Kingfisher Cove

Reflections

Such a fun weekend with long-time friends. Helen came Friday, which is always a treat, and we huddled inside while it rained outside and caught up on life. Cooked up steaks and salad and played with the kitties—yes! Nikki actually interacted with Helen and demonstrated what a rascal she is! John and I think of her as a cross between a monkey and a ferret. One of these days her l-o-n-g slinky tail is going to wrap itself around a beam and she’ll be scampering across the ceiling and swinging from the light fixtures.

On Saturday, we got up early, gussied up a bit, and headed to Johnny’s Dock in Tacoma where we met up with a bunch of ladies who all went to high school together at Gov. John R. Rogers High School in Puyallup, class of ‘74. The sports teams’ mascot was (still is) the Rams, so we refer to ourselves as “The Glam Rams!” Heh heh.

Here is Helen and Margaret and me!

And Helen and me with our long-time friend, Nancy:

This was our view from our table! (It was a pretty gloomy day…but still, yachts!)

It was really nice to see everyone, especially since I hadn’t attended one of these annual lunches for a few years. It was the first time Helen had attended, and everyone was so happy to see her! One of our traditions is to go around the table one-by-one and speak to what each of us has been up to in the past year (or years). We all run the gamut. We have either lost parents or are dealing with the decline of elderly parents. Some have lost spouses, have retired or are planning to do so in the next year or so, and a couple are fighting cancer. Many of us are grandparents (some raising them), and of course we pass around photos of our families. I have a feeling that most of these ladies are conservative and religious, aspects that I don’t have in common with them. But there is a lot of nostalgia seeing everyone, fond and fraught memories, and a bit of inward gasping as we observe that we are aging. The 18-year-old high school girls we all used to be is pretty darned distant in our rear-view mirrors. Still, we persist!

Helen and I drove back to our place for another evening of visiting, eating a light dinner, and drinking wine (and staying up LATE!) I’m hoping she’ll be able to come up fairly regularly, but since her mother died a couple of years ago and her brother passed away just before Christmas, she won’t have them to drive up from Oregon to go see anymore. Aside from her niece who lives quite a ways north, I’m pretty much *it* here in Washington.

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Donald Trump must be convicted and removed from office.

Because he will always choose his own personal interest over our national interest.

Because in America, right matters.

Truth matters.

If not, no Constitution can protect us.

If not, we are lost.

–Adam Schiff

Alrighty, Then.

I’m pretty sure I’ve used that title before (likely more than once), but it’s what you do when you don’t know what title to use.

So what’s up, you ask? (As I’m sure you are. All two of you). Heh heh. Well, let’s see, shall we?

Rain. Lots of rain. Lots and lots of rain. Day after day after day after day after day… Wind, too. But mostly rain. As in, “What gutters?” Because it’s a surround-sound waterfall around here. Also, my naturally curly hair is a bouffant brillo pad. And what does the color blue look like again? Can you maybe describe it for me?

I don’t like it, but I realize that it doesn’t get me down quite as much as it used to during my go-to-work life. Part of that was having to drive in it, walk in it, and it tended to define my day. If I had a crappy work-day, it was generally raining. If I felt sad for whatever reason, it was generally raining. And if it rained on weekends, especially during spring and summer, it felt like an affront. Here? Particularly in January? It’s just rain.

Nate and Sandra’s moving van finally arrived! Yay! I found out about it via this: (“Oh no, big truck!”) 

Also, the ship that Nate is now assigned to (the USS Gridley) returned to Everett from its months-long deployment today, so there was a big celebration along the Everett waterfront. I’m not exactly sure what role Nate played in its return, but he was part of the team/crew that welcomed its return (along with all the families) and here’s a picture of him with the ship behind him. I also don’t know who the other guy is, but I suspect a new Navy bud from the welcoming team/crew? (Obviously I don’t know a lot about Navy terminology…)

I follow the Gridley on Facebook and saw many photos of the homecoming, so I know that it was a very happy occasion. Now that it’s back, Nate has upcoming “underways” ahead of him (2-3 week stints at sea of naval training exercises), and eventually another deployment to who-knows-where.

