I Feel Like Sharing Today.... Nothing Important Just Conversation

[Guest guest]

I am never sure when to start a new topic or just keep tagging on to an old one so I hope that starting this is ok.

, thank you for responding about the "Twighlite...or Twighlight" book series. I thought you might like to hear whats happened to the town since we became popular for vampires ..lol

Before Myers came here the town was dying because of the loss of the logging industry. The town leaders tried everything to drum up a tourist industry but because we receive an average of 140 inches of rain a year its really not a great place for campers. We are also a very isolated town. we have to travel 60 miles NE to the city of Port Angeles or 103 miles south to Hoquiam/Aberdeen. We have one stop light in town and its the only one for 106 miles of highway 101. We have one store, a few gas stations, a few resteraunts, and one subway sandwhich stop. There are no chain stores or fast food other than that one. There are 3 banks in town and a few goverment offices that open a few days a week so we don't have to travel to renew our drivers license and such. We have a medium security prison about 30 miles away and a hospital, and school that graduates about 50 to 80 kids a year. We really are small town america.

Now the town is busy all the time, the guest books in the different stores show people visiting from all over the world....australia, china, Europe....the town now has a few stores that cater to the readers of tthe books and the movie, one store even bought its own tour bus and takes tourists around to the different sites. The motels show no vacancy signs most nights, and many people must not mind the rain because the campgrounds are fuller than i ever remember. On a daily basis you can see people standing in front of the welcome o Forks sign getting their picture taken or in front of the hospital sign. LOL since I haven't read the books I really don't know why they are standing there having pictures taken.

All and all the series has taken the town by surprise and pleased the town leaders and the merchants. For the rest of us that have been raised here, I guess we enjoy seeing the people fill the streets and enjoying the area, it brings back a taste of the old days when the town was always bustling with business...now instead of the business being logging its tourism...but its keeping a few jobs and many of us amused.

I wouldn't mind waking up to sun, sun, sun like you do...in fact i would love it. I can't breath as well in hot tempertures though. As for forced early retirement its been a very hard transition for me. My 2 girls had just been gone about 2 to 3 years and I was feeling the empty nest syndrom. I pulled myself together and starting planning to fill life with my work in mental health and spending time at the beach and in my yard and looking forward to traveling when i retired. then one day my world turned upside down, i found myself in a hospital because of pulmonary emboli and further testing and a few months later learned I was diagnosed with DIP.....which of course all my relatives and friends said they always knew I was anyway lol. Anyhow, now I find myself retired, little energy for doing much, I am depressed and anxious, trying to educate family and friends about my disease and wondering what is to come. I see a pulmonary dr who is great, she tells me i will need to have a lung transplant but first i have some more weight to lose. I think the closer I get to the weight the worse i get about eating things i know aren't good for me, kind of a way of postponing the unknown. i need to talk to her about that. All in all I do my best to stay optimistic, enjoy being able to sleep in everyday, love not having the stress of my job , and feel lucky to be able to spend much more time with my parents and my kids and grandchild. I have always believed if we look hard enough there is always a silver lining in every cloud.

Oh yeah, my husband has been forced into early retirement also..in april 2007 he was in a very serious electrical explosion where he received 2nd and 3rd degree burns to his face, neck, hands and fore arms. then in April 2008 he lost his left arm at the shoulder while working on a greenchain that he was repairing. He was a millwright for a lumber and shingle mill. He has a wonderful attitude and is dealing with the loss better than i know i could. Both of us have had to adjust to not only not working but into being in eachother's hair constantly...we thought we had years before we would be spending so much time together lol. Pleasantly surprising we have found out that we really do like eachother and that after 33 years of marriage we are looking forward to spending another 33 years or more with eachother and in eachothers hair!

Wow.......i can't believe i had so much to say...lol i think its time for me to hush up for awhile LOL

Theresa