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June 01

Since I hadn't seen the world's greatest grandchildren and their parents since Christmas,
the call of the Great Northwest finally became too loud to resist, and I left SNA for a flight
to PDX. Soon I was getting my year's exercise. (Taking pictures of physical exertion can be tiring.)





Since sliding, biking, wrestling, and walking wasn't going to be enough, we decided a
little B-ball would be the ticket. (Some assembly required.)



This will be perfect unless Ara wants to take her car out.






June 02

Henry can really light up a room.



But he can't hold the camera steady yet.



As always the food was fantastic. Ara is one of the most astounding cooks
I know. She felt that the morning's spinach quiche needed a little something,
so she threw together some Yorkshire pudding (aka popovers). For dinner,
we honed our appetites on homemade Thai veggie wrap-ups (I call them
Spring Rolls) (evidently erroneously) accompanied by homemade peanut sauce.
If I could understand how Ara's culinary mind works...I'd weigh 800 pounds.



Evie is still very artistic, and she has expanded her media options to include
sidewalk art. Henry has expanded his artistic flare to washing out sidewalk
art with the garden hose.



I thought this next drawing was a cubist bird, until Evie pointed out...



...that it says, "No Boy"

Aaron, Ara, and the kids spent part of the day at a birthday party, and I elected
to catch up on email and chores. It was an opportunity for Aaron to break out his
new summer outfit. (It's what all the hospitality industry executives are wearing.)




June 03

One of Evie's best friends was seriously injured in a fire, so we all joined in to create
a fruit surprise for her. I hope it didn't scare her into a relapse.



My last evening in Portland, we joined two other families for a picnic and informal
sports at the amphitheater connected to the Rose Garden. It's a stunning location
and all manner of Portlanders were there to enjoy the ambience.



Alex won the traditional kid toss. (They kept coming back, however.)



Henry spent part of the time socializing

 

and is evidently a charming conversationalist.



What did he say?



At the end of the evening, we walked back to the car, passing the
Rose Garden. This photo gives some inkling of it but doesn't do it
justice (to coin a cliche).




June 04

All too soon it was time to return to the pastoral charm of Orange County.

Many of you are aware of the personal changes that I have experienced since last Fall, when Sheila and I separated in pursuit of a divorce.   A new chapter is unfolding in my life. Among the friends who have generously offered me support (you know who you are), one in particular, Suze Clem, has become a genuine confidant. We have, in fact, fallen deeply in love and plan eventually to marry. She is with me now, as I prepare to move to her home city.   Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, is a beautiful community and quite reminiscent of Vermont. In upcoming blogs, I believe you'll come to agree with that appraisal.

June 15

     Today was a reasonably hectic day, since Super Movers visited my apartment
and my office at Chapman, to load up all my stuff. The office was particularly
tricky, since I had been nesting there for around 15 years. A lot of stuff got given
or thrown away. Still, the movers gasped and protested that they expected less.



     By the end of the day, we were left with piles of bags and boxes, which we had
convinced ourselves would fit in the Explorer.


June 16

     0545: Having loaded the car, we locked up the apartment, stuffed an envelope
full of keys in the mail slot of the manager's office, and pulled our rig out onto the
interstate.

     We made pretty good time all the way to Needles, CA, on the Arizona border.
Traffic was heavy but fast, and I sometimes got myself boxed into a pack creeping
up the 90 mph, which made me a bit nervous. Turns out, my nervousness was
pretty appropriate. When I stopped for gas, one of the service people said one of my
tires looked low. Upon careful inspection, we found that all four were in the process
of disintegration: cracking, tearing away, and wearing unevenly. They kept using the
expression, "Ready to explode." (So much for my recent servicing at the Ford dealer.)
So, we soon had four new tires.



     Feeling much more secure, we pressed on and spent the night in
Gallup, NM.





June 17 - Happy Father's Day

Today, I am thankful for two fathers who have been especially valuable in my life.
I am honored to have known both of them and each has served as a role model for
me in my life.


