I think I'm back. I still have a bunch of small things to do but I can do those in between posts. I woke up Sunday to an email from Zoe. She had arrived safely in Gainesville and the wifi was working. That gave me piece of mind. Sunday I had planned on visiting Zoe's mom. Gerry, who has Alzheimer's and is at Western State Hospital in Tacoma. It's a 2 1/2 drive, including the ferry, each way. I made a couple of side trips on the way down. The first was to my brother Roger who lives in Kirkland. He had some of my slides that I had taken when we lived in Japan in the late 50s and early 60s. I had a 35mm Petri rangefinder. I think I have all my Japan slides together now. Here are some quick scans.

These pictures were taken probably in the summer of 1959. A typical shopping street in Japan and a mama-san. The Japanese cars were smaller then. That big black car is a 1942 Cadillac limosine that my dad bought for $150. He had 6 kids and the limo had jump seats so we all had a place to sit. It also had a sliding window between the front seat and the back seat. My dad tried to get that window to work but never could. It must have been a beast driving that thing on crowded Japanese roads, particularly considering that Japanese drive on the left side of the road British style.

My dad and my next two younger brothers, Mike and Terry, would go on what we called bicycle hikes. We lived in Tachikawa and it was an easy ride to the countryside of Japan. I loved those rides.

We would ride and then come to a small village and stop for refreshments. We would have this extremely carbonated cider and my dad would have a beer.

I grabbed the slides, and my slide projector, and headed down to Graham, east of Tacoma, to see my Aunt Bobby and uncle Tommy. I hadn't seen them in a long time. They had slides that my grandfather had taken with the Leica IIIc that I have now. We had a great visit and they passed on the slides to me. I wasn't sure whether they were loaning them or giving them but it turned out that it was a gift. I had the Leica IIIc with me and showing it to them and their seeing that it was still in use made their day. There were only about 200 slides. I wish there more but I'm thrilled that I have these. I looked thru them quickly and pulled three out from when he was in northern Japan during the Occupation, probably around 1949.

This is a picture of my grandfather and grandmother when the were in Morioka, he with the Leica.

This one was labeled "Black market street, Morioka. Unfortunately, he tended to under expose. I will spend more time on scanning and will be able to get a bit more out of it. Fortunately, most are on Kodachrome so the colors are still great. There are a few on some other film and they have faded badly but I should be able to get something out of them.

From Bobby and Tommy's it was another 20 miles to Western State Hospital and visiting Gerry. I was a little aprehensive since this was the first time I had visited her alone at Western State. I arrived just after dinner. She was half dozing in a chair. She didn't recognize me at first. I explained who I was and after about 30 seconds there was a look of recognition, some tearing, and she gave me a big hug. We went into the little room we meet in and I had brought some food she really likes: squash souffle (from her recipe), spinach soufle, a bottle of Starbucks Mocha, Cheetos, and rice pudding. I brought plates and utensils for both of us and we ate together. She was in a very good mood and we spent the hour chatting and eating. I have no idea what she was talking about but I agreed with her at appropriate moments. We both had a good time. She spilled some of her Mocha on lap and it was about time for me to go so we went out into the main room. I gave the nurse the leftover food (they let us bring the food in for to eat in between our visits) and, while I was waiting for her to bring me the container from the last visit, Gerry wander off to speak to another patient. The nurse let me out and it was a long drive home.

Yesterday was getting packages out and recovering. Today I get some small stuff out of the way, including getting all my links up, and tomorrow it's back to finishing off another web project.