This was a year of traveling, and supporting travel. Early in the year, we decided this was the year to plan a major bicycle tour, and we also revised our timeshare membership, forcing us to use up our backlog of time. It was also a banner year for our Warm Showers membership: we hosted 44 cyclists plus a dog (who camped in a tent on the porch), ranging in age from 8 months to late sixties. Our guests came from Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, and across the U.S., from Florida to Alaska and Pennsylvania to California. On our tour, we became guests, staying with three families in Michigan.

Tour training began in March, with an anniversary ride at Lake Quinault. However, later in the week, we crashed, skidding on mud in a low-speed turn on a bike trail in Olympia. Judy got a concussion, prompting a scary evening in the clinic and ER, and Larye sported a huge hip bruise and sutured elbow. Judy recovered her memory (minus 12 hours) overnight with the help of an ice bag, but doctor’s orders were “no extreme sports for two months,” so we didn’t resume riding until the first of June.

We trained mostly on the wonderful paved rail-trails in Thurston and Pierce counties, with some quiet road riding in Mason, Skagit, and Grays Harbor counties, putting in about 600 miles by the time we left for our tour in late August, with rides of up to 35 miles.
Our tour took us by air to Traverse City, Michigan, riding to Bellaire, where we spent Labor Day weekend, then to Gaylord, and on the North Central Trail to Cheboygan and Mackinaw City, by ferry to Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula, where we followed US Highway 2 to Escanaba and state highway 35 to Marinette, Wisconsin, ending in Oconto, Wisconsin: a weekend Packers game in Green Bay dried up opportunities for lodging, so we called Matt in Madison to pick us up a bit early. This also gave us more time to visit with family and ride around the village of Oregon and city of Madison to bring our total tour distance to 700Km (435 miles) in celebration of Larye’s impending 70th birthday. (Not a significant accomplishment, considering our contemporaries from the Netherlands rode 8000Km to get to our house.)

We took the train home, which was an adventure in itself, as the train lost electrical power near Havre, Montana. We were delayed for six hours: the meal service the rest of the trip consisted of box lunches and we arrived in Seattle late, in time to join the traffic jams from the Seahawks game next to the Amtrak terminal. Even though we have no interest in sports (bicycling is a mode of travel, not a sport), we have learned to ignore football at our own peril.

In other travels, as mentioned, we had timeshare weeks to burn this year: we spent a week in April during our crash recovery on Vancouver Island, at Courtenay, BC. In June, we spent a week at Birch Bay, WA while attending the Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds conference in Bellingham. We made two trips to La Conner, WA to visit the quilt museum, once in the winter and again in summer when we entertained quilting friends from Montana. On the latter trip, we stayed overnight in Port Townsend. We also spent a week in Montana in late May and again in late June, getting in some bicycling on the trails along US 93 between work and visiting friends and relatives.

In early November, we traveled to Kauai, Hawaii for a week of exploring the geographic and cultural wonders, and topped off the year of travel with a week in Victoria, BC, one of our favorite foreign destinations, albeit only a couple hundred kilometers and a two-hour boat ride away.

At Home

While not traveling, we spent a lot of time entertaining travelers, with cyclists arriving every week: sometimes singly, sometimes in groups. We had seven one evening, and many interesting folks from across the globe. We tried not to turn away tourists, as there are no nearby camping facilities and the motels in Shelton are not cheap.

We remain active in three weaving guilds: Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle. Judy took several classes in Seattle, which prompted us to joining there, plus some in Tacoma. Trips to Seattle for classes end up being overnight stays. Judy ended up being the program committee chair for the Olympia Guild, and leader of a Rigid Heddle study group. We also joined a band-weaving study group and Larye is on a committee to digitize and archive weaving samples collected by the guild over the past 50 year, so much of our “free” time is spent on weaving infrastructure and meetings, without a lot of time to weave. We also joined a fiber arts craft group in Shelton, where Judy has led a number of workshop/demonstrations, and we continue to be active in the RubyStreet Art Quilters. Some of our quilts were shown at the Lacey Timberland Library this fall and Larye participated in a men’s quilting show at the quilt gallery on Vashon Island in the spring.

Just when we thought we had taken care of most of the home repairs for a while, with installing some insulation upstairs and finishing off the stepped walkway to the lower half of the yard with a 10×10 deck, we returned from our Michigan/Wisconsin trip to find the carpet padding in the basement breaking down to the point we need to replace the 5-year-old carpet with vinyl planking, something we intended to do eventually, but the time is now. On the eve of our trip to Hawaii, Judy bumped into the shower door in the main bath, and pulled the hinges out of the tile (faulty installation). All of this is incentive to continue to seek gainful work for the foreseeable future.

Work

Larye lost three weeks of work with the federal shutdown, and another two weeks switching prime contractors at contract renewal time, but continues to support his NIH projects, with no end in sight. His commercial clients are in maintenance, but the pro bono website maintenance continues to keep him busy. Judy has decided to liquidate the quilting business–fabric stash and longarm machine, and spent several days inventorying 2400 yards of fabric, while planning more weaving and art quilting projects. We have a buyer for the lot, but the sale isn’t final yet.

