To day I had an electroncephalogram. Hello? Anyone? Yoohoo!!

Today was interesting. I had an appointment for an EEG. This is all part of my local doctors work up for my self diagnosed petit mal. I had an MRI a couple of weeks ago and the findings were some white matter changes which is normal for my age. Normal is good! So, got checked into Bay Area Hospital via ER entrance. There was very little parking available. Holy hospital patient's! Busy, busy, busy. The procedure was a bit more complicated than I had imagined. A nice technician named Morgan, came to get us. The room had a large comfy bed, TV, and a largish chair. I sat in the chair. I was given two heated blankies, lovely!! Morgan explained that she was going to put 25 EEG leads plus one on each wrist. I must have looked like Doc Brown when he answered Marty's knocking on his front door minus the colander. She put green washable marker all over my head after carefully measuring circumference etc. Then using a combination glue stick she marked those spots and then applied the leads. After that, the TV got turned off and I was told to close my eyes. She said the last two minutes would be bright lights flashing and advised that I consume caffeine soon therafter to avoid a migraine headache. OK. The entire procedure took about 90 minutes. After all of the leads were removed she did some scrubbing and put a heated shower cap on my head. That was lovely. I put on my black hat to disguise the Elton John Wind Beneath My Wings hair. We left and stopped at Micky D's for lunch and caffeine in the form of iced hazel nut coffee. Yummm! Then to home. No idea what the results will be, doubtful anything interesting. The theory is that you need to be exhausted before the test, so I got about three hours of sleep. Oh well. We shall see maybe. I was hoping for curly hair but that did not happen.

I forgot about THIS episode

I just remembered this episode from Barrow days. While I worked most often in the medical record department at SSMH in Barrow, we would rotate out to the front desk to provide coverage so the other ladies could go to lunch. One day, it was my turn. From noon on it was customary for people to walk in to be seen in the ER. I was typing away one day and I heard a dulcet voice tell me that the name was Michelle K. I did a quick search and said that I could not find that name, could I have the date of birth. Oh, yes, here you are, Michael K. I asked him if he wished me to add Michelle to the Also Known As file. Yes, he/she beamed. I looked up then and realized that I sort of knew who this person was. He was kind of famous for wandering around towb dressed up in black Ninja clothes. He/She was seen and I didn't think anything else about it. A few weeks later, Ninja Boy kidnapped a married couple of teachers. He held them hostage in their own apartment. He was demanding that ACRC give him money for his sex change operation. Occasionally, Artic Slope Regional Corporation would issue dividends to their members. Ninja Boy was impatient and unwilling to wait until the next check. This went on all day and he decided to give up his demands for he ransom about the time that the SWAT team from Anchorage landed. I am umsure about the fate of this young man but am fairly sure that some time spent in lockup and hopefully counseling ensured. Only in Barrow.

