The Visitor(s)

'The Visitor' was the feature at our Saturday night dinner and a movie blowout.  It's just about my favorite movie ever so I liked seeing it for the second time and Vince went along with it.  John and Kathy couldn't make it for Saturday so they came Sunday.  I told them how good the movie was and that we could watch it again when they were here but Vince didn't like it as much as me so we talked instead.

Speaking of visitors...
Twelve hours after I arrived in Spokane on a red-eye from Athens I was sitting at a hotel in downtown Spokane with Kathy and Gaynelle, both Mankato State college roommates.*  Helen was the only college roommate missing from our 1978 apartment down the hill from campus where even though we had two bedrooms, we all slept together in one (the other sat empty except for the turn table and 8-track player) because we couldn't decide how to divide us up.
Between the three of us we were able to dredge up the names of a lot of college friends that we knew we never forget but did.  We convinced each other that we all looked the same as we did in 1978 and maybe even better.
Nineteen hours later,  Janet**, an earlier college roommate and stepsister (long story) pulled in from Minnesota on a motorcycle with her husband.
You can't have too many close girlfriends.

Writing.
Thinking the meeting would give me the motivation to wrap-up (i.e. start) a little screenplay I been thinking about, I went to my first 'Metaline Falls writers group' last week but since all they talked about the whole time was how expensive things are nowadays, I may not go again.  There must be some reason I can't work on the writing project at home but I don't know what it is so I rode on my mountain bike on pavement with really new, really wide knobby tires and an unpadded, lopsided 20 pound pack that didn't conform to my back (miserable ride) to Nelson, British Columbia and stayed at the Dancing Bear youth hostel for few nights to see if that would inspire me.  It did, and now I have a screenplay about a girl that enters a cooking contest.  It should be better than it sounds and shouldn't be too complicated to do except for the scenes with all the animals.

The Dancing Bear inspired my 'girl enters a cooking contest' masterpiece.

There was no easy way for me to get into that top bunk.

A Big Week:
The movie theater re-opened on Friday with 'Super 8', the smell of new paint and popcorn and a near record crowd, many of whom had to park somewhere other than the main street because all the parking spots were taken.  Except for the sci-fi parts the movie was good. 

Next week.  Is anyone else tired of Harry Potter movies?

We won 2 local kayak races on Saturday.  One race had 4 boats, the other had 2 and the blue ribbon we came home with was the first of the summer.

We got some new red chairs.  This is just one of them but the other one looks just like it.

After a fifty-five year delay, last week during a paddle, I got up the nerve to execute my first rope swing launch.  Describing is as a 'launch' is pretty misleading but I can't think of a better word. 


*I told you about Greece and I told you about Kathy my best friend from college and now Sleepy Eye, Minnesota home of Buttered Corn Days in my last post.  Both Kathy and I majored in Parks and Recreation/Natural Resource management.  She was a Rec major because she was passionate about it.  I was a Rec major because it was easy.  I was one of her bridesmaids.

**I was one of her bridesmaids too.

***Trying to come up with a good way to make sure that the three-quarter can of refried black beans I couldn't eat wouldn't go to waste, I walked over to Justin, the Liverpool, England-ite that had been traveling for 4 years and working on a website about how to travel for a long time with no money.
Beans in hand, I asked "Do you wan......" and before I could finished my sentence, he'd grabbed the can and was writing his name on it with the group sharpie while holding the refrigerator door open.

International Event take 2

The second annual Selkirk International Film Festival is at 6 pm, August 25th at the Cutter Theater in Metaline Falls, Washington.  Counting the volunteers, last years attendance was 60 so we need 61 this year.

Metaline Falls, Tyler and Greece

Metaline Falls, Washington.

An hour after we rolled down the driveway we were sitting outside on stone steps looking into Canada with no bugs or humidity feasting on a year old can of organic garbanzo beans transformed into hummus with tahini from somewhere in Idaho on 2 day old bread from Montana.  

They told us the rain stopped the day before we pulled in to Metaline Falls.  Our field was tall and green and there was still snow in the mountains.  Vin's stone walkway hadn't moved...like the stone walkways other people make, he told me...and other than a few flies the house was apparently just as we'd left it*.   Two days later friends Bobbi and Eric from Bozeman popped in to share good meals, movies and bike rides and the next day I left for Greece. 

Our Metaline Falls 15 minute clothes dryer

I am soooo spoiled.

We make it a point to support the local economy.  Shown here is Vince with a slingshot from the local health food/ammo store.

Greece.

Sarah, Linda and me.  Best friends from high school.  When we were 40 we decided that every 10 years we would take a trip together.  When we were 50 we decided we'd better make it every year.  This year we decided to go to Greece.  Partly because of Mamma Mia and partly because Linda's sister Nancy lives there.  While looking into flying from Vermont I noticed that if I flew from Spokane, Washington I could meet up with Sarah and Linda in Denver since that was their first stop after departing from Boise.  Then, we could all fly together Denver/Toronto/Athens.  So.  After paying a little more for a ticket from Spokane, Vin, Max and I drove to Washington a month earlier than we had planned. 

