Genes and things

Sneak peak of new digs

Sneak peak new digs

Sarah

Good news ... we are all but closed on our new home here in Palm Desert. OK I can hear old friends saying here he goes again ... poor Jill she is so patient to put up with his inability to stay in one place let alone keep a car for more than a year. I disagree (of course) about the poor Jill bit the rest may have some merit depending on how one looks at it. Personally I think life is a series of adventures both large and small. Changing houses is a small adventure, having children a grand one in the overall scheme of things.

As those of you who have adult children know there are often some very surprising and delightful things that happen when your kids have kids. One of our eight grandchildren is a twenty year old student at Biola University in So. California. In addition to being a kind and loving person she's a fantastic student and pretty darn nice looking too.

OK I promise I will not break out the Super 8 videos from the attic and bore you with the early days in Sarah's life ... instead I would like you to read a poem she wrote recently after having dinner in LA with her uncle, our youngest son, Johnee. Keep in mind that Sarah was raised in McMinnville Oregon on a farm that has been in her mothers family for over 100 years.

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well toto, we aren’t in McMinnville anymore

I think to myself as I slide into this diner booth, sitting facing you

you with the laugh that sounds so much like mine

the lights of Sunset Boulevard flash outside this hole in the wall

as we tell each other things only the other could understand

laughing until we can’t breathe, reliving all the moments that tie our lives together

we are the strange ones in this diner filled with the hip, the alternative

with hair the same color as the neon signs that decorate this street

and clothes that look like they were stolen from the closets of circus players

you are simple in your suit, tired but still smiling after a hard days work

I am lucky to steal a few moments with you here in this vibrant strange city

you pay the bill and suddenly we are one with the boulevard, zipping down the street

headed towards your home so carefully tucked beneath the Hollywood sign

I look up and try to find the stars, but this city is too bright

even the heavens stopped trying to compete

New York may never sleep, but Los Angeles never stops humming

and I’m not sure I belong here in this neon city

filled with people all looking for something

all wanting to be that something

but then you look at me and smile, and I think

maybe for now, belonging with you is enough

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Uncle Nortz

I did not ask permission to share this which may get me in trouble ... but hey, it's what proud grandparents do. By the way Uncle Johnee is known in the family as 'uncle Nortz ...don't ask. He and Sarah have a unique relationship that the rest of us can only cherish and encourage.

(Note: As you can see I can't figure out how to control the type fonts in this program...help!)

Daughter Leslie on the farm in North Dakota (she's the one in pink)