Poem for Tuesday

Security
By William Stafford

Tomorrow will have an island. Before night
I always find it. Then on to the next island.
These places hidden in the day separate
and come forward if you beckon.
But you have to know they are there before they exist.

Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island.
So far, I haven't let that happen, but after
I'm gone others may become faithless and careless.
Before them will tumble the wide unbroken sea,
and without any hope they will stare at the horizon.

So to you, Friend, I confide my secret:
to be a discoverer you hold close whatever
you find, and after a while you decide
what it is. Then, secure in where you have been,
you turn to the open sea and let go.

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Poem snicked from . We are off to the Olympic Peninsula and tomorrow will have several islands, so it seemed appropriate.

Monday we spent the entire day with family -- breakfast with 's parents, brother and family at the hotel, then two lovely hours at Bothell Country Village Shops to get a gift for Granny before the party at the church, lunch with the extended family and some friends, swimming back at the hotel with cousin Todd's children, a quick dinner and then the evening at Jean and Bob's with the family again. The kids all got along very well and the older one watched the toddlers as they explored the backyard, where they discovered strawberries, worms, snails and all sorts of other excitement.

The Country Village Shops are a beautiful complex of cottages, converted old railroad cars and an inn surrounded by a marsh and creek, with individual craft stores, including Pacific Northwest-specific crafts, candles, glass-blowing (that can be watched or participated in), wood-carving, metal sculpture, etc. There's a store called "Hobbit Iron" that specializes in ornamental metalworks if that gives you an idea what kind of place it is. *g* There are also chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits and a variety of other birds and small mammals running around the grounds, plus dispensers to feed the waterfowl. I had forgotten how many varieties of evergreen there are here, and the hills are beautiful this time of year. We got Granny a sculpted basket for all her 90th birthday cards filled with chocolate covered cherries, flowers and other things she likes.

's parents have told me terrible news! Maximus is gone. He has been relocated by a wildlife group out in the wilderness with his family. It seems that some of the nervous old ladies in the neighborhood had taken to screaming and jumping on their deck furniture whenever they saw a groundhog, which was quite frequent after Maximus and his wives reproduced this spring, so the neighborhood committee hired a humane society division to come trap and move all the groundhogs to an area that has not yet been overdeveloped with condos and Wal-Marts. This is probably good news for Maximus and the family as one presumes they will have more room to play, but I am very sad that I will not see them again. Already the rabbits have overtaken his old stomping ground, scaring the old ladies since the rabbits are even more fearless than the groundhogs, so I imagine they will be the next to be relocated. I am never retiring near people who prefer concrete lawn ornaments to live groundhogs!

So here is the runaround we are currently getting from United: we are flying home through Denver, and we all have seats on the flight to Denver. Younger son and I have tickets that were bought using frequent flyer miles; we have seat assignments from Denver to BWI. Older son and husband are frequent flyer members under the same account number but United is telling us that 1) the flight is oversold, so they cannot give out seat assignments for non-frequent flyers, 2) if we are all on the plane to Denver, we will all get seats on the flight from Denver to Baltimore even if the plane is oversold; 3) we will not be able to get seats until we arrive in Denver because United does not actually control the seats on the flight, the airport authority does, and 4) we can't talk to the airport authority (note: the two people we talked to BOTH gave their names as Jack Stephenson and from their accents we strongly suspect that they were not in the continental US -- I don't like to think of myself as someone who stereotypes, but really, how many Jack Stephensons with Pakistani accents can there be working for United Airlines?!) Now the question is what we do if we get to Denver and two of us have been bumped from the flight, which we may not even know when we leave Seattle. Do I need effing legal representation to get seats we paid for on the flights for which we bought them now?


Northwest caboose and tugboat at the Country Village Shops which until recently housed a pet store and Sea Faeries store, though the shops have since moved into the larger Town Hall Antique Mall. As you can see the ducks have not moved anywhere -- nor the roosters, robins, bunnies, etc.

Tuesday we go to Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort with no phones or television, so no update at night. Have a great mid-week!