Tim's Birthday

Well, I wouldn’t normally blog on a departure day, but today was far from normal. For one thing, it was Tim’s 18^th birthday. We got to wish him a happy birthday last night just after midnight, and this morning I went in to Cannon Beach for yoga and got him a birthday donut. So he had a happy birthday morning. Yoga was very good, it was with Christen, the teacher I like. I find her easier to follow, and I like the flows she does. Her yoga is much more athletic than Claire’s – I worked up a little heat during class which I liked. She also talked about using ease, rather than force, to get the body where you want it to go. My focus for Nia lately has been just that – dynamic ease – and I liked the way she talked about it. I tried working that in and it really helped. So that was good.

When I got back to the house everyone was up and moving. Tim was even up, and very pleased to get a donut. We had a very, very leisurely packing up time because we didn’t need to be out until 2, although we ended up heading out around 11. When I woke up it was still very foggy, but it had been clearing up all day and by the time we got to town it was a beautiful, if chilly, day. We ate lunch at pizza a’fetta, a place we went to once a long time ago and did something so embarrassing we haven’t been back (we didn’t realize there was a 40 minute or so wait for tables, saw an empty one, sat down and ordered before we found out about the line). Fortunately no one there remembered us, so we had a very enjoyable time and also I absolutely loved the pizza. It reminded me of the pizza of my high school years – chewy, stringy, flavorful  cheese and a nice sheen of oil on top (in the best way possible).  After lunch we did have a fairly big disappointment – Osborne’s was closed. We don’t know why. So the 4 adults decided to go drown our sorrows at Bruce’s candy kitchen, and Tim headed home. We felt confident that he could find his was there in the daylight.

After Bruce’s we walked down to the Local Scoop to get ice cream. It’s Tillamook ice cream - not as good as Osborne’s, but it was a fine substitute. We sat on a bench outside in the sun and ate our ice cream and chatted. It was a very ice end to the weekend. We went to the parking lot, hugged goodbye, and headed home. Dave and I were commenting as we drove what a nice weekend it had been and looking forward to seeing Tim at home and going out for birthday dinner. We were on 26 about 11 miles in when we saw a green Subaru by the side of the road. Dave said, “Is that Tim’s car?” and it was. But Tim was not in it or near it. And we had no cell signal at all. I did not need my fancy pulse monitor to know how fast my heart was beating – I could feel it trying to pound its way out of my chest.

We stood around for a little while wondering what to do. Not long after, Ben and Joan pulled up. We decided we’d each pick a direction and drive a couple miles to see if maybe he had tried to walk to somewhere where there was cell signal. We went east, and after several miles there was no sign of him. But we did get to where there was cell signal, and there was a voice mail and a text message from him. His car, which had been overheating last night, had completely died, and he had hitchhiked back into Cannon Beach thinking we might still be there.  So we called him and told him to stay put, then went back and got him. It was very, very good to see him. On the way back Ben and Joan were waiting with his car, so we told them what had happened and sent them on their way.

It had stopped steaming by the time we got there.

By the time we got to Tim he had called AAA and they were on the way to get the car. We drove back out and Larry was already there, so Tim filled in the paperwork and we headed home. Yes, it was a little squishy in the back with the shoe basket, but I didn’t mind. We got home at 3:40 and are planning a big birthday dinner of sewer and chocolate cake.

And that is the end of the story.