Teeth are always in style

Random thoughts as we make our way back HOME!!

Dutch women are, as a group, the tallest in the world. I was reminded of that over the last week as we were out and about in west Michigan, a region settled by Dutch immigrants. The land of female giants! "And the Nephilim were in the land."

A surprising number of those very tall women are still solidly behind the yoga pants trend. (see what I did there?)

I met Matt for coffee this morning to talk theology and the somewhat unorthodox positions I'm taking in the second section of my current writing project. On the way to that 9:00 meeting I stopped in at the Rainbow Grill, just up the road from my MIL's condo, for b'fast. The waitress came to fill my coffee cup and told me someone had paid my bill.
What???
We haven't lived here for 12 years, but I suppose it's possible someone I know spotted me. I looked around but didn't see anyone I recognized.
If it was you and you're reading this, thank you!!

We drove by our house in Forest Grove yesterday. That was the yuge 3-story Foursquare Arts and Crafts home that I spent 5 years restoring to its 1905 glory. I returned it to original in every way possible, given the 100 years of alterations and deterioration it had been through.
They've abandoned the original all-white exterior in favor of a fairly deep blue-gray with white trim, the railings I built per the original blueprints I found are gone, as is the covered porch on the back of the second story.
But it's OK. Not my house, not my decisions.

I got a text message from the neighbors to the west of our house in Sun City, AZ.
Schadenfreude = a German word that roughly describes the feeling you get (albeit mixed with guilt for getting it) when you learn the neighbors to the east who reported you to the HOA twice for working on a car in your driveway have split up, he's gone to live with another women, and she's going back to Indiana.
Note: for those of you who didn't follow that experience when it happened, the HOA eventually decided I wasn't violating any of their anal rules and regs.

Panic + disgust + DRAT! = the feelings you get when you're driving you MIL's Cadillac in a 45 F rainstorm and the driver side window suddenly disappears down into the door.
Turns out GM build a car with automatic everything, included heated seats, and used a nylon belt to go from the motor to the mechanism that lifts and lowers the window, a belt that will break when it senses the car is being driven by the SIL.

I'll add that I'm glad I do not now own, and never will own a Cadillac. That thing has this very annoying auto-adjust feature that takes the seats and mirrors to a preset for "Driver #1" every time the car is started. Because I'm not 5' tall I have to re-adjust them every time I get in. I can't find any way to turn that off and I'm afraid to hit random buttons for fear all four windows will disappear into their respective doors.

When I'm in social situations I find unpleasant, or stressful (or both) I get quiet and go total non-verbal. That's particularly noticeable in my case because I can be a bit of a gabber in normal situations.
Somewhere about 9 a.m. yesterday I hit my pre-set in-law threshold and said almost nothing the rest of the day. That might otherwise lead to long periods of awkward silence, but we're with my in-laws so I'm pretty sure that nobody except Pam even noticed. And she understands.

I started this post earlier this morning. It's now late afternoon and we're sitting at the airport in Grand Rapids waiting for our flight to Chicago, and from thence to Portland. After a 2-hour drive we'll be back on Baker Rd.
If I can do that without stopping we should arrive home just about the time the calendar is rolling over to Friday. MoHo will be very cold and I'm not going to feel like lighting a fire just to go to bed, so I'll probably turn the furnace on for a cycle or two to take the chill off.

Anyone sitting nearby probably things we're a very unhappy couple, ignoring each other.
Nope. We're each enjoying the silence.