FRUIT

I first became aware of fruit picking as a child. We lived in the Evergreen Trailer Park east on Main Street. There were five or six small cabins which were routinely rented out to fruit tramps. We knew of one family who followed the fruit circuit. They lived in New Mexico and came to Emmett in the summer to pick fruit. The family consisted of father, mother and a teenaged boy. They parked their little trailer in the same park as we. The orchard owners financed and built a labor camp. The building were made of cinderblock. I think they were hot to live in and pretty bare essentials. The Mexican laborers lived in these buildings. The orchards consisted of cherry, apple, prune, peach, apricot, nectarines, strawberries and watermelon. Watermelon was not picked commercially. I picked strawberries for 80 cents a flat which consisted of a dozen baskets. The berries were weedy and you had to fight the Daddy Longlegs for the berries. Fortunately there was a strong teenaged boy to pick up the flats and give you a new one. One summer, I earned about $35 which which I purchased one reversible black and whiteplaid wool skirt. Mom asked me if I was sure I obly wanted to buy one item, yep it was what the popular girls were wearing only about four sizes smaller. One very cool thing about living by orrchards was that Mom was call to ask if they had sprayed yet. If not we went to pick asparagus which grew in the irrigation ditches. It was wonderful My brother, Jim, called in green carrots. A memorable experience I had was picking cherries. I ate almost as many cherries as I picked the first day. By the next day, I was at the top of the ladder picking away and needed to have a bowel movement. I didn't make to the bottom the ladder. I walked home, went into the outhouse to clean up as much as possible and tossed by blue jeans down the shaft. Then I went in the house to get cleaned up and some new clothes. I returned the next day without eating any cherries. We were payed by the pound and the goal was to leave the stems on, do not remove the spur from which they grew. I think they paid from10 to 15 cents per pound. The Mexican teams were very fast, very efficient. Richard and I were picking prunes, we had four trees with a big bin in thd middle. The bins held about five hundred pounds. The Mexicans would pick the four trees clean in about an hour and move to the next. Once a orchard boss came around and said, you are slow but steady. One season, Richard and I were at Grandma Berglunds and we walked to an orchard. She had made lunch for us and of course about nine a.m. we were hungry. The sandwiches turned out to be buttered bread. We felt cheated but ate them anyway. I never got the chance to pick apples becauses the season started after school started. Kids could get an excuse to pick apples but Mom never allowed it. Mostly because she knew we were safely occupied at school. One time Mom and I worked in a nectarine packing shed. We dressed rather nicely, she let me wear a pair of her wool pants. At that time we were miraculously about the same size. After that, however, I grew a bit. She told me that she used to wear Uncle Taters hat band as a belt. She could not pronounce Clayton, it came out Tayton and evolved into Tater. At any rate she was offended that I was not as dainty as she. So she purchased a flat of Metracal. This was a chocolate diet aid. I drank that stuff down and enjoyed every can. Dad reported that a guy he worked with drank so much that he became constipated. The Metracal ceased as it was a tad expensive to waste on a chubby teenager. When I returned to Emmett as a displaced housewife, both Ellen and I worked on the South Slope at an apple packing shed. We met many people. The head guy came around to introduce two men, these are our friends from behind the Iron Curtain. The Mormon housewives shivered in their shoes. The two men were Romanian. One was a cattle rancher and the othebr was a wheat farmer. I got to know them. I askedn​one man what he was taking home for a Christmas gift for his wife. He replied, "Ool." ??? bah, bah...oh WOOL. I asked him to say good evening in Romanian he said Buna Sera. Wow, that sounds like Italian. He then gave me a brief history lesson of invasion by Imperial Rome. Huh. There was also a crew of Japanese men working there. I was driving the loaded truck of apples to the rail head in town, where they would unload the truck and load onto the freight train. I was gently warned to be careful because the men were lonely. Okaaaaaaaay. We used to go pick a tiny black cherry called Tararian. It was used as a pollinator only. We would pick and Mom would make black Tartarian cherry dumplings. Delicious! Which reminds me, have a quantity of pitted black cherries in the fridge and I have some bicquits in a can which I will peel into thin sections and bake for 30 minutes at 350. Maybe next weekend.!!

