Sunday, October 22 – October 28
This week was all about road trips, family reunions and connections.
Sunday, October 22nd
I am thankful for lazy days. I helped Marcia with a very small yard project and then we reorganized part of her workshop, but overall, it was a lazy, no pressure day. I can’t even remember how I passed the rest of the day- maybe writing, organizing, a little bit of TV and sorting through my things as I begin to think about what I should pack for my upcoming trips.
Monday, October 23rd
I swam in the morning, then came back to the house. In the late morning, we hit the library to get her library card renewed (audiobooks are perfect for road tips!) and afterwards, she taught me the quick and easy way to make homemade granola.
We talked about our upcoming road trip to visit my dad. The initial plan was to leave on Wednesday and knock out the 9+ hour drive in one day, but the weather forecast predicted a possibility of snow, so we decided that we might want to leave a day earlier and split the trip into two days- making it more leisurely and allowing us to take in some sights along the way.
Marcia booked a hotel with a pool, which I just want to take a moment to stop and appreciate her publicly. She knows how important it is to me that I swim at least 5 days a week- I like to joke that it keeps my crazy at bay, but the truth is that it has been a vital to me maintaining a healthy mindset and emotional balance.
Tuesday, October 24th
Wednesday, October 25th
I woke early and did the best I could to creep out of the room without waking Marcia. The hotel pool was supposed to open at 6:00 a.m., but when I got there, my hotel key card didn’t work. Undaunted, I had the front desk use their master key to unlock the pool door and I had the pool to myself for the entire hour. It was GLORIOUS. Once I returned to the room, I showered, changed and packed my bags. Marcia and I grabbed a quick bite for breakfast and then hit the road– stopping first at the First Presbyterian Church of Bend to walk their labyrinth, then driving to Tumalo Falls to see the beauty of the waterfall.
Tumalo Falls was lovely- and it felt nostalgic to hear snow crunching beneath my feet again. But it was COLD, too – this Alaskan gal’s blood has thinned over the last year and I didn’t have winter boots or a winter coat on, so we didn’t linger for very long. It was a 30 minute drive each direction fr
Although we had the same final destination, we each had a different stop to make. I stopped at one more labyrinth in Bend- the labyrinth at Nativity Lutheran Church, before getting back on the road to White City.
When I made it to dad’s in the mid-afternoon, I found that Marcia and I had arrived within minutes of each other – I saw her car making the turn up into his (long, steep) driveway, then up around the final bend to his house. When Marcia arrives, she does it in full Marcia style- music cranked up and full of sass– just like our college days. 🎸🎶😂
I’m sure it was a happy traipse down memory lane for my dad as they exchanged a long hug when she got out of the car. It’s those moments that remind me of the impact my dad has had on so many of my friends. But that’s a post for another day…
Having arrived safely, we settled in for a few days of QT with my dad.
Thursday, October 26th
I am committed to swimming 5-6 days a week…. so I was up and out the door (a little later than I planned) for the long drive down to Medford to swim.
As always, the YMCA staff was friendly, but my experience was a bit frustrating right out the gate. After I found the locker rooms (up a steep flight of stairs), quickly changed and locked up my belongings, I wandered around, trying to find the entrance to the pool (lack of signage).
Initially, I didn’t see anyone else in the locker room, so I went outside in the hall and peered around, looking for where to go. When I ran into a woman and asked her were the pool was, she informed me there was as separate locker room for swimming in a different part of the building.
This is the first YMCA I have been to that has a swimming locker room AND a regular locker room (I didn’t know that was a ‘thing’), so I gathered all my stuff from the locker and the nice lady walked me partway there- through the gym and around a corner. The pool area was also a surprise – I’ve become used to larger community YMCAs with lazy rivers for walking and a lap swim pools that is separate from the mail pool. This facility had one pool, divided in half. One half has four lap lanes and the other half was open for walking, water exercise, etc. Though I was initially surprised, it makes sense that a smaller community would have a smaller facility- I just needed to adjust my thinking and expectations.
This pool has something else I have not experienced before- a UV filtration system. There is a big sign hanging on the wall that says it is ‘better than salt and much better than chlorine’.
After my swim, I found a text from Marcia that she had also driven down the hill and was in town. Dad and Cris were out for a medical appointment and some shopping, so we knew we had a few hours to kill before we would all meet up at the house.
The two of us met up at the Expo parking lot, where we searched for nearby breakfast places. Marcia settled on a little cafe called Over Easy in ‘downtown’ Medford.
Breakfast was a fun and leisurely affair. I really like the flavor of ginger, so I tried a Ginger Latte. Those who know me will recall that Sheli and coffee are a dangerous combination 💣 and that I don’t normally drink it- mostly because I don’t like the flavor, but partly because other people don’t like the way I spaz out… 🤣🤷🏽♀️
After breakfast, we wandered around and passed a mural with one of my favorite Latin sayings, Alis Volat Propriis, which I later discovered is also the Oregon state motto). At our server’s recommendation, we stopped into a fun store called Bumble & Wren. It’s one of those stores that makes me wish I had a home/place to live since there were so many fun things there. We spent a few minute chatting with the owner about her business, social media presence, and favorite products, then wandered back out again. We hopped back in our vehicles to drive just a few minutes down the road and around the corner to the Rogue Valley Grower’s Market, which was being held at a nearby park.
