I took Martin to the airport on Monday. It’s a long drive, nearly three hours one way. The drive was uneventful and the weather was gorgeous. On the way home I decided to semi-document the drive. I recently found a case with a bunch of old mix CDs I’d made. We’ve been working our way around that case since the find. I had one in on Monday. So here it is… Illinois countryside, in bits, accompanied by the track that happened to be playing at the time. There are a few of these, peruse them at your leisure, or not. I find this amusing… but then I would. It combines music, driving, and a bit of the tech stuff I love. The first video is a tad long. Feel free to skip part of it should you need to move on. This is just one of the quirky things I find myself doing. Enjoy…
LiFe
Just got back from the weekly shot. Nancy, who takes my blood pressure and temp and weight and oxygen every week, asked how I fared yesterday given the fact that she knows I fear tornadoes. I said it all worked like it was supposed to. We were clueless, sitting in the office, then the weather radio went off telling us to take shelter, tornado warning, beep beep beep, etc. We grabbed the dogs, our phones, closed our curtains, and headed downstairs. It took us all of about 2 minutes. Once there we turned on the TV and settled in with our laptops, Karen working, me perusing various coverage sites for the weather. The emergency alert system activated on the TV and then the sirens went off, or maybe it was the other way around, and we watched on television as the storm made it’s way across where we live. Many many funnel clouds were spotted and some tornadoes touched down. Apparently, according to Nancy, there was some damage out by Curtis Road (not far from us) where windows were blown out and a metal shed was moved up onto another building. LOL I’d say the first test of our personal system worked well. :-) Nancy said she spent 45 minutes in the basement. Apparently they move all the patients down to the basement of the clinic when the sirens go off.
I’m going to ramble a bit now…
I’m sitting here in the office this morning listening to Karen work and I have that feeling, but I’ll get to that later. Earlier I was perusing Facebook… reading news, seeing what my peeps are up to, checking in. I know a lot of people are sort of Anti-Facebook now, but not me. I could care less about the ads, I don’t generally even look at them, the commercialism, because of course it is, it’s a business, or the fact that they have my info, everyone has my info nowadays. I use credit cards, I buy things, I sign into and out of websites all the time. It’s the modern digital age and as much as I care about my privacy, or at least not letting people have access to my credit card info, the feeling of needing to be so private lessened a lot when I was in the hospital for those long long days and everyone saw everything I had. Perspective. Facebook to me, especially since the move, is a way to know, by looking in one place, what our friends and family are up to near and far. It’s a way to stay in touch. It’s not perfect, but it works for me. It’s like being in a big digital ongoing conversation. A community of sorts. I like that.
I respect my family and friends who are so passionate about world affairs, causes they hold dear, politics, etc. I respect them immensely. I have issues I also care about, though I think not with the kind of passion they exhibit. I admire the chutzpah in them. Sometimes I even wish I had more of it. Some days, like today, I wonder why I don’t. I have things I believe in, and will talk about if I’m in that kind of conversation, but most of the time I keep things to myself. And most of the time I’m more concerned with things like beauty, joy, art, telling stories, music, and love. It’s true. These things consume my day, my mind, more than anything else. Except for maybe my honey and our pups, but then that’s all about love, which is one of the things I care most about. I have always been this way, and yet… not.
I fell into a degree in Psychology because I was good at it. I have always been, for friends and family alike, a sort of pseudo counselor. Additionally I was fascinated by the mind. How it worked, both physically and emotionally, and why. I was interested in motivation, understanding, function. I was also, and continue to be, an incredibly emotional person. I cry at the drop of the hat, feel things more deeply than I sometimes want to, and have a sense about the emotions of others that at times overwhelms me. All of this, plus a passion for at risk kids and their issues, led me into work with those kids. I did that for a long time, cared deeply about what I was doing, and felt like I was making a difference every day. I was. I know that with certainty. But living every day caring very much about what you are doing, wanting to help to facilitate change in both the kids and their circumstances, feeling and battling an overwhelming sense of hopelessness in those same kids, their parents, other agencies, and the circuitous nature of generations of people living difficult lives took its toll on me. I cared very much and that sense of caring was what finally guided my decision to leave that profession. Circumstances helped me do it more quickly than I had anticipated, but the writing had been on the wall. I needed to not live in that world any more. To not take it home with me. To be in a more positive environment. I needed to leave.
Two years ago when the bomb dropped on our lives, and I say our because it didn’t only affect me, we were living our lives. Loving our lives. Traveling, working, spending time with friends and family, having as many adventures and new experiences as we could. Dinners with friends, traveling to new places, walks with the pups, etc. Our life was amazing. Then the thing happened. The big C. Suddenly, without warning, swooping in to change our lives completely. Days with friends and family and pups replaced by meds, and IVs, and poisonous life saving drugs, and sickness, and baldness, and… love. So much love pouring in to us, to me, that I was overwhelmed by it. So much. It was like a tidal wave of well wishes and good feelings and sweet remembrances and karmic hugging. I was stunned by it. Knowing you have a good foundation of people in your life is one thing, seeing them, seeing that in action, is another. I was humbled, shaken, amazed.
We made it through those times, which I can’t even describe…. so much happened, so much. And I came out of it, away from it, am still in the end of it, with a sense of wonder. A sense of what is truly important, for me anyway. And here’s what I think… people need to spend more time thinking about love. Not love as in romantic love, but love as in love of your fellow-man, love of this planet we call home, love of people we don’t understand, but should at least try to. There’s too much push and pull, too much righteous indignation, too much of this whole idea that “I” know best and “you” should listen. Too much arrogance. Too much of people being afraid of things they don’t understand when really if we just live our lives the best we know how, treating people in our lives with the respect they deserve, and by that I mean all people, we would be so much better off. Even those we know are struggling or living their lives in ways we don’t think are right or correct or healthy. If we respect each other as human beings, knowing there are faults in all of us, knowing we are none of us perfect, and then move through life with the knowledge that, for the most part each of us is doing the best we know how, things would improve. If we focused on beauty, and love, and how similar we are instead of how different we make ourselves, things would improve.
I know there are people who say this is me living with my head in the clouds, but seriously. We are all the same. Living our lives, loving our families, wanting what’s best for them. We may have different ideas about what that is, or what that means, but that’s OK. Just the simple acknowledgement that we are the same would mean then that we would never be able to judge someone for how they lived, for what they thought. We would come at the conversation from a place of trying to understand instead of trying to conquer. We would be more able to work together. From a place like that no one would be denied basic rights, their humanity, their ability to live a happy life, whatever that is for them. Judgement would vanish. And with it fear would go. Fear that always comes from a place of us vs. them, from not understanding, from living our lives looking at “them” over there as our enemy instead of as our possible friend. More than that, because we aren’t going to be friends with everyone, we could agree that we won’t always agree. And that’s OK. It’s OK for us to do as we please. And yes, of course I don’t mean those that hurt others. There are still rules. Rule one, don’t hurt anyone intentionally or even unintentionally by the actions you take.
So, this is all Pollyanna to many people I’m sure. But I’m tired of the fighting, the push and pull, the politics of it all. I’m tired of all the ways we try to stand out, live separately. We live together, whether we like it or not. We depend on each other, whether we like it or not, and we can choose to be afraid of each other, of all the things we don’t understand, or we can hold out our hands to those we disagree with, have a real conversation, and move forward. Actually take steps that lead us toward something wonderful, instead of taking steps backward to places we’ve already been.
