It seems that my visits to see my brother in Bend, Oregon are cursed. When I first visited in January, the area was experiencing record snowfall. I couldn’t see the house because six to eight feet of snow engulfed it. My current visit coincided with a record heat wave with 100° days, 20° over average highs for this time of year. And, a tap-tap-tapping on the roof that caught my attention revealed yet another unwelcome situation somehow associated with my visits here. A pair of pygmy nuthatches has excavated a hole in the chimney siding. While they’re cute to me, they’re not as cute to my brother.
After writing this blog post Saturday morning we took a drive through the Cascade Lakes area. We stopped to admire the headwaters of the Deschutes River and my brother, as boys are wont to do, tried to push over a dead tree. The tree pushed back so we ended up at Emergency and Art got stitched back together.
I know I am not really responsible for any of these occurrences, but the proximity of my visits to these unfortunate events makes me wonder if I’ll be invited back.