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Marsh WalkShe discovered with great delight that one does not love one's children just because they are one's children but because of the friendship formed while raising them. |
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Saturday, July 3, 1999
One year ago: Metajournals Launch
Two years ago: Traveling
Jack and his twelve-year-old daughter H---- arrived early this afternoon. Jack is so tired of living out of his truck and sleeping at motels. The effort of schlepping a fair amount of stuff in and out of the motel room -- stuff he doesn't want to leave in the truck, even if he doesn't precisely need it overnight -- is really wearing on him.
It was so good to see him! He doesn't have his new apartment yet, because the folks who are moving out weren't completely gone. Very aggravating!
After we brought the bags and laundry and guitar and laptop inside, Jack wanted to help me more on my decluttering project, as he did last weekend. I had the idea of asking H--- to pick up the remaining books, trash, and random bits of cruft that were on the bedroom floor. I told her she could keep any money she found, to make it worth her while. This worked out great! She did a good job distinguishing between trash and items I might want, the backs of the older folks were spared, and she got thirty bucks out of the deal. While she was doing that, Jack and I worked in my dining room, picking up and rearranging in there so I'd have room to move a few things out of the bedroom.
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When we were ready for a break, I suggested a walk. At first I thought we'd stay on Capitol Hill, but then I remembered Foster Island. This is the place where my nephew B---- fell in the water when I was supposedly taking care of him. There are pictures of my sister and my nephew when we went walking there on New Years Day, 1998.
Today's walk was very pleasant, although the bark-covered path was very moist and squidgy. The weather had turned beautiful. Jack exclaimed several times that he'd never been in that area before, though he was born here and he's lived in the Seattle area for large portions of his life. We walked along the boardwalk bridges and bark paths, observing the birds and plants and other visitors. This wasn't the walk in the lonely woods that would feed Jack's soul, but we did see a pair of mallards with attendant ducklings. The ducklings were so small that they scooted right across the lily pads in their search for tiny bugs to eat.
When we followed the path to an island that was an open glade and solid ground, Jack and I sat on a bench, Jack smoking his pipe. H--- didn't want to sit still. She mentioned that she wanted to go to the bathroom, but we got the impression she could wait, or we suggested she duck into the bushes if the matter was urgent. She went off to entertain herself while we relaxed.
When Jack was done with his pipe, we looked for her. She was nowhere to be found! Calling her name didn't bring out of the woods. Jack started doing a detailed search of the small area where we were, and I followed a path south, under the 520 highway, into another section of the park. I did ask a few folks going the other way if they'd seen a young girl in denim shorts, but they hadn't noticed her. I finally saw her coming towards me, and told her urgently to keep running to find her father. I knew he'd be extremely worried!
His relief on seeing her let his fear turn into yelling. Even though the park has people around, she could have fallen in the water and hit her head; or someone could have grabbed her (but he didn't say that). The main problem was that she hadn't said that she was going to take off like that! He was really upset, but gradually calmed down as we retraced our steps to my car.
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We had dinner in the University district, at Shalimar, a Pakistani restaurant that Jack particularly likes (we ate there in November, also), then visited used music and video stores to prospect for anime videos. We bought two movies for H---, also, so she could amuse herself at my place while Jack and I went to Vanguard, the monthly fannish social gathering I go to. One more stop, at Fred Meyer to buy an air mattress and 12-volt pump to inflate it with (sleeping problem solved!) and we went home for a bit.
H--- would have been welcome to come to Vanguard with us -- young folks do attend sometimes, though it's mainly an adult party -- but she feared that she would be bored, so she decided to stay home and watch videos and enjoy the cable TV. She's not allowed to watch MTV (but I don't know how Jack thinks this rule can be enforced) but most other stuff is OK, I think.
Jack and I drove up into the North End, to Laurie's house, where the Fourth of July Vanguard was last year. I was worried about the weather, since Laurie's house is tiny. That's why she hosts the July Vanguard, so people can go outside mostly. I was impressed! She'd rigged a tarp over her back courtyard, so we had plenty of partying space. Looking at last year's entry, I see that she did that last year, too. I'd quite forgotten.
I talked with Andy Hooper about his work on the Toy Collecting Channel website. It's going well for him, and he wants to hire more folks to work for him. Was he hinting about a possible job for me? They don't pay a whole lot, though. My buddy Luke McGuff was there. He made the shocking admission that he hadn't been keeping up with this journal, but further questioning clarified this; he's only missed the past few weeks.
We watched a video of a recent performance of the Cirque du Flambé. It was fun comparing the same scenes shot on two different kinds of camera. It wasn't so much fun when other party guests would insist on tromping through the space where the video audience was sitting on the floor, but such interruptions were only momentary. Luke's participation in the burning Jumprope act has really increaed since we saw the show in March, and they've added a three-rope section.
Luke had brought a pack of fireworks from the Salish Fireworks Company, and handed them over to Jane, so after the video most of us walked a short distance to a parking lot. Jane did the setting off of the fireworks. They were very impressive! I think when I was growing up in Virginia, home fireworks didn't have so many things shooting up into the air. I mainly remember fountains and cones. Tonight, there was even one that shot a small parachute into the sky, with more fireworks attached to it. Jack managed to catch the parachute when it landed, but I didn't bring it home with me.
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This was a day filled with incident, but I didn't succeed in having a quiet, calm weekend for Jack to recharge his batteries. Instead we seemed to do a fair bit of rushing around!
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