Four-Day Thanksgiving Weekend

It was nice to have two long weekends in November. It allowed me to get some stuff done before December creeped in.  

Thursday, November 24th

I had stayed up the night before getting the house ready for Thanksgiving.  I shop throughout the year for Christmas presents so I was able to get some of those wrapped up, so I didn't have a ton of wrapping to do when it got closer to Christmas.  I put a bunch of stuff away, arranged the house and did some vacuuming. 

We got up around 10, ate a leftover scrambled eggs/pork crumble, French toast sticks, blueberry bagel and grapes while we watched the first game of the NFL triple header, the Bills and the Lions.  I talked to Dad on the phone for a bit and got the turkey prepared and placed in the cooker around noon, so it was ready by 4ish.  We cleaned the rest of the house, did a little bit more vacuuming, cleaned the bathrooms, brought in the chairs from the garage while checking on the turkey every once and a while.

We started the rest of the food around 3.  I had Doug and Ben peel the potatoes on Grandma Karen's nifty potato peeler she let us borrow.  Doug and Ben seemed to be having a great time with it.  I got the gravy, stuffing and veggies going.  Mom and Grandma Karen got there early, followed by Trish, Amy and Ed and then Erika and Zac.   Dad was a little late, but food got done a little late due to not having enough space to cook everything.  I threw the rolls in the oven, got out the salad dressing, butter, jelly, cranberry sauce, silverware, plates and stuck them on the table in the dining room.  Ben carved the turkey.  

I told everyone dinner was done as the Giants and Cowboys game played on the living room TV. I turned the volume down so we could hear everyone talking while we ate dinner. We did end up chatting about funny things and yes, poop did manage to sneak into the conversation like it always does.  The food was awesome like always and it seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves.  Doug was a little on the quiet side due to what happened to him last weekend, that is another story, but not going to post it to the blog.

The third game of the NFL triple header, Patriots and Vikings, started while we were eating dinner.  I glanced at that a couple times while we chatted and ate.  Once we were done, I had some help clearing the table and loading the dishwasher.  I asked everyone if they were ready for dessert, and they all said in a bit.

Meanwhile, Ed got up and asked us to give him his attention.  He pulled out a small box and said some nice things to Trish in front of us.  You should have seen Ben's face, it was priceless.  He thought Ed was proposing to his mom.  He wasn't. It was just a promise ring.  I remembered Amy talking about it a few months ago.  I just didn't think Ed would do it at Thanksgiving...I figured he would do it in a more private moment.  I looked around and everyone, including Trish, had uncomfortable body language and faces when he gave it to her.  We knew for a fact that Trish was never getting married nor letting her significant other live with her ever again.  We did not blame her.

Everyone dished up some dessert while we watched the rest of the Patriot/Viking game. I think Amy was the only one who had to work the next day for Black Friday.  Everyone started packing up and heading home.  I told Trish to let us know when they got home, and we would be heading up to Bonney Lake for her birthday party the next day and most likely would arrive sometime around 2ish or so.  Ben and I actually talked Trish into taking Friday off --they don't get Friday off at the dealership, but we all thought she deserved the day.  Her birthday was on Wednesday, and we told her we were going to celebrate it on Friday.  She hesitantly agreed.  I thanked everyone for coming and Dad thanked us for some good food.  I sent some leftovers home with Mom, Grandma Karen, Dad and Amy.

Ben and I spent a couple hours cleaning, doing dishes and putting stuff away.  Once everything was done, I got cleaned up, we made sure we had everything ready to go to take with us the next day and we both ended up staying up way too late.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 25th

I set the alarm for 9:30 but we both didn't get out of bed until about 10.  I had to make Ben get up or he would have laid in bed for hours on his phone.  He finally got ready and ate his cereal.  I had some yogurt, grapes and half a blueberry bagel and got ready shortly after that.  I started taking everything out to the Escape and made sure I had everything.  I didn't want to forget anything because I make fun of Trish for doing that.  We got on the road around noon.  The rain was gross and when I got onto I-5 I got splooshed by a van because they hit a patch of standing water.  I literally couldn't see for like two seconds.  The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful thank goodness. 

We got to Bonney Lake and had to stop by the Walmart for a couple of the spaghetti and breakfast items Trish wanted for her birthday weekend.  We got to her house around 1:30 and Ed was already there.  We played marbles and I won all three games.  The best part was that Ed was upset because he lost.  Ben got up to make Trish her "dick" cake, German chocolate and coconut pecan frosting--it's her favorite.  We didn't have time to make it at home because we ran out of time. We played Telestrations and Amy played with us, we also drank our blueberry beer I brought back from Maine.  I told Trish I would bring one over for her so she could try it.  She ended up liking it.  I got up to make the spaghetti, bread and salad.

We ate, had a birthday party, opened presents - she loved the necklace Amy and Ben got her and the two different kinds of bike tire pumps for her bicycle. She was excited for the nice weather again so she can go bike riding.  We all learned how to play Skip-Bo again while Amy did the dishes.  I swear Ed was playing it wrong.  

