Friday, Already?

I had been on a small roll a few weeks ago. Elephant's Child's Sunday Selections meme had energized my blogging, at least to give me a subject once a week. And I was working on my post a few weeks ago when Karen asked me if I wanted to go to Wilkeson to get some pizza.

 Wilkeson is a somewhat renovated, small mining and logging town not all that far from where we live. Unfortunately, you can see everything there really is to see in maybe twenty minutes. It isn't that big of a town. But it is home to the best pizza you will find anywhere, and I say that having eaten a Due in Chicago. 

The Carlson Block, the restaurant is open during limited hours first due to Covid and then claiming they can't find anyone to work. Ordinarily I would suspect they weren't paying their staff well, but this is Washington state and minimum wage is fifteen dollars an hour here. I suppose if you kill off a million members of your workforce in a year in a half, you should expect staffing shortages. Regardless of what I think of it, they are only open for a few hours in the evenings on weekends. And we have driven all the way up there only to find a note on  the door explaining they were closed to attend a cousin's wedding and would be closed for a couple of weeks. This weekend though, we were able to get the treat we had gone for. We ate our pizza, went and explored the bridge, then went back to Wilkeson to a different restaurant and had soft serve ice cream. When we got home I decided that I was no longer in the mood and that I could pick up Sunday Selections in the next week. 

Little did I know that the following Sunday, Father's day, my mother-in-law decided that it was as good a day as any to pass over a bridge all of her own. She stepped out into eternity. It was far from unexpected. She was diagnosed with dementia maybe fifteen years ago. It's been years since she even recognized anyone. But as always in these cases, even one's that are expected, it could have come at a better time. Everyone had just travelled for the wedding and were now having to expense it again in a time when travelling smoothly is an issue. Plane travel isn't the given that it used to be. And the worst was that my father-in-law was in the hospital himself because he'd fallen and broken his leg; He wasn't able to be with her in her final hours. I will be surprised if everyone isn't summoned for another family event before Christmas. Sadly, they had just finished their life's works and translated the entire bible from Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts into the Aztec languages. The dedication ceremony had been delayed due to Covid and unrest in Oaxaca, Mexico where they are spoken.. They finished the work, but she didn't get to go to the party. 

Please do not feel the need to console me. I am completely at peace with her death, as I am sure I will be when my father-in-law joins her. Her life was more than full. She lived it well. And now she is Home.

During any one of those weeks, I could have taken a minute (more like a couple of hours when it all is said and done) to put out a blog, but I have been frustrated in the attempt since the wedding. Mollie had sent everyone a Lyft voucher to help with transportation. I downloaded the app and that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back for my phone. Three thousand plus photo's didn't help much either. It was a cheap Samsung that wasn't meant to last the six years that it did. And I never really liked the phone all that much to begin with. During the wedding it started doing annoying things like refusing to read QR codes to pull up menu's and not allowing use of the Google Pay app. And it was a good thing that I had a back-up for my train ticket or I would have had to walk home...From Chicago. The phone has been begging to be replaced and finally got to a place where I couldn't even get photos off it easily anymore. I replaced it with a new iPhone SE 2020, and I couldn't be happier that I did. Even with the learning curve and setting up all my apps again, it is so much better. And I love the crispness of the new camera. 

That isn't a promise that I will be more consistent with writing, but the ease of getting my pictures to upload will make the idea a whole lot more palatable.

In other news, Mollie and Chris got Covid, but are better. Tim and Jenn have signed their divorce papers and are awaiting the final court order. Matt built out a van and has joined the nomadic movement. And Jack decided that he's giving scouting a break. He's no longer interested in going for Eagle Scout. All of this is stuff for other blog posts. It really is a lot to unwrap here. And it is time for bed.