home to California

After several weeks in Portland I'm finally heading back to California. I made it as far as Mt. Shasta today which is about 5 to 6 hours from Portland. So, Sunday and Monday I was in Seattle, then Tuesday my son and his family and I drove to Portland and then Thursday today I drove to Mt. Shasta so I'm back in California once again. My son hadn't been in Seattle since he lived in Kent for a while with my mother 30 years ago. He was amazed to drive through there again and to go to his junior High School once again.

My mother has been gone now about 10 years or so but during the 1980s he lived for awhile with my mother while I was moving my wife then and baby daughter home from Hawaii until we got settled back in Mt. Shasta once again then and attended Mt. Shasta High School for awhile.

It's a relief to get back to California but I miss my son and Grandson and his wife too. So, yesterday I found myself pretty mixed up and glad I didn't drive yesterday thinking about everything. I haven't seen my wife or 2 daughters for about a month now so they will be coming back from the trip I was supposed to join them on. But, I wasn't well enough then to travel that far. But, strangely enough I would be if it happened now. But, we all know how life really is: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans!" which is the story of all our lives ongoing.


Idealism doesn't usually get you very far in life. So, by 30 people either get pretty pragmatic or they are some of the ones walking down the street talking to themselves pretty soon.

I remember being really idealistic in my teens and becoming more pragmatic (even though I had been trained to be this way) was for me like pulling teeth. I had been always trained to be very pragmatic and practical but I always sort of saw actually being this way all the time as a form of death and that suicide was a better choice compared to being pragmatic.

However, somewhere along the way I learned my lesson (somewhere between 21 and 30) where I saw that any problem not addressed (right now!) is a molehill turning into a mountain while we are not looking!

So, this is what made me pragmatic in realizing I could either solve problems right now or I could see them turn into something I couldn't solve eventually.

So, this is what made me very pragmatic in the end. It was just about basic survival of myself and my family at every point.