Month: August 2023

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Meandering on the Way — July 26 to 31

Wednesday, July 26

After our morning walk in the forest, E made cookies for a friend who is going through a difficult time. M did yard work and also wrote a few paragraphs for his latest writing project, a memoir of his childhood in Utah. For dinner, we had leftover paella refreshed with a bit of cod from Natural Grocers. Delicious.

Thursday, July 27

We had tertulia with R and J at our place. We have quite a few blueberries these days and E used some of them to make blueberry muffins for the occasion. Of the many recipes at her disposal, she chose the one from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. They were awesome. After that she had two classes: in-person BBB in the morning and Zoom Laughter Yoga in the afternoon. And it was already time to pick more berries…

Friday, July 28

M went off into the Cascades in the truck today, following Highway 20 and the South Santiam up to House Rock Campground. He took Latiwi Road southward, climbing up to the ridge line and eventually returning to Highway 20 on Gordon Road. On his way down Gordon he came upon an unusual sight–a wrecked vehicle upside down beside the road about eight miles from the highway. It’s a Nissan Xterra SUV. XTerras were sold in the U.S. from 2000 to 2015, but only the 2000 to 2005 models had drum brakes in the rear as this car does. So it’s an oldie.

There were a bunch of red shotgun shell casings on the ground near the car, as if it had been shot many times after it was already dead. Don’t know what that’s about. The wheels and tires are gone; only the brake drums remain at the ends of the axles.
Brake drums, shock absorber, leaf springs, sway bar, tie rod, differential cover, hydraulic brake lines, parking brake cable, part of the muffler and tailpipe–things you don’t often see from this angle..

Having gotten M out of her hair, E managed to cross a lot of things off of her ever growing to do list. Today she is working on planning for some kind of major gathering scheduled to take place next winter.

The weather has been wonderful lately, eighties in the afternoons with cool mornings and evenings. We ate dinner outside today–leftover spaghetti and fresh salad. On TV we’re watching The Diplomat. We have mixed feelings about it, but it holds our interest.

Saturday, July 29

The Nachos for Dessert food truck was working a car show today at the Vancouver (WA) Mall. So we got in the red car and went up to check things out. We had some terrible mall food for lunch, but then some fine dessert at the truck.

We looked at the cars, too.

This Nash Metropolitan is pretty cute. The Metropolitan was designed in the U.S by Nash-Kelvinator and was also sold mostly in the U.S., but manufacturing was outsourced to Britain.
Most of the cars at the show were American made, but here is another British made car. The photo shows the engine compartment of a fifties/sixties era Mini.
And just for comparison, here’s the engine compartment of the car that was parked next to the Mini at the show. This engine is a fifties/sixties era Chevrolet V-8 (with an aftermarket supercharger.)

Sunday, July 30

M went out early in the morning to pick berries so we could have fresh baked blueberry muffins for breakfast again. Very tasty. Then, after we took a walk in our little local woods, M did irrigation system repair while E transcribed several more Uncle Charlie letters.

The letters are from a large collection written by E’s father’s brother, Charles Osborne Chambers, who was an officer in a the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War 2. The letters E worked on today were sent from Germany in 1945, about the time that the war in Germany came to an end. E was surprised to learn that Uncle Charlie’s work did not end then, nor did the secrecy and censorship of the letters. In almost every letter he mentions that although there is lots going on, there’s not much news that he can report. However, in contrast to his earlier letters from 1943, he does reveal where he is stationed (first in England, then in France, then in Germany.) He mentions being headquartered in a German village whose occupants had fled, leaving behind neat stacks of freshly cut firewood. He observes that the roof of the house they were using was “pretty well shot up” but that the house itself was warm and dry.

E is also struck by the fact that Uncle C wrote so faithfully to his mother, despite the burden of long and difficult hours of work. It makes E imagine that they had a very special bond, C being the firstborn child of the family. It is also evident that E’s grandmother, Lizzie, wrote many letters to her son, although these do not survive. Mail service was erratic and C mentions that when mail finally arrived, he often received as many as eight letters from home at a time. Lizzie also sent packages to C, which cannot have been easy considering the times. It appears that she sent cookies and other items at regular intervals. At least once she sent him a bar of Lava soap. This must have been a much needed item: he mentioned it in three separate letters. Of course he does explain that such repetitions were often deliberate because he was never certain that all of his letters would reach her.

Monday, July 31

More nice weather today, but the forecast is for higher temperatures later in the week. M did grocery shopping and worked on his writing project. E made a batch of minestrone soup. She likes to do this in stages, so she worked on it off and on all day. We had our friend J over for dinner. J is recovering from shoulder surgery and cannot yet drive, so we sent one of our large fleet of vehicles to fetch her. The soup was great. And so were the Magnum bars that we had for dessert. Fortunately, we were able to eat them outside where the drips didn’t matter.

Later on, E transcribed another Uncle Charlie letter and M caught up on the latest episodes of Witcher.