VISITORS

It has been a couple of busy weeks since my sister and her MIL, Joann came to visit. Monday, September first, about 5 pm, I heard a firm knock on the door. I opened the door and there was a young dog, frisking away. I bent to pet and ohh and ahh and looked up to see Gale. For some demented reason, I was not expecting her until Wednesay. Welcome! We chatted for a while and later on when everyone was ready to go to the motel room, Gale discovered that she had locked the keys in her car. Everyone was outside kind of milling about. Joann asked our neighbor, Gail A, if there was a locksmith anywhere. She answered, yes, its called Triple A. So we got the guy called who came in about an hour, unlocked the car and we were all set. In the meantime, neighbor Gail had fallen in love with Betty and four month old Golden Retriever. She promptly offered dog sitting services for however long my sister and MIL would be in town. Swell! That pretty much took care of the first evening. The next morning Gale came about 7 am, Joann was still sleeping in, and we went to a small cafe where Gail had told me had wonderful biscuits and gravy. They also had quite sturdy maple bars with yummy frosting. We purchased the bickies and returned to the house. We only ate two biscuits so we pooled the left o overs and gave them and Betty to our neighbor. Then we returned to my house and we both went upstairs to empty the closet from the north bedroom. They were all clothes which I had shrunk out of. YAY! I already had two very large black plastic bags full of clothing. So, we filled about seven of those sturdy plastic store bags with clothing. Gale did select a few blouses from the closet for herself. Then we loaded them into her car, took them downtown to Bree's, a charity shop who provides funding for women who need mammograms. They were not open so we jeft the bags in the doorway. We then went to pick up Joann and we shared the maple bar. Yummy! We decided to go to Bandon. Took the back road, very picturesque and curvy. We parked in downtown Old Bandon and toured about with masks. We firt walked to the Washed Ashore display. This is an art instillation of several of the sculptures made by local artists made of plastic trashed picked up from the beach. Very impressive, large seat turtle, a large fish with a mask on, heh heh. and a armature showing the copper wire inside the fish that holds the plastic. Almost everyone wore a mask. We did see a Karen and her five children, Greg must have stayed home. We went to the Cranberry Candy place. Joann found some salt water taffee for her husband. I found some jellies. Flavored lemon through blackberry and Licorice! I also purchased a half pound of chocolate toffee. Lordy! We decided to drive around a bit, we took the shore line drive and stopped at a place and admired the waves, sunshine, impressive rocks covered with seagull poop. Then we went looking for Lord Bennett, not open. Went back to Old Town Bandon, The Loft was not open. Okay, lets drive to Charleston to eat at the HighTide. They were not open! Um, how about Shark Bites? Yay, they are on 101 in downtown Coos Bay. We parked went in and ordered black cod fish and chips halibut fish and chips. They came with french fries and cole slaw. I have had better coleslaw, but ok. Went home, collected Miss Better and yakked until time to hit the hay. The next day, the ladies took me to Davita. They spent the morning going to Antiques 101 which is next to Shark Bites. When I got off the chair, I walked outside and could not see the car. I called Gale on her phone. I heard a horn hink and about that time she answered the phone and said , "We are in the shade." Okay. We decided to go to High Tide. We sat outside on the back deck and ordered Clam chowder for the ladies and I ordered the prawns, scallops, mushrooms sumpin' It was delicious. Then we went home and yakked some more. The ladies decided to go home early the next morning, so we said out good byes and they left. I had a lot of fun. Miss Gale says she will come next year. Betty will be full grown and well trained by then. The neighbors have already volunteered to dog sit. Thank you everyone!

CATARACTECTOMY

 Yesterday was very interesting.  My right eye was scheduled for cataract removal promptly at 7 a.m.  Yay! First appointment, the doctor is fresh.

We checked in at the Covid desk, then I checked into the front desk.  We sat on chairs with clean cards on them.

In a very few minutes, we were taken bac".k to the surgery suite.  As we were walking down the hallway, on the nurses, Lora, stopped me and said, "I would recognize that walk anywhere!"  I got a WALK? Um, I have never felt as if I had a "walk".  In the old working days I always adopted the motto well documented in the book "Little Women" of walk fast, frown and rattle papers importantly.  I would guess that manner in which I walk more closely resembles a slower stroll with hints of bewildered.

We were both escorted into the prep/recovery room where there was a chair for husband.  I was instructed to take everything off from the waist up. Sigh....so off with the clothes. I lay back on the bed and the ladies accomplished all of the prep. EKG, temp, O2 sats, cute red surgical socks with non slip feeties! Oh, yeah, and an IV access.

Whistled into the surgical suite. Escorted to narrow table.  Pillow under knees, scootched back a bit, forehead affixed with tape so head won't move.

Got face appropriately draped.  Given Versed, cool. I could only see white and an occasional blob of black.  The whole procedure took about ten minutes.  I could hear a sound like a train whistle.  I asked and Dr. Grigo said it was the cataract device doing it's job.

The people put on a clear shield over the eye so I wouldn't damage the cornea if I slept on my face. I was wheel chaired back to recovery, where all the stuff was removed.  I was given a pair of black sunglasses things to wear for three days.

I dressed and we waltzed out the door.

I was hungry and persuaded husband to take me to Myrtle Point at our favorite breakfast place.  I had crispy hashbrowns with a side of gravy.  Husband had his usual very large chicken fried steak, scrambled eggs and hashbrowns with a side of gravy.  Delish!

As for vision, I would estimate that I have about 75% improvement.  Looking forward to new glasses, probably sometime after October 15.  Yay!!!

Cooking yet again

 Tuesday morning, we went shopping.  As we were strolling through McKay's, I was telling husband that I was going to purchase ingredients for spaghetti carbonara puttanesca.  My list consisted of spahgettig and hard parmesan.  I already had the bacon and home.

He asked what puttanesca meant.  I told him it was Italian for whore.

There was a time when ladies of the evening, etc. were not allowed to eat in public.  Therefore they dined at home.

