Month in Review: October

 Books Read:

Peter Frase; Four Futures: Life After Capitalism
Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth; Angrynomics
Howard Cruse; Stuck Rubber Baby
Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett; The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
Heather Cox Richardson; How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America

 

Project Update:

 

I haven’t said much about what I’ve been up to recently. I took a new job last May with a notary company based outside of Seattle. The principle reason I took the job is that it allows me to work remotely. The work has two components: accounting and scheduling. I was able to learn the accounting aspect from home and spent May and June getting comfortable with this. The scheduling needed to be done in person and since my new boss was a friend of my wife’s we decided to make the training an occasion for a family road trip. 

In planning this trip I realized that the two cities, Boston and Seattle, are connected by a single highway, I-90, the longest highway in the US. We had already taken many road trips between Boston and my home state of Michigan, so the first leg of the trip was mostly uneventful. We were able to reach Columbus, OH on the first day. We didn’t make as much progress the second day and ultimately stopped after 5 hours on the road in Joliet, IL. That day we noticed some water leaking from the dashboard on the passenger side. We called our mechanic who suspected it was coming from the AC unit. The AC unit had been making some noises and so we trusted him and assuming it was nothing major kept driving. 

The next day we made it to South Dakota and the following day we stopped at the Badlands National Park and later that afternoon Mount Rushmore. Leaving Mount Rushmore we drove through a pretty amazing storm. I tried to google the technical name for this kind of cloud formation, but was unable to come up with anything. It looked like an enormous inverted step or plate coming out of the clouds. I would say it was the beginning of a tornado, but it didn’t move. The diameter of the plate must have been a mile or more across. We were driving at least 50 miles an hour and it took us at least 15 to 20 minutes to reach and then pass the plate. Shortly after we were hit with a pretty bad hail storm. 

The following day we began driving through Wyoming. After an hour or so of admiring the majestic slopping hills and expansive vistas, I decided to crack the sunroof and let Lily stick her head out. It was probably the most fun we had had driving on the trip so far. South Dakota had been nice, but I was really blown away by Wyoming. After stopping for gas and driving a few more miles I noticed that Emily was uncomfortable in her seat so we stopped on the side of the highway to adjust her. When I tried to start the car again it wouldn’t turn over. Not being able to figure out what the problem was we ended up spending three hours on the side of the road in 90 degree heat waiting for a tow truck. I positioned blankets over the windows to block out the sun and keep the kids relatively comfortable. Luckily, we weren’t too far from civilization. While waiting for the tow truck a couple people stopped by to check on us. The first guy to stop offered to give Helen a ride into town. In retrospect, I realized he would be the first of several similar encounters: a friendly guy offers to help who also ends up being a Trump supporter. What I found interesting in all these encounters, was the kind of off-hand devil-may-care way he spoke about Trump, “I’ll probably vote for him.”  

 

Once back in Sheridan we were hit with some good and bad news. Sheridan, WY, was sizable enough town and we were able to find an auto repair shop immediately adjacent to a reasonably priced hotel. That was the good news. The bad news was that our car was totaled. I would end up borrowing a luggage cart from the hotel to haul all our luggage out of the van after learning the car would not be salvageable. 

 

I wonder if there is a name for situations like this, where you pass through a location or meet a person that seems insignificant to our situation, only to later find them to be of much significance. Anyways, it was strange to be stranded in a town we earlier thought was just one rest stop out of many. We ended up spending several days in Sheridan trying to get our car situation worked out. We discovered that all the fluid of our car had leaked out and the engine was basically toast. Not surprisingly, the insurance company wouldn’t cover the repairs. To add insult on top of injury, there were no rental cars available in Sheridan or any nearby cities. 

We ended up hitching a ride with a guy who worked at our hotel to his mother’s house in Billings, MT. We hoped that we might find a way of getting to Seattle from Billings. We ended up having no more luck there than in Sheridan. As a last resort he called up his mother who often hosted guests at her house. She had an RV in her driveway and agreed to let us rent it out from her until we got things settled. Since I was already late to my training appointment we decided it was best for me to fly out to Seattle, finish the training, and then rent a car and drive back to pick up the family. 

The family we stayed with bought a chicken dinner for us that first night. They had a pool in the backyard and Lily went swimming with their two daughters. They also had a lot of small dogs Lily enjoyed playing with.  

This ended up working out well. I had been rushing most of the trip, while everyone else wanted to slow down and explore. Helen was happy to spend a week in Montana while did my training and caught up on work. On the drive back to Wyoming I stopped in North Bend WA, a city known as the home to iconic scenes from Twin Peaks. I stopped at the famed Snoqualmie Falls, took a photo of where the Twin Peaks sign had once been, and had breakfast at the admittedly pricey “Double R” Diner. The drive back was awe inspiring. The evergreen hills outside Seattle, then the river gorge past the mountain range. Washington, I would learn, had nearly every environmental habitat. Driving by myself I was able to make good time and was back in Montana by 6am that night. 

 

While in Seattle I would regularly call and check in. They seemed to be having a pleasant enough time. It wasn’t until I picked them up and we were on our way back that I learned Helen had ultimately grew a bit uncomfortable being there. The family was very conservative and pro-Trump and spent every evening watching Fox News. 

 

The drive back ended up taking 3 times as long. This was is in part because we spent a day in Kellogg, ID looking for a replacement car at the Dave Smith auto dealership. While searching for cars we rented out a room from a sweat lady who decorated her home with Asian art in a way that reminded me of my own Aunt’s home. Driving through Idaho we had seen many signings advertising Huckleberries. Helen was happy to finally find someone in the town willing to sell some to her. The rest of the drive was mostly uneventful and we arrived at our final destination of Mukilteo, WA on July 22^nd, where we would stay for the next 3 and a half months. 

