Back In the Great Northwest

I am visiting my daughter and son-in-law. While they are at work I paint.
Strangest thing: the paintings named Kathy's house 2 and 3 are not her house at all. My son-in-law said that's my mom's house, but moments later he said but my mom's house doesn't have a peaked roof. I said yes it does; it's in the photo I took. We looked at the other photo of her whole house and there is no peak. It was such a close-up and so abstracted that I didn't notice it's a different house! First he was freaked out....like he would know his own house he grew up in....then I was freaked out.....whose house is this then? All this time I thought I was painting Kathy's house. They have a similar look. Is this an artist thing: so caught up in the designs and colors and shapes that I did not know which house it was?

He looked at my paintings and said you should sell these things. My daughter said, she is. (Mental note, he said I should sell these things...that is good!)

So on the plane I did a drawing for Kathy's house 4. I guess I can call it Kathy's house 2 and rename the other 2 Mystery house 1 and 2, oh dear.

Last night at the dinner table SIL was telling funny stories about cats. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. You have to have a Far Side sense of humor to laugh at his stories; they were not nice stories for a cat to listen to. We all traded stories. So fun to be with them. So fun to be with my family and sit at the table after we eat and talk. No jump up and turn on the TV. Great stories. He has had a life full of adventure and since they have been married (7 years) they have had many new escapades together.

They analyzed what this dear young father, Mr. Kim, might have done right or wrong to avoid dying lost in the snow. They found him today. Even the news people seem close to tears. I appreciate this. I like them to not be so ultra professional that they just report story, change to a cheery voice and go on to the next story. If I were reporting death, I think I would lower my tone, slow way down, and leave lots of space for contemplation.....then get fired.

I feel it when the traffic reports are about a terrible crash and there is a medivac landing. It's all about how far it is backed up and what alternate route to take for your commute. But my mind always goes to the people in the wrecked cars. Someone is hurting really badly, maybe several people, maybe someone is dying....and the announcer's voice is high and fast and has no sadness in it at all. Would I ask the listeners to pray with me for those involved? Now there's a concept. Many listeners would indeed pray and prayer united in appeal for those injured would make a difference. I don't expect to ever see it happen. I lost my husband suddenly. There were sirens involved. Even today when an ambulance screams by, it can take me right back to that moment. So my heart goes out to people in trauma.

Now my SIL also told me of how he fell into a tree well. I had to ask what a tree well was. Snow piles up around the tree but the snow from the branches sloughs off to the sides, but there is a deep hole under the tree. He fell backwards into one and was stuck, sprawled out and up-side-down. He described how he inched his poles out of the snow so that he could manipulate them, and put them under himself so that he could right himself and then stomped around in a circle, packing a path to spiral up out of the well. Fascinating.

We talked about how my injured and arthritic knee means no more skiing for me. I am not a skiier but it has been fun to be out there with family, laughing and learning. Last time I actually succeeded in controlling myself. We can try snow-shoing though, and go tubing or sledding.

There are many distractions here, including Terrell S. Lester's beautiful book on the coffee table, Maine, with 4 award winning authors' Maine stories added in. I read the whole thing. I wish we could buy a place together there. I think of spending a year there to experience the long, hard winter and survive. To paint and write. Some of his photos look just like a watercolor. There is one I want to paint and hang in my house. I could never sell it, because it's his photo. He started at age 32 and taught himself. Anyway, that is a good distraction, quite related to what I'm doing.