The rain let up today so I knew we were bound outside for an adventure, or at least a longish walk to who-knows-where, as yet undecided. After all, we have everything we need in-home right now and the days and nights just run together in what feels like oppressive darkness and seaside walks or wooded hikes are almost out of the question as we don’t have the gear unless you can find a day that isn’t rainy and cold and dark and near-miserable. You can imagine today with only a half-a-fuck!-level cold I planned to get out No Matter What even if we had nothing much to do.
As I was toasting homemade pumpernickel (d/l!) and peeling oranges and pouring milk for the tousled-kids’ breakfast, my mother called in and offered to bring us a hot dish for dinner. My evening meal responsibilities shelved, the kids and I brushed teeth and scrubbed faces and bundled up and took to the streets – fine, let’s take back library books and stop at our post office box. Out the door –
where we were snooped by no fewer than five or six cats as we walked, starting with our own little Josie and continued by a relay-method of curious felines.
Phoenie was looking sharp in her new Jack Skellington hat as I continued to fail at phone-picture-taking.
And as always we found lots of little piles of refuse!
I am old school HQX as I can mess about with the phone while walking in the near dark (you can watch it fall during these pictures) and wetness and treacherous walkways. I need a tag just for the Hoquiam sidewalks because they are jagged and scary and mossy and slick and there are portions dug out entirely and without warning and tonight, a huge stretch along fifth street where the streetlights didn’t work and Nels fell into a cinderblock hole.
As we walked down M street darkness was falling… onto the creepy but cozy weirdness of my childhood home…
Nels navigated the way with his new compass (ala his aunt Jules):
And some Christmas lights were still out (yay!).
I suspect my liittle mobile camera uploads will continue to improve – I’m new to this. But I figure if I can make my $100 point-and-click shoot pretty good shit for this journal, I can do it on the camera. App hunting is actually not too much fun for me, but a necessary business I suppose.
At the library we were (literally) hugged and kissed by one of our librarian friends and the kids played and chatted while I turned in books and picked up holds. Our library is awesome in that they are very kid-friendly and inclusive and we have a great regional system. It was dark as hell when we left but I turned on some music and the kids sang our way home through the chill.
You’re welcome, west-side Hoquiam.
Once is a coincidence. Twice is synchronicity.
It struck me as a funny coincidence that you previously mentioned the kids running around in the dark with their “caving lights” because I bought one for Kylie for Christmas. She was always wanting to use mine.
As it turns out, I also bought Kylie a compass. I know that compasses tend to look similar, but I would wager that Nels has the same model that Kylie does (it seemed like a great deal at just over $5 at Walmart). Then again, I can’t make out the azimuth sight in the photo, so maybe it’s not the same kind. But still…
If Phoenix received The Daring Book For Girls as well (I picked up a used hardcover copy for Kylie for $15), I think we should buy lottery tickets or something.
As for the phone photos, are you holding your arm out in front of you when you take pics? I find that I get better pics when I bring my elbow into my chest to stabilize my arm and the phone. I even take a sniper’s breath, although that’s probably unnecessary.
I love that bread making tutorial! The kids looks so, so little! I wasn’t reading when they were that little and I love looking at how much they’ve grown!
@kidsync
I will try your stabilization trick. The worst thing is the phone camera that has these wee effects, has no zoom so I have to go stand across the street (slight exaggeration). That is not going to work for me.
I’m totally getting that book!
@K8
I KNOW! *sob*. They always look so little to me if I look back even a few months! Time is a cruel bastard.