Rockin' in Rock Springs

So, we flew out to Denver to help eldest daughter move back to the Pacific Northwest. She has lived in Denver for ten years, and now she wants to  be closer to family.  To that end, she submitted her resignation from a wonderful job and asked the folks to fly out and help her move "home." (Her boss was so sad to see her go that she first offered more pay; then she offered to find Tara a husband; and finally, when those ploys didn't work, she offered to allow Tara to telecommute until she finds suitable employment in the PNW!! And you thought YOU were indispensable!)

We arrived in Denver on Thursday and  have been packing, cleaning, sorting and generally reducing 10 years of living to fit in a 16' rental van.  This morning we threw the "last minute box" into the back of the van and hit the road.

 Photos courtesy of my beautiful wife. Click photo for slide show.

Our route has taken us north on I-25 to Cheyenne, WY and then east on I-80 to Rock Springs, WY.  This little town is about the size of our hometown of Dallas, OR, but because it is located on the interstate, it has more amenities.  There are numerous hotels, and lots of churches (which, of course, we have in Dallas--once renowned for having the highest per capita number of both churches and taverns!).  There are lots of eateries and some very pleasant looking homes.  Every gas station seems to have a liquor store attached...and you thought gasoline and alcohol didn't mix!

So, here we are, comfortably ensconced in the LaQuinta Inn, chosen because they welcomed Tara's cat.  We were greeted at the front desk with fresh, warm cookies.  When we got checked into our room, we returned to the front desk area for some appetizers of crackers and cheese, provided by the establishment.  Morning promises to bring a hot breakfast, including biscuits and gravy! Gotta love LaQuinta!

Every person in America needs to see this video:

Men of Science

Sometimes we don't know which of our skills will be called upon on any given day. Today, it was my turn to "build a volcano, Grandpa."

When the request came from Josiah, I was ready to dismiss it. But one of the rules grampa-ing is that you can't disappoint your grandkids.

Josiah, had concocted a brew of carbonated water and salt, which he planned to have come out of the volcano, once Grandpa had built it. But I was not convinced that would be very satisfying, as volcanic eruptions go. Nevertheless, Josiah's idea stirred up an old memory of Chemistry 101.

Now that I had a plan for the eruption mechanics, all I needed was a volcano. A little printer paper and some aluminum foil rolled into a cone made a good mountain. Now for the magma chamber. Finding a discarded drinking water bottle, I thought, "Aha!" But then I decided the bottle was too tall. I cut it into a top and a bottom and discarded the middle. Then I taped the top and bottom together and mounted the little bottle in the mouth of the volcano. Now for the trial run.

I scoured the house looking for lava, to no avail. So, I made a quick run across the street to Quick and Easy and came back with $1.88 worth of "chemicals." I took Josiah and the volcano outside. I had secretly put some baking soda in the heart of the volcano. Then I poured a little vinegar down the vent hole, and to Josiah's ultimate satisfaction, the volcano "erupted."

I told Josiah that, of course, God makes the best volcanoes. Nevertheless, he was pretty happy with Mt. Grandpa!

Summer fun

Yesterday, Tim and Laura took off on another husband/wife outing...sans kids! That meant we got to hang with the boys.

Judah promptly went down for a long nap, so grandma and Josiah built a fort out of chairs and sheets. They had a lot of fun playing in there, until it just got too hot for grandma. Josiah continued to play in the fort, using grandma's computer for entertainment, as he watched an episode of Spiderman.

Finally, Judah got up from his long nap. He was hungry, so we fed him what anyone would feed a two year old: salmon salad on crackers with sharp cheddar cheese! (Well, isn't that what you would have fed him??)

Next the boys wanted to go out into the yard. It was a hot day (for San Diego; official NOAA temperature 80 degrees) so they wanted to play with water. Grandma turned on two hoses a trickle and gave each boy a big plastic bowl. They had more fun filling the bowls and pouring them over themselves and each other.

Laura and Tim arrived home about five and brought wonderful things from Costco. Tim went to work in the kitchen and on the patio, and soon we were dining on grilled veggie-kabobs and basil-stuffed Rainbow Trout! Yum!! Laura whipped up some seasoned cous-cous, which was a perfect accompaniment for this splendid repast.

During and after dinner we watched "Tangled," which is an animated version of Rapunzel and was quite entertaining. All and all, I would say it was a perfect day!

Too much fun...