We went to bed around 11:30. 

Happy Birthday Trish!  I hope you enjoyed your "dick" cake!

Saturday, November 26th

I got up out of bed around 10 and started making breakfast for everyone. I decided on a scramble of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and scones with homemade raspberry jelly.  It was really hard to cook in Trish's kitchen because I didn't know where anything was, different pans, pots and utensils.  Even the stove and oven are different.  Trish helped me out as much as she could, but I told her to sit down and enjoy her coffee because she wasn't supposed to make breakfast for her birthday weekend.  Amy and Ben finally emerged from bed and came into the dining room to eat.  We listened to football as we ate.

It was a decent/dry day and I wanted to go take a walk, so I convinced everyone (except Amy) into going down to Orting to do the Adventure Lab - Orting Murals.  We put on our warm clothes and headed down in the Escape.  We found a place to park near the Central Park of the three separate parks in the middle of town.  I figured we could walk to the waypoints since most of them were within walking distance.  I chose to save this specific Adventure Lab because I knew Trish would enjoy the murals spread all over town. 

We went to the Silo waypoint first since it was the furthest away.  We walked along the Foothills Trail to our designated spot.  We found the answer right away and admired the silo.  Trish said she's been down this trail so many times and never noticed the silo ever.  We went to two more in the middle of town and found the answers for those.  We went over to the school and found the answer for that but could not find the "hidden" ladybug to save our lives.  The last one we seemed to not be able to find because we were in the wrong part of the parking lot to see it.  We thought the mural was missing but it turns out it was above the walkway, but we approached the storefront from the side and not the parking lot.  We were able to answer it though because it was multiple choice.  We wrote the Adventure Lab owner, and she wrote us back right away stating that she would check on it.  She got back to us the next day explaining that the mural was there, we just approached it from a different angle and would never have seen it. 

I needed a drink, so we stopped by the Safeway in Orting before we headed back up the hill back to Trish's house.  I worked on my laptop while Ben and Amy started Mario 64.  It's been a tradition of Ben and his dad since they got the N64.  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Ben finds all 130 stars and defeats Bowser at the end. Trish exclaimed she was hungry and wanted pizza.  I went with her to Buckley to pick up the two pizzas from Westside Pizza.  This was my first-time trying Westside Pizza.

We drove home and ate pizza.  We played one more game of an abbreviated game of Skip-Bo and pretty sure Ed is cheating somehow.  Ed left shortly after to head back to his apartment.  Ben and I got our stuff packed up and changed the downstairs bed for his mom, so she didn't have to do it.  We packed up the Escape, gave our hugs and drove home.  Most of the ride home was fine until we got to Nisqually.  We took Mounts Road due to an accident.  We got home around 8:15, unpacked the Escape, cleaned up, took a shower, did some laundry, wrote in blog, watched some Netflix.  College football was not kind to us this weekend; both the Cougars and Ducks lost. 

Sunday, November 27th

Over the past couple weeks (some days with Doug's help) I was able to pick up all the leaves in the back yard.  The problem was it wasn't even our tree!  It's the neighbor's tree and all of the leaves seem to fall in our backyard.  It is not something I look forward to in October and November because it is a lot of work and I have to do it when it's dry outside -- sometimes I have to wait a while until the rain stops. 

We managed to bag up all the leaves and they had to sit for a bit until we had a weekend to get rid of them.  It was somehow a nice day; we had the truck available to us and Ben helped me load all 25+ bags into the back of the truck.  I swear there were over 500 lbs. of leaves -- but it might have been an exaggeration, but it sure seemed like it with all the work we put into it. 

We drove to the kingdom of dumps in Hawks Prairie.  We unloaded the recycle first and then all the leaves into the yard waste area and then got in line for the garbage.  We started out with five cans and Ben decided to yeet the other two into the dump bins.  They have served their purpose over the past six years and finally fell apart.  Surprisingly, we got out of the dump only having to pay $16 for everything, leaves and garbage.  It seemed like we robbed the place. 

On the way home, we bought three new garbage cans from Walmart. It's weird that, as adults, we get excited about new garbage cans and other household useful things. 

Sports continued not to be too kind to us this weekend with an OT loss against the Raiders but here was the brightside, Tom Brady lost to the Browns in OT in Cleveland!  And I was able to finish the Christmas letter and got some of the cards done! 

Next Adventure:  Christmas Tree and Pillow Day

My Four-Day Birthday Weekend

I love that every year my birthday sits near Veteran's Day, and I try to take advantage of the long weekend by making it into a four-day weekend.  The only bad thing is that the weather every year is unpredictable in the Pacific Northwest.  That makes it hard to plan things outside.  This year we were lucky because we had some awesome sunny weather so we could do something outside.  

Every year I try to assemble family and friends to accompany me at Buffalo Wild Wings at some point during the long weekend.  It is usually Friday or Saturday.  This year it would be Saturday afternoon to avoid large crowds.  There was also a geocaching event held at one of the local parks hosted by the SuperKnotts also on Saturday afternoon.  There was plenty of fun things to do.

