Life has been a bit overwhelming lately. Weekly visits to see Zoe's mom who is at Western State Hospital (a 2 1/2 drive) with Alzheimer's. Zoe wrote about our last visit. Then we have been dealing with her doctors, or lack of. Her doctor had left the state and she assumed that another doctor in his clinic would take her on. Wrong assumption. It's been a hell of a month not knowing if they were going to sign the paperwork certifying she was still disabled for her medical insurance. They didn't seem to feel that Fibromyalgia was a disability. Zoe then talked to the office manager about resolving this who said she would return her call. Zoe called everyday for almost 3 weeks and the manager was always out. Zoe had other health issues and none of the doctors in the clinic seemed to want to see her. Bastards! (My daughter Katie works in the office of a physical therapy clinic here on Whidbey Island and deals with all the doctors on the Island. Apparently Zoe's clinic had lost their office manager, who knew what was going on, as well as 2 doctors and was in total chaos.) Zoe finally found a doctor in Freeland and was able to see him. She really liked him. He said he would fill out her disability form after reviewing her records.

And I've been trying to get ahead of my camera strap making so that I can offload some of it to a friend. I spent Wednesday afternoon crawling around on the concrete floor of the garage cutting up a new black hide and three half hides into 4" strips in preparation of further cutting them into 1/4" strips for camera straps. I was sore Thursday!

Then Friday morning our grandson Mike came over for the day. Katie had to go down to Kelso to pick up a new puppy dog so Colby dropped him off at 7:30. After breakfast we went up to Oak Harbor so that Zoe could pick up a copy of her medical records from her old clinic to drop off for her new doctor. When she went in to drop the records off she found out that her new doctor had already filled out her disability form. We left a message at her insurance to call us and let us know if they got it. We picked up some sandwiches at the Beach Cabin across from Payless (Great paninis!) and, at Mike's request, we went to Fort Casey.

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I first went to Fort Casey as a teenager. I took my kids there and now my grandkids. A great set of ruins to explore but many of the pitch black rooms have been closed off. Bummer! It's still great fun. It was a challenge to keep up with an 8 year-old boy. Zoe was struggling but we followed Mike around. Finally we sat down on the grass while Mike explored. Zoe called her voice mail (Yes, I now have a cell phone.) and found out that they had received the form and nothing more was needed. Oh frabjous day! Mike caught up with us and Zoe suggested tying his shoe laces together to slow him down. It worked. It was a great game for Mike to keep up with us hopping, falling, crawling, and falling. Mike and I dropped Zoe off at home for a nap and we went in to Langely and I bought a book to read to him: Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I read Roald Dahl to my kids. Subversive literature at it's finest! Then an ice cream at Mike's place and back home. Then back to Mike's Place to pick up the book we left and then back home again. While Zoe slept I started reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to Mike. Zoe woke up and I picked up a Besta Round Pizza. Yum! The three of us watched Enchanted. I put Mike to bed and read him a few more chapters of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Can you say exhausted? But worth it. A great day!

Saturday morning we were to take Mike back home. Zoe and I have been behind on many things. Her pain and disability as well as the weekly visits to see her mother has kept us from getting the house cleaned up, as well as having the energy, to exchange Christmas gifts with Katie, Mike, and Colby. Zoe was still tired from running around Fort Casey but seized the opportunity and we brought the Christmas presents with us when we dropped brought Mike home. Before we left I finished reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Mike and Mike played with the bubble maker. (Do check out the pictures.)

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We had a great time at Katie's. We hadn't seen the portrait my grandfather painted up on the wall. It looked great! We exchanged Christmas presents and met Katie's new puppy dog. It's a semi-hairy weiner dog named Beau. Cute little sucker. We stopped by Kim and Doug's on the way home and visited. We haven't been able to get out much and these past two days were both tiring and refreshing.

And those are some of the reasons I haven't posted much lately. Hopefully that will change.