We spent more time finding a place to park and walking over to it than we actually spent there- not many booths were set up and nothing really caught our attention, so we decided to head back to the house and see if Dad and Cris had returned.
When we returned to the house, we found that dad and Cris has also returned about 15-20 minutes earlier. We all chatted about our morning activities, then dad, Marcia and I retreated to the workshop to talk.
The three of us had some pretty intense conversations – mostly around family dynamics, family hurt and unmet expectations. As always, I appreciate those occasions when I am surrounded by people who love each other enough to participate in those hard conversations with me – it is both healthy and healing. ❤️
My friend Christina has been encouraging me to share more of what’s in my head, so I’ll do that in a post very soon. Brace yourselves!
When our serious discussion concluded, we returned to the house, where I suggested that dad and I play a game of chess with me. He agreed and I quickly set up the board.
Friday, October 27th
I was up early- around 2:30 a.m., but forced myself to stay in bed and tried to go back to sleep. By 3:00 am., I was fully awake, but still unwilling to commit to the day, so I laid in bed and surfed on my phone for a while.
When I finally arose, it was with the intention to get out the door and to the pool by 5:00 a.m., so I left my dad’s by about 4:15 a.m. The combination of darkness and thick fog made me think about Stephen King’s The Mist, and the hills and curves on the drive into Medford took my full attention.
Neevertheless, I made it down the hill in record time, and ended up sitting in my Tahoe in the parking lot until they opened. One of the downside to this YMCA is that their parking lot is NOT well lit. As a visitor to the area, it was difficult to locate the entrance (and it didn’t help that Google maps had me enter through an alley/side street and not the main entrance). While I appreciate that they provide seniors and disabled parking spots right near the entrance, walking through a dark parking lot in an unfamiliar city in dense fog is something from a horror movies and consequently NOT my favorite thing to do. Once inside, I quickly changed, showered and headed to the pool, only to be stopped short by a locked gate across the entrance. I stood there, dripping wet, cold, and frustrated. What the heck?! I went back to my locker, pulled out my phone and pulled up the schedule, only to realize that although the YMCA opened at 5, the pool didn’t open until 5:30. 🤦🏽♀️ I spent 10 minutes sitting in the locker room, cold and wet, until…
I heard the click of a gate and a lock. I looked at my watch and saw there were still 15-ish minutes until lap swimming opened. Then the sweet strains of a violin caught my ear.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I was hearing- it was a bit disorienting since it sounded like it was coming from the pool. I sat quietly, listening for a few minutes, then wandered out to the pool deck. This time, the gate was unlocked and open, and when I stepped out onto the pool deck, I found the lifeguard practicing her violin. She didn’t notice me for the first several minutes and stopped, embarrassed, when she turned and saw me standing there.
I encouraged her, telling her how beautifully she was playing, and she flushed, self-consciously. She said she was practicing for the upcoming holiday season and that she loved the acoustics in the pool. We chatted for a few minutes about her playing- and she said that she had picked up the violin late in life and had only been playing for two years. When she started to put her violin away, I encouraged her to keep playing and told her how lovely it would be to hear her play while I swam. And she DID. She played for the entire hour I was in the pool, pausing on occasion to talk with other swimmers. It made for a really wonderful morning swim. ❤️🎉🏊🏽♀️ I thanked her for playing when I got out of the pool and she smiled gratefully. Win-Win for the morning.
I returned to dad’s house and we discussed how to celebrate dad and Marcia’s birthday. I suggested that we should hit town and each buy a lottery ticket in honor of their respective double digit palindrome birthdays, and they concurred. (I mean, what could be luckier, right?) 🍀
Since they are both avid woodworkers, the three of us decided to cruise down into town and check out a couple of the lumber stores- Hardwood Industries and Beavertooth Oak, while Cris remained behind to make dad’s requested birthday meal — homemade chicken and noodle soup.
After we kicked around town for a bit, we meandered home and enjoyed a nice, quiet evening, just being together.
Happy Birthday to Dad and Marcia! I am so grateful to have you both in my life, you are ever present, ever supportive, always honest and always loving me! 🎉❤️ Thank you.
Saturday, October 28th
After a flurry of activity, Marcia hit the road early this morning, stopping to visit a friend in Roseburg before heading back to Cheney via Portland.
I’m lingering behind a bit for more QT with dad and Cris.
While I would normally try to get in a swim today, my left shoulder is feeling a bit… challenged, so I’ll take a two day break and get back in the water on Monday.
I spent the day was hanging out with my dad, following him around like a lost puppy. 😛 We binge watched some television (Wednesday on Netflix- we both love her dry humor and wit), and he worked on some projects in his workshop while I pounded on a keyboard, trying to write this week’s update.
After being whomped so thoroughly at the first chess game, I’ve been reluctant to pull out the board again. Maybe tomorrow… ♗♕♜
Well folks, that’s a wrap on this week’s adventures! Take care of yourselves and each other!
