Children show up driving and towing new means of transportation: the Saab, the Jetta and the boat with the 70 horse Johnson

Late yesterday afternoon, a mid-80's vintage Saab with about 76,000 miles on it pulled into our driveway. Didn't there used to be a high school girl living in this house who often spoke about one day owning a Saab?

Yes, there was. It was this girl, Lisa, our youngest daughter and now she had driven up to the house in her very own Saab which she had just purchased. She took me on a ride.

She took me to the place where she had bought the Saab - this pawnshop. She had paid $12.59 for it, which I thought was a very good price - a very good price, indeed!

Actually... the above statement is not entirely true. Truth is, there is no truth in it. The pawn shop just happens to sit right next to Mekong Thai Cuisine, where Margie, Bryce and I joined Lisa to celebrate her new acquisition.

We had not eaten at Mekong for years. In fact, I had not even thought about Mekong for years. When Lisa was in high school, we ate here fairly frequently. I had forgotten how good the food here is.

Actually, Lisa was not the first of my children to purchase a vehicle this week. I took this picture the night before, after Charlie brought Melanie out so she could pick up a blue, diesel-powered, Volkswagen Jetta with a mere 150,000 miles on the engine and drive it home. She had purchased it in the Wal-Mart parking lot a couple of nights before, but had driven out by herself and so had to leave it here until Charlie could drive her out.

I should have taken a picture of the Jetta, but it was really dark out there. I am afraid the time of light has drawn to its end. We have not yet entered the time of darkness, but it does draw down rapidly upon us.

Before Melanie drove off with the Jetta, we all spent some time engaged in philosophical discussion as evidence of the struggles of our times played out on TV. The two surviving cat members of the family joined in. Jimmy, in particular, had many relevant thoughts, which he expressed through the tilt of his ears, the twitch of his nose and the release of a small pocket of noxious gas.

It's not that Chicago was uninterested, but she has never been known for her intellectualism and I fear the discussion was a bit over her head.

Too bad Thunder Paws is no longer with us. He was a deep thinker, the most intellectual cat I have ever known. Thunder Paws would have had many profound thoughts about our times.

I do miss that cat, Thunder Paws. I miss all the cats who were once here but now are gone.

The dogs, too, of course... it's just that the intellectual interaction has always been deeper with the cats than with the dogs.

Rex showed up briefly yesterday, too. Lisa had actually purchased the Saab out here in the valley, somewhere off Knik Road. Rex had driven her and Bryce out. 

Where Rex goes, Akiak goes. So came Akiak.

And then, in the early evening, Caleb and girlfriend Monica showed up in the driveway. They had made a transportation purchase of their own - this boat, with a 70 horse Johnson, they had picked up in Homer for $800.

I could not believe it - three transporation purchases among my kids, practically all at once.

And all this in convergence with my purchase of a new camera.

These leaves were on the windshield of our Ford Escape when I Margie and I set out to join Lisa and Bryce at Mekong Thai for dinner.

They made me feel sad. I know what's coming soon... the rain and clouds will disappear, the sun will shine in a sky of the deepest, cleanest, blue one could ever see, the mountains will be sprinkled in the fresh white of new, pure, snow and the leaves will reflect the sunlight in brilliant gold.

Such beauty comes to us but for the shortest of time each year - two weeks, maybe sometimes three. I missed summer this year. Now, I am going to miss the magnificent fall about to fall upon this valley. True, I will see magnificence of another kind and it will be wonderful to behold - but I am sad to miss this fall. 

So much magnificence, spread here and there, so far apart, simultaneously. Even when I am fortunate enough to be right in the midst of a piece of it, I find it impossible to grasp, to take hold of, to cling to and cherish.

Maybe that's why I take pictures all the time.

Comments

[Suji]

and maybe thats why we love your pictures...Always.

[twain12]

great purchases..i hope they enjoy them