Portland Day Trip

Yesterday I got an early start. I drove down to Tacoma to pick up my old roommate Katherine (Her kids got to stay home with their dad, who is on his Christmas break from school). We loaded up into my car and then kept driving all the way down to Portland. It's not really that far, but a three hour drive in each direction can still be pretty daunting. Traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected from everyone's warnings to me, and we made it to downtown Portland ahead of schedule. I can neither deny nor confirm the rumors that I drove in a bus lane while I was trying to figure out where to park in front of the Bankcorp building.


Melissa, another of our roommates from college, left work early and came down to meet us. We spent a really nice day going to the mall, having lunch together, driving around Mel's old childhood haunts to get a tour of Portland, and then we got to meet Melissa's family. She's got four kids, which is pretty hard to believe until you're reminded of the fact that three of them are triplets. All I have to say about that is WOW. I'm amazed that she and her husband are able to manage with their 5 year old autistic son and three 2 year olds.They're all absolutely adorable and sweet, and Katherine and I enjoyed spending time around them and getting hugs and cuddles throughout the afternoon.



We left Portland in the evening and headed back up to our neck of the woods. Since it seems like it gets dark here sometime around noon in the winter, it was dark the whole way home, but the roads weren't that bad. All in all, it was a really nice day off.

-Amy

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Lions and Tigers and Bears

-Oh, my.

You often hear about a month or a season going in like a lion and out like a lamb, or even the other way around. This fall, unfortunately, sort of came in like the proverbial lion, but it passed over the lamb and went straight for the tiger and bear instead. Even now that we’ve gotten through it, somehow keeping our heads afloat through the craziness of it all, the mere mention of the word November makes me want to run away screaming.

One of my old roommates from college emailed me earlier today asking me how NaNoWriMo had gone, and I started laughing out loud before admitting to her that I hadn’t quite finished this year. Here is a little bit of what we’ve had going on that’s kept us from blogging - and writing - lately.

Oct 2-3 - Tom finished the last credit he needed to get his associate’s degree. We had to chuckle when he went to talk to a counselor and discovered he only needed one more dinky little P.E. credit to finish up his degree. He had a good time in the class, which turned out to be as much psychology as P.E., and now he’s finished with all the requirements.

Oct 12 - Tom’s birthday. He turned 31 this year, and I can hardly believe it, because I’m only 6 months behind him.

Oct 22 - While taking a shower, I turned and took a chunk out of my elbow with a sort of hook that hangs my razor in the shower. Tom held a hankie to the gushing wound while I tried to dry off and get dressed with my other hand - and let me tell you, that took some serious concentration. He walked me across the street to the urgent care when we couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. They weren’t able to stitch anything, because there was nothing there to stitch - it had just gotten scooped right out. Also, because of the angle it had severed the blood vessels, they wouldn’t quite clot for awhile and it was still bleeding for a few days. I never realized how important it was for me to have use of both arms with the work I do, because I started getting blood blisters on my other elbow from overusing it doing deep tissue, haha.

Oct 31 - I finished the second draft of last year’s NaNoWriMo novel (Demonsgate) with a few hours to spare before the new challenge began. This was the first complete second draft from scratch I’ve ever done (not using any of the original text from the first draft) so I was really proud to get through it.

Nov 1 - NaNoWriMo began. This is the 50,000 word novel challenge that we’ve participated in for three years now. We went to a big area write-in on the night of Oct 31, and then at midnight silence ensued and everyone began typing and scribbling away on their novels. It was a really fun event with I think about 130 people participating just at the Denny’s we were at. While we were there, Tom - who was drafting his novel by hand; yes, that means with a pen and paper - wrote about 1400 words on his novel, and I typed about 4000 words on mine. We were both off to a pretty good start.

Nov 2-5 Tom does his first dry-runs for his newspaper delivery job. It went pretty badly, but he figured it could only get better. Boy, was he wrong.

Nov 4 - Tom went in for oral surgery (after a long morning of driving one of his paper routes to try and find all of the addresses on the list). Everything went well, though he was pretty sick for a day or two afterward from the pain meds and anesthesia.

Nov 8 - Tom and I headed to the U district to try and fulfill a contract to deliver newspaper ads to a list of people. The list was generated by a computer. Even though this is supposed to be a route you never have to leave the car for, Tom and I both spent a lot of time trucking up and down the streets on foot, looking for addresses that didn’t exist. I had my first asthma attack ever while going up about ⅛ mile of stairs in the cold. That was not my best moment.

