Laurabelle’s Blog

Jeff's father takes a trip to Ohio every December, and this year Jeff and I went with him. We spent a couple of days in Cincinnati with Jeff's aunt, then drove down to rural Kentucky for a few days with his uncle's family, then back to the city for the last couple of days.

Jeff's aunt (not his father's sister but the one married to his uncle) is involved in a documentary of a small hydroelectric station, called the Mother Ann Lee because it is located on old Shaker land. It's an old station, very small and out-of-date, and to boot it can only be accessed by water or by a narrow trail. For all these reasons, the power company wanted to get rid of it; it just wasn't worth it for them. Enter a small band of crazy engineers who are restoring and modernizing the station in order to get it back on line and providing power again.

It's not a large station (I think I was told it could power 2,000 homes), but every little bit counts. Kentucky is a coal-heavy region; this plant is the only one in the area that can provide clean-energy credits. For these local-energy activists, the idea is to put small, distributed, green power stations all over, so that there is less dependence on huge monolithic plants.

(I put green in quotation marks because there are many arguments on all sides about what actually constitutes green energy and what is the most environmentally friendly ... but I don't want to get into that here.)

So Jeff's aunt asked us if we would be interested in seeing the Mother Ann Lee, and of course we were. She led us along the base of a cliff, above a steep hill that led directly into the river. We had to step carefully on the damp leaves, but we didn't fall.

I have a ton of catching up to do on this blog. I'll start out of order, with Christmas.

I spent the fall in a frenzy of gift-knitting. This was part of the reason for my hiatus from blogging; I felt I couldn't blog these projects for fear of giving away the secret. Not that most of the recipients read my blog, but one never knows.

The first-finished (way back in August) was a lace shawl for my sister-in-law. Jeff helped me pick out the yarn, a nice peachy-pink alpaca. The pattern is Miss Lambert's Shetland Pattern for a Shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I dropped one stitch in the whole shawl, but I picked it back up later and sewed it in. I can find the mistake, but I bet no one else will see it even if they're looking for it.

Last week Jeff and I flew to Texas for my great-aunt Treba's hundredth birthday on August 25, 2007. She lives in south Texas, so we were a little afraid that Hurricane Dean would throw a gear in the works, but luckily Dean headed south into Mexico and left Texas well alone. (I feel slightly guilty for benefiting from someone else's misfortune, but I am still grateful that it missed us.)

I forgot my camera, so no pictures, but I'll give you a run-down of events.

Birthday festivities

Thursday the 23rd Jeff and I flew down (uneventfully) and were met at the airport by my parents. We went to dinner at a little Cajun place near Rockport where the menu is yes or no. They serve a spicy crab boil of crab, shrimp, crawfish, sausage, corn, and potatoes, dumped on top of butcher paper on the table and eaten largely with one's bare hands. The delicious seafood made a very strong impression on Jeff. After dinner we still had some time to kill before the plane bearing my brother and his wife arrived, so we headed back to the airport and played bridge until they came.

Friday we visited the King Ranch and took the tour. I wanted Jeff to see a Texas Longhorn, and he did, though from a bit of a distance across the pasture. Friday lunch consisted of excellent sandwiches at a shop that had been in business for over fifty years. On Friday evening the birthday festivities started with more seafood, fried this time. I tasted frog legs but was not terribly impressed.

Saturday was the birthday party proper. I helped by handing out name tags and boggled at the line of people waiting to see my great-aunt. There was lots of family present as well as friends from in and out of town. I saw family I hadn't seen in a long time and met some that I hadn't ever seen before. Friday dinner, after the party, was Mexican; I think I had carne guisada and a cheese enchilada.

Sunday we attended church with Treba and ate a small lunch as a finale. Then Ralph and Lori headed back to the airport, while my parents, Jeff, and I drove north.

We were not sorry to leave the Quality Inn where we stayed; I was not impressed with the room. The alarm clock and one lamp did not work, even after we complained, and the bathroom door did not shut. We also saw multiple cockroaches. The motel served breakfast, but most of it was so sugary that after the first day we opted to eat at the diner across the street.

The pretty part of Texas

Jeff had only seen west Texas and a bit of Dallas before, so I wanted to show him some of the nicer parts. My parents were not initially enthusiastic, but they agreed to make the long drive. (There is a lot of Texas between Dallas and my great-aunt's town.)

On Sunday evening we reached San Antonio too late to see the Alamo, but we enjoyed dinner on the River Walk. At the motel that evening we played more bridge, and I flatter myself that I improved (though it helped that my cards were better than the previous Thursday).

On Monday we saw the Alamo, ducked back to the motel to retrieve my forgotten hoodie, then visited New Braunfels, where my mother finished high school and where my grandparents had lived for many years. There wasn't very much to see, but we did drive by their old house, visit the ginkgo tree we planted for my grandfather on the golf course, and leave fresh flowers on their headstone at the cemetery. We also ate lunch at the New Braunfels Smokehouse.

To kill time before dinner, we visited the state capitol building in Austin. I had actually never been there (not even in Texas history class in seventh grade; we visited San Antonio instead), and it was fairly interesting to wander around the house and senate chambers and look at the portraits. The center and front of the floor were blocked off, of course, and I couldn't get close enough to read the descriptions on a few paintings. I complained to Jeff that if they were going to block off that area, they should at least make the text big enough to read from a distance. He made fun of me for being a Melton and reading everything.

