Back home, and I've brought the clouds with me, I guess. The cool breezes slid into the area from the north a few hours after I arrived, cooling off the heat wave that had been parching Seattle since I left last Wednesday. Maki was happy to see me. She ran around nervously at the vet’s, panting and wagging her tail, greeting another dog who came in. She sat panting and staring at me all the way home in the passenger seat of the car. She’s really glad to be home.

I worked yesterday morning in San Jose with Sharon and Lucy, helping to sort through the remains of twenty-five years in the garage. Lots of the stuff had sat untouched for all twenty-five years since Tad and Lucy arrived from Quincy, back home in San Jose. Lucy gave us the lacquer boxes that she said were from her family. We dusted off the dust of 25 years from the cardboard box they were in. Should I bring them carry on back to Seattle? Yes. Sharon removed them from the cardboard box, which revealed the pine box inside that. The Pine box had Japanese on it I peeked inside that to see the black lacquer, and the deep red. Sharon tied the pine box with white cotton cord, made a carrying handle with it at the top.

Meanwhile, I went through Tad's tools in the garage. He had four pairs of tin snips, brand new. They were from the hardware store where he had worked. He had pliers and wire cutters, a big vise, and a large C-clamp. He had lots of fishing gear, too. There was a device used to pick up golf balls and deposit them in a bag. Lots of stuff. I don't know what to do with it, you take a look at it, Lucy said.

The night before (last night) Lucy came out after Sharon had gone to bed. She had a manila envelope, said she wanted to show it to me, that maybe it would make sense to me since I work in a Law library, or some such comment. She handed it to me, said it was about her place in the crypt in Honolulu next to Tad. Auntie Flo had arranged it for her. She said she had paid Auntie Flo. It also had the information about the charges for the inscription on the stone for Tad. And a letter from the engraver apologizing to Auntie Flo for a mistake they had made with the engraving. Apparently they had originally put the wrong name, Ogata instead of Kita. We had visited the Japanese cemetery where Tad's Mom had bought two prime sites sixty years before. Good planning. Cousin Gail told me the two sites were just a muddy field in the 1930s when they had been purchased. Gail with her lilting Hawaiian Japanese accent.