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DarwiniaEverything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar. |
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Sunday, July 18, 1999
Two years ago: Summer's Lease
How strange to think that it's been two years since Scott Anderson posted this! The man's got a wild streak, I must say. And that was about a year before he did his entry on German porcelain appliances, which I nominated for Cruel Site of the Day. Maybe someday I'll post something myself that would push the boundaries like that. I'm not always so sweet and proper, you know.
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Friday I drove north. I decided to try taking the back roads, but there is severe congestion heading away from the city on Friday afternoons, no matter if one leaves early or tries for a less-popular route. So I was crawling along two-lane roads for about an hour and a half, which wasn't what I had had in mind a-tall! Finally things thinned out north of the town of Snohomish. I do like the rural roads. Good thing, since I saw a lot of them during the course of the weekend.
I got to Jack's place in good time, in spite of the slowness of the start. Such good time, in fact, that I was there before he was! So I took a walk around one of the blocks in the neighborhood and admired all the nice, funky old houses, then took out the book I was reading and stood leaning on the railing at his front door. I really didn't mind at all, except for having to pee!
The book, which I finished this morning, was Darwinia, by Robert Charles Wilson. I really liked it! Some very original ideas and descriptions, characters I cared about, and a lot of cool eery moods. I was exclaiming aloud as I read it!
Jack and his daughter H---- arrived before the situation got too bad. We grilled some burgers on the back porch, then watched an anime video that Jack had rented, Wings of Honneamise. It seemed to be about an alternate history (or far future on another planet) and the beginnings of space travel. The graphics were superb, with very ornate buildings and great detail. The characters were good also, from the male lead (not fair to call him a hero) who volunteers to be the first up, partly to impress a seriously religious girl, to the girl herself, blaming herself for the one occasion that he gets out of line with her.
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Jack had originally wanted to go camping this weekend, but the weather prediction was looking iffy. So instead, he set the alarm for six [!], got up and hit the snooze button twice, then went in to work for a few hours. The reason there were only two hits on the snooze button? The alarm clock is across the room on the floor, and we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, so it's a fair amount of effort for him to get up, walk over there, bend over, hit the button, and come back and lay down again, all for only seven minutes of snoozing! He says that the snooze time should be longer; in a perfect world, he'd be in an automated intelligent house where it would just understand you when you spoke to it.
So I slept delightfully late, showered and ate cereal and read my book, while Jack worked, then picked up his paper allocation. Sounds very official, like ration books in World War II, doesn't it? It's really a work benefit from his new job. He's a developer now at the paper mill (but it's a very ecologically sound paper mill, really! ) and all employees can come around on one of three days a year, and choose three cases of product. Paper towels or toilet paper (buttwipe, as Jack so suavely puts it), your option. Jack was wondering if he could get some of the paper mats that get shipped as raw materials to other paper mills, for being finished into fine quality computer paper. He'd like to get into craft papermaking as a hobby, since he doesn't have enough interests right now...ha! I can't write that with a straight face.
Jack was generous with the paper goods, urging me to take some of each variety, and planning on giving some to his parents also.
So the weather was holding us back, even though it seemed to be clearing up by noontime. Jack decided instead that we should go out for the day, first to the raspberry festival at Lynden, then off into the back country to find a place to picnic, and possibly hike.
Packing the car always seems to be a stressful undertaking, trying to get everyone moving, hoping we haven't forgotten anything. We stopped at Fred Meyer for some steaks, roasted garlic salsa, tortilla chips, ice, and lightweight hiking boots for Jack's daughter H--- and myself. H---- was deadpan and sulky; I wasn't against getting the boots, but I was bummed that I couldn't replace my black leather Keds there (no wide sizes) and I'd normally go to REI or someplace similar, and take a long time deciding, for such a purchase. The boots weren't very expensive, though, so it's not a big deal if they don't work out.
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The raspberry festival was fun! Lynden is a small town, very well kept up (that Dutch heritage they are so proud of?) and this is only the second year they've held the event. so it really wasn't that crowded and we got a parking space just a block from where they were diverting traffic from the commercial district. We wandered among the booths, eating berries and ice cream. Jack bought a raffle ticket -- for twenty five dollars! The prize was a new VW Beetle, and the drawing was in support of the Lynden Pioneer Museum. We found the museum when we walked to the other end of the festival, and of course we went in and viewed it.
It was really good! They got a big start a few years ago, when a famous collection of buggys, wagons and carriages was donated by a local collector. Jack was mildly interested in the old-time displays, clothes, tools, and so on, but he really got excited by the horse-drawn vehicles, and ecstatic over the Indian motorcyles. I was impressed by the general level of competency throughout the museum.
We drove east, towards Mount Baker. We didn't get there, though -- we decided to stop at Silver Lake Park, a Whatcom County park, instead. This was also a lucky find; they had boat rentals, so I sent Jack and his daughter off to canoe for an hour, while I studied a technical book on the new project I'm working on. I was sitting at a picnic table next to the dock, so I was amused in the meantime by folks getting in and out of the canoes and rowboats, and fishermen trying to catch something. No one landed anything that we saw, at any time during the afternoon.
We chose a quiet picnic table, set up the gas grill, and started fixing dinner, at which time a large group of teens decided to play capture the flag all around us. So much for quiet! When one young man ran up and sat at our table, exclaiming, "Pretend you know me!" Jack sent him on his way immediately, and they gave us a bit of breathing room after that.
Both on the way to the park and on the way home, Jack saw so many places that he'd like to live. He's really interested in rural property; he'll be saving up money to purchase land.
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We spent a quiet day today. Jack did laundry, and put together some shelving to use in organizing the large closets in the bedrooms. H--- helped with that. I sat on the porch and read Amy Thomson's new book, Through Alien Eyes. I liked it! She showed the disadvantages of the alien Tendu people's culture, through a visit to Earth. She plans a third volume, when the characters, Earth and Tendu changed through being touched by another world, will synthesize another culture.
I drove home, stopping on the way to meet with C---, who is involved with my new project. He explained some of the technical topics to me. That's a good way to learn, switching between reading, writing, and talking.
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