I'm HOME!

Yup, made it home on Olympic Van Lines. Oh, what a pleasure. A break on the Kingston Ferry, and 45 minutes between the dropoff and the Forks bus. Took me not a moment more of travel time, cost very little more than driving and all that gasoline and wear and tear on a car. From now on, I leave the area, I'm taking the bus.

Left the car at Bugmasters in Seattle. We're negotiating. I'm done with cars for a while. Seattle's bus system is stupendous, and the Clallam County system ain't half bad. I can do anything I want without owning my OPTMI (Own Personal Three-Mile Island, or car).

And let's face it, with oil prices going up, America will have to do what it always does -- face the music and improve. We always wait until the last minute, when it's much more expensive, but we always manage to do it.

Teeth are still horrible. I wasn't sure if it was an abcess or stress, but now I'm pretty sure it's the former. Had to get home and rest and sleep with my bite guard to make sure. Of course, the free or sliding-scale clinic in Port Angeles (What health insurance? I'm an artist -- and is this Canada?) is being renovated until September. We'll see if we can't hold off with pain-killers and antibiotics until then. I've done it before -- let a root rot for 8 months, and then just had the dentist flush out the clean cavity, with no intrusion or scraping, and nothing to heal. This was my last dentist's idea, and a good one. Doesn't work for kids, of course, but an obsessive adult (know any of those around here?) does it fine.

And we have a new fridge. A little mini apartment compact. About 4 feet high, 3 feet wide or so. The old one had a lot of wasted space. This one has room for ice and my cold packs and a few hot dogs. What else do we need? First thing we put in it was a 6-pack of beer and mussels off the beach.

I showed it to the neighbor: "Hey, look! Bait and beer! A fisherman's fridge!"

She thought that was pretty funny. And this thing does about $32.00 a year on power. Scaling down on everything.

Got Spuds to the vet for antibiotics and steroid shot, on the bus, just fine.

So, things are working out. Cross your fingers we won't have to cut off an arm for dental fees...