Weeks after the funeral of my partners mom there is still paper work and all kinds of other things to do. Life after someone dies is a lot of work left to do. I have to ask myself , "is this what it boils down to? You die and then those left behind get to spend weeks working out details?" These days we are all just a pile o

Like with all families my partners family has issues. There are those that do not get along, brothers, cousins, they are all there. When the family got together this week after the funeral they all managed to keep peace and even talk some. It was the first time that I ever felt really comfortable around them all. It was a m

We lost my partners mom on Tuesdays and while we are all very upset needless to say I could not help but be amazed at the out pouring of emotion and blessing from so many people here this week. From the people at Lydia House where she lived to the bank where the family does business they have been so real with their feeling

When you live in a place like the OR the last thing you want to ever think about it death and yet like every place else on Earth it is all around us. It is the ugly truth mixed inside all of the beauty that is all around us here in this wonderful part of the world. Now we have my partners mom in Hospice....we sit and wait t

This past week has not been your typical week and that is why I have been slow with blogging. Now we face another issue that is going to take some time to deal with. I hope that it is only a small step that we are taking right now but you never know. My partner's mother has advanced Alzheimer disease. Last week she started

We had a couple of good sunny days lately but again it is only February and it is the rainy season in the OR. Rain is always better than snow in my opinion. It is at least helping the coming growing season and we get grass in the valley all year. I will take that over the east coast snow store this week. After all what is a

Some time you just know that if it looks like cake and smells like cake it could be cake. Other times no so much so. While I do not intend for this blog to be political today I am going to talk about measure 66 and 67 a little. I fear these measures are not the bright shiny hope that a little over half of the voters think i

Yesterday was the first really nice day all winter long here in Albany. We celebrated this by starting to work in the yard, clearing branches and some ranking got done. Its the first signs that soon the work load will be bigger than both of us together and there will never be enough time to do everything that needs to be do

The weather is starting to turn again and we are getting more sunny days. Sun going doing a little latter also means those dark winter days are fading fast. I am not a real winter fan even though Albany does not see much snow. Spring time means that it will be time to clean the yard soon and get the nursery ready to open up

This past year was not so easy for the OR and her people money wise. Withe the paper mill closing in Millersburge it effected a lot of the locals in Albany. It is sad to see all the small shops struggling right now and then they are going to drop Wal Mart in right on top of us down the street from me. I have Wally World wit

Life in the OR can be interesting even in such a small place as we live in. This past week I went around to some of the local business owners talking to them about Google and what a wonderful place on line it is for spreading he word about your business. I was struck by the fact that these people are so back in time in some

Growing up I always loved walking around down town back home and looking at all those cool little shops in those classic old buildings. For me that was part of what made a town. It was the history, the since of some romantic idea of how life should be. Unlike malls and the like, down town offered a place that was almost mag

I wanted to start this blog out with a little flash back to my coming here. I was living in Joliet IL and had been in the Chicago burbs for a few years at this point. Not really long but long enough to not like snow any more. I met James, my partner on line. He lived in Oregon and I was not even completely sure