General News

This may be the longest I have gone without a post, including my five weeks of limited digital communication in Wyoming last Christmas!  Honestly, it feels like I am continuously composing a blog, a letter or a book but actually transferring all my wondrously brilliant thoughts from my brain to my fingertips just doesn't seem to happen.  I could blame it on having a job.  It's only ten hours a week but let's face it, I haven't been employed since the Clinton administration and I'm not used to outside demands on my time.  Better placed blame would be that we finally have a "normal" American schedule.  Husband with a job (more on that later), children in school and extracurricular activities, me working part time.  Gone are those horrible days of last summer when retirement nearly killed the Twist family.  Lest you think I complain, let me just say:  HOORAY!

We've slowly started looking at houses again, speaking of normal Americans.  We saw a few last weekend and quickly ruled out most of them as dumps requiring way too much time and money to bring them out of their 1964 prison.  Shoot, forget gold countertops.  One of the houses needed ceilings and walls!  We've since given our realtor clarity on exactly what we want.  The good news is that it is a buyer's market and mortgages are way low so we can probably get a house for about the same as what we pay to rent the 45 x 15 chunk of concrete the RV sits on.  We found a really good possibility with an incredibly attractive price tag near a pocket of our friends.  And it has walls and ceilings!  As soon as Donald returns home we'll decide if we want to make an offer.

And where is Donald?  Off suffering in an exquisitely lovely,  seaside town called Cannon Beach.  We dropped him on Monday with some pangs of jealousy at his surroundings.  It was my first time to see the Oregon coast and I know why it is so renowned!  Sunshine set the red and gold haze of leaves on fire and the ocean was spectacular.  It was the type of exhilarating October day that makes you happy to be alive.  Donald is there for ten days with the rest of his cohort for his doctoral program as part of his semester requirements.

He called after the first night to tell me about his prime rib supper and the sunset over the ocean.  I told him about my glass of wine with a cheerios chaser.  Truthfully, I'm glad he is there and not just because I get the bed to myself.  This is a excellent opportunity for him to be challenged in his educational pursuit and also to relax a bit.  He has been working a lot of hours at Target.  In fact, Target has not only turned out to be full time but they are also in the process of promoting him.  He has worked there almost a month but apparently he has impressed somebody.  Possibly by the fact that he, with his higher education and experience as a Naval officer, is far outside the general demographic of an hourly Target worker.  The question is, "to what is he being promoted?"  Answer:  No idea!  He underwent a series of interviews at the regional level, passed them all, and has been told he will be promoted but was not given any further information.  It's all very strange but nice to know.

The big news of my profession as Apple Girl was being a semi-celebrity two weekends ago.  A group of 15, twenty-something, Japanese pilots here on an exchange program came to tour the orchard.  I guess they don't have orchards in Japan because they had the time of their lives!  They took photos of me driving the John Deere gator.  They took photos of themselves posing on the John Deere gator.  They may have taken photos of every single apple in the orchard.  The grand finale was me, in my crazy cowboy hat, getting my photo taken with each of them.  Individually.  My face hurt from smiling; it reminded me of wedding photos.  I chuckle when I think of all the Japanese scrapbooks I will appear in and they don't even know my name!

One of the great things about the orchard are the folks who have become my "regulars!"  Yes, they come back every few weeks for a bucket.  Or ten.  Depends on if they are Russian or American.  One American couple came in September right before they went on vacation to Hawaii.  When they came back to the orchard, post vacation, they brought Hawaiian cookies for me and the boys!  How sweet of them to even think of three strangers on vacation!  There are more Russians, Ukrainians and Romanians than any other people groups that visit the orchard.  One young family, with five kids, has come several times and they pick about ten buckets each visit.  Another Russian family with ten kids picked 36 buckets!  Last Saturday I had a conversation with quite an elderly Russian gentleman.  His only words were "no English."  I felt so helpless but we both managed to use our hands and reach an understanding.  I think.  The experience made me bemoan the fact that Americans are so used to having only one language.

There's all my news, for now.  I'll be sure to let you know about any house buying and job promotions !