How Time (and Owls) Fly

with grandma
Originally uploaded by suzipaw

Drafting this last night, Rex was panting and hoarse, barking at the fireworks shooting over our 'hood tonight. And at the "hoods"--we had several fire trucks cruising the streets trying to keep the illegal stuff under control, but it was a noisy night last night.

I had a great visit with Grandma last weekend, spending time catching up and leafing through photos, particularly the disc my uncle copied for our whole family recently that I haven't had a chance to really peruse yet. I love hearing about our family and other people (and animals, too!) in her life, how she grew up, and the things she's done. We took a trip to the grocery store one afternoon but mostly we just hung out at her place.

Wilbur hasn't changed much. Bikers and trucks zoomed along Main Street with comforting regularity. I arrived late* Saturday evening and made my way down to Doxie's for dinner, noting that birds were the loudest sound filtering through the golden sunset air. Hauling my pizza booty back down the street around 8:30 p.m. I noticed the sole bar had closed. Before 9:00 p.m. On a Saturday night. Twelve hours later the scene was much the same. Bird calling, check. Bikers, boaters, and outdoor adventurers rolling by, check. Bar closed, drive-ins open, check. I'm happy to note that the plain cake doughnuts from Sandy's I consumed both mornings, accompanied by extra espresso'd lattes were also unchanged. Some things are worth the wait!

I also enjoyed my usual visit to the cemetery. It was very hot in Wilbur, so I went after dinner one evening when it was a bit cooler. I sat on Grandpa's headstone, admiring the light and lovely view of town and trees. So many birds! The sprinklers were watering the part of the grounds where some of my ancestors are buried, so I wandered through other areas of the old part of the cemetery, admiring the stonework. Was I surprised when one of the draped stone urns unfolded its wings and took to the air! The huge (well, it looked huge to me) owl flew off into a tree in a huff, and continued to cry out to the two other owls at the other end of the cemetery that were hopping about on the headstones--a very loud, yipey call. They actually let me get pretty close, relatively speaking, and I'm sure they must've gotten a laugh when, crouched behind a headstone to try to get a better photo, the sprinkler sprayed me with a jet of cold water. Didn't take me long to dry, however…

*My travels both ways were not smooth, unfortunately. I was so excited to fly out of Santa Rosa, and it was great not to have to leave the house at the crack of dawn or have a whole other driving leg awaiting me when I returned. But my connection to Spokane from Seattle was cancelled and I had to wait for several hours, roaming from gate to gate in hopes that I would be called from the standby list. On the way back, our flight was delayed from Spokane to Seattle due to fueling delays, though we didn't find out til we were on the plane, then had to deplane, and of course we couldn't leave the gate area since we could be taking off at any time…But, I made it home that night, and that was good.

I got home on Monday night but already that seems so long ago. Work was a good but intense three days this week. Last night M and I took ourselves out to a really nice dinner as sort of a belated anniversary, to Flavor, a place my friend Marsee recommended to me long ago and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get there. All our courses were really good, as was the service, prices reasonable--now I'm scared to go back, the expectations are high.

I'm off to Mom's this morning, bringing a Cadillac load of bedding and other crap up for the family reunion. I'm looking forward to seeing my brother and family and friends, even if it's just for a quick turn and burn. Maybe we'll take in some Independence Day festivities while I'm there, but lack of activity sounds pretty good too.

Oh, and thanks to everyone who voted for Eric's bike to win the S&S anniversary bike competition! His LSR (land speed racer) won his class, as those of you who voted will no doubt know thanks to the press release you were sent by S&S (I don't remember being asked if I wanted to receive mail from them, do you? I unsubscribed…). M reports that he apparently was treated like quite the celebrity, signing autographs, and fending off both paparazzi and the advances of a cougar or two.