Winding down

 

I've been in Reno since October 27th, in time to see the spectacular show of the turning leaves.  These photos are from our old neighborhood but it's like that all over the Truckee Meadows basin.  I'm reminded of Walter Von Tilburg Clark's book, the City of Trembling leaves.  The Clark Administration building on campus is named for him.  I've been gone from Reno for six years after living here for 40 years.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed revisiting the city.

 I've had a couple of visits with Delaney but her other grandmother has been sick so I might have to be content with that until we come back next year for Alexia's high school graduation.  Delaney loves her new sweater.

I wanted to see Alexia's band performance.  The different high schools have taken marching band into almost the same level of sports.  I have wanted to see her do high school stuff and was excited to finally have an opportunity, but I had forgotten how much driving time is involved when you go to anything in Reno.  It took me 35 minutes to get to Spanish Springs High School and I was just in time to see her high school take the field.  She is the drum major.

When given the "all clear" she climbs to the top of the platform where she will beat out the rhythm with her raised arms.  Their performance isn't very long at all, maybe five minutes - and she's holding her arms at shoulder height and beating the rhythm - not easy.  She says she chose this because you can't hear a flute in a marching band.

She has visited Yarn Refuge, a local yarn shop, and wanted us to go together to their Knit Night.  The store is every bit as impressive as she said it is.

I had a hard time reining in my buying impulses and was relieved that I held myself to these three skeins.  I've cast-on using the middle skein for a scarf for Chrissie.  Greens and rusts are her colors.  I went back later and bought another skein - oops.

Meanwhile, weaving lessons are progressing.  Alexia is so busy that it's hard to find time but we're doing a little here and there and I think we'll get enough done that she will be able to weave after I go home.

Tomorrow is the last day we'll have for weaving and since she has a threading error, I'm going to show her how to repair it.  It's a common error and every error is a learning opportunity.  She is doing great.

Every day Chrissie feels a little better and she's looking forward to the day when she can leave behind this special chair and sleep in her own bed with her C-Pap.  She is a trooper.  I was stunned to learn that because they opened her chest, they had to wire it closed.  That little dark knot on her chest is a knot of the wires that are holding her chest closed and will be hers for the rest of her life.

Today we took our first outing, her in the backseat of course.  We went to see my oldest grandson's apartment, meet his roommate and the cats, and we had a surprise visit when his girlfriend came home for lunch.  We visited for a couple of hours, reassuring to Kiernan to have his mother feeling up to a visit and reassuring to me that my grandson is becoming a man.

That's about the size of it.  The forecast is for rain on Monday so Tuesday I'll saddle up and ride off into the sunset, i.e., Bend.  I've learned that you never stop being a mom.

Whadda Day

Our ISP has funneled the email part of their service through Google and I'm trying to follow directions to get my computer and phone to work. I turned on my computer this morning, anticipating a call to our ISP for assistance, when suddenly emails began to download, and download. In the end, I had something like 800 emails. I couldn't deal with it as I had lost a contact in my eye last night and wanted to have my eye doc see if he could see it since I certainly couldn't. I decided to make a Costco and Trader Joe run to justify the gas expense.

My friend Melissa called while I was driving in and we ended up going for some Macy's therapy. She needed some cheering up and we always have fun at that store. Today we browsed handbags. You have to laugh at the price tags, if nothing else. When we left the mall, she said I smell smoke and so did I. I returned Melissa to her coffee house, got my eyeball checked, then did my shopping.

There was a reason we smelled smoke. I listened to NPR and every half hour got an update on the fire. It started south of Reno and was being fanned by the terrific winds, pushing in the storm front supposed to hit tonight. I had to fight the car door to keep it from being ripped off its hinges. Gusts in excess of 70 mph were reported at the airport and flights were being delayed or cancelled. My last stop in Reno was Costco and when I came out, the smoke was choking. You couldn't see the mountains and barely the sun.

I snagged this image from Facebook. Like the rest of the country, we've been warm and dry, until last week when night temperatures hovered around zero. They confirmed 3,000 acres burned, 20 homes lost and one fatality. Horse evacuation has been a crisis. The fairgrounds can hold 400 and outlying ranches are offering accommodations. Our VFD truck was headed south as I drove home, about 5:00. It's Thursday, our VFD guys have worked all week - and now they're fighting a fire all night. I'm concerned and I want them to be safe. I wonder how that works when they're supposed to be at work tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I got a text from Ian when I was at the grocery store - last stop before home. He'd heard that North 395 was closed both ways due to a pile-up, and warned me to take surface streets. It turns out that fifteen vehicles and two semis had collided in white-out conditions when the gusts blew alkali across the highway, reducing viability to nothing. Eight are hospitalized. Whadda day. I was glad to get home in one piece.

As for the massive email downloads - I was able to take a look at it this evening. It was all the email that I had sent or received from my smart phone, dating back to 2009. Think about that when you put something in an email. It's out there. Somewhere.
On a more pleasant note, I finished another UNC school spirit garment, this time a hat for our grandniece. I'm going to suggest to her mother that she take the Christmas hat and trade McKay for this one. I think it will be cute for the two kids to have spirit apparel.