Drinking lots of water to try and head that off .... I hate that feeling. I'm typing better now than I was when I got home, so that is a good sign, especially since I had a big glass full and undiluted.
Switched to water after that glass.
I am relaxed now, and a bit sad. I was looking at photos my mom sent from a news article from in Holland. The old house that had been in her family for hundreds of years until her aunts died a few years back, burned to the ground yesterday. My grandmother grew up there (last name Guns - one of her cousins was sheriff of Yakima county - Sheriff Guns! How appropriate is that name?) It had been in the family in some form or another since at least 1600. It was their farm house, then as the town grew, and the railways came in, they sold much of the land (though still had a lot in 1983 when I was last there). They added on to the farmhouse and turned it into a 15 room bed and breakfast type place when a railway station went in across the street. The town remained small and at some point I think just after WWII, the train no longer stopped there. They turned the downstairs into a bar and cafe as there was a soccer stadium nearby. By the time I visitited in 83, my great aunts and great uncle were in their late 80's had closed the bar and hotel, but locals still dropped in for a drink, some conversation, and the week I was there, nearly 30 years ago, they came to watch the Tour-de-France with my great uncle. He had never been out of Holland, and hardly ever out of his own town. His sisters started traveling when they were in their 70's. We hiked the Bumpass Hell Trail in Lassen National Park when one of them was 80, and the trail covered in deep snow! My little old aunts still cleaned the guest rooms daily even though no one had stayed in them for decades. They raised chickens and pigs, smoked the meats, had a small Christmas Tree farm and they still hand-cut the trees themselves nearly until they died (mid 1990-s to maybe 10 yrs ago). It is sad to see the house photos from this morning. It was sold out of the family a few years ago.
One photo from before the fire - my mother said she scanned it so I suspect it must be from when she was visiting her aunts and uncle in 1998, the other were taken the morning of Feb 3. Europe is in a deep freeze now so the water from the fire-hoses froze:
That is so sad to see it now. Im sorry its hard to see a home that was truly a home look like that.