I did contact Celeste to see if she had any openings this weekend to get my haircut.  She didn't so I had to do it another time.

Friday, November 11th

We all had the day off due to the Veteran's Day holiday.  We all slept in a little bit and woke up around 9:30. I put together some grapes, yogurt and half a blueberry bagel and Ben ate some cereal while watching whatever was on TV that morning when I turned it on.  Afterwards, we got ready to go do our errands.  

Ben drove and our first stop was Costco.  Ben said he would get me a Kitchen Aid for my birthday this year and that I got to pick it out.  I made sure to bring our dividends coupon with us. I pick out one of the red ones because it looked nice.  I honestly didn't care what color it was.  It was now going to be easier to make cookies, cakes and other things that need to be mixed.  We got in line, paid and headed to our next destination, the recycle. 

We dumped that off quickly, got onto I-5 and headed into Tacoma.  Ben needed to go to Hustler to get some items for Josh's birthday party the next weekend.  Last February Josh held a pretty pink princess party for Ben and Ben is having a penis party for Josh.  So, we needed to get a penis cake mold and some other lovely accessories to go with it. It was weird being in that store and seeing all the different kinds of sex paraphernalia.  It was out of control.  Ben paid for his items, and we left.  He needed to use the restroom, so we drove to the Bass Pro Shop just up the street.  

I've never been inside the Bass Pro Shop, so I wandered around while Ben used the restroom.  I found some fish plushies to mess with while I waited.  He came out and we walked around for a little bit looking at all the stuff.  It was like going to Cabela's.  I looked at my phone to see if there were any cool geocaches nearby.  I asked Ben if we could find some caches and he said sure.

I chose a cache called Unicorn Sandwich (GC8G3JA) because of its name and it had a bunch of favorite points. I navigated Ben to the cache, we found a place to pull over, parked and walked up the short hill to some median dividers. We checked the obvious spots and came up with nothing.  I thought, well...if it has this many favorite points it's gotta be a cool tricky one.  There was only one other place to look, and we were right. The logbook was literally sandwiched in between the device we found.  We got our names on it, put it back and went to our next location. 

I directed Ben to Old Town Tacoma so we could do the Adventure Lab.  We found a place to park on the street and started the first waypoint.  We got our answer and walked down the street to the second one.  We answered that one and Ben decided he wanted some coffee.  We walked into Anthem Coffee, and he ordered a coffee, and I got a hot chocolate.  We sat down and enjoyed the warmth of our hot beverages.  It was a chilly sunny day. 

We walked further down the street to pick up the last two waypoints to finish up the Adventure Lab.  On the way back down the other side of the street we went into the bike shop to see if Ben could find a bike rack for his mom for the upcoming birthdays and holidays.  They didn't have what he was looking for, but another store had it.  Ben ended up ordering it and was going to pick it up at the Olympia store sometime in the next few days.  He did purchase a bike pump for her while we were there.

We walked back to the Edge, and I found one more place to stop at on our way back to I-5.  It was called Jefferson Park and it had two caches to find.  We parked on the side of the road and walked to the first one, Not So Smart (GC7NQK7) which was a nano at the sign.  It was an easy find.  We got our names on it, put it back and walked over to the to the other one, Jefferson Park (GC7NV54).  We had no idea what we were looking for and the dog on the other side of the fence barked the entire time we were there.  It was quite annoying.  Ben and I looked everywhere, and we couldn't find anything.  We decided to call it quits, take the DNF and head back towards home.  I hate DNF's! (I found out it was archived three months after our visit.)

We got onto the freeway and Amy was texting us about the necklace Trish wanted for her birthday.  We decided to just call her since it was easier.  We talked to Amy and the jeweler at Fred Meyers.  We decided on a chain that fit the description and had Amy purchase it.  Ben told her that he would pay her the other half when we saw her next weekend.  Meanwhile, Doug was helping Dad move the sleeping couch over to Erika and Zac's house.

I told Ben I had to make two more stops so we got off at Slater Kinney and stopped by Office Depot so I could pick up some more ink for when I start the Christmas letter and cards here in a few weeks. We went over to Fred Meyers to pick up some dinner items.  I decided steak and potatoes sounded good, so we got the supplies for that and then went home.

Around dinner time, Ben got the steaks prepared to be cooked and I got the potatoes ready in the foil and put them in the oven for an hour.  I logged the caches we found earlier this afternoon, worked on my blog, Ben cooked the steaks just in time for the potatoes to get done, we also added salad to our meal.  We ate, watched random TV, blogged some more.  I got in a shower; we filled out the wedding venue rental agreement and sent back to the lady and I continued blogging some more before bedtime. 

Saturday, November 12th

I slept in again because I could, and it was wonderful.  I made Ben get out of bed and help me make breakfast.  We chose to make French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon and used my syrup I brought back from Vermont.  We turned on some random college football for a while as we ate. 

