You Really Can't Go Home Again

I think I mentioned that on Saturday I went north from Tacoma to my old hometown zone of the Skagit Valley to meet my little nephew, Spencer Jack, for the first time. I may get around to blogging about that later.

In the meantime I came face to face with a visual metaphor for the cliche "You Can't Go Home Again." That cliche had multi-meanings for me on Saturday. Another cliche also came to mind that day, that being "absence makes the heart grow fonder." I found that cliche to be totally not true, as experienced by me, well, more accurately, there should be a qualifier, as in, "in some cases absence makes the heart grow fonder." I think there has to be some fondness to begin with. In the fondness-challenged cases the cliche should be "absence makes the annoying personality traits even more annoying upon fresh exposure."

That photo above is of my old house in Mount Vernon. It was sold in 2002. I had been marveling at how beautiful Mount Vernon was looking, all lush and green with tall trees everywhere, as if the entire town, from freeway exits to vacant lots had been landscaped by a skilled designer. Such a contrast to Fort Worth where they let weeds and litter decorate the freeway exits to their #1 tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards, among many other locations.

And then I got to my old house. It was the only eyesore I saw in all of Mount Vernon. Weeds covered the driveway. The landscaping had grown totally out of control. The roof top deck no longer had plants growing on it. I wish I'd not lain eyes on this. I was party to the entire construction of that house and did the landscaping myself. Now it's a ruins. I really can't go home again.

That photo of a long street is Fir Street in Mount Vernon, looking east towards the Cascade Mountain Foothills and my old house. My old weed-covered house is located in the trees you see at the end of Fir Street.

Mount Vernon is sort of the center of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The Skagit River cuts through Mount Vernon with bridges connecting the two sides, not unlike the Trinity River cutting through Fort Worth. No one in Mount Vernon, however, would ever dream of doing something so goofy as damming up the Skagit River to make a little lake and some canals for Mount Vernon, like what is currently underway in Fort Worth.

In the photo we are crossing the Skagit River, heading towards downtown Mount Vernon and my old house, which at the point this photo was taken I still thought I wanted to see. That thing sticking up in the photo to the left of the bridge is the Tulip Tower. Tulips are a big deal in the Skagit Valley.

Spencer Jack Meets His Great-Grandparents & Equally Great Uncle

I've had a long day, today, in Seattle, at the Fremont Sunday Market. I'm pretty much in a sorta yin yang mode, at the point where I am a bit more than 50% of my stay here. I fly back to HEAT in 18 days. Every one here is counting down that ticker. Or so it seems. I feel so welcome. I may return some day.

I'm loving Tacoma. My little sister is great. Though she is exhibiting some disturbing signs of some behavior semblances that match our oldest sister, my youngest sister seems to be trying, really trying, to keep it in check.

Lest she becomes our mother, who we dearly dearly love, but whom we all wish not to emulate.

My other sister, Kristin, is even greater. I just love that girl. She is so darn cute and funny. I could go on a road trip with her tomorrow and never come back.

So, on Saturday, myself, my little sister and my new favorite sister, Kristin, all headed north to meet, well, me to meet, my Grand Nephew, Spencer Jack for the first time. My mom and dad, Spencer's Great Grandparents, had also never met Spencer.

It all ended up being an episode worthy of Dallas or Dynasty. Our favorite ex-sister-in-law, Spencer's Grandma, Cindy, showed up, to the delight of all who had not seen her in a long time. Then one of my favorite, if not my favorite nephews, Joey, showed up. There was a lotta drama amongst it all, but in the end, Spencer Jack showed up and he put on a show for us all, including me, and I'm thinking my Uncle Powers are still strong.

The Clear Lake Mannequin Murders

Yesterday's journey to my old hometown zone to see my little Grand Nephew, Spencer Jack, went well. For the most part.

A couple of Spencer Jack's Old Crone Aunts wore on my nerves, just like they always do. But I'm used to that, for the most part.

Though I'm not around such types when I'm in Texas and it is a tad jarring to expose oneself to a pathology one generally avoids, I survived the few hours exposure to the extreme negativity and likely will not have any of that radiation exposure again for several years. Maybe a decade.