We ate dinner at the Stagecoach Inn in Saledo. There has been an inn at that location since about 1860, and the wait staff still recite the menu from memory. Most of us had chicken fried steak, which was at least decent (though I think mine is a bit better).

That night we slept at my parents' house, where I grew up.

The house

We slept a lot at my parents' house. My purpose in being there was to give myself a little time to see friends, although I only actually was able to see one. (It did not help that I had forgotten to let people know I would be in town, and of course people have to work during the week.) On Tuesday evening we had dinner with my cousin who lives in the area, and on Wednesday we had dinner at an Indian restaurant with my one available friend. I also spent Wednesday afternoon packing up almost all the books I still had at my parents' house. There were quite a lot of them, since I had stored my books there all through college (and kept adding to my cache!). I asked my father whether he would mail the books if I boxed them up. He said yes, so I did.

On Thursday the 30th we flew back home to California. The flight was blessedly uneventful.

After my last hike in the north Olympics, my dad wrote me an email.

From: Dad
To: Laura

Laura,

I just did your blog. Spectacular scenery. I wish I had a chance
to take such a hike.  I'm glad that you are safe.

Dad

I replied:

From: Laura
To: Dad

We should take you hiking the next time you're up here.  There are some
really spectacular day hikes at Mount Rainier, and there are also some
really pretty hikes that would be good for an overnight.  Jeff and I
have an extra tent (Jeff even has a bivy-sack, lighter than a tent), and
you could rent a backpack, sleeping bag, and pad at REI.

I think you should plan a hiking vacation up here... maybe sooner rather
than later because Jeff and I might move away from Seattle.

Mom is welcome to come, obviously, but I don't know if she would be as
keen on hiking as the rest of us.

lbm.

From: Dad
To: Laura

Mom would be LESS keen!

I am savoring the invite.

Dad

That was at the beginning of June, and I kind of figured Dad wouldn’t make it up here any time soon, but I was wrong! About a month ago he called me up and suggested flying up here for Labor Day weekend, so I said sure. I was tempted to pick an easy hike, like Lower Lena, but I knew it would be crowded on the holiday weekend. I suggested Heather Park, the hike that Dad was so enthusiastic about in the first place, and he said he thought he could do it.

A few days ago I gave you the holiday bullet points. Today you get the slide show.

I knitted Christmas presents for a number of people, but I only have pictures of those I sent to Ralph and Lori. These I finished and mailed at the beginning of December, so I didn’t even see them at Christmas (even though I saw Ralph and Lori). Lori’s birthday present was a pink, flower-shaped cotton chenille washcloth. I made a number of these in various colors, but I trust that the partial duplication has not bothered anyone so far. I gave a bar of scented soap with each washcloth.

Lori’s Christmas gift was a hat and scarf in a brioche pattern, with blue and white Lamb’s Pride bulky wool yarn. In some respects it was a pain to knit, since the pattern is effectively double-layered and thus takes twice as long to knit. However, it was easy enough once I got into the rhythm, and I am very happy with the results. I hope it will keep Lori warm in the cold Pittsburgh winter.

I knitted a checkers set for Ralph. This includes a checkerboard, a bag for the pieces (plastic buttons), and a bag to hold the set. The checkerboard is double-sided and reversible, which was interesting to knit. I also included a rule and strategy book for checkers, since I wasn’t sure whether Ralph played checkers.

Snow-bound Mount Rainier is spectacular from the air. I took this photo from my window as the plane passed by on the western side of the mountain.

This cute little house is on the grounds of the Gruene Homestead Inn, where my family stayed in New Braunfels this December. We have stayed there several times while visiting my grandmother, and I have fond memories of it.

This is my grandparents’ headstone. The date of my grandmother’s death has yet to be attached to her side of the stone. The inscription reads:

Fred Burdette Curry
US Army WWII
Jan 31 1912 – Mar 13 1998

Mary Baker Curry
Loving wife and mother
Apr 23 1912 -

Ten days later, it’s Christmas, everyone else is asleep and I really should be too, and I’m finally getting around to blogging again.

Almost exactly seven years ago, when I was sixteen, I left home and my parents for the first time. I was away for a year, and then I came back to Texas for my senior year of high school. That was the last year I spent at home, because then I went to Mount Holyoke, then to Hamburg, then back to Mount Holyoke, then to Seattle, with various stops in Texas and England in between.

In those seven years, I always felt that even though I didn’t live with my parents any more, Texas was still my home. Most of my books and many of my other belongings are still in this house, and my old room is still decorated with the posters and doodads from my teenage years. If anyone asks where I’m from, I say Texas or Dallas.

It was strange, last January, when I returned to Seattle after several weeks in Texas and felt myself fitting back into life there as into a well-fitting shoe that had grown cold in my absence but soon warmed up again. I was torn between my two homes, the one that made me and the one that I made myself.

Two months ago I brought Jeff here to visit, and it felt natural to have him here. Now I’ve come back for a brief weekend, to see my cousin Allison married, and I can’t wait to get back to Seattle. It’s been a good weekend, with family, renewing and strengthening ties. I especially enjoyed spending time with my brother, with whom I’ve never been able to talk very well.

All the same, Seattle seems to be home now. Jeff has something to do with it, but it’s also that my life is up there, and I’ve not got much to do here but sift through memories, read, talk, knit, and wait until it’s time to go home again.