We got ready and Ben decided he had to poop right before we left to go to the event, WSGA-SW Meet and Greet (GCA1C75) at Kettle Park at 12:30. I didn't like being late to events because then all the parking is gone...this tiny park had limited parking available.  We finally got going and arrived at the park just in time.  I really thought we were going to be late.  We parked and walked over to the covered area to chat with Brian and Vickie (SuperKnotts).  We signed the logbook, dropped off the trackables I brought back with me from Maine, talked to Bob, Bev, Gabe and his new flavor of the week.  I shared some of my stories with the other cachers who attended.

It wasn't a very long event, lasted about a half hour or so, and we stuck around for the raffle after a group of cachers came back from the new cache just up the street. Both Ben and I won something from the raffle, which is always nice.  

We thanked Brian and Vickie for hosting an event near our stomping grounds and told them to grab our letterbox TB hotel at our house.  We said our goodbyes and headed down the street to pick up Welcome to the Neighborhood (GCA1Z4Q).  It was a short walk and, on the way there, Ben called Buffalo Wild Wings to make sure they knew we were going to have a part of about 10.  They said it would be no problem but there probably was going to be a problem once we got there.  There always is...especially since Covid.  

We got to GZ and made the quick find near the stop sign.  We signed our names, got a picture and put it back for the next set of cachers, who were walking towards us. Ben and I walked back to his Edge in the parking lot.  We got onto Yelm Highway, and he asked where to next?  We need to go to the Historical Tumwater Park so I could fix my WSGA cache for the third time since it published last month.  

We parked as close as we could, and I went and changed its location and the size of the cache.  It has been compromised so many times already.  I got a new set of coords and walked back to the Edge.  I had realized I forgot the cake plates and napkins at home so I had Ben go to the Dollar Tree in Tumwater so I could get some before heading to West Olympia.

We got the napkins and plates and were able to waste enough time before heading to Buffalo Wild Wings around 2:30. We told everyone we would be there early to make sure we had a table by 3:00.  Just as we thought would happen, no one shared the information that a large group of people were coming so there was a slight problem. It was soon figured out and we were put out in the patio area like we've always been.  Our waitress was kind and patient.

Over the next hour everyone arrived, we ordered drinks, food, visited and carried on.  A few college football games were being played on the TVs on the wall.  I ordered my standard meal - honey BBQ traditional wings, fries, carrots, celery and ranch dip.  I always try to order more wings than I can eat so we have leftovers we can take home with us for the next day.  Mom brought a cake to share with everyone including candles.  Everyone sang to me, and we divvied up cake to those who wanted some. 

Trish got me a large wooden cutting board, Ed got me a WSU shot glass, Bev got me a WSU teddy bear, Erika and Zac got me a cat backpack, Grandma Karen got me a penguin/snowman table decoration for Christmas, I got a Buffalo Wild Wings gift card from Mom and Dad, Lindsay and Justin got me some Costco cashews and cauliflower pizza and Doug got me a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader calendar because he thinks he's hilarious. I thanked everyone for coming and helped our waitress clean up our tables and area a little bit.  

Ben and I went home, and I made him wrap my Kitchen Aid so I could open it on my actual birthday. We put Wade and Oliver into the cat backpack to see how they would react to it.  Wade actually liked it, but Oliver wasn't a big fan. 

The rest of the night I worked on my blog and Ben played his video games with Josh.  It was nice to sit and chill.

Sunday, November 13th

I am now 39 years old.  It sounds old but it doesn't feel old...some days I do feel old though.  I don't even look that old to be honest.  

I decided to sleep in again today instead of getting up early to watch a disappointing football game.  Yes, the Seahawks were in Germany playing against the Buccaneers.  Of course, the refs were going to find a way for Tom Brady to win and they made it happen.  It was very winnable for us but when the odds are against us.  Ben made pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage and again, we used the Vermont maple syrup.  We watched the morning game and monitored our Fantasy football scores.  I took Wade for walk to the mailboxes in his cat backpack. 

We started laundry and I decided since it was my birthday, I wanted to at least enjoy a rare non-rainy November 13th sunny day.  We went to the Dollar Tree to get a couple containers and headed over to Millersylvania State Park because someone had said my original container was broken and letting water in.  We stopped at three newer caches in the southern part of Tumwater first.

Our first one we stopped at was Right-Handed (GC9ZFRH) which was down a road off of Littlerock Road I've never been down.  We parked the Escape near a driveway, and we got out really quick to make the grab.  I got our names on it, got a picture and put it back.  We drove to the next one The Bends (GC9ZH3M), which wasn't that far away. 

Once we got near the cache, there was plenty of room to pull over, get out and look for it.  At first, we were looking in the wrong spot, but we did eventually find it hanging in the tree.  I opened it up and everything inside was wet.  Gross. We signed the logbook the best we could, got a picture, and put it back.

We got back to Littlerock Road and stopped by the South Union Grange to pick up our last one, South Union Historic Cache (GC9ZT5W) of the day.  I felt weird stopping there.  We found it, signed our names and put it back.  We tried not to be there that long just in case someone came out to yell at us.  (This cache was archived on 11/23/22 because the cache owner didn't get permission to place it.)

