From Aunt Tammy, September 4th, 2009

Sept 4Hello Jerm,Got your letter today. I think it made my day.I'm not sure when the last letter I sent you went out. It took me a few days to get over that stupid headache, and find a place in my head for writing letters. And then it didn't go out in the mail the first day, I think it went out yesterday or even this morning. I feel I didn't deserve another one already, but thank you anyway.Oh, there goes my train. He's going so fast, headed south. There was one headed north just under an hour ago. I often sit here day dreaming I'm on adventure somewhere on it. If I was going north, I would like to go to Canada and take the train to Edmonton. I see on tv all the time that it is a pretty trip through the Rockies. That's one of my train fantasy trips. One I think about often and more likely to get to take is the one from Chicago to Seattle. I guess it's timed just right to go through Glacier National Park during daylight and all. The adventures get pretty tame the older I get, I guess. I used to want to go on hikes. I have three hikes I would like to go on. One circles Mt Rainier, called The Wonderland trail. That takes about two weeks, I guess. There is a trail from Mexico to Canada called the Pacific Crest trail, takes about three months and goes through the Sierras through the Cascades, so California, Oregon and Washington. The other night I watched a documentary on PBS about the Continental Divide Trail. That was pretty cool, beautiful photography, lots of trivia especially with the Lewis & Clark trail intersects and there is one point where all the rivers flow away from in different directions, to three different oceans. The documentary was home made last year. I looked it up on the internet and there's another trail through Appalachia so doing the PCT and the CDT and that last is considered a Triple Crown. I think though that I may be getting too old to do all that. Last time I was on a trail with Michael, a couple months back, I got a bad case of vertigo and had to go back to camp. Made me cry. I also used to want to go on bike tours. I read books and had patterns to make the bags and all. . . Maybe someday. Maybe not.It's the holiday weekend. Probably will be staying home, supposed to rain all weekend, off and on. So many things around here going on: Dahlia Festival here in town and a Basil & Art Festival (sounds pretentious to me) near that, there is Oregon State Fair in Salem (I haven't been there in years), several different Markets. I would like to go to the Saturday Market in Milwaukie and I haven't been to the Portland Saturday Market this year at all, need to check out the place they moved to. I haven't been to Crater Lake ever, or Silverton for the Falls so a day trip sounds nice too. Some movies I would like to see, haven't seen the Disney UP yet, even though it's at the cheap seats now. They have the STAR TREK movie and the latest TRANSFORMERS there now too. We saw those, altho Michael should probably see the TRANSFORMERS again because he had a difficult time staying awake the first time. I wouldn't mind seeing the new Harry Potter, but if I don't, I won't be crushed. I just like the special effects, that's the only reason we see movies anymore. For the special effects that would lose something on the small screen at home.I called your mom this morning when I got your letter, she says she's going to Yakima to meet someone who's buying a puppy. She sounded pretty excited about studding Fritz, too. I wish she wasn't going by herself, but hope there's not too many idiots between here and there on the 3-day weekend. Told her she needs to stop and get some fries at Burger Ranch. She's not telling Grandma, cause she just wants to get this done and get home. I need to call Grandma, haven't talk to her in a few days. I haven't heard from Nicole since the last letter I wrote. Have you gotten a letter from her yet? Does Mikey write you? He posted new pics on myspace from his phone, couple of Theo. He's getting big, looks a lot like his mother. ___________ (That's all I have to say about that.) I haven't heard from anybody else. Dillon has been telling me about some book he's reading, some fantasy about a place called Amber, he's about half way through it. I will probably talk to somebody over the weekend, I'm sure. Or maybe not. I've kind of been out of commission with that stupid headache and the first of the month coming and going, busy in the office.Do they give you salve or any medicine to put on the spot between the toes? I think I'd put some neosporin on it or something. Be careful you don't pick up any fungus' in the shower. Oh, the dogs. ( Almost typed the gods. Hehehe. Anyway.) Dori, yes that's her name, at the humane society they named her Gordita, which Michael said was offensive, he thinks means 'fat girl', I don't know, they named a lot of the dogs after food there. 'Dori' seemed like it would be close enough not to confuse her more. Yesterday, I got out my Pedicure Pet Nail Trimmer, yep, ordered it off the tv, and did Maggie's nails. The last time I did it was before we got Dori, I think, and I had a pretty easy time of it. Usually it's a fight. It worked pretty easy to put her on the loveseat and sit on the floor in front of her, she is a little resistant, probably not comfortable to have someone holding your paw down and the vibration on your toenails. Yesterday, she stayed in her kennel, and I sat on the floor and got them done. We have changed up the kennels too. We took the tops off last weekend. It seemed that Dori was never going to get involved with whatever we were doing around the house. Maggie runs all over, and is in and out of the kennel, Dori just stays there till we take her out and rushes to get back in again. So, with the tops off, she can see us when we are talking to her, etc. A couple days ago, Maggie was doing her happy dance because she could hear Michael's truck pulling up outside, so I said to Dori, 'Daddy's home, wanna go see Daddy with us.' Then I walked away, thinking she's just going to ignore me as usual, but when I opened the patio gate for Maggie, Dori went out too. We were stunned, it seems a step in the right direction. She did it the next day too. Sometimes it's like a step forward and two steps back. Yesterday, she peed in the house, which she's NEVER done. I don't know what we could have done different to prevent that. She goes out at night but won't pee, maybe cause it's dark. Michael takes her out in the morning at the same time everyday, and this was on the way out the door at that time. I wish I understood her better. Maybe though, knowing about where they rescued her from, that's a good thing not to know. Oh, and it turned out she had tapeworms, but seems a mild case. The treatment was everyday for three days, we didn't see any after the first dose. Your mom said we may need to repeat after a time for the larvae that hasn't hatched yet. Your mom also said she's thinking of putting a dog bath in the downstairs bathroom of her house where the sink is, I said I was bringing my girls then. I also said make sure there's a hook above for them to be leashed and she said it has one already. Cool.That's funny about cigarette ash. I know people use it to shine silver too. I've never owned much silver but a little jewelry and that usually shines up with a little rubbing. I wonder what all else it does. I know you can use a Pepsi to remove rust (actually I heard Coca-cola does that, but Michael would think that was a waste and Pepsi is only good enough to remove rust anyway) makes you wondering what it does to your digestion.Lots of stuff on tv lately about the Beatles. They are showing all their movies this week on one of the music video channels, and some recently released animated videos because they are releasing a Guitar Hero or Rock Band Beatles version. Some of the movies I've seen like 'Hard Day's Night' and 'Help', 'Yellow Submarine' and 'Magical Mystery Tour'. Probably have seen them all, just don't remember. There used to be a theater in Reno, that showed rock movies for the Midnight viewing, so I saw a bunch of movies like Led Zep's 'Song Remains the Same'. Of course I was sober so probably didn't enjoy them like everybody else was. I remember laughing at Robert Plant's inability to snap his fingers in time to the music in Song because he was so drunk and/or stoned. I don't think anybody else thought that was as funny as me. Now when I watch those old movies, I cry at the loss of genius that was John Lennon and George Harrison. Said to think that people who have the ability to make others happy or to think are gone. Guess I'm getting old.I just realized I've been at this over an hour and I'll be closing the office in a few minutes. I guess I'll close this up for now and get started on all of that. I hope I haven't repeated too much of this, I would hate for you to have redundant letters. I won't say I miss you because I don't want to add to your heartache, but I do. I love you more than I miss you and I'm proud of you too. Be brave and smart today, just for me, OK?Love, Your old auntie,