The people Tom had a contract with had no earthly clue that what they were asking of their people was impossible, and after a very long and cranky day where we each made about $2.00 an hour for our efforts, we made the decision that we would cut our losses and back out of the contract. Luckily we didn’t have to pay anything to do this; Tom just didn’t get anything for the work he had done already.

One unexpected blessing that came from this disaster was that because Tom had cancelled the contract and started looking for something else right away, he was able to get a great writing contract with an online business directory company called Patch.com. He’s now writing business listings and thoroughly enjoying what he’s doing. It’s nice for him to be doing more work that also looks good on his resume. Also, after that lousy paper delivery experience, he really appreciates being able to do what he loves to do and get paid decently for it.

Nov 14 - I got released from being a Relief Society instructor and put in with the Young Women as the Laurel advisor. This is a first for me, as I’ve spent most of my life teaching in Relief Society. Even though I feel pretty intimidated, I’m really excited for the change and the challenge. I’ve only been there a couple weeks now, but I love my Laurels and really feel like it’s the right place for me to be. It’s just one more testimony to me that church callings are placed on our shoulders just when we need them most.

Nov 16 - my dental visit. Thankfully, the dentist told me that other than the huge hole I have where two thirds of my tooth had broken off, the rest of my teeth are looking great. Root canal and crown, here I come! :P

Nov 17 - Tom visits with a UW admissions counsellor. The good news? He has the grades to get in. The bad news? He still has a couple prerequisite classes to take before he can be accepted. He scrambled, registering at Green River Community College for winter term starting in January (same place he got his associate’s degree)

Nov 18 - Devin drops by on his way home from working in Canada for the summer. He’d had a really long week of sleeping in his car, so he was pretty excited to get out of said car and hang out at our place for a few hours. He played with Legos and took a breather before starting the last leg of his journey to Utah. He was nice enough to loan us his movie projector while he was out of the country, but even though it was really nice I must admit I didn’t shed any tears at getting his equipment out of the living room.

Nov 20 - Our 6th anniversary. We went and saw a movie (Harry Potter), watched the annual tree lighting ceremony here at Renton Landing, and then came home and cooked dinner. It was a really fun super-date. On one hand, I can hardly believe we’ve been married for 6 years, and on the other hand I can hardly believe it hasn’t been longer.

Nov 22 - First snow of the season. Holy. Cow. When the forecast said it looked like snow, I figured we would be getting some light flurries that would quickly melt and turn into puddles by the time they reached the ground. I did not count on the complete and total shut down of the greater Seattle area because of the weather. We got about 4 inches of snow here by our apartment, but the plows didn’t even try to come through here for two days. It’s strange coming from Utah - where all of the roads are constantly being plowed and salted through the winter - to Seattle - where people have decided that rock salt is too environmentally unfriendly to be used on the roads, and there can’t be more than one or two plows covering each town in the region. So many of my clients couldn’t talk about anything else when they came in for massages - that is, if they were able to make it - and people were cancelling left and right because the ice got to be so bad out there. What a different world this is in the winter! At least now while I write this there is no trace of the snow left anywhere around. All is just as it should be in Seattle in November - damp, not frozen.

Nov 25 - Thanksgiving Day! We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Janet’s house. Since the mountain passes were too snowy and icy to get through, Abby, Jeremy and Lorena weren’t able to make it over for the holiday with us, so our gathering consisted of a whole 5 people. That sounds laughable for someone coming from my background. I don’t remember a family Thanksgiving with less than about 15 people since I was a little kid; more often than not we had something like 20 to 50 people bustling around for the holiday. It was really bizarre to have only 5 of us, and all adults too, though I wouldn’t say it was a bad thing. We all enjoyed the conversation, and it was very peaceful - unlike any Thanksgiving with my family will probably ever be! Every dish was absolutely superb, and we all went away with lots of leftovers.

Nov 30 - Well, we got to the end of NaNoWriMo and for the first time in three years, neither of us finished our novels in time. We both had to look back on the crazy month we had and shake our heads. I’m grateful that we survived another month of insanity, and I’m gonna say that the 26,000 and 32,000 words respectively that we each wrote on our novels is something to be proud of.