We got to Millersylvania State Park, pulled out the Discover Pass and made our way to the parking lot near the cache. This cache has been active for almost 10 years.  The container has taken a beating, so I swapped it out with the container I bought earlier that day.

We stopped by Josh's house to pick up a frozen turkey, hung out with him and Lilly for a little bit and then went home.  We stopped by the store really quick to pick up some milk and a couple things for nachos.  Sadly, they were not victory nachos but birthday ones instead.  We watched Sunday Night Football as we ate.  Then we had a mini birthday party with chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream and my present Ben had me pick out on Friday.  He thought about taking it to Buffalo Wild Wings with us on Saturday, but it was too big, so we just left it at home and decided to open it on my birthday instead.  I made sure to be surprised when I opened it.  Haha.

Monday, November 14th

I took this day off from work and I am glad I did.  I heard that Comagine did work on Friday and today was a double Monday.  I hate double days!  Ben and Doug went to work, and I slept in.  I had my normal weekday breakfast and then got ready for the day.  

I drove into Rainier to drop off the turkey we got the day before from Josh so I could deliver it to Grandma Karen.  I stayed for a little bit and visited.  I went to Mom and Dad's house to see if Dad could check out our leaf blower and he said it probably needs a new spark plug.  It started working bad in August.  I filled the water jugs with Rainier water and then Dad and I drove over to Grammie and Grandpa's house to unload the funeral stuff out of the Escape. 

Then I drove over to Bob and Bev's house to hang out for a couple hours to chat.  I drove into Yelm to get gas and to fix my Yelm trail cache.  I headed home after that because it started getting dark.  We had leftovers for dinner and watched Monday Night Football.  The Miami Dolphin's 1972 record was still intact after the undefeated Eagles lost to the Commanders. I worked on my blog, got cleaned up and really didn't want to go to work after my four-day weekend.  They are just never long enough. 

Here's to my last year of my 30's!

Next Adventure:  Four-Day Thanksgiving Weekend

Celebration of Life: Remembering Grandpa Dennis

Here we are again.  This time was a little different because we all knew how to handle a death of an important family member. Well, at least I did.  I can't speak for everyone else.  I definitely didn't handle Grammie's death very well.  I didn't know how to since I've never had to deal with death before. Losing Grandpa was just as bad, but we were more prepared this time.  I know that sounds terrible but it's hard to explain.

"Grief never ends...but it changes.  It is a passage, not a place to stay.  Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith...it is the price of love."

Since Grandpa's passing, I've been helping my Dad with the funeral arrangements, personal affects and talking with Mills and Mills.  My job was to get the photos for the slide show ready on a thumb drive, so I spent the next few weeks getting those together.  Grammie and Grandpa took hundreds of thousands of pictures over the many decades.  Most of those pictures that were taken, Grandpa was behind the camera so there weren't as many of him. I did my best to get at least 100 of him from when he was a young man to the most recent ones, we had of him.  We got everything organize and chose November 9th as the date to celebrate Grandpa.  

That morning, we all had the day off, we got ready and left at 10 to meet with Dad at Mills and Mills.  Before we headed towards Tumwater, Doug had me stop at Rite Aid to pick up his meds.  I'm glad we didn't have to wait that long.  We met up with Dad in the parking lot and I backed up in the nearest parking spot since the Escape was filled with Grandpa's personal affects. Mills and Mills wasn't ready for us, but they scrambled to accommodate us. We got everything organized and set up before people started to arrive. We had people sign the guest book and had a basket set up for cards.

Noon was the viewing if people wanted to view Grandpa before the casket was closed forever.  He looked like Grandpa but didn't look like Grandpa at the same time. Funerals, celebrations of life and reminiscing about that person is so hard to do without crying.  I had a hard time and was trying to keep it together.  At 1:00, we had everyone seated and the ceremony began.  Champlain Matthew D. March met Grandpa a few times during his stay at BonAventure.  We asked him to give a eulogy at Grandpa's funeral and he agreed.

Rev. Matthew D. March wrote this about Grandpa Dennis:

I've heard it said that we often miss the forest through the trees.  There is so much happening in a forest if you carefully look around. The quieter you are the more the forest comes alive. Small (and sometimes very large) animals may appear when you sit quietly and just observe. So often in life we got as fast as we can without really experiencing what is right in front of us. 

By the time I met Dennis, he shared very little with me except the space in which we occupied. I came to his apartment, and we sat and like to typical men, very few words were shared.  I've learned most of what I know about Dennis through his family. 

One of the phrases that stuck out to me as I talked with Dennis' family is "he did what needed to be done." As the only son of parents who lived in a tent by the river and somehow found a way to make sure he finished high school, I'm sure it was ingrained to him from an early age.

Doing what needs to be done is not always flashy, but it is most often effective. Considering that he and Eileen stayed married for 62 years takes dedication and doing what needs to be done.  Living in a relationship with another human being takes work and sometimes doing things that aren't super flashy. 

Relationships that last need deep foundations in something more than just what we see on the surface.  Like a huge dam that looks impressive on the surface is no stronger than the foundation set below it.  It must be carefully engineered to withstand the forces of the water and time that will continually work to undermine it.

