Grandpa Frank

My Grandpa Frank passed away in the wee hours of yesterday morning. Tom and Ben were at his side as he quietly slipped away.

I met Grandpa Frank and Grandma Nellie for the first time just over 2 years ago on our first trip to Washington. They of course knew of my existence and thought of me often but did not expect to ever meet me. Walking into their house and their arms for the first time was a very sweet homecoming. I am very grateful for the short time I was able to spend with Grandpa.

The legacy of his family speaks volumes as to the man he was. In his three sons you will find the admirable qualities of honor, integrity, community involvement, devotion to family, humor in spades, comfortable self confidence, the smarts to select amazing wives and the good sense to keep ahold of them, compassion and intelligence. A person can see the legacy continued in my brothers and cousins. Grandma and Grandpa raised their boys with the right balance of love, toughness and tenderness. Lessons learned by the children of Frank and Nellie flowed through them as they raised their own kids and has resulted in the next generation of Lahmanns following in well laid footsteps. Should you be lucky enough to meet any of my brothers or cousins you will find that they are all credits to the family, treasures as friends, and benefits to any community they live in.

Goodbye Grandpa. I am a better person for having had you in my life.

For Jenny, Compliments of Drew

Jenny had a crappy and troublesome commenter on her blog so in an effort to send some friendly traffic her way and bring some silly into the equation, here is a video that Drew found and sent to me. It should be pretty obvious right away why he thought of me when he saw it. The election is just days away people. Here's hoping we all make it to the finish line with our hearts, souls and limbs intact. Love ya Jenny.

On the Mail Route - Autumn Edition

More reasons why I love my job:

That is Mt. Rainier in the background.

Windows are the (many, many) Eyeballs of a House

Bob and Tom

A dim shot: Matt's hat, Tom, Bob on ladder and Drew

My kitchen windows are going in!

Some ghoul hanging out of my kitchen window. I don't know who that rag-tag person is.

Deliveries!!!!

Got a few truck loads of goodies this week. First up: THE WINDOWS! Yay!!!

And Yesterday? The Siding! You cannot believe the beautiful aroma rolling out of the back of the truck. I don't know if I mentioned it but we are using western red cedar board and batt for siding. It smelled sooo wonderful.

On hand to unload the truck: Matt, Tom, Drew, Bob and the truck driver.

Look! Drew as hard laborer! I called him in to help get the truck unloaded. True friend indeed.

Gorgeous!!! It will not be painted or stained but left to weather into a greyish color.

Getting Messy

We needed a pad poured on which to put our heating unit. That gave Matt and Tom a chance to get dirty. I wanted to write our names in it once it was set up enough but it was still gooey by the time I left for dance class and it was too dark and cold by the time I got home to care. That is OK. The cats did the job for me. We have little paw prints criss-crossing the pad.

Dispatch from and Un-Real American Living in a Real American County Located in an Un-Real American State

5 cats on the bed and a garage full of mice. Le Sigh. Number 6, Quinten, is still missing. Sometimes I think he is gone for good and sometimes I still believe that he is reenacting Rambo: First Blood. Last night I dreamed he came home but his legs had turned into rabbit legs and he had the snout of a dachshund.

If you are not sure what the title of the post refers to, click here. You probably only want to click if you are an Un-Real American. I don't think Real Americans will find it funny.

Two Steps Closer: Roof & Tyvek

Jolaina's Homecoming

Saturday I went back to Jolaina's house to do her make-up for the Homecoming dance. She wanted to keep with the goth theme from the other day. We just toned it down a tiny bit.

Here we are. And this is the first posted picture of me as a brace face, metal mouth, silver grill, etc.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

If you can, please consider giving some love to the folks at No on 8. In a move that seethes with ignorance and intolerance, the Utah based Mormon Church is getting their hate on by fueling a massive campaign to inject discrimination into the California state constitution. Any little bit you can afford will help. You can also keep up on the proposition through Equality California.

I know that Michelle just touched on this, but I had to speak out on this as well. Bigotry and intolerance should not go unchallenged. Peace, Love and Equality for all!

