Thank you all!

As you know, we got home safely.  Since then, we did the annual Henderson beach reunion, this time with 79 (not a typo) people, including the entire extended family save two people.  It was the first time since 2009 that our own family had been all together.

We've been repairing vehicles, doing yard work, putting things away, and all the rest.

However, I recognize that very little of this has much of a broad interest.  Raleigh, North Carolina lacks the absurdities, frustrations, comic relief and rich experiences of the central highlands of Peru and our assignment there.  This is a nice place to live, but you probably wouldn't want to visit there.

In the end, I appreciate very much your reading "Out of the Frying Pan" for the last couple of years. It gave me an outlet at times when I was approaching the end of the rope, and the opportunity to laugh at times when that was about the only reasonable alternative.

I'll continue the blog, but I harbor no delusions that it will be of interest to a lot of folks, and that's OK. Again, I thank you for hanging around this long.

Dave Henderson

Life Is Good, and that's not just a Korean appliance company

So far, so good!  We finally arrived to home in North Carolina on the 16th of July, to a clean house in good shape.  The cupboards and refrigerator looked great, but they were empty.  Quick!  Target!

A rapid stock-up on orange juice, some cereal and a couple of instant dinners, and we were good.

Paula took stock of the grounds, and found them wanting.  There was work to be done!

The microwave needed parts.

With some trepidation I pulled back the cover on my old Miata, and ...it was fine! Once again contrasting with our experiences in Peru, I had it legal again 23 minutes after entering the license plate office.

Three days after we got home, so did our stuff from Lima!  For the next several days we unpacked and tried to remember where things went.

Pretty soon, our daughter, her husband and the five grandkids arrived from Tajikistan, and we met a granddaughter we'd never seen before.  The kids helped me install a trailer hitch, and they learned how to spray paint!

And how solvents work!

They learned the utter excellence of zip ties, as we wired Paula's new minivan for a trailer.

We pulled down the canoe and a kayak and visited a nearby lake.

Canoe?  Duh!  You've gotta play "submarine" when you swamp it!

North Carolina has a great natural history museum, which held their attention surprisingly well for a couple of hours.

Especially the dinosaurs.

Afterward, they visited another important Raleigh landmark - the Krispy Kreme Donut factory!

Since 1982, we've spent a glorious week at the North Carolina coast each summer, and we've missed this as much as anything for the past five years.  Everyone in the extended family came minus two husbands, for an official count of 79 people, in seven houses, and the weather and the company were superb!  

 The card games were ruthless!

 The marine adventurers were intrepid!

The family pictures were beautiful!

 

The cousins got reacquainted,

 as did my brothers and sisters.

Twins realized they had been separated at birth!

And when it was all over, everyone parted glad to have come, and sad to leave.

What a sweet return home to North Carolina and family.
Now, the roof needs replaced, the gardens need wrestled back into shape, but all of that is OK.
We hope that you are at peace also, loved by and loving those around you.
Dave & Paula