Yep. We were a bit behind this year and I’ll blame
it on our self indulgence because that’s the truth. This year’s letter is also long and rambling
because of that theme.
We started
2009 without much fanfare, except for Mike and Parker’s temporary bout with
deafness from an AC/DC concert. “Fie yah!” Mike’s probably petering out of his sound
pummeling pastime after GWAR and Shpongle and Gogol Bordello, but we’ll see. Bonnaroo still beckons. Mike ran away to Burning Man again this year
“in an effort to connect with pure creative human spirit and thus be a more
effective teacher and better husband and father.” Who is he kidding? It was just an escapist romp and he knows it.
Then in
February we visited dear friends in Idaho, and returned to find the beehives
blown all over the place. That was a fun
puzzle to put back together, and this year’s honey crop was slim.
Priscilla
and her Mom went out to Tempe to visit Ian and Michelle and had a mighty fine
time and behaved themselves mostly. Ian
is still plugging away keeping the University of Phoenix computers going, and
he and Michelle are having a great time together romping all over the country
for concerts and such. It’s wonderful to
see them so happy.
The spring
brought a bumper crop of yummy morels to distract from more pertinent
obligations. But who can resist the
gifts of the forest, free for the picking?
So what if it takes 3 years to do a weekend’s worth of work, say, on a
storage shed or something?
We thought
we would get into the freshwater prawn ranching, but after 12 hours of driving
to get 16,000 tiny shrimps into two tiny coolers in a mini cooper, we returned
to watch them turn belly up or otherwise disappear into the oblivion of the
pond. OK. So I didn’t check the pond chemistry first,
but it is full of life! Looky at all of
them frogs and salamanders! But it seems
crawfish and catfish are more in tune to our environment than tropical exotics
from Asia. Go figure. But, in his
continued effort to demoralize the forest, Mike introduced bamboo in the hopes
of attracting pandas. Meanwhile the
cattle and the donkeys are staring in disbelief and waiting for another scoop
of sweet feed and an ear rubbing.
Ian and
Michelle came to visit in June to visit and go to Bonnaroo, then Pris went to
Kansas for a family reunion right before we went to Alabama for another. Pop turned 75 and received about as much
fanfare as he seemed to want. It’s also been
a tough year for losing loved ones, but the weddings and new babies and
reconnecting with dear friends helps to keep the heart juice fresh and happy.
Priscilla
took a wacky jaunt to Colorado with her Book Club Girls then to New York to
play with the Saipan Girls while Mike went to Savannah for a week of art
workshops. Then he and Pris went to the beach for a few days where they
contemplated swimming across the Gulf to another island escape but decided to face
their lucky-to-still-have jobs and their respective new bosses with good energy
and attitudes.
Meanwhile
Parker pulled on his cowboy boots and took a swig of Wild Turkey while
listening to his CB and smoking a cigar before pouring the concrete floor to
the shed and keeping us supplied in venison.
He gave up a career in child tending to begin one in kiln loading and
customer satisfaction while he finishes his degree in concrete industry
management. He and Sara are happily
frolicking in Arizona as this is written, taking in the company of Ian and
Michelle, a resort in Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and other amenities of the
desert.
In the fall
Mike’s sister joined life in Sassapaw for a while in her transition back to
Tennessee living, and cousin Linda stopped by right before the second Bull
Burn. This year Hamish was cremated in
effigy only, but the car received another coat of paint and the burning was
especially eventful. Who knew that
several grosses of ten year old bottle rockets taped to a burning bull
sculpture would rather fire independently at the crowd of onlooking friends and
French exchange students than fizzle and spray in splendid sparks as planned by
the unthinking sculptor. Priscilla
always mentions the poor trembling French girl who just stood and repeated, “I
don’t understand…I don’t understand…”, but no one was injured, thank goodness.
Later more
cousins came to play in the woods for an autumn weekend, right before Ian and
Michelle came to visit for a pre-holiday holiday.
Then
Priscilla and Mike went to Thailand to see friends and be tourists and that’s
why this letter is late, but by golly we are glad to be able to keep in touch
even if it’s once a year with old school paper technology, and please please
know ya’ll are always welcome here in Sassapaw!
The Quinn Van Tries Fam – 498
Sassapaw Trl – Beechgrove – TN – 37018 – (931) 394-3262 – pmquinn@blomand.net – www.pmquinn.net