I don’t have the answers, I don’t even pretend to know all the questions. I know me, my honey, my life. I know that the way the wind sounds in the trees right now is gorgeous and that sound is the same all around the world. I know I love to laugh, and so does everyone else I’ve ever met. I know a lot of people are angry about this or that, and they have a right to be. I’m not discounting that. I’m just saying… love a little more. Hug a little more. Put yourself in the other guys shoes a lot more. Be kind. Be patient. Be better. We could all be a bit better. Which, I guess, is the feeling I was talking about earlier. That feeling of wanting to be better. Look past myself. See into things more clearly, with more depth. To be understanding. To love with all I am, and be thankful.
I secure. I ground. I provide a safe place to land. These are some of my attributes. They have been all my life.
When I was a girl we lived on a piece of property. It wasn’t major acreage or anything, just a big lot in town. Small town. We had a huge garden, a small orchard, a couple of big grass fields, and a fort built for us by our parents that looked like something from the old west frontier. It was a good place to be a kid. Lots of room to roam not too far from home.
My brother had a cool bedroom closet. It had a window in it that led out onto the roof. Plus the closet itself was enormous. Big enough to use as an indoor fort. We did. We also, occasionally, climbed out onto the roof, made our way down to the carport, walked carefully across the carport, and jumped down into the garden. From there we could wander around, having snuck out, all over the place. We never left the property. We were, for the most part, “good” kids. Boringly so. There were times, however, that my brother, who was going through a tumultuous time then, would sneak out and run away. He did this a few times. Packed up a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or at least some bread, put it in a knapsack, and ventured out into the fields on his own. When this happened I usually knew it not too long after he’d gone. And, being the big sister, I always went after him. I always found him. I always brought him back home.
Kev and I have a special bond. We’ve been through a lot together he and I. No one else has our experience except, of course, us. We two went through divorce, re-marriages, visitations with our dad and his new family in far off Montana, getting to know our little half brothers and sisters, spending time with our older step brother and sisters, Mom’s ordeal with and defeat of breast cancer, the death of our step-dad followed not too distantly by the death of our father who, on his deathbed, apologized to us for the dad he wasn’t and wished he’d been. Kev and I have always been comrades in arms. Peas in a pod. Best buds as well as brother and sister. We get each other.
I have felt, through the years, like an anchor to him, as he has been, without probably knowing it, to me. When things have gone wrong or been hard, I want to see Kev. He wants to see me. We have clung to each other in times that have sometimes taken the wind from us. Holding on tight, facing the storm. Life has been a big adventure for us to this point. Each of us has had our struggles, our triumphs, our journey. And each of us has always had the other to lean on, be supported by, to hug.
I can’t imagine this life without my big little brother. If there’s something I’ve learned, and keep learning, the big lesson I guess, this is it… let the people you love know you love them. Don’t wait. Don’t hesitate. Don’t. If you think of them, or see them, or miss them, tell them so. So Kev… I thought of you today. You mean more to me than I am able to articulate. You are one of the best men I know… strong, caring, sweet, honest, true, loyal, gentle, smart, creative, funny, sincere. You are a fantastic human being. And as much as I have been secure, and grounding, and safe for you, know you have been all those things for me. I love you and I miss your mug.
HELEN:
Margaret, do you remember how angry we were the day we finally realized that women’s legs are not harder to shave than men’s faces, but rather razors made for women can’t hold a candle to those made for men? And the women’s razors are more expensive to boot. I’d like to meet the asshats at Gillette and give them a piece of my mind.
Margaret and Helen have it all figured out...
It’s Friday morning. Karen has the day off, yay!, and is sleeping in. It was a rough night… the dogs restless, for whatever reason. We had to let them out a couple of times. My honey got the duty last night so she deserves a good sleep in. I’m trying to be quiet out here, Weston sleeping next to me on our little sofa, freshly brewed Earl Grey, all the lights are still off.
There’s something about these mornings… everything still. I love this time.
I have always been a person who likes my quiet alone time. No input, no talking, no one around. When I lived alone I could spend entire weekends just staying in my apartment, hibernating, reading, watching TV, surfing the net. I never felt alone or sad that I was. I enjoyed it. I had a busy life so getting those weekends to myself once in a while was a lovely thing. Living in my head and my heart. Regenerating my soul.
I still love time to myself. I don’t get whole weekends anymore, and you won’t hear me complaining about it as the trade off now is spectacular, but I still like my time. Luckily for me my honey gets it. She doesn’t get offended when I say I need some down time. When I say I need to have stillness… quiet. Like now…
or not….
We had such a great two days over at the kid’s house. A really lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Pierogi making and toy building and a walk and elf set up on Christmas Eve. Such a nice day. Karen makes a mean pierogi… or several of them. So good. A new Christmas Eve tradition is born. From now on every Christmas Eve we will be clamoring for pierogi. Yum. After a walk, and food, and after the young gent went to bed we all went into elf mode. Building toys and setting out his wagon and enormous zebra, later named Zeus. The kids put together his easel. All while Christmas music played.
Christmas day Karen and I opened our gifts to each other, and the gifts from Mom for the pups (they loved them… or, more accurately, Weston took to both of them and Riley hasn’t seen much of either since… LOL) while enjoying a quick cup of coffee. We had to get it all done and then get dressed and head over to the kid’s house so we’d be there before the little guy was up and able to look at the tree. We didn’t make it before he was up, but he hadn’t looked at the tree yet. When that little man wakes up he thinks of only one thing… food. He loves him some oatmeal and applesauce!
So he looked at the tree and the gifts and was overwhelmed. In a good way. We all opened, he opened some of his, and we enjoyed some cinnamon rolls. Then Martin made us lunch (pizza) using his new bread maker. He makes some mean pizza dough and we made some yummy pizzas. Then a walk (the young man rode in his new wagon part of the way and pushed it part of the way and cared less about it part of the way). The walk was followed by more present opening for him, he got an unusually high number of presents… go figure. It was fun.
After a full day Sebastian had a little dinner, played a little more, and then went up for his bath and bed. Meanwhile the turkey was cooked (it had been started earlier in the day) and Karen and I set about getting the rest of the stuff ready. The kids came back down and the table was set, the food laid out, the wine uncorked, and there we were… turkey dinner for the four of us with most of the trimmings. A quiet really nice dinner. We followed that up with a rousing game of Mad Gab, a game we’d gotten for them for Christmas. It was totally fun. At one point Mary and I were laughing so hard we were crying. Good fun!
It was a beautiful Christmas this year. Relaxed, fun, totally great. As Mary said… it’s why we all moved to the same place. So we could enjoy stuff like this while still getting to sleep in our own beds at night. The best of both worlds.
Here we are… In another waiting room. Lordy… We have both been to the dentist, the eye doctor, had our physicals, been to my regular appointments, and now we are at the ankle & foot doctor for Karen’s last, hopefully, follow up on he heel break/bad ankle sprain. We have blitzed the health scene here I tell ya. Whoa nelly!
The result… New glasses for both of us, cleaner teeth, and poked and prodded all around.
Now.. 2012… LOL
I have been mulling over what to write for my Thanksgiving blog this year. So much mulling that Thanksgiving came and went without so much as a peep from this girl. But today, sitting here with the rain coming down and the weather turned cold I thought I might just dive in.
Thanksgiving. A holiday that, though initially maybe not traditionally about this, has become mostly about people eating, watching football, and most importantly pausing to give thanks to anything, everything, and everyone that people might pause to give thanks to. It’s a holiday about family and friends. A holiday about the people in our lives. Breaking bread (and don’t we all wish we could break it with Stan M? LOL An inside joke… and I digress), telling tales, laughing, loving, crying, and getting really full.
