The best part of summer is what happens in the moments when nothing is planned and no one cares about schedules or dates, when an idea changes from a word to an action, even if that action involves nothing more than a nap in the hammock under the apricot tree, listening to the wind chimes tinkle in a hot Eastern Washington breeze.
The best part of summer is crawdads in a bucket, confused and perturbed at the sudden change in fortune, as little boys wade through the water and…
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Added by Lisa Miller on February 12, 2010 at 12:00am —
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The Dog Days of Summer. The Ides of March. What do we call the dark days of January...maybe Darkened, Darkish, Darksome, Dim, Gloomy, or Somber? But then the sun comes out and for a few hours it's Beaming, Glowing, Lambent, Radiant, and Lustrous. The sun shines fiercely in the pale blue sky, waking me up and driving me outside to bask in my chair on the deck. So what do we call these days, the days of mid-winter...maybe Darksome days of freezing light and Darkling warm nights curled up under…
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Added by Lisa Miller on February 11, 2010 at 10:30pm —
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It looks like we'll be moving this summer...to where I don't know. My husband is leaving for Austin soon and a huge music symposium where he'll work with other singer/songwriters and try to get some songs recorded. There's always hope...and the next house I live in will have internet or so help me god I will go insane!!
Added by Lisa Miller on January 26, 2010 at 10:22am —
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When she bursts into speech - or maybe it's song - no one knows what she's saying and they all look to me for help. I rarely have a clue, but I try to look especially thoughtful and knowledgeable because if I can't figure out what she's saying then we're all sunk. So while she looks up at a teacher in the hall and gabbles away I try to read her body language, remember what her mom said they'd done over the weekend, and look for anything in the teacher's hand that she might be interested in…
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Added by Lisa Miller on April 18, 2009 at 6:08pm —
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I know what today is supposed to be, but it's not exactly turning out to be a day of gentle winds and flocking birds and early flowers starting to bloom. As a matter of fact, I'm still carrying tire chains in the trunk of my car. Along with boots, gloves and blankets. What gives?! And that antennae that was supposed to provide me with dsl at my house...well, it fell down from all the heavey snow. Sigh.
I'll be…
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Added by Lisa Miller on March 20, 2009 at 10:30pm —
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I am optimistic but not naive. Every December, around Christmas, I thumb through my doorstop of a book of Ray Bradbury’s short stories and revisit his tales of Mars. His vision of Mars was one of destruction, realizing new lives, leaving things behind, and Hope. No matter how bad it gets, no matter how bad we are as a people, a few of us have enough Hope and Dreams to survive. I’d like to think that I’d have the guts to fly to Mars to live…that I’d…
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Added by Lisa Miller on December 31, 2008 at 7:17pm —
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Joe wouldn’t recognize his butte anymore, although it wasn’t named for him until decades later when a teenager read his story in a turn-of-the-century newspaper and started a petition to name the butte Jump Off Joe. I bet Joe never dreamed there’d be wind turbines perched at the top of the butte to wean us off oil, a vineyard on the southern slope making fancy wine for export, or SUV’s lined up in a parking lot at the bottom while day…
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Added by Lisa Miller on December 27, 2008 at 6:02pm —
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I wake up to thick fog every morning, sometimes forgetting for a moment that I don't live in Eastern Washington anymore and wondering
what's up with the weather and all those trees?! It might just be me, but it takes me a while to adjust my mental map and remember where I am some days. It's so strange...wondering where I am when I wake up. But then Emma's nose appears over the edge of the bed as she urges me to get up and let her out to…
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Added by Lisa Miller on November 26, 2008 at 7:30pm —
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Nope. No TV for me today. I voted by mail weeks ago, and really, I'm already over it. I hope my guy wins. I'll wait until tomorrow morning to watch the news and find out if the world ended...because I know some people who are CONVINCED the other guy is the ANTICHRIST. I'd really like SNL to do a parody of that...
Added by Lisa Miller on November 4, 2008 at 8:43pm —
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The Logger Drive-In restaurant glowed in the pre-dawn darkness as I pulled into the parking lot to meet some friends for breakfast. We had just seated ourselves at one of the 6 small tables and started talking about work when one of the men at an adjacent table leaned over and asked me if I was one of the new teachers at school, to which I replied
Yes, I am.
Welcome to town, he said as he ran his thumbs under his suspenders and prepared to get up from his table.