Note: There is the slightest chance I’m trying to make myself feel less guilty for not finishing the challenge, and I do realize this, lol.

Dec 1 - I had a freakish allergic reaction to who knows what. I was home on my lunch break eating and was just about to gather my things together to go back to work when I thought my mouth felt funny. I went to the bathroom mirror to investigate, only to discover that I had big blisters forming on my lips, and they were swelling up as I watched. Soon the swelling travelled to my tongue and throat, at which point I asked Tom to run me over to the nearest pharmacy to get me some liquid benedryl. That was weird. The swelling went down about 15 minutes after I took a swig of the benedryl, and I didn’t have any other problems after that. Luckily the front desk girls at work took care of clearing the rest of my schedule, so it was okay that I zonked out and slept off the drugs for the next four hours. I’m such a sissy when it comes to drug tolerance.

Tom and I are looking forward to the coming days and weeks. We have Christmas just around the corner and then a trip to Utah in January for my brother Ryan’s wedding reception.

We hope life will quiet down a little so we can stop long enough to catch our breath, but the biggest thing we’re feeling as we come out of this end of autumn somehow still intact is gratitude. We’re so grateful that we’ve had six years together so far and look forward to many more. We’re so grateful that we have family and friends who love and look out for us. We’re grateful we live in such a great apartment so close to everything. We’re grateful for the work we do have, even when it’s not as much as we would like. We’re grateful for this beautiful city and the wonderful people we meet everywhere we go. We’re grateful for the holidays that remind us to slow down and remember the people we love and the reasons we go through life in the first place.

Thank you everyone for all that you bring into our lives. Thank you for taking the time to keep in touch and let us be a part of yours as well.

-Amy

Gunn Family Movies

Amy and I are about to celebrate six years of marriage next month. As I've been reflecting on our history together a lot of good warm feelings (and other feelings of a more complicated nature) have come back to me. There are certain movies that conjure up those feelings every time. Amy and I love watching movies, and the ones we like we tend to watch repeatedly. We both like a lot of movies, but there are certain titles that have a special place in our hearts: "our" movies.

We thought it would be fun to post those titles and talk about what we like about them in case you're stumped as to what to add to your Netflix queue or reserve at the library. Here's our top 10 in no particular order.

Joe Vs The Volcano

This lesser-known Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks romantic comedy is a farce, but don't let that label fool you. There's nothing sarcastic, crass, or cynical about this movie. The title character has a crappy job and worst of all, he's dying of a mysterious illness. A rich business owner needs his help saving a tiny island in the south pacific and offers Joe a chance to die a hero. All he has to do is hurl himself into an errupting volcano.

The tone is light, sweet, and purely fun. It reflects our odd-ball sense of humor and our generally optimistic outlook on life.

Soup-bone Quote: "Clothes make the man. I believe that. Now you ask me what clothes you should buy and to me that's like asking me who you are. I don't know who you are. I've spent my entire life trying to figure out who I am and I am tired, you understand?"

The Incredibles

Some of you may know that our favorite term of endearment for each other is "boss." Here's the story behind that. When Amy and I were engaged we went to go see The Incredibles. Sitting in front of us was a young family with little kids. One of the kids was anxious for the film to start. When the titles for the short began he asked one of his parents "Is this the 'credibles, boss?" We thought that was hillarious and cute and somehow the term "boss" worked its way into our vocabulary. The family of super heros has been making us laugh, cry, and cheer ever since. It also reflects our mutual love of animation and the hopes and dreams we had for our future family in the days before our marriage.

Soup-bone Quote:

Mr Incredible: "Your mother and I are always united against . . ."

Mrs. Incredible: "Pig-headedness?"

Mr. Incredible: "I don't know. I was going to to say 'evil' or something."

Up

If The Incredibles reflects our past, Up reflects our present, and possibly our future. Within a few minutes of the curtain going up in this movie, Amy and I were in tears. While it touches on the subject of infertility, it also beautifully portrays the love and friendship between a married couple, even after one of them has passed away. Amy and I are each other's best friends, and we definitely relate.

Soup-bone Quote:

"MY NAME IS DOUG AND WE HAVE JUST MET AND I LOVE YOU."

Gentleman Broncos

Benji is a teenage sci-fi writer who's novella, Yeast Lords, is disgraced with a terrible movie adaptation and plagiarized by his hero. The writers of this movie torture this character so much it wouldn't be worth the time if the pay-off wasn't so satisfying, bizarre, and flat-out hillarious.

