Blogging

If I continue blogging, it will be at this site: In the Ever After.

If….

About Ernie–from Vashon

Because I know that family and some friends are wondering how Ernie is doing now that I’m 3000 miles away from him, I’m blogging about Ernie.

Here’s Ernie with our friends Yemi and  Ara, the week before I left him there.

Yemi is in graduate school. Ara is a nurse with a bachelor’s degree and the intention of pursuing post-grad degrees.

To recap, Ernie started talking to me about me leaving Charlestown a year or so before the thought was thinkable to me. We had moved to Charlestown so that each of us would be cared for as needed until we died, without having to depend upon our children. Ernie began talking about me leaving Charlestown well before he moved to assisted living in RGT. He saw how sick I was, living there. He worried that I would relapse into ME/CFS. But then the talk was about me leaving when he died.

In 2010 he was thought to be dying. When he didn’t die, we realized that we might be in for a long, slow decline, that he could last a long time. Then in January 2011, he had to be moved to RGT; and I got sicker.

When son Geoff challenged me to think about leaving Charlestown, I told Ernie that I might not last as long at Charlestown as he might. He said I should go. He didn’t want me being sick. That was before I had any intention of acting upon the idea.

You all know what happened next–an excruciating separation with the consequences completely unknowable. It was indescribably difficult, and still is, sometimes. Mostly, however, I am happily settling in to a radically different life, despite occasional bouts of anxiety. My physical symptoms have significantly abated. I’m feeling much less sick. In fact, most of the time, I feel great.

Now, what about Ernie? Every day we talk by phone. We are having as much conversation daily as we had when I was going to be with him in RGT every afternoon–at about the same time (for him). Every evening I send him an e-mail message that is delivered to him the next day. Since his stamina for conversation is limited, he prefers to read; and this way I can tell him more about my life. Every week I send him a letter with lots of pictures, so he can see where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, and what my place looks like as I get organized. I print and mail him my blog posts, so he reads what I write for you, just as he did when he could use his computer.

He assures me that he is okay and that he is very happy, knowing that I am doing well.

There have been events along the way. He has figured out how to deal with situations I would have taken care of had I been there. He arranged to have his laundry done. He found an aide who would trim his hair and beard. When his walker tray got separated from the walker, he got it fixed. He has bought toiletries at the RGT “store”, which is set up in the Activities Room on Tuesdays. When he reported to me that his  hip had begun causing him to limp, I told him to talk to the nurse, which he  did. When he was taken by wheelchair to the Medical Center and became sick and faint sitting in the chair, he told the receptionist who found a place for him to lie down. When his aide took his only blanket to be laundered, I told him to ask for another blanket. Instead, he decided to sleep in his thermal underwear and socks the one night he was without the blanket.

These are all things I would have attended to had I been there, and there have been other such incidents. I have asked him if he wanted me to act. In each case, Ernie has talked with me about it and dealt with it. He is doing more for himself than I was allowing him to do.

The staff have been wonderful. Because they know both of us and our story, and because Ernie is so pleasant and appreciative, he gets extra attention. Just as I did when I was living at Charlestown, I talk with the receptionists who print and deliver my e-mail and with the aides who are sometimes in his room when I call. I’m in touch with his nurses and his social worker. A few days ago, when I phoned him, he was in his doctor’s office for a routine check-up. He handed the phone to the doctor, who also knows me well, and he reported on Ernie’s status–nothing new.

Hearing from me audibly and in writing every day and knowing that I am glad to be here has kept Ernie in good spirits–according to him and the staff.

Of course we know that the status quo will not last. Frequently, Ernie tells me that he notices further signs of decline. He says he is weaker and less able to concentrate. He isn’t reading magazines anymore. It’s all he can do to get through The Washington Post over the course of a day. He still follows sports on TV. More and more of his time, however, is spent on the bed, resting and relieving his constant back pain. As his situation changes, I have no idea how we’ll deal with it.

At present, Ernie seems to be okay. Now it’s time for me to call him.

Blogging from Vashon

Now that I’m on Vashon I am ambivalent about blogging. First of all, I’m ambivalent about posting to “Parkview 616” because I don’t live there anymore. When I started this blog in 2007, not only was I living in that apartment, I was mostly housebound and spending almost all my time in the room with that view at the top of my blog.

Secondly, I began to blog at the urging of other stitchers with whom I was participating in online courses and challenges. They’d read my comments on their posted photos and blogs and they’d seen my photos at group sites. After wondering for a while whether I wanted to spend any of my limited activity time and energy writing a blog, I did so with the main intention of communicating with fellow stitchers. I made that intention clear in the subtitle, “About my life in stitches.” I thought I was just going to show and tell my needleart.

