Thursday, June 28, 2007

Saying Goodbye to Barnabas


One objective in the drive up to Washington is leaving our beloved dog, Barnabas. with my parents. He will not travel with us to Oaxaca City, but will remain in Washington until we fetch him sometime in the Winter. The dog senses transition whenever he sees us packing. And sure enough, when I was packing my bag and getting ready to return to Berkeley, but without Barnabas, he came into the room and laid on my feet. Literally, he plunked down on them while I was folding clothing and setting them into my bag, as if to protest. His whole life revolves around the pack...our family...and one by one, we are abandoning him. Of course, he's a dog, but we will miss him and hope he will (since he is a bit elderly) greet us in February without bitterness and resentment. We love you Barnabas. You've been a faithful companion and a wonderful encouragement to all of us.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Driving Up and Down the Coast


Fathers Day. Jason left us at 11 AM for his stint at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. The kids and I leave on Tuesday morning. We will put 100s of miles on our car in the next month. First, I drive the kids and dog to my parents home in Olympia, arriving Wednesday evening. I stay for a few days, then journey back to Berkeley to finish packing and cleaning. (I leave the kids and the dog). How long will the rest of the packing and cleaning take? Hopefully, no longer than 5 days since I arrive in Berkeley on June 25th. On July 2, I hand over the keys of our house to our sublet tenants and drive to Pasadena to join Jason. We will not reenter our house until January 20th of 2008--strange, yet the value of our property humbles us--rent for our three bedroom, two bath home is funding much of this sabbatical. Oh yeah, what about the children? They fly down on July 5th--first time flying on their ownn--2.5 hours, non-stop on Alaska Airlines. We'll meet them at the Burbank Airport. At that point, Jason will have been away from them for two weeks. What about the dog? He stays with Bill and Britt (my folks) in Olympia until we return from south of the border.
Later in August, we will drive to Colorado. I'll save those roadtrip details for another posting.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Packing up the House



The Work Goes On




We have so much junk in this house...It's felt glorious to get rid of much of it. However, we still have boxes and boxes of possessions. Moreover, we're not even packing up the kitchen and some of the toys because our tenants want access to those items. Ah well...