Update on the goings on around Casa de Gryphen.

It suddenly dawned on me that I have not provided an update about my daughter since she arrived.  Sorry that was a little rude of me.

Okay well she arrived on August the 27th, in a manner similar to when a tornado touches down on a farm house. Unfortunately, unlike a tornado, there was no siren to warn me to run for cover. 

She came flying into the house, threw herself into my arms for a hug, then ran upstairs to make herself a Mexican meal, and left the dishes for me to clean up in the morning.  So good to have her back home.

She had driven this god awful looking RV up the ALCAN which just barely made it here gasping and groaning, and leaking exhaust fumes,  every mile of the way. (Two and half weeks later it is still sitting in front of my house with a "For Sale" sign on it.  And I am sure it is driving my property values down every day that it sits there.)

Now my daughter did not just come up to visit her old man for awhile before heading back home to Georgia like every other time before.  No this time she came up here to live in Alaska and pursue her dream of starting a business and getting rich. I would tell you more about her extremely ambitious business plan, but I have been sworn to secrecy under penalty of being placed in an old folks home with ugly nurses if I dare speak a word. Even waterboarding won't get me talk with that hanging over my head.

Anyhow my daughter brought along her best friend, her dog, and TONS of her belongings.  She lived on her own for several years and so she brought with her pots and pans, bowls, plates, blenders, crock pots, etc., etc, etc..

Of course I already HAVE all of that stuff so currently it is just piled up on my living room floor as well as taking up half of the space in my garage. Slowly but steadily the pile is going down as we find places to put things or decide piece, by piece, that not EVERYTHING needs to be kept. (Have you ever pulled teeth from an angry rhinoceros?  Well THAT is what talking my daughter into throwing away one of her tangerine colored bowls with a giant crack in the side is like.)

Now I am somewhat of a loner so sharing my space is always a little difficult at first, but we have managed to get comfortable with each other's routines and I am not going into my bathroom and beating my head against the wall nearly as often as I was at first. (Which is good because my head kind of throbs a little when I do.)

The biggest adjustment  for me was the arrival of my daughter's dog. 

The animal actually has a very sweet and compliant personality, so I have no problems with how she behaves inside of my house.  However it has become apparent that the dog's Raison d'être is to murder my grass.  So my once gorgeous lawn now looks like it has some sort of sort of grass leprosy. (SOOO not happy about that.) Since I pointed out , in my usual calm quiet manner (With probably only one or two veins protruding from my forehead), that dog piss is NOT fertilizer, my daughter has dutifully taken the dog out into the nearby woods to do her business. I guess I will just have to wait through the winter and then try again next spring to bring my lawn back to its original magnificence.

On the plus side my daughter got work only a few days after she arrived with the local union and is currently working on the Drew Barrymore film "Everybody Loves Whales." (Which oddly enough just shot yesterday in the neighborhood where I grew up.)  Her friend recently auditioned for, and won a part in the play "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and is also working part time at the Performing Arts Center in Anchorage as well, so they are staying busy.

As for me, well I am trying to be less anal retentive and to relax about having other less, shall we say, tidy people sharing my space.  I do believe I am slowly adapting.  Just the other day I found muddy dog footprints on my upstairs carpet and, once I had stopped screaming obscenities, I calmly got out the bottle of carpet cleaner and "suggested" that my daughter clean up after her dog while I stood by grinding my fists into my temples.

See?  Everything is working out just fine.

Does anybody want to buy a motor home?  If you drive quickly I understand that the exhaust leak is less likely to render the driver unconscious.