers the expense of my studies. woo hoo!
4. I’m on vacation as of Thursday night, and will be leaving for an extended visit to see family on Monday morning.
5. I managed to help arrange that all the work on our house that needs external people is beginning, also on Monday. This required some begging phone calls, but it’s really happening. The scaffolding is up, the carpenter does his work on Monday, and everything else is falling right into place, even the asshole contractor who owes us new 1st floor windows. He wants to avoid having to put up steigers (scaffolding) of his own, and when he found we’ve got it up for these other projects he actually started to move on his part. wow.
6. my cat is getting healthier. the meds are working, and he’s getting spunky and fatter. yay cat.
7. matt has been getting some geek time in, finding interesting projects to get involved with. this makes him feel creative and useful, and makes him happier and healthier. yay matt.

speaking of cat, he’s on my lap, making it hard for me to type more. so i’ll go.

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