I think I’m still full from the meal we had on Thanksgiving over at the kid’s place. It was a lovely day. Spending time playing with the little man, helping to make what turned out to be a fantastic meal (my help consisted of making the green bean casserole… just empty cans into dish, but hey… I helped… and it was damn good baby!), hanging out with my honey, Mary, Martin, the little dude, and also Raya, Alex, and Tavish. We ate, chatted, played with the two little lads, and then after those lads went to bed we played games, drank tea, laughed. I will not reveal anything about things discussed during those games other than to use a couple of tell-tale phrases… Pam and skid marks. All other secrets are better left hidden. To be sure, it was a grand good day.
What I want to say here I think is that Thanksgiving should be a state of mind, not a one day a year kind of deal. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying do away with the turkey, fixin’s, football, game playing, and all of that. Let’s keep the day and on that day doubly send out those vibes of many thanks. I guess what I’m saying is we should strive to be thankful every day. All days. Always. It’s tough when the day is dark and dreary and work is a pain and people in one way or another are suffering. But it’s a great thing to still, in the face of all of that, pause during the day and say to yourself, if you don’t say it aloud, I’m thankful for… I’m grateful for… I’m happy I have this person or that thing or that dog or cat in my life…
So today I decided I’m going to say it out loud…
I am so grateful, thankful, lucky, fill in any other and all other words to express gratitude, thanks, and praise all rolled into one, for my honey. I will cry writing this, but I am in awe of your presence in my life. I say this over and over… but I have no idea what I did to have this happen. Whatever it was, thank you, thank you, thank you. You are light, laughter, air, grace, beauty, imagination, wonder, art, and all my wishes fulfilled. It’s been over eight and a half years and I love you more with each passing minute. I can’t believe it’s possible to love someone this much and tomorrow it will be more, but that’s what happens… every day. You get me. And I’m not easy. But, you get me. You understand me I think better than I do. Know where I’m at before I know I’m there. You are joy walking, my little sage in disguise. You bring light with you everywhere, and I am so blessed that your light gets to shine on me every day. I love you my love… more than this much.
I’m blessed also to have the best Mom ever. I don’t know what to say about her other than to say she is also grace walking. My Mom has been through some stuff, and I’ve seen her handle it all with so much class and grace. Maybe not always with a smile, but nearly always. People tell me I have a great smile, and I always say I got it from my Mom. It’s true. To say you’re my friend as well… bonus. It’s not everyone who can say they just like hanging out with their Mom. I can. I do. I love you so very much and every day I know how lucky I am to have you in my life. To have had you in my life through everything. We are separated this year. Me moving away to another state. We’ve never been this far apart and even though we are both dealing with it pretty well I think I miss you. I miss you but also know you’re right here with me. As I am right there with you. It’s that kind of bond. The kind big love makes.
Kev… You are my champion, my defender, my buddy, my partner in crime, my big little brother. To say we are peas in a pod is putting it mildly. We have seen a lot you and I. Been through a lot and always been there for each other. Always. Sometimes when life hasn’t been as kind as it could be to us we were all we had. Or at least it seemed that way. Kev and I against the world. I love that big lug of a guy. Fort building, mini bike riding, pool playing, adventure making, fighting each other and defending each other against others. I am grateful for you. For your friendship, your noble ideals, your loyalty, your laugh, your grin, and the best hugs given by any human on the planet. You are an amazing man. And thank goodness, you are my brother.
Mary… I never had my own children, I didn’t want any actually, until I met your Mom and by then it was, we felt, a little late in life for us. But lucky me, I didn’t just get a life with your Mom, I got a life with you. And you, my step-daughter, are amazing. I have never said these things to you, but I am so very happy and lucky to have you in my life. I am so very proud of you. Funny, fun, so very smart, silly, clear minded, stubborn, tough, with high expectations and a loyalty stronger than steel, you are fantastic. I am also so very grateful for the little man, our Sebastian. And you, Mary, are a fantastic Mom. I watch you with him and think to myself… wow, she’s doing this or that just right. Teaching him to swim, teaching him to be in the world, teaching him to grow up and be an amazing man. You are a great Mom Mary. And I am grateful every day that I get to be around you, be around your son, be in your life. Thank you for letting me be a part of things, for not just being my partner’s daughter, but mine as well. Thank you… and I love you very much.
Martin… No greater son-in-law could a mother in law have. You are a gentleman… and gentle man. I love how you treat Mary. How you make a home with her. How you are as a father. I love watching you with Sebastian, talking to him, playing with him. I love how you take care of your family. All that, and you make me think and laugh. You are easy to be around. Easy to be with. And that, my son-in-law is a gift. As you are a gift to me.
And what would this blog post be without a mention of our pups… Weston and Riley. Every day I get joy from them. Exasperating, sometimes annoying, loud, hyper, needy… but always loving. Always loyal. Always affectionate. Always there with a snuggle. Funny little creatures that have totally stolen our hearts. We adore them. Are in love with our dogs. I sometimes say it’s a sad state of affairs, loving dogs this much. But it isn’t. It’s a glad, happy, wonderful, grateful state of affairs. Unconditional mutual admiration and adoration.
I can’t go on to list everyone I should… to say thank you to everyone I love. If I did this blog would be much longer than anyone would probably want to read, or have the attention span for. I will just say this… to my family and friends, old and new, I am blessed. I have the gold standard of people in my life. Each one of you brings something to my life that is cherished, noticed, and appreciated by me. I couldn’t be luckier to know and call you friends and family. I don’t say it enough, maybe don’t even talk to some of you enough, but I think of you often. I can’t begin to express how deep my appreciation and love go. It’s deep. It’s endless. My life is a beautiful tapestry of people, woven together by thread upon thread of shared life experiences and stories. I love you guys. I’m so very lucky to have you. And I hope with all that I am that I’ve been and continue to be as good a friend, sister, daughter, niece, aunt, grand-daughter, cousin, sister-in-law, and all around person as you all have been to me. I’m lucky. Lucky. Lucky. So fortunate. And so very thankful for each and every one of you.
And there it is… my none Thanksgiving Day thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has come, but not gone.
I walked out into the backyard this afternoon to throw the ball a little for the boy. He’s been restless today. Sometimes he gets like that. Usually chewing on a bully (which I gave him) or throwing the ball a couple of times in the house (which I did), or letting him sit on my lap and petting him (also did) work to assuage his anxiousness. Not today. He is sort of a high strung anxious little guy sometimes. So outside I went, in my lounge pants (AKA pajama bottoms) that I’m still wearing. Yes, the advantages of Karen and I working from home is the ability to stay dressed down for the day. Until we have to go out in public that is, but that’s a topic for another day. Back to Alfie… or more accurately, Weston. I was kind of desperate to have him quit bugging me. I love him, but having him come up to me and nudge my hand, or bark at me, or whatever over and over today was getting on my nerves. So out into the backyard, in my lounge pants, I went. I threw the ball for him a few times. Riley also got in on the action a little… in all ways actually. She chewed on the bully, tugged on her brown thing (formerly a stuffed monkey, now just the brown thing), chased Weston’s ball in the house, and got her own lap sitting complete with a pet or two. She was also in on the outside ball throwing action. We also just took them for a short walk around a couple of blocks… not in our lounge pants (Karen had to get out of the house and off the phone for 30 minutes… it’s a bad one today for her)… but again, I digress. So while we were outside, the dogs and I that is, in the backyard (me in my lounge pants), I noticed Alfie. He was laying near the back steps. Poor guy. I picked him up and found, for the third or fourth time since he’s been a part of the family, that he was soaking wet. Weston, who has taken a particular shine to Alfie, carries him around sometimes. Sometimes that means he carries Alfie outside. And sometimes he gets distracted by a squirrel, drops Alfie, and forgets to bring him back in the house. If we notice Alfie out there at night, which we have in the past when we take the pups out for their last constitution before bed, we tell Weston to get Alfie and bring him in, which he does. Pretty cute actually. I say… “Weston, go get Alfie. Get him. Good boy!” and he does. He will go get him. But today, Alfie’s fate was not of the warm and dry kind. He was soaking. Forgotten yesterday by Weston outside and left to weather the storm on his own. Poor Alfie.