As you know, my life has changed radically since then. In fact, since my recovery in 2009, I’ve not been able to do any serious, sustained needlework because of ADHD and my “allergic” reaction to my living situation at Charlestown.

So instead I’ve posted about the changes and challenges in my life after ME/CFS.

While I was housebound, I thought that I had found a new vocation–learning to make needleart. It was about five years after my collapse forced me into disability retirement and seclusion that I discovered a passion for making things with needle and thread, and then all sorts of other materials. Until then it had never occurred to me that I could make visual art. In fact, I was sure that I couldn’t; but I had to find something to do, some way to be productive, to have a satisfying life. I began to take needlework seriously, studying it, working at it, learning how to design, learning new ways of working, and trying to improve my skills. In 1997 I wrote that as a corporate manager and consultant, I had made things happen. Now I made things.

Every aspect of the process brought me intense joy and satisfaction. Learning new techniques and working with new materials was such fun. Sharing what I was learning and making was also very rewarding.  I miss that. But so far, I haven’t wanted to finish the needlebook cover that I had designed and kitted for traveling before my first trip to Vashon in July. Unable to work because of the ADHD I’ve had since recovery, I seem to have lost the passion I had for designing and stitching.

Maybe that was just my vocation when I couldn’t be out in the world.

As for being out in the world, here’s a bit of an update about my life on Vashon.

I’m getting my place organized. It was immensely comforting to unpack my books and get all of them where I can see them. I know where each one is now. Some are in the hutch in the kitchen area.

The rest are in boxes, improvised as bookcases.

I’ve got most of my art placed approximately where I want to hang it. I had Book TV on the television. You can see my piano and my office area.

Here’s the view from the back of the apartment.

I’ve joined the Vashon Allied Arts, which supports all the arts on the island. Its offices are in the Blue Heron Arts Center.

Here’s the main  hall divided for an art exhibition.

Here’s one of the featured works–magnificent textile art combined with rusted metal in a wooden frame.

The artist is Kira Bacon. Geoff has offered to introduce me to her.

I’ve subscribed to the Vashon Chamber Music series, a lecture series on women artists, the Vashon Chorale, and Vashon Opera. The calibre of the arts here is mind-blowing. World-class artists live here and they attract their friends and colleagues to join them from all over the country. But I’ve been urged by Vashonites to shush my enthusiasm lest others find out. A new arts center is being developed, though.

Caleb and Lauryth have  not needed my help so far, which is good for me, as it’s given me time to focus on my own life. Most days I spend in solitude, and I love it. Every day when I leave my apartment, I walk into the forest where I see no one. I do not have to walk down halls, interacting with Charlestown residents. I do, however, see the naked bodies of mostly fat, elderly women in the communal shower and open locker room at the athletic club–something I never saw at Charlestown. Something else I didn’t do at Charlestown–I share the pool with competitive swimmers.

Friday was an unusual day. Wide awake at 5:00 a.m., I got up and went to the athletic club. Heretofore I’ve been going at 11:00 for the mid-day lap swim period. While I was eating breakfast, Nan called to ask if I could help with her move. Shortly thereafter, Geoff called to ask if he and Beau could come for a visit, which they did. Then I helped Nan, went to Geoff’s house to get basil Carol had harvested, and to Thriftway for the rest of the ingredients to make pesto. Back home, I got a call from Lauryth inviting me to dinner that evening. After which I went to the Chamber Music concert.

I talk with Ernie every day and every evening I send an e-mail message that is delivered to his cubby. He’s okay and he keeps telling me how happy it makes him to hear about the pleasures of my life.

As for my vocation, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing from now on.

And I don’t know whether I will continue to blog. So far, I have nothing to say “about my life in stitches.”

How I got to Vashon

At last, here is the promised back story of my relocation to Vashon. It’s been delayed by the absence of my desktop computer, on which I had some pictures I wanted to show. Now I have both computers with me and I can publish the story.

Ever since I recovered from ME/CFS in the spring of 2009, I was unable to live at Charlestown without being sick. At Charlestown I had ADHD, tremulousness, Hunger Attacks, and other symptoms that usually abated or disappeared altogether when I was away from Charlestown. At first I tried to find ways of living there that would allow me to feel well. I tried participating in various activities, joining groups, going to meetings and events; but no matter what I did, at Charlestown, I felt sick.

I knew even then (two years ago) that I didn’t belong there, didn’t want to be there. In effect, I discovered, I was living with my parents—the people against whom I had rebelled and from whom I had fled in the 1960s. The Charlestown population, average age about 86, is WASP. The community is white, suburban, conservative, and mostly Christian. As the residents have aged, the place looks more like an assisted living facility than a retirement community, with walkers, wheelchairs, and electric scooters everywhere. I was a misfit—too young and too counter-culture. But I had to be there. Ernie was already in significant decline.