The dish they made most often, because it was inexpensive and delicious was the carbonara.

Begin by slicing a good four strips of thick cut bacon into lardon.  Put large pot onto boil with salt and oil.  Fry bacon.  Mix three eggs and grate lots of Parmesan in a separate bowl.  Pop in the pasta when the water boils.  Drain.  Add scoop of pasta water to bacon, Turn off heat.  Drop in pasta.  Stir in eggs Parmesan mix.  Grate more Parmesan on top, add freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Prego!  Manga! Manga!  

I did not have garlic bread...next time. Or vino.

DREAMS

 I woke from three dreams this morning.

The first dream was where I was back in Barrow, Alaska.  It was summer and I had driven to the beach with a girlfriend.  We saw the very large moon setting in the east.  We decided it was time to head back to town.  I have seen beautiful pink moons in Barrow, sometime in November.  The moon floats around the horizon and is absolutely gorgeous.

We were driving to Barrow and I realized that we were lost.  I decided to consult a map.  We were headed to a town called Oro. We decided to stop at the first place and inquire for directions.  I noticed that we were in a very deep U-shaped canyon. I stopped at a little store.  We went inside and three little Inupiaq woman were stocking the shelves with candy.  There were some jellies in a packet of six marked six dollars. I have the lady seven dollars.  I asked her how to get back to Barrow.  She said, "Just turn left at my house."  How many houses away is that?  "Three or seven." How will I know it is your house? "There is a weather station on my porch."  The problem then was trying to figure out what a weather station looked like.

The next dream involved puzzles.  I had returned with some odd shaped puzzle blocks and did not know what to do with them.  They were brightly colored and made of plastic.  I spotted a large board and decided I needed to use the puzzle on that game board and make up a new game.  I looked at the puzzle and tried bending it.  It snapped apart at the color lines.  Nice!

My third dream was of my Mom.  I was visiting and looking for books.  I did not care for any of the new books she had but she did have some her older books arranged in what looked like a shoe carousel.

This brings us to interpretation.  The general theme for the Barrow dream was lost.  Interpretation of lost is that you are still adjusting to new aspects of your life.  True dat.

The interpretation of puzzles is you have a mental challenge or a problem to solve.  Okaaaaaay.

To dream of your mother is all about the nurturing aspect of your own character.  I talked with her and that interprets as preoccupation  with some aspect of your daily life and you are not sure how to address that aspect.

Then I woke to NPR and a sore hip.   Oh, and the dreams were in full color and glorious sound.  That rarely happens.  My dreams are usually color only and no sound.

OUR GRANDPARENTS

We had two sets of grandparents who were similar yet different.

The Horn grandparents known as little grandma and lttle grandpa.  Were farmers they started out in Missouri.  Nora Beatrice Lattimer was working in a store when she met Riley Horn.  She was eight years older than he.  They married and had their first child, Loren, who died at about age two.  I do not know what caused his death.  I have seen pictures of his headstone in a graveyard in Missouri.

They moved to Colorado, neat Ford Morgan and may have homesteaded a farm.  It was a full quarter of a section which 640 acres.  Don't be too impressed, it was dry land farming, no irrigation done.  Seed was sown and prayers were said for a good crop.

They weathered the depression as well as the dust bowl.  Mom told me she remembers seeing dust storms lasting for days and being told as a joke that the Brown's farm had moved across the road.

They had friends in Colorado who moved to Idaho and sent word raving about the wonderful farm land.  About 1938 there was a very good crop.  The boys,  Ralph and Clayton, took the livestock via train to Emmett, Idaho.  Their parents and my mother, Virginia, rode with them in their brand new car.  Aunt Wilma was working for a Jewish family and married Lester Kast not too long afterward.

The Horn family rented several different farms and ultimately purchased about 40 acres down the south slope.

The Berglund grandparents, Charlie and Nellie came to Idaho in the 30's I believe.  But first, Great Grandfather Piers Anderson, left Sweden with Charlie, Albert and Dorothy in 1900.  They departed from Charlottenburg and arrived at Ellis Island.  At some point they were given the last name of Berglund.  