After I saw Alfie I brought him in, of course, and propped him up on the kitchen counter to dry. It’s his normal drying spot. Seems to work. Weston will miss him until Alfie re-joins the fold, but it has to be done.
And speaking of Weston missing him… this is interesting. Weston has never really taken any particular interest in any one toy. He loves chasing and catching the ball the most and will occasionally carry around the Mailman or the Hedgehog. Both of which have stayed in tact, a sure sign he likes them as he hasn’t chewed the stuffing out of them. But that’s about it… he will carry one around for awhile and then put it down, forgotten for quite a long time until the next time he picks one up and carries it around. Alfie is different. We picked up Alfie, and his co-hort Squiggy, when we stopped at Praireland Feeds (where we buy the pup’s food) on my birthday weekend as we headed out of town. I noticed this little bin of stuffed things and thought the pups needed a little treat for the trip so I picked up a red and green one. The naming of them happened after we got home from the weekend. Weston took a particular liking to red, later named Alfie. He started carrying him around everywhere. He brought him to bed with him, something he’s never done with anything other than a bully stick before (which we don’t let him have in bed by the way), carried him outside when he went out to do his business, brought him downstairs to the media room when we went down to watch TV at night, and had him with him when he took his naps. He has never done this and it’s kind of cute. He and Alfie have become fast fast friends. Squiggy gets a tad bit of attention, but he’s usually a meager substitute for Alfie when Alfie is out of commission, like he is today.
Weston will be happy when Alfie dries off and is dropped back on the floor. I’m sure he and his little buddy will be stuck like glue again, until the next time he’s left outside and gets showered on.
Meet Alfie…
So Karen and I realized we’ve lived here just about five weeks. We are finally getting things sort of settled, though there’s still some wallpaper border to remove and definitely painting to be done. I took a little tour of the house, snapping shots as I went, so that we could share what the place is looking like now. Keep in mind… the dots in the office are going, as is the wallpaper border in the dining room, as is the color in the media room and the spare bedroom. We have a few more things to hang on the walls… including a tryptic we just ordered of a shot I took of Chicago that’s going to hang down in the media room. Can’t wait to get that baby. Will be cool. Obviously we haven’t hung anything up in the office or the spare bedroom either, again due to the fact that we haven’t painted anything yet.
Uh, the picture quality isn’t the best… I was doing this on the fly and not really paying attention. My honey will hate that the bed isn’t fully made in the bedroom photos and that there are blankets thrown about down in the media room as well as in the living room, but hey… this is how we live most of the time.
Our yard is fantastic. Pretty big. We like it. Our garage, which I didn’t shoot at all, is about a car and a half. Plenty of room for the car and for tools, storage, and such. I’ll shoot that next time I make some rounds. I also didn’t shoot the side yard, street side, that’s beautiful. Oh well… looks like I left a few things out. Next time…
Martin called our style bohemian. We like it. He’s right. We don’t like any particular style. We like what we like and buy what we like and somehow it all fits together.
When and as things get painted and wallpaper gets removed I will take more photos. You know, when the house is completely done. I’ll try to make those more house beautiful. For now… this is it… our place in Illinois.
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Last weekend Karen and I had ourselves a little adventure. It started with a drive and a visit to Arcola, Illinois. A little burg that’s South of Urbana on Hwy 57. They have an annual festival called the Arcola Corn Broom Festival where you can get loads of things from booths, vendor food of all sorts, and yes… corn brooms. We heard of this festival, I don’t know where, and had to check it out. C’mon… a festival dedicated to corn brooms…. who could resist?
Off we went in search of a corn broom and low and behold… we found one. A lovely one. A very nice one. A red and green one. It’s cool. We love it. But that wasn’t all…
We wanted to check out the hippie memorial as well, but because of the festival there was a band playing near the memorial preventing us from getting close enough to take photos. Bummer. We will have to go back. So instead of the hippie memorial we went to plan B… we decided to go check out a place we’d seen that sells adirondack chairs in different colors. Very cool chairs. We want to get some, especially since we found out they are made of composite. Really great.
After the chairs, or really on the way to the chairs, we noticed that there were a lot of Amish around. Karen’s phrase of the day was… wow, it’s really Amishy around here. We laughed so hard after she said that. Arcola is in Illinois Amish country. It was Sunday and after church. We decided we needed a photo of the Amish. Karen tried a few times and missed. She’s a great photographer, but she needs time. She’s not a snap on the fly kind of girl, so it was a struggle. We laughed and laughed because she kept sticking the camera out the window and either not taking it in time or getting the wheel only or not taking it at all because we’d passed them. We laughed so hard we cried. We wondered aloud if the Amish might be offended by our attempts at photographing them. Here we were, a blue Volvo speeding by with a camera sticking out the window. We figured they probably were used to it and besides which, they make a lot of their money from the tourist trade in one way or another. I hope they weren’t offended.
Finally our attempts were successful. Or successful enough. We got some shots. Gotta love perseverance and a point and shoot Canon SD750.
After hunting the Amish, which sounds much worse writing it like that than is meant, we took some backroads part of the way home. Driving out in the middle of corn fields in Illinois is sort of an isolating feeling. Made more so by the fact that more than half the time you get no cell reception what so ever. Here’s hoping to never get stuck out in the middle of nowhere. We’d have to walk to a farm and ask to use the phone, like in the olden days when there were no cell phones. It’s rural… and literally in the middle of nowhere. But, it’s beautiful. Really. Quite stunning in places.
On another note, since this is my blog and I can change paddles in the middle of the stream, or whatever that saying is… we got our new living room furniture today. Yippee! I’ve included a photo just because. We still have to hang the rest of our art and such and do some painting, but it’s looking like home. It’s nice…
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We have had a full week here in Illinois. Loads of barbecuing at both our house and over at Mary and Martin’s, we went to a cheese festival in Arthur Illinois, which also happens to be in Amish Country so we saw loads of Amish (a first for both of us). We even bought some Amish goods here at our Saturday Market at the Square this last Saturday when we finally made it over there (yummy cinnamon bread… so good). We went to the Children’s museum in Decatur and made big bubbles and watched the little boy climb up and down the little slide and pull and pull the fake wooden garden vegetables out of the fake wooden garden. I had another blow draw (numbers normal… yay!) and a shot this week. Karen put together the spring thunder horse so Sebastian could ride on it the way Mary did when she was a wee sprout. Karen saved it all this time just for this moment… when her daughter would have a child and he/she could ride it. It brought tears to both of our eyes. We took the dogs in for their first vet appointment to get them checked for heart worm (clear!) and get another round of heart worm meds for them. We went on a few walks with the pups at Meadowbrook Park (our favorite in town), once with a couple of people we met through the UP Center (LGBT center in town). And we celebrated Sebastian’s first birthday two days ago. Who can believe he’s one… wow! We will be celebrating again tomorrow when some friends of Martin and Mary arrive and Mary makes some delicious spiced cupcakes in the shape of trucks. Presents have already been opened, but there’s always time to have another celebration… especially when cake is involved! We had our handyman over and he took the first step in eliminating the spindles between our kitchen and dining room. Spindles out… now the finish work is all that’s left to do. He’s coming back on Monday to take care of that. We have him working on an estimate to put in a garage door opener and then we will have him give us an estimate for putting crown molding throughout the upper floor of the house.
