After the move

Well, I am sitting in a nice big house now filled with boxes and packing paper all over the floor. Maryland doesn't feel like home at all at this point and I am casting about looking for new dry cleaners, playgrounds for Veeka, restaurants, etc. Did discover a cool Ethiopian diner tonight that served a mean coffee. I needed it, as I'd been out on the Mall all day covering a huge prayer meeting of 50,000 people named TheCall DC. Fortunately the weather was not humid but it was still a ton of work tromping about the Mall interviewing folks as to what they were praying about and why they were there. I also got to talk with some of the leaders who were on the stage. Then I had to go write up the gathering in the press trailer, which had no video feed to the main stage. Fortunately, thanks to an Internet card loaned to me by a Call staffer, I could view everything that was going on 100 feet from me on stage through the God TV web site, which was filming the whole thing. It was reminiscent of the huge Promise Keepers gathering 11 years ago; people singing Christian praise music, prostrate on the ground in prayer, etc.
It's about midnight now and of course I've been sleep-deprived most of this week staying up for the Olympics - mainly the gymnastics. WHY they put the gymnastics at the ungodly hour of 11 p.m. is beyond me and totally infuriating as NBC broadcasts mindless gluck such as beach volleyball at the more civilized 9 pm hour.
I've not been able to photograph the new house as my camera is still packed away...somewhere. So, portrayed here is Oma, Opa and Veeka at one of the pretty spots we visited in Montana. I think they are gazing at a bald eagle. Or a plane.

Marvelous Montana

I'm sitting in the dark (Veeka is asleep) in a Missoula hotel setting the alarm for an early morning flight out of here tomorrow. I had not been to Montana in 30 years, since my college graduation. I've spent the last 5 days at a family reunion, relaxing and eating too much food at the Double Arrow resort at Lake Seeley, one of several lustrous lakes just south of Glacier National Park. For all those family members who sat this gathering out: You should have been there.
There were about 30 of us from Minnesota, Washington state and Virginia gathered there thanks to gargantuan efforts made by my Minneapolis cousins who realized, along with us all, that we could not wait for weddings and funerals to bring us together. Ever since Uncle Ed's funeral 17 months ago, the thought was that maybe the rest of us could intentionally spend more time together before more pass into eternity.
So we met at this lovely ranch underneath bright blue skies, about 2,000+ feet up, meaning there were no mosquitos! Some of us did whitewater rafting on Wednesday on the Clark Fork west of Missoula and others golfed, rode horses or simply ate. Or gazed at the stars at night. I was glad, with all the infusion of babies from the Hinnenthal side of things, to have at least one little one represented from the Duin side of the picture. For those who are not familiar with my father's side of the family, everything springs from Siegfried, the 11th son of a peasant family in northwest Germany, who immigrated here in 1903 and married Alma Englebert. They settled in New Ulm, Minn., and had four children. My Aunt Alice, 92, on the far left of the photo, was #2. My father, 83, who is standing, was #4. The aforementioned Uncle Ed was #3. The fourth, Jerry, who was the eldest, died at the turn of this century. From those four came tons of kids and grandkids. The photo shows the Duin side of the clan, which includes myself, my mother and Miss Veeka. Suggestion for our next gathering: Post a family tree chart.
With all sorts of people to cuddle up to and talk with, Veeka's vocabulary has made great leaps since I flew out this way July 16. Now it's back to sweltering Washington where I close on two homes this week, pack, move and collapse.