May 14, 2008

Almost

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May 14, 2008

I can’t help it, it’s the sun and the dust and the color and the wind

This week has been the first that we didn’t need to fire up the wood stove in the early mornings, instead cracking open the windows as the coffee brews (though the glass in our french press cracked yesterday so we’ve had to filter it manually… oh the injustice) and letting the fresh, cool, damp air in. We finally got around to setting the stake for the dogs’ tie-outs so they can lay around in the sun and chase bugs and romp with Sarah; they were looking pretty pathetic in here, noses pressed against the glass doors all day long until we could break to take them for walks. I’ve missed our old, fenced yard.

On the moving front, we made a decision yesterday but wanted to sit on it for a day or so to make sure we felt like it was the right one. This morning we still feel really good about it, so I’ll spill it: we picked both.

That we were so undecided (and that you all seemed to be, too, as the total vote ended up being split exactly down the middle) was a clue that both of those places were good fits for good reasons, and why did it need to be either/or? So we’re purchasing two lots, one now in New Mexico and one down the road in Montana. New Mexico will be home — no surprise to many of you, it really always has been even if I drifted from it for awhile. In Montana we’ll build a modest cabin on a couple of acres outside Missoula to get away to a few times a year, and for friends and family to get some use and enjoyment out of.

There’s more to that decision, including our plans for the two to three years between now and when the house is built; I’ll be back with more on that a little later after we tie up some details.

Posted by tonya in de la vida
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May 13, 2008

Yes of course, dear.

The green has come and devoured this landscape with an aggression akin to African locusts. One minute you’re walking along and hey, you’re just fine and everything’s great and then wow, what was that? Wait… what’s that noise? And then you look around and you’re surrounded and you wave your arms but you can’t get away from it.

Not that I don’t like green. But, like locusts, I don’t want to be so assaulted by it that I can’t see anything else. Really what it is is that I miss my dust devils.

Now that we’ve got a lawn Sarah has taken to wandering circles around the house, including the precariously narrow spot between the back porch and the drop-off to the creek, which makes me nervous, but I’m so happy she’s playing outside that I go with the flow and just occasionally look downstream to make sure there’s no glint of blonde bobbing in the rocks and water. So far so good.

Confession: I had great romantic notions about coming back to this place I spent summers in as a kid and being folded right back in to relive all of that good stuff all over again. But it’s been a disappointing experience. The town isn’t what it used to be, most of the people I knew and loved are long gone, and some of the ones that remain still regard us as outsiders. People just don’t move here, it doesn’t happen. They stay or they move out, but they do not voluntarily come to a shrinking, 150-year-old former logging town, with no jobs and one market that’s closed by 8 each night, where the average age is nearly 50 and 25% of the residents live below the federal poverty line and only a few of the locals have even dialup Internet.

So we’re a suspicious lot, with our barky dogs and our “studio” (“you do what?”) and our kids who don’t board the school bus with everybody else in the morning. Doesn’t matter that they once knew me and baked me cookies and paid me a quarter to water their lawn, doesn’t matter that I couldn’t wait to get here because all those things about this town are what I find most endearing and genuine about it. It’s different now, and it’s worth keeping an eye on, I guess, if a city-slicker granddaughter from great big ol’ Alamosa, Colorado would move from all the way up here to Nowhere, Maine, to take care of her 86-year-old grandmother. Because who knows what she’s up to. You know those young people.

Posted by tonya in de la vida
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May 11, 2008

Got a few minutes?

No backstory right now, I’ll just get to the pressing matter at hand:

1. Go here, take a look around.

2. Then go here and do the same.

3. Next, check this out.

4. Then, check that out.

5. Finally, see this.

6. Finally (really), see that.

All things above considered, as well as anything you may know about either place, which region would you choose? (if you can’t see the form below, leave your choice and reasons for it in comments)

Posted by tonya in wandering
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May 11, 2008

QOTD

“We made a spreadsheet to evaluate and compare the features of each property we’re looking at, including an automatic point-scoring system based on several factors and a percentage matrix programmed according to how complete the information on each lot is. We might be slightly geeky.”

- Shane, to his brother Kyle

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May 9, 2008

Ryan, today is your 17th birthday

And I know you’ll get around to checking this web site in a day or two, as you always do, to make sure I’m not putting up any embarrassing photos of you or suggesting to the world that you’re, sshhhh, really a nice kid who still calls his grandma “mammy” and saves scrap paper so as not to waste it and makes gurgly baby noises at his pets. I promise I wouldn’t do that.

I have to say, despite what you have gotten yourself into over the years, I consider it a personal victory that as of tomorrow you’ll be less than 12 months from the big 18, and you have neither impregnated anyone, nor won a Darwin award or ever even been to jail. And on that last one you’ve got even me beat.

Still, I know better than to think that we’re anywhere near home free because I have learned that lesson again and again each time I’ve dared to throw myself back on the mental couch and say “whew, glad we’re past that“. Like I know that no matter how many extra chores you did this week just because you were in a good mood, next week we’ll still go to the mat on every single one of them. And that no matter that you’re already a high school graduate you will still come up with the most inexplicable ways to spend your time, energy and/or money. And that no matter how many nights this month you’ve miraculously arrived home in time for dinner and then, sometimes, even wanted to watch a movie or do something else together for the rest of your night, that you will still miss curfew at least two dozen more times in the next year and you will still blow off me/us/responsibilities countless times because oops, you were busy with your friends and forgot. And my favorite: no matter how many times lately a near-angelic “sure, mom…” has escaped your lips when I’ve asked something of you, it could all turn back into the same old angst-riddled “but why? no, tell me why I have to. WHY!?” at any time and without warning.

But I admit, you’ve been kinda awesome lately and it’s been so cool watching such a close friendship between us develop as our roles with each other slowly start to transition. I’ve said more than once that teenagers must be engineered to be horrible creatures to make it easier for parents to boot them out the door when the time comes. But you seem to be outgrowing some of that horribleness early, so for your 17th birthday we went ahead and got you a cell phone, a slick, black RAZR cell phone, ending once and for all the bleating, plaintive cries of a boy who was forced to endure being the only kid above 12 in the whole county who didn’t have one.

I totally scored BIG points for that and be warned, I plan to cash every one of them in.

But for now, because you have been so awesome lately, I offer the small token of refrain in posting any embarrassing 17-years-worth-of-photos collages of you. In fact, as a bonus for your birthday, I’ll throw in some totally embarrassing stuff of your little sister instead.

See? You can trust your mamma. Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Posted by tonya in favorites, kids + pets
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May 8, 2008

Boom!

A beautiful, surprise thunderstorm just cracked and rolled through, a sound I wasn’t prepared for and I had to lean my ear toward the window to listen again for a minute to be sure. One lone lightning flash and two isolated downpours later and it was gone.

Until then, I’d forgotten how noisy and intense summer storms up this way can be. Can’t wait.

Posted by tonya in de la vida
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