Seasons of Change

I’m in the ‘Bob ate something as soon as he got home and won’t be hungry for a while’ lull so I thought I would write.

We had to go to the DMV, which was half-way to DD#1’s. Since we didn’t make it over there yesterday, we delivered the little boxes of Valentine chocolates we had for the older kids. It was fun to spend so time with them. Natalie came in from her bus ride home from school and sat on my lap giving and getting hugs for a long time.

After a while, Zander asked if we would go up to his room to ‘play.’ To him, having us sit and talk with his mom seemed to be a waste of time. I explained to him that to grownups, sitting around and talking is playing. That didn’t make any sense to him.

The youngest, Hayden, so much a big boy nowadays, didn’t have much of a nap earlier and was almost asleep on his feet. I picked him up, held him for a bit, and talked to him quietly as I carried him off to bed for a nap. It won’t be long before they are all too big to pick up like that. It was pleasant to have some one-on-one with them all. When all six of the grands get together, grandma time is much more hectic.

There are many ways to take coming home but I find that my car is on autopilot by that time and don’t bother to think which way to go. We usually end up on a road that parallels some train tracks. Between the road and the tracks is that bit of land that tends to be wild. After many years of getting to look at everything along the road, I’ve been driving most of the time lately. That means I can’t pay attention to anything but the road.

All of a sudden Bob piped up with “Quail!” I said “where?” he continued, not quite so excited, “… no, pheasant.” For that in-between moment I was ready to turn around to find that bird but knew that was about as useful as straining water. The idea of seeing quail made my heart sing just a bit, and I think it did that for him, too.

That ride home has changed so much. In the past 15 years or so, what used to be farmland, north and east of us, has become more and more ‘industrial parks’ – sprawling parking lots of cement warehouses. I don’t miss the smell of the previous year’s leftover cabbage on a warm late-winter’s day. But, I do miss all of what hadn’t changed for decades before that. I’ve seen coyote and bald eagles not that far from home.

It must be a few weeks since the last time I came down that road and noticed some more old farmland was being flattened. Today, some old farm buildings were gone and a new ‘park’ is going up across the street from Boeing of Portland where Bob worked for so many years.

There aren’t many old places left. Even the truck farm at the end of our street had to quit last spring – not enough land to make a living. At least the barn and other buildings and equipment are still there.

Spring is coming and it can either be bringing warmth and flowers or allergy attacks and sinus infections. I want the flowers.

There was still a lot of snow up on the foothills. It is supposed to be about 60 tomorrow so I’m guessing that the trees up on those hills will at drop their snow shortly, then the acres of open white fields will melt and it will be another year before that beauty returns. There are some year-round snow-capped mountains around here but when the foothills are also white, for me it is especially delightful.