Hello. K’s aunt is dead; we spent several days in the ICU last week. She has been in decline for quite some time, so this wasn’t a shock, but it was nevertheless an ordeal. Especially for K’s cousin, who we’ve been trying to support throughout.

In other respects the summer has been going fine. I’ve taken on another volunteer role, this one at a legal clinic, and I’m doing a tremendous amount of filing, which is more satisfying than it might sound. My weeks are starting to feel like they have some structure and focus. I might want just a little more purposeful work in my schedule, but it’s a pretty good balance.

I’ve been browing people’s blogs using Kagi Small Web and it’s helping remind me of what the internet used to be, and still is, sometimes. It’s also been showing me a lot of pictures of gorgeous hiking trails in the UK. Perhaps that’ll be our next trip? We’ve settled into a pattern of going on an international trip once a year, when we’re well into the relentless grey of the Pacific Northwest winter. I’ve been to Wales a couple of times, many years ago, and loved it.

Did I tell you about Nicaragua? I don’t think I did. We went to Nicaragua six months ago. It was a strange and educational experience. My Spanish was much better than when we were in Oaxaca a couple of years prior, in part because I took some online lessons before this trip. We spent a lot of time with one of K’s old friends who does some humanitarian work there; we saw a gorgeous and ecologically complex mountain; we spent one night at an extraordinarily stereotypical “resort”; we went on a probably-relatively-safe zipline course; and we spent a lot of time just wandering. One of these days I’ll go through my pictures and make a real post about it.

I have a birthday soon.