Greetings from Everett, Washington!
I missed the Weekend Chat last week! I was looking forward to posting my TV interview that appeared in Seattle last Wednesday, Here is the link:
https://q13fox.com/2019/10/09/the-mukilteo-lighthouse-is-packed-with-history-and-stunning-views/
I don't know how long the link will last, so watch soon. I'm the animated speaker in the coat with the lighthouses. I'm telling a story about the rescue of a crew of drunken sailors. My husband said I reminded him of a Monty Python sketch in which Graham Chapman is pantomiming to Terry Jones a disembowelment committed by one of the Piranha brothers.
Weather has been chilly (for here) with temperatures in the 30s overnight and frost on the roofs. The robins have come to gorge on the mountain ash berries and leave their guano on the car I park under the tree. I clean off the car when I and my son go to a local church parking lot on weekdays so he can practice driving. I need to find another place where he can practice that is safe and where his mistakes won't be costly.
We are in the process of purging. Soon, too soon, we are getting new carpeting to replace the unspeakable mess below me. All the books and filing cabinets around this table, and the table itself, will be moved somewhere else temporarily. I dread being able to find anything after it's all over. Oh, well, I survived the replacement of the computer so maybe it's all for the best. Sure would be nice if I could find great-grandpa Robe's 1851 original Oregon Trail diary, which is in a little leather-bound book SOMEWHERE in this house. It will either be found or it will be buried deeper. I have a photocopy but it would be nice to safe keep it. Don't know where I had it last but that was maybe 2015 that I saw it last.
It is so true that we need to clear time as well as space to visit those who mean so much to us. I want to visit my brother in Los Angeles again. I need to find the paperwork from the birth certificate I requested when my daughter went to Germany in 2016...next year Washington state will require a passport or enhanced driver's license for all air travel. So I have to apply for new documents if I want to fly anywhere. Another round of digging through papers to find stuff, or else reapplying for the documentation.
Speaking of which, my husband couldn't find the deeds to this house or his mom's house which he needs to have the septic tank work approved. He went to the King County Recorder's office in Seattle and came back saying never again will he go to Seattle. Then his signature wouldn't scan. He got all the paper work done, however, and now it's a matter of waiting for the State Health Department to schedule the inspection of his mom's property. All this for the purpose of turning his childhood home into an adult care facility. In the end we will assess whether all this costs more, or less, than long-term nursing care for his mom. But at least the property will have been greatly improved.
I look forward to a happy week of writing local history articles for the newsletter and the monthly magazine, and preparations for the cemetery tour the night before Halloween. Oh, and clearing all the valuable items ("junk") out of this room.