I am always such a naive optimist that I somehow think the Old Crones will somehow someday cease being such tiresome bitter nags. But, I think only extensive therapy and perhaps some potent meds could render some people's bad side neutralized. What I do know for certain is that it is in ones best interest to avoid toxic people as much as one can.

I don't have time this morning to Blog about Saturday in all its gory detail. I'm up early to go to Fremont Sunday Market again with Lulu.

But, I had to share a news story my nephew Joey and his mom, my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Cindy, told us yesterday. Joey lives in this little town called Clear Lake. As long as I can remember there's been this funny, slightly creepy thing in one Clear Laker's yard. That being this guy would dress up all these mannequins to suit the season. Like for 4th of July they'd be all red, white and blue.

Well, in the past week the mannequin family was brutally murdered. A makeshift memorial has grown up at the crime scene, much like what I saw up in Oklahoma City at the Murrah Memorial.

Below, from the Skagit Valley Herald (a much better paper, in a little bitty town, than the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in a, supposedly, big town) is an amusing, albeit sad telling of the tragic crime and its aftermath.

By TAHLIA GANSER Staff Writer
CLEAR LAKE — What started as a plus-sized bust has ended as part of a disturbing crime scene.

More than 15 years ago, Jamie Lanning was working at the Sedro-Woolley dump when he discovered a large foam dressmaker’s torso. The bust, which Lanning said “put Dolly Parton to shame” begged for the rest of its womanly body.

A short time after, amidst the unwanted heaps of trash, he found a fiberglass woman’s head. Later he discovered a fiberglass waist and legs sticking out of a JC Penney’s trash bin.

With a slight “reduction,” and some metal bar reinforcements, the busty Clear Lake mannequin Lucille was born and installed on Lanning’s front lawn.

She was eventually joined by a male mannequin that Lanning named “Will.” When Lanning learned that he was going to be a grandpa, he used a basketball stuffed under the dress of another female mannequin he named Jill to represent the child who would become Zachary, now 10.

When Zachary was born, a child-sized mannequin joined the family as all three greeted motorists passing by Lanning’s home on Highway 9, on the south side of Clear Lake. Lanning and his long-time girlfriend, Barbara Rumsey, would laugh at drivers’ reactions to the mannequin family.

The couple will laugh no more at drivers gawking at the mannequin family.

In a “vicious” attack Saturday night vandals used hammers or bats to beat Lucille, Will and the boy mannequin Lanning named “Zach,” after his grandson. Will and Zach were damaged beyond repair.

Lucille suffered the least damage of the family, but was turned by the vandals to view the grim site of Will and Zach’s dismembered limbs strewn across Lanning’s yard.

A hole in Will’s neck revealed his mannequin innards. His arm, tattooed with a heart and the name “Rosie,” stuck out of Lucille’s red pants. His head was scalped. Zach’s face was severed from the rest of his youthful body, still dressed in a blue soccer shirt. All of his fingers, except for the middle one, were broken off his right hand, and the left hand lay fingerless. His leg was placed in a compromising pose with Will.

“We’ve had vandalism before, but it has come to an end here,” the 80-year-old Lanning said as he looked at the crime scene from his wheelchair Monday afternoon. “They’re done for.”

He discovered the bludgeoning Sunday morning, after the late-night attack.

Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Bart Moody responded to the crime scene shortly after.

“Of course we would like to catch someone doing stuff like this,” said Chief Criminal Deputy Will Reichardt. “Right now we have no leads, and there is no evidence of who did this and no witnesses.”

Reminiscing on the lives of Lucille, Will, Zach and Jill, who was stolen years ago, Rumsey paged through several of her 20 photo albums, each filled with faded photos of the fiberglass family. Each one pictures the family standing in various poses and different coordinated outfits.

Mount Vernon, Washington & Mount Vernon, Texas

In a couple hours everyone in this house, including the poodle boys, will be heading north to the Skagit Valley. I moved to Texas from the Washington town called Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon is the Big City in the Skagit Valley.

