Monday, February 16, 2009

I'm home!

I had a great trip, aside from being miserably sick. Lots of time to visit, a toddler to cuddle, a trip to urgent care with a friend to get our throats swabbed. Doesn't get much better than that. Well, umm, hmm...

I still don't know if I spread my disease to everyone else. I hope not. But Della is starting to feel sick and Mike wasn't sure if it was his imagination but his throat was hurting too. The kids weren't complaining yet though.

The drive home was uneventful. I was happy to get back home. "Home" apparently begins at Washtucna. That's where things start to look "right" even though the landscape isn't quite like home yet. Maybe it's the more prevalent farming, or more cattle. Something...

I've decided that although I was brought up as a forest dweller until I was 10, I am definitely an open-spaces kind of girl now. I love trees, don't get me wrong, but the way they close in on you over there in wetstern Washington is downright confining. As a kid I used to love road trips into Idaho and Montana. Thunderstorms over the plains. Valleys full of antelope with eagles flying above. The sound of crickets on a warm night. The smell of late summer. Bats flying into the barn and scaring my country cousins. :) When I was older I got to enjoy just about every western state. I love them all. I guess I'd be pretty happy anywhere but on that particular stretch of coast. And I could probably be happy even there, but given my 'druthers I'll take wide vistas and even wider skies any old day.

I'm so sick I don't even want to go visit my horse, and I feel kind of guilty. I did stop in to check on Soxy and petted Scout real quick, but other than that I'm pretty worthless. John said Tonka's been following him all over the place like a puppy. I'll have to go spend some quality time with him tomorrow.

2 comments:

froglander said...

Hope you're feeling better!

It's funny how the trees of western Washington can make some feel smothered and others find it cozy. I've found it feels more like home once I cross back to the west side of the mountains and the trees are tall again. I live in a valley and am just so used to seeing trees and hills and mountains on the horizon that I just feel sorta lost in those wide open spaces. But I must admit, there is something about that space that makes you want to hop on a pony and just ride until you reach the sunset :)

Della said...

I adore the openness of where you are. If there had been the things we wanted over there, I definitely would have stayed. But as it was, you and your family were the only advantages to staying..and though all of you are excellent reasons, you don't pay our bills! ;-)