Entries this day: Allergies Boy_in_New_York Sarah_walk Walk_elizabeth barbie

Allergies

9:02am EDT Saturday 5 October 2002

I have determined that my throat is sore and scratchy not because I'm sick with a virus, but because my nose is snotting and draining down my throat due to the cigarette smoke in this house. Becky smokes a lot. Like she's smoking as often as not, possibly including when she's sleeping. Okay, maybe not, but maybe so.

I find it annoying at first, and disgusting after a while. I'm like holy shit, when are you going to stop smoking???

I've been reading Japanese today. If Barbie doesn't make it to her today, then I'll probably leave tomorrow.

Boy in New York

9:17am EDT Saturday 5 October 2002

Wow.

Annoying, brilliant, charismatic, deadbeat, enigmatic, free-spirited Mr. Ryan McCarthy is suddenly and gloriously alive in New York. Not that he was never alive since I've known him, but he's apparently thriving, or just beginning the grandest greatest adventure of his life.

Sarah walk

1:49pm EDT Saturday 5 October 2002

Sarah and I embarked on a walk pretty much as soon as she woke up around 9 or 10am. I had just cooked a pizza, so I folded it in half and we both ate on it like a pizza sandwich while walking down the golf course. Discovered Jeff on the course; actually he saw Sarah first and she gave him a big o' hug and Jeff and I just started talking.

I helped him hang a shelf in the garage, helped him and his wife Bevin bring in groceries when she got home, helped watch Sarah and Keely (22 months old) play in the yard. Sarah attached a shoulder strap to her shirt and had Keely lead her around like a dog. Seriously. It was quite cute.

Keely fed the fish (two little resilient striped fish above the kitchen sink) and then fed them a teaspoon of cinnamon and sugar. Bevin was all, "yikes stripes!" (actually that's Wende's phrase, but it fits the situation exactly) and I took a picture with their camera to capture a moment from The Day Keely Poured Cinnamon and Sugar Into The Fish Bowl. Hahahaha funny.

We ate lunch then ice cream in cones. Jeff cleaned up the garage and expressed his thanks that I had helped him get started; he had been wanting to do that for months. Totally absolutely fantastic and my pleasure to be helpful.

Walk elizabeth

2:52pm EDT Saturday 5 October 2002

Been chatting it up with Elizabeth, who I still think is a pretty cool pretty cute girl. Been talking about her major and about travel and about languages. She knows some French and has known some German.

I asked, "you wanna go walk around in the woods?" "Are we going to get dirty?" "Hopefully!" So we're going to go romp around in the woods now.

6:44pm

Had an utterly fantastic romp through the woods with Elizabeth! We started easily at first, and then quickly decided if we're going to do this right, we gotta cross the river.

It wasn't as deep as I had feared it might be; my shorts barely got wet. 4 wheel drive up the ravine and then through the beautiful forest to discover an ugly scar that Elizabeth wondered if it might be a dam. I didn't think so; what water would it dam up?

Up up up up up a steep incline until we reached the ridge of the mountain. A couple hundred feet elevation above the river as we reached the tip top of the mountain overlooking the golf course and neighborhood. Too many trees to see more than glimpses of one house at a time.

I found a small tree growing right next to a big tree without low branches. I blessed the trees and asked if I could climb them. Positive answer, so I used the small tree to reach the big tree's lowest branch. Up Up Up up up up up up up up up until the trunk of the big tree was almost as small as the small tree. Totally awesome. I don't really have a way to determine how high I climbed, but I'm guessing 100 feet.

Down the tree, then gave it a hug. Down the ridge the other direction from wence we came. Saw beautiful forest, so quiet so full of life and chipmunks and a woodpecker as we sat quietly on a spongey log fallen across the ravine.

Trekked down down the ravine until we found another scar in the land, including fallen trees, including a hunter's platform which he had thoroughly bolted to the tree with 4x4s. Tree was cut, down came the hunter's roost. Ironic to think, "oh those squirrels lost their home, but that poor hunter lost his roost."

Elizabeth asked, "I wonder what's on the other side of that dirt right there?"

"I can think of 2 ways to find out: 1 is to go over there, 2 is to send you over there and you tell me what you see, 3 is for us to send a letter to that house [beyond the dirt] and ask them what they see from their house."

Turned out to be a house under construction, with a curious base. Basically it looked like a cinderblock wall 3 feet tall around the whole perimeter, but the dirt underneath hadn't been smoothed or anything. 2x12s had been put on the cinderblocks to make the floor, so there was no way to really fix the floor further. Plus, it couldn't really have been specifically insulating dead air space because there was a crawlway into it from the garage. Okay the garage could have been partially insulated, but still weird.

Asked a neighbor where we were, and Elizabeth understood, but I did not. Told him where we had been, etc.

7:05pm

(Barbie has just arrived.)

(Oooh I love her short hair!)

Okay, quick.. Back up the hill, but I loved that Elizabeth was all, "let's go a different way back!" and loved how exploratious she was willing to be. That way back proved to be easier and we saw a deer in a field on top of a hill. Beautiful field with a beautiful mountain range visible beyond it. Sun setting behind us to the left lit the whole thing fabulously. And there was a table with two white plastic chairs stacked nearby.

Tromped down the hill and a guy was bulldozing at the first scar we saw. Turns out Elizabeth was right; he's making a dam to make a lake. Paul Adams was his name. It was mostly all his land and this is a project he has been wanting to do for a while. Good for him. I hope it's all a beautiful thing for the world and not some horrible commercialized bullshit thing.

Chatted with him a bit and Elizabeth left leaving a bit wary of his skillz at building a dam. What if it collapsed and flooded the area below? It was supposed to be a couple of acres. I just don't know.

Down through brambles I went and Elizabeth found an easier way. Then down to the river almost exactly where we had crossed before, but this time was significantly deeper. My stomach got wet. She basically dove in without getting her head under. Back to the house and Becky was all, "IF YOU GET THIS HOUSE DIRTY AFTER I JUST CLEANED IT....." and I just laughed and ran inside to the kitchen and then to the bathroom. Didn't get it too dirty. All is good.

- - - -

Oh, one thing I really liked is that she wore her silver bracelets and choker necklace during our adventure. Nice.

barbie

7:12pm EDT Saturday 5 October 2002

Barbie is home. Sarah is bounding around to show her stuff. Awesome.