Category Archives: Food

Happy Birthday To Me, And Other Stuff

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Diane and I took a short trip to the beach last week so the dog would quit whining. Ziva pointed out that we have this perfectly good RV and she would really like to visit the beach. Normally we ignore her when she acts up like this, but this time she made a lot of sense. So, Diane made reservations at Cape Lookout State Park near Tillamook, OR where, in my opinion, the best cheese in the world is made. I suspect there are folks all over the world who will object to that bold statement, and that’s OK. It’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it.

Cape Lookout is located a very short walk from the beach which is the appeal for those of us who do not live in fear of tsunamis. Should one of those happen, anyone at that location would be goners for sure. According to Allen, one of my neighbors, Cape Lookout is situation on the Cascadia Subduction Zone meaning there was a chance we may not be returning home. Yes, that could happen due to a severe tsunami. It could also happen if I fell asleep while driving the RV along a very narrow road at 85 mph.

Fortunately, neither of those events happened so we had a nice couple of days at the beach and a safe drive home. Ziva was disappointed that we didn’t stay longer but didn’t get nasty about it. That was good because we humans on this trip had to endure three days of fairly dreary weather (no sun) in a location that didn’t have even the glimmer of a southern exposure (no satellite signal). Consequently, we had to take some long walks and actually talk with each other when not reading books. It was awful. So, we came home.

That’s a lie, of course. We enjoy our time together no matter where we are, what the weather’s like, or if we wind up with a spot in the park that can’t ‘see’ the southern sky.

Considering the weather, and the fact that I had to turn down a golf date for Tuesday (tomorrow) Diane gave it some thought and decided that we needed to return early so I could go golfing with the boys. I thought that was very considerate of her. I think she did it for my birthday, which was yesterday, the same day as George Gobel who pointed out that, “If it weren’t for electricity, we’d all be watching television by candlelight.”

Not far from Cape Lookout is Happy Camp, a place we visited a long time ago with one of the travel trailers we used to have. At that time, the parking spots were right next to the water making beach access as simple as stepping out of the trailer. It’s not that way any longer.

Not many people live there.

One of our side trips was to Cape Meares Lighthouse which is near Cape Lookout State Park. We found this tree at the end of a 1/4 mile path inside the park.

A few steps beyond the tree revealed this view of the coast.

The white spattered cliff is home for a variety of birds who inhabit the area.

Ziva during a brief playful moment on Cape Lookout beach. The tide was going out. At its highest, the water splashed about halfway up the rocks.

When the tide goes out, it goes a long way. The point of land in the distance is Cape Meares.

This is closer to home, at Pixie Park in Columbia City, Oregon. Normally there are steps down to a beach beyond the railing. The Columbia River is running quite high right now. This is where we come to watch ships transiting the river.

Proof that the river is very high is that we can see the ships from our house. This is the Carnival Legend cruise ship heading down stream on its way to new adventures after receiving a $65 million dollar upgrade at Swan Island. Normally we would not be able to see this from home..

Gotta quit now and clean up because Diane’s cooking supper. I need to clean up because I actually did some outside work whacking down a bunch of grass and yanking out a couple of bushes that I killed a while back. I’m not allowed to smell like grass clippings inside the house.

Later.

It’s Been Busy Here

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I just checked my calendar and discovered why I normally add ‘stuff’ more often than once every couple of weeks. Generally that isn’t a problem because we’re usually not very busy. Including today, here are the significant ‘things’ that happened over the past 16 days:

4/24 – Our annual Anniversary trip ended this day when we arrived safely home from Bayview State Park, Washington. In case you missed my previous post, this was our 50th. I’m surprised that she let me live this long and told her so. Since she didn’t respond right away, I suspect she’s surprised, too. I thanked her for my longevity. On a previous anniversary trip to NW Washington we arrived 2 days after they lopped off all the tulip tops in all the tulip fields. We had no idea they did this so it was a real downer. This year we arrived in time to take it all in …

4/25 – Trip to Best Buy to retrieve Diane’s repaired computer that we left with them before we took our journey. They had it fixed before we reached our destination and told me so. So, it was kinda funny that when I went to pick it up, it didn’t work. I couldn’t log in to it. Neither could the Geek Guy. So, I sat there while they went completely through the process of reinstalling Windows 10 and all the subsequent updates needed to get it current. It took two hours. I didn’t take a photo of Diane’s computer but you can trust me that it works nicely and it now has a cute little backup hard drive connected.

