Its Called "Spring"

Having lived in Klamath for 34 years we enjoyed the 3 seasons, Summer, Fall and Winteeeeeeeeeeeeer. Now, here in Corvallis there seems to be a 4th season and the locals call it "Spring." It's quite nice and we are enjoying it quite a lot. Yes, there is still some rain now and then but mostly it is warmer and rejuvenating. Flowers grow right out of the ground! Grandkids play soccer. (Aren't they cute as little Beavers!) Andy is thrilled his first year as a vice principal will last only 40 more days, and Sheryl is in her last rehearsals of The Miracle Worker.Opening night is next Friday!

Going to Class

Life in Corvallis is beginning to shift (though FAR from over) from unpacking boxes to dabbling in the academic life of OSU and its community of folks who make us feel really dumb.
Those of you who have followed this blog surely know we have attended scads of Beaver sporting events. That continues, as well as hosting about a dozen Mazama & Henley friends who came to Corvallis to watch their basketball teams in the state tournament. But now we have more free time so we have joined the OSU Alumni Association, the Academy of life Long Learning, The OSU Folklore Association, and continually watch the University Calendar to find events, exhibits, lectures and programs of interest, not to mention, Sheryl’s role of Aunt Ev in the upcoming production of the Miracle Worker.

We have attended “What bugged the dinosaurs?’ (insects trapped in amber), “Medicine in Early Christianity,” “Global Warming and Tropical Rain Forests,” “Is there life in the Universe – The Drake Equation,” “Roving Mars,” “Glass on the run” “Is there Life After Death – The Debate,” “The physics of cancer treatment,” and some other junk I don’t seem to remember.

Depending on who you are that might be reading this you may say, “Gosh, that sounds interesting!” or “Why would you go to that crap?” Well both responses would be appropriate. If you are of our generation you probably recall only a few good college professors who made things interesting. Others simply used a chalkboard or maybe showed slides while they read from their yellowed notes in a boring monotone.

Nowadays modern professors in this futuristic, whiz-bang, glitzy world of high tech show a power-point presentation while they read from their yellowed notes in a boring monotone. Shouldn’t we have known? Some things just do not change. As I recall from college days, once we had suffered through that freshman year we started to ask around and figure out who were the interesting professors and which classes were actually worthwhile. Well, I think we are just now finishing our freshman year of Corvallis retirement and we shall start asking around! But it will probably just remain a crapshoot.

Protests and the Theater

Bryon usually does these posts - but this time I'm trying my hand at one, so here we go...

Today took us back in time. We are after all - products of 60's. So - we went to a protest rally at the State Capitol(Salem, Oregon)in solidarity with Wisconsin workers. We sadly had no cheese heads to wear - but we brought a home made sign and participated - a small gesture - but one small stab at returning our country to the basics that made it such a great place to live and raise kids all these years...

I also stepped back in time last week - about 40 years back in time. Back in the 60's, at OSU, I got involved in some University Plays, and for years and years since then I talked about auditioning for a play in Klamath Falls. But I just never got around to it. I can't believe that 40+ years slipped away and I was still only talking about it - but never doing anything. So when I saw that the Albany Community Theater was auditioning for the Miracle Worker, I walked down to OSU, checked out the play and read it. There seemed to be only one part for an "older women," that of Aunt Ev. Bryon was happy for me to give it a go. So with sweaty palms and heart palpitations, I drove the short distance to Albany and found myself on a stage with a bunch of people I had never met, squinting - with a "deer in the headlights" expression - reading for the play. Needless to say - I was the oldest person in the entire theater and I thought I botched the whole thing royally. The next night we all were supposed to return for the second night of auditions. I decided not to go and just give up the idea, but alas and alack, couldn't do that because I had to go back to return the script I borrowed from the Stage Manager (the OSU copy I had read was different in many ways). Well - if I was going to go back - maybe I would just spend a few hours reading over Aunt Ev's lines and seeing if I couldn't figure out how to do a better job this time. (Bryon, bless his heart, thought I was nuts to give up so quickly.) To make a long story longer - I found out two days ago that I will be playing the part of Aunt Ev. Jumpin-Jee-Hose-Afats. I guess we will find out if I can still learn lines, remember them and say them at the right time? This will be a stretch! It will be an adventure, for sure. The last time I dressed up as someone other than myself was with mixed to poor results, as a member of Cheech and Chong for an Oscar party, as you can see from the photo. Wish me luck. I'll need it.

