Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Oliver. He was a German. Yes…that’s right….a Kraut. He was a nice little boy. He always obeyed his Mama and Papa. He made good grades in school. He had lots of friends…especially another nice little boy named Bjorn. Oliver liked to play and have fun with his friends.

But, one day Oliver began to get bored. He wanted adventure. He wanted to go out and see the world. So he decided to go to the most exciting country in the world…the United States of America. But wait! This wasn’t enough. He wanted to go to the most exciting state in the USA. There was only one obvious choice: Kansas. But, Oliver wanted even more. He had to go live with the most exciting person in the state of Kansas. Oliver was very lucky. It just so happened that he was chosen by the most exciting person in Kansas to come and spend the school year….and to attend the most exciting high school in the state of Kansas.

Oliver spent ten months living in the most exciting country, in the most exciting state, with the most exciting person and attended the most exciting high school. After ten months, Oliver had to go back home to the land of beer and sauer kraut. Oliver was very sad. And, so was his host father…..the guy who took care of him for ten months and came to love him as a son.

But, sometimes Oliver missed his Kansas home and his Kansas host dad….so he returned to Kansas to visit. Sometimes, Oliver’s host dad missed Oliver, so he traveled to Germany to visit him. This has been happening for almost twenty years. Of course, little Oliver has grown older…..while Beryl has stayed the same age. They have a special relationship. Now they are simply special friends.

There is another reason that Oliver is a “special” friend of mine. What are the chances of choosing an exchange student who shares your birthday? Yes….July 28 is the birthday of both Oliver and me. I bet this hasn’t happened very often in the exchange student history! But….it happened to us. Many people probably don’t know it……but Oliver is a few years younger than me!

This is the story of Oliver Schoeller, my exchange student during the 1996-1997 school year. Now here is the story of his most recent “homecoming”.

On the night of Saturday, February 21, I drove to Kansas City to meet Oliver at Kansas City International Airport. It was a trip that I was afraid would not take place. There were predictions of a winter storm that threatened to shut down highways….and potentially even the airport. But, as many times happens in such frantic weather prophecies, the tale was worse than the truth. It was cold, however…bitterly cold. Oliver’s airplane was due to arrive at 11:23 P.M. I was somewhat shaken when I did not see his flight listed on the arrival board. But, there was little I could do except wait. All of the ticket windows were closed. But not long before its expected arrival, it was announced that his flight had been delayed by one hour. Great! But….at least, I knew he would be there eventually. And…I knew it would be worth the wait.

Oliver drove back home….no doubt out an instinct of self-preservation…..since he knows quite well that I do not see well at night. Before we headed for home, however, we made a detour to McDonalds in Platt City….the same place where we stopped when he first came to my house in 1996….and every subsequent visit. The wind was bitterly cold, and we were motivated to get back to our warm house.

But….it seemed that we had a slight problem…..or what we were hoping was a slight problem. The temperature gauge in my car was registering above normal heating. The engine was starting to overheat. Being the cautious person that I am….and not knowing anything about cars…..and considering my car often acts like a piece of junk….I was worried. Would we have to spend the night in Platt City? Was I going to be faced with a repair bill of a few thousand dollars? We tried the obvious solution. We bought a gallon of anti-freeze/coolant. The little tank that contains the fluid was almost empty. I am somewhat paranoid when it comes to the honesty of mechanics. I had just had the oil changed two days before….and they are supposed to check the levels of all the fluids. Did they intentionally remove some of the fluid…..knowing that the car would overheat? Would they be that devious? Would they take advantage of a person they know is almost totally naïve about cars? I would prefer to think they did not…..but: Who knows?

One good thing about Oliver’s visit was the fact that when we arrived back home at around 2:30 A.M., I didn’t have to waste time giving him a tour of the house. He had already lived here for 10 months….and had come back for at least two visits. So basically, we followed our usual routine: We sat down, opened a couple beers, and started talking.

