Mountain Home Village 2. It has been a very busy day, I follow Tim around as he takes care of stuff. Our conversation traversed a range of subjects from the very personal, to the scientific/political to our youthful adventures together and apart. One of the bottom lines is that there are parallels to our lives on so many levels, from our current economic risks and status in a difficult economy to an uncanny sequence and number of similar experiences.
At Panera Tim asks me how I got from being a boy without a father and with a very troubled older brother to the point of having raised the wonderful family that I have and having had a successful career as a photographer. That’s a BIG question. As with any big question there is no easy answer. How do you get through the dark times? In my youth there were so many dark times, particularly when a boy looks to become a man and there is nothing to hang your hat on. You just wander in the wilderness, hoping for a break in the clouds. But there are guiding hands seen and unseen. A loving mother who despite her own limitations is a rock that I can lean against. And the unseen hand that is there at critical moments to keep me from falling into the abyss. My great education at the foot of the Christian Brothers, who taught me to be the critical thinker that I am today (this education sometimes came at the end of a stick, generously and lovingly applied). A patient and loving wife who administers a soft and caring kick in the ass when necessary. These things help me on the path to my saving grace: parenting a son. The first positive male relationship of my life. Josh and I grew up together. The last element was love, when in doubt as to what to do as a father and husband I acted out of love. It is the overriding theme of my life, if I was going to make a mistake it would be in the direction of love. The rest, as they say, is history - for another time and place.
At lunch with Adam (Tim’s son) and his friend we discuss movies. Adam has been in the process of getting ready to make a movie for quite some time. For Adam, what makes a movie is a story well told, for Tim it is a mystery as long as there is little or no gratuitous violence to get through. I guess I need to be challenged by a movie, their consensus is that I like kind of weird, eclectic movies. What do you mean? I thought “A Clockwork Orange” was a family movie. All the funny outfits and men wearing makeup like Pee Wee. There WAS that big stick and the red stuff. . . . . The tale of Adams movie is a tale of intrigue on the Turkish border with MIG jets. . . . . . .woops wrong story. His is a story of intrigue on the Canadian border with movie moguls flying MIG jets and waving their magic wand as to whether a movie will be made or not. Layers upon layers of people to see, things needing to get done, money to spend, commies to listen to. It is a tale that will be told and I want to be there at the opening.

It is time to leave the womb of the Miller clan, but first a few observations. At a gathered meal I enjoy the conversation taking place. I don’t think science has an instrument sensitive enough to measure the infinitesimally small amount of time between the end of one spoken comment and the beginning of the next. This is considered very polite in the wider Loegering clan where, like my family, we rarely wait for the end of one comment before beginning our own. WE MUST BE HEARD. You vill take that hat off you dumkopf! If this were a few years ago Anne, with her rapier wit, would have hurled some zingers like a MIG jet on a strafing run. But today she takes it all in and basks in the glow of her loving family. In her hurling days she was very kind to this wounded child and I have nothing but warm memories of Mountain Home Village.
Tim: You are my friend, my soul brother and we are connected through time and space. You have taken good ideas and turned them into great enterprises, you have taken other ideas and taken them to the brink of failure only to add a little sugar and make lemonade out of lemons. It is all about the horizon for you but we have been receiving messages that we need to live in the moment more and maybe there is a coming time to pursue non economic enterprises (a la Bill Gates).
Laurel: The mountain girl, a lovely and true woman. You put the “home” in Mountain Home Village. Your cookies are wonderful and for that moment in time when eating one, time and troubles dissolve into pure pleasure. You have unexpected but good changes coming.
Maribeth: You of the warm embrace, the easy grace, to be held by you is to be folded into the nourishment of love, you do what you do and you don’t look back, sure of your place. You have the natural beauty that doesn’t take time.
Jim: I’m not so sure you aren’t on “rotation”. But you have mellowed with time into a fine Italian wine. A little ornery at times, but a “Cattle” baron needs to be.
Ted: you continue on the recurring military theme. You marched in one direction while the rest of the Army marched another, did I ever tell you about SIDIPO? . . . . . . You blazed your own trail, unfortunately the military hasn’t needed trailblazers for a long time. You remind me of a cross between Tim Allen and Dr. Watson in the Granada production of Sherlock Holmes.
Missy: You are glowing with the radiance of new love, you have such a great smile. I am sure Kendall is a good man because you are a great woman. But the name thing . . . . . with his deep, resonant voice, big mustache and hands like men in Kearney Nebraska, I see him as a Waylon, Willie or a Kris.
Connie: As usual we didn’t have much time together, it’s all Tim’s fault. But I promise when I come to California next, I will come to you and only you first. We will renew our youthful friendship. As a 17 year old I have such warm memories of your beautiful, young smiling face.

In the morning I got a tour of Mill Creek Cattle Company, Maribeth and Jim’s restaurant. So much stuff it is unbelievable, you are taken to another time and place. Maribeth called Judyann and handed off responsibility for my welfare to her. Next stop: Marin County, California. Jon