 

The first is Herman Octave Babbie, mentioned and pictured in the May 2007 blog.
When I was four, my mom had to take on the full responsibility for earning our
living and raising me. When I was 13, however, a wonderful thing happened
to us both. She was introduced to Herman Babbie, an auto body mechanic working
in the garage whose bookkeeper had hired my mom as a live-in housekeeper.
Herman Babbie was the Dad I had always wanted, and I idolized him. I eagerly
took his name and modeled myself after him as much as I could.

I lost him to cancer when I was 26 (and he was only 46), but the time we had together
made all the difference in my life. I still think of him often, and my biggest regret
in life is that he never got to meet his grandson and that Aaron never got to
know his grandfather. They would have appreciated and loved each other.




The second father I honor today is Aaron Robert Babbie, my son, and one of the very
finest fathers I have ever known. This picture shows him as he was honored recently by
the Portland Business Journal as one of the "Forty Under Forty" leading young professionals.

I have seen Aaron in action as a father for over six years now, and I have never ceased to
be impressed by the patience and wisdom he brings to a context of love. I've always been
proud to be known as his father, and I've often found myself benefiting from his example.
I can see in him what I think are the best parts of me, and being around him prompts me
to bring more of those qualities out in my own behavior.

Happy Father's Day, Herman and Aaron.


Meanwhile on the road, we had an enjoyable brunch in Albuquerque, where I had arranged
for us to meet up with Jim Terr, an old friend, and a newer friend I had met through Jim:
Eliot Kohen. The two of them drove down from Santa Fe and we met in Albuquerque's Old
Town Square.





Jim (left) is a musician, song-writer, and satirist. Eliot runs a design
business, so it was a pretty lively conversation. Suze got to meet a
couple of friends she had only known via email. For my part, it was
great seeing Jim again and finally meeting Eliot in the flesh.

Enough for socializing. By high noon, we were on the road again,
looking for lodgings in Oklahoma. Elk City took us in, though we were
told all the restaurants were closed.  (It was after 1800.) Turns out
Pizza Hut was still functioning. (Nature's most perfect food.)



June 18

     Back on the road at the crack of dawn, and Arkansas is only a few
hours away. What could possibly go wrong?



     Everything was going pretty well, in fact, until we hit some very
heavy rain.



     When the rain began clearing up in Conway, AR, we found ourselves
stuck in LA-like traffic.



     We limped along like this for half an hour. For fairly long periods,
we would sit still. Then we'd move a few feet forward.

     Finally, we discovered the cause of the delay.



     As you may be able to see, the truck completely blocked traffic
going in the other direction. As we finally got under way, we tried to
estimate the line on the other side--deciding it was somewhere between
five and ten miles long and standing absolutely still, growing longer
by the minute. All things considered, we were lucky.

     Finally, at 1515, we arrived at our destination in Hot Springs Village.
In case you haven't heard, HSV is the country's largest gated community.
It is 16 by 6 miles in size and has a population of 15,000. Suze has been
living in an apartment, which was our interim destination, but we first
made a swing by the house we had located and begun purchasing before
leaving California. It is only two blocks from the apartment, which will
make that phase of moving a bit easier.

     Here's how it looked on the 18th. More photos later.





June 19

     In addition to getting an Arkansas driver's license (while you wait)
and Arkansas license plates (also, while you wait), the big event of today
was a walk-through of the house. You'll see that we are starting with a
Zen-minimalist decorating scheme, which Suze will soon convert to
Dense English Countryside. (The final walk-through was on the 21st.)





(That's Joyce, our realtor, with Suze.)



June 22

     1130: Closing on 51 Doblez at the escrow office. Now the house officially
belongs to...the bank, but they agree to let us live there. We have keys,
garage-door openers, and everything.