Ecclesiastes is a fascinating book of the Hebrew Bible.  You may recognize Ecclesiastes 3:  For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.  From a certain generation you may even recognize those words as from a hit song.  The entire book is a description of our work as humans and what is really important.  It is a book of wisdom.   

Verse six from chapter 11 really stood out to me for today:  In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will proser, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

That can be advice for each day, and it can also be advice for our entire lives.  As I listen to stories about Dennis, I can't help but think he sowed seeds early in his life in his various job and in his family.  As he entered into the final third of his life, his vocations changed but he continued to remain busy, working on things that probably didn't all prosper, but those that did, did very well. 

Not only did Dennis raise his children (with his faithful partner Eileen), but he also continued to be an active part of the lives of his grandchildren.  He continued to keep sowing seeds of love and care deep into his retirement and leaving a legacy for his children and grandchildren.

We do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What blessing or disaster may befall us. What we can control is continuing to "do what needs to be done."  Leaving the rest to God to sort out.  We may see clouds on the horizon of life or feel a strong headwind.  Our call from God is to continue to keep moving forward to do what we are called to do. 

At the end of the day, some of what we set out to do will prosper.  Some of what we set out to do will not.  As Isaiah 44 reminds us that even when we fall short of the mark, we are redeemed by God to get up and doing it again another day. 

At the end of our life, we can look back and be confident that those places where we transgressed will be redeemed by our God and be like mist.  When we have that foundation of faith, dug deep into the bedrock of God's word, we are engineered to become children of God. 

Dennis has done what needed to be done and now is on his new life in the eternal presence of God. Today we celebrate all that Dennis was for you in his life and all that he is as you live with the gift of the legacy of getting it done in your life.  And most importantly, we celebrate that Dennis is redeemed by God to live forever in God's presence. 

After Champlain Matthew D. March was done with his wonderful words, Dad got up slowly, composed himself and started talking about his dad, Grandpa Dennis.  He had to compose himself a couple times, but he managed to get it all out before it caught up with him again. 

Dad wrote this:

Some little stories for remembrance:

My dad came from a good family, he was educated and to our knowledge he was the first one in our family line to receive a college degree that he earned at the University of Oregon. He married well to a marvelous woman from another good family that was the love of his life. Together they raised 3 children and eventually they got 3 grandchildren. He had a fantastic professional career working for the US Army Corps of Engineers and later with the Management staff of US Forest Service before retiring.

When he was in his teens, he had a love of flying airplanes and worked at the Springfield Oregon airport washing planes and other odd jobs. As payment the airport operators let him fly some of the planes. He and his dad were involved with the Civil Air Patrol for a time. Later when I came along my mother would keep an eye out for dad flying his plane over the house. She would take me out so that I could wave at him as he buzzed the house. That’s probably why I still go out and look at low flying planes passing over although I don’t wave with all of my fingers anymore.

His wife Eileen chose to be a home maker who always created a wonderful home for us and they both loved to entertain. Mom was quite literally the life of the party, and we had lots of gatherings.

Both of my parents had a soft spot for stray animals. Cats, dogs and even people it seemed. My dad really liked dogs but he didn’t care too much for cats. It didn’t matter because the cats liked him anyway, so he at least tolerated them until he eventually mellowed out to them.

From about 1963 for about 7 years we lived on a small farm in a wonderful rural area about 20 miles east of Eugene Oregon. We had them all; cows, horses, pigs, chickens, rabbits, ducks and geese. It was a great place for kids to grow up. Everyone seemed to get along with their neighbors and we had many friends. We were involved in school sports, the Boy Scouts, the Grange and many local events along with hiking, fishing and hunting.

My mother often reminded me that most kids didn’t have it as good as we did. Looking back, she was right, we were very fortunate with the lives we had back then.

Over the years we did a lot of camping with old canvas tents, to a truck and camper and later in my parent’s motor homes. My dad’s parents loved to go along with us, and we all had some great times.

My dad was the Master of Lowell Grange in Lowell Oregon, number 745 way back in 1969. The patrons were thrilled with him as he was a good leader and a convincing speaker. They were all very sorry to see him leave when we moved to Bend Oregon in 1970 for a big promotion in Deschutes National Forest.

When working for the Corps of Engineers back in the late 50’s and 60’s dad worked on many high-profile Federal Projects inspecting construction contractor’s work, reporting and related activities. He really liked his work although some of those jobs took him out of town for usually the entire week and sometimes for even a month or two. It was tough on the home life, but we did ok. My dad’s parents kept a close eye on us.

Dad said that during the Bay of Pigs Invasion they were in lock down in a diversion tunnel they were constructing to redirect a river while the dam was being built. Those were long days not knowing what was going on with the real world or if his family was safe.

The hydro-electric projects or, construction of the large dams and reservoirs generating electric power were in Oregon or Washington and include: Wynoochie, Fall Creek, Cougar, Cascadia, Foster, Blue River, Green Peter, Hillscreek, Applegate, Elk Creek and a few others I can’t recall.

