The Boys

 

Que up the Thin Lizzy album, the boys are in town. Oliver flew in from Columbia, and Henry from Chicago a couple of days later because he didn’t want to miss the office party that the law firm he was working at put on. From what he told me, he made the right choice. The lawyers knew how to celebrate a good year. 

On Oliver’s first night here we walked Mary up to the north beach and spent a little time looking at aquatic life up on the sand. When we walked back there were a few people working around the shed that had been pushed forward in the landslide a few days prior. This seemed odd, as it was pretty late at night. We then realized the walkway back was now blocked by the shed. In the short time that we were at the beach another landslide had pushed the shed forward a few more feet, so the eave of its roof was now against the house. They already had a board in place to walk across to get back. Mary was reluctant about this, but with a little boost she made it. 

We got a permit to have a Christmas tree in the Olympic National Forest. We found this to be harder

than you would think. Small trees with a full set of limbs are not all that common in the forest, and there aren’t many Christmas-tree-farm like open fields where they can grow into their full glory. And the road we were taking into the forest was blocked by a recent rockslide. We found a tree almost tall enough, with Charlie Brown-esque fullness, and we called it good. 

After that we drove on over to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. We made it to the top, but once there the wind and snow made it nearly white-out conditions, and the ranger told us it

would soon be worse, so we carefully drove back down the mountain and drove back home, seeing some very nice Christmas lights along the way.