Although I tried throughout 2009 to find ways to make myself feel better and to contribute to the community; and although I was fully functional, I was unable to do what had most satisfied me—making textile art, reading, and studying—because the symptoms were bad at home. Further, my insomnia worsened, despite prescription medications. I was drinking lots of gin (I mean LOTS) every night to force myself into sleep.

Since I’ve already written about 2010 in another post, I’ll just summarize what has happened since.

After Ernie was admitted to RGT in January, I expected to feel better. Instead, I felt worse. At least while he was living with me, I could control his environment. I could facilitate him having his own routines and preferences, and food he liked to eat. At assisted living, he is in an institution. Good as it is, it is not home, and I can’t control how things are done. I became even more tremulous and less able to function at home.

What’s more, the man in the apartment beneath mine requested that I not practice the piano at 5:30 in the morning. Not an unreasonable request, but that was the only time my hands were not trembling too much for playing the piano. My new piano had become useless to me.

Ernie knew how sick I was. He wanted me to be well. He said to me several times that I didn’t have to stay at Charlestown. That made no sense to me. I couldn’t leave him there, and by the time he dies, I may need assisted living myself. Leaving Charlestown was not an option. It was unthinkable. Somehow I would have to endure living sick and unproductive. Unlike with ME/CFS, being in seclusion in my apartment made me feel worse. I felt okay only when I was away from Charlestown.

In February, needing moral support, I asked son Geoff if he would come for a visit. It was not until the end of May that it was possible for him to get away from home and work for a few days. Of course I hadn’t a clue in February that by May I would be even closer to breakdown. Seeing how sick and distraught I was, Geoff forced me to think about an alternative living situation. In what circumstances would I like to be living?

When I questioned myself that way, I knew, with certainty, that I had to leave Charlestown. I told Ernie. He said, “I want you to go. I want you to be well. I want you to have a good life. That’s how much I love you.”

I did not know where I would go.

On June 8th I met with the Executive Director of Charlestown to tell him I would be leaving and to find out what were the financial ramifications of me leaving and Ernie staying. Having made and announced that decision, I stopped drinking gin. The next day. It was as though a switch had been thrown. I didn’t need or want alcohol, even though I was still sleeping poorly.

Okay. I would leave Charlestown. But where would I go? I know no one in Baltimore except son Michael’s family, and their lifestyle is too crowded and hectic to include me. I know my brother’s family, but their lifestyle is too evangelical Christian for me to fit in with them. Geoff had invited me to Vashon. He said he wanted me to live there and that if I needed help, he would provide it. (Not what I wanted my children ever to do.) Nevertheless, I decided to visit Vashon, never having been there, to see 1) whether I could be there without symptoms, and 2) whether I could feel comfortable, at home, there. After all, the Pacific Northwest has a very different climate from Baltimore and Vashon Island has a unique culture. And…..would I want to live so close to family? Most critical, could I actually leave Ernie at Charlestown?

As you know, I came here in July, but I didn’t say I’d come here to answer those questions. Before I came, though, I felt that the rest of my family should know what I was thinking. I was scared of telling them. A nervous wreck, I was seeing the mental health practitioner at Charlestown. Could I leave Ernie? How would I tell my family? No sooner had I decided that I should talk with them about this idea than opportunities to do so came to me.

• My brother took me to lunch for my birthday.
• Granddaughter Melissa invited me to great-granddaughter Aly’s 10th birthday celebration in New Jersey, where I could talk with Melissa, son-in-law John, and daughter Patti.
• Before I left for New Jersey, son Pete asked me if I could baby-sit with grandson Noah the following Tuesday, a chance to talk with him and DIL Karin.
• During a previously scheduled dinner with daughter Anne, I told her.
• Son Michael called me, “Want to go flying Friday morning, JoWynn?” Breakfast in Ocean City would have been the perfect time to tell Michael, whose reaction I most feared; but it was stormy that morning. So Michael took me to breakfast in Catonsville instead.

Everyone was supportive of me. All were concerned about Ernie. He had continued to reiterate that he wanted me to have a satisfying life, to be well and happy, even if it meant I’d be across the continent. On the phone he assured Patti, “I will feel better knowing that JoWynn is doing well than I do knowing that she is stuck here and sick.” Pete said, “I think it’s great that you could be living where you have a nearby support system.”

So I came to Vashon and immediately knew I couldn’t live here. You’ve already read about that. But since I was here and had to stay until my non-refundable return flight, I told Geoff I wanted to look at rental places. That was all I wanted to do. I was sure that if I found a place where I wanted to live, the rest would follow. On craigslist Geoff already had found some places for us to see. In the process of looking at possible places to live, I saw the beautiful Vashon and I met interesting people. Also, I got to spend a lot of time with Geoff—just what I needed.

