Barbara J. Hamby

Burning Up the Highways

I traveled into Southeast Portland on I-5 today in fairly light traffic. Had a very enjoyable lunch discussion with other alumni of the Kaiser weight loss maintenance study. Then I went to Vancouver via I-84 and I-205 on cruise control to have my taxes done. My taxes would be fairly simple were it not for the Railroad Retirement. Nothing they do is simple.

However, this year my old friend at H&R Block didn’t even charge me after figuring out that I don’t need to file returns, much less pay anything. She did insist that I come visit her next year anyway. We’ve been doing this gig for 20 or more years, so we feel like old friends even though we only see each other once a year. Because I was able to leave there by 2:20 p.m., I arrived at home thirty minutes later.

When I left home, new neighbors downstairs were just opening up their rental truck to unload furniture. I thought I’d miss all the excitement, but when I got back, he was still unloading. He has extra help now and they are finishing up with hail coming down. They have to carry everything down a flight of stairs to a basement apartment. It snowed a bit before they finally got everything out of the truck.

Another neighbor was also moving in today, but hadn’t started when I left and her movers’ truck pulled away just after I returned, so I missed out on that one. She had professionals doing the job, thus it was much faster.

For the first time in a couple of years, all the units in this four-plex/duplex corner are filled. We’re looking forward to getting acquainted with new neighbors.

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