Maggie

I haven’t spoken about Maggie here before – selfish, I know, keeping her to myself. Maggie has become a trusted friend and confidant. She is often the voice of reason and sanity, saving me from myself more often than not. So far she hasn’t caused any real stress in my relationship with “B”, but I suppose someday that might happen. She is distracting sometimes, whispering in my ear and trying valiantly to keep me on the right path. There have been times I’ve ignored her and have paid the price, but sometimes she’s just wrong. All and all I suppose I’m glad she’s in my life, despite the possibilities of friction. You see, Maggie is my GPS. You thought what???? Ha!

I have decided that there needs to be an alternative dialog though; an argumentative and snarky version.

So………………..instead of:

“at the next opportunity make a legal u-turn”

~ use

“turn around dumb ass”

~ or instead of

“recalculating route”

~ use

“WTF are you doing????”

“I told you to turn left/right”

“Are you deaf???”

“They let you drive???”

~ or instead of

“continue straight on current road (insert whatever road your are on)”

~ use

“don’t be turning bitch”

~ or instead of

“slight right/left at the next exit”

~ use

“WAKE UP AND TURN!!!”

~ or instead of

“you have reached your destination”

~ use

“it’s a freakin’ miracle!”

What would yours be????

About freakin' time

With the exception of leaving our youngest and a lot of memories behind in Seattle the move from there is complete. There are times I think we left the most important part behind, but that’s what planes are for I suppose. It is time, however, to embark on Phase II of the plan.

A decade ago we moved from a house in north Georgia, bought a motor home and set out on a year long journey without the constraints of map or plan. Since we weren’t sure about what was to follow said trip (if indeed it were to end) everything that wasn’t needed in the motor home was placed into storage. Ten years later it is still in storage and that brings us to Phase II of the move.

I’ll have to admit to being “tripped out”, but this is necessary and we know if we don’t do it now the remaining stuff will return to ash and dust before time and circumstance would allow for its retrieval. So, next week we turn the Explorer east to Florida to help “B’s” cousin through a life crisis and then north to Atlanta and surrounds to recapture a storage room full of dusty past.

Much of the work here has been in preparation to receive the new/old stuff. We fully expect there to be much redundancy and hopefully have the time and the patience to grossly sort out that which doesn’t need to be shipped. I am looking forward to pawing through the books that are in storage – some 1200 volumes – and that’ll almost feel like Christmas in July! Long forgotten tools, family heirlooms, furniture and art will be interesting (perhaps fun) to sort … and sort ... and sort … and maybe … toss some! It will all be dependant on time and patience.

The next few days will be a flurry of activity: servicing the Explorer, setting up an automatic watering system for the fragile plants and the myriad of other necessary things enabling us to be absent for a couple of weeks – probably a house sitter would be appropriate, but we aren’t set up for that yet.

Hope you all have just a fine first weekend of summer!

I remember…

My ex-wife’s stepmother passed away last week; one of the “good ones” - even as a MIL. This has been a terrible blow for my girls, as she was the anchor on their maternal side. My oldest said, “…she (ex’s step mom), grandma (my mom) and “B” (my wife) are very much a part of the women we’ve become.” I was very proud and grateful to hear her give such credit. Their biological maternal grandmother is still kicking (as far as we know), but she has been largely absent and has become persona non grata. You see the piece that’s missing??? I thought you would - mom person.

Oh she’s very much alive and kicking. Throughout the process of funeral, etcetera, she was apparently “drama queen” personified. My girls were disgusted with this obviously transparent show that turned on and off depending on the audience.

Oldest: “Dad, we weren’t even out of the funeral home and she started in on the will; wanting to…no insisting to know when the will would be read. She wouldn’t let up. I wanted to throw up.”

I remember why a divorce happened so many years ago.

Home

All was quiet on the home front when I left several weeks ago. We returned to the “June Symphony in the Trees”, drowning out any thought - coherent or not! Today the “love fest” is nearly over and I actually heard a bird song for the first time in days.

The ride back was easy and it was good that “B” got several days to just breathe before launching into full nesting mode. Originally we were going to stop along the way, but the back road/blue road route was already an overwhelming amount of eye-candy. The adventures came when trying to find available rooms in these back alleys of the American west, given that it was the first of summer vacation. The return trip was very different than the trip I’d made the week before and vacancy signs were everywhere.

We did stop and dawdle in places, but just not the all day adventures in the national parks. There were the fruit stands in Washington’s Yakima Valley, photo ops in Oregon’s John Day Forest, the alien expanse in NE Nevada and communing with the ghost of speed demons past on the Bonneville Salt Flats. There were amazing sunsets and one of the most spectacular was across the Great Salt Lake – unfortunately there was no good place to pull over and record it. Road construction had us stopped in Moab, UT – the better to take in some spectacular scenery. We loafed along in Cortez, CO as well as Durango and Pagosa Springs and pulled up for the night in Chama, NM. The photo of the steam engines was taken in Chama as they were readying for the next day’s tour. We did visit the market in Old Santa Fe, counted antelope all through New Mexico and rubbed elbows with a few aliens in Roswell. The back route through the Hill Country was a good way to end the trip and “B” got a good long look at the surrounding counties that don’t have “interstate” in their vocabulary.

Izzy was most grateful to be released from the “kitty spa”, a.k.a. kitty jail. The house is taking on some life now and we are settling into summer’s sounds and heat. My morning walks with the Buffledog have been supplanted with filling all the water troughs and bird baths. Deer, fox, birds and some creature belonging to some yet to be identified spoor will empty the containers except the largest troughs. The doe are starting to bring the new fawns around, but have remained camera shy – hope to catch them while they are still in spots.

I’ve decided to keep Damp Dog intact and continue to write here. It seems a disservice to abandon that which was so often his. I hope to visit you all over the next few days.

I'm continuing to add photos to the pBase galleries.

42 hour bullet

I’ve just spent 2200 miles and 42 hours trying to understand what I wanted to say here. I’m sure that most of you “get” how painful it is to be here, but I can say with all honesty that I didn’t know how painful it would be. I’ve started dozens of posts – all drivel - all deleted. Realizing tonight how long it has been since I’ve updated I decided to just do a bullet post.

• The fox have names now: Eartha and Sebastian


• There are pics of the house and surrounds here if you are interested


• We have a resident roadrunner and Sebastian continues to stalk it to no avail - LOL


• I’m writing this from Seattle and the weather here is gorgeous……...finally


• We travel back to Texas for good starting Saturday


• Taylor is home and “guarding” the house


• We have a new kitty – a foundling – her name is Isabelle or Izzy for short – she’s in the photo gallery


• The deer have arrived for the season


• We’re considering a buffle-pup – late summer or early fall


• For a house that needed so little work I’ve been working my ass off this last month and a half


• I discovered a scenic route between Austin and Seattle that trimmed 200 miles off the trip and takes about the same amount of time…blue roads…I love blue roads


• Mostly I’m ok, but still on auto-pilot


• I’ll try and resume posting and visiting after the return