Time to go...

It's been a pretty cool last few days. Mary brought me flowers and a card on my last day of work, which was the day before my birthday. Woody tried to kill me, for reals. I took my birthday off and was very glad I did. The Packs made me homemade enchiladas and a birthday cake, which would mark the first time I've had a birthday cake on my birthday in about six years! Cindy even got me a little present--a few pictures of the family so I won't forget them, as if I ever could. Those pictures are going to be like my flag of Sri Lanka: they'll go with me everywhere I go and hang in every place I ever live. (The only exception to the flag is living here, because I got moved from room to room so often. I've slept in the spare bedroom, on the couch, in the camper, on the floor of the kids' room, and even in Cindy and Rob's room.)

I invited over five friends from the resort for dinner and a game and maybe a movie, but things never go as planned. To be more specific, not one of the people I invited showed up or called. But that's all right. I had fun with the Packs and the neighbor girl, Rebecca, anyway. The kids even helped me load up my car, which was nice, although I had to unpack it and repack it afterwards. (Maybe I'm too particular about where and how things go, but I like to be able to see out my back window if possible, and I like to minimize the chance of things breaking if I hit a bump in the road.)

We went down to visit a friend from church--the Korean girl I gave piano lessons to a few years ago--because she had acquired a second keyboard and wanted to sell it. Cindy wanted to buy it for Kamryn but wanted me to check it out and make sure it was a good deal. It wasn't anything fancy--had six different voices, 88 working keys, and a pedal. As far as I'm concerned, if Kamryn is serious about wanting to learn piano, that would be perfect for her because she'll never have problems with not having enough keys or not having a sustaining pedal. Or is it called a damper pedal? I can never remember the term; I just know I use it almost constantly when I play. I want to say the damper is on the left and the sustaining on the right….

Well, whatever.

Oh yeah, there was also a black bear in the yard, passed close enough to the house for us to see its teeth in the early dawn. (We woke up at six in the morning on the 31st to say good-bye to Rob, who left for a hunting trip, and the bear showed up about two minutes after Rob left.)


So now I'm in Fairbanks, about to eat dinner. The drive was long and uneventful. I passed a few cars. And I saw a reindeer. That's about it. In a 476-mile drive.