Medford and Iraq

One of the best things about living in Rocky Point in Winter (yes I know it is supposed to be Spring) is the ability to leave it behind and head over the mountain to Medford on a whim.  This wasn’t exactly a whim, since I needed to get to the Social Security office and Medford is almost as close as Klamath Falls.  Big difference, however, between those two cities at the moment.  Klamath Falls has snow flurries and Medford has spring sunshine.  It was a fairly easy choice deciding which office I wanted to visit.

 Traveling 140 over the pass at Lake of the Woods

There have been some new followers to the blog since we left on our travels to the southern deserts last month, and I thank each of you. It’s always encouraging to see that folks care enough to follow along.  Russ and Donna are Oregonians, now on the road, so we travel many of the same roads getting from here to there. Andy Altes, Sara, John W, don’t appear to have blogs.  MacTrailer’s blog is in Portugese, but can be translated with Google Chrome.  Not sure if IE does this as well.  He does not yet have any posts, but I would imagine that some will follow eventually. Margie Anne's New Zealand Diary is a fascinating look into life on another continent, where fall is in progress and winter is on the way. I may have thanked Linda already, but didn’t want to miss thanking her again, since I read her entire story of their Alaska trip last year and she has sent along some helpful emails as well.

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 The snow level was the lowest we have seen all winter in April!

Yesterday morning, looking out the office window at the snow, I was glad for the excuse to leave our forest and travel the short 50 miles or so over the pass to Spring.  Medford isn’t always quite a beautiful as it was yesterday.  In winter, fog can lie in the valley making things very murky and cold.  In summer, it can get very hot, and similar inversions hold the smog close to the ground as well.  Yesterday, however, the skies were clear and the grass incredibly green.  Forsythia was in full bloom along with the landscape tree flowering pear, used everywhere in town for early spring snow white blossoms.  We planted a flowering pear last fall to replace the sweet gum that couldn’t handle our hard late spring freezes, so I am really looking forward to it’s first year in our yard.

Mo decided that it was a good day to replace some of the lost tools from last month’s vandalism, so after the social security office we went to Harbor Freight.  I should say Mo went to Harbor Freight, while I sat in the car with Abby for 75 minutes of pure heaven, doing absolutely nothing except watching the white puffy clouds slide across the brilliant blue sky, enjoying the sun and spring breezes.  I took Abby for a walk, took a couple of photos, and just soaked up the warmth.

  Pidge asked if our insurance company was stepping up, but Mo decided that with only 1500 or so in losses and 1000 deductible it wasn’t worth making the claim.  It’s amazing, but the trauma of the vandalism is almost completely behind us now, and the only thing left to do is slowly replace the missing items. The MoHo is intact, and as beautiful as ever.  We did have an interesting conversation this morning about next winter, however.  We probably won’t pay 179 per month to store the MoHo in a high security covered storage facility!  Ha! Talking about other options, including storing her in Medford just for November and December and heading south from January through April next year.  Who knows, plans shift and change, but I like the thought of this one.

After a good shopping spree at Harbor Freight, we did the Costco run, and had the best hot dog in the world for a buck and a half.  That is often part of the Medford run for us, a perfect dog at Costco. On the way home we took some side roads through the tiny town of Eagle Point, with it’s historic old grain mill, and then along Butte Creek which was in full flood stage, almost overflowing it’s banks with brown wild water.  Another side road took us up to a higher terrace, one we have never seen before, with broad vistas of the surrounding mountains and beautiful grasslands and big ranches.  Someday, maybe by 2020, Mo and I will decide to leave the deep winter snows of Rocky Point, and the possibilities of where we might go are always there in the background. In spite of our love for so many parts of this amazing country, we will probably remain somewhere in our beloved Southern Oregon.

You might wonder how Medford relates to Iraq.  I guess it doesn’t, except it was on my mind a lot yesterday as I watched the blue skies.  My grandson Steven is once more being deployed to Iraq, and yesterday was in the security advance group, out of touch, until he leaves today for 3 weeks in Kuwait before going on to Iraq.  Steven has a wife and two young children, my great grand kids, and already did one tour of Iraq a couple of years ago.  When he came home from war, he left the Army, but the world out there was incredibly difficult for a young father with two kids and he decided to re-enlist.  Steven is a computer security specialist, so his assignments are not front line, but even in the Green Zone he was subject to bombings and danger. 

I don’t understand why we are pulling troops out of Iraq, and yet more young men and women are still being deployed there.  Steven says that it will be more difficult this time, without the large number of troops, there won’t be as much support as previously.  Makes me sad and angry at the same time, but I honor our troops and what they do for us. I just wanted to take the moment to honor Steven and send him off with a big hug and lots of support.