On July 28th we saw The Barn and I knew I wanted to live there. Here are the photos I saw in the craigslist listing.

This studio apartment is located on a five-acre estate one mile into the forest. The owners live here.

The Barn is located about 100 yards or so to the right. Here’s a shot of Geoff and Carol walking toward The Barn.

Between the house and The Barn is a large garden. Here are Geoff, Carol, and daughter Nan beside the garden.

And here is the entrance to my home.

See the small door? Notice the sliding doors above. Those doors are at a landing at the top of the stairs to my apartment. When they are open, this is the view.

The landing becomes a balcony, where I can sit and look into the forest.

From the windows on three sides, I see forest. From the other side, I see the garden and the owners’ magnificent house.

Back to the story. Another woman came to see the apartment while we were there. I knew this place would be snatched up. Immediately I submitted my application to the rental agent. That was Thursday. Next I had to be interviewed by the owners. Since there was the possibility that I might not be offered the apartment, I kept looking at other places. But I knew that was my  new home. I knew I was going to move to Vashon and live there. Sunday morning came the phone call from the agent. Could I meet with the owners that afternoon?

There was another factor in my decision-making, one that I had not considered at the beginning of this process. Then I was thinking only about where I could go to get away from Charlestown. When I got to Geoff’s house in July, I found that every day he was taking care of his granddaughter, then 17-month-old Beau, my great-granddaughter.

Granddaughter-in-law Lauryth (Beau’s mom) was on forced bed-rest to recover from a severe ailment. Because she has had previous incidents of disability, it had become clear that she is going to have to live within some limitations. Although my grandson Caleb, son Geoff, and his wife Carol, as well as Nan, do all they can to cover for Lauryth when she’s ill, they all work. I realized that I’m needed here. I can help. I need to be here, not only for myself, but for them.

Their need and finding the place where I wanted to live gave me the assurance that I was on the right track.

In time, you will hear more about the owners of The Barn, but let me just say that they are gracious, generous, kind, and warmly welcoming. During our interview, which was a delightful conversation, we set the date for the lease-signing. He is a building contractor and sawyer, as well as a skilled cabinet-maker and wood-worker. She is a nurse, administering a kidney transplant program. How could a 74-year-old woman living alone be better situated? They can fix whatever might go wrong with me! What’s more, I had the option to rent the place fully furnished. Not just furnished, but everything needful supplied, as though for a vacation rental. I wouldn’t have to pay to have all my furniture moved across country. Nor would I have to start from scratch here. Couldn’t be better.

And so I went back to Charlestown August 5th with a lease that began August 3rd—to pack up and get myself moved as quickly as possible. I myself cannot believe what I did in the 3 1/2 weeks after I got back. After several movers’ estimates with prices that scared the S—T out of me, I got one that was within the budget I’d set myself. It was a “not-to-exceed” price and it included moving my piano. I arranged to have my car driven to Seattle. And I started packing, an extremely effortful task, mentally as well as physically.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Extremely anxious time. Could I get everything done by August 30th, the loading date? Could I get along without my car after it was picked up August 25th? Did I have enough boxes? (Multiple trips to the liquor store and to Home Depot for boxes.) Could I gather enough newspapers?

Every day I got up and started working, first getting rid of stuff. I sent a small mountain of stuff to the Treasure Sale. They needed a large flat-bed to carry it all. Then I nearly filled a large trash bin. I mean a trash bin large enough for me to sleep comfortably down inside it. There were a lot of hard decisions about what to take and what to get rid of. All the while I was feeling sick with anxiety—hardly sleeping.

Before I started packing, my room looked like this:

Because there is not enough wall space in my new home for all my books and art, I decided to leave some books. I began the packing with books, after the difficult choices of books to leave behind—all of Trollope, all of Jane Austen, all of George Eliot, all of Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, and Margaret Drabble; many books of poetry, dolls’ house books, and more. The books I left behind:

These are books I can either read on Kindle, if I want to do so, or they’re books I know I won’t read again, even though they’ve been important to my development.

Packing in process:

Under my bed I found a relic of the time I spent most of my time on the bed–this knee pillow.

Twenty-four boxes of books packed. The mover said my boxes of books were heavy. I said, “I do heavy reading.”

While I was packing, son Pete came with his pickup truck to take furniture and other items granddaughter Michelle could use for her first apartment in Queens, NYC. Together we loaded the truck. I think it’s cool that 22-year-old Michelle and I are starting new lives in our own apartments at the same time.

Packing is difficult because it’s so hard to know where to begin and what to pack with what, what will fit where, and how to get the most into a box. I carefully numbered, labeled, and inventoried every box.

I packed and stacked 59 boxes, including very large ones, and I removed all the art from the walls.