We are adjusting to life in Illinois. The weather has turned nice. Cooler… much much less humidity, and cool nights! We are loving it. It’s been in the mid to upper 70′s during the day, and in the upper 40′s to lower 50′s at night. We are actually wearing sweatshirts (with our shorts and flip flops of course… and my honey’s boot… so fashionable) once in awhile now. I actually had a blanket on my lap last night as we sat down in our media room watching the first NFL game of the season. My honey scored a load of points on her men in the game… her fantasy football year is off to a great start!
Now… we are going to take the pups and walk downtown to the Common Ground Food Co-op. Time to get some organics, some deodorant, and maybe a snack for the walk back. We have to wear sweatshirts… and, it may just rain on us. We are not complaining!
What follows are some shots, mostly taken by Karen, during our road trip east. It was a tiring four days, but we got er done… as they say. We were so lucky to have Mom and Sandy along to help out. They were amazing and true champs! People say this all the time, but in our case we totally mean it… we couldn’t have done it without them! Thank you guys, you were wonderful traveling companions, and true champs of the road! We love you!
Seven states, 2300 miles, three nights in hotels with four adults and two dogs, road food, great conversation, some beautiful scenery, more gas money into a big ol’ truck and a car than two girls ever want to pay for again, and no real issues… it was a tiring, but good trip east.
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Life in the Midwest is pretty much everything we expected it to be… yet… more. And less. So philosphical.
Karen and I were making a list the other day of some of those differences and I thought, given the fact that I’m sitting here in the office while Karen works and it’s getting hot hot hot out there, that I would do something in our air conditioned house. Namely blog about some of the differences we’ve found so far after living in Urbana for 17 days.
It’s hot here… and that hot is a different kind of hot. Hot as in the butter is always soft if you leave it on the counter. Really soft… melting soft. Even inside with the air conditioning on. Not only that… ice cubes melt incredibly fast. They are there… then poof, gone. Your glass has sweated all over the table, coaster, napkin, whatever. Inside mind you, inside with the air conditioning blasting. Not outside, where ice wouldn’t stand a chance at all.
Sunsets are beautiful here… and the weather creates part of that, but so does the endless skyline. No mountains to block them out so they last a long long time. It’s flat. Really flat. So the sunsets last and last… lingering over the corn fields and prairie grasses for a very long time. Gorgeous.
It’s never quiet… during the day there’s the regular noise… cars driving by, people walking by, dogs barking (ours and others), horns honking, garbage trucks, people mowing their lawns. A cacophony of sound for a couple of girls who used to live out in the country… we’re getting used to it and actually like a certain measure of it. It’s the symphony of moving life all around us. The thing that’s shocking is the night noise… the sound of the cicadas. So loud. So very loud. It’s such an interesting thing since we didn’t have them in the Pacific Northwest. We had the occasional owl sound and sometimes coyotes, but that was only once in a while. This wall of sound from the cicadas is amazing. Not annoying to us, just shocking.
Humidity. We were not prepared. We thought we were mentally prepared, knew it would be the hardest part of the transition, but we were not prepared. Neither of us like that kind of heat. Hot, damp, heavy air. Not fans. And it’s not even because our bouffants don’t stay up or that when we tease it suddenly goes limp… and yes, I’m kidding, about the bouffants and the teasing I mean. It’s an amazing thing, this humidity. We are learning, slowly, all about dew points and heat indexes and why 60% humidity in Oregon is nothing like 60% humidity here. It’s a learning curve, and air conditioning is our friend. That and fans… loads and loads of new fans.
There’s something to be said for a small kitchen. Our kitchen in this house is small. Smaller than the kitchen we had in Scappoose. Not much counter space, and hardly any cupboard space at all. It’s cool… with it’s granite counter tops, great gas stove and oven, it’s under mount sink. But it’s small… really small. But… we like it. Who knew? We put up a big metro shelf for storage of food. It’s all out and open to the room, but we love that about it. We also got a metro cart that we put spices and baking stuff on and added a cool dark bamboo cutting board to the top of it so we could move it around and use it for chopping and such when we needed more room. It works great. When we put our bowls and large collection of coffee cups away from the dishwasher we don’t have to move at all. Everything is right there. Easy, close, convenient, and very organized. It has to be. It is. We like it. Simple. Of course, having a small kitchen is helped by the fact that we can store anything that doesn’t fit, the stuff we don’t use very often, down in our second kitchen. It’s small too, but it holds the overflow nicely. We got lucky there.
I had here, next, that we couldn’t find raw dog food… and it was a challenge. We tried several places with no luck. We thought, wow… there are a lot of dogs here, we see them all the time. People love their dogs here, like in Portland, so what gives. No raw? Finally we looked up the company that makes it and used their locate our products in your area tab… one place. In Savoy. It’s only 4 miles from our house, and it’s a very cool feed/country store. They have everything a pet owner or horse and cattle man might want. Plus, they were nice. So… we couldn’t find it, but now we did, and we love the store. There you go. Out in Savoy we also discovered a huge movie theater, a new Shnuck’s grocery store, a Buffalo Wild Wings (Karen was a happy happy woman knowing she could get Asian Zing so close to our house), and a small myriad of other little places. Savoy is the nearby hamlet that seems to just keep on giving.
Living in a University town again is really cool. I’ve always loved Universities… the vibe, the life, the people (students and staff alike) rushing to go somewhere important. This town, these towns, with this huge University at the center of them, is the same. There will be art, and music, and sporting events galore. There will be philosophical discussions to over hear in coffee shops and restaurants, there will be slightly drunk young men to talk to outside of the Black Dog Smoke and Ale House when we go to get take out. Awesome!
Lots of bugs and five times times the size. There are a lot of bugs here. And they are big. Nothing to really expound on except that I saw a thing (and then Mary saw it) at Mary and Martin’s house… it looked like a small bird, only it was a bee or hornet or some such thing that was too awfully big to be anything other than awful. I’m sure it chased me into their house one day. I’m sure of it. I narrowly escaped. It was frightening. Mary saw it a few days later going into a hole in the ground in their back yard. Karen filled the hole with a crap load of sand. Hopefully that thing won’t be making another fly by appearance. Creepy.
There are super friendly people here. Really friendly. We have had most all of our close neighbors come over to say hello to us. Two even brought baked goods. We haven’t returned the plate to one of them, so they might not be feeling as friendly toward us right now, but they will again when we bring it back with oatmeal cookies on it. That’s our plan… bribe them back with our own baked goods. But it’s not just our neighbors… everyone everywhere we go has been friendly. Nice nice nice. They say hello when you pass them, look you in the eye, mean it. Nice. Friendly. Sure, there’s that anonymous neighbor who has called the cops on us twice for barking dogs (admittedly once before we got here and the kids were living here with their dogs… and then one time later when their dogs were over here… though I’m sure it was all four of them barking). We don’t know who they are, since they wish to remain anonymous, and the police, who came to the door both times, said the second time that really they just wanted to make sure the dogs were OK and not being left outside in the heat. Once they knew we had a doggie door they were like, no worries…
Nights are (forever without you…. laaaaa… that song just popped into my head… I digress) warmer for being out and about. One fantastic thing about living here is the night time weather. It’s so nice being in shorts and flip flops out and about at 9 or 10 or 11 and it’s warm. A nice little breeze, but still 75 or 80. We both love love love that. It’s summer… and flip flops and shorts, no sweatshirt… awesome! In fact, the other night when we were at the Sweetcorn Festival waiting for Survivor to start we were both a tad shocked when we said we were just a little chilly. Not bad, but just a little. The sweat that happens here, followed by a cool breeze in the evening, even when it’s still 80, cools a person down. We are acclimating. And everything is relative. Any way you look at this one, we love being out and about in the evenings without having to don a sweatshirt… or even take one with us.