He also worked on supplemental projects at Bonneville, Cottage Grove, Detroit, Doreena and Fern Ridge.

Some of the many other Federal projects were at Butte Creek, Thomas Creek, the Sixes River, Yaquina Bay, Fairbanks Alaska and Great Falls Montana.

He eventually left the Corps of Engineers in the late 60’s for the Forest Service. He worked on the Willamette, Deschutes, Wynema, Ochoco, Siskiyou, Snoqualmie, Mount Baker, Gifford Pinchot and the Olympic National Forests. Dad became the head of Geo Technical Services on the Olympic and oversaw quite a number of skilled professionals and technicians that had little to do with timber. I’m not 100% sure but I believe it was mainly construction of forest roads and sourcing the mineral resources for their construction. The mineral resources came from numerous rock pits. Dad dearly loved to be present when a rock pit was being blasted. One of the reasons he was on-hand was to inspect the materials as it was possible for an incompetent contractor to pulverize the rock to the point of being unusable.

I remember him telling a story about some idiot loggers in Forks harassing him and his crew during dinner at the local restaurant. The loggers knew that dad and his people were Forest Service personnel so they must be the ones that close down the forests and restrict logging when the humidity drops. There was no way to explain to those idiots that dad and his crew were the ones who designed the landscape and provided oversight for the construction of the forest roads so those turkeys could haul out the logs from the government timber sales.

A tradition passed down from my dad through his dad and probably from my great granddad way back in the early 1900’s was how to cuss the traffic. My dad was very good at it and the tradition seems to have been passed onto his grandchildren.

I really liked my dad as a person. He was my dad, but he was also a wealth of knowledge, and he was very helpful to me with my career. He knew how to manage his people at work and offered insight into why things happened caused by upper management intelligent or otherwise.

Dad never complained, I guess he never saw the use of it. He was always positive, offered advice and insight if requested. As his time drew near, he had trouble speaking so I listened very closely to the few words that he offered. His last word to me was, “Nice day.” I miss him.

It got quiet, Dad went to sit down, and the Mills and Mills director explained to the guests that this part of the celebration had concluded, and Grandpa Dennis will be loaded up in the hurst and the remainder of the ceremony will be a gravesite visit.  He said people can walk over or drive their cars. So, from about 1:30-2 was the gravesite visit.

I walked over there and saw they had prepared a spot next to Grammie.  They took the gravestone out of the ground and had everything sitting next to it.  The lowering device was above the hole with the Mills and Mills workers standing nearby.  Everyone got situated and the third part of the service began.  I sat there remembering all the great times we had with Grandpa over the years.  It was sad sitting there.  The boys all got up when the hurst arrived and helped as pallbearers, moving him from the hurst to the device above the hole. Champlain Matthew D. March said a few words and then Grandpa was lowered into his final resting place next to his beloved wife.  I am glad Grammie now has company in this lonely place.  I will miss them both dearly.  

We thanked everyone for coming and walked back towards the building.  We stopped and said hi to our great-grandparents, Arnold and Clora, for a few minutes.  They've been gone since the early 1990's.  We continued to the building.  We spent the next half hour chatting with people and putting everything away that we had on display for Grandpa.  He sure lived an interesting life.

Everyone who was left helped me put the boxes into the Escape.  I asked Mom and Dad what we were going to do next, and Mom said we should find a place to get some food. We agreed on The Brick off of Trosper since that wasn't that far away from where we were.  Dad stayed behind to deal with Tracy and Kevin, who in my eyes, were disappointing at their father's funeral.  I know everyone grieves differently but they could have been respectful about it. We got to the restaurant, ordered drinks and food, Dad arrived, we ate, paid the bill and went home.  

I ended up falling asleep because the emotional toll it took on me.  I woke up after a two-hour nap, watched the Penguins beat the Capitals to end a 7-game losing streak.  I got cleaned up and ready for bed.  We had two more days until the weekend again.  I absolutely hate losing people.  This is the worst thing we have to deal with as people, losing loved ones, and having to cope with them not being here with us anymore.  

This is one of the many versions I wrote about Grandpa and his life:

Dennis Arnold Larson, 87, passed away in his sleep during the early hours of October 18, 2022, in Lacey, Washington.  He was born on August 15, 1935, to parents Arnold and Clora (Farris) Larson in Hood River, Oregon.  He was their only child. 

The first 10 years of his life were rough, but his parents did everything they could and took any job that was available to keep their little family going.  He remembers living in a tent near the railroad while his parents worked in the small logging town of Valsetz.  That area received over 200 inches of rain a year and his mother was devastated when everything was wet, moldy and eventually rotted the tent away.  Soon, his father built a more stable “homestead” to keep his family warm and dry.  Dennis spent most of his childhood there and went to grade school from first through half of fifth grade.

After WWII ended, they moved to Westport, Washington, where his father took a job working in the fish canneries.  It was pretty good pay for those times.  Dennis was enrolled in the Ocosta school district where he attended the rest of his fifth-grade year through seventh.  His uncle and father co-owned and operated an auto repair shop in town.  Arnold eventually bought it outright and called it Larson’s Garage.  He then sold it in 1948 and moved his family to Springfield, Oregon.