I had just finished disassembling and moving my computer, TV, DVD, and other electronics into the living room when the movers called that they were on campus. I had gotten it all done.

They were impressed.

They packed my art and electronics.

Here’s Phil, the leader and driver.

And here are Tony and William, carefully wrapping my piano and wrestling it on to the truck.

I couldn’t have had a better crew handling my household goods. They were cheerful, skillful, and efficient, and their teamwork was superb. Neighbor Helen told them it was a pleasure to watch them working. “You made it look like you were having fun,” she exclaimed.

That night, Monday night, after leaving Ernie at his dining room, I lay on the bed for two hours in silence in the empty apartment, wide awake and wiped out. I got up and ate. It was more than another hour or so before I could wind down enough to get to sleep.

While I was preparing to move my household, I was also preparing Ernie and me for the leave-taking. Between Geoff’s visit at the end of May and my visit to Vashon in July, Ernie and I had done a lot of talking, a lot of crying (especially me), and a lot of lying together in silence on his bed, just holding each other. We made the decision together. I told him I couldn’t stay at Charlestown and he told me that I should go, that he wanted me to go. Believe me, it is not easy having such a selfless partner. Having his support did not make the decision any less agonizing. The day before I left for Vashon, Ernie said, “I want you to be free.”

He has always wanted me to be free. That’s why I love him so much.

We agreed that the last three weeks together would be good. We would not be mournful. We’d done our grieving. We spent the time reminiscing and enjoying each other and our memories. As I found pictures, forgotten albums, various mementos, and odd things Ernie had stashed, I brought them with me to his studio. We laughed a lot.

As Ernie and I were taking leave, I was also having to tell people at Charlestown that I was leaving. I dreaded that. I expected people to say, “What about Ernie?” Ernie said I should tell them that my family needed me more than he did, that he had all the assistance he needed.

That worked. I found warm support from everyone with whom I spoke, starting with the Director of Nursing who, back in January, had told me Ernie could be cared for in assisted living.

The day I departed Charlestown, when I left Ernie at the dining room, as I have done every day since he’s been there, I said, “Good night, my love. I’ll talk to you in the morning. I love you.” And he said, “Talk to you in the morning. I love you.”

A supportive resident, whose husband is in the care center and far gone in dementia, drove me to the airport, wishing me well.

Ah, the airport and getting here.

I arrived at BWI airport at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and at Nan’s house on Vashon at 4:40 a.m. (Eastern time) on Wednesday, having been awake since 4:30 on Tuesday morning. Going through Security, I left my cell phone. Panic!

They had it.

I brought only what I could carry in Ernie’s back-pack and my large cotton patchwork bag with my laptop, a bulky bath towel for a pillow, and everything else I could stuff into it. I was upright and awake the whole time I was sitting in the airport and on the airplane. Exiting the plane in Seattle, at the most remote gate, I seriously wondered whether I could walk to the exit where Nan was waiting for me. For the first time in my life, I felt like a little old woman. I felt frail. But I made it, so shaky that Nan had to take my hands to help me from the curb to her car.

The next morning, aching all over my body, I waited for Geoff to come get me. He said, “You should be dragging something on wheels, not carrying everything in a back-pack like a student.” It was what I had.

We went straight to the Vashon Athletic Club so that I could weigh what I had carried. Without the load, I weighed 112 lbs. Fully loaded, I weighed 156 lbs.

I had carried that weight through two airports, and done it after 3 1/2 weeks of heavy-duty work—emotional, mental, not to mention physical. I felt more exhausted than I can remember ever feeling.

On Friday my car arrived in Seattle and Geoff and I went to pick it up. Here’s Dwayne, the driver, who said that driving cross-country had now been crossed off his bucket list.

Back on Vashon, I gathered up my belongings from Geoff’s and Carol’s house, shopped at Thriftway, and moved into The Barn, my new home. Tired as I was, I couldn’t stop until everything I could do had been done—at 8:30 that evening. I was wired and wasted, but at home. I felt at home.

Since then, for the first time in many months, maybe two years, I’ve been able to read books again. I’ve read two books (from the King County Public Library)and two New Yorkers just since I moved in on September 2nd. I’m not completely calmed down. I still have jittery, Hungry, nervous times. I still have occasional disfluency; but I can read for hours and I’m sleeping better. Without alcohol.

Thursday morning Lauryth called at 7:30 to ask if I’d like to take a walk with Beau and her in the forest near their home. What could be better? After that, I swam 40 laps in the 20-yd. pool at the athletic club.

I’ve been eating amazingly flavorful food, home-cooked and fresh. Here, at Carol’s and Geoff’s house, we had

Carol’s homemade whole-wheat shortbread with local nectarines, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. And whipped cream. They had picked the berries from the garden at The Barn.