Soup-bone Quote:

"And finally we have a young-ling trying to penetrate the secrets of the human mind. You won't do it like that young-ling... You must use friendship. "

The Terminal

Amy and I watched this movie from the jacuzzi tub in a presidential suite at the Bellvue doubletree on the morning of Thanksgiving day 2004. It was our honeymoon. This story of a man (Tom Hanks) stuck in a foreign airport always reminds me of that day: one of the happiest of our life together.

Soup-bone Quote:

"You told me you were delayed. You never said it was for nine months!"

School of Rock

Dewey Finn (Jack Black) is a failed would-be rock star who sees an opportunity to live his dreams by posing as his friend, a substitute teacher at a prep school. On our second date Amy and I watched this movie together, at least most of it. Amy fell asleep wrapped up in a blanket cuddled up against me. I remember thinking "I could get used to this."

Soup-bone Quote:

Dewey: I've always believed that children are our future. And you can teach them well, but brother, you have got to let them lead the way. Let the childrens laughter remind us how we used to be. That's what I decided long ago.

Gabe: Isn't that a song?

Dewey: No. No it isn't.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I don't know where to begin describing this. Arthur Dent is having a bad day that begins with his home planet, Earth, being destroyed by aliens. You wouldn't expect most comedies to start this way, but this one has always kept us smiling. I especially love the two-headed, three-armed Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox played by Sam Rockwell. He's a combination of Elvis, Bill Clinton, and Patrick Swayze with a little dash of George W. Bush for good measure: a thoroughly watchable and entertaining character. This one reflects our love of sci-fi, quirky humor, and both of those things with a slightly british flavor.

Soup-bone Quote:

"All time is an illusion. Lunch-time, doubly, so."

Return to Me

This is one of the few romantic comedies that I find a)genuinely funny, and b) irresistably charming. I find most so-called romantic comedies to be either romantic, funny, or neither. This one is pitch-perfect and impossible not to like. Any plot synopsis would just ruin it. The acting is awesome, Bonnie Hunt and Jim Belushi are hillarious, and the old guys are a crack up. Just see it. Women, prepare to cry. Men, make sure you have a hankerchief handy for her.

Soup-bone Quote:

Kid: Awe, hell!

Jim Belushi: Did you teach him 'hell'? You taught him to say 'hell'!

Bonnie Hunt: I never say hell, you son of a bitch!

Meet The Robinsons

Amy and I saw this one to celebrate her 27th birthday. Lewis is a brilliant orphan inventor who encounters a time-traveler. They team up to stop an inept villian from destroying the future. Along the way he stumbles into a tyranasaurus rex, a neurotic robot, a pizza delivery man who thinks he's a super-hero, his destiny as an inventor, and the family he always wanted. There's something about this movie's motto "Keep moving forward" that just makes it feel like a love letter to Walt Disney, which for us is emphatically a good thing. It helps us have courage through tough times and reminds Amy and I how much we are each-other's dream come true.

Soup-bone Quote: "Then, um, I didn't choose that one because it was gonna give me pimples so I choosed, um, another scary one cause for, um, all those years that I went for halloween I wasn't scary at all... I love baseball. It's my destiny to play that game. And I don't really care about winning. Well, like, now i do, cause, like, we've lost every game and I've gotten tired of it! I'm working like so hard, all the balls are getting thrown to me, I'm trying to catch, like, every one. All of the people in the out field are all looking around, and, c'mon, lets play some baseball, ok? Not the lazy game."

Stranger Than Fiction

IRS auditor Harold Crick's life turns upside-down when a narrator's voice in his head convinces him that a) he's soon going to die and b) that he's a character in someone else's novel. This one has natural appeal to us because we're both aspiring fiction writers. It also happened to coincide with a crucial do-or-die moment in our marriage. This movie helped us choose "do" when it wasn't so easy.

Soup-bone Quote:

Harold Crick: Dave, can I pose a somewhat abstract, purely hypothetical question?

Dave: Sure

Harold Crick: If you knew you were gonna die, possibly soon, what would you do?

Dave: Wow, I don't know. Am I the richest man in the world?

Harold Crick: No, you're you.

Dave: Do I have a superpower?

Harold Crick: No, you're *you*.

Dave: I know I'm me, but do I have a superpower?