I’m looking forward to Helen visiting this weekend! She is coming on Friday and then on Saturday we are driving up to Tacoma for a lunch get-together with a bunch of high school ladies for our annual luncheon (that I haven’t attended for a few years). It’ll be so fun to go together! Then she’ll also spend Saturday night (so we can analyze everything) and she’ll head home Sunday. 

Some pics the kids sent to me from a local park/beach in Everett and daycare:

I need to see him soon!

Snow! Sorta.

We were completely skipped over with the Big Snow that fell Sunday night, but the kids up in Everett were dumped on! And of course, as things tend to go, Monday was their first day to report to duty. There was a two-hour delay before the base was opened, and Nate got his truck stuck on his drive there. (Nope, it’s not 4WD). “I was over confident and realized it’s been ten years since I’ve driven in snow and ice.” His truck is now unstuck and chained up.

THIS WAS QUINN’S FIRST SNOW!!! (Well, when they were here at Harstine for Christmas two years ago when Quinn was 3 months old, we had a dusting then. Doubt he remembers that…)

And now look at him! “It’s SNOWDING!”

We did get about an inch of snow last night, and it was fun to wake up to it. So bright and clean and even sunny! See the moon?

And it looks like that’ll be it for us. North down through Seattle is getting hit again tonight, but it doesn’t look like it’ll come down this far. I have mixed feelings about that! It’s not like we have to go anywhere, so we could just kick back and enjoy it. I’ve felt bad for Nate and Sandra because this is their first week back to work. But, the base was actually closed today, except for emergency personnel. Could well be tomorrow, too.

Joyful Times

Nate and Sandra and Quinn came to visit yesterday afternoon and spent the night (and most of today) in the howling wind and rain. It was wonderful to see them! It was mellow and relaxing, and because of the nasty weather, we pretty much hung around the house, cooked, ate, yapped, watched kiddie TV. They did venture down to the beach this morning because the sun was actually out, although the wind was gusting well over 35 mph. (Brrr). Here’s my lil’ PNW grandson with his toy VW hippy bus:

His mom and dad found a BUNCH of agates in that decent (but short-lived) lighting that makes them pop on the beach. And even with boots, Quinn was not inclined this time to “wade” in the water, probably because the surf was high and wild from the wind. (Plus: Brrrr).

And it’s going to get colder! Looks like we’ll be experiencing a deep freeze this coming week, with a strong chance of snow.

I love this pic of Quinn with John’s handmade locomotive! (Is it cool or what?) Quinn was fascinated with it and spent a significant amount of time looking it all over, rolling it, and apparently “explaining” its inter-workings.

When I held up my phone to take his picture, he said, “Say cheese!” Lol! Sandra said she isn’t sure where he got that from—they don’t say that to him. We figured it must be something his daycare lady says.

Sometime later, when John was sitting elsewhere, Quinn came up to him and grabbed his finger, as he does, and John said, “Where are we going?” (Thinking it was probably to go hunt kitties). Quinn said quietly, “Choo-choo train.” He wanted to go look at it and touch it again, but he knew it needed to include Papa. So many things he says and does just melt my heart!

(Nate’s pretty good with taking selfies, unlike moi).

The moving van with all of their stuff still hasn’t left San Diego, and they have no idea when it will. So here’s how it all happened:

1. In July, when they made the arrangements with the Navy for the relocation move (the Navy contracts with a moving company), Nate had to provide a destination address. He explained that they did not have housing secured yet, and he was told any address would do. “Do you have relatives there?” So he provided our address.
2. Once they arrived here and found a house to rent in Everett, they contacted the Navy department who manages personnel relocations to report the actual address that would be the moving van’s destination.
3. Since that address is more than 30 miles from our address (that Nate had initially provided), the Navy has to go through some rigmarole for APPROVAL. The process is totally opaque, and they have no way of knowing how long this will take.

Nate has suspicions that there might be something hinky going on, or maybe not but the “approval” might be sitting in some naval bureaucrat's inbox forever, or maybe the moving company is just waiting out another Washington move to fill up the van and make it more profitable. Or, who knows? He’s not being told anything. They don’t seem to be overly upset about it (yet). They brought along enough things so that they are comfortable-ish in their house, with camping chairs, a nice quality aerobed, kitchen stuff. And, they’re having a new bedroom set delivered tomorrow, complete with a King bed/mattress (which means their Queen bed will be in a spare bedroom so we’ll have a place to stay when we go up to visit—if and when it ever arrives). They also bought a washer and dryer, as they left behind their old set as part of their house sale. Sandra also has her Instant Pot and air fryer, so they honestly aren’t complaining (much). Which is good, except I think it would drive me nuts to not know what the hell was going on.

