Summer Most Heat Moon
File under irony: WASHINGTON — Passengers at some overseas airports that offer U.S.-bound flights will be required to power on their electronic devices in order to board their flights, the Transportation Security Administration said Sunday.
Summer Most Heat Moon
Kate and I have a new screen related entertainment: looking at photographs of properties in Colorado. As we’ve winnowed our search criteria, a surprising one recommended by Jon, has popped up. Live around 8,000 feet. I may have mentioned that here before. It knocks the top off the high temperatures. With my hyper-Norwegian wife that sounds ideal.
He did point out gardening can be tougher at altitude because sudden snow storms can pop up late into the summer months. I’ve begun considering rolling hoops over the garden beds to protect plants from sudden temperature change and from the more potent sun in mid-summer. They will probably prove necessary there. Cold frames, too, perhaps.
I asked Ruth, if she could live wherever she wanted in Colorado, where would it be? She had a quick answer. “Close to A-basin.” A-basin is the skiing area associated with the Arapaho Basin. So, we’re looking at homes in the Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Clear Creek County area, too. This way Jon and Ruth could drive up on an evening before the morning rush on Saturday, stay overnight with us, then leave at a reasonable hour to ski. A possibility.
It’s interesting how having them here has pushed the move more into the foreground of our lives. It’s been a background for so much of what we’ve done this last couple of months, but the end result has seemed far away. With Jon and Ruth’s presence we can feel what having them around more would be like.
Summer Most Heat Moon
Turns out old fireworks, kept dry, work just fine. We sent up fountains and pyramids and sparklers and butterflies. It was a magnesium fueled fun fest made safe by the wettest June ever.
Ruth had a couple of good interchanges. When her Dad told her she knew so much he wouldn’t have to tell her anything, she said, “Dad, just because I know things doesn’t meant that’s bad.” uh, hmmm.
Then, when a particular firework did something dangerous, she said, “Oh, it’s more fun when they’re dangerous.” Every parents’ dream sentence from an 8 year old daughter.
The firepit got a good workout tonight. The dogs stayed up late and we all had a great time. Food from Famous Dave’s, a barbecue feast for four. Gunpowder thanks to the Chinese a really long time ago.
Summer Most Heat Moon
Under what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Jon’s recent brush with pulmonary 
hypertension pushed him into dark territory and he came out from his excursion with some light. First, he said, he was ok with dying, mostly he was sad about leaving the kids behind. It frightened him, too, but not in a paralyzing way. The unknown has its terrifying side and he looked into that, realized its inevitability and said, all right. That’s seeing the face of life’s most troublesome enigma and smiling back at it.
Too, he said, he thought about what he might change if his life had a shorter horizon than he imagined. His answer? Nothing. His Colorado life, one created by his love of skiing, now includes his family, his home and his teaching. He’s been at the same school for 15 years and has just completed renovating his home. He did the finishing work almost completely, from plumbing and tiling to building cabinet tops and a dining room table. It’s a good thing to learn at mid-life, that the way you are in the world is the way you want to be in the world. Not everyone can say that.
Summer Most Heat Moon
Jon’s off to play golf at Ft. Snelling with his buddy, Max. They plan to finish the deck afterward. Ruthie and I are going into the MIA at 11:oo am where I plan to give her tour of objects related to Greek mythology. That’s her favorite right now.
Summer Most Heat Moon
Sitting on the couch tonight, I had a conversation with Ruth. She helped her dad with the 
deck today, so I said, “You could be a carpenter.” She said, “I could.” Paused. “But I want to be a scientist. Or a science teacher.” “In elementary or college or?” “College.” she said with a definitive tone.
We talked about Benjamin Franklin and the Franklin stove, Davinci and his ornithopter, Edison and the phonograph and the light bulb. She studied inventions by famous inventors in a program called GEMS, Girls Excelling in Math and Science. This is an hour and a half after school, two nights a week. She loved it.
Ruth is fresh and eager, a learner already excited, seeking. 8 years old. What a privilege to share her life.
Summer Most Heat Moon
Jon and his friend, Max, worked together years ago as the “monkey boys” of Dave Schlegel’s house renovation crew. They did this and that, both learning a lot about how to do various necessary household work. Today they’re putting those skills to work replacing our deck surface and a fence. Right now the deck is naked, wearing only its braces under the hot July sun.
Gertie wanted to go out, so I let her outside through the garage and into the orchard. But when it came time for her to come back in she crawled between two braces and followed the space between them to the back door where she leaped up and came in the kitchen. She wasn’t going to let a few missing boards get in the way of her usual route back inside.
This is a wonderful gift they’re giving us.
Summer Most Heat Moon
The primary motivation for our move to Colorado is here this weekend. Family.
Jen and grandson Gabe are in Denver while granddaughter Ruth and Jon are in Andover. We’ve discussed areas of Colorado with Jon and he says Bailey, where there are several properties that look good in our price range, is beautiful and cool. “A couple of thousand feet of elevation really breaks the high temperatures,” he says.
Outside work today.
Summer Most Heat Moon
The good, no, great news. Jon’s heart is fine. No pulmonary hypertension. An electrocardiogram.
The good news. Jon and Ruth are here for the weekend while Jon resurfaces our deck and puts up a new fence between the deck and the perennial garden.
The not so good news. July 4th is a nightmare of astraphobic dogs and their owners. Us, for example. Plus tonight we also added two new humans to the mix. So Kepler, the Akita, usually calm and quiet, barked and barked. Then Gertie barks. When we put the dogs in their crates, both Gertie and Vega, calm methodical Vega, broke out of their crates, something neither one ever does, never even tries to do. This was during the fireworks part of the evening.
So things are, as Elvis used to say, all shook up. Hopefully by tomorrow they’ll calm down. Of course, Jon will be working on the deck, which is the main way the dogs get in and out of the house. Ah, maybe Sunday or Monday?
Summer Most Heat Moon
Patriot. Or not? If patriotism is a libertarian in a tri-foil hat, Revolutionary musket slung over her shoulder and ready to hunt elephants, then I’m not one. If patriotism is a flag-waving, bible-thumping, climate change denier, then I’m not one. If patriotism is a Love or Leave It bumper sticker and an NRA decal on the back window, then I’m not one.
If patriotism is a swell in the heart when, on returning from a trip abroad, a customs officer says, “Welcome home.”, then, yes, I’m a patriot. If patriotism is a love of this land in all its geographic and geological diversity, then I’m a patriot. If patriotism is a belief in equality, not only before the law, but within society, then I’m a patriot. If patriotism is a belief in the shared journey of those who live in this nation, then I’m a patriot.
I am a patriot and I claim this day as a celebration of my nation, one committed to justice, to fairness, to equality, to brotherhood and sisterhood among all peoples. We cannot allow the nativists and the bigots and the chauvinists and the jingoists to be the only ones who love this country and stand up and say so. After the 60’s, I said never again would be that true. Never again.