Click the Photo for Slide Show

We have the privilege of visiting our San Diego kids and grandkids this week. We arrived Wednesday and wasted no time having fun. Tim picked us up at the airport and dropped us at home, before he went back to work. Josiah had a play date, so we left Laura home to nap and took Judah on a shopping trip. We stopped to have frozen yogurt on the way home. Then we went to Josiah's Capoeira (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) class. After the class we met Tim at Sammy's Woodfire Pizza for dinner. We sat outside and had a fine time with good pizza. When we came home, we watched a little Padres baseball. Everyone was tired, so we went to bed early.

Yesterday, Tim had to work in the morning, and Laura had an appointment. Laura dropped Tim at his office and went to her appointment. Then she picked him up for a date, so Jill and I got to take care of the boys for the whole day. Laura and Tim went to lunch and a movie and then to the waterfront for happy hour.

Meantime, we played games with the boys, and then we took them to the park that is near the house. They had a lot of fun playing on the playground equipment. Afterwards, we walked to the "Cup of Yo" frozen yogurt store and had a treat.

Back home, again, we fed the boys dinner and gave them baths. We would have had them in bed by the time Laura and Tim came home, but we were a little too slow with the bed time reading. Instead, we had family fun for a while. Then Judah went down, and grandma and grandpa watched a Phineas and Ferb movie with Josiah.

Bedtime felt very good.

This morning we sent Tim off to work. The rest of us went to In and Out Burger for an early lunch, and then we went to visit the U.S.S. Midway (aircraft carrier) museum. Josiah had a great time sitting in aircraft cockpits, and he and his mom went for a ride in a flight simulator. I'm glad I declined that one. I think I would have lost my lunch! They really did some spinning and up and down action! Laura looked a little green when she came out.

Currently we are sitting at home. Laura is fixing dinner. Grandma is playing Beyblades with the boys, and grandpa sat down to write a blog entry.

Stay tuned for more adventures of the ol' Pilgarlic.

The Power of Family

Click the photo for slide show

I was just reading the blog of a friend who is living in Oman and teaching English. She is a talented writer, but she hasn't posted much lately. She says the reason is that, by the time she gets around to posting, the "news" is not current, or she gets interrupted and loses her train of thought.

I find that I can empathize with her struggles... well, all except the part about being a talented writer. I haven't posted on this blog for a couple of months or more. It is not that my life has been uninteresting, because it has been full and rich and exciting. The problem is that by the time I think of blogging, I am either too tired, or too rushed or not in the mood. I guess, for me, the bottom line is that life is for living and not for writing about. I have never been good at keeping a journal. I last a couple of weeks and then I fade out.

So, this post is not going to update my life from the previous post until the present time. Rather it is to describe a wonderful week with my family.

About four months ago, Jill and I were talking about our wedding anniversary. This is a landmark year for us. We will have been married a decade come Thursday. We talked about a romantic, tropical getaway. We looked into Hawaii, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, but none of them was generating enough excitement to take the fore. While we were spending a few days on the Oregon coast in our motor home, we realized that what we treasure most in life is not romantic time alone, although we do enjoy that, but rather to spend time with all of our kids and grandkids together.

A plan was hatched. We have fallen in love with Pacific City, a little resort town on the central Oregon coast. We decided that it would be the perfect celebration of our 10 years of marriage to assemble our blended family at the beach, along with some games and activities that we could all enjoy.

We floated the idea to our kids, and they all got on board. So, last week, we flew Tim and Laura and the grandsons from San Diego and Tara from Denver in for a week. Pat and Katie drove from Monmouth and we made our way a-la caravan to the coast. We rented a funky little house that is literally right on the beach. It had just enough beds and funky beach house charm to provide the perfect venue.

We stayed four days, enjoying one another's company. We played board games and games on the beach. We ate in the Pelican Brew Pub that is right on the water and has great food. The ladies went shopping at the Lincoln City outlet mall. Pat and I stayed up late one night having one of the heart to heart talks that always fill me to overflowing with parental pride and love.

On the last evening of our stay, we were all ruing the fact that our time at the beach was about to come to an end. Someone pointed out that there was a beautiful sunset in progress, so we all left the game table to go and see. While we were admiring God's handiwork, one of the kids said, "Let's do this again next year." All of us agreed with that sentiment. As we all retired to our rooms, Jill and I marveled at the incredible joy that our family shares. Even though we are a blended family, it feels to me like the fulfillment of a life long dream to have a flock of kids and grandkids to enjoy.

We came home on Wednesday, but the fun did not end. Tim had had to leave for home and his job the day before, but Laura and the boys and Tara stayed on. On Thursday we took the grandsons to Red Robin for lunch (Tara's treat) and to the Riverfront Park in Salem, where they played on an outdoor play structure and road on a beautifully restored carousel. We had ice cream and then headed home.