No matter if Oliver is visiting me….or I am visiting him in Berlin or Cologne….time has a way of slipping away. In Germany we usually find ourselves in a friendly neighborhood bar, sipping a few beverages….and talking. Most bars in Berlin are open all night….and we are usually there to keep them company and also to provide our token amount of business. Bars in Berlin are relaxed, inviting establishments…..places where people are welcome to sit and talk and drink all night….if they so desire. And, many times, that is what we do. We don’t do it intentionally….say: “We are going to stay here until 6:00 A.M.” Time just sort of slips away….and before we know it, we are going back to our apartment about the same time as most people are getting out of bed.

This pattern seems to prevail at home, too. The emphasis is always on talking; the drinking only keeps our throats from getting too dry.

Did you ever sit down with somebody who just sat there? No matter how you tried to start a conversation…..nothing worked. You start to wonder: Is the person too shy? Is he not very bright? Is he afraid to express his opinions? Does he speak English? Is he deaf? This never happens when Oliver and I are together, Maybe it is because we are none of those things. Well….both of us are a little bit shy, maybe….but not when it is only the two of us. But….we do not have to worry about those other reasons. Yes…..both of us are bright. We are not afraid of expressing our opinions and thoughts. We both speak English. And….neither of us is deaf. Well….I am probably a little bit more deaf than he is…..but….I am also older. In any case, finding something to talk about has never been a problem…..even if it caused a severe lack of sleep during the times we visit each other.

Our days rarely began before 11:00 A.M. or noon….except on our occasional travel days.  So planning something to do in the morning was a problem we didn’t have to worry about.

When I am at home alone, I eat only two meals a day. And they are definitely not the kind of gourmet meals that I would serve to a guest.  Basically, Oliver was in charge of preparing lunch…..which consisted mainly of some sort of sandwich. Early in his visit, we bought a little ceramic skillet which can be used to bake eggs in the microwave oven…..or whatever happens in a microwave oven. We made extensive use of it. On more than one occasion Oliver tried to convince me that I was trying to starve him…..deprive him of sufficient amounts of food. He even claimed that he had actually lost weight while at my house. Wow….I wish I could make that claim!

During his ten day visit, I prepared three sumptuous meals….well, actually two meals. One night we had a picnic outside on the patio in the Arctic weather. But, as always, if the fire is hot enough….and if you wear enough warm clothing….it is very comfortable and pleasant….sitting in front of the roaring fire….baking hamburgers….eating chips and dip….and drinking a cold beverage….listening to our teeth chattering. And, it is always fun to make the neighbors wonder if the person living in the next house to the east of them is crazy. On this particular night, the coyotes were howling in the distance, and we could hear the hoot of an old owl somewhere in the darkness. And……we could also hear the warm wood stove in the living room calling to us: “Come back inside, you morons.”

The other two night, we feasted on two of my specialties. (I only know how to make three things.) One night I prepared my famous….and high delicious….burritos. The other night, I cooked up a pan of chili. For those of you who really know how to cook, you will recognize immediately that neither of these recipes takes a lot of imagination or effort. Oliver asked me to write down the recipe for the chili. I don’t even have a recipe. I just brown some hamburger and start adding stuff. Fortunately…or miraculously…it always ends up tasting pretty good.

 

But, mainly, we depended on our favorite all-you-can-eat buffets in Topeka for our evening meals: The Golden Corral, Coyote Canyon, and Chow Time. Neither of us left there feeling any hunger pangs. And, for good measure, we ate lunch at the Globe Restaurant…an Indian buffet…one day with a friend of mine. And….our all-important visit to the Dairy Queen. This was probably more important to me that it was to Oliver…..since I restrict myself to one trip to the Dairy Queen each year. (Although this year I made two trips.)

