A passing

Nate's grandpa passed away last Friday. It was a bit of a surprise (at least, it was to me). I was out of town for training all week, got home late Thursday night, and then Friday afternoon Nate told me that during the week his grandpa had gone to the hospital (congestive heart failure) and been sent home with hospice and morphine. We didn't know how long grandpa had left to live...

And we got the call late that night.

Amy wrote about this on her blog. She said it just the way I would have, so I decided to quote from her:

"We had the funeral Tuesday. It was a happy death, because he [grandpa] was 97 years old, and basically has been ill for years. He fell every other week, always breaking something, so we were all relieved and happy for him when we found out he died because we know he's now with his sweet wife... I'm glad they are together now and that he doesn't have to live in his awful sick body anymore."

What I remember...

A year ago today, on an evening much like this one, I received a phone call. It was Amy. She and Mike had given notice at their apartment; they were moving out and needed a place to live. Amy and I talked at length about their options -- they basically had three, one of which was staying with us. During the previous two months we had discussed the possibility several times, but by the end of the phone call the possibility was reality. We had 18 days to get ready -- to clear out and clean up the basement, and to fix the downstairs bathroom.

Until that phone call, the basement was just a storage space. We kept all of our tools on the fireplace hearth, stored spare lumber in the middle of the room, and filled the shelves with miscellaneous boxes. The bathroom was the cats' room, and none of the plumbing fixtures worked. Our free afternoons and evenings over the next 18 days were devoted to cleaning, fixing, and remodeling. It was a tiring process.

But most of that is actually a blur. I have only vague memories of laying new linoleum in the bathroom, replacing the toilet, putting in closet rods, moving and reorganizing the tools, and so forth. Mostly I remember that first evening -- that phone call. How Amy cried, and I cried too.

When I got off the phone and went downstairs to examine the crap piled in our basement, I felt useless. Giving family members a home in our brown-shag-carpeted basement room seemed more like an insult than an aid. It did nothing to ameliorate the real problems; it did not provide them with employment and it certainly did not cure cancer. It was just a room -- a place to take temporary shelter while the storm raged on.

Don't get me wrong: shelter is important. We were glad to help. And in the end, the bigger problems were solved. But at the time, on that day one year ago, our simple offer seemed so very insignificant.

I also remember -- N8 and his folks will laugh when I remind them -- that I really wanted to build Shoji for the basement, so that the room could be tastefully divided into separate living and sleeping quarters. Not surprisingly, the task was impossible given the timeline and other items on the to-do list. I thought I could take just 3 of the 18 days and get it done; much persuasion from my family convinced me to give up. (Thank goodness!)

Nate wanted to add a mini-kitchen to the basement. In retrospect? Not a bad idea. But again, we didn't have the time. We also definitely didn't have the room or the finances for a second kitchen! And really, what would have done with all that now that it's just the two of us again? Ha.

These days the basement is back to being a storage space, but more thoughtfully so. There are several pieces of extra furniture downstairs (in part because we're soon to remodel one of the upstairs bedrooms, so things have been temporarily moved). The basement is also a great room for some of our bigger projects, including my occasional (large) craft project.

But every once in awhile I just stop and stare at the room, picturing what it looked like a year ago, and 9 months ago, and 6 months ago. Wow.

Awesome news!

There are several things I miss about living in Portland. One of those things is Trader Joe's, which has the best-tasting soy milk of all the many, many soy milks I've sampled. They also have yummy chocolate-covered almonds and a host of other good-for-me-and-for-the-earth (hippy) foods.

So this article announcing plans for a Trader Joe's in Salem just made my day:
www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20101001/NEWS/10010345/1001

I'm a little impatient for the new store, which won't open until "sometime" in 2011, but I'm very excited that they've decided to locate on my end of town, near other places I visit (such as church, the bank, and our usual grocery store). I look forward to being part of the crowd during the store's opening weeks, and a regular customer thereafter.

Awesome!!!

Hachi and my "boys"

Part 1: Hachi

Just finished watching the movie "Hachi" which is basically a story about a very loyal dog. I spent the second half of the movie crying. Stupid cute dog movie... how dare it make me bawl my guts out!

