Weekend in Oregon

Spent Fourth of July weekend in central Oregon with my family. It was nice to get a lot of desert sunshine. My vitamin D levels were replenished. There was much talk and laughter, as always -- many family stories. One thing I hadn't known before, which kind of threw me for a loop, was that my grandmother B had already moved to Oregon from Alberta when my grandfather met her. I also didn't know that my grandfather had grown up in Illinois and had moved to Alberta (to avoid the draft) from there. So my grandmother actually returned to Alberta after she married my grandfather. When they moved to Oregon, it was because her family was there, not because his was. I'd always had it in my head that he moved to Alberta from Oregon to avoid the draft, met my grandmother, then brought her back to Oregon when he lost all his money (and thus his farm in Canada) during the Depression.

Other than talking and eating, I didn't do much other than read Shakespeare's Cymbeline. (I've now read all four late romances, although it's been so long since I read A Winter's Tale that I don't remember a thing. I'll probably reread it soon.) There was also a lot of nature on parade, including four pheasants (unusual in that area) and a bunch of coyotes down below in the canyon. The golden eagles nested on the point by the house again this year, so we saw them a lot too.

I continue to feel pretty stressed out about various things. I've got too much on my plate, including at work, and we're also waiting for the budget axe to drop. People are going to lose their jobs. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. It was good to get away for a few days.