Nonni says to write something.  Dad danced his feet and sang the other morning as he got ready to get out of bed.  He seems pretty happy, or at least doing fine.  On Mondays Diane gives him a massage.  I don’t see him fiddle with his mail so much anymore, but maybe I just don’t watch so carefully.  When I see him, he is at the table eating in a slow and detached manner, or sort of watching people do puzzles, knit, talk, clean, or otherwise do the business of not so busy living.  Or he is snoozing in his comfy chair.

Meanwhile others in the household do laundry, wash dishes and floors and clothes, or try to keep the house warm.  This winter we are doing another round of insulating, starting with some of the log walls with old Fairbanks Exploration Co. windows, and hopefully soon getting on with the breezy basement.  We have moved a mass of toy trains from the furnace room in order to add R value, and wow did Dad love trains.

I particularly enjoy the 2 page paper (exquisite handwriting)  I came across in the basement:  “Details of Hornby ‘O’ Gauge Railway Equipment sold to N. E. Koponen….sent from Leeds, Yorkshire, to Godaluming (sic?), Surrey, by Bristich Road Services, 17th Nov. 1958.”  My own memories of our year in England (I was three) are slight, and mostly from Mom recalling that the kids ran the taps (water from a spigot?!  oh my!) in such awe and abstraction that the floor below was subjected also to the awareness of water’s availability…and Nonni returning to Fairbanks with a British accent (much to the delight of school mates).

Dad’s love and interest in networking (as we say these days) between groups has been remarked upon by friends we have seen recently during the elections.  He seemed to do it not to enjoy political advantage, but in genuine interest in furthering understanding and compassion among people in forwarding a growth of our condition.  We hope that the commitment toward bettering our world is renewed once again.  This has been–and remains as elections have still not ended here in Alaska–a very exciting fall.

–Chena