Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Life goes on... (sometimes)

Wow, more than six months has gone by since I last posted. Kind of nice to look back and see what was going on in the past but a little sad to think of all that has happened since that last post.

In July, Laura and I drove the Jeep back to the Columbia Valley so Laura could pick up her motorcycle and we could be with Liza and Shawn for their 1st wedding anniversary. We only stayed a day because Laura had to get back to work. Madeleine came back with me. She stayed for the summer but spent a week at the end of July in Vancouver visiting her cousins there, then 10 days in SF to watch her cousins there while her aunt Deanne and uncle Dean worked. She was glad to get home at the end of August.

Laura rented a small house with a large yard where her kitties (3) are quite happy catching voles and birds. She has a job at the local, trendy Town & Country Market where she works many hours. She found a very inexpensive Subaru sedan that runs well and she's quite happy driving it about.

Sadly, we lost Shawn on September 13th when the camper that he, Liza and their friend Kelly were going fishing in, rolled down a steep riverbank (75') into the St. Mary's river in Kimberley/Marysville. Shawn's neck was broken; Kelly's chest was crushed and Liza sustained a deep gash the length of her lower leg. Even though she could see Shawn trapped under the truck lifeless, she climbed the riverbank through heavy bush and ran back to find help. It took the rescue team 4 hours to extract Kelly from the wreckage. Kelly spent two weeks in the hospital and is still on heavy painkillers for his broken breastbone and cracked ribs. Of course, Liza has been distraught ever since over the loss of Shawn, who was only 36. I'm glad she wasn't more badly injured but I would give almost anything to have Shawn back for Liza. It's been rough.

It looks like Obama/Biden is going to win the election. He appears to be a few points ahead of McCain/Palin in all of the polls. I continue to wish that Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee.

Richard and Abigail are leaving for a long-planned Italy trip with their friends, Jordan and Pat, on Friday the 24th. They'll be gone for 11 days so I'll be staying at their house to be with the boys while they're gone. I gave Richard 800 Euros to take on the trip so they wouldn't worry so much about money while they're gone. The economy isn't doing so well.

The kitties are huge now. And my quilt top is completed as are the triangles that go around the sides. I'm looking forward to attaching the triangles to the top so I can sandwich the top, the batting and the backing and start hand quilting it. Laura said she would help but she works a lot so we'll see how that goes.