It’s really fun to discover a new place. Every day we find a new restaurant to try, or a new store we want to go to, or a new park to walk the dogs in. And that’s just in these two towns. There are neighboring towns and townships, neighboring states and parks, all waiting for us to discover them. It’s an exciting thing… even just walking the aisles of the local grocery stores. We’re learning, discovering, experiencing the adventure of it all. That’s a great fantastic thing.
We’ve worn more wicking t-shirts than ever before, in our lives… they work great. And they dry fast. Enough said… this one goes along with the humidity factoid.
Being so close to everything is nice for walking and just going to the store. Not having lived in town for a very long time, for me, and for a very very long time, for Karen, it’s really nice to get anywhere we want to go in minutes. I had to drive across the cities on Monday and I got over there in 10/15 minutes. Easy. And closer to home we can walk to restaurants, the library, the recent Sweetcorn Festival, and parks. It’s lovely. As soon as Karen gets that walking boot off we will also be bike riding. We’re both looking forward to that. It’s one of the things we wanted in coming here and our house is definitely in a great spot for that. Very different from our life in Scappoose where we had to drive to go anywhere.
8.75 sales tax is shocking. There’s only a 1% on food in the grocery store, but it’s a surprise to us, every time, when we go to pay for something. No more knowing exactly what you’re spending when you walk up to the counter. The taxes here are high… and that’s no lie.
Pumping your own gas is cool (karen is not a fan). For a girl from Oregon I’m used to other people pumping my gas. I love that I can just whip in to a station, hop out, pump the gas, and go. Karen isn’t as big a fan as I am. She likes someone to do it. To not have to get out of the car. I may feel the same way when the temperatures turn cold here, but for now I love it.
Having a fenced backyard for the pups is awesome. In Scappoose we didn’t have a fence. We did that on purpose as we didn’t want to mess with the aesthetic of the place, but it caused me stress when the pups were outside. I would worry, too much I’m sure, about where they were, what they were doing, where they were going. I could never really relax outside if they were out with us, which they usually were. I was always worried someone would drive up and not see them or they would chase something down the driveway to the road. Always worried. Here… no worries. There’s a completely fenced back yard that’s really decent size. They are loving it more and more and I love that they have it, and that I don’t have to stress about them. Ahhhhhh….
The new medical facilities are very nice. The transition with my medical stuff has gone really well, and the new facilities here are really nice. It’s sweet. We will see how it is when Karen goes to get her ankle looked at in a couple of weeks and I go to have a new patient consult with a GP in a couple of weeks. But so far… it’s good.
Pacific northwest people don’t know anything about thunderstorms… and that included us. So… yes, I did learn about thunderstorms, as did Kev, when we drove Mary’s car out here in June. Tornado warnings, black upon black clouds, etc. Scary stuff then. But even the regular thunderstorms here… boat loads of rain in a really short amount of time, LOUD thunder and lightening that hits the ground. It’s fun and fantastic to watch, and also a tad scary at the same time. I think I like them… and am scared by them…. it’s going to be a love hate relationship.
Shopping is an adventure… none of our known stores are here… besides things like Walgreens I mean. We have Meijer, and Shnucks, and County Market. We have the Co-op and Strawberry Fields for more natural and organics though Meijer actually has some decent organic selections. It’s learning a whole new system of grocery buying for us. It’s fun actually. As is learning about new restaurants and deciding where we should go for my upcoming birthday weekend (we decided on Southern Illinois and the Shawnee National Forest). It’s all an adventure… finding new places to take the pups for walks, learning about where to see music,
Lastly, for now anyway… Illinois sweet corn is good. Very tasty. We are fans. Karen is in corn heaven!
It’s continuing to be different, new, strange, good, scary, happy, sweet, sad from missing everyone, great, adventurous, and beautiful to get to spend time with Sebastian, Mary, and Martin. It’s what we feared, but more than we hoped for. It’s life… and we are living it!
Hello out there in Think Tank Land…. Been a LONG time since I posted anything. What can I say… it’s been crazy. You will know and understand how crazy when I say I haven’t taken one photo since I’ve been here. Not one. Yes, I snapped a couple with my phone, but otherwise… nada.
We’ve had a time of it… moving is hard business. Ask anyone who’s moved. Add to that Karen breaking her ankle, frustrations with some things after we got here, helping the kids settle in, etc., etc. It’s been exhausting.
A good thing… Thomas, Karen’s son, was here for a week. He stayed with the kids and we went over every day, once in the morning to take him coffee and then again in the evening for dinner every night. It was wonderful spending time with him, getting to know him a bit better, just hanging out with him. It’s a big deal. And no, I didn’t take any photos. I know… what was I thinking. Maybe just that we were in it and I didn’t want to be an observer… Thomas is a lovely man. Really. Sweet, thoughtful, fun to have conversation with, and excited about his upcoming stint at the Yokohama International Student House (where he will live) and the intensive language program in Yokohama. I’m so glad we got to have this time with him, that Karen got to sit there every night and have dinner with her two children, her son in law, and her grandson. That I got to be in that with her. Wonderful.
There have been ups and downs on this journey, that’s still not complete… we have purchased some furniture, but it won’t be here for a couple of weeks so for the time being we are using a futon the kids bought when they first got here. We will return it to them when our couch and two new chairs arrive. We need to paint a couple of rooms, buy some rugs, still do some major unpacking (our clothes, put the office together, the storage room together, and deal with the garage). Yesterday we got the upstairs kitchen all situated. We even barbecued (our first real cooking here at the house) last night and then ate while watching a movie on our spectacular new 55″ TV. It’s going to be cool down there in the media room… but yes, it’s still lacking the two recliners (I know… recliners… I can’t believe it myself… LOL) and the sofa/lounger that should all be coming this week some time.
We’re getting there….
The pups are doing better every day. It’s been rough on them. All the moving from place to place before we left, then the traveling here (they were total champs by the way), then the new house, going over to Mary and Martin’s and meeting and getting to know their two fur heads Wicket and Ziggy, and just being here, in a new place. It’s a major adjustment for the little rug rats, but they are sweet and are actually beginning to love their new backyard, and we think their new house. Weston is laying on the chaise as I type. He loves it out here.
The weather has been a major adjustment. The humidity factor, which we knew would be a problem for us has definitely been that. We went out and bought another fan and have them all going, the ceiling fans going, and the air conditioning set at 70. We walk outside and it’s like being it by a wall of damp heaviness. Though today… lovely. Feels like crisp Oregon weather today. We’re heading toward fall now, so we should have more crisp than heavy. At least, that’s what we’re hoping. We keep saying it’s an adjustment… though everyone we meet here keeps saying you never really adjust, you just live with it. We combat it yesterday with another stop at Jarlings Custard Cup. Yum yum! Nothing says cool down in the summer like a cup of strawberry custard covered in cold fudge and almonds. Helps to heal what ails ya…. LOL
Now we’re going to head out and get some breakfast at the Cafe Kopi in downtown Champaign. Kev and I had coffee there when we came out in June with Jennie, the nice woman who knows Mary and Martin and put them up for a couple of nights when they first got here. It’s a funky place. A place you’d find in Portland. I know the coffee is good… we’re going to see if the food is good.