Oliver also got his wish to go to an American steak house and eat. Oh….I suppose I would have taken him to one…..if he insisted. But, the truth of the matter is: I don’t particularly like steak. Steak is only hamburger that has not been ground up yet. Taking a look at one of their menus is enough to make me lose my appetite! Their inflated prices are merely a ruse to disguise the fact that you can get almost the same nutritional value from a couple Big Macs, some french fries and a salad. I think it must be the “snob appeal” that attracts most people.

“Oh…guess where I ate last night? A Steak House. Of course, I paid ten times what it was worth…..and ingested ten times more cholesterol than is healthy for any human being. But, never mind all that….I ate at a ‘Steak House’. Aren’t I special?”

But, on the other hand…..we didn’t pay for it. We went as guests of my brothers. Thinking back on it now…..No, we probably wouldn’t have gone if they hadn’t invited us.

OK…..now what do you think? Do you see a pattern of systematic starvation here? Did Oliver really lose weight while he was here? And….if he did…..whose fault was it? Next year, we will eat all of our meals at the Golden Corral…..and I will send him back to Germany needing to buy larger clothing.

While we were planning for Oliver’s trip, I ask him if he would help me do two or three little jobs around the house that needed to be done. Yes….I would have paid my high school helper to do them. But, Oliver was more than eager to do anything he could to simplify my life. “I really hate for you to come all the way to see me….and then I just make you my little slave,” I told him.

“Not a problem,” he said. “Just leave everything, and I will help you do it.”

Using the word “slave” was a big mistake! And, knowing Oliver as well as I do, I should have realized that before used it. “Stop and think, Beryl!”

For the remainder of the time he spent at my house, he never ceased to remind me of it. But……Yeah….now that I think about it, he was a pretty good “slave”. And, we accomplished some pretty neat stuff while he was here.

One of the most constructive….and fun….things we did was to construct a bird feeder. In some of the past years while I have lived here, I merely threw bird seed on the ground, hoping birds would come around and take advantage of the free food. Back in those days, I had hardly any trees. There weren’t many birds around to feast on the banquet I had laid out for them. And, after a while, it would inevitably rain…and then the seed would pretty much wash away. My attempts at establishing a bird buffet failed. Maybe I failed to promote it or advertise it aggressively enough. But, at any rate, I closed it down because of a lack of interest on the part of the birds.

Now….several years later, I have a small forest of trees growing in the yard beside my house….thanks to a company who sells fast-growing trees….and my own faithful devotion to caring for them the summer I planted them. Now there seems to be an abundance of birds that make this area their home….or at least, their vacation destination.

For quite a while, I had wanted to make a bird feeder….a large bird feeder….to hang in the yard to attract birds. This feeder would have a roof to protect it from the rain…..and it would be large enough to accommodate several birds at one time.

Over the past few weeks I had formulated a plan in my mind. Now I only needed somebody to help me….sort of a carpenter’s helper. Non-union, of course. (Although I am a firm believer in labor unions!) Oliver readily volunteered to help. So, armed with my mental plan and vision of the bird feeder I wanted to build, we drove to the lumber yard in Oskaloosa and bought the necessary lumber that I did not have lying around my garage or storage shed.

The feeder is one of simple design. Let’s call it a minimalistic design….since it a type of architecture. And….after all it is just a bird feeder…..and I doubt if the birds are really concerned with its design. On each of the four corners there is a 2×2 support post….each twelve inches high. In the center there are three support columns….each of which are 16 inches in length. This gives the roof a four inch pitch. Since we had no miter saw, we simply joined the two pieces of the roof together as well as we could…..and covered the roof with some spare shingles that we found in the tool shed. The bird feeder is painted red, white and blue…..the colors I paint almost everything. Most people…..and my neighbors in particular…..think I use these colors because they are K.U. colors. Actually, I use them because I like these colors….and because they are the colors of our flag.

