March – found termites in my wood floor, had to have my house “tented”… lost a few plants, and had to move out for a couple of days. I decided not to replace it. (P.S. In 2022, I was forced to replace all the wood flooring in my house when my hot-water tank burst and flooded the bedrooms and hallway).
April – I felt it was time to visit my Dad’s ashes that were at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa.
June – My Grandmother, Marjorie Caldwell-Henson died June 1, 2018. Mom and I attended her memorial on June 15, 2018 at 10 o’clock in Shawnee, OK at the First Baptist Church with interment at 2:00 pm at Paoli Cemetery, Paoli, OK, with Rev. Glen Pence officiating (this was the Pastor who officiated my parent’s wedding).
August – Installed solar panels on my house.
September – My Great-Uncle, Jon Romine died September 4, 2018. Mom and I attended his memorial on September 12, 2018, 11:00 AM at Jay Chapel in Madera.
Big Drive: 2800 miles round-trip
12/24/2018 – Drove to Mare Island in the middle afternoon, to my Mom’s house.
12/25/2018 – Spent Christmas with Mom.
12/26/2018 – Drove to Eugene, Oregon. When I arrived, I needed gas badly (less than 20 miles in my tank). I pulled into the nearest gas station, and a lady came out to pump my gas! I hadn’t had that level of service in decades. There has been a ban on self-service at gas stations in Oregon dating back to 1951. The reasons given ranged from flammable liquid safety to preserving the jobs of gas station attendants. (P.S. this law was repealed in 2023). I thought it was fantastic… hate to see it go. The last remaining state to require full-serve gas stations is New Jersey, which banned it in 1949.
12/27/2018 – Drove to Marysville, Washington.
12/28/2018 – Met my friend Linda Young for lunch at “Salty’s at Redondo Beach” in Des Moines, Washington. After eating a great fish lunch, we decided to take a walk along the boardwalk.
12/28/2018 – Drove to Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada for a week-long meeting with Chris Black (my business partner from South Africa).
While we were there, we walked around downtown Vancouver. Honestly, it was bitterly cold (36 degrees F). We came across this statue of John Deighton (commissioned in 1970) located in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood at a spot near where Deighton (also known as “Gassy Jack”) had built the Globe Saloon in 1867, one of the first buildings in Vancouver. (P.S. On February 14, 2022, the statue was toppled by protesters who cited Deighton’s colonist, racist and misogynist history).
We then drove around the circumference of Stanley Park (a 405 hectare natural West Coast rainforest). Very beautiful. The park was opened in 1888. It was named after Lord Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, a British politician who had recently been appointed Governor General.
We later walked around “English Bay Beach”.
While I was in Canada, I felt the need to obtain an authentic souvenir, so we found this wonderful store called “Hill’s Native Art”. Lloyd and Frances Hill opened the store in 1946 when they first acquired the Koksilah (pronounced coke-sy-la) General Store and Post Office. The store is located in a small community on the East coast of Vancouver Island.
Over the years, Hill’s Native Art acquired the largest and most varied collection of First Nations and Inuit arts and crafts. Hill’s caught worldwide attention as the largest Northwest Coast Native Art Gallery in North America, and has exhibited hundreds of works by emerging and internationally renowned artists. At any given time, Hill’s had featured over 1200 Native artists and represents every Nation of the Northwest Coast.
I bought a gorgeous wood carving of a Salmon catching a Dragonfly. It’s hanging on my wall…
