Spring Fever

  My wife and I are prepping our house for sale. We live about 15 miles south of town in the upper Hood River Valley. Our home is tucked into a remote corner of the county. Private timber company land and a Forest Service seed orchard adjoin us to the west and south.  Deer, elk, [...]

Stormy Weather

Last fall, snow came early to the valley, and then stopped. The foreshadowing of a long, gloomy winter evaporated with a succession of sunny December days. The New Year heralded more of the same. In front of the Post Office, snapdragons I’d planted last March stood tall. Customers marveled at blooms so late in the [...]

Dex in Wonderland

Monday morning I awoke at 3 am. I dressed, brewed a cup of tea, and left the house. A full moon lit the way, casting long shadows across the path to my truck. Out east, the horizon bristled with silhouettes of fir trees. I drove to my youngest son’s house. Isaac and his wife also [...]

Summer Solstice

For three months, the west wind scoured our Hood River Valley with an abrasive, hygienic brush. It burnished the trees, leaving behind a lustrous sheen of renewal. During that time, the Oregon spring doled out single days of warmth. Plummeting temperatures followed each balmy interlude. Yet, in spite of inclement weather, the earth simmered. Right [...]

Choices

In January, I met with Dr. M. Once again, my cancer showed signs of awakening. I feel good. I am not overtly symptomatic. Nevertheless, the myeloma stretched and yawned. After a nearly 2 1/2-year nap, my drug-free remission was about to end. Since last October, we’ve discussed a course of action. I digested statistics from clinical trial [...]

True Grit

This winter, my wife and I, along with our two sons and daughter-in-law went to see the re-make of the classic western, True Grit. I liked this version of the movie more than the original. I think the Coen brothers better captured the coarseness of an era when one’s self-respect found moral value in vengeance. [...]

Reading

Each month, I commute 60+ miles from Hood River to Portland, OR in order to attend a multiple myeloma support group hosted by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Today’s meeting featured a speaker from my doctor’s oncology group, Northwest Cancer Specialists. The subject was an update on December’s annual conference of the American Society of [...]

The Cat Came Back

Recently, the cat who keeps me company at the Post Office, Curly, disappeared. She adopted our office as her home seven years ago. She spends her day sleeping in a chair atop a red, white, and blue blanket knitted for her by one of our customers. At night and when the office is closed, we [...]

Climbing Mountains

My wife and I spent last week hiking in Washington State. First, we visited Mt. Saint Helens National Monument. We hiked at Independence Pass and climbed Windy Ridge. Our trail followed an exposed slope several miles north of the crater. The devastation caused by the volcano’s eruption 30 years ago dominates the environment. Pumice lay like [...]

It’s Complicated

My iris blooms arrived in May and departed in June. Most of the lavender flowers shriveled unattractively on their stalks and I cut them off. Yesterday, I dug a colony of these bulbs from my perennial beds. I shook off the dirt, storing them in a paper bag. I’ve four more clumps to remove, energy willing. [...]