Oliver had not had a lot of experience using an electric saw before, so I found it prudent on my part to do all of the sawing. If there was a finger or a hand to be cut off….it may as well be mine. And I was hoping if such a disaster happened….it would be my left hand. No…..I have done this too many times to have an accident. I am an old pro when it comes to using an electric saw.

I explained the basic concept of the design to Oliver…..and he understood quite quickly what our mission was. After I cut the plywood for the roof and the floor, I turned the project over to Oliver. And….I became the carpenter’s helper. The picnic table….and a couple old saw horses….were our workbench. Because of the limited facilities I have, we met with a few logistical problems….but Oliver came up with clever….if not ingenious….solutions to all the obstacles…..putting his degree in engineering to good use.

This was the first time Oliver had done anything like this…..and I think he found it to be pretty interesting. Yeah….I think he even had fun. The bird feeder looked pretty good….at least to us! I didn’t get it hung up in a tree….and I didn’t get it painted….until after Oliver had gone back to Germany. But….we both agreed: Our project was a success.

So….what is the moral of this story? If you are going to be a “slave”……you may as well have fun doing it.

Now that the bird feeder is in place….and now that it is painted…. all we have to do is wait and see if the birds will eat from it. But, I believe the famous line from the movie “Field of Dreams”: If You Build It….They Will Come!

I won’t even bother to tell the rest of the ways Oliver made life more comfortable for me. Things like do all of the night driving. Move a ton of green wood from the garage to the outside. Help me with my cell phone and computer. Start the fire when it went out. Now…..Do you see why I missed him when he had to go back to Germany?

While Oliver was here, I took a humongous step into the unknown (for ME)…..into the vast world of the unexplored (for ME)….that colossal world that was waiting for ME to explore. If you wonder why I am emphasizing the word ME…..it is because in the realm of technology, I tend to lag about five or ten years behind the rest of the world. At any rate, I bought my first GPS system….with the help of Oliver, of course.

I am almost ashamed to admit it…. especially after spending so many years belittling them and poking fun at the people who use them. After all, I know how to read a map. I have been doing it successfully now for many years…..and I have never gotten seriously lost. I mean…..isn’t using a GPS the lazy way to do things? Doesn’t this take some of the satisfaction out of planning a trip? Doesn’t it subtract some of the joy of the unknown….rob a person of some of the mystery of “Will we make it there without getting lost?”

Nevertheless, I relented to peer pressure and buckled under to the prevailing social customs and accepted technology of today.

Actually…..most….if not all…of the credit for using it can be accredited to Oliver. He is the one who set it up for me. He is the one who read the directions on how to use it. He is the one who typed in all the addresses. He is the one who made a rather futile effort to provide an orientation for me…..to demonstrate its use….to coach me on how to use it. As Oliver will no doubt verify…..he more or less failed in his mission. But, at least, now I can brag with the best of them and say I have a GPS.

Why did I take this rather radical (for ME) step…..and in effect admitting that I was wrong about the value of owning a GPS? Oliver and I had originally planned to spend a few days driving aimlessly around the state of Colorado….just sightseeing….taking advantage of pleasures Colorado has to offer….and camping in KOA camping cabins at night.

The last time Oliver and I went to Colorado was in the summer of 1999. We had big plans of just roaming around at random…..seeing as much as we could…..and sitting around a big campfire at night. Unfortunately, it rained every single day…..and especially night….we were there. Although we did have a great time, we had to sleep in motels at night….and we never had the opportunity to camp out. Not even for one night.

We had planned to make up for that on this trip. Just roam around….with the help of our trusty little GPS….stay in a KOA cabin at night….sit around a campfire….fix our supper….and enjoy the legal pleasures of Colorado. Sure…we knew that it would probably be cold. But, that was nothing that some warm clothing and a roaring fire couldn’t remedy. Sadly, though, we had not counted on the snow. Much of Colorado was experiencing near blizzard conditions…..and even our GPS couldn’t overcome that little obstacle.

