Back in the Boise Groove
Two weeks without an entry? Bad Rabbit!
Once again, I've made the perilous 450-mile journey east to Boise, Idaho, to spend some time with Jacalyn and celebrate her weight-loss by helping out around her place and keeping her company. The trip was kind of perfectly timed as I was to rendezvous with my college buddy, Stephanie (whom I haven't seen in four years), as I passed through La Grande on April the 23rd. I found out at the last moment that she was unavailable to meet that Thursday, so I pivoted and decided to leave the following day, Friday the 24th. Sadly, I didn't hear anything back about Friday so nothing got planned. I wanted to be in Boise for the weekend so I had to split. I figured I'd maybe see about driving back to La Grande sometime during my first week here while she was still in the area but neither of us got ahold of the other, it was a ridiculously busy week and time slipped by. So Steph, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I didn't catch you. But fear not, I'm sure we'll have another chance to see each other (And Dave too?) one day. Who knows...
The trip out here was actually rather nice. There's been a lot of crazy development in the Columbia River Gorge, namely hundreds of monstrous wind turbines dotting the hills on both sides of the river for hundreds of miles. It really is a sight. Here's a photo I took of a congregation of these things perched on the Washington State side:
Each of those blades is the length of two tracker trailer semi trucks and as they spin. the outside tips do more than 60 miles an hour. Technology is wild. All in all, the new scenery and the fact that it was daytime the entire length of the eight-hour trip made it a little more interesting.
So here I am now in Boise. Jaci and I spent that first weekend working on getting her house in order. She's still very much decided to sell this place and move back in with her family in South Dakota permanently. The first step to that end is to get the place ready to sell. She hired a realtor who showed up last Tuesday evening to take photos of the entire house to generate a listing. I spent a frantic Tuesday morning and afternoon cleaning the house and trying to hide things so as to make the place look less lived in. Jaci's instructions were to make this townhouse look like a hotel room. I went over everything top to bottom and did an impressive job, if I may say so myself. I helped Jaci get rid of a bunch of junk, too, and the end result of all this work has been astounding. It really does look like a hotel room around here. Just don't open the closets. You may not get them closed again.
Over this current weekend, we've really relaxed greatly to the point of accomplishing nothing, which we couldn't be happier with. Friday and Saturday we caught movies at the cheap theater and even got a visit in with Jaci's dad in nearby Nampa. I spent some time with him setting up his DTV converter box as well as a $300 DVD-writing VHS tape deck gizmo. For my troubles, he gave me an inkjet printer. Jaci constantly reminds me that I'm the only boyfriend she's ever had that really gets along with her father and that she thinks he likes me. I don't know how I get along so well with other people's parents. It's a gift.
I originally planned this to just be a ten day trip. I was scheduled to go home to Portland this Tuesday, May 5th. I think, however, I'll stay at least a week or two longer. Nothing pressing is waiting for me back in Portland and Jaci and I are enjoying each other's company. It's nice to be around and be in a new place for a while. Plus, I promised her I'd finish off her backyard before I left. The plan is to dig up all the weeds and grass in her tiny 16-foot-square yard (If you can even call it a yard) to get it to a flat dirt surface. Then, we're going to lay down some landscaping fabric and pour pea gravel atop that. It's not going to win any awards, but it'll be an improvement to what it is now and even be something that the home's future owners can upgrade.
I'm trying to keep out of my mind the depressing reality of my visit- That I'm more or less helping Jaci move. Being here and seeing first hand how serious Jaci is about selling this house, quitting her job and moving back to the midwest seems to foreshadow the beginning of the end of my ability to visit her as easily as I have been these last five years. We saw a movie the other night that reminded her of her childhood growing up in Iowa and she spent the rest of the evening getting ahold of her family there to reminisce. I feel sad that she really wants to leave the Northwest, but somehow, I'm comforted by the knowledge that this is a good, positive thing for her. Plus, I'm bolstered by the fact that we're both making the most of my visit and that no matter where Jaci is, she'll be one of my best friends. I have no reason to be worried that I'll miss her because, just like my friendship with Stephanie, we may be separated by great distance but we're never truly that far apart.
