Back and forth

So it was a good trip, quick. I was back and unpacked before 4pm and I even took a quick nap. It's freezing in here and the kitties are back to being insane and that's that.

The trip over was fine, Cabbage Hill was icky but really not, and despite being lost in Hermiston for about 25 minutes and making three stops we actually made it in just over six hours. Ontario is Mountain Time, so I'm glad I left early from work. We stayed up chatting until around 1am, and slept a little bit on Saturday morning.

Saturday we met up with my cousin Dan and toured the (closed for the season) museum in Nyssa. I can't remember what it's called. But it had some pictures of my grandfather and great-uncle on my mom's side, Martin and Thomas, as well as some other photos of life on the sheep ranches from back then. It was actually a pretty cool museum, and in the event you ever get out that way, you should check it out. The mayor of Nyssa let us in and showed us around, and there were also some other guides that showed up along the way, though these ones didn't have faces and only enough strenght to pat me on the back and shove me on the hip a few times. I'll let you think about that.

After that we watched the game while Helen napped. I'm okay with it, by the way. The Ducks just weren't on their game and Stanford definitely was, and such is the game of football. Dan came by after the Veteren's Day parade in Ontario and watched the end of it, then the three of us went over to the assisted living facility to see our Aunt Jean and another old timer from days gone by. Drex, we found out, has lived quite a life, and will be 99 years old on January 29. Before Aunt Jean showed Barbie and I the door (quite quickly - she's lost her memory mostly and didn't really remember us - me especially, she never remembers me..), Dan told Drex that Barbie and I were there, and Drex pretty much pinpointed who are father and grandfather were without any kind of help from Dan. Sharp old man, that Drex. That was a very cool conversation.

We all had dinner at Helen's and turned in early. This morning we sat with AJ Feeley's dad at mass, and hit the road around 10:30 (which is 9:30 Portland time) after fueling up at the Jolts-n-Juice. It was sunny in Ontario; it was not in Portland. Sigh.

I wonder why I like going over there so much and kind of entertain the idea of making a living there. Kind of. I mean, it's out there. But it's nice. And there is so much history. And I spend a lot of time wondering these days what my purpose is. I'm just going to keep wondering for now, though, and see if anymore of those folks pushing me around in the Nyssa museum come in the middle of the night and give me some answers.