Thanksgiving and beyond...

Last blog I told you that I would show you Sunshine, who is Rick's dog, now about 8 years old, a female black lab, who rides with Rick wherever he goes, most of the time...

Then there is Sparky, a black female cat, who showed up on Rick's deck several weeks after the fire.  She was very hungry and thin. She stays outside, but Rick feeds her and has set up a warm box for here when it is cold.  She is a very loving cat.  Look at her now...

 
Wednesday Rick and I drove to Bellingham to have Thanksgiving with his sister, Susan Corkery and her husband, Landry.  I had the joy of meeting Susie's daughter-in-law, Aiko, a wonderful woman that Jon has known for ten years.  

Susan, Landry, Landry Jr. and Jon traveled to Japan for the wedding.  Aiko showed me the pictures.  It was a traditional Shinto wedding, with both sets of parents traditionally dressed.  Aiko changed into four different dresses, each one meant something - a white outfit with a white covering over her head, called a horn hat so the intended can't see her horns; a beautiful red and gold marriage kimono, with a black wig and a hat or tiara with horns on it, showing that now she is married and her husband cannot do anything about it; then a white wedding dress as we know them; and last a beautiful fancy purple dress with purple flowers in her hair and a purple bouquet. There were many other traditional things that were done also.  Susie said it was wonderful and Aiko's parents were wonderful.  Jon had been learning Japanese over the years, so he was able to communicate somewhat.  Aiko is fluent in English also.  Here is a picture of Aiko and Jon at Sue and Landry's house after we had had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner...

Susan is the background.  We had a nice visit and I even was able to go over more family documents and pictures.  

Susan's husband is a horticulterist and his yard is beatuifully planted with lots and lots of rhododendrons and other bushes and trees.  I would love to go there in the spring and see them all blooming.  They are now retired, he from being an ER doctor, and she from being an RN.  They also have a home in Baja, where they stay for most of the winter after Christmas is over.  

The mountains coming from the airport, and then driving from Ellensburg had snow on them and were beatufiul.  For the last three days, we have had sunshine, which I really haven't seen here before now.  Here are some pictures of Rick's workshop and the Ponderosa pines after the Taylor Bridge fire swept through...

The pile of metal that you see was his workshop.  Everything in it was totally lost.  The Pondersa pine in the middle will most probably not come back, but Rick is going to give everything a year and see what greens up.  Some of the trees do have a little green on them...

The Taylor Bridge fire started when a construction crew was working on the bridge, and when using a welding tool or some such thing, a spark started a fire, and with 30 mile an hour winds, the fire swept down the south-east side of the road, destroying several houses and barns, and then leapt the road, came up over the hill, racing towards Rick's place.  It swept through, just missing the house, which the firemen were working to save, igniting the pines, and then sweeping up the hill and down over it.  Rick told them that if the workshop caught fire, stay away from it, as he had black powder and ammo in it.  

Rick's friend, Pam, is here and I think is going to stay.  With a cleaning lady Rick has used, they have been cleaning up the house.  I am sort of staying away from it all.  Susan is coming over tomorrow night and staying for two days, and then will drive me to the Seattle Airport.  Another chance to get to know my cousin even better.  I had never met either Rick or Susan until our mutual aunt Betty had her 80th birthday celebration in San Francisco, and we all came down for it.  Since then Rick and I have become fairly close and he and I have been working on the William H. Hawley project.  Sue and I are finally to get to know each other also.

Yesterday Rick brought out family pictures for me to go through.  It was a total delight to see them, most of them from my mother's childhood, and a few portraits of family which I don't think I have.  Now I have them all on my MacBook, and will be adding them to my Atwell Family Tree, Hawley side.

I will be very happy to get back to my own home in Lemitar.  I have strong feelings about Rick's friend, but as he told me, "...this is my house, this is my life, and we like each other."  So be it.  It may be my protectiveness towards him since Colleen hasn't been gone six months, and then the fire.  I told him what I thought, and I am not going to say another word.  The place IS getting cleaned up inside and out, and that is due to her.

Two nights ago we went to dinner at close friends of Rick's - Scott and Phyllis.  Scott was his best man at his and Colleen's wedding.  They serve a turkey dinner for the veterans in the area that do not have family close by.  Phyllis told me they had been doing it for years.  I met three men who were in the Pacific in WWII, two were Marines, and one Navy.  The others had fought in the Korean War and in the Vietnam War.  There was one other Marine, and the rest were Navy.  We had twelve in all counting us, the hosts, and the other men.  It was a wonderful evening.  However at the end of it, we were all standing in the kitchen saying our goodbyes, when one of the 90 year olds said "Sarah Palin would be a better president than the one we have now."  I nearly choked.  Several others agreed, so I just said, "I am a Democrat, and I voted for Obama.  I think Sarah Palin is a twit!"  Then I said my goodbyes and left the house, pissed off.  I am in Republican territory - I know Rick is a 'pub, and we don't discuss politics much.  Thank goodness.

Now I am going to get on Ancestry and add some of these pictures I photographed from Rick's boxes.  

Life is good.
I love you all,
Sally