4/26 – Ruth arrived from Connecticut to join us for our 50th anniversary party where we planned to renew our vows. Ruth is our Sister-In-Law who was married to my older brother, Lyle, who is no longer physically with us. I have a photo of him on my desk that was used at his funeral so I see him every day. Ruth is staying with us for two weeks and was assigned to sleep in Jeran’s and Gilligan’s bedroom because it only has a twin bed. Our other party guests are couples which dictates the need for larger beds.

4/27 – Jack & Wynette arrived from Arizona to also join in our 50th celebration. They drove day and night to arrive on time and we were very happy to see our old pickup truck. You may remember that we swapped vehicles a few posts back. Jack is my brother and won the right to sleep in Diane’s and My bedroom simply because they arrived before Brother Jim and wife Donna. Then, Diane and I moved to the basement and made our beds on the sofas down there. Turns out they were pretty comfortable.

4/28 – Jim & Donna arrived from Idaho. They won a 4 day stay in Lydia’s, Baylee’s, and Jerrie’s bedroom because it has a queen bed. Their arrival signaled the end to our house guest for the near future. We loved having all the brothers and sisters with us because it doesn’t happen nearly often enough. We’re a little bit too spread out in the country.

4/29 – Diane and I renewed our marriage vows with a short service in the afternoon, after our normal Sunday morning service. Lots of friends and family showed up and I’m afraid I didn’t get around to talk with all of them during the course of this celebration. I was too busy eating. So, for those of you I may have missed, please forgive me. If you want to stop by the house sometime, we have plenty of turkey and ham left.

This is us and most of the grand kids.

Our daughter, Jennifer, and son, Jeffrey, took the role of Bride’s Maid and Best Man. I think they had a good time.

We even had a beautiful wedding cake thanks to Jennifer. She has a cake-baking friend. 

Unlike the first marriage, in 1968, Diane tempted fate and tried to smash some cake into my face. She was moderately successful, as was I. I’ve always wanted to do that.

This is pretty much all of us. We were missing some cousins (Debbie and Roger) who could have joined us but probably thought it would be better to not have a permanent record of our association. That’s OK. I’ll leave it to you to figure out who’s who.

The 2nd wedding was presided over by our good friend, Carolann, who lives part time in an old (1989) Winnebago that her husband, Terry, got from our other good friends, Les and Sofie, because they got a new Winnebago and decided they no longer needed three of them. They kept Wilbur, their very nice 1972 rig. It’s complicated. It’s a fun club (Classic Winnebagos) with fun people who have amazing skills and interesting backgrounds.

We also had attendees from our old PT Cruiser Club with whom we’ve been cruising since 2000. And, there were high school classmates who still talk to me. We even play golf. It was great to see everyone.

Although gifts were not encouraged, some were presented and gratefully accepted. Some were monetary in the form of $50 bills, and one notable pile of 50 $1 bills, in addition to this marvelous framed street sign from our USS Cleveland shipmates, Gary & Cindy:

4/30 – Baylee Jean Marie Cate celebrated her 9th birthday.  

Since we had a lot of exceptional cake left over from the day before, we used it and some candles to have a little party.

5/1 – Daniel’s Birthday. He’s getting closer to middle age all the time even though he still looks like a kid to me. He’s only 43. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be a secret, or not, but don’t tell him you got that info from me. That escalated age happened very quickly over the course of the last 20 something years. Daniel single-handedly runs one of the many Intel campuses in Hillsboro. If it wasn’t for him, your computer wouldn’t work. That may, or may not, be true.

5/2 – Jim & Donna left which meant Diane and I could have moved out of the basement, but we didn’t. Turns out we were pretty comfortable down there, and we didn’t want to make the vacated bed. So, we stayed in the dungeon with all the dogs. And the cat. Probably a bunch of spiders, too. It was sad to see them go because we don’t often have the opportunity for the whole (remaining) family to gather and visit. There will be more, I’m sure.

5/3 – Sarah Visited. Sarah is Ruth’s and Lyle’s granddaughter who moved to Hillsboro from Connecticut a couple of years ago. She’s the one on the left in the following photo. Ruth is on the right. Diane and Lydia are in the middle. We had lunch at the Klondike then took her on a scenic trip around St. Helens, stopping at Lydia’s place of work so she and Sarah could look at each other live for the first time. It’s good to know who your cousins are. It was good to see Sarah and especially good for Ruth to see her Granddaughter. If she looks familiar to you, you probably had open heart surgery at St. Vincent’s. She’s the nurse who is totally in charge of all the doctors and nurses at St. Vincent’s who do that kind of stuff. She’s pretty special. I’m sure most of that is true, especially the “pretty special” part.

