Kim sent a long and lovely e-mail on Easter Sunday...She has given me permission to put some of it on the Family blog...so here goes, in Kim's words:
When we first moved to 2223 ten years ago, the plum trees outside our second floor living room window bloomed in mid-April, beautiful springtime puffs of pink lining the sidewalk. This year the trees had flowered by mid-March and by early April, as were completing our move, were practically spent. One day shortly before we moved I was walking from the condo to the car on the sidewalk along the parking lot and became aware that the plum trees were full of small birds, so I stopped and stood still and peered up into the branches. Wee little birds were flitting from branch to branch, some hanging off twig ends like tiny green ornaments, kaleidoscoping from end to end. When I spotted the brilliant red patches on their crowns, little green ornaments capped with little red jewels, I realized I was seeing a mixed flock of Ruby Crowned Kinglets and chickadees. They soon passed on, but it was a magical moment. I will miss the trees at Woodtique outside our windows for all the birds they attracted, and will never forget the Pileated woodpeckers going up the Douglas fir tree at eye level outside our window on a quiet Thanksgiving Day.
Life has at last slowed down to a manageable moment for me. When I look back on the last eight months, it is a blur of activity and appointments and deadlines and forms to be filled out. Clyde's diagnosis--the car accident--my brother's visit--my visit to Boise and the trip with Chris--the stress of trying to decide what to do about Clyde and then deciding--dealing with the insurance companies--the initiation of a "sustainable business" effort that added 24 additional meetings to the schedule at an already busy time--learning that my work group was moving from City Hall to the library--three of the seven minutes recorders being out of the country in the busy month of October--the trip to Minnesota that same month--the drive back--my tooth--the landlord's notice--the holidays--the actual move to the library--Clyde's death--the mortgage pre-approval process--the house-hunting--packing for the move--and the move, or as I have come to call it, the Great Exodus from Hawkins Lane, all the while work never slowing down, and my never really being "caught up" until just last week, even during the holidays.
It did not help that in the middle of packing Chuck had a foot attack and his toes were swollen up like balloons, making walking very painful....That delayed completion of the move because he couldn't walk very much for awhile..
We had a fairly brief apartment search, although it was a bit challenging because it was just before spring break and because of the surviving cat. I can't imagine what people do for rentals if they have the misfortune to own a dog. However, we found a very sweet little garden apartment about three blocks from work. There are ten units in this complex, which was probably built in the 1940's. It has coved ceilings two bedrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs, and is very quiet. We've been kind of surprised how quiet it has been, particularly in contrast to the condo on Hawkins, which was rather noisy at commute times because of its location on a collector street. It's interesting to be close to downtown again, and to be able to walk to work and to patronize downtown businesses.
Last August I was working in my office at City Hall and looked up to find a police captain of my acquaintance measuring my door, which naturally triggered some speculation on my part and readied me for the news that my work group was being moved to the fourth floor of the new library to make room for the expansion of Internal Affairs.. My recorders were not very happy with the idea as they perceived a loss of status with the move from City Hall, and did not like the space intended for us. It was good news for me as supervisor because I got a great big window looking out to the west, but they were stuffed into nearby cubicles sans windows. After some very careful politicking on my part, we were able to get the corner conference room right next to the space intended for me, so the recorders have a great big old window, too, and that little victory helped ease the blow of the move. Plus, the library is a very nice building with amenities we lacked before, such as an employee lounge.
The library is very different from City Hall. For one thing, there are a lot more people.. Oh, the humanity: there are people coming and going and hanging out in the library lobby at the coffee bar drinking coffee, and people collecting signatures for political petitions, and people who have all their belongings on their bikes, who park out front and spend the day. A lot of teenagers hang around the library, in part because of the coffee bar in the library and in part because of the transit station's location directly across the street. But the fourth floor is quiet and my office space in the southwest corner is a tranquil space. The first thing I see through the window as I turn into my office is local landmark Spencer Butte (Mark climbed it with us in his visit years ago) and from my office window I can see the coast range above ST. Mary's Catholic Church below.. It 's a very pretty sight. The storms coming from the west can make quite a show.
Well, I hope you had a nice Easter holiday and heard from all the kids, and all the kids got to collect eggs and eat the ears off the chocolate rabbits..(That's the second-best part of Easter,after the story of promise and hope, and before the spiral ham)
My reading has not been quite as inspirational as yours but I can truly recommend what I am currently reading-- Joan Didion's Political Fictions. At her best, she is simply brilliant. I am also reading a book called Grizzly Maze, which is about Timithy Treadwell, the guy who, along with his female companion, was killed and eaten by a grizzly bear in Alaska and his story told on film by Warner Herzog in an absolutely compelling documentary I saw a couple of months ago. I did not think I would like Tim Treadwell, who thought he had a special bond with bears, but to my surprise I really liked him as viewed through the documentary. He was a very unusual man.
I thought your birthday sounded absolutely terrific, lunch with friends overlooking the Gulf, then an inspiring service, followed by a good dinner. I'm not sure it gets any better than that!..My best love to you and to Curt, and I'll be in more frequent contact, now that all the last few months are behind us and all I have to worry about is coverage for the Budget Committee.....
xxoo
