Once again we are on the road. We don’t seem to stay put for very long, despite being home-bodies at heart. This time we are combining a road trip to Spokane to see family for a faux Christmas (faux since it early and we won’t get to see them on the day), with a flight to Victoria, B.C. to see that city dressed up for the holidays. Christmas in Victoria hearkens to Christmas in England, where so much of our holiday activities originate. Thank you Mr. Dickens.
Winter travel is always a bit dicey. Our constant rain tends to turn to ice the further you get from the Willamette valley, particularly if one is traveling through the Columbia gorge, which we are. We have skated our way through the winter gorge many times as Lydia’s family lived in the Klickitat-Goldendale area. Many visits for us were cut short by the approach of snow storms and I remember my daughter feeding her little brother graham crackers constantly on treks home to keep him quiet so dad could concentrate on the icy roads.
There is an icy road warning out today for the gorge with an admonition to carry snow chains. I don’t have any, at least for this car. I am sure that in the garage I have at least four pair from previous cars. What, after all do you do with old tire chains? I’ve never had it together enough to send them with a car as I traded it in and I’m not sure they would take them if I did. Old chains are like old hammers. In my shed I have at least 30 old hammers of various species. Some were my dad’s given to me as something I might need after marrying, in an attempt to set me up with a happy and productive life. Some were my dad’s collected after he passed away. Many are from Lydia’s father and grandfathers. I have framing hammers of several sizes, regular hammers, brick hammers, hammers with big flat heads for pounding iron or steel, a brass hammer, a rubber mallet or two, and half a dozen hatchets with a hammer face on one side. Like snow chains, it seems wrong to just throw them out, but what do I do with them? I envision that in the long run they will wind up in my son’s garage and that he will generously share them with his brother-in-law Christopher. Come to think of it, I don’t really have much more of permanence to pass on to them. In the meantime, I’ll go down to the tire store today and buy another bag of snow chains and, when we get back from Canada, I’ll make a New Year’s resolution to clean out my toolbox and bench and add all of the hammers that I don’t use to the box in the shed. The boys will thank me later, or at least remember me.

Posts