Jane had already committed to celluloid that she wished that her house was bigger, in order that we could stay forever. We decided to compromise on one more night and I spent a more relaxed evening drinking wine whilst Simone had a less relaxed evening vomiting and what sounded like breaking down. I’m not too proud to say that Jane was far better than me at comforting her, and it seemed more appropriate that I upheld the social fort and actually conversed with at least one of our hosts.
Michael was a proud Trump supporter, and I imagine that went down like a ton of bricks with many of the people in this largely democratic town. In many ways he represented a stereotype, with an American flag displayed proudly from his house, and as I later discovered, a ‘Build the Wall’ bumper sticker on his pickup. That however was where the stereotype ended, and since I’d received nothing but kindness and good humour from Michael, I was more than happy to listen to his opinions on what we both agreed were exciting if nothing else, political times.
He probably spotted that I lean to the left, and he wore his republican hat proudly but happily there were many issues that had a middle ground in which we could quite happily frolic together, and if nothing else, Brexit and more specifically Jonathan Pie has taught me that not engaging with alternative points of view is the major problem. I wondered if he had seen a republican equivalent and was thinking the same. He offered me some one-sided explanations about the state of American politics and the misrepresentation of Trump in the media, and I offered him some equally one-sided explanations of the current state of Brexit in return. All in all I think we both had a rather enjoyable evening, and I certainly felt that I had learned a few things, even if a few of them may have only been subjectively true.
I was only half awake the next morning whist taking my very first sip of coffee, when Simone came into the kitchen and announced that she’d received a text from Melissa that said the Apartment by the river was not available after all, and that her lodger had refused to move out.
The Deschutes River is beautiful, and is renowned for its rapids that run through the town and can be surfed - as seen in this picture. Looks cold though doesn’t it?
This news hit me harder than perhaps it should of. I was absolutely gutted. I’d been really excited about living by the river, so much so I had secretly harbored a hope that it might take a couple of weeks to sort a house out, as this place was so amazing, and free! So we may have even been able to recuperate some cash. I’d also been toying with all the outdoor activities that would be on my doorstep, and the views, and the fire pit, and some space for the kids, and the vegetable patch, and the hammock, and the wifi.
Michael and Jane had wifi, but had no idea what the password was. I’d searched the router and even gone into the admin portal to no avail. This meant we were still largely without internet access, unless we used their computers or hard wired in.
Look at all those inputs. Phwoar!
Another nerd paragraph, this time about Apple Macs: feel free to skip. Later in our stay with Michael and Jane I really needed to use my computer, and was able to simply use an Ethernet cable to connect my mac; I then hot spotted my mac to the rest of the family giving everybody wifi. It was then that I decided that my MacBook pro mid 2012, now six years old is without doubt the finest piece of technology I have ever owned. It’s the one that still has all the connectors built in, and I’ve now used them all. I hard wired the router, I’ve used the card reader countless times, I’ve burned CD’s on it, connected to a 51” TV and used it as a games console with a ps3 controller, copied to USB’s you name it, and virtually none of these things is possible with a new MacBook without a plethora of dongles and accessories. My studio’s on it, all my media is stored on it’s terabyte hard drive, I fucking love it. My wife got it me for my 38th Birthday, so it also doubles up as the best present I’ve ever received. I’m even writing on it now.
Anyway, I was yet again heart-broken. I stood with my hands outstretched on the counter top, and just stared into the middle distance for 2 maybe 3 minutes. I decided to react to the news as any reasonable man would, by being emotionally distant and overtly aggressive, particularly with my wife and children. In retrospect it wasn’t even that bad. We were on our 4th day with the Minklers and as obliging as they were, it was hardly ideal for the challenging family of five that we are. But we still had Karen. Although we had declined her offer the previous day.
We called Karen and she happily agreed to reinstate her offer, and I grumpily loaded the car again, and headed to our new abode on the South side. Another reluctant charm offensive was followed by another meeting, with another absolutely delightful couple. Karen and Bob welcomed us without question, and we settled into our small, but warm and internet connected flat. This would be our home for the next week, and I was extremely grateful.