Building a new relationship after my wife's death.

I got home this afternoon from my trip to Seattle. Had a very good time and great visit with Ruth, Rich, Dad, and Jewell. Also got to see Brian and Aimee. Spent a lot of time driving but still a very nice time.

We visited the home site that Rich and Ruth have purchased near Mazama, WA. It is a nice place and they own it with the idea of jointly building a house one day with their kids but now they are rethinking that. Not sure what they will decide but for now they enjoy visiting the Methow (pronounced Met-how) river valley. I hiked to the mountaintop one morning; it is very very steep.

On Wednesday evening Rich, Ruth, and I were walking and came upon a rattlesnake. About four feet long, it was slowing crossing the road in front of us and ignored us until we got close then it would shake it’s rattles and coil up. The people who lived closest to where we saw it planned to catch it in a box and have the game warden relocate it to some other place. I’m not sure I agree with that but that I guess if they want to trap it, its OK.

On Saturday we went to Bellingham to see Brian and Aimee. They have a great little (as in small) out in the country and it is very nice. We had a nice lunch then Brian told two stories. And Aimee played her guitar and sang of us. She apparently doesn’t often play for other people so it was very nice. I suggested that she might accompany Brian’s stories and they liked that idea, they tried it and it was very nice. I hope they decide to keep it up.

I went to church with R/R (and D/J) this morning to a very large Presbyterian Church in Bellevue. It was a large service (one of four each Sunday) and the preacher; Rev (or Dr.) Dudley was good speaker but the message seemed weak to me, very entertaining but light on substance. And I missed the liturgy and the formal hymns. Some of the songs were more like camp songs. Dad and Jewell really liked it though and that was good.

For some reason I felt a lot of sadness today for missing Jo Lynn. I talked about things we did with her and about our life and then today I was thinking about coming home alone and … there you have it … loneliness. It is better now but I still feel pretty sad.