There's really not much to the movie; watching its trailer tells the whole story ("spoiler" alert): Man adopts stray dog, dog is loyal, man dies, dog continues to be loyal until dog dies. Doesn't exactly sound like the type of movie worth crying for, right? But mom, I'm certain that you would've cried the whole time, too.

Part 2: My "Boys"
Nate and I were hanging out in the office today (by which I mean our home office), watching the LDS church's semi-annual General Conference broadcast on the computer. As he usually does, Nate fell asleep during the two-hour afternoon session of the conference. Meanwhile, Jack (the cat) came in looking for snuggles, and found the sleeping man. The result is this:

...my two favorite boys, sharing an afternoon siesta. Cute.

New/old dresser: A work in progress

Below are pictures of a dresser I just got from my brother Bill. My mom purchased it about 30 years ago for 30 bucks. I'm in the midst of refurbing it. As you can see, I got through the sanding and priming steps. I think I'd like to finish it by doing an antique paint style, but I need to do a little more research on antiquing. (Is that a word?)

For now, it's past my bedtime, so I will just share a couple of pictures and call it a night. I'll post more pictures when I have them...

I'm a geek, geek, geek, geek, geek....

.... and darn proud of it!

http://oregonemployment.blogspot.com/2010/09/working-in-science-and-math-it-pays-to.html

There are no less than a billion pictures that support my claim that geekdom is awesome.



Added note (...since I failed to mention this elsewhere): My brothers and I are not the only geeks in the family. We come from a long history of geeks. And I'm quite proud of that history. GO JACKSONS!

The full article is at: www.qualityinfo.org/olmisj/ArticleReader?itemid=00007234
Or, for a limited time, from the main page of http://www.qualityinfo.org/

The latest and greatest...

I'm behind on blogging. Aack. Here's an update... briefly:

• Today: Met with the youth group this morning to plan their activities for the next 6 months, then drove them to Portland and dropped them off at a conference called "Especially for Youth." They get to hear some awesome speakers, meet other kids from around the state, and go to a dance. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve as a leader for the youth group right now. It's the highlight of my week. I love my girls.

• Last week(end): I celebrated a birthday. I'm really starting to rack up the years. My parents in law took me out to breakfast at my favorite place on the coast (on the 4th), then my mom came down with my dad (on the 6th) and she went for a long bike ride with me. She also got me the most beautiful little side table for my living room:


We went to Freddy's to get some tomatoes for lunch and I spotted the side table. I wasn't sure how it would look in the living room, but I liked it so I didn't really care if it matched or not. But now that it's in the room... I'm impressed with how nicely it all goes together:


Of course, it wasn't hard to beat the old side table, which most definitely did not match our newer furniture:


• Also for my birthday: One of my thoughtful co-workers taught me something new about what it means to have "friends." You see, "friends" are the people who buy you grandiose balloons, like this one:


...knowing full well that you commute to work on your bike, and that you'll be traveling home with "the bird" flapping behind you. In other words, picture me riding across town on this:


It's a good thing I adore the spotlight and can laugh at myself. Which I did. The whole way home. Bonus points? I made many children point, laugh, and shout with glee. "Look at the bird!" and "I love your bird!" That part almost makes me want to attach a balloon to my bike every time I ride.

Almost.

• Also last week: Nathan got his "boot" off. He's still gimpy. His damaged leg looks like a little chicken leg. But he's healing. Someday I might even get another piggy-back ride out of him.... I'm really looking forward to that day.

• Mid-August: I went to D.C. (again) for work. It was a wonderful trip. I would not mind it if my work asked me to go yet again in the near (or distant) future. I learned a lot, met some great people from around the country, and had just a little time to sight-see in our nation's capitol. I love, love, love Washington D.C.

• Late July: The young women in the youth group had their second annual hike in the Mt. Jeffereson Wilderness area. I can't begin to tell you how good the experience was for me. While we were up there I spent some time doing a bit of soul-searching. The content is too personal for this public blog.... suffice it to say that I came back a different person.