mckinleyville

we are here!! where are you? two semi-long days of driving through some of the most beautiful parts of our country. along the strangely named hood canal (not a canal. an arm of puget sound, but still, lovely) and on down thru western washington and the willamette valley of oregon and the mountains of southern oregon and then off toward the coast down the smith river to crescent city. lastly, the north coast of california by stone lagoon and big lagoon and clam beach.

we went to the co-op in arcata to shop for dinner. it is much bigger and grander than it was 35 years ago when i first joined and shopped there. quel surprise!! rice and stir fried veggies for dinner. and our daughter indigo! we are home, tho we don't have a house yet.

we found our first refuge here on craig's list. our host and hostess are lovely people, reflected in our delightful little cottage and the beautiful yard. every window has a nice outlook. if i could find the cord that connects the camera to the computer you would have pix.

we are very tired. we will sleep well tonight, cat willing.

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update-a-roony
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comments are appearing and disappearing randomly. not individual comments. all of them. and blogger just ate my previous attempt at this update. we're looking for the camera/computer cord. there's a pile-o-stuff just shoved willy-nilly into boxes as we backed out of the house cleaning as we went. middle daughter, who lives locally, came by to say hello and had dinner with us!

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more up-to-date
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escrow closed! the money is in the bank!

and we probably have a nice furnished temp for june while we look for a suitable rental. this is working out well so far.

comments still mysteriously on and off.

roseburg oregon

we left our former home in port townsend yesterday morning. robin and her sister and our cat in the car and me in my truck. both vehicles packed to the limit with last minute stuff that escaped scrutiny as we loaded the big truck (see picture in the post below). we arrived in roseburg about 5 pm and fairly soon got a call from a friend back in washington informing us that the big truck is gone, as we left before the pickup.

then we had a marvelous dinner of sauteed tofu and rice prepared sunday by robin, and baby greens from the greenhouse, picked minutes before we departed. a last treat from the garden. and wine. storebought. the cat did complain a lot last night.

so we and our goods are all enroute to california. it was hot and humid all the way yesterday (aaahh for air conditioned vehicles) and it is raining this morning.

next post from mckinleyville, ca.

that's a mighty big truck

we arrived in this in 2004.


and our stuff leaves in this. i don't think we'll fill it. and i don't have to drive it! but we do have to get the stuff into it.

fixit

-------------------------the bowels of the machine---------------------------------

our blog buddy phil recommended a post by doghouse riley, in which he hilariously takes to task the oster corporation for a shoddy toaster, which reminded me that i had occasion recently to do a bit of appliance repair. ok. not really repair. correction of stupidity is a closer description. several nights ago, in taking the cooked rice out of our wonderful rice cooker, my attention wandered and instead of turning the rice into the waiting serving bowl, out of the removable metal pot that sits inside the cooker, i dumped it into the rice cooker itself. oops. sticky rice in the works. robin tried to pick out all the grains, but some rice had gotten way into the bowels of the machine. if the only bad outcome would have been the smell of burnt rice next time we used the cooker, maybe ok. but i was concerned that the mechanism that signaled the end of cooking had been compromised.

i have been fixing appliances large and small since i was a teenager, and i have seen the downward slide of quality in toasters (smite oster, riley), irons, washing machines, dryers, stoves, bathroom fans, hair dryers, radios, tvs, and even computers (well, not computers in my teen years). imagine my surprise then when i exposed the innards of our rice cooker and found a substantial machine. there are washers AND lock washers on every electric and mechanical connection. i got the thing apart, cleaned it, and reassembled it easily. we gave it the smoke test and it passed. no smoke. perfectly cooked rice! it was a nice distraction from the craziness of packing and the worrying about close of escrow.

in other news from chez bums we are about 95% packed and ready for the big truck friday. afb u-pack will drop off a 28' semi trailer. we will load it over the weekend and they will return monday and haul it away to eureka, ca and store it till we find suitable digs, hopefully within a month.