Caroline Miller

It’s an absolutely gorgeezous early morning here in Oysterville – picture perfect!  And we are getting ready to head for Portland where the temperature, according to the National Weather Channel, will be 102° by seven o’clock this morning!  I think there must be a glitch in their reporting.  The 102 part I believe but… by seven ayem??

No matter.  I’m counting on the air conditioning in the Prius to keep us cool.  I doubt if it can manage the calm and collected part of that usual expression, at least for me.  We are headed to the Rose City so that I can be video-taped for Caroline Miller’s “Just Read It” program which can be seen on U-Tube and maybe elsewhere.  I’m not sure.

In fact, I have a great deal of uncertainty about this entire endeavor.  I’ve not yet met Caroline, though we have communicated now and then by email and through our blogs.  We ‘know’ one another via Tucker – my neighbor and her student (senior English) when he was in high school.  And I know that she has had “distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.”  I am looking forward to that part of the day – meeting Caroline!

On the other hand, the book we will be discussing is one I didn’t much like, didn’t much understand, and am still pondering.  God Help the Child by Toni Morrison was my “assignment” and I had a hard time with it.  It seems wrong to travel three hours into searing heat to give a short talk on something about which I have very little to say.

Scharffenberger Bombe

Nyel, once again demonstrating that he is a perfect spouse, says that ‘it will come’ to me.  I hope he’s right.  I know he is only accompanying me on this trek because he, too, would like to meet Caroline AND we will be stopping on our way home at Papa Haydn’s for lunch.  Followed by a Scharffenberger bombe for dessert!  Diet be damned and full speed ahead!  (I hope he’ll ‘share’ – at least a bite or two.)