A Special Weekend of Hugs

What a wonderful weekend we've had! My AHEC crew is a very huggy bunch and there were lots and lots of hugs yesterday as we visited and ate and visited some more. Most of the folks involved in rural health care are huggers. It was always fun to go to a conference and go from hug to hug as you met old friends -- and made new ones.

The hugs continued this morning. We were up early, stopped at the nearby McDonalds for breakfast to go and drove the eighty-some miles to Menno Mennonite Church. Mennonites are huggers too. And of course, this is our church family, so there were lots of extra special hugs.

I am basically a rather reserved introvert. I know, I know, I can manage a public persona that seems to be comfortable in a large group and I can fairly easily give a presentation to a big group of people. But, walking into a new group of people has never been comfortable for me and making "small talk" is not easy. If I had my druthers, I'd rather be home with a book, or visiting with a small group of people.

All of which means that it is very special for me to be comfortable enough with a group of people to exchange hugs. And while I love giving and getting hugs with people I care about, I am very uncomfortable being touched by someone I don't know. So when I say it was a wonderful weekend, you now know how very special it was!

We just had a rather violent thunderstorm pass through. First, there were violent gusts of wind and Auntie Violet was pelted with pine cones and large drops of rain. There was a great deal of lightening and thunder and the power went out in the RV park (My friend Cathi told me on Facebook that there are 1500 homes without power on the West Plains -- where we are!). Our coach switched over to the inverter and is running on batteries. There are similar lights in a few of the RVs around us. Otherwise, the park is very dark -- except for people running around with flashlights or the folks from the cabin across the road from us who came out to sit in their car with the lights on. The storm has pretty well passed on, although we can see flickers of lightening off on the far horizon.

Gathering of Our AHEC Crew!

Ever since I retired over seven years ago, the team at the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) which was part of Washington State University Extension, has gotten together some time during the summer. The first couple of times we met for lunch at a restaurant in Spokane. Then as time went on (and a couple of babies turned into toddlers), we decided it would be easier to meet at someone's home. 

Today all but one of our original crew were able to come to Cathi's house (we missed you Bonnie!). It was a special gathering today as we wanted to celebrate Steven's retirement, which will happen mid-September. We had a good time telling stories of when we each first met Steven. (I was the hospital administrator of Ritzville Memorial Hospital at that time. Steven and Dr. Moyer stopped by the hospital to visit about the Washington Rural Health Association, but told my office staff that they "were from the Internal Revenue Service and to speak with the Administrator immediately!" I told my staffer she should have been suspicious because no one from the IRS would ever have been wearing a pink shirt!...)

Unfortunately, Kaarin and her daughters had to leave before we got this picture taken.

 

One of the nice things about our gatherings is the fact that our spouses come as well. They always were invited back in the day as well. It's been a fun group to get together.

Dave and Cathi barbecued chicken and the rest of us brought the rest of the fixings. We also came home with corn and summer squash from Kaarin's garden that she brought and shared with us. It was a fun day.

Finally - Back at Ponderosa Falls

We started out yesterday morning getting everything ready to move. But the longer we were up, the harder the wind blew and the more the dust stormed. It had been pretty dusty on Sunday morning when we had gone to church and later when we went to the AHEC gathering near Medical Lake. There had been a couple of times when it the dust briefly was so thick you couldn't see the road.

We decided it had been bad enough driving the Toad in the gusty winds and we really didn't want to drive Auntie Violet in it. So Forry went to where he could get cell reception and delayed our arrival at Ponderosa Falls another day. I did a load of laundry and went to bed early...

This morning it was COLD! The temperature in the coulee got down to 27.4 degrees F last night. Our water hose was frozen this morning. But there was no wind! It actually turned out to be a beautiful day to move.

We got back to Ponderosa Falls about three thirty this afternoon; checked in; parked in a nice pull-through site; let down the jacks and put out the slides. We've good satellite reception for the TV; my cell phone had five bars and I have a wonderful internet connection with both AT&T and Verizon!
Life is good, once again.

People Watching

In my earlier life I did a great deal of traveling by air. When I was expecting our third child, my then Brother-in-law convinced Forry he should join him at a ground school class that prepared for the Private Pilot's exam. The class was being taught in Ritzville by a local rancher who was also a Flight Instructor for a Piper Airplane dealer in Spokane.

A couple of weeks into the classes, the instructor told the fellows that if they would meet him at the local airport Saturday morning, he'd take them up for a ride. He took each of the fellows up in turn, sitting them in the left hand pilot's seat. When they came back down, he presented each of them with a new logbook with a half hour of dual instruction logged... I don't remember what the ground school classes cost -- a couple of hundred dollars maybe -- but the instructor then told them if they wanted to take flying lessons, they'd deduct the cost of the ground school classes from the flying lessons. Such a deal!

Since flying had always been one of Forry's dreams, he jumped at the opportunity. He loved flying and the lessons. Even with his dyslexia, he studied assiduously and passed the Private Pilot written exam with flying colors. And wouldn't you know, the Piper dealer told him that if he wanted to buy an airplane, they'd deduct the cost of the flying lessons! How could you beat a deal like that?!