As I mentioned earlier, however, we did take short trip to the farm of a friend of mine, Sam, over in east-central Kansas. We could have easily made it there without the help of the GPS….but now that we had it…..why not use it? So…..Oliver typed the address….and we dutifully followed the GPS woman’s expert directions. Good News! We made it.

As I mentioned earlier, it was a bitterly cold day…made to seem even colder by the brisk north wind. And, Oliver was woefully under-dressed. We only stayed for a couple hours. Even in that short time, I think Oliver enjoyed himself….and learned a few things about grafting trees. While we were there, Oliver contributed some more of his famous “slave labor”. He helped Sam install a bird house….while I looked on and took pictures. This seemed appropriate. Oliver is an engineer. I am a photographer. Oliver was not dressed warmly….so the work helped keep him warm, whereas I was dressed like an Eskimo.

One of the interesting features of Sam’s farm is the small cemetery which adjoins his property. Although I had been to the farm a couple times previously, I had never taken the time to take a close look at it. It is a small family cemetery, devoted to a family who lived in the era in the mid-1800’s…..around the time of our War Between the States….or Civil War. The grave stones were engraved with dates from that era. Many of the markers are in remarkably good shape, considering they are more than one hundred and fifty years old.

Oliver agreed that the farm, located in a beautiful setting with small forests of trees, and gently rolling hills…..and also sufficient flat land for farming….would make an ideal setting for a country home….. Idyllic, as the Germans like to say.

And…..I might add….the GPS got us back home safely.

Like most of Oliver’s trips to my house…our house….this one was also mostly a trip of nostalgia. Deja vu….shall we say. We try to do a lot of the things he did during the ten months he lived here. We made a couple trips to the Golden Corral, a couple trips to the Dairy Queen. We took five minutes and took a tour of Valley Falls….looking at all of the old familiar landmarks in the city. Broadway, the school, the swimming pool, the football field, the two baseball fields, the post office. Yes….I think I have about named all of them. We went to Laurie, my hair dresser for the past twenty-five years or so, and we both got hair cuts.

Of course, we went to Topeka….our “big city”. We looked at Lake Shawnee. Drove up and down Kansas Avenue…..and of course, Wanamaker….the street “where it all happens”…..even back then. I introduced him to my…..now “our”….favorite bar, Terry’s Bar and Grill. We ate lunch on a Friday with my Sam. We went to an Indian buffet, which was new to Oliver…..but which he liked. On the Sunday night before he left, we strolled through the almost-deserted West Ridge Mall…..very different than the bustling crowds when he was here.

Late one afternoon, we walked around the State Capitol Building. Well…part way around, anyway. It was a frigid cold afternoon. And, let’s be honest: Those Germans just aren’t as tough as we Kansans. So we cut the walk a little short. No…honestly, it WAS very cold. And, we seemed to be the only people stupid enough to be out “sightseeing”.

Interesting for me…..but maybe not so much for Oliver…..was a quick drive-by inspection of a town-house complex that I hope will be my home some day. Oliver encouraged me to stop and ask for a tour of one of the town homes, but maybe it is still a little too early to be requesting a tour. I am planning to stick around the ranch for another two or three years…..before I start inviting him to come visit me in a town house in Topeka. However, when that time finally arrives, Oliver will not have to worry about carrying firewood, building fires is a stove, constructing bird feeders…. It will be new experience for me…..and him..

Of course, anybody who lives around there…..or has lived around here in the past….will understand that there are not a lot of new discoveries to be made in this area. Everything stays fairly predictable. It is sort of like an old shoe. They last a long time…..and the longer you wear them, the more comfortable they become. I think this may describe how Oliver feels when he come back “home”.

We also continued another custom of past years: We measured Oliver. And, we found that he has grown a full inch since the last time he was measured. On the bathroom door, you will find the measurements of all of my former exchange students….and some of my other guests. One of those guests was Oliver’s older brother, Michael, who came to visit in 1997. He is a couple or three inches taller than Oliver. But….Oliver is taller than all of the other former students. Six feet five inches? I think that is correct.

