A Cracked Time/Space Continuum

This has been two weeks that seem like anything but two weeks. A space/time rip is all I can imagine it could be. Feel free to forward my address to any authority in charge of investigating such matters. You never know if my experience is the thing that might possibly solve the time travel conundrum.  I hope they have a reward of something or other. 

So, what crippled me the most these last two weeks? No phone service? No cell phone reception? No internet? (no furniture, no dishes, no cooking utensils) Nope.  Well, yes, but primarily it turned out to be having no camera.  I had no idea how dependent I have gotten on documenting our days.  I finally bought a disposable one, but I missed so much before that.

I had to call Precious Daughter 1 while I was driving on the freeway in order to have her use the internet and find me a place to get a broken window fixed 14 hours from where she was.  She steered me to the only laundromat in town while she was at it. It is a very strange feeling to be so unconnected to the world, let me tell you.  In fact, once she called me very concerned about our Houston relatives having to evacuate and that was the first I knew there was even a hurricane. Bizarreness. And I have phone calls still unreturned to see how they are doing. 

While we were doing more errands one day we found a circus going through. It was a great circus and we rode the elephants. Wonderful afternoon! I have pictures from my phone of the elephant but I have to figure how to get them to the computer first and then I'll post them. 

There is a chiropractor in The Dalles who will be presented with my Queen Award (I'll send him some cookies). He fixed my plantar fasciitis and heel spur while I was there, and I've been out of commission with my feet for months and months. Gregory Keilman. Check him out if you are ever in the area. Or anywhere near by. I traveled a three hour round trip five times while I was there and consider it a highlight of my trip. Thanks, Dr. Greg!

And for all those five trips to The Dalles, I had errands to run for my sister. Measuring things is not her strong suit and we had to get the blinds cut three times before they fit the windows. And then when she was finally able to hang them, she found the windows are 60 inches long and she had bought blinds that were 48 inches long.  It's one of those things where you simply take a breath and move along. 

There was a black widow spider in a box of stuff from a storage facility and we kept it in a gallon jar and fed it flies until we left. 

One day we went across the Columbia River into Washington and climbed Beacon Rock. It's an awesomely beautiful climb. The Rock is 480 feet tall and the path winds back and forth through 52 switchbacks for a mile to get that high. You can see boats on the Columbia and trains run practically right beneath you. It's breathtaking. Especially with four children who run ahead and aren't afraid of getting too close to the edge and who love to climb over the rails.  That we survived unscathed should have been a headline. The excitement is in the climb and the view. The thrill is counting heads once we are down and finding a full count and no blood. 

Then Jason got a dirt clod thrown into his eye one night and his eye was almost swollen shut by morning even after removing all the dirt.  In the morning I could see his cornea was scratched and he was having trouble seeing but he was better the next day and he's so fine I cancelled his visit to the eye doctor. Sheesh. His list of emergency room visits and hospitalizations is pretty amazing and I'm glad we dodged another one.

It took us two days to get home. I have trouble staying awake when I'm driving and at the halfway home mark I fell asleep at the wheel briefly and found myself about to plow into the side of a hill. Jerking the car back to the road scared us all and we found a motel with a pool and an internet connection and started to get rested, refreshed and reconnected with the modern world. 

Honeyhusband had a delicious dinner waiting for us, he straightened the pantry and he bought new baking sheets.  Precious Daughter 2 had been watching the place and left us a beautiful loaf of her special chocolate chip banana bread in the freezer for us.  Awesome homecoming! I will be delighting in this for ages!