The next thing you know, we had a Piper Cherokee 180 (the first of five we eventually owned) -- and a new baby girl -- and were putting an airstrip in at the ranch. We joined the Flying Farmer organization (and became part of the Vic Franz family!) and began taking trips by air. If there's ever a motto for flying, it most likely is, "hurry up and wait." Weather is always an issue and because we did much of our flying towards the south in the winter-time (farmer's downtime), we spent many hours in airports waiting out storms or for storm fronts to pass, or for other people to be able to get out out of the weather wherever they were and join up with us.

There's nothing quite like people watching at an airport. You certainly get to see people in all their modes and moods. Everything from harried business people who act like everyone else in the airport is an imposition to excited families heading on vacation or exhausted families on their way home from Disney. And if you want to see people at their best -- and at their worst -- just throw in some weather delays or mechanical problems. Many years later when I traveled for my work at the AHEC, I once again found myself spending many an hour entertaining myself by people watching.

So, what does that have to do with full-time RVing? RV campgrounds are another great place to people watch. It's especially interesting here on the East Coast where the sites seem to be mostly back-ins and quite close together. I am very intrigued by the way couples do --or don't -- work together. I'm also intrigued by the role women play. Some couples seem to have clear divides between inside and outside roles; others seem to pretty much work together. Sometimes tempers flare and we hear some interesting language.

Some people are very cautious as they leave the park. One of the partners guides the rig out and makes sure they clear all the other vehicles as they slowly depart. Others just rev the engine and go! And everyone around sort of holds their breath until they clear the park. The other ones that are fun to watch are the dog walkers carrying their plastic bags in order to clean up after their pets. Some are very nonchalant about it, others act like they're rather embarrassed and hoping no one is watching. And then, every once in a while, there are the ones that pretend the animal didn't do anything and just keep on walking...

Bored? Just look out the window!

My Judy Blanket

I have a blanket that has traveled from the Mennonite Country Auction at Menno where I purchased it to our ranch where it went on picnics and boat rides.  Then it traveled with us to Spokane when we moved up there so that I could go to work for the AHEC (Area Health Education Center) at WSU Spokane.  In Spokane it saw more picnics and found a new role as a blanket for grandchildren when we had pizza in the TV room where they sat on it on the floor.

Now the Judy Blanket travels in Auntie Violet.  When we are parked somewhere, she sits on the back of the passenger chair which swivels around to face the living room.  When we travel, she plays an important role.  She covers the laid-down desk chair and prevents the wheels and the arm from scratching the cherry wood of the desk. And on rare special occasions, she once again gets to be a blanket for pizza eating grand children!

My Judy blanket is made from alternating worn blue jeans and striped overalls with a backing of new blue denim fabric.  She even has a few pockets with brass snaps (when she was new, there were napkins tucked into those pockets...).  There are also cherished Judy Blankets that live at the homes of our daughters.

These Judy Blankets are cherished not only for their beauty, toughness, utility and general usefulness, but for the lady who made them. Before the auto accident in the fog on her way to work, my friend Judy was one of the best ER nurses I have ever known. I learned so much from her in the early days of my own career. Due to severe head trauma and brain damage, Judy never practiced as a nurse after her accident, but she participated as much as possible in church activities.  Her sense of precision and order -- which she never lost -- shows in the precise measurements and placement of the squares of my blanket.

Judy passed away a few years later of hypothermia while sitting out in her garden (her sense of being cold had been impaired by the injuries from the truck that struck her...).  A wise person once told me that a person is never really gone as long as anyone still has thoughts and memories of them.  Thoughts of Judy often come to my mind as I wrap my Judy blanket around the chair wheels; or when I fold it to place her on the back of my chair; or when I glance up and see that her blues are picked up by the Chinese rug on Auntie Violet's floor. Thoughts of Judy warm me as much as my Judy Blanket!

My Baby Fix!

I got my baby fix big-time today! Becky and Bonnie brought Addyson and Kaarin brought Allison to lunch with us today at Azteca in Spokane. Addyson is three months old and Allison is five weeks old -- what a pair of little sweethearts! They both slept through lunch in their carriers so we actually had a chance to visit. But both Mommys were kind enough after lunch to get their little darlings up so that I could hold them for a while.

I had seen pictures of both of them on Facebook, but this is the first time I got to see them in REAL time. Kaarin and Bonnie were colleagues of mine at the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) before I retired. This is Bonnie's first baby and Kaarin's second (Sister Tessa is three years old.). You know, you forget how tiny they are when they are so new, but you never forget that wonderful unique baby smell.

The rest of the day was sort of anti-climatic. Forry and I both had routine doctor appointments in the afternoon, we made a Costco run and then took Son Sean out to dinner at Gordy's Szechuan before we came home. (The picture is of Sean with his latest acquisition, an antique stove.)