But….like they say: You can’t have everything. So there were some disappointments. Some things were rather deja…not so….vu.

One afternoon, shortly after he arrived, Oliver and I set out looking for an old abandoned missile base which was constructed on some land south of Valley Falls. I had never been there before, but I had heard other people who had been there talk about it. Oliver was eager to see it…..and so was I. At times, I have considered buying an old abandoned missile base, such as this one, and converting it into an underground home. I have seen pictures of other missile bases that are now being used as homes….and they are awesome. Sound proof. Weather proof. Fire proof. Burglar proof. I am ready to buy one. The only thing holding me back is the $550,000 price tag.

The location of the old missile base was not difficult to find. It was exactly where everybody had said it was…..maybe a half mile off K-4 Highway. As luck would have it, though…..we reached a point where the road ended…or rather was blocked by a double or triple locked iron gate…..on which were multiple warnings and threats to Stop…Stay Out…No Trespassing….Do Not Enter….. I think they were trying to tell us something. Admitting defeat, we turned around and made our way back to the highway. Mission failed.

Almost every winter, American bald eagles nest in the dense trees around many of the lakes and reservoirs in northeast Kansas. They have been spotted on many occasions at Lake Perry…..at Paradise Point. In fact, I have seen them. I have even taken pictures of them. On the day we drove to Lake Perry, we were not so fortunate. We didn’t get out and hike through the trees…..but from the roads, no eagles were visible. Spotting and photographing a bald eagle had been high on our priority list. But, actually seeing one of these magnificent birds is never guaranteed. In fact, it is probably more a stoke of good luck more than anything else. Whenever an American Bald Eagle is spotted, it usually makes the news. They are definitely around….but seeing one is sort of like playing the lottery. You have to be lucky.

The trip to Paradise Point was not wasted. This is the location where Oliver learned to drive a car. It is the place where I almost had a nervous breakdown teaching him to drive a car. Almost every Sunday afternoon, we could be found at Paradise Point…..Oliver behind the steering wheel…..me in the passenger seat. In those days, all of my cars had standard transmissions. In the case of the teal colored Hyundai that Oliver learned to drive…..a 5 speed.

There is no doubt that learning to shift gears is by far the most difficult concept to learn for a beginning driver. Paradise Point was an excellent “classroom”. Isolated. Very little traffic. A variety of terrains. Straight roads. Circular loops. Even a couple stop signs. And…..there are the hills! Have you ever tried to explain to a beginning driver how to shift gears when starting from a stand still….on flat ground? It is difficult. Now…..have you ever tried to explain to a beginning driver how to shift gears from a stand-still position on a hill?? Or to stop the car and start it again on a hill?

“Stop!” “Let the clutch out slowly…..no, no….slowly!” “Now give it a little bit of gas. Keep letting the clutch out.” “Not so much gas!” Clank! Thunk! The engine dies. So….you start over again. Eventually, the new driver gets the idea. It just sort comes to him….like turning on a light in the brain. Oliver learned. And….that is probably the time when I started getting my gray hair. Anyway……he learned….and this became our favorite training course…..many Sunday afternoons.

So, Paradise Point is a place that Oliver knows well. Even though we didn’t spot any eagles that day, he got to take a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane.

The third major bummer was….I think….the fact that we didn’t get to take a trip. Both of us had looked forward to taking a trip to Colorado. But, as I explained earlier…. the weather won out this time. But….the good thing: Colorado will still be there the next time he comes to visit.

The bitterly cold, windy weather….and then the snow on the final weekend….sort of threw a wet blanket….a cold wet blanket….on some other nostalgic plans we had made. For example, we didn’t make it to Lawrence….nor did we get to go to church. But, those were minor details compared to the fun and delight of merely getting to enjoy Oliver’s companionship for a few days.