Every day I talk with Ernie by phone, and every day I send him an e-mail  message that is delivered to his cubby. I’ve sent him letters, too. He likes having something he can read and re-read. I will continue to do that. He assures me that he is okay and that he is enjoying my life.

To me, it is amazing that in May I knew I had to live the rest of my life at Charlestown and now, three months later, I am living across the continent on Vashon Island. It is amazing how everything worked to make this new life happen. Everything necessary was provided, each step of the way.

1. First of all, Ernie got into assisted living. He was moved there because he had had 19 brain attacks (or seizures, as they call them at RGT) between January 2010 and January 2011. He has not had an attack since he’s been living there. (It’s as though he had made himself get into RGT. I certainly couldn’t have left otherwise.)
2. Geoff came to see me and suggested that I move to Vashon just when I was desperate, sick, and thus susceptible to such an idea.
3. Ernie genuinely wanted me to leave, saying that he could be happy only when his beloved is happy.
4. My family and Charlestown senior management supported me.
5. I found the perfect place to live on Vashon. What’s more, the rent is $250 less than the limit I’d set myself. Furnished!
6. The move became affordable, thanks to the owners here, the moving company I finally found, and the Auto Driveaway service Geoff found for me.
7. Ernie’s unwavering commitment and encouragement made it all possible. Over our 40 years together, I have said to him, “You are my hero.” He has never been more heroic than now—in letting me go. He feels that by doing so, he is helping our family, too. What matters most to him, though, is that he is helping me.

At my last meeting with the counselor, I teared up. “These are tears of gratefulness,” I told her. “I am filled with gratitude for the life I have.”

Now you know. I am here in The Barn at Vashon. And that’s how I got here.

Where I slept Thursday night

I really am living in a barn.

Here’s what it looks like inside. Notice the horse stalls. The horses don’t live there. They are stabled on the other side of the property. Those boxes are some I had unpacked.

Inside that door is the laundry room. To the left, you can see the stairs

that go up to the loft apartment.

Thursday night, knowing that it would be cold by morning, I decided to bring in some clothes to wear from the closet, which is outside on  the landing/balcony.

At 9:30 I went out, closing the door behind me to keep out bugs and immediately knew that I had locked myself out. I’ve been so careful about the lock, making sure it was either set to open or that I had the key; but in that instant, I forgot.

Through the window in the locked door, I could see my cell phone on the kitchen counter.

My first thought was to see whether I could walk to the nearest neighbor to call Geoff, who has a key. As soon as I got beyond the light coming from The Barn, however, I was in complete darkness; I couldn’t see my feet. Going anywhere was impossible. The nearest neighbor is about a 1/4 mile away. Not even a distant light was visible through the forest.

So I prepared to spend the night outside. Luckily, all my clothes—the few clothes I brought with me, including two windbreakers, were in the outside closet. I put on several more layers. I closed the balcony sliding doors. Then I went downstairs where I’d seen something hanging on bars outside the horse stalls—padding and a blanket. Using some clothes rolled up as a pillow and wearing one windbreaker and putting my feet inside the sleeves of the other one, I lay down on the landing. After quite a while, I went to sleep.

By midnight, however, it was too cold to stay there. I decided to move to the laundry room downstairs. Carrying my “bedding”, that’s where I went. Inside I found a pile of what I assume are saddle pads and a very large, thick and soft, woolen horse blanket. I made myself a much more comfortable bed. Here’s where I slept.

Here’s a closer look at my improvised bed.

I covered myself with the horse blanket doubled and was plenty warm enough.

Below you can see the layers of padding.

There I went back to sleep, and although I woke briefly at 3:30, I slept until 7:00.

Sure that Carol and Geoff would not hear or answer their telephone at that hour, I decided to walk to their house (5 miles) and to try to hitch a ride. It was 50 degrees. I was cold, but not as cold as when I capsized into 50 degree water. When I’d walked the mile out of the forest, a teenage boy picked me up on his way to school. After he dropped me off at Vashon Highway, a middle-aged man picked me up and dropped me uptown, a few blocks from Geoff’s house.

Banging on his door several times, I woke him up and he brought me home.

That day, Friday, the movers arrived with my stuff.

That’s only books, art supplies, and art. They carried the rest, including the piano, up those stairs.

I worked until 10:30 last night. It’s Saturday morning and I’m tired and sore; and…..I haven’t found my tools. Despite my careful inventory, they were not in the box where they were supposed to be.

Back to unpacking and the frantic search for the missing necessities.

The back story is still to come.

Planet Vashon

At present I am in the process of moving to Vashon. Leaving Charlestown and coming here is like going to another planet. It is such a different world. The three and a half weeks between leaving Vashon August 4th and vacating my Charlestown apartment on August 30th were a whirlwind of activity and a virtual earthquake emotionally.

