Palm Trees in southern Florida

Friday, July 30, 2021

It's been awhile....

 

The last thing I posted on this blog was the Declaration of Independence on July 4th of last year.

Let's go way back - back before the "pandemic house arrest", before the "essential" & "non-essential" job labels, back when society was what we'd had for my lifetime.

I'm talking about the 3rd of January 2020, which was a personal remembrance day because that was when my 4 year old grandson was diagnosed with leukemia.

This was not the horror of Leukemia's first visit to my family, which was when Leukemia took my 20 year old daughter, Aurora, on the evening of Friday the 13th of 2011.  Sad times.


A sunset over Hood Canal In Washington state.


But in January 2020, Christmas was over and we were about to head back to Florida when we got the news.  We stayed to help.

[A side note on Leukemia:  these days they save 90% of the kids who get the most common type, and my grandson is on the good side of that equation!!!  He is down to once a month doc visits and in a few months they will get stretched out even farther! This is GOOD NEWS, A SURVIVOR!!!]

The plan was for us to leave when he hit the maintenance stage. Then the pandemic came. So, for a variety of reasons, we did not leave.  We even acquired a summer home on the Hood Canal! Florida was not forgotten, just delayed, with the new plan to spend summers at the Hood Canal beach house and to travel in the RV and spend winters in Florida. 

Then, in February of this year, our house burnt down.  We escaped barefoot into the snow but lost our cat, Larry (and everything else) to the fire. 


Not a good night
but it could have been worse


We moved back into our RV.  The neighbors were fantastic with the help of food, clothes, shoes, rubber boots, coats and the like! I cannot say enough about how all these people helped us when we really needed the help. Then we were offered the guest house next door, so we are now renting it. The county is allowing us to replace what we had where it was (the salmon creek setback rules have changed greatly since the home was put there in the 70's), and we must maintain the same footprint. We expect to have a replacement manufactured home delivered in September.  We got lucky getting a build spot in September, the regular wait times for a manufactured home are sixteen months these days & it's the same & longer if you want a stick built house.

That brings us to today.  I'm not sure what I want to say these days but I will not be political on this blog....

We are alive and living today here in Tahuya Washington, visiting kids and grandkids, getting ready for the new house delivery and planning on being in Florida next winter.  Shorts, a tee shirt and flip-flops is the year round climate I'm still aiming for!


5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was afraid bad things were happening. I wish you the best and welcome back any time you get a whim. By the way, I find you a very good and enjoyable blog writer. The Hood Canal area was a favorite of mine when I worked in Washington at the Hanford Site mess.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Rob. Thanks for the update. I'm sorry for your loss and recent troubles. I'm sure your daughter in heaven is looking over your grandson. Ya'll be safe and I'll keep ya'll in my thoughts and prayers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful news on your grandson! I've been hoping that the treatment worked for him.
    Sounds like you've been having a rough time but it will eventually get straightened out - best of luck with all of it! I'm glad nobody was hurt in the fire.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry to hear all the bad news; and you losing "Larry."
    I'd sure feel bad if I lost B.K...(Barn Kat)....He just showed up 4 years ago..Karma.

    ReplyDelete