Sunrise & Ridges

I took this photo 3 minutes ago. Three minutes before I sat down to start writing this post.

This morning was the first morning of autumn that we had to lower the blinds in the dining area of the cabin during breakfast because the SUN….was finally able to make it through the leafy tree curtain that keeps us hidden all summer long.

Leaves are falling quite rapidly now and ridges are clearly visible – our changing landscape day by day.

I miss the sunrises during the summer months, yet enjoy my morning porch time with my coffee and a bit of phone scrolling with the hummingbirds.

The birds are gone now – flown south for the winter, their feeders washed, dried and put away until next spring arrives.

It’s not only the view that is changing rapidly, but the colors, too. I took these photos a mere 2 weeks ago maybe?

Things are much more yellow-gold instead of yellow-green….but that’s okay. I’m ready to start putting my blocks together having finished constructing the last pile of blocks yesterday.

Now the job of laying out begins.

There has been a whole lot of repetition in cutting units, sewing units, pressing units, trimming units as needed and assembling the many blocks from the created parts.

A lot of time to keep my mind steady. And I’ve needed it.

It’s been more than a week of staying silent on something really big we are dealing with as a family but there are things I need you to know. Things I want you to understand.

Things I am trying hard to understand myself.

On September 30th I received group text from son Jason to Hubster Dave and myself that he had been admitted to the hospital.

He went to emergency after he couldn’t manage the pain of severe headaches any longer.

At first the ER doc was dismissive. But Jason pushed and they agreed to a CT.

The doc came back “Mr. Hunter, I owe you an apology. We found something on your CT. We are admitting you and scheduling you for an MRI.”

They kept him overnight. ran a battery of tests.

And then a week of waiting began before he could get in to the neuro surgeon.

There is a large tumor at the back of his cerebellum. We are gutted but hopeful.

We did another video call (There have been many over the past week.) last night. He is scheduled for brain surgery to remove the tumor on October 21st.

There are many issues with trying to keep a business running here, and taking care of him there and dealing with pets and retreaters and so much. So much.

We don’t know how long his recovery will take. We can only take this one day at a time. Will his speech be impacted? His ability to walk? To feed himself? Where can we both help him the most?

The other side of things is that he lives in a 300 sq ft studio apartment in Vancouver, Washington. There isn’t room for all of us.

So far the plan is for Dave to go out for the surgery where Jason will be in ICU for a few days. When he is ready to be moved I can come out and start helping with his care. Jeff will be helping here while we tag team with Jason.

The studio apartment is a hurdle so we are starting to look for a VRBO that we can do a longer term rental on. We need 2 bedrooms or at least a 1 bedroom with a pull out sofa to make his rehab work.

How long will it be before he can drive? We don’t know what it is going to take to get him back to normal, but the upside is that the neuro surgeon is VERY capable and very encouraging that he will be able to fully recover and resume normal life.

Why am I telling you all of this now??

Because mystery season is around the corner and I have been barraged with mystery posts.

Yes – the mystery will still go on as planned but I need you to know that there may be some weeks that some parts are delayed or put off an extra week. This may be a longer term mystery than we’ve done in the past.

If you need to order specialty rulers from me there may be no way to ship them to you until I get back home. I don’t have anyone trained to take over the mail order part of my business…and yet I have ordered supplies already and they are sitting here just waiting for introduction day.

Why do I worry about the quilting end of things? Because it is the one thing I somewhat have some control over where everything else right now is beyond me.

My eldest son has a brain tumor on the other side of the country and I’m finding it hard to function other then putting pieces through the machine…more pieces…just keep sewing.

My Vancouver, Washington readers – we need to stay fairly close to the hospital for his rehab and appointments. Do you know of anyone who has a VRBO or Airbnb that might suit our purposes? Please let me know by email at quiltville@gmail.com (not in the comments) if you have any leads.

Jason of course has moments of believing this will all turn out okay, and then he feels the anxiety creeping in. So do we.

Please know that I will do everything I can go keep the mystery running through the holidays even if clue release days may change, or be delayed depending on what is going on.

Some of you may tell me to skip it this year, but honestly – we’ve been doing this every holiday season for those going through rough times. Maybe this year I need to do it for me – as I can – when we can.

Thank you for your understanding.