Desk Odyssey
8:25 a.m. - 2006-04-30


My sister lives about 2 1/2 hours north of here, but she often comes down for family celebrations. We sometimes go to events together like Stitches, but for some reason, I had not been up to see her house for maybe 20 years. This weekend we loaded up the big oak desk that was previously owned by his brother and took it up to Melissa and Dave. It was not raining, which is news in itself. The rolltop desk is quite large, and he spent some time taking it apart. I helped him load it into the very small Toyota pickup, and he secured it down with his usual efficiency. By the time we got up to Petaluma, the overcast was gone, and a beautiful day developed. Because we have had record-breaking rain this year, the wild flowers were everywhere, especially the Indian Paintbrush, which must have been purposely seeded because I have never seen it down here before. We drove through the bigger town nearby my sister's abode, and found the hospital where she works, just to take a look at it. Then we found our way to her house. We didn't have much time, because Michael had a lacrosse game to go to, not to mention the prom he had to attend that night (notifying your mom that you are going to the prom on the morning of the prom leads to much rushing around), but we got a tour of the property, including the chickens, and got to see all the improvements they have made to the house.

After Dave and Mike unloaded the desk, and I slipped Matt his birthday gift, we took off to go home on back roads. We found a nice restaurant in Upper Lake, visited a few shops, then moseyed home. I did find some old needlework pamphlets in an antique shop, including one from 1947. After this, it was my turn to drive, which unfortunately turned out to be through the mountains on windy road, which freaked me out a bit, so after about 90 miles of this, he took over and we arrived in Calistoga. While looking for the usual amenities, we found a lovely, really special little museum all about the town's resort beginnings, and with really excellent dioramas, much better than the ones you usually see. Then on to St. Helena, which is now very yuppie and upscale, but we were remembering when our friend used to live there and work for Charles Krug Winery, and we had visited him there a time or two. It was interesting to see how the town has changed.

When we got home, the neighbors had pretty much finished moving, so we have been wondering when the new guys are moving in. They tell us that two gay fellows are moving in next door, which has cheered up the neighborhood quite a bit. It is a bit of a stereotype, but we are all hoping they fix the house up, and expecially the yard, more than the previous owners did. We watch HGTV, and it is the gay partners that have the fabulous houses and put a lot of effort into it, so we are hoping.

Today will be taken up with church, cleaning the girls' room, and making an angelfood cake with the freshlaid eggs Auntie M gave me to take home. They never had the going-away luncheon for the pastor, because his father-in-law died last week so they had to leave town in a hurry. Don't know now if the congregation will ever get to say goodbye. We got a letter that says something about interim pastors while they do a search, so at least things are happening.

He tells me my spam is getting cold, so better go eat my gourmet breakfast (ummm, spam).