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Back to Seattle

I thought we had plenty of charge left in the car when we left Centralia, but we were running low by the time we stopped in Puyallup for coffee and lunch. We went to my favourite coffee shop in Washington, Anthem, where a super cheery barista sold us on coffee drinks with silly names, and after that we had lunch in a small diner down the street. I finished reading The Thief Lord to the girls, and then we left.
Then a panicked drive to find a charger, a half hour wait (it was a slow charger…) where I read to the girls from The Golden Compass, and then we drove back to Seattle, the drive feeling strange, as though we were falling down a hole back to a different time… Even if that was only a month ago.

We got home, or at least back to our house, about 4:30, to see that there’s now a concrete slab poured in the basement, the washing machine has been shifted down there, and there are viable steps up to the front door. We still don’t expect to be in before Saturday, but it’s getting closer to being a real home again. Goodness knows how things would have gone if we’d taken July off instead of August…

After the girls had run around and reacquainted themselves with the neighbouring kids for an hour, we drove on to the AirBnb where we’re staying til the weekend. And then I discovered we’d left my wife’s handbag, complete with car keys, back at the diner in Puyallup, which was now closed, so we couldn’t call to confirm they had them. Fingers crossed I can retrieve it tomorrow…

We’re staying in a basement, with a substantially lower ceiling than the one we’ll have. I hope the girls do ok with a lack of natural light. They reverted back to some of their bad habits (like Destroyer taking two hours to eat dinner) but then fell asleep rapidly, so there’s some mercies, I guess. One more day away from work, and then it all starts again for me on Wednesday. My one regret is not timing this so I’d have the day off when the girls go back to school, but hopefully it’s a gradual return to ‘normality’.

And so, to bed.

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