On Friday, Jill and I did some shopping, while Tara entertained her best friend, Sarah, and her husband, Ben, who live in Portland. When we arrived home, Jill and I joined in the fun.

On Saturday, we hosted a baby shower for Katie, who is scheduled to deliver our first granddaughter in August. While the ladies had their party, Pat and I took Josiah to another park with a friend of Pat's, whose wife was at the shower. Dave had his three year-old son, Ethan, with him. We played for an hour or so and then walked over to the pizza parlor to feed the boys (all of us boys!).

We arrived home in time to say good bye to some of the ladies, while others had already left. Next, we began gearing up for something we had promised the boys: a weenie roast on the patio, followed by fireworks on the driveway. It was the first time we have used the fire pit since we moved to Dallas, and it was a hit with young and old alike. The hotdogs were followed, of course, by s'mores. It was a good old Fourth of July celebration (even if it was on the 2nd). Before Judah and Josiah went to bed, Tara put on a rather impressive fireworks display for us.

This morning, Laura and the boys had to be at the airport at 9:00 AM. So, Jill drove them to Portland, and Tara and I went to church. It was a fun daddi-o/daughter date. We went to Tater's Cafe for breakfast after church. Jill met us there and we had a fine, if overly generous, meal.

Perhaps, the highlight of the week for me was one evening, when everyone but Jill and Laura and I had gone to bed. The three of us chatted over a glass of wine, and Laura said that she and Patrick and Tara had had a discussion, during the beach trip, in which they agreed that I had been a positive influence in all of their lives. Laura and Tara had individually and independently sent me Father's Day cards in which they wrote that I represent to each of them the kind of father figure that they wanted but never really had growing up.

I was touched to my very soul. As a man who has never produced any biological children, I have always dreamed of leaving a legacy to the next generation. Now it seems that my dream may be coming true! Thank you to all of my wonderful kids. You are the joy of my life. I could not ask for a more wonderful family.

(Pssst! Jill, I love you for helping me build such a wonderful family!)

Getting on with it...

Take a day that is mostly sunny. Add a fence that was supposed to be finished in October. Sprinkle in a dash of urgency, the result of facing hernia repair surgery, and what do you get? A guy who wants to get on with the landscaping but is frustrated by obstacles.

So, I got out in the yard today and finished the gates that I had hoped to install in October. I also trimmed off the tops of the ragged fence posts and installed the fence post caps that I purchased last summer. So, the fence is, at long last nearing completion. I would have finished it today, except that the local handyman center (van Well Hardware) didn't have the gate latches in stock that I wanted.


I have a dental appointment in Salem on Monday, so I will stop at Lowe's while I am in town and pick up the latches. One more afternoon, and I can have the fence construction complete. Jill has promised to put sealer on the fence, as soon as Tom kills out the poison oak in the backyard and the weather permits.

In another development, I was able to complete the wiring of the garden shed. Well, that is, except for actually hooking it up to the power source. That will require a trench from the back of the garage to the front of the shed, which I haven't had time or weather to complete yet. Once the trench is dug, the completion of the wiring will be a snap.

So, we have been doing some projects. I also decided to buy a TV antenna and ditch the dish. The antenna is not yet installed, but the hardest part is done, i.e., pulling a coax cable from the attic into the low voltage junction box I had installed when we built the house.

Patrick wanted me to bring the antenna over to his house to see what we could pull in channel-wise. Consequently, I have not installed the antenna yet. It was very strange; we hooked up the antenna at Pat's house and were able to pick up 33 channels on one TV set, but on the big set in the living room, we were unable to get a single channel. I believe that the tuner may be to blame. More cogitation is required.

I hope to set up the antenna at home on Monday. I am scheduled for some minor surgery on Tuesday, and although the surgery is minor, I am going to be unable to to do much work for about six weeks. So, I am feeling pressure to deliver!!

Through the Bible in 90 Days

Jill and I are having a great time reading the Bible in 90 days, along with our church. We have taken the B-90 Challenge. We have been at it for one week, and we are already through Genesis and Exodus. It is really entertaining to read the Bible at this rate. Sure, some of the genealogies are a bit dry, but they are important to the overall understanding of the saga.

I once had occasion to read the Bible in 60 days. It was a great experience, but I think 90 days is a nicer pace. Using the B-90 Challenge Bible, it is a mere 12 pages a day of reading. I have tried the "Bible in a year" plans, but they go so slowly that you can't really keep track of the story. Then I lose interest and fail to continue...usually somewhere in Leviticus.