That’s why I have not posted recently.

To come here, I had to leave Ernie in assisted living at Charlestown, 3000 miles away. I am here to help my family and to become well myself.

On Friday I took delivery of my car near Seattle, in Kent, WA. Then I moved into my new home, where I am awaiting my household goods which are somewhere between Baltimore and Vashon.

I will be posting the whole story–how I came to be here. I just wanted to let you know what’s happening and why you haven’t heard from  me. Since I am no longer living at Parkview 616, I will be renaming my blog–Barn View.

That’s my new home. Geoff and Carol are walking toward it. Below is the entrance.

When the sliding doors above the entrance are opened, this is the view from the back of my new home.

That’s Geoff standing at the railing on the day we first saw this apartment, July 28th. I signed a lease on August 3rd, then the next day flew back to Baltimore to start packing up.

More to come as my life settles down.

Kayaking again

It was great to be back on the Middle Branch in Baltimore at 6:00 this morning. My kayaking in Puget Sound was in the midst of speed boats and jet skis in mid-afternoon. There was no one around when I paddled out today.

Just the way I like it.

Back home at 8:00 and grocery shopping done (on foot) by 9:00.

More of Vashon

Busy day Thursday. In the morning I went swimming at the Vashon Athletic Club, which is connected to a gas station, as though it had once been the auto repair shop. I’ve already mentioned how crummy it looked to me, compared to what I’m used to at Charlestown and various athletic clubs I’ve belonged to or used around the country. The locker room looked cramped and kind of primitive. The pool reeked of chlorine and looked small to me. However, I decided to give it a try.

And I’m glad I did. There was no chlorine in the air at all. The guy who maintains it had told me that somebody had neglected to do something the day I smelled it. In the system he maintains, they make their own chlorine from salt. The water felt great. It tasted faintly salty. The inside of the pool has recently been resurfaced, and after swimming the first lap, I felt that it might be a couple of yards longer than Charlestown’s pool. The pool itself is good, even though the translucent walls of the room look shoddy. I didn’t even mind the shower for four.

After swimming, Carol’s and Geoff’s friend Carla took  me to lunch at the Vashon Tea Shop, right in the middle of uptown. They offer dozens of varieties of teas–black, green, white, decaf, herbal, and tisanes (floral infusions).

Here’s Carla contemplating her order at the counter.

We both had spinach feta quiche, made in individual portions and very good. I had lapsang souchong tea, which  I haven’t had in over 20 years, I’m sure. Ernie and I used to have it among a variety of teas we drank regularly, but that was long ago when we had tea every afternoon.

The current featured local artist makes these mini-altars. (I thought of Joseph Cornell’s art boxes.)

And someone made these silk mini-prayer flags.

When she invited me to lunch, Carla said the tea shop was “gentle elegant.” She’d heard about my first impression of Vashon.

I wouldn’t describe this shop as elegant, but it is charming and quiet. Definitely refined by Vashon standards.

And a curtained doorway leads into The Vashon Book Store, a surprisingly well-stocked bookshop for such a small community. Even more surprising, there’s another bookshop two blocks away, next to Cafe Luna.

Good lunch in good company.

Thursday evening Carol, Geoff, and I walked uptown to the performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream by local actors. It was performed outdoors on a beautiful evening in the park.

The cast and the audience included people of all ages, from infants to elderly–well, not the cast. But there were lots of kids in the cast.

It was what you would expect of a small-town amateur production, and because of my hearing, I could not understand most of the speaking. That didn’t matter. The ambiance was great and I thoroughly enjoyed being there.

So, Vashon has begun to grow on me. Being here has become much more enjoyable.

Good times at Vashon

Okay. I’ve just presented a mostly negative take on Vashon. In fact, I’ve been having some very good times. First, let me show you the floral arrangement daughter-in-love Nan gave as a welcome gift.

Calla lilies, roses, long-stemmed lavender something, and exotic greenery. Just look at these roses:

They were actually almost mauve, not this pink, but dusty lavender.

With Nan, I saw the lovely home of her friends.

At one time Nan even lived here, in Mary’s studio behind the house.

We picked two quart yogurt tubs full of their raspberries, so ripe they fell into the tubs with a touch of the branch. The raspberry patch is behind the flower garden.

Here’s the tepee where her friends like to sleep in the summer.

This is Vashon, folks, where the bumper sticker reads “Keep Vashon weird.” But Vashon is starting to look better to me. And believe me, the food is REALLY good.

At Geoff’s house on Friday morning I got to watch 17-month-old great-granddaughter Beau play with and in her new kiddie pool.