Yada yada....you know how fun it is when you get off a plane and there is someone waiting for you?  My plane landed in Denver.  I had butterflies.  Linda and Sarah would be there and I knew they wouldn't care that they would be making fools of themselves when they saw me.  But I deplaned to a quiet group of airport maintenance workers instead of a couple of ex-cheerleaders screaming and jumping up and down.

'I'll bet they're hiding', I thought, as I scanned the boarding area for a cowboy hat (Linda's trademark).  They weren't there.  My phone rang.  It was Vince.  Sarah had called him.  They'd missed their flight from Boise.  The name on someone's ticket didn't match the name on someone's passport! (insert sinking feeling)  Orbitz told them they would have to buy a new ticket in order to continue.  So what I wondered was, if they did decide to pay $3000 for another ticket, when could they get on another flight?  (more sinking feeling)  Now what?  Are they still going to Greece?  Should I continue east or fly back to Spokane and bag the whole thing?  I was only going because they were going. **  I had a half hour to decide but how could I decide with no information.  I got in line and kept moving forward toward the gate agent until I was standing face to face with her and no one behind me.  The phone rang again.  It was Linda.  She'd been talking to Air Canada and....click (that is, if cell phones made click sounds....) I lost the connection.  I tried to phone her back...'no service available'..."what the..."  That can't be, I was just talking.   Seeing that I had an exit row and an aisle seat, I decided to go to Toronto. 

Toronto.

I had two and a half hours until my Athens flight.  A seemingly luxurious amount to time.  During that time I talked to Linda and Sarah close to a million times.  Soon two and a half hours was 15 minutes.  Still no conclusion.  Deja vu.  In line, I moved toward the gate agent.  I knew I didn't want to go to Greece alone...but they might still go.  And they might not.  I could still fly back to Spokane....the phone rang.  They got re-booked and in TWO DAYS! they would be in Athens through Munich.  TWO DAYS!  I decided to head back to Spokane.  Walking toward the person behind the counter that takes care of things like that, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, 

"Can you rebook me on the same flight as my girlfriends?" (paraphrased!) 

and in less than an hour I had a ticket on a flight to Munich where I'd be sitting across from Sarah.  In two days we'd all be getting off a plane together in Athens.

Even though olive oil sits on cafe' tables in Greece like ketchup sits on tables here and the food is fresh and simple, I found Greece too hot and busy for me to really enjoy.  Dah?  It waaaas July.  

(neither did I like that it sounded as if people were always yelling at each other when they spoke or that 'no' meant 'yes').

    

But there were some good parts...  

• upgrading to first class (+$12) on ferries to a couple of islands (Naxos and Santorini)*** and playing rummy based on childhood memories.

• seeing the Parthenon and the Acropolis from a bicycle (a 3 hour bike tour with a guide that was leading us places that had to be off limits to bicycles and would have taken 2 days to walk).

• watching fishermen come in off their boats and cook octopus over wood fires.
• hiking on ancient stone paved trails on Naxos.

• communicating with smiles, waves and hugs while I helped an local 80 year old woman wring out and hang her laundry because her arm hurt

• being with Linda, Sarah and Sarah's sister Ruth

Sorry, no pictures from Greece on this post.  Can you believe I didn't even bring a camera? 

*When the plumber came to winterize the Metaline Falls house last October he did everything on Vince's list (and follow-up email) except #2.

2. put glycol in the concrete floor radiant heating system.  

I don't want to spend much time on this one but what it means is that the system froze, the pipes IN THE CONCRETE FLOOR burst and how do you find and fix leaks IN A CONCRETE FLOOR?

**Tyler tornado. 

The day before I left for Greece my brother Dale called to tell me they'd had a couple of storms back home in Tyler, Minnesota.  He said they were OK but one of the silos blew over.  Plus the hog house was gone.  So was a hay shed.  He said the silo landed on one of the tractors which was good because it could have landed on the pick-up and he was sitting in the pick-up.  He said he tried to get from the pick-up to the house (where my sister-in-law Brenda was in the basement wondering where Dale was) a couple of times but every time he opened the pick-up door to run to the house a hunk of metal roofing went flying through the air.  So tragic.  Even though I would have been of no help whatsoever, I felt like I should be going there instead of going to Greece. 

The hog house used to be somewhere around here.

Tractor with silo on it

Tractor and silo parts

This is not a sculpture garden.   It's the hog house roof having almost made it over to Uncle Mik and Aunt Leona's farm.

Another 'not a sculpture garden' view

***You know when you see pictures of Greece (a huge clump of brilliant white buildings covering an almost vertical mountain and sitting above ocean?), it's usually Santorini and it really does look like that.