| Fri nov 8 Dearest friends, beloved family and leeching outsiders, We have marked 7 weeks of living on the same square mile. "Survivor" should have started in Kingcome. The clouds have rolled in, so we are in true Pacific Northwest rainforest weather now and out of sunshine-filled postcard-world, which will return I know. Today Kristin was walking by a guy we know who carves. He makes totem poles, masks and other objects in traditional style and sells them to galleries and individuals. As Kristin walked by, he said, "Hi, you wanna paint?" "Ok..." she said, excited yet hesitantly. Referring to a pole with wings he said, "You design that wing and I'll design this one." So as you read about poles in the future and stories told throughout generations, remember that you know the origin of "The Kingcome Pole with the Half-Norwegian Wing." He said to come back later. So remember our digital clock issue? It had been running fast for some odd reason. Now it has switched back to normal 60 seconds=1 minute. Well, that lasted for a week, now it's fast again. The only thing I can attribute this variance to is clear skies vs. cloudy skies. Now am I so stupid as to think that the speed of a digital clock is affected by the amount of direct sunlight? Don't answer that...Someone please explain this to me. We have been "entertaining" our first guest! A man from a community college is in the village to teach a computer class to some staff and he has been staying at our house. He has lots of interesting stories about living in Russia, his parents in the Chinese internment camps, getting married in Kenya, and more. I'd love to write more but this is our newsletter, not his. It's been nice to talk with someone from the outside world. Our MCC contact comes to visit next week as well, so our guest room is getting broken in. I am looking into the possibility of launching this newsletter/adventure thing into the next century by creating a web page. We could put pictures, links, archives and, oh, maybe some time-wasters on there. We'll keep you posted...Following a web page we're thinking of a touring lecture series, a reality show and finally a reunion tour. Nicole: So we were talking about the recent elections in the U.S. and the election (?) of Bush a couple years ago, and Nicole was getting rather uneasy in her chair. After leaving the table and summoning me (John), she spoke to me of her sincere concern. "Daddy, do you think Mommy will forgive me?" "For what, sweetie?" "Well, when I was 5 or 6 in kindergarten, I came home and told Mommy that a school I had voted for Gore. But I only said that because she voted for Gore, but I really voted for Bush and I lied and I don't know if she'll forgive me." So do we punish her for lying or for voting Republican? No punishment necessary. We just lay the guilt of a war against Iraq on her and her choices. A few weeks after we got here, we attended a birthday party, the same one which included Nicole being called the n word. There were these great sandwiches there, salmon. I (Kristin) loved them. I later asked the hosts twice, I think, about how to make the sandwiches and exclaimed about how great they were. It's just canned salmon (local style) and mayo. I was trying to be nice and friendly with the compliment too, but the sandwich was super good. Well people here eat that everyday. Canned salmon with mayo is not equal to filet mingon or anything. So just yesterday I realized that I was going around multiple times exclaiming over the sandwiches which are the equivalent of peanut butter and jellies. Oh well, better to be too nice and look insane than not nice enough. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all the people that have sent us boxes and letters! We love mail day, and email days too. Be peaceful. KristinJohnNicole |