Harold Crick: No. Why would you have a superpower?

Dave: I don't know. You said it was hypothetical.

Harold Crick: Fine. Yes, you're really good at math.

Dave: That's not a power, that's a skill.

Harold Crick: Okay, you're good at math and you're invisible. And you know you're gonna die.

Dave: Okay, okay. That's easy. I'd go to space camp.

Harold Crick: Space Camp?

Dave: Yeah, it's in Alabama. It's where kids go to learn how to become astronauts. I've always wanted to go since I was nine.

Harold Crick: You're invisible and you want to go to space camp?

Dave: I didn't pick invisible. You picked invisible.

Harold Crick: Aren't you too old to go to space camp?

Dave: You're never too old to go to space camp, dude.

Does your family have special movies that everyone agrees are awesome, or have some special meaning for you?

Tanner's Visit

28 August 2010

We've had a lot of excitement lately, with Amy's brother Tanner coming into town. The occasion of the visit is worth mentioning.

Most of the rest of Amy's family paid us a visit last spring. Tanner couldn't go, however, because one of his teachers wouldn't let him because her choir class more important. This would seem unjust, even if his self-important ego-driven choir teacher hadn't been the one behind it.

Anyway, since Tanner has a job he managed to save his sheckles and fly up to make up for his lost spring break opportunity.

And boy did we make up for it.

We did everything with Tanner that we had done with the rest of the family, and then some.

The centerpiece of our activities was a visit to the museum of flight. It's really amazing how much stuff there is to see there. We spent maybe three hours with Amy's family last spring and only really got an introduction to their vast collection. This time Tanner and I spent about five hours there and saw a lot more. Even after all that time, we left two entire wings of the museum untouched. Tanner especially had an interest in the space collection, which had a lot more going for it than I remembered. They have a Mars rover replica, a full-size, high fidelity replica of a module from the International Space Station, a full-size replica of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), a replica of Sputnik, a LEM simulator, and that's just a sample of what they had.

This time we made a point of not missing the actual Concord, the first 747, and the original Air Force One. We also got another good look at the WWI exhibit. I'm an aviation fanboy, I know, but if you find yourself anywhere near Seattle and can take a day, the Boeing Museum of Flight is well worth the price of admission. Their collection is as inspiring as it is complete.

I think the highlight for Tanner was probably the ferry ride in Seattle. I think he enjoyed getting a good view of the city and Amy and I enjoyed being along for the ride. Maybe one of these days we'll actually drive our car onto the ferry and see what's over there on Bainbridge.

It was a fun surprise when Devin came through town on his way to the Canadian border (again). He joined us for our activities on Sunday and left Monday.

We had a great Sunday afternoon up at Discovery Park. I was surprised how clear the traffic in Seattle was. I don't think I've ever been up there on a Sunday, but I think we might just do that again on our own.

Our trip to Seattle on Monday happened to coincide with Amy's doctor appointment up there, so we would have gone up anyway. (by the way, it looks like she has Minear's disease and the doctor prescribed a diarhettic). We spent some time on the waterfront, but most of the day we wandered Pike Place Market. We visited a cool little book store in the "down under" area run by a big gregarious Russian. He joked with customers, called all the ladies and kids "darlingks," and dispensed advice to the tourists.

Tanner walked away with a small gift for his girlfriend and Amy walked away with a new bouquet of fresh flowers from me. Every time we go up there we pledge to shop there more often.

It was a pleasure to have Tanner as our guest and get one last shot at some fun this summer. I hope we can do it again soon.

-Tom

Eugene Gunn Fawcett

Note: This post is old. Months old. I wrote it at the time, though. Just don't let that confuse you.

Yesterday I attended the funeral for my grandfather, Eugene Gunn Fawcett. I wanted to take this opportunity to record and share some of my thoughts and memories of him. He was born in 1931 in Hoytsville, Utah to Leo Fawcett and Clairene Gunn Fawcett. He was educated at Utah State University and was sealed to his wife Lois Renee Palmer in the Logan temple.

He was a Boeing engineer and father of four, including my mother Janet. He loved his work and his family and is easily the best example of manhood I’ve had in the course of my life.

Most of what I know about him I know second-hand or from pure example. When his children were young, I’m told, he was the one who could be there when they got home from school. He always took his responsibilities as a father most seriously. He was quiet and rarely got angry except when his sons needed scolding, or when any of the children had disrespected their mother.