Normally, I am not the sort of person who has a “favorite this” or a “favorite that”. Why limit myself to favoring one thing over another. I probably have twenty or thirty “favorite” songs. As for a favorite food: Just put some food in front of me…..and it is probably one of my “favorites”. A favorite TV show? Although most of the shows on TV today are trash, I like to watch ten or twelve of them whenever I can. My favorite movie? Ask any of my German students. No matter what movie is playing…..I am going to fall asleep.

However….if I were going to choose my favorite thing about Oliver’s visit…..aside from the simple pleasure of having in around…..it would be a gift that he made for me the Saturday night before he went back home.

It was either the night…or morning….that he arrived, or maybe it was the following day, that he told me he had brought something with him……and that we were going to work together on a project he had in mind. He seemed rather excited about it.

“Just wait and see,” he said mysteriously. “It’s going to be fun. You’re going to like it.”

I always get suspicious about “surprises”. I like to always know in advance what is going to happen. I don’t like for people to figuratively jump out from behind trees and startle me. After Oliver observed the proper period of keeping me in suspense…..making me wonder what this secretive project might be…..letting my imagination swing back and forth like a trapeze  artist high above the ground…..with no safety net….. He finally told me that we were going to paint a picture together.

My immediate reaction was, “Yeah…right. And what have you been smoking?” The zenith of my talent in drawing is to construct stick figures. And, even then, I would probably mess them up. However, Oliver brushed off my protests and professed to have full confidence in my artistic abilities. Of course, he secretly knew the limited extent of my talent….but, as usual….he was being nice.

On the final Saturday night before he returned to Stuttgart…..a snowy night when were were pretty much snowed in at home…..Oliver got out the canvass and the acrylic paints he had brought with him.

Knowing that I would be of little or no help to him in the actual painting, Oliver and I agreed that I would make a contribution by making suggestions to him as he painted the picture. Fair enough. I am good at giving advice. We found a small square of wood that had once been a book shelf which he used as his easel…..and Oliver began to work his creative genius.

Oliver’s choice as subject matter for the picture was to paint a lake scene at dusk, with mountains and forests in the background. That having been decided, he sat down, mixed some paint and started. Yeah…. He started to paint. Just like that. No rough sketch. No picture to copy. No picture to fill in. Just a blank square of canvass.

As he concentrated on painting, I did something. Although I don’t remember exactly what it was. Probably watch TV….or read….or take a nap. As he neared the completion of the picture, he held it up and asked what I thought. This is where my expert advice….my artistic contribution….to the project became valuable. This is where I put my stamp on the painting. This was what made it “Our” painting.

“Why don’t you put a little cabin on the edge of the lake? Maybe some lights in the windows? What about a moon…..with the moonlight shimmering on the lake?”

 

So…..Oliver added a cabin with lights in the windows….a nice moon with moonlight shimmering on the lake. Just like that.

“What about a little boat on the lake? Or some colorful flowers in the foreground?”  And…..no sooner suggested….it was done.

For me, the end result….the picture of the lake and the mountains and the forest and the little cabin and the bright moon….and the flowers…..was nothing short of a masterpiece. Certainly a masterpiece to me. It has already taken its permanent place among the three other paintings Oliver has given me in past years….hanging on the wall in my front room for everybody to admire.

It is difficult to explain the intangible delight of the ten days Oliver spent visiting me. But, this painting….along with the red, white and blue bird feeder….are visual reminders of Oliver’s visit and of the fun we had together.

On Sunday, the weather took an unexpected turn for the better. The temperature warmed, the snow melted, the sun shone again. We ate one final meal at the Golden Corral…..had one more drink at Terry’s Bar and Grill. And….then, suddenly, it seemed….Oliver’s short sojourn at the Darrah Ranch had ended. But….it is never “Good-Bye”……only “See You Later.” And…..maybe next time it will be on our birthday.