Jump Start

I was just sitting on the couch watching Brent doze across the room in his chair while trying to read a book about Billy Wilder, and it occurred to me that I should be blogging. I don't know where the last four months went. That's not true; they went down the road. I'm sitting instead of cleaning the kitchen or pinning quilt blocks or doing something else useful because I needed some time on the hot pad... all those miles slouching in the driver's seat of my car have herniated a disc that's pinching my sciatic nerve, and on a scale of 1 to 10 this pain ranges between a 4 and a 7, and I have a high tolerance to pain. The proof:

That's right. 50,000 big ones. I can't even remember how many miles we had when we got here; I only know that 77 nights in hotel rooms later and many, many days on California roads and this is the state we're in. Ha!

I'd be lying if I said I've been too busy to blog, although I have been busy. I've had plenty of free time, but it's usually in the evenings (read: 1 a.m.) and we've been watching a lot of movies (I knew I was moving in with a film nut, but damn) and old episodes of 30 Rock and Arrested Development. It's how we unwind, and it's been fun. Neither of us has taken much time for creative pursuits while we settled into life together (Brent blogged about Bullitt, I tie-dyed a T-shirt and learned to cook), and maybe we've developed some bad habits. But as lazy as we are, we've also done some pretty awesome stuff.

Besides, all the weekday travel is exhausting, and it doesn't leave me a lot of motivation to be very mobile or productive in the evenings and on weekends. For instance:

The Eel River, Hwy 101.

What's so special about these trees?

Well...

They're 500-1,000 years old, and some are over 300 feet tall.

That's right, I finally got to see the Redwoods.

They're unbelievable.

The forest feels magical.

These aren't even the big ones.

Okay, this one is pretty big.

Eel River.

Willits, home of the Skunk Train! Hwy 101, CA.

And this was just one trip last year. I've got folders full of pictures of hamlets and bays and barns and fields, orchards, rivers, strange buildings, dirty city streets, clean city parks, wharfs, warehouses, tanks, factories, you name it. My writing is rusty, accustomed as I am to speaking out loud now... and speaking in front of groups takes a while to get the knack of. I'm good at it, and I'm enjoying it. But things may not be staying the same.

I'm really enjoying my job. It took a while to figure out what was going on, and I know in a year I'll be even better at it. I've helped a lot of people and spread a lot of knowledge and learned more than I ever thought possible. I've met some truly stellar people and not a single really bad person and many wonderful people who are right in between.

The next few months will tell, however, whether or not I get to keep doing this. Funding for our function is being cut at the Federal and State levels, and the company's future is uncertain. Will I regret having to shift back into operator mode if I have to? No. Knowing what I know now I have more incentive than ever to strap on the steel toes and pick up a wrench, and opportunities are out there. Time will tell.

In the meantime we're just enjoying life, trying to be grateful every day that we're finally together. We're getting along incredibly well... everybody says the first year's the hardest, and if that's the case, the rest of our life together should be a breeze, because it's been truly easy and lovely, a relief and a joy. Even the cat would agree, if her constant chatter made any sense. We sleep three across on a queen-size bed.

I'm organizing photo folders and will post more here. Happy and eventful and grateful as it is, my life doesn't feel complete until it's blogged.