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November 30, 2019: And A Good Time was Had by All

We took El (my sister) back to the airport today. There she hopped on a plane and flew back to Portland, Oregon. She had a six hour layover in Seattle, WA. This is something I would not wish on anyone. She also is flying home on one of the busiest holidays of the year.

She was here for too short a time, four days. Just when we got a routine going, she had to leave. And it was quite unfortunate that when she was here, it was the absolute worst weather we have ever had here. It wasn’t cold or windy – this would be bad enough – it was sloshy and gloshy. We got about eight inches of snow on Tuesday evening, and this was followed by rain. After, it got cold at night and then warm in the daytime.


El and Tinni


Now we could all have hunkered down and just sat inside and read books and played card games and looked at photos of our trips – I would have enjoyed this. However, the situation did not permit. Instead, I had to deal with the glop in the horse pen, and this took a great deal of time. Pete had to plow, and this also took a great deal of time.

El and I did walk the horses, but the road was very icy. Her knees were bothering her, and so my heart was in my throat, particularly when I noticed that she was not wearing cleats. If her legs flew out from underneath her and she hit her head, I would have had to tend to her. And if I messed up in tending to her, I would have had to continue to live with the fact that, yes, I fucked up.

Nevertheless, we had a good time and El was most helpful in assisting with a major dilemma, which is what to do about my current vehicle situation. I can’t drive Fireball X l-5 in the dark or when the roads are icy, which is usually the case eight months of the year around here. In the meantime Pete and I are carpooling – and he has been, and remains, very gracious about this. And there are those four months in which the roads are clear and the sun shines brightly.

What do to? We dragged my poor sister to two car dealers outside of Anchorage, a Toyota dealer and a Subaru dealer. It was, on that particular Tuesday evening very cold. We looked at and test drove a Toyota pickup. And we looked at and test drove a Subaru – one with a $20,000 price tag.

And yesterday we went over to our friend Andre’s place and looked at some vehicles that he had on his property. The prices were good, but the cars were near on their lips, really just one step up from Fireball.

Pete, Eleanor, and I deliberated ad nauseum, for hours and hours and hours. Pete and I finally decided that it would be best to wait until April and then purchase a decent vehicle.

I’m okay with this. I won’t have much going on after mid-December. Pete’s okay with it, even though he will have a lot going on after mid-December.

I am glad my sister (who knows a lot about cars) repeatedly interjected her opinion. I just wish she was here for more time, more often.

Next: 332. 12/1/19: Coming Up: A Different Kind of Month

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