Fresh Off of Travel Status

It’s time to confess: I’ve been away from the homestead for about 10 days. I just got back yesterday.

I arrived mid-morning on Aly’s 24th birthday, got home in the afternoon (the ferry was late, I missed my crossing tide), and have devoted most of my time to setting up her birthday party for this evening.

I traveled for another family medical emergency. My father and stepmother have experienced even more set backs since the last run down south (see Going into Stall Mode). The latest development seems to be “his and hers” strokes. Mom came back from hers saying the time had come to seek assisted living. Dad’s affected his speech and memory notably.

So, I headed down to help family members reduce their expansive household to an assisted living apartment.

If you’ve gone through this, you know the drill: Machiavellian strategics, odd alliances,  and ruthless culling of items on which one cannot place a price. It took a toll on all of us, but the job seemed well in hand by the time I returned home.

It didn’t help at all that a long time family friend passed away just before I left. Then, in catching up with the friend who housed me in Juneau on my in-and-out stopovers, I learned their news, the type that no family should ever have to receive. His serenity in the face of his family’s challenge humbled me, and prepared me for the task ahead of me.

While I worked, I thought about a lot of topics for this blog. The trip provides way too much potential material, but I’ll try hard not to go too existential on you.

We’ll see how I do in the days ahead. But first, I’m going to draw the curtain here, and get going on celebrating my daughter’s birthday!

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2 Responses to Fresh Off of Travel Status

  1. Afina says:

    Hi Mark,
    Just a quick hello from Dutch Afina who is in Haines right now. My husband and I are on a once in a lifetime holiday in British columbia but due to the interior wildfires we header north and more north and now we’re in Alaska.who would have imaged that ever to happen. We drive down mud ayroad and saw the flats… You must live here somewhere don t you? Such a beautiful environment, we ve already see. Grizzlies and whales and otters and sealions. What a privalige to live here. Anyway many kind regards Nd happy birthday to Aly. I hope all 3 of you are fine!
    Regards, Afina and Jakob

  2. Mark Zeiger says:

    Hello, Afina, it’s been a long time! I emailed you off-blog about options here in town.

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