Sun, Water and Sand

He is the Bainbridge I love

So it has been about 3 weeks now that we have been on the island living with my parents. I am pleasantly surprised at how nice it is to have the opportunity to get to know my parents again. My Dad in particular. Here is a little picture into the person he is.

Last week he wanted to clear out the dandelions that had gone to seed (turned to puff balls) but didn't want to spread the seeds, so my mom suggested putting a garbage bag over the tops of them and cutting the stems. My dad had a better idea. He marched himself outside with a long extension cord and his beloved shop vac and sucked the tops off every one of those weeds till his garden was safe from future generations of the prolific yellow impostor.

A number of years ago my parents remodeled their kitchen and instead of spending the extra money to get fashionable appliances they waited till the original ones died before they put in new ones. So we're upstairs and the dishwasher door is locked and I said, "Oh are these dishes clean?"
My dad says, "Well you'll have to check and see."
"But the door is locked..."
"It's broken. It falls open if you don't lock it."
"Then you can finally complete the remodel and get a new dishwasher!"
"The machine is operational, it just has a broken door, and if my biggest problem in life is a perfectly good dishwasher that has a broken door I would say I'm doing all right."

Today Josh is cleaning out the storage shed on the property and separating the huge wood pile into burnable, buildable and garbage. So he asks my dad to go through the piles and make sure he hasn't "miscategorized" anything. My dad says, "Well we don't want to burn anything that is at all processed because that will affect the air quality. So put the stuff you can't burn back in the shed and I'll get rid of it the way I did the bathtub."
When my parents remodeled the upstairs bathroom they ripped out the fiberglass tub/shower and instead of spending money to haul it to the dump my dad put all the pieces in the shed and week by week broke it down and put what he could fit into his garbage can for the local pickup.

I'm discussing back pain with my dad and he says he tried really hard not to lift any of our furniture, while helping us move in, alone, and yet his back still feels strained. I asked what other activities he had recently done that could have caused this. He said he thought about that on the ferry that morning and remembered that he checked the air pressure in his tires (car) a couple of days ago. I asked how that could strain his back and he said the pump at the gas station doesn't go high enough for the recommended pressure on his tires, so he pumped them up himself, by hand, with a bike pump. He wants to make sure to get the best fuel efficiency from his car. (Josh mentioned that he has a construction grade air compressor that he could use next time.)

I'm not sure what else to say other than he may sound cheap and at times I have definitely thought that about him, but the more I think about it, he is a really good steward of the things he's been given, and is not at all afraid of what other people think of him. Living on Bainbridge Island has a way of making you want to keep up with the Jones', but not for my dad. He is a true conservationist at heart. Why pay for something you can get for free with a little hard work and patience? So forget the yuppie Bainbridge you thought you might know, or even the hippie Bainbridge you might remember, cause my dad isn't either. He is the Bainbridge I love and will always associate with home.

Peas and Carrots

Daddy says "no playing with your peas and carrots."

More old work