They eventually wound up in Minnesota and settled and farmed there.  When it looked like his children had settled well in the new land, Piers decided to return to Sweden.  He married and started a new family. We met our cousin, Ander Pierson ( I probably screwed up his name) at a family reunion a couple of years ago.  We had a very good time.  Dorothy stayed in Minnesota.  Uncle Al had wanderlust and would touch base ever once in a while.  Charlie met Nellie Rose and they married.

I think all of the children were born in Minnesota.  Vivian is the only eldest sister, Carl, Ralph and Paul. 

At some point Charlie worked for Morrison Knudsen.  He was a large equipment operator, cranes etc.  During the depression he was on standby to work for MK and although no one has ever verified it, I am pretty sure he was generous to his neighbors. 

He left the Lutheran Church once they had left Sweden.  His motto was always "Live a good life."  

Once they had moved to Emmett and purchased a farm near Letha they settled into the farming life.  Charlie helped dig many of the canals when the Black Canyon dam was built. The canals still do a very good job.  They are drained of water in the winter and filled in spring. 70 years ago there were lots of orchards; apple, cherry, prune, nectarine and peach.  To this day I drool at the thought of a ripe Improved Elberta peach.  Wonderful! 

I forgot one particular popular crop, watermelons.  It was very common for people to steal watermelons, throw them into a canal and race downstream to retrieve them.  The Frisbee's grew particularly delicious water melons.  Yum!

To my knowledge neither sets of grandparents ever met.  Well, first being farmers, the demands of milking cows twice a day and various other crops demanded a great deal of time.

Grandpa Berglund kept a small dairy herd.   He would never let us noisy kids go to the barn when he went milking.  I sneaked up to the barn door once and saw that he just put grain in the stall for the cows and did not use hobbles on their hind feet.

There was a very deep canal that ran right by the Berglund farm, it was from this ditch that many of the cousins captured very large bull frogs.  I was never a member of the hunting party but the equipment involved a willow stick pared to a sharp point.  Strangely enough, we never had fried frog legs. Crawdads also grew in the various sloughs near Letha but that dish was not part of  that culture.  ..sigh..

Grandma Berglund did not garden much but she did keep berries.  She loved raspberries.  I remember that after she died the women folk cleaned out dozens of jars of ragged gray looking raspberries.  I remember her serving them to us in little glass dishes.

Nellie was also very social.  She and Charlie liked to play card games with neighbors.  I do not know if it was pinochle or bridge. But she always brought home little crocheted and starched nut baskets.  I adored those baskets.  Mom merrily tossed those as well at the clean out.  I would have cherished those baskets. 

Nellie was Seventh Day Adventist and drove the old Blue Studebaker like a bat out of hell.  

Grandma Horn did not drive.  She gardened extensively and wore a broad brimmed sunhat.  She grew all sorts of vegetables. When they grew corn in the fields we had gloriously boiled sweet corn with butter and sprinkle of salt.  Nothing better!

As for fruit, she did not grow any but she did have a goose berry bush that grew on top of the cellar.  They, being from Missouri, built a cellar in case of tornado but none ever happened.  However it made an excellent place for the water heater, of all things and her canned garden produce.  I would beg her to make me a gooseberry pie and she would shudder the whole time she made the pie.  I loved them.  I was full grown before I realized there was such a thing as RIPE gooseberries!

When Paul and his wife Ollie milked cows, Grandma Horn skimmed the cream off until it was blue with her crooked fingers (Courtesy of a childhood bout of Rheumatic fever).  

The milk was separated into 25 gallon cans and trundled to the country road where there was a cement container with water deep enough to come to the neck of the cans.  The cart held 6 to 8 of the cans.  The milk truck came about daily to pick  up the cans.  The water was from the irrigation ditch and refilled continuously.

We kids were not allowed to swim in the cement pond.  Dang it!

The Horns kept chickens.  Grandma Horn fed them and I loved to help sprinkle feed on the ground.  She would not let me play in the hen house because of mites and the inherent disturbance of her laying hens.

She carefully washed and candled the eggs into a large crate.  Every two weeks or so, Riley drove them to town to Albertson's where she sold her eggs. That was her money.  If I was a very good girl, I would get to go with them and they would purchase something called Horehound candy which tasted medicinal and something called chicken bones which was a version of butter fingers.

Gandma Horn attended church every Sunday.  I would sometimes go with her.  It was the First Christian Church. 