There is also a Mount Vernon in Texas. There are likely a lot of Mount Vernon's all over the country. The Washington Mount Vernon has about 30,000 people living in it. It's in a very scenic setting with the Skagit River running through town, mountains to the east and farmland to the west. Farmland that can be very colorful in the spring when the valley floor is covered with tulips, daffodils, irises and rhododendrons in bloom.

Mount Vernon these days is a very successful little town. A few years back one of those Best in America type lists named Mount Vernon "The Best Small Town in America." CNN showed up among others. Fort Worth had a city wide celebration when an obscure D.C. lobbying group named Fort Worth one of the nation's top 10 most livable communites. CNN did not show up. Nor did any other legit news entity. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram did cover this bogus award with their patented breathless wonder. Like I said, no legit news entity covered Fort Worth's shining moment.

Back in the early 1970s Mount Vernon was not doing as well as it is now. The town of Leavenworth in eastern Washington had transformed itself into a hugely successful tourist town. Civic leaders in Mount Vernon came up with the goofy idea of turning Mount Vernon into a Colonial America type town, with the only reason being that the town was named after George Washington's house.

Before common sense prevailed a couple businesses remodeled with a Colonial look. And a festival sprung up around George's birthday that including a re-enactment of Washington's famous river crossing at Valley Forge. It was all bizarre. I remember watching a messy cherry pie eating contest. One of the saddest victims of the Mount Vernon Colonial era was the Mount Vernon High School band. They spent a small fortune on very goofy new uniforms that were made to look like Revolutionary War uniforms, including tri-corner hats. They were stuck with those awful uniforms for years.

Mount Vernon, Texas is a bit smaller than the Washington version with only 2,286 people. The Texas Mount Vernon existed long before Washington had even managed to become a state, let alone the Washington Mount Vernon manage to become a town. The Texas Mount Vernon has a bit more historical significance than the Washington version.

The Choctaw Trail runs through the Texas Mount Vernon's town center. The Bankhead Highway, which was the United State's first east/west transcontinental highway, remains Mount Vernon's Main Street. The Cherokee Trace runs along the towns eastern edge.

If you don't know what the Choctaw and Cherokee Trails are, Google it.

There are multiple historical markers in the Texas Mount Vernon. I don't know of any in the Washington version. The Texas Mount Vernon has over 65 homes designated as historic. I don't think the Washington Mount Vernon has any of those either.

So, there you go, the Tale of Two Mount Vernons, one of which I will be seeing in a short while.

Tacoma Meth & Me

One of my Tacoma acquaintances has a son who has a good, responsible job in Hawaii. He works for 5 months in a row and then he gets 5 weeks off, during which the company will fly him anywhere he wants to go.

During his 5 weeks off my acquaintance's son always chooses to come home to Tacoma. He'll stay with his mom and dad for a couple days. And then disappear, drawn back in to Tacoma's meth drug culture.

This is a kid who, til a few years back, would have nothing to do with drugs or alcohol. But, for some reason some how he discovered this meth stuff. Unlike most meth users this kid can get on and off the stuff.

His most recent meth bender ended a couple days ago. I saw him yesterday. I was shocked. He looked like he'd been beat up, battered all over, open sores, black eyes.

I can't imagine doing this to yourself. He said the wounds hurt. They looked like a bad infection ready to happen. I feel sorry for his mom and dad, watching them try and cope with this.

His mom made some reference to the damage and the kid said it's the price for having fun.

Very disturbing. Life sentences need to be the norm for whoever makes and sells this meth stuff.

Seafood At Steamers in Tacoma

Today Tacoma started out gloomy, wet and cold. By mid-day the gloom had lifted. By late afternoon summer had returned. By 6pm I was in a restaurant looking out at blue sky blue water splendor in a part of Tacoma I'd not been to before. Titlow beach.

I don't know why this beach has such a name. You'd think this would be the name of a nude beach. But at Titlow beach there are a couple places to eat, among other things, like hiking trails, parks and a big public swimming pool.

My mom and dad have been wanting Pacific Northwest type seafood. That usually means dungeness crab, clams (either horseshoe or razor), clam chowder and cod or halibut.