I promise to take some photos (as soon as I can locate my camera bag… I know it’s in the house… where in the house is the question) soon. It’s a cute house… has a good feel. And it’s feeling better and better, more like us, all the time. We’re trying to make it a home… I think we are.
And Mom… we found the cylindrical red gong. It’s hanging on our front porch… It looks and feels like home.
And that’s the short version of all that’s transpired. It seems like so much more… and has been. Who can actually encapsulate everything in a blog post. Not I…
Pictures will follow…
All kinds of love to everyone out there in blog land…
We are just about 10 hours from heading out on our journey toward Illinois and our little grandson (and his parents, let’s not forget). Wow. I can’t believe it’s here. We’ve been planning on this and for this for a long long time. Seems like it was so far away not that long ago… and again, here we are.
I don’t really know what to say other than… first stop, Pocatello Idaho, here we come.
There are many exciting things about our upcoming move…. new place, new things to explore, jumping off point for many other locales, new house to decorate and organize and live in, and most of all… a grandson and kids to hang out with and love. All so great.
Then there are the people here that we’re leaving. I’ve sort of been in denial about this. Concentrating on all the tasks at hand, all the things we are gaining by making this move. But the cold hard facts hit me a bit in the face today as I had lunch with a group of friends who also happen to be my former co-workers. I love these people. They are like family to me… so much time spent with them, so many laughs, so many little inside jokes, so many humbly serious moments of care and concern passing between us. I love them.
We had lunch today, like we have so many times over the last 12 years… laughing and telling stories and chatting about what’s up with each of us. It was lovely, as it always is when I spend time with these lovely people. And then it came time to leave. For me to get in my car and drive away and them to all walk back to the office and get on with the rest of their day being crime fighters. Doing noble work with the best of noble intentions. We stood there awkwardly for a few moments, not sure what to do. I looked at them in turn as they looked at me and then the hugging started. The see you laters commenced and the I won’t say goodbye we will just say see you in October. It was strange. I love and admire them… and, I will miss them terribly.
I will miss being able to just jump in the car and go down to what was once my office to hang out and chat and be around these wonderful people. I will miss their smiles, their laughter, their shoulders to cry on, and their great good company. I will miss their nearness.
I am excited about moving… very much so. But it is bitter sweet. So very excited on one hand… and sad on the other. I think with those hugs goodbye this afternoon the denial is starting to fall away. There are going to be many more hugs in the next two weeks… But there will also be hugs hello when we get to Urbana. Sweet sweet hugs that will help to temper all the goodbyes and see you laters.
26 ft. Moving Trucks
Penske has the youngest fleet in the industry. Our late-model fleet meansimproved mileage, better overall performance, reliability and greater eco-friendliness.
Capacities and Dimensions
These capacities, dimensions and mileage are approximations and may vary by manufacturer. MPG can vary based on load, terrain and driving factors.
- Interior dimensions of up to 25 ft. 2 in. long x up to 7 ft. 8 in. wide x up to 8ft. 1 in. high
- Up to 194 sq. ft. of floor space
- Up to 1,400 cu. ft. of storage space
- Up to 8,370 lb. load capacity
- 50 gal. diesel fuel tank (8-12 mpg diesel)
Features
- Automatic transmission
- Diesel powered to save money
- Antilock brakes for safer stops
- Air conditioning
- AM/FM radio and CD player
- Power steering
- Three-person bench seating
- Cargo tie rails
- Rear roll-up door
- Easy 1,000 lb. capacity loading ramp
- Dual-faced mirrors for better vision
- Translucent roof with interior lighting
I’m sitting here at the computer not doing what I’m supposed to be doing, but then… exactly what am I supposed to be doing? Packing. Yes, I should be packing. Books into tubs to take, kitchen glasses, plates, etc. Those are my tasks. I need to get to them. Yet, I blog, I surf, I go into the ol’ flickr account and organize photos. I’m avoiding the packing. Five weeks to go. Five weeks on Thursday. Not many weekends left until the big Uhaul leaves the town of Scappoose and heads east toward our new home in Urbana, IL.
I’m excited for the future… for the change, the adventure, the new life moments created with our grandson and the kids, the pups, and each other. I’m very excited about all of that. I’m excited about living in and decorating a new house, about planting new flowers, about riding our bikes and walking around a new town. I’m excited for the friends we will make and the times we will have.
It’s just that I don’t want to pack… not right now. Not right now I don’t. It’s raining outside and dreary on this not so sunny Oregon summer day. The dogs are asleep on their beds here in the office. My honey is working away… hard and with purpose. In command of her job and what she does so well. I’m listening to her type and talk on the phone and be in charge. It’s impressive. Weston snores occasionally and the little girlie changes positions every now and then. They look up at us hopefully every so often thinking maybe if I look at you and then at my ball and then at you again I will get you to play with me. Will you? I say to them… later babies. I promise. And we will.
It’s a Tuesday…
Stops for gas, and food, and more gas, and more food… and here we are. Twin Falls, Idaho. 551.1 miles later. Good music, great conversation and clowning around, day one went swimmingly if I do say so myself. What mysteries and adventures will we find tomorrow? Only time and some more miles on the bean will tell.
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The last couple of weekends have been busy busy. Weekend before last I started on Friday by having lunch with my sister Kay. Kay, I love you and always love spending time with you. You rock star sister of mine. Friday evening we went to Crush and met up with Kate and Terri (a couple of our POD peeps) for a nice end of the work week nosh. Great people to hang with on a Friday night. Saturday we went to a Rose City Rollers roller derby bout at the Memorial Coliseum with some of our friends. It was, shall we say, interesting. I think I liked it, but I’m not quite sure if I liked it. The crowd made for great people watching,
Terrapin_Events_CDM_RLH_5k
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This post was started awhile ago… Since then there have been a few more weeks of busy living… A 5K with Mom and Karen, more dinners and lunches with friends, cleaning and organizing the shop and more cleaning and organizing the shop, a Sundays Parkways bit of bicycling with friends, dancing, softball watching, barbecues, and now getting ready to fly off to Illinois tomorrow to try and do some house buying.
Life is so very full and so very sweet….
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Karen and I have been looking at houses in Champaign/Urbana online. For those of you who’ve been asking, and maybe for some of you who don’t know as of yet that this is going on… we are moving to Illinois. Why? Well, it’s pretty simple. Mary and Martin, and our grandson Sebastian, are moving to Illinois, and we want to be closer to them. Martin, our son in law, has accepted a teaching position with the University of Illinois. It’s a great opportunity for him and for their family.
We are excited about living near them. Karen and Mary realized recently they haven’t even lived in the same state, let alone same country, for ten years. First Mary went off to University in St. Louis, then she stayed there after graduating to work as a research assistant for a couple of years, and finally she met Martin and moved to England with him. Ten years is a long long time for two people who are so close to each other. It will be great for them to be able to see each other. And all of that doesn’t even cover how much we want to live close to our grandson, be a part of his life, watch him change and grow. We want to hang out with him, be a family with him, get to love him up close, and have him know us. It’s very important to us.
So we’ve decided to move… decided to make the huge decision to change our lives, leave the state I’ve always lived in, leave our friends, and my family. It’s big, and we aren’t doing it lightly. We’ve thought about this, a lot. We think it’s the right thing for us right now. There’s nothing more important than the people in our lives. We will miss everyone here, tremendously, but we are embracing this new adventure and moving forward full steam ahead to be with another part of our family.