My personal memories of him go back to his wood shop. His degree was in industrial arts education and his love for creating things followed him to the end of his life. Even now there are projects on his work bench left unfinished.

I remember vividly the smell of the sawdust, the well-worn work stools, the mind-bending array of tools hanging on peg board, and the old wood-burning stove he used to have in there. Most of all I remember the big chest freezer that always had popsicles, vanilla ice cream, and chips ahoy cookies.

My grandfather used to say “Life is too short. Eat dessert first.”

In that shop he made beautiful things, from small toys to major pieces of furniture. Their home is filled with his creations, and each of his children have more than one item that passed through his shop. The toys he made for us were well-finished, intricately made, and always entertaining. A few that stand out in my mind are the rubber-band guns, a dinosaur bank, and a dog that walks its hind legs and sniffs the ground as you pull it along. One of my most prized posessions is a cylindrical box he made for me out of the wood from an ancient plum tree that I loved to climb and swing on as a kid.

He absolutely loved his work as a Boeing engineer, and always had an enthusiasm for aviation. He was a kid during World War II. At the funeral I learned that he hung models of fighter planes from the ceiling of his room--something I can identify with since I was hanging spaceships from my ceiling when I was the same age.

He was the first to take me to the Boeing museum of flight, one of the many experiences that’s made me fond of aviation to this day. Later this year I plan on becoming a member of the Museum of Flight so I can go as much as I want.

He loved history, particularly World War II, the Civil War, and the American revolution. I got a fascination for these subjects myself, maybe through pure osmosis. I was always amazed at the number of history books he had, and the collection of National Geographics he had collected over the years. Perusing these as a kid fueled my appetite for learning and stoked my curiosity about the world around me.

Since he was a young man he carried a handkerchief in his pocket, a practice I’ve tried to keep myself since my missionary days.

I remember his truck. It was Ford Ranger from the late 70s or early 80s. There’s something distinctive about a vehicle when a man puts personal time and effort into maintaining it. I think a bit of his personality can’t help but get into it. That truck helped neighbors in times of need, took us on rides at the beach, went on camping trips, and even served as a loaner vehicle when I was a young adult and my car was in the shop.

That truck inspired me to want a truck of my own. I once thought I wanted a Ranger like my grandpa, but since then I’ve found that my personal taste tends toward the Jeep Wrangler. I haven’t got it yet, but hardly a day goes by that I don’t look forward owning it and putting it to as much good use as grandpa did with his truck. I plan on doing as much of the maintenance myself as I possibly can.

Camping was something approaching religion in his family. In the Pacific Northwest camping means Man vs. Rain. He fabricated his own tarps back before plastic tarps were commercially available. He used army surplus and things he scrounged together to keep out the rain and keep everyone comfortable. In many ways he was “MacGyvering” stuff long before the term was invented.

He grew up in the midst of the great depression. He truly lived by the old Mormon pioneer maxim “Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” I’ve been learning the hard way the need to do this myself.

Another thing that helped me identify with my grandfather was his leg problems. His hip was injured when he was a boy and it impacted his health and mobility throughout his life. For most of my life he used a cane, something I joined him in off and on through my teens since I had serious leg injuries of my own.

My grandfather was one of the primary influences that showed me what it is to be a good man. I was fortunate to have been able to move up here to Seattle almost exactly a year before he died. Towards the end, when Amy I would stop by to visit, he almost never failed to tell us that our apartment building was built on the site of the old Boeing mock-up building, which was dedicated to building wood mock-ups of aircraft before computer aided drafting made that method obsolete. He loved local history and passed on things that he thought I would be interested in learning about. I love the fact that I live so close to the home he raised his kids in, and in which I had so many good memories of my own.

Shortly after I turned 18 years old I changed my last name from Higginson to Gunn. My mother was against it because she thought I was just lashing out at my dad. I had a lot of reasons for changing my name, and one of them was that I wanted to follow my grandfather’s example in my life.

On the day I wanted to go to the courthouse my car was in the shop, so my grandfather drove me. At the funeral my mother reminded me of that and told me that he defended my decision to her whenever the subject came up.

“Why not?” he said. “It’s a good name!”

I agree.

