Tag: Grandson
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Trying To See Orting Through The Eyes Of Elias
[Elias and Erin nap. Erin has a cold.] Behind my back, twenty-three miles east south-east, sits Mount Rainier. The second day we were here, the sun set into the Pacific Ocean and bathed Rainier in the most spectacular alpen-glow I’ve seen in years. We had a few days of clear weather. Today, it is rainy…
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Dear Grandpa
Dear Grandpa, I thought I’d write to you today. It’s been such a long time since we had a chance to sit and talk about things. I have so many memories of you, I don’t know where to begin. It was so long ago. Remember when I was a little boy? You lived with Grandma…
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The Pink Flamingos of the Pacific Northwest
I asked my daughter, Erin, about her opinion of pink flamingos. “They have their place,” she answered, without taking more than five seconds to think it over. That place was in a front yard, several blocks from her home in Orting, WA. My wife and I were walking back from a brief shopping trip to…
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Travels 27: Falling In Love Again [The Final Installment]
The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense. Take what you have gathered from coincidence. The empty-handed painter from your streets, Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets. The sky, too, is folding under you And it’s all over now, Baby Blue. –Bob Dylan “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” Carpe R-Pod.…
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Travels 12: A Rest Farewell
And though the line is cut, It ain’t quite the end, I’ll just bid farewell till we meet again. —Bob Dylan “A Restless Farewell” I’m sitting at Erin’s breakfast table composing the final post of our visit to Orting. In an hour or so we will be on our way homeward. The route back is…
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Pacific Northwest Interlude: It’s Almost That Time Again
I’ll be waiting when you’re ready to love me… I’ll put my hands up. —Adele from I’ll Be Waiting. I’m sitting at the kitchen table of my daughter Erin’s house. I just made a Scrabble move against her. She’s sitting at the breakfast counter making Scrabble moves against me. It’s not that we don’t talk,…
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Pacific Northwest Interlude: The Legendary Pumpkins of Washington State
We’re sitting beside Commencement Bay in lower Puget Sound, enjoying a brunch with friends. This is not a “brunch” in the way that the word is thrown around so often these days. We’re provided with Mimosa’s that just keep coming like the tide and enough oysters and shrimp to drive a Maine shell fisherman turn…
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