“John-Adrian’s voice is remarkably clear on that Facetime call.”
It was remarkably clear because it was not
John-Adrian on Facetime from Alaska, it was John Adrian, Jocie, and daughters
Aurora and Quinn actually in the next room, arrived at Jonathan and
Heidi’s completely by surprise. Doubling
down on long-distance surprise, Chris was also there from Norway, and Ben
arrived from Texas the next day. Surprise #4 is that Jocie had not told any of
us about her pregnancy, and new daughter Bella – fifth consecutive
granddaughter for us – will be born in early January. The four girls were
together constantly over the next nine days, especially the two eight-year olds,
Sarah and Aurora. An entire week’s activities were hastily planned, including
Thanksgiving and half of Christmas. The intense concentration of Wymans provided
enough memorable quotes to create a Christmas letter all by itself: Three-year
old Quinn sidling up to Jonathan’s Doritos and earnestly saying “Sharing is
Caring;” Aurora suddenly asking Ben
about the afterlife; or John-Adrian assuring us that if it was up to him we
would all just get more salmon every Christmas.
Chris has a similar view, though his choice is the thin-sliced dried
whitefish that Norwegians regard as a snack. Between the two of them, Christmas stockings
tend to be fish-intensive for us.
John-Adrian and Jocie are discussing moving from Nome
to Anchorage, which would make it easier for all of us to get to them, and mean
more room for them now that they will have three girls. Chris likes working for BMW instead of
Mercedes in Tromso, and has a serious girlfriend, Maria. Ben’s job is less
about filmmaking and increasingly about managing people and communications at First
Methodist Houston. He mischievously
shepherds the pastors through an “Ask Me Anything” podcast every week, which we
listen to with amusement.
The
End of an Era – 100 Costumes
Tracy gave away almost fifty years of accumulated
costumes. Most were biblical or medieval, but there was considerable variety, including
an extremely eccentric collection of hats.
I thought this was going to be more painful for her than it turned out. Going to a good home turned out to be the
key.
“Next
Year We Might Not Be Here.”
We are looking to downsize – fewer rooms, less
driveway snow, smaller lawn. We will remain local. We both have part-time work in
our career fields and scheduled volunteering we don’t want to give up, not to
mention granddaughters nearby.
The reality is that we find something “wrong” with
every house we look at. We have finished
fixing everything in our house of 35 years in order to make it easily salable. New heating, new roof, new septic, patching
the holes made by lacrosse balls in bedroom walls – the works. The place
finally looks like we always wanted, including the lawn, which had previously
suffered mostly neglect. I now know the difference between crabgrass and Less
Desirable Grasses. Maybe we’ll just stay.
“One
Good Thing That Came Out of the Army”
Kyle is finishing up his six years in the Reserve, and
is strongly considering switching to the Air National Guard. He has no temptation to re-up with the
army. Just as everything is winding
down, however, he has started dating a girl from his platoon, who we like a
great deal. He continues at the Post Office in Concord, and thus has very
little time and little sleep in December.
North
Carolina was great except…
Well, a tree fell on the car, that wasn’t good - at 40mph on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Ben and
David…eventually decided the car was drivable and as there was no cell phone
reception, just drove on to the pre-wedding party at Swananoa. Back to normal
life seamlessly. We got to roast the groom, that was a plus. Later we calculated
that 0.06sec difference would likely have resulted in us going over the edge to
a grim fate. We were unhurt at the time and got nervous later, which is the
best way to have emergencies, I think. David
got more irritated at not being able to get a waffle for breakfast the next
morning. He expected that in the South
it should certainly be possible to do this, but in West Asheville, everything
was avocado toast and twenty variations on Eggs Benedict. Shameful. I will
grant Asheville this: there are nice walks, climbs, and views in the area. But not enough waffles.
3 comments:
We are looking to downsize – fewer rooms, less driveway snow, smaller lawn. We will remain local.
Family friends sold their old house and built a new and smaller one- with a bit of solar heating. The new house was down the road from the old house. The contractor who built their house at least had the smarts to put the solar window stuff on the south side of the house. The biggest building contractor in town built his own house- with solar windows stuff on the NORTH side. I doubt he ever lived that down.
It turned out that the new, smaller house didn't remain the residence all that long. Five-six years after moving into the new house, and after several years of being a widow, the widow downsized once again and moved into a condo, where she remained over a decade until spending her final years with a son. Some beautiful pieces of Chinese furniture kept moving with her- furniture that she first knew in China as the daughter of a missionary.
Three-year old Quinn sidling up to Jonathan’s Doritos and earnestly saying “Sharing is Caring;”
LOL. That will become part of family lore, to be retold year after year.
Regarding Asheville, I am currently reading Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel. If one hadn't known a thing about Thomas Wolfe before reading the book, but had some knowledge of North Carolina's geography, it wouldn't be difficult to figure out that the city of Altamont (high mountain/hill) in the novel was actually Asheville. I have cousins who live in Asheville.
If you are looking for waffles in Asheville again, try searching for "Waffle House." I think there are at least four in Asheville. Failing one being close enough, try "Huddle House," which is a copycat version of Waffle House but even more Southern in its menu.
Or, you know, ask for a local guide.
Yes, Asheville itself would have worked better. West Asheville, not so much.
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