Grandma Horn was slender and always wore dresses.  I think she wore her hair long then but it was bundled into something to keep it out of her face.  She gave me her five gallon butter churn.  She said that when she made butter it felt like she was marking time.  

Grandma Berglund, was large busted.  She could have served dinner plates on them.  She wore a very complicated girdle thing made of whale bone and lots of tabs, snaps and zippers.  It was fascinating.  

She always wore dresses.  I remember that her dentures were loose and they clacked when she talked or chewed.  Very bustling woman, hardly sat down a meal without jumping up to get this or that and stopping to briefly sample out of anyone's plate.  This particular act drove my mother nuts and we didn't eat at the Berglund's very often.  Grandma Berglund had a pressure cooker, she pressure cooked all meats.  It was was good, but mom never adopted that particular method of cooking,  Might have helped with the liver and onions.

I remember asking Dad what he at for breakfast as a kid, assuming he got a bowl of oatmeal mush like I did.  He said that they were so poor that they had to have beef steak for breakfast.

Grandpa Berglund, was very tall and had wavy dark hair.  He wore overalls that had a pocket inside of which was his pocket watch.  we would beg to sit on his lap to listen to the pocket watch.  He smelled of snoose which is a comforting smell for me.

Grandpa Berglund had a hay stack which he had used a hay rick to stack the hay.  We were not allowed to climb on the hay stack.

Grandpa Horn was short, bald, nearly deaf and bad tempered.  Grandma Horn kept us grand kids out of his way But they had hay bales.  Those we could climb all over, it was so much fun.

Grandma Horn had a feather bed mattress.  I got to help her make it by staying out of the way.  The few times I got to sleep with her on that old feather bed, I discovered that it lost the loft almost immediately.  But it was still fun.

About the only socializing the Horns did was with family.  The dinners for haying or harvest were fabulous.  Sometimes an old family friend would bring a movie projector and play films of a white face cattle drive and other interesting things.

That is all I recall at the moment.  Any siblings can chip in with what they remember.  

GOING FOR A DRIVE

When we were kids, the folks would take us for a drive.  It could be any length of time. Depending on which direction would could be reasonably certain of where we were going.  Headed west towards Ontario meant mom wanted to buy five pounds of margarine for a dollar and 5 pounds of sugar for a dollar.  

If we took the turn to Weiser we had no idea until we headed north to Cambridge.  We were going to Indian Valley to visit Homer Bott!!!  Mom did not prepare food because she know they would feed us.

On the approach to Homer's farm there was a dirt road that rose and fell over several rolling hills.  Dad loved to speed up to the top of the hills and float over with negative gravity.   We were thrilled and usually shouted, "Daddy, do it again!!"

We would go into the big old farmhouse.  There were three bedrooms upstairs, a full basement, downstairs was a bedroom, a bathroom, living room, kitchen.  The front porch ran the full length of the house and the had a piano.  I loved to plink on it until Mom got irritated.

They had a strawberry patch and when there were berries us kids would pick them and Bernice would make strawberry shortcake.

The family consisted of Homer, Bernice, Carol, Buzz and Gary.  Gary was about 9 or 10.  When he was younger he drank poison that had been stored in a soda bottle.  As a result he was effected mentally for the rest of his life.  In all other aspects he was just fine.

Homer owned a gelding named, Oscar.  Oscar was pretty smart. Homer had trained him to jump up in the back of the truck.  Whenever Homer went irrigating, he put Oscar in the truck and away they went.

I was horse crazy then.  I had read every Glenn Balch book ever written.  He was an Idaho writer who wrote about kids and horses.  My hero!

One time we were visiting and Oscar was saddled and I begged to ride him.  So I was on Oscar in the pasture north of the house.  I lifted the rains.  I had no idea what would happen next.  Oscar was trained to take off like a scalded cat with the rains were lifted.  So.....there we were headed straight for the fence. I did not have brains enough to haul back on the rains and holler "Whoa!".  My only option as we headed for the fence was to commit my soul to God and fall off at speed  Oscar skidded to a halt without a rider. I lay on the ground trying to look around to find my glasses.  Which were rather severely bent.  sigh....

Richard and Phil would both go help with the haying.  Dad went of course and a pretty good time and lots of hard work was had by all.

Dad and Homer had been acquainted a kids.  I am pretty sure they go up to high jinks.  Dad told me once that he had participated in a Chickeree.  I certain that Homer was involved.