Do you like… Continue
Added by Lisa Miller on November 1, 2008 at 11:24pm —
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Finally, I have new pictues. And new 6's coming outta my...well...my ears. Now I just need to sit in my husband's office long enough to upload everything. New jobs, new house, new friends - and old friends who live close by - it hasn't been such a bad move after all.
While I'm still missing Eastern Washington, it's not all bad living on a hillside in Western Washington, just outside of the National Forest, with a view of the top of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helen's. No siree...not bad…
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Added by Lisa Miller on October 29, 2008 at 11:00pm —
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Being without internet sucks. I have to use a computer in my husband's office...once or twice a week...to do my business. And I hardly have any time to play around. But things will be changing soon and I'll be able to keep up with 6S!
Added by Lisa Miller on September 15, 2008 at 8:24pm —
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The UHaul is parked out front. We're loading it tomorrow and leaving Sunday morning. By Sunday evening, I'll be living in my new house...where I have no internet access and no cell phone coverage. I guess we'll see how long I last. I'll be using a computer at the local school for a few weeks...checking on email, doing business and of course checking here. I am moderately hopeful that I won't have to move again for several years. But don't quote me on that! I haven't lived in Western Washington…
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Added by Lisa Miller on August 22, 2008 at 10:00pm —
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Okay, really, I'll be living about 20 minutes from this town...but this video captures the essence of the area. This is from the Logger Festival in Morton, Washington. Morton is in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. My favorite part was the ax throwing contest. Or maybe my favorite part was the guys running up and down the trees with huge saws dangling from their belts. I can't decide.
All I know is, I whine like crazy if I have to split more than 6 pieces of wood for the…
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Added by Lisa Miller on August 16, 2008 at 1:30am —
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Some friends of mine have this thing going where you give a dollar to every bum you pass by to buy some Karma. I think they've spent a small fortune on me and my family...and it paid off because my husband just got a new job. We've been looking for months - and I have to admit we were getting a little desperate with school starting in a few weeks - but now we have one. Now we can stop worrying about how to pay the bills and start worrying about selling the house and moving. But that's the kind…
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Added by Lisa Miller on August 4, 2008 at 11:00pm —
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I keep making jokes about it being easier to burn the house down than to sell it...and you know what they say about wishes. Be careful what you wish for! It's fire season, and we have another fire burning just outside of town. With any luck, the wind will keep pushing it away from town.
Added by Lisa Miller on August 2, 2008 at 2:26am —
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Finally, we're taking a little vacation. It's a working vacation, but at least we're getting out of the house for a few days...starting Wednesday. We're driving west through the North Cascades - and stopping to take pictures...lots of pictures - and then heading south to Whidbey Island where we'll be staying for a few days. And during that time, my husband will be interviewing for some new jobs. I'm not as excited about this as I was a few months ago. Sooner or later, he'll find a new job.…
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Added by Lisa Miller on July 21, 2008 at 11:30pm —
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My yard has become a zoo. Wasps of some sort are burrowing and building underground nests. Ants have taken up residence under the rocks around our fire pit. Deer are hopping in and out of our back yard all night, browsing on what little plant life is left...I don't think I'll have more than 3 apples on my apple trees this fall. I put my dogs out the other night to try and scare the deer away because they keep tripping the security lights on the neighbor's house and flooding my bedroom with a…
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Added by Lisa Miller on July 17, 2008 at 10:00pm —
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I was the only one awake at 8 o'clock this morning. Well, besides the dogs. The 4th of July and fireworks and all that jazz went really well last night. The boys had their bags of stuff to blow up, and we joined the neighbor kids in the street in front of our houses to have some fun. The kids spent almost an hour taking turns setting off their fireworks and putting on a great show for all the adults. Sparklers, fountains, explosions, you name it we had it!
And once we were finished,…
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Added by Lisa Miller on July 5, 2008 at 9:45pm —
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This morning, my kids hopped on their bikes and rode down to the fireworks stand. Between the 2 of them, they had $60 from doing yardwork. They spent a long time comparing all the fireworks, the prices, the value, the explosion potential...and came home with two bulging plastic bags of fun. They can hardly wait until tomorrow night, when they'll be able to join all the other kids in the neighborhood for one long night of setting things on fire and blowing things up. They were even kind enough…
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Added by Lisa Miller on July 3, 2008 at 3:02pm —
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