So, tonight my sister and Kristin took me and Mom and Dad to a place called Steamers. It was right at sea level with good views of the water and the Tacoma Narrows Bridges. The tide was changing so we got to watch boats struggle against the current.

Steamers is one of those order at the front, find a seat and the food is delivered to you type places. We got halibut and chips, cod and chips, coconut shrimp with Caesar salad and clam chowder.

It was the best seafood I've had since August of 2004, when Lulu and I went out to Ocean Shores, on the Pacific, and had really good cod and razor clam chowder. Steamers cup of chowder comes in an actual cup. That's the coffee cup looking thing you see in the photo.

Steamers was very busy. And it was early. There is an outdoor dining area that looked inviting. But my mom thought she'd get cold. She was wrong. I don't recollect food arriving so quickly as it did tonight at Steamers. I'm telling you it was only a couple minutes. It was all good, totally non-greasy.

I'd go back. I don't often say that.

After Steamers my sister drove us across the Tacoma Narrows to Gig Harbor. Gig Harbor has grown a lot since I last saw it. They are very particular in Gig Harbor. All the new development is very well designed and has to meet exacting standards, as in it blends in with the trees, has a matching look and the roads are all heavily landscaped with elaborate round-about traffic circles to make it all flow easy. No garish signs. As in the McDonald's has no golden arches and is very very muted with a woodsy style of architecture. Would you guess that's a McDonald's in the photo?

Seeing Spencer Jack

That last time I was up in Washington was April of 2006. I had a primary reason to be here at that time, with the secondary reason being to attend the wedding of my oldest nephew, Jason to a sweet, funny, good-natured, likable, pretty young lady named Jenny.

About a year and a half later Spencer Jack was born, making my brother and my favorite ex-sister-in-law, grandparents. And my mom and dad great-grandparents.

My mom and dad were unable to attend the wedding. They have not met Spencer Jack. Nor have I.

Spencer Jack is so named because someone told my impressionable nephew that you can not go wrong naming your oldest kid after your richest relative. So, Spencer was given the same name as my ex-wife's last name. It's very confusing.

Tomorrow Spencer Jack's Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa will see him for the first time. It will also be the first time Spencer Jack gets to meet his favorite Great Uncle. That's me.

We will be meeting Spencer Jack up in the Skagit Valley at a place called Bay View State Park. Spencer Jack's dad will be real busy tomorrow due to his Jason's Grub restaurant being in Anacortes and it being the weekend of the Anacortes Arts & Crafts Festival.

We currently do not know who is bringing Spencer Jack out to Bay View. It may be his Uncle Joey. Or my ex-sister-in-law. Or someone else. It'd be nice if Spencer's mom could bring him out if his dad was not available.

So where is Spencer Jack's mother in this picture? Well, I'm glad you asked. In a turn of events none of us saw coming, my nephew is in the process of being divorced from the adorably sweet, kind, good-hearted, nice girl he married.

I hope my nephew will someday be as friendly with his ex-wife as I am with mine. I've not seen my ex since the aforementioned wedding. She'll be there tomorrow. It's hard to get divorced in my family. They just don't let you go. I wonder if this has anything to do with why I moved to Texas?

Lulu & Durango at Pioneer Square, Fremont & Lacey

This morning I went over to Lulu's, on the dark side of Tacoma. Dark, today, due to her side of town still being cloudy and dripping, while my north side of town had returned to blue skies. Lulu's zone of Tacoma is generally more gloomy than my end of town.

While Lulu and I consulted, I made 100s of these bubble magnet things til the fumes from the resin started making my throat constrict. I'd never experienced anything like it before. Perhaps it was not the resin, but rather the possibly toxic dust-laden air in Lulu's work space that put me near respiratory failure.

All I know for certain is when I left Lulu's, lung function seemed to quickly return to normal.

While I was still able to breathe, Lulu told me my schedule for the remainder of my time up north. Lulu & Durango will be making another appearance at the Fremont Sunday Market, this coming Sunday. Depending how that goes, this may be Durango's final Fremont appearance.

Then on Thursday, Lulu & Durango will be where Seattle began, Pioneer Square. We will be at Occidental Park for First Thursday's Art in the Park.

According to the Pioneer Square website...

