The last week and a half had been pretty full. Busy with web work and camera straps. Last Wednesday we visited Zoe's mom, Gerry, and had the Jeep's brakes cease functioning in Tacoma. We had tried going down to visit the Sunday before but we got caught by the weekenders leaving the Island on Sunday afternoon. We are into the tourist season her on Whidbey Island. A lot of people come over for the weekend and leave Sunday making for a long ferry wait getting off the Island. It was a long enough wait to make us late visiting Gerry since visiting hours at Western State Hospital (she has Alzheimer's) ended at 8pm. We tried again Wednesday. The car was running hot on the way down. I ended pulling off an exit early and discovered the front brakes were very hot. They were dragging which was causing the engine to work harder and run warmer. As I was looking forlornly at the engine a bystander camer over and offered assistance. He led us to a Les Schwab (a chain that workes on tires and brakes) and we got there 5 minutes before closing. They determined that the calipers had frozen shut and they could fix it the next morning. Tom, our good samaritan, drove use over to the hospital and we visited Gerry.

That was a disturbing visit. Gerry was in pain and shaking as well as being more incoherent that normal. She ate very little of the food we brought for her. They did bring in some meds for her. She soon fell asleep in the chair. So there we were 2 1/2 hours from home stuck in Tacoma. We called our friends Kim and Doug back on the Island and they immedietly agreed to drive down to pick us up. By now it was past visiting hours but they let us stay with Gerry while we waited. Gerry was dozing and waking. By now the meds had taken affect. She would wake and see Zoe and get this beautific smile on her face. Seeing that was worth all the trouble of getting down there. It was close to 10pm when we went out to wait for Kim and Doug and they were along shortly to take us home. We made the midnight boat.

The next morning we got a call and the Jeep was ready. My daughter Katie, with my grandson Mike, drove me down. She was going to the mainland anyway to see her mom (my ex) who had 5 hours of surgery that morning fusing parts of her spine. (The operation was a great success and she is now home recovering.) I picked up the Jeep and Mike and I drove back to the Island.

There actually is some good news. We may be getting a kitten.

Zoe has been wanting a third (and maybe fourth) cat. It's a Desert Lynx belong to our friend Beverly Graham. There are still some details to work out and it may not happen. Zoe has been in a lot of pain lately and has a post that goes into the kitty as well as visiting Gerry and the pain she's been in. I hope it works out.

And then there was one last disaster. This weekend I went to work on the boat. It's a 19 foot Bayliner she had bought with her Dad before he died. It's needed work, and with her pain and Gerry's Alzheimer's, we haven't used ot for the past couple of years. Last fall Doug (who picked us up in Tacoma) and I did a cleaning and put the cover on it for the winter. I finally took the cover off to find that the waterproof cover had failed and the boat had filled up with water. I'm not a boat person and I had left the drain plug in. There was a two foot deep lake in the boat. Deep enough that it had gotten into the engine. There was nothing else to do but to start draining the boat a bucket at a time. That took all afternoon and into the evening. Doug came by the next evening (he used to work on boats in a marina) and assured me it wasn't as bad as it looked. He's coming over Saturday and we will be cleaning it up and flushing the engine. He said he's seen a lot worse. Maybe we will get the boat into the water after all.

Other things going on but they can wait for later. I hope to resume linkages soon.