Christmas in Corvallis

Family, that's what it's all about. Ty and Meghan spent Xmas eve with us then we all drove down to Eugene for Christmas with the entire family. As always Kaylin and Brooklyn were the center of attention. Andy deep fried an 11 pound turkey that was fabulous. I think he just inherited a tradition. The kids were fun, Santa was good to all and we were just so thankful to all be together.
The next day we were invited across the street to a wonderful neighbor's birthday party. This ain't Klamath. When we moved in the average IQ of Cascade Ave dropped about 50 points. The neighbor Cliff is a statistics prof at OSU (I hated statistics). We chatted with a really nice lady who is doing Oceanic Paleantology of Foraminifera and then spectroscopy of their oxygen isotopes to evaluate ancient ocean temperature in the Bering Sea. Honest! It just goes on like that. But we didn't chat too much as Cliff's son was part of the four piece group playing incredible stuff on the mini stage they have in their living room. Previously we had been to the block Christmas party held by a pair of married doctors and I quite enjoyed meeting the entomologist and her forestry professor husband.
Gee we feel dumb.
It does rain a lot in Corvallis.
The snow was in November we had a wet Christmas, not a white Christmas.
Today ( December 27, 2010) the contractors are done! Please come visit.

Family Times

As we get more moved in every day we have had some time to go Baby-sit Kaylin and Brooklyn and to have them here with us. They are just such a joy and usually have us howling with laughter in no time. I'll post a video of them dancing to the Beaver fight song over Thanksgiving weekend.

They're Home!

Just before Thanksgiving Tyler and Meghan arrived here in Oregon after 10 months plus on the road. Ty looked a bit like a Yeti as he hadn't had a shave or a haircut in months but we didn't care, it was just so good to see them and to have the entire family together again. Those of you who have followed their bus crash in Turkey should know that they both seem just fine now that they are back in clean sheets and western food once again.

We're Makin' Progress

Our new life in Corvallis is certainly not dull. Last Sunday (Halloween) Madri called us and invited us to join their two little trick-or-treaters for candy collection. Holy Sugar did we ever enjoy the show. Kaylin (Princess Arial) knew the drill and went flying door to door. It was Brooklyn's (a crab?)first attempt and she mastered the skills quickly demanding "nandy" at each door. It was just what we needed and reminded us of just why we are now living in Corvallis. Those kids are just sooo much fun.
We have been doing beaverthings all week. We donated our pottery gear to the OSU craft center. We had a great weekend with Carlyle and Barb Stout watching our Beavers defeat Cal. We had a blast of Indian Summer and rode our bikes down to the river front for dinner and last night we went to the Thursday night Beaver talk show and had Mike Parker (The voice of the Beavers) sitting across from us and as he is such a friendly guy he introduced himself and was full of questions about us, our past, our days at OSU and it came up about Dick Fosbury (the high jumper) being my roommate. Mike jumped on that tidbit and I shared some stories. Then when he went on the air he opened the show by introducing Sheryl and me and relaying the Fosbury stories. He even got our football coach, Mike Riley involved in our Fosbury stories on the air. It was fun but a little bit embarrassing at the same time. Oh well I guess we will just have to deal with our new celebrity status.
THE HOUSE:
Every day we are seeing progress but we sure have a long way to go. Our big news is that we now have our kitchen 99% done! Whew! We also now have a functioning bathroom on the ground floor, although there still is not a door so we hang a curtain if you need to use our pot. Our master bath is under construction and has a tub but nothing else yet. A couple of more weeks and it should be done. Then we need some new doors, new windows, to paint, drywall, carpets, unpack two storage sheds, build storage in the garage, turn a giant garage closet into a shop, build a backyard storage shed...oh you get the idea.
House-wise our most fun aspect has been the granite kitchen counter. We went off to Salem and selected the stone ourselves and we love it. I'll add some photos.
But our biggest excitement is that a week from today (Nov 12) Tyler and Meghan will roll into town having completed their year on the road. We are REALLY looking forward to seeing them again and seeing their photos, hearing their stories and just catching up.