update #3 from road and home

At the time of this writing, Jason could be within an hour or two of Anchorage. I spoke with him at 6 p.m. our time as he was nearing Tok, Alaska. He figured he had about 350 miles left and could make it all the way tonight if he stayed alert and had no vehicle trouble. He made it into Whitehorse last night on fumes, and this morning when he needed to re-fuel, the money transfer had gone through. Yay!

Our phone conversation was jutted and cryptic, and came in two installments as usual, so you folks up there will probably hear the more significant details about his trip before I will.

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Biggest news here is that Zoralee started clapping today! It was a skill that progressed over the second half of the day. She was playing the piano this afternoon, and when she'd stop, my mom cheered and clapped for her. She got the hang of that real quick, and started turning around for applause after shorter and shorter songs. Soon she was only playing a couple of notes and looking at Grandma with a grin. "You're gonna have to do more than that!" Grandma said.

Still no clapping herself, but she was digging being clapped for. Then tonight she and I were in town visiting my grandparents, and Grandpa Gene was playing his guitar and singing to her. She was bounce-dancing on her feet, then awhile on her knees, and sitting, and all at once she started clapping too. There was even enough contact to hear it! Tiny, precious little claps. It was so cool! Gosh. You catch a few firsts as a babysitter, and I've babysat a whole lot, but living to the rhythm of a growing human, your growing human, it's different. You get lulled into the song and go with it for awhile; it's normal; it's daily. And then a new guitar lick kicks in, and you think, "Ohhh, this is how the song goes. How could I have forgotten about that guitar lick?" I bet walking will be a whole new counter-melody. This stuff drops in from nowhere. I pray for stillness enough to listen to the song that is Zoralee and appreciate each part as it stacks on.

She is going to be a stellar clappist.