I am waiting for Beau to get interested in me. I’m just hanging out, not trying to interact with her, not trying to get her attention, just being there. Each time she’s seen me, she’s paid more attention to me. Now she waves and smiles and “talks” to me. Yesterday she came looking for me in my room, stood at the doorway waving and giggling, backed away and came back into view several times.

Geoff and  Carol, with daughter Zoe, built their house in a sweat equity development. It is located just three or four long blocks from “Main Street”, like a miniature suburb of the town.

It is named for Rose Ballen, who years ago envisioned just such a sweat equity project to enable people to own their own homes.

The homes are grouped around a commons area, and each is painted differently from the next.

Geoff and Carol’s house is painted “Seattle Red” over the initial objections of other homebuilder/owners. It’s a lovely house, with four bedrooms, front and back porches, and plenty of space for gardening.

 

The commons is beautifully landscaped, including play area for children, as you can see from Geoff’s porch.

Here’s a side view of Geoff and Carol’s house.

Upscale Vashon (or mid-scale Vashon)–fresh, new, tidy, and attractive.

Just behind Roseballen is a communal farm where Geoff, Carol, Caleb, and Lauryth have started to produce their own food. On Sunday morning I went with Caleb as he did his farm chores–tending the ducks and chickens and collecting their eggs, and feeding and watering the pigs. Here he is getting food out of the shed.

And here are the ducks and chickens converging on the food. Already they are getting enough organic eggs to sell at a premium.

Next come the pigs. When full-grown, one of them will be butchered humanely to provide meat for the Johns family.

As Caleb performed his chores, we were talking–good talk about where he and Lauryth are in the experiment to live a sustainable lifestyle.

That evening Caleb and I prepared a pasta dinner for all of us at their yurt. Here’s Beau, who loves to eat and eats everything, with Grandma helping and Granddad supervising. Lauryth is on the far right.

Most of the group:

This yurt has a guest room, sleeping loft, washer and dryer, dishwasher, hot tub, and Lauryth’s piano. Remember, this is Vashon.

While Geoff was at gigs, Carol and I feasted on half a whole salmon. It melted in the mouth–so fresh and moist. Leftovers went into a huge salad that featured, among other goodies, eggs from the farm, carrots and tiny green and lemon cucumbers, tomatoes, black olives, raw sugar snap peas,avocado, bean sprouts, and goddess dressing made with tahini and tamari, not to forget the fabulous, succulent salmon.

More to come. I’m getting groggy with sleep. Enough for now.

Uptown Vashon

I’ve told you that Vashon looks shabby to me. Some people who live here agree. Some think it’s unfortunate that so many Vashon residents want no changes in their town. They don’t want any updating, any repainting, even any repairs. They want it to look shabby.

Let me show you what I mean with some shots I took along the three or four blocks of “Main Street”. They don’t call it that here. It’s just “uptown”. See what you think.

The Red Bicycle restaurant where you can get sushi.

A row of shops just off “Main Street”.

Now this is kind of cute. It’s actually a shop named WisEnergy. I don’t know what products or services are offered here. There are lots of VERY small businesses.

In the following shot you can see a pedestrian crosswalk. Drivers actually stop for people who start walking across the street. The corner shop is where I took my laptop. When Caleb said he wanted to look at it, the owner charged me only half his minimum charge because he hadn’t completed his diagnostics.

The big red building is a pet supplies and grooming business. There are several establishments that cater for pets. Across the street is the Fair Isle Animal Clinic. Pets apparently are big business in Vashon. Everywhere I go (but not at Geoff’s house) there are dogs. Here’s the Vashon source for all things pets.

Across the street is the gifts, arts, crafts, office, and school supplies store, as well as a pizza pub with the high sign.

Coffee is very big on Vashon. There are roasteries here and many, many places selling coffee in all its forms. Local is very big. Organic is very big. Below is one of the drive-through espresso shops. Photographed with the flowers, it looks nice, but up close, it’s not. The sign above is in front of it, near the street.

I think this shop is either consignment or thrift. There are several thrift shops, including Wendy’s Weather’d Wear across the street.

Also, there are numerous shops selling decorative objects. I think of them as tourist shops, but it seems that islanders buy a lot of crafty things, as well as second-hand stuff.

In a relatively attractive strip just off “Main Street” is  Cafe Luna, a popular coffee house, sometimes featuring live music. It’s also a wi-fi cafe and a place where you can just sit and chat. Here you can see inside. It’s kind of quaint.

Hand-lettered signs like this one are placed on sidewalks or next to the street.

What do you think of this sign for Parker Plaza?

Here they tell me where to cross the street.

The Indian restaurant.

Latin store:

The most expensive, highly rated restaurant in Vashon, La Boucherie. The owners have a farm and butcher their animals. They sell their produce and meat and use it in the restaurant.

Now, do you think uptown Vashon is pretty?