A chickeree happens when a bunch of young folk who have been out to dances, drove all over the place, maybe sneaked a drink or two, discovered they were hungry.

Invariably, someones farm was nominated for the chickens.  I don't think the Berglund farm ever hosted such a shindig because they only had cows.

So the designated hen house was raided of about 5 or 6 chickens.  Speedily despatched, defeathered, and butchered and fried up.  I would love to have been a mouse in the corner watching all this nonsense going on.  Pretty sure there were some fairly upset farm wives the next day.

OUR HOUSE

 ...is a very, very fine house.

Let me tell you how we came to possess this 1928 beauty.

When we lived in Barrow, we would fly to the lower 48 for vacation.  One year, between visiting in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, we visited his sister in Salem.  She owned property in Coquille and invited us to ride there to take a look.  Away we went.  I had never been this way before and the ride was gorgeous! 

We were almost the 42 when suddenly a young bear was by the side of road.  He scooted back into the bushes.

We got to the house and is was the hottest day of tye summer, it was about 90 degrees which is almost unbearable.  We went into the house, there was an old brick walkway to the front door.  Carolyn had told us that a couple of families and a business were set up in the house.  As a result of that, the house was crammed with furniture.  The hallway from the front door to the half bath was packed floor to ceiling with boxes of stuff.

There was a path on the left through the living room which was also packed with furniture.  That hallway led past the half bath and into the kitchen. From there a door lead into the dining room which was also packed floor to ceiling. There was a folding door to the sun room on the north side of the living room but the sun room was packed solid as well.

We went upstairs. There were two large bedrooms, one small bathroom and full bath.  Each bedroom had someone in it working on a computer.  There was a door on the north side of the bedroom that led to a deck.

We looked into the attic briefly where there were several mattresses for the kids.

We shuddered and agreed that the house had good bones. 

Sometime in early 1998, we decided that we needed to be somewhere eventually so we contacted his sister and got things underway.

We got the house financed at the local bank in Coquille, the usual ick paperwork and transferring of funds etc.

We flew down for closing and before that we stopped in Salem to order a queen sized bed. We stayed to have dinner and by the time we got home the bed had been delivered and was sitting in the hallway. 

That was the first thing we did was put the bed in the living, which had a fireplace!  Didn't see it the first time we toured the place.  

Carolyn had made many improvements in the place before we moved.  She put in carpet everywhere but the kitchen, bathrooms and sunroom. She had a concrete walkway poured for the front.  She put chain link fencing in the back yard. She had the old oil burning heater removed and put in a high efficiency heat pump.  We were set!

We came down in October for all of that.  We purchased a van in Coos Bay for transportation. We were spending money like drunken sailors. 

After Christmas, we flew back to Barrow proud owners of our first and only house.

Would you like to know the actual reason I decided to move to the lower 48?  Remember Y2K?  Yep, I knew that the computers would keep working, but I was just superstitious enough to decided that if the computers did crash, I was not in favor of staying until things got better.  So I had a big assed yard sale.  Husband was already living in the house with the cat and her five kittens.

I made about 800 dollars at the yard sale which helped immensely when you move by mail.  I mailed a box or two every week and they were all waiting for me by the time I got there in December 1999.

I didn't have a job.  So, I began looking around. The hospital in Coos Bay sent me a nice good luck letter.  So I started searching and for heaven's sake there was a hospital in Coquille.

I called there and asked to speak to the Medical Records manager, Judy Colton.  We had a very nice conversation. She said she did  not have any openings but was trying to get a transcription position. Was I interested? Yeah.  So we kept in touch through the summer as I mailed boxes home.

People are serious about yard sales in Barrow. Most of them occur before school lets out for summer. The teachers who are moving have yard sales.  Mine was later in the year but I sold a whole lot of stuff.  I tossed a bunch of crap into the dumpster and anything left over from the yard sale went in the free corner in the room next to the washing machines.

I also had jury duty that quarter.  I was actually in the courtroom the day that I was scheduled to fly out.  Fortunately I was dismissed from that trial. Whew!

Got to Coquille and settled in for a few days.  I had an interview with the hospital administrator.  She and the office manager interviewed me.  And I was offered the job of transcriptionist.  I asked to start in January and voila I was employed!

By the time I went to went, Judy had fallen and badly hurt her ankle and was not going to be back for a couple of months.  So I came on as  Medical Record manager.  Sheesh!

