Rellies

When Mom and Dad moved east some 35 years ago they probably didn't see how difficult. getting family to traverse that same distance would be. Whether it was climate, cost or time it was simply a tough journey to make, either direction. Nate and I have had the experience of being close to the family in Minnesota, but not the extended France family or immediate Olson/Batstone family in Cali. So it is with new geographic privilege that we are a phone call away from drop-in visitors. At the increasingly pleasant prospect of seeing extended family on collective vacation days or simply during a visit while attending a function we also face the challenge of being stretched thin. Not a terrible conundrum to be in, but challenging in its resolution.
Natalie and I have had the chance to visit with my cousins at the zoo and wild animal park, stay a couple of nights with her cousins in Compton, get visits from parents/grandparents and feel a closer presence to all the rest.
It brings a measure of repose to have that as we draw closer to the holidays, the first without Dad. I don't think any of us relish any of the newness that his absence will mean in these coming days, regardless of where we will find ourselves. Change and comfort are rarely great bedfellows but I think the effort to insert newness, such as, for us, California during Christmas, is a dramatic but relevant occasion that may help to assist us through these especially difficult times. Dad wouldn't have sacrificed the Holiday season in Minnesota for one in California just to tip the scale of familial duty but would have traveled to the ends of the earth if it meant being with family. It seems strange,though, that the place he so dearly loved, the home, the snow, the fireplace and everything that meant contentment to him will sit empty this Christmas while the rest of us scratch our heads at how to deal.
I guess like the visits with extended family that bring the newness of the interim since the previous visit, our immediate family will bring new holiday experiences to our next gathering. Dad will stay in our memories of holidays old, but no doubt anxious to hear the new stories. He always loved a good story.

Not to be confused with a grisly scene from at least two movies Ethan was happy to compare, this was Natalie Saturday night after dinner. Beets, they are. Since she's started solid food we've prepared it all at home. It's the cheapest monetarily but a very time-consuming venture. It requires baking/steaming and then pureeing, then freezing said puree in the ice cube trays. Natalie is slowly learning to eat more textured foods and enjoys eating several things on her own but she's definitely got an issue with some textures. I thought, egregiously, that this night I would try and curb some time and effort by simply putting the beets through the food mill instead of the blender. Well, haste makes waste. Her unwillingness to 'chew' certain food is strangely absent of defiance. She simply spits it out, looks at it, then promptly rubs her eyes. Ethan was visiting and thought it an outstanding opportunity (check his Facebook page). I think we're on our way to one-meal preparation for the three of us as we see Natalie point to our plates, or climb on us as we eat our breakfast while sitting on the floor, a habit we want to change (not eating at the table, that is).

Officially official

I thought for awhile about a blog that would delve into the costly consequences of having to depend on the services of someone who does not like their job. Maybe they like it, but are indifferent to their work which, I believe, is more insidious. Then I thought that could lead into another blog about how that's made me work even harder to earn institutional services that we have found available, thus negating the stereotype of public service recipients being lazy, tax-sucking slobs. As much as I love to preach and fly in the face of convention, I got tired just having that whole conversation in my head.
Suffice it to say, I finally received my Cal driver's license. I applied for it the first week of September. Make no mistake, though. My gripe, well, bafflement is better said, is not with the DMV. I followed their exact instructions, honored their request for more information regarding my seizure history (a delay I expected), and found the clerk I spoke to very professional and courteous. What happened was that the DMV sent it to my p.o. box and it wasn't delivered but sent back to the DMV. Why would the post office do this? Because some min-wage high-school lackey looked at our change of address form, filled out in Lanesboro (so we're talking mid-August), and decided one of our last names would be sufficient instead of both. As a result, we were getting mom's mail and some of ours. She was still getting some of our mail back in Lanesboro. I called the post office and they told me to fill out new change of address forms, but one for each member of the household and that mom should do the same, including one for Dad. (Insert rhetorical question here.) We did. The license must have been caught in that transition, therefore not delivered to "Weaver". I didn't understand this until my temporary license was a week from expiring. I called the DMV and they told me simply that it was returned. I asked if I could go pick it up, just to be safe, and I was told No, the local DMV doesn't distribute the hard copies and that I'll have to have my name put on a list for the hard copy to be re-sent. Then she said, "We'll send you a temporary one in the mean time." (Insert rhetorical question here.) I thought she was joking. She wasn't. Having not received anything after a week I called again and a different clerk said she didn't see any record that the license was sent, not even a temporary one and I should go to the DMV, wait in line to get a number, and apply for another temporary one. Well, there's a happy ending to all of this: on Wednesday I received a handwritten, temporary license good for 60 days, which was a relief since my present temporary license was to expire yesterday. Lo and behold, the hard copy arrived yesterday, just in time. But I love the irony: I suddenly was licensed in triplicate, if only for one day.