So, if you haven't read through the Bible recently, I recommend this plan. If you are a believer, you really need to read through the Bible periodically: it is God's love letter to you. If you are not a believer, reading through the Bible can't hurt you, and it has been such a powerful influence in the world for the past 3,500 years that you really ought to know what is in it.

There is a thief in the neighborhood!

Finally, after three + months in our new home, I was able to get out and do some yard work. Landscaping in winter is difficult at best. In our yard, when it has rained, walking is hazardous...it makes you taller. What I mean to say is that the clay soil tends to collect on the bottom of your shoes, and after a time, you actually can accumulate enough that your shoes no longer touch the ground.

Today, the ground was comparatively dry. So, of course, the first thing I did was get out the hose and attach a sprayer. I sprayed the new shoots of poison oak that are coming up all over the back yard. I hope that, by starting now, I can pretty much eradicate this noxious weed before summer is over.

Next, I put on my burglar's mask and dark glasses and went across the street to steal some plants! Well, that is not 100% true...well, actually the only truth in that statement is that I went across the street. I didn't have to disguise myself, and I didn't have to steal plants. Our contractor has graciously told us that we may take any plant materials that are on any of the lots in the development on which no one has built a house.

I found the mother lode of ferns. So, I dug up five nice big ferns and planted them strategically under the oak trees in the back yard.

Jill got a picture of my good side, while
I was digging holes to plant the ferns.

Then I turned around, and she got my bad side.

Pogo came out to help, too.
She is the official family sniffer

I call this the "dance of the fern planter."
Just tamping down the soil.

In all, I made three trips to Duane's dig-'em-yourself nursery. In addition to the ferns, I found three lovely Oregon grape plants. Here's the final result:

The little plant on the left is one of the Oregon grapes.

Isn't this a lovely fern? There are dozens like this still available.

I added another fern behind the tree, so Jill took another photo.

This photo doesn't do justice to the bed I filled
within a semi-circle of trees. There are three
ferns and two Oregon grapes. I can't wait to get
some bark dust to scatter around them.

It will be a while yet before we can put in lawn, because I need to have someone come and dig trenches so I can put in the sprinkler system first. I also plan to make a waterfall and a dry creek bed in the back yard.

I have made some composite photos of the overall plan for the front yard, as well. My hope is that, when we finish, it will look something like this:

Front composite photo.

Side yard composite photo.

Snow today in Dallas

OK, OK, you people on the east coast and in Indiana, don't laugh...we had some snow today. Yes, on 1/11/11 we had (have) snow falling and sticking...kinda.

Earlier in the day, the sun was out, so I decided it was time to take Sadie out for some exercise. She fired right up; although, I am embarrassed to say, it has been since October 23rd that her engine last ran. There has just been so much to do, getting into our new home, that Sadie has been a bit neglected. She sits, cozy, in her garage; no need for winterizing, because the garage is insulated.

Part of my motivation was that we received a ten cents a gallon discount coupon for gas at Safeway. With Gas currently at $3.119 per gallon, ten cents off seemed like a good time to fill up. We disconnected Sadie's various umbilici, gingerly drove her out of the garage and down the hill to fill up. It turns out the discount is only good for the first 30 gallons, which means we saved $3.00; not a fortune, but enough for a caramel machiato, one of these days.

The gas station attendants were very kind and washed Sadie's dirty windshield while we were there. When we were finished (40.7 gallons later), we headed for the countryside to give the old girl some exercise. We had a lovely drive out to Perrydale, a little farming community a bit north of Dallas. The countryside was gorgeous, Sadie purred, and Jill and I reveled in being on the road. In fact, we determined it is time to plan the first camping trip of 2011.

While we were on the road, I started the Onan generator for a little exercise and ran the electric heater in the coach. It ran like a top...the generator, that is...well, the heater did fine, too. We returned home, parked our venerable lady and went in to have lunch.

That's when the snow began to fall. I felt pretty smug. I got Sadie gassed up at a discount, gave her some exercise, enjoyed a drive in the country with my best girl, and got home before the snow began to fall.

It is odd how a particular day or occurrence affects one's soul. I told Jill after we got home that, somehow, taking Sadie out for a drive made me feel that we are finally settled at home in Dallas. She told me that, whenever she is feeling grumpy or having cravings, all I need to do is take her for a ride in Sadie...or give her some chocolate...or, ahem.

So, yes, we had some snow in Dallas today. I am not exactly regretting that I gave away my skis before we moved, but we had snow today in Dallas.