Back to the house, we settled in and settled in and settled in!  People who visit just love the house, the kitchen is dreadful and needs a remodel but that ain't going to happen unless I win a HUGE lottery.

Here are my thoughts about what I would do with seemingly unlimited amounts of dollars.

In 2008 or so we had the roof replaced.  In 2010 we had Honey Do Construction come and paint and repair as much as possible. They did a great job.  At nearly the same time out sewer stopped working.  As it developed, the iron bits had rusted completly through and needed to replaced clear out the main.  Best thing is that we now have clean outs at all the appropriate places.  Also, we had someone put in French drains on each side of the front porch.  This prevented water run off going into the basement.

Now as for my remodel plans.  I would dig out the basement a good foot to get headroom.

New backdoor. 

Replace high efficiency heat pump.

Replace carpet with hardwood throughout the house. New front door. New doors throughout the house.

Replace all windows.

Put liner in fireplace.  Change mantle and surround.

Half bath remodel. Marble floor.  New sink and toilet.

Kitchen; floor with ceramic tile, cabinets deep enough to dinner plates.  For tallest need sliding library ladder. New counter top, prefer quartz.  No walls knocked down.  Would love dishwasher.  Farm sink. Pot filler at stove.

Dining room firm up floor so items in cupboard do not rattle.  Wall off outside door in dining room.

Screen doors on all outside doors.

Central vac all floors.  Whee!!

Bedrooms are okay, spruce up with paint, window treatment. Screens on all windows that open.  Would like ones that tilt in for washing.  (Like THAT will ever happen!)

Attic: full dormers each side enlarged to small efficiency apartment with kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room.  

Develop deck outside north bedroom.  Make a sunroom.

This allows a deck for the attic. 

Outside elevator to allow access to all floors.  Big enough to move furniture etc.

Garage in backyard.  Will need to remove trees.

Improve fencing. Get rid of ivy.  Have retaining wall made for half of lawn next to house.  Improve drainage in backyard.  Black top alley way.

Get lawn fixed either with seed or sod.

Last thing, have professional movers put everything in storage with instructions to discard all empty cardboard boxes.

Treat house for carpenter ants.

Power wash house get spider webs off.

Forgot, purchase triplex so we can be close during renovation.  What fun!

TAXONOMY

 Taxonomy the science of names.  I have been witness to many names having filled out hundreds of birth certificates over the length of my career in medical records. Some were more memorable than others.  One from Barrow is one I will never forget.  One mom gave her little boy four first names; Ryan Bryan Corey Craig.  I wonder which one he responds to? It was also common to give a boy the first name of "Captain" as that is a major aspiration to become captain of a whaling crew.

When I worked at Fairchild Semiconductor in the mid 1960's a lot of black girls worked there.  One young woman, absolutely gorgeous. Had a little girl.  I asked her what she had named her, she replied that she had named her "Kokwinda".  It was the new fashion to eschew slave names.  I had never heard of such a name and I am sure I looked shocked.  

It has been sixty years now and at least three generations of children no longer have slave names.  Sometimes it is difficult for me to tell what sex the names belong.  Shaquille certainly sounds manly.  All sorts of combinations come together in three syllable names.  Some are very creative and quite pretty.  

However, the extremely rich and famous kind of go for odd names.  For instance Elon Musk recently named his baby boy X A(backwards letter) E A-12. This is pronounced X ash A-12.  Hmm, I suppose the nickname might be Ash.  Ash Musk. Hmm mebbe not.

The child can modify that once he has reached legal age.  Or not.  He might name his children differently.  

I wonder what Musk would name a little girl?  Musk Melon pronounced MiMi? Charming!

I watched a black lady comedian a while back she was talking about kids names beginning with non slave names and said that she was in a mall and heard a mother call her child, "Escalade! Get over har!"  Well, could Cadillac be very far behind? Cars do have creative names.  "Chevy Mohammed, get home!"

What with the recent very unpleasant events in Wisconsin it is highly doubtful that any moms will be giving their babies the name of "Kenosha".  Which is native American and means place of the pike.  On the other hand, that name may be bestowed in honor of the suffering of that young man who is paralyzed from the neck down. 

I also foresee babies named Justice, Freedom, March and Liberty.

It will be very interesting to see if any of these names actually happen.