The Final Leg - Mom, Don't Read This One

Here in my neck of the woods voting is not done at polls. It is strictly mail in. That bugs me because I like the ritual of waiting in line with my fellow citizens, entering the booth to mark my choices and, if I am honest, I miss getting my "I Voted" sticker to wear around all day. Yesterday on the mail route I delivered ballots to all the registered voters on my route. I felt a spark of pride as I carried my important deliveries, like I was serving a purpose in democracy. Today Matt and I filled out our ballots and I will mail them back when I go in to do the mail route on Monday. So from here on out, all the jibber jabber from federal, state and local candidates will land too late on our ears. We have voted. And for the first time in many, many years we have voted with hope and excitement for a new future. Long live democracy.

One final political note, I wish we were still in California to help with the No on Prop 8 campaign. We have donated money but that isn't the same as casting a vote (unless you are part of the Mormon force of unity). Good luck with that faux-compassion routine. I would rather have children raised in an all inclusive environment that might include an occasional encounter with a married gay couple than to have children raised in an environment of dual standards. Separate but "equal" did not work during the civil rights movement and it is equally despicable here. I know, I know, you view it as a choice so you don't think it it qualifies for comparison to the civil rights movement. To that I say that your opinion/faith/religious doctrine does not square with the real life experiences of any gay person I have met thus far in my life. An untruth repeated over and over again does not become truth.

Jolaina Goes Goth

Yesterday morning I headed over to Jolaina's house to do her make-up for school. This is Spirit Week at Toledo HS (culminating in Homecoming this weekend) and each day has it's own theme. This is Jolaina going goth. Girl is committed! I think she looks great.

Sigh

On a daily basis beauty that surrounds me causes me to catch my breath. Taken at 7am on Oct 14, 08.

Weathering In

Roof in progress.

Can you Tell What This Is?

A poor little bat got flushed from the Sister House, flew into the garage and got stuck to flypaper. He was long dead before we found him. I can tell you that we are now anti-flypaper. I mean how many bugs do you think a bat eats in one night? Probably a bunch more than were stuck to that strip before the bat got nabbed.

Rest Easy

A decision has been made.

A few months ago I posted about the trouble we were having committing to a trim color. We finally picked a color and are painting the fascia boards so that we are ready to put gutters up as soon as the roof is on. The roof installation begins on Monday (tomorrow as of this writing).So, ta da! Here it is. It is Forest 05 from Yolo Colorhouse. It is kind of army greenish and we think it will look nice with the weathered cedar siding. It blends in with our natural surroundings really well. Matt was painting when I got home from the mail route yesterday and as soon as saw the color on the house I knew it was the right choice. If you click on the Yolo link, take note of Forest 04 also. That will be the color of our front door.

Sister House State of Affairs

First Visit from Family

Dar and Win were the first family from Utah to make the trip to Winlock. They arrived just after we got home from Los Angeles. It was fun to show them the progress on the house. We had dinner at Tom and Kathy's, lunch at the Pub with Drew, an exhaustive tour of Winlock and we also took a trip up to the Mountain. FYI, when someone says "the Mountain" around here you can bet that they are referring to Mt. St. Helen's.

Downtown Winlock

The Mountain in clouds. This was as clear as it got while we were up at the Johnston Ridge Observatory.

Trip to Disneyland Recap

I didn't take many photos on our trip to Los Angeles. In fact, here are all of them:

The beautiful and supremely delicious cupcakes from Violet's Cakes in Pasadena (eaten while in Lucky Baldwin's Pub).

My first trip on the Monorail at Disneyland!

It was really strange being back "home". It still feels familiar down there, like an old shoe. Felt like home was in two places, Winlock & Hollywood. That said, I was happy to get back to Washington. I have grown accustomed to the slower pace of life here. It is really nice to have time to enjoy the scenery around me and time spent with friends and family.

Returning to the Blogosphere Gradually

Hat tip to Popbitch for this video.

I am still here.

Just a little crabby. Don't want to spread the disease. Working on my mood. I will be back when I am feeling jollier.