Now that he’s gone and I have a chance to review what he meant to me, I see how much he’s quietly influenced my life. He’s set a high standard for me to reach for. And while the challenge to live up to his example is daunting, I’m encouraged by the fact that he and I had so much in common. I’m proud to carry a name from his family, and I’ll try to think of him every time I speak it.

-Tom

Ocean Shores Beach Trip

20 July 2010

We finally got out of town. It was the first time since Amy and I moved here that we pulled up stakes and got ourselves a change of scene. My Mom got us a condo to rent for several days and we shared the costs. We had a much more elaborate vacation than the camping trip we had planned on, and for even less than we had planned to spend.

There isn't much to tell. We ate junk food, played on the beach, read books, and generally did what we pleased. It feels good to just play. It's a secret to life that I think we forget or have shamed out of us at age 11 or so.



John and I had fun building Disneyland in sand. I couldn't have had a better partner since he's the only one I know who knows the park as intimately as I do. We only had the energy to build Main Street, the Castle, the Tiki Room, and the Jungle Cruise. IT was mostly recognizable and we had a lot of fun. Did I finish? No, and that's okay. Did I know it was just going to get wrecked? Of course. It's a sandcastle. After all, that's what cameras are for.

One of the highlights was having our niece Lorena around to entertain us all. She's cuter by the day, and is able to do more for herself all the time. She especially lights up around Grandma, her aunt Amy, and her uncle John. She has a sweet disposition and just loves to be part of the fun.

Amy and I decided to break away from the group on one of the days to visit Lake Quinault in the Olympic National Forest. It was only about an hour and a half away, and well worth the trip.


We went on a short nature trail through the rain forest that took us over a beautiful gorge, all under a canopy of trees that have been around since the time of Columbus. We spent some time on the shore of the lake.


The water was so clear you had to resist the temptation to bend down and take a big drink of it.

We came back yesterday rested with full health points and ready to take on our work again. Meanwhile, we'll look forward to going back while the last of the sand in our shoes slowly vanishes.In the final day we managed to stop in at the Star Wars shop in Aberdeen. It's full of previously owned collectibles in varying condition. I was pleasantly surprised to find items identical to some from my own collection in poorer condition retailing for much more than I might have thought. I resisted the temptation to walk out with a few unpackaged storm troopers, but I doubt I'll always be leaving empty-handed if I ever manage to go back.

-Tom

Amy models a wildflower found in the rainforest

This driftwood guitar was out in front of a winery on our way to Westport

These deer came to visit almost every day while we were staying in the condo.

A Touch Of The Dizzies

ATTENTION: This post is WEEKS old! When I say "last Monday" I mean June 7th. Ya. We're slackers.

Amy's had a lot excitement these days. I suppose that's putting it kindly. She's had increasing spells of vertigo over the last few years, and we finally got her to an ENT to find out what's going on. He says it sounds like Minear's disease. If that sounds familiar to you, you might be remembering that the astronaut Allen Shephard had the same condition.

It's a building up of fluid in the inner ear that puts pressure on the ear drum. It tends to cause ringing in the ears, vertigo, dizzyness, and permanent hearing loss.

Yeah.

Scary.

We don't have an official diagnosis yet, but Amy's had a hearing test. She came out with normal hearing, so that should serve as a baseline, but we're going to get her back to the ENT to see what's next.

Meanwhile, Amy's having to stay on a low-salt diet. It's tough for her, and I try not to rub in the fact that I can eat salty things and she can't. I'm trying to support her however I can, though, and this is mainly accomplished by nagging and pestering her about keeping track of her sodium in-take. Like any diet change, she has good days and bad, but I like to think we're making a difference. Worst case scenario? She could be legally deaf in a few years. I don't see that as too likely, but it is possible. Best case scenario? She's going to live with this all her life, and we'll always have to be aware of it. It might be a while before we take another flight on an airplane.

Meanwhile, our lives go on. I'm getting a lot of freelance work, and Amy keeps getting plenty of clients at Massage Envy. We miss our nieces and nephews and think about them a lot.

Amy and I had a great date last Monday. Since we had to go to Seattle for her hearing test anyway, we made a day of it and had lunch after her test. We also stopped in at Twice-Sold Tales in the capitol hill neighborhood, a used bookstore we've both been wanting to check out. Amy had to drag me out. We both walked away with a little something at a fraction of the price it would have cost at, say Barnes and Noble.

We'll be back. I think I could have spent the whole day there, not to mention half my monthly pay.

-Tom