I’m going to give you a few snap shots of what’s been going on during the blog hiatus.
Dot keeps getting bigger. I took her in to Dr. Vicky and she was spayed. That was three weeks ago and she was eighty pounds then. She is much better walking on a lead and does not lunge out to chase cars on the road. Yet she still cannot stand the lawn mower and every time I mow the lawn she insists on biting the front tires and trying to heard me (and the mower) back to the shed.
She still plays with her best friend Oscar and she loves meeting all kinds of other dogs. She is unafraid of big dogs or mean ones but doesn’t want to tangle with the older grumpy dogs. I’ve never seen her growl or nip at anyone. Except by accident during play she will swing her lunky head into someone… dog or person… and there may be some contact but no real aggression that I’ve seen. Still good with all the commands but if there is food or play happening she forgets everything she has learned and runs around in circles, grabs her own tail and rolls in the grass.
The warm summer days gave way to lovely sunsets in the yard.
Richard Nelson’s old office. He sends his regards to everyone.
Jan and Dot decided to mount an expedition in the cone. There was some discussion of going to the high Arctic, but this trip turned out to be a shake down cruise.
Life goes on during the time of covid-19. I’m still trying to keep my head above water. I sent my book out to five readers and rewrote the manuscript using their notes. I’ve done several on line interviews. I’m trying to express how I don’t care about others expectations… but of course that’s not completely true. What I mean I suppose… Is I just have to keep myself alive. That is the first priority, and to do that everything must have that swing. That’s the most important thing: that swing, bounce…. happiness. That’s what keeps me and the writing going. Even if it seems grim. The books keep looking for that swing.
Rain in the morning
more rain in the afternoon.
Warm as a first kiss.
jhs
After several actual hot days, back to rain. Summer westerly weather. Not dangerous for the fishermen but uncomfortable at times. The leafs on the cherry tree are a deep green and slippery with warm rain.
Dot is more than eighty pounds, at eight months old. She much better behaved but still a big lunkhead of a puppy.
Dot and Jan slept outside to look for the comet on a couple of warm nights. Dot loves camping but peed her bed one night then muscled Jan off her cot. Dot is quite pleased with the arrangement.
My 67th birthday came and went and I got my phone that I asked for. Norm Campbell built the Rain Phone’s kiosk and it has gotten some pretty good use. I called my Mother who died in 2000. At first I was self conscious and thought it was a bad Idea but then I just imagined my mother and whaat she would want to talk about, she asked me how Jan and Finn were and we were off and running. She wouldn't tell me anything about where she was or what it was like for her where she was, “She just said, “Oh Sweetie, you don’t need to know those things now. There will be plenty of time for that. Besides it’s complicated and I doubt you would understand. Tell me about Donald Trump.” So I did.
Our good friend Susie Fero bought us all an inflatable ice cream cone for the hot weather.
The hot days were a wonderful gift. Nancy Ricketts had a social distance book release party for her memoir “Becoming Myself.” which Thad Poulson of the Sentinel published. We all gathered on the lawn of the Pioneers Home down town. Nancy stayed well up on the porch and all of us with our masks on stayed down on the lawn. Nancy had a microphone and I had a bull horn, which was kind of comical but I did an interview with her about her book. Nancy insists on this… which I think is a smart thing because she gets quite anxious about public speaking and writing prepared remarks. She is 95 now and devoted to accuracy but her memory is not great. I can ask her questions that only require facts that I know she is certain of, and help people understand her book. It was a lovely day and perhaps fifty people turned out to honor our precious cultural resource, Nancy Ricketts.
Her Memoir is “Becoming Myself” by Nancy Ricketts. I wrote a very short forward. The —best place to find it now is Old Harbor Books, in Sitka:
(907) 747-8808