They both report to duty on Monday at their new Everett naval base!

When they were getting ready to leave late this afternoon (and hope to make the ferry before they could possibly cancel it due to wind), I asked for a photo of me and Quinn. Quinn is funny with me—if I’m out of sight, he wants to know “Where’s Nonna?” But he’s not inclined to seek me out or be especially huggy or interactive with me. As I’ve said before, he prefers the guys! (I do get it!) So…he wasn’t entirely onboard with this, but we managed, sort of! Heh.

Now there’s a wild looking Nonna for ya.  

Man I love that little guy!

In other news, Nikki is now a spayed kitty! She handled it all very well and is pretty much back to normal, although company hampered her a bit. It was probably good for her, because it kept her from being her wild wall-bouncing self, which I think aids her recovery and healing. We are very thankful that we don’t have to worry about her being in HEAT ever again! {{Shudder}}

Dreary Start to the Year

So much rain and wind and DARK. Yuk. Aside from a trip to town for lunch and grocery shopping, I’ve been a hermit pretty much, reading and puttering and gearing up to attack my glass studio (after attacking the house at large). Christmas was all dismantled and put away on New Year’s Day; John handled the tree and the schlepping and I handled the rest. It took me a while to unearth all of my “décor” items I’d tucked away in multiple drawers and cupboards to make room for the Christmas decorations. Once I did finally find them, I opted to mix some stuff up a bit, rather than set it all back like it had been. I like the changes, minimal as they are. The other thing I decided to do (actually it was John’s idea) was to leave out the metal reindeer. For Christmas they are reindeer; for normal times they are just deer (ok, bucks). That’s my justification. We both just like the look of them against the wall.

It does feel good to have things back to normal. Except the floors look like hell, but I’ll remedy that tomorrow. I’m also looking forward to Stephen Colbert to return to his show after over 2 weeks away! Gah!

Nate and Sandra have the keys to their house, but there are glitches. One is that the owner apparently lives in California and the house had been on the rental market for quite some time, so it was very dirty. They had to spend their first day of occupancy deep cleaning. (That makes me angry. I hope they get a sizeable discount in their first month’s rent, although the way the world works these days, that’s unlikely). Also, the moving van hasn’t arrived yet, so they have no furniture, no belongings (except for what they brought with them on their road trip, which did include air mattresses, bedding, and limited cooking utensils). I haven’t communicated with them for a while, aside from adorable videos sent via Messenger of Quinn, but I suspect they are pretty darned frustrated. I hope everything arrives soon so they can actually get moved in before they have to report to duty! I’m not sure if they know if the moving van is even on the way! Jeeze.

For Christmas, Sandra and Nate (it was Sandra’s idea!) got John a unique 3D “puzzle” of this vintage car. Absolutely every single tiny little piece had to be assembled, complete with toothpicks and rubber bands so that it actually functions! The pistons in the motor move up and down, the steering wheel turns the front wheels, and of course the wheels turn! All the pieces are laser cut to precision, and the assembly definitely takes a pair of hands and a brain who knows how to put stuff together. (That would be John). Is this cool or what?

He’s now working on an intricate train locomotive. He was perusing the website, trying to decide what he’d like to do next (there are many many options) and finally he said, “I think the locomotive, because Quinn loves trains.”

As for me, I’m looking forward to getting back in the glass studio because for Christmas (a gift to myself, heh) I got some lovely glass and a new organic bowl mold. I’ve seen several pieces that people have created using this mold and I LOVE them. But, I do need to seriously ream out that studio before I can undertake a project.

And finally, of course trump (IMPOTUS—impeached *president)  had to start the year off with utter stupidity that has plunged our country into serious danger. Yes, the Iranian captain he had assassinated was a godawful man, but it’s obvious there was zero forethought, zero strategy, and zero UNDERSTANDING of what the hell the consequences would be with his impulsive, orange man-baby decision. And now he’s tweeting about conducting war crimes because “I have every right.” God I hate him.