 

The first thing we noticed driving into town was Mukilteo’s expansive Boeing factory. It was really cool to drive by the hangars and see the planes being built inside. While waiting for our landlord to arrive we took a trip down to the harbor. We discovered a ferry service there. Along the beach were community fire pits where mostly younger people gathered to grill hot dogs and socialize. There were piers made of floating platforms that were a lot of fun for Lily to walk on. There were also large logs along the beach Lily played on. I was excited to have this vibrant community to be a part of our new home.

 

I quickly realized that the work load I had agreed to take on was considerably more than what I anticipated or thought we had agreed on, which was that this was a typical 9-5 job. I remember the first day, as 5 pm approached and passed, when my boss was going to let me call it a day. We had a back and forth for the next few days where I awkwardly threw in the towel around 6. Ultimately I settled on wrapping up at 7, although many days I didn’t finish until 8 and on a few days was still working at 9. The long term plan had been for me take over my boss’ role of scheduling and doing the accounting, so he could focus on troubleshooting and getting new clients. Well, I quickly realized that I would be working 10-12 hours a day just doing the scheduling, with an additional 4 – 5 hours of accounting work. The first two weeks I tried to keep up with each day’s work, but it wasn’t long before I put off the accounting work for the weekend and then, being exhausted, put that work off as well asking for days off to catch up. Around mid-September I decided that I’d need to have a reduction of hours and was allowed to just do the accounting work. So now I have 4 – 5 hours of work a day, which I’m allowed to do at any time. My last day doing scheduling was October 5^th, and it took me the rest of the month to catch up. 

 

So, for much of the trip I sat at my desk looking out the window. We were staying in a second story two-bedroom condo. I had a few of neighboring buildings and a large maple tree that I enjoyed watching change colors over the past two weeks. I watched many of the neighbors come and go through the day, the lawn service blowing leaves and lawn clippings, package delivery men and women. The weather never rose above 80 through August and early September and has yet to dip below 40. 

 

I did make some time for family outings during our stay. Our first trips were back to North Bend. I took the family to see Snoqualmie Falls and a couple days later we went back to pick blue berries. We went one evening to Seattle. This was around the time of the protests, which took place in a park near the Eliot Bay Book Company, where I ended up parking so Helen could check them out while I waited in the car with Lily an Emily. There were helicopters circling overhead and young people walking down the streets carrying sticks and bats. Many businesses had their windows and doors boarded up as a precaution. I was surprised to see all of the homeless tents, which I remembered reading about, but had not remembered until we arrived. 

 

A week after that we took a weekend trip to the Olympic Peninsula where we visited Ruby Beach and the Hoh Rainforest. Another memorable event was the forest fires in Oregon and the south of Washington state, the smoke of which traveled all the way up to where we were, which was about 15 miles north of Seattle. I woke up that morning to see the skies a hazy orange. Later that day we drove out to Seattle. By that time the skies were more of a gray. The air had a tangy taste that reminded me of Beijing. The bad air stuck around for at least 3 or 4 days. A few weeks after that we visited the Northern Cascades National Park. And then my schedule lightened up, allowing for more flexibility. We took a trip to Portland for a few days and then a trip to Mount St. Helens. We also did a lot of day hikes on local trails. I made a point of telling my boss I needed time for daily walks and I’ve been pretty good about taking at least one walk a day, many of them with the family. 

 

The trip certainly has had its bumpy moments. The long hours of scheduling put considerable stress on me. Drawing and reading fell by the wayside. Helen and the kids took advantage of being out here and were able to do a lot more exploring than I was able to. 

 

The last few weeks have been much more peaceful and fulfilling. Lily discovered Pokemon a few weeks ago and while we were watching the anime together and researching various “mon” we discovered Pokemon Go which I’ve since become addicted to. Now my daily walks include visiting Pokemon Gyms and Poke Stops.  

 

While catching up on accounting work in October I made time for myself to draw. I had long wanted to in Inktober, the social media event where you draw a picture every day for the month of October, and was finally able to do so. I finished the 31 drawings for that event yesterday. My drawings form a story, which is mostly a playful working out of some ideas for the larger story I’ve been working on the past two years. In fact, I’ve now made 3 extraneous iterations/elaborations on this story. 

 

One lesson I’ve learned in this last iteration, a lesson I’ve admittedly learned before and since forgotten, is that I really need to stop fixating on some ideal and just focus on putting stuff out. I’ve now spent two years on this comic and am quite sure it won’t be done this year, even though I had at one point expected to finish by July. So I am now committed to bulldozing through it. Once I get it down, if only in a kind of finished draft, then I can, if I choose to, rework it. But at this point I’d rather be in the state of reworking than in fretting over screwing it up and so not doing anything at all. 

I’ve also committed myself to doing a collaborative 40 page comic with a writer I met online. I have been chatting with him about this project all year, but have yet to do any work on it, outside of reading his script. I’ve also committed myself to writing two book reviews and an cover illustration for a friend’s book.

 

So, it is now Wednesday, November 11, 2020. We are planning to leave next Monday. Our current plan is to take a circuitous route back home. We plan on driving south to San Francisco and from there to Arizona. We will then either continue south to Texas and possibly New Orleans or just head home. I guess it will depend on how we are all doing and how the car is holding up.