This is a reanimation of the Vicaribus blog as lived by Miro Kazakoff and Ehren Foss in 2004 and 2005. The photos may be spotty.

lacksadaisi...

Posted by ehren

Sunday morning Brenna let us cook omelettes with her chicken's eggs, and they were tasty.

Brenna had long promised to bring us to her Grandma Jean's house in nearby Florence (not the Florence by the coast, a different Florence). Grandma Jean fulfilled the Platonic ideal of "Grandma" and more, offering us cookies and sandwiches and potato soup all afternoon. She showed us the small house she and her husband built in 1947, along with the two gigantic freezers inside containing at least 18 months of provisions, including frozen microwaveable popcorn. Does it need to be frozen? No. But you never get ants in the freezer, do you? Grandma Jean cackled at stories, provided many of her own, and showed us the large boxes of teddy bears she used to make from old blankets and jackets. She made the best apple pie I've ever eaten, despite the fact that it, too, had been stored in the freezer for at least a year.

Food coma.

Jason dropped Miro and I off at Cosmic Pizza, where I'm attempting to be good and productive:

1. 2002 and 2004 tax forms (...long story)
2. Order veggie oil parts (on hold... still haven't inspected the fuel/coolant lines)
3. Look up steel distributors and junkyards in Portland.
4. Find out what the internet experts have to say about HTTP cookies and PHP sessions these days.
5. Set up a paypal account (still waiting for their mini-transfer to go through)
6. Research how to properly care for lead-acid batteries via intelligent charge cycles.

Bus life is such that when there are no pressing concerns such as work deadlines or inclement weather or police dispatches, it's difficult to fool yourself into thinking that anything has to be done at all. Work has been more or less on hold (until the demo yesterday) for a week or two, and it's possible to go through an entire day where "trim beard and cut hair" is the biggest accomplishment. Status quo? No big whoop. I cleaned the bus dashboard this morning, so really, I could've let myself off the hook for the rest of the day. Still, onward and upward.

We'll probably leave for Portland tomorrow afternoon, and will meet up with Sean and Rayna later on Wednesday. From there, I believe the new plan is to stash their car in Tacoma and take the bus up to Olympic. There's still too much snow on the Cascades to get very far, and Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Ranier are similarly dicey. Seattle airfare has begun a sharp climb to the "last minute" price, so I doubt we'll receive any visitors there aside from Steve and Karen on their way to a Portland wedding.