Illinois… cold winters, humid summers, the midwest. It’s different. Not somewhere we thought we’d go, but we are excited about it. Being somewhere new to us (well, Karen lived in Illinois when she was a kid for a couple of years so it’s not totally new to her, but she was pretty young, so this will seem new), experiencing what that part of the country has to offer, using that also as a jumping off point to so many other places on that side of the U.S. We’ve already checked out the driving distance between Champaign/Urbana and many points over there. It’s cool to think how many great spots are within an 8 hour drive. Plus, we will be only a couple of hours from Chicago, which we fell in love with when we were there for the kid’s wedding. There are trains every day to and from Chicago. It’s going to be good.
We plan on coming back to Oregon every summer for a month or so, probably during the most humid month or even months in Illinois. We have an advantage in that Karen can work from anywhere, which makes this possible in the first place. That means we can come back for a month or two in the summer, staying with different people here, and she can work, not have to take vacation. Plus, I know people will come see us. Even if they don’t want to visit Champaign/Urbana, they will come to see Chicago, and we can meet them there.
It’s stressful… loads to coordinate, but so very good. And for those wondering about my treatment, etc… we have talked to my oncologist. He says people move all the time. The only thing we have to make sure of is to give them enough time to get all my records together to send to the new doc and clinic. Karen has talked to her HR about the change in insurance and we have a list of hematologists who work at a cancer center in Champaign/Urbana. We are going to try and get a consultation appointment with one or more of them when we go to visit in June. We will get all of it worked out. My maintenance protocol is very common.
Visiting in June…. Karen, Mom, and I are flying there in June to check out the area, look at homes (hopefully buy one…), and meet one or two doctors. We have a few days. We’re flying into Chicago and then driving. We’re excited about that as well. Never been there, new place. We love new places. We love exploring.
So there you have it… the big news. The big change. The big… big.
I was sitting here this morning doing my usual routine… drink some tea, have a bagel, check my email, Facebook, Google Reader… and I heard it. The tell tale sound of Weston opening the closet door and rummaging through the shred box. By the time I responded, which was actually pretty quickly, with my usual…. Weston, NO, get out of there, he had a piece of paper and was making for the hills. Or in his case, more accurately, I should say his chair. He looked up at me and then, miraculously, dropped the paper. Riley, our little girlie, just stayed in her bed the whole time looking at both of us like we were lame idiots. She doesn’t play those games.
It made me think about them… our little lovelies. They are so different, in almost every way save one, they sort of look alike. And even that likeness has diminished as Riley aged and became more silver than dark gray. They are beauties. But then… we love them. And love might not even be a strong enough word for it…. but it’s all I’ve got.
Weston… He is the oldest, so he gets first billing. He’s our poet. Our feeling gent. He is ruled by emotion, no matter what kind, and acts on it purposefully and sometimes impulsively… or compulsively. He loves people and wants attention and love constantly. Always looking at you with those deep feeling eyes full of soul and pawing or nosing for a quick pet. He’s a bit of a two personality guy… taken away from his mother at too young an age (not our choice but the breeder’s, who was wanting to get out of the puppy business and did it too soon) he suffers from not enough discipline when he was young. We tried, but we weren’t his mamma and though he is ultra smart (sometimes the bane of our existence) he is equally as stubborn. He will look at you, know he’s being told no, and still do whatever it is he’s doing. Which mostly consists of being a thief of the highest caliber. We’ve tried every form of discipline we’ve researched and though he responds best to being ignored for a time (he loves us you see and doesn’t like to be left out), he still won’t give in. Stubborn. A stubborn, very very smart thief. He’s magic at it. He can get things off countertops… standing on his little hind legs, using his paw to reach up over where he can’t really see that well, pull something over to the edge, then grab it with his teeth. He opens closets doors, drawers, tips over trash cans, and jumps up in any chair that’s left out. It’s hilarious… and sometimes aggravating. We don’t really care. In the moment you get mad at him, but then you think about all the cunning and planning and skill and you have to laugh. His best, yet worst, thieving experience was when he opened a pocked in a backpack that was fully zipped closed, got out a bag of chocolate, and ate it all. This is always what we worry about the most… that he will thieve something bad for him. He tends to eat what he steals so you can’t get it from him. He’s swallowed ear plugs, numerous kleenex, napkins, food of all kinds, q-tips… the list goes on. The chocolate was the worst. We called the vet and had to pour (to his great displeasure) some hydrogen peroxide down him to get him to throw it all up. We did… and he did… all over the bathroom floor. Yuck… but we were happy because he was safe. He’s incorrigible. And his feelings run deep. He looks at you, as he’s flipping over onto his back and opening up his legs to get a good pet, with eyes that speak volumes. Not all dogs are like this… but he is. He’s the most feeling dog I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing, the soul that pours from his eyes to yours. Very expressive. Very sweet. Very deep and full of love. He’s our boy. Our little mister. Our Woodsy (as Karen calls him).
Riley… our little girl. She is a spitfire. Confident in every way save one. She’s afraid of the oven. It’s true. The minute the oven goes on, she makes haste to the family room and the back of the sectional that’s furthest from the door up to the kitchen. She hates the oven. We know it’s because it used to (before we unplugged this particular one) set off the smoke alarm. We have another nearby that isn’t as sensitive and has stayed plugged in…. have to be safe and all. When the oven door used to be opened, no matter what we were cooking in there, it set off this particular smoke detector… and the girlie hated it. That isn’t a strong enough word. Her ears are very sensitive…. we think it’s because her vision isn’t good. So even now, with the detector not going off every time, when the oven gets turned on she makes for the other room. She’s smart too… knows what that oven going on could mean. And she doesn’t like it. It’s cute and sad at the same time as she lays out there, a tiny ball, quivering. It’s the only time she seems afraid. Otherwise she’s a little ball of confidence, all ten pounds of her. She knows who she is and owns her space. Her little strut, and I will call it a strut, is so cute. Head held high, barking occasionally at anyone or anything she feels like, jumping up to put her front paws over her brother’s back to show she’s in charge. Confident. She’s sometimes loud, barking crazy-like whenever we get home, or someone comes over, or she thinks she hears someone outside. But it’s her… loud, confident, and so very cute. She’s chalk full of personality… playing like a cat likes to play, spinning around, hardly able to contain all the energy inside her little body. Yes, she sometimes tries to jump up (and she’s a fantastic jumper… so high for the size of her little self) up onto the couch or a chair and misses… her eyes again, not working as well as they should for depth… but she doesn’t let it stop her. Bouncing off the furniture only to immediately jump up again. She has moxy. She’s full of it. If only the rest of us could have half the confidence she possesses in her little self… fantastic.
And that’s them… our little cuties. So many nicknames… the boy, the girlie, riles, ri-ri, girlie cutie, wooser, woodsie, westenheimer, riley-roosey… it goes on and on. Whatever we happen to call them they are a big part of the joy in our lives. We love our little schnoodles. We also spoil the crap out of them… they eat great for them food, which we mix up, they have special beds all over the place, we buy them bones and bullies and toys, we take them for walks when it’s sunny (they hate the rain), we built up a really nice dog run/area at the back of our house including their own little door for going in and out with a gate we lock when we leave so that no one can accidentally let them out, we play ball (for Weston) and tug (for Riley) in the house when we can’t take them out for walks, and we love on them… all the time. It’s all so worth it because they are precious… they love us and bring us immense delight.
How could you not love these faces?
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Again… Checking out the new posting features at Flickr… This is only a test… 