Once again, I've made the perilous 450-mile journey east to Boise, Idaho, to spend some time with Jacalyn and celebrate her weight-loss by helping out around her place and keeping her company. The trip was kind of perfectly timed as I was to rendezvous with my college buddy, Stephanie (whom I haven't seen in four years), as I passed through La Grande on April the 23rd. I found out at the last moment that she was unavailable to meet that Thursday, so I pivoted and decided to leave the following day, Friday the 24th. Sadly, I didn't hear anything back about Friday so nothing got planned. I wanted to be in Boise for the weekend so I had to split. I figured I'd maybe see about driving back to La Grande sometime during my first week here while she was still in the area but neither of us got ahold of the other, it was a ridiculously busy week and time slipped by. So Steph, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I didn't catch you. But fear not, I'm sure we'll have another chance to see each other (And Dave too?) one day. Who knows...
The trip out here was actually rather nice. There's been a lot of crazy development in the Columbia River Gorge, namely hundreds of monstrous wind turbines dotting the hills on both sides of the river for hundreds of miles. It really is a sight. Here's a photo I took of a congregation of these things perched on the Washington State side:
Each of those blades is the length of two tracker trailer semi trucks and as they spin. the outside tips do more than 60 miles an hour. Technology is wild. All in all, the new scenery and the fact that it was daytime the entire length of the eight-hour trip made it a little more interesting.
So here I am now in Boise. Jaci and I spent that first weekend working on getting her house in order. She's still very much decided to sell this place and move back in with her family in South Dakota permanently. The first step to that end is to get the place ready to sell. She hired a realtor who showed up last Tuesday evening to take photos of the entire house to generate a listing. I spent a frantic Tuesday morning and afternoon cleaning the house and trying to hide things so as to make the place look less lived in. Jaci's instructions were to make this townhouse look like a hotel room. I went over everything top to bottom and did an impressive job, if I may say so myself. I helped Jaci get rid of a bunch of junk, too, and the end result of all this work has been astounding. It really does look like a hotel room around here. Just don't open the closets. You may not get them closed again.
Over this current weekend, we've really relaxed greatly to the point of accomplishing nothing, which we couldn't be happier with. Friday and Saturday we caught movies at the cheap theater and even got a visit in with Jaci's dad in nearby Nampa. I spent some time with him setting up his DTV converter box as well as a $300 DVD-writing VHS tape deck gizmo. For my troubles, he gave me an inkjet printer. Jaci constantly reminds me that I'm the only boyfriend she's ever had that really gets along with her father and that she thinks he likes me. I don't know how I get along so well with other people's parents. It's a gift.
I originally planned this to just be a ten day trip. I was scheduled to go home to Portland this Tuesday, May 5th. I think, however, I'll stay at least a week or two longer. Nothing pressing is waiting for me back in Portland and Jaci and I are enjoying each other's company. It's nice to be around and be in a new place for a while. Plus, I promised her I'd finish off her backyard before I left. The plan is to dig up all the weeds and grass in her tiny 16-foot-square yard (If you can even call it a yard) to get it to a flat dirt surface. Then, we're going to lay down some landscaping fabric and pour pea gravel atop that. It's not going to win any awards, but it'll be an improvement to what it is now and even be something that the home's future owners can upgrade.
I'm trying to keep out of my mind the depressing reality of my visit- That I'm more or less helping Jaci move. Being here and seeing first hand how serious Jaci is about selling this house, quitting her job and moving back to the midwest seems to foreshadow the beginning of the end of my ability to visit her as easily as I have been these last five years. We saw a movie the other night that reminded her of her childhood growing up in Iowa and she spent the rest of the evening getting ahold of her family there to reminisce. I feel sad that she really wants to leave the Northwest, but somehow, I'm comforted by the knowledge that this is a good, positive thing for her. Plus, I'm bolstered by the fact that we're both making the most of my visit and that no matter where Jaci is, she'll be one of my best friends. I have no reason to be worried that I'll miss her because, just like my friendship with Stephanie, we may be separated by great distance but we're never truly that far apart.