Family

With all of our other travels, we haven’t made time to visit the Parkins clan in New Mexico this year, but we hope to make a trip in that direction early in 2014. We finally got back to Wisconsin for a visit–the hard way, by bicycle, via Michigan, and the visit was all too short.

Of course, we do spend quite a bit of time with the grandkids in Olympia, playing soccer grandparents in cold and rain more times than we can count, and picking them up after school on days when their parents are busy. We even took care of them for two weeks in early October while their parents took a vacation.

Web

Naturally, we are on the web: Facebook, our blogs, and Vimeo:

http://blogs.parkins.org

It’s been a good year: we hope yours was as fulfilling, and best wishes for many more to come.
Judy & Larye

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Today is a dark day in American History.  For the second time in my lifetime, the federal government has been shut down by factions in Congress refusing to compromise and making untenable demands. As before, this action creates direct and real personal hardship, as I have, for most of my 48-year career, made a living by providing contract services to the federal government.  Today, the shutdown required that I and almost all of my colleagues log off, leave the premises (or, in my case, close any open network connections), and refrain from using any government resources for an indefinite period of time.  This action is called a “furlough,” but, in essence, we are terminated immediately, with no notice, no severance, and no recourse.

In practice, many of us may be recalled when and if the projects on which we were working are again funded, which could take weeks or months.  But, many of us were also working on contracts that will expire this month: we may not be recalled at all.  The successor contractor can’t start work or complete the transition phase, nor can they hire, or write subcontracts, until the contract is funded.  Extended delays are inevitable,.

So, the effect of the shutdown is that a large number of us have been fired, canned, cashiered, pink-slipped, and escorted to the door (with a last-minute reminder to take our rotting and moldy lunch boxes out of the company refrigerator on the way out), for no other reason than the customer/employer has decided (through inaction in Congress) not to pay us anymore.  Even though this dreaded rejection has nothing to do with our performance or the continued need for our services in support of projects that were not over budget, not failing, and near completion, we are, nevertheless, punished, financially and psychologically.

It is human nature to view such an attack on our safety, well-being, and security with a flight-or-fight response.  Some who live paycheck-to-paycheck may have no choice but to immediately seek other employment, thus fleeing the project forever, losing valuable talent and experience that will take many months to regain.  Others of us suffer that visceral fight response that fuels a seething rage that makes us want to retaliate, to counter-attack, a futile action that would not only burn bridges, but dynamite the abutments, mine the approaches and poison nearby wells, making amends impossible.  Such ill-advised response is not reasonable, so we swallow our rage as best we can.  Unfortunately, some anger leaks out in barely suppressed road rage, sharp rebukes at minor family annoyances, loss of appetite, and irritability with all manner of persons, pets, and inanimate objects.  It is not pleasant to be near us in these times.

I would wager that unhappiness reigns in millions of households across America tonight, and for no reason other than the government, in the body of our elected Congress, has decided to quit governing, abrogating their duty to keep the nation running smoothly.  There is extant no great natural catastrophe, nor external military threat, only obstinate refusal of Congress to carry out the sworn duties of office, creating an artificial crisis that has harmed millions of Americans directly either through loss of income or unavailability of needed services, and dashed the plans of millions more who intended to visit federal parks and museums in the near future.  Campers and hikers are being evicted from the back country and campgrounds, and the gates closed.  This cannot be what the majority of citizens wants to have happen, though terminating social programs does seem to be on the agenda of a large number of misguided citizens.

So, how should we react to this calamity, personally and as a nation?  Anger serves only to breed more anger.  Each of us must resolve to overcome our emotional responses and act rationally in the face of irrationality.  Those who applaud the shutdown are, quite bluntly, idiots: they will not be spared in the coming grief.  As we have been deprived of our income, so shall those merchants dependent on our patronage be deprived of theirs, for we have no money to spare.  With what little we do have, we should be careful to avoid patronizing those who have supported the mindset and actions that have led to this debacle, without rancor, but with the bitter message that their desires serve no one’s interest.  What they have so dearly wished for us, they should share also. Those of us who have been harmed, directly or indirectly, or who feel this manufactured crisis is untenable must vote to deny reelection to those responsible, and to vote against candidates who espouse radical views that do no service to the whole of America.  Government is what we decide to do together, and right now, we are so deeply divided that the government has ceased to be effective.  Let us come together to decide these two things: America pays its bills, and has an obligation to fund its laws.  Period.  From that point, compromise is not only possible, but mandatory.

There is hope: we survived the government shutdown of the late 20th century, we will survive this one, despite our still shaky economy and despite the radicalism that has poisoned our government.  It may take a few years to weed out the radical factions that have paralyzed our political system, but it will take responsible voters who vote their conscience instead of being swayed by dogma or propaganda.   Those responsible for creating this shameful situation do not deserve our anger, but only pity, for they shall fall.  The blame also lies with those who have done nothing to persuade their colleagues toward a more moderate course of compromise.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.  — William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”