     1300: Not to waste time on sentimentality, we were off to Hot Springs for
the dedication of a Bocce Ball court. The Hot Springs Village Civitan club, which
Suze has been active in (and will be president of in a year) donated the court
to a facility for mentally disabled adults--to help them prepare for the Special
Olympics. Despite the noon-day ("unseasonably hot") (yeah, sure) heat, it was
a touching ceremony, and I was beginning to feel like a full-fledged resident
of "The Natural State." (No, I don't know what that means, though nudity does
not seem common.)







June 23

     Suze is on the Board of the HSV Democratic Club, and I am one of their
newer members. To make that more real, we spent Saturday night in Little
Rock, attending the annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. For any left-leaning
friends who may be stuck in 1957 pictures of Cental High School as your image
of Arkansas, you should know that, at present, the governor and his administration
are Democrats, as are both US Senators and three of the four US Representatives.
(Of course, I think they were all Democrats in 1957, but these are progressive Democrats.)

     The state politicos were all in attendance at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, as
was a former Arkansas First Lady, who gave the keynote speech.





     Welcome to Arkansas.


June 25

     All pessimism aside, my stuff arrived late today. The driver called to say he's arrive around
1600, and I pointed out that I would have to let him in the gate. I asked him to call about half
an hour before he arrived, and I would come to get him--specifying which of the seven gates
he should come to.

     By 1530, there was no call, so I began calling him--getting a recording each time. Fighting
back images of the truck strewn across the freeway with all my stuff blowing away or being
pilfered, I tried to relax and wait. Then at precisely 1600, one of our painters called to say that
the driver couldn't unload any of my stuff until I signed some papers. Turns out his cell phone
had died, he came to the annointed gate and talked a nice lady into using her card to let him
in, and he used his GPS to find the house. By the time I got there, three minutes later, the
quiet little street was filled with painters' trucks and one huge 18-wheeler. Despite some mix-up
on helpers getting there (they eventually arrived), my stuff was unloaded into the garage in about
an hour.



The rocking chair is a lot better than it looks, and I'm sure everything else is fine.



June 27

    Suze's family has established a tradition (4 or 5 years old) for a reunion on the 4th of July.  So, we
packed up and headed North.

    Welcome to the Heartland.



    Spent the night in Effingham, IL. Hey! It's following us!




June 28

    The most fun part of the trip was going across the southern border
of Chicago. Toodling Town, my butt. It's all about trucks.



    By mid-afternoon, we finally arrived in Ludington, Michigan.

 

    The house above is Suze's ancestoral home. Her dad, Don, assisted by her younger brother, David,
added the second story--as well as a finished basement. I spent much of the rest of the day meeting
Roberts family members.  As soon as I had met everyone, more arrived. They all seemed very nice.



June 29

      When in Ludington, you must have Swedish pancakes at the Corner Cafe, so we did. Photographs
wouldn't do them justice, and I've found people get funny when I take pictures of my food. So you will
have to use your own imagination.

     After breakfast, we stopped at the library to suck up their WiFi to check our email.

     Then, we drove to White Pine Village, a museum of Ludington past. Here are some samples of what
we saw there.





The monitor was missing,

  Yes, an honor bar for ice cream.

     After some shopping, a light lunch, and a nap, we all gathered at David's
for a barbeque dinner. Here are a few of the dinner participants.



Left to right: Bette (Suze's mom), Sandy (Dwight's wife), Dwight (brother), David (brother) and Lynette (brother Doug's wife)

     Following dinner, Suze and I drove to the beach for the fabled sunset. She has
told me about it before, but I must say it was spectacular, leading us to experiment
with some artsy photography.







June 30

      Saturday began with breakfast at David's (not surprisingly, he has a restauranteur
background and cooks at the drop of a hat). Then we were off to WiFi at the library.

   The rest of the day was pretty laid back with some napping, antique shopping, and
a visit to another Ludington landmark: the House of Flavors, an ice cream emporium.



Thus endeth an eventful month.