Dennis attended Springfield High School and worked part-time as a bean picker, became a licensed pilot and flew small planes out of McKenzie Airfield and working in the woods as a choker setter and fire watch patrol.  During his senior year of high school, he met his future wife, Eileen at the Tork Club/Midway Roller Rink in Glenwood, Oregon.  He graduated high school in 1953.

He spent a lot of time with Eileen and worked to save money and enrolled at the University of Oregon.  He took classes and worked.  It took him a while to finish his degree because he had to take some time off to earn money to continue.  He never had to spend time in the military during the draft because the government never notified him.

He married Eileen on April 12, 1956, and had three children, Corey, Kevin and Tracy in a span of five years.  He graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor’s degree in geology in 1960.  His family was very proud of him and looked forward to what the future held.  He worked at a service station and a plywood plant to keep up with bills and living expenses for the time being while living in Eugene.

He then got a job with the Corps of Engineers where he worked on dams.  At that time, he was a temporary trainee for about 3-4 years where he learned valuable skills and gained a lot of experience.  He worked as a geologist in construction where they found possible sites for quarries, camps and water wells.  He worked on missile sites and control centers in Montana (he remembers it being extremely cold) and he worked on Wynoochie Dam in Montesano, Washington, where he was the foundation engineer.

They moved to a small farm in Dexter, Oregon.  He and his family were involved with Boy Scouts, hunting, raising farm animals and enjoying life in that small farming community.  Dennis traveled a lot for work during that time in Dexter.

A new job with the Forest Service in 1971 took them to Bend, Oregon.  With that job, he also did a lot of traveling, mostly in the Pacific Northwest.  He said Bend was his favorite place to live and the greatest thing about it was the 300 days of sunshine.  The area was surrounded by lakes, forests and camping opportunities.  He made many memories with his family and friends while living there.

In the late 1970’s, he and his family moved to Rainier, Washington, about 20 miles outside of Olympia for a work promotion with the Olympic National Forest.  It took forever to find a home and while looking they had to live in a hotel for a couple months.  Once they found a house, they adapted to the little town right away.  Their kids enjoyed small town life and were successful in sports, clubs and making lifelong friendships.   From 1975 to 1991, Dennis worked all over Washington State.  He worked on state land; had many people working with and for him such as drillers, engineers, surveyors, geologists, labs and timber personnel.  They were responsible for producing information for roads, logging and recreation, areas for harvesting trees and the prevention of landslides and erosion.   

He retired on April 30, 1994, and said it was the best possible time because he wanted to spend time with his wife, parents, children and grandchildren, taking care of rental properties, his own property and work on his projects and hobbies.  He enjoyed reading the newspaper, western novels and historic biographies, corresponding with friends and family through emails, card parties and working on Sudoku’s.  He kept copious amounts of notes and documented everything.  He and Eileen loved to go antiquing and their house literally looked like an antique store.  They added to it every chance they got.

He loved getting together with family on birthdays and holidays, traveling with Eileen, celebrating anniversaries, taking care of their animals throughout the years, watching his grandchildren grow up and watching many basketball, fastpitch and track events at the local high school.  Dennis was very busy during retirement and he and Eileen put thousands of miles on their truck, Whitney.

Around 2013, they both started slowing down a bit and it kept them homebound.  Dennis would take care of the chores, do the grocery shopping and took care of Eileen as her health declined.  During this time, they went to a lot of doctor’s appointments, kept up with birthdays, holidays and visits with the family, read books and watched a lot of television.  There was one thing about Dennis that I always admired; you never heard him complain about anything.  He saw it needed to be done and just did it.

Sadly, his wife of 62 years passed away on August 24, 2018, and he was heartbroken.  I can’t imagine losing someone you’ve been with for that long suddenly isn’t there anymore.  He learned to navigate what his life was going to be like without her, with the love and support of his children and grandchildren.   

For the next four years, he lived in his house while Corey helped him with chores, taking care of bills, doctor’s appointments and the occasional visit to Joe’s place in Bucoda.  Soon, his life took a turn with his own health problems, and we had to get him to a facility that tended to him around the clock.  It wasn’t ideal but at least we knew he was going to be taken care of.  We visited him often, celebrated his birthdays, decorated his room with various holiday items and made sure he was comfortable.   His case manager told us that everyone loved Dennis and enjoyed talking to him.  She said he had the best stories.

Life will never be the same without him and his grandpa quirkiness. Like Grammie, we are going to have to learn to carry on their legacy as we navigate our own life.  Grandpa once told me, when we were working on documenting his life many years ago, that “it ain’t over until it’s over.”

Rest in peace Grandpa Dennis, we love and will miss you.

He is survived by his sons, Corey (Sue) Larson and Kevin (Karla) Larson, his daughter Tracy Larson and his three grandchildren, Valerie Larson, Douglas Larson and Erika Larson.

Next Adventure: My Four-Day Birthday Weekend