"Discover Seattle’s most talented emerging artists at Art in the Park on First Thursdays, February through December. Grab a latte, stroll through historic Occidental Park, and immerse yourself in the Emerald City's vibrant independent art scene."

Seattle's Pioneer Square covers over 20 blocks of Romanesque/Victorian buildings. There are more than 30 galleries, over 200 shops, nightclubs, lots of restaurants. And coffee houses. Pioneer Square is sort of like the West End in Dallas, only much bigger, much more going on. And with no Presidential Assassination site.

The other appearance by Lulu & Durango will be at a show in Lacey. That's down near Olympia. I don't remember the name of the Lacey show. I think it is next Saturday. Lacey, Washington is like Fort Worth, Texas. Both have a Cabela's. Only Lacey didn't have to bend over backwards, with bribes, to get one. And, unlike Fort Worth, Cabela's did not tell Lacey that their Cabela's store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Washington, while Fort Worth fell for the con that their Cabela's store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. One would think real Texans would have found such an assertion somehow insulting. But they didn't.

Anyway. See you at Fremont, Pioneer Square or Lacey. Or any combo of.

Gas Below 4 Bucks in Washington

Last Saturday the Puyallup Indian Tribe lowered the gas price at their casino station to $3.99. This caused long long lines at their gas pumps. Lulu and I filled up her van there in the wee hours of Sunday. The lines were short at that time.

Now, moving forward just a few days, the price here in the Puget Sound zone has fallen under $4 all over. People seem thrilled, near as I can tell, from what I read in the paper, hear on the radio, see on TV and in person.

Which leads me to wonder if we are not a nation of easily manipulated sheep. I remember when I moved to Texas, in 1999, filling up in Amarillo. Gas was $.77 a gallon. Two years later I was driving back to the Northwest for my mom and dad's 50th anniversary. Gas in Amarillo was $1.19.

On that trip I needed gas in La Grange, Oregon. It was $1.79. I'd never seen such high gas prices. I did not fill the tank, figuring it'd be cheaper when I got to a less isolated spot. It wasn't. By the time I passed through Amarillo again, a month later, gas was $1.39 a gallon.

A couple years ago gas was hovering in the 2 buck zone. I was down in Dinosaur Valley at the state park. People were abuzz with the fact that a gas price war had broken out in the nearby town of Glen Rose. Two stations were selling the evil liquid for $1.50 a gallon. I filled up. There weren't lines waiting to get the cheap gas.

A year or so ago, (it's easy to lose track of time regarding the ever rising price of gas) gas had gone over $2. People were not happy. And then it went back down under $2 and people were so grateful.

Which leads me to the point of what I'm rambling about. As in it seems we are being constantly conditioned to accept ever higher prices. It goes up suddenly and we are appalled. And then the price drops a bit and we are so happy. And then the cycle repeats.

It's like some clever manipulator somewhere is gleefully amazed that they are so easily conditioning people to paying an amount per gallon that is beyond their fondest hopes of what they could get away with.

I think the same clever manipulator must be handling the milk prices too.

Rain Rain Rain in Tacoma

Yesterday started out fine, here in Tacoma. Around 2 in the afternoon I was at Point Defiance and I saw part of The Mountain, as in Mount Rainier, out, as in the bottom half was not covered by clouds.

By early evening rain began to fall. It does not often rain in the Puget Sound region in summer. This was like the type rain that bedevils the northwest during the other 3 seasons, particularly winter.

And now, this morning, it is still raining, raining hard. Dark, cold, gloomy and wet. Sort of like a weather metaphor for how I am feeling about just about every aspect of my existence.

In the photo you are looking at my yoga and grocery shopping partner, Kristin, and the 2 poodles in our care, Max & Blue. It's so gloomy here, even using the flash could not get the photo any brighter.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, the skies are clear, it is 86 at 7 am, heading towards a high of 102. Yesterday got to 106. Here, in Tacoma, I think it got to 66, yesterday. Brrrrr. My sister found a knitted ski type cap for me to wear, at all times, to help keep me warmer. I am so grateful. It's the small things that matter when you battle the elements in a difficult climate.