5/4 – Dinner @ Elks with Jack, Wynette, Ruth – Jack & Wynette took us all to the St. Helens Elks club for dinner and it was excellent. I didn’t take any photos there because it was dark, but you know who all those people are. One of them, at an adjacent table, is a lady who used to share a seat with me on the bus to Portland when I was still working. Hadn’t seen her in 8 years. The rest of us had a great time visiting, something we don’t get to do as a group nearly often enough.

Earlier in the day, Lydia brought her year old Rottweiler puppy to the house for a last visit. Sadly, he had a spinal deformity that caused him to fall all the time and it can’t be repaired. Lydia and family have been hoping he would grow out of it and thrive, but that didn’t happen, so he was released from the strings that trapped him in a malfunctioning body. Lydia and Ceiarra spent the day taking him around to visit friends, then to the beach, and out for an ice cream cone before the appointed time for departure. He was well-loved and will be missed a great deal.

5/5 – Family dinner at home – pork roast and tiny taters by Ruth and associates. Sadly, Daniel, Cedric, and Ceiarra were missing due to scheduling conflicts. We missed them, but we ate anyway. There was a report that the pork was a little dry because I was left home, alone, without proper instructions or supervision, while Diane and Ruth toured Portland in search of Diane’s almost 50-year-old sewing machine that was at the Sewing Machine Hospital of Portland. We delivered it to them before departing on our Anniversary Trip to Bayview State Park. It was gratifying to learn that they had successfully resuscitated the machine. We had doubts.

5/6 – Jack & Wynette departed on the first leg of their journey back to Arizona. We were sad to see the pickup go, as well as it occupants, and wished them safe travels along the winding road home. One of these days we will be visiting them in Arizona. Really, we will. Looking at the photo, I see a band-aid on my left thumb so this must have been the day, before dinner, when I was brutally attacked by Dexter, the dog next door. Actually, there was an altercation between Panzee and the neighbor’s giant black lab that prompted me to insert myself into the middle of that dog fight. Probably not a smart thing to do, but I did it anyway. I do lots of un-smart things like that. I wasn’t actually attacked. All I did was break a nail on something, probably a shiny white tooth. The break was about halfway down the quick of my thumb and halfway to the middle where it was ripped away. There was blood on Panzee’s neck, which was in grasp of Dexter’s very impressive mouth, so everyone thought it was hers. Then I noticed my disheveled thumb and fell to the ground whining and groveling when I realized it was my blood, not Panzee’s. In spite of the groveling, I was able to extract Panzee from Dexter’s jaws of death and Tim was able to get Dexter under control. It was a pretty exciting series of events. Then we had dinner.

5/7 – Sarah invited us to a BBQ dinner in Hillsboro. Of course we went and were pleased to meet Sarah’s boyfriend Jay, his brother Todd, their parents, and Todd’s wife’s parents. Being an expert at forgetting names immediately after hearing them I was at a severe disadvantage for figuring out who everyone was. I know Keith is J & T’s Dad, but can’t remember their Mom’s name and cannot remember Todd’s wife’s parent’s names at all. I do remember Lucy, however, who was the smallest person present because she’s only 9 months old and belongs to Todd and his Wife. There is a pretty incredible story about how Sarah met Jay and it could be long, but I’ll give you a short version. Sarah and Todd are both RN’s who worked together in Connecticut. Todd moved to Hillsboro, Sarah visited, and they went to Seaside to visit Jay and family where Todd exposed his plan to marry his current wife. She’s an Emergency Room Doctor for Kaiser. Jay and Sarah got along well and she decided to relocate to Hillsboro. Jay was a Policeman in Connecticut and traded that job for one with the Washington County Sheriff’s department. They got a condo. The BBQ was awesome … the biggest and most tender filet mignon I’ve ever seen. Cooked to perfection by Todd and Jay. Halfway through the meal Diane and I had to leave to visit the Good Sam ER facility. This was a planned visit, nothing to do with the food. Did you know you can make appointments for Urgent Care? I did that to have someone attend to my escalating case of epididymitis that I’d been fighting for a couple of weeks. End result, I had a soothing ultrasound of my testicles, by a nice young lady, while Diane and I held hands and watched TV in ER room 10 at Good Sam. This was a new one for us. I got antibiotics and am healing. For some reason, this is the only photo I took at the BBQ:

Diane wouldn’t let me take photos in the emergency room.

5/8 – Diane & Ruth  took a trip to get their toes fixed at a local nail salon. Well already had the appointments but I gave up my spot for Ruth. Yes, I get a pedicure once in a while. I’m thinking that the next time I have an ultrasound on my testicles I’ll just get my toes done at the same time. Ya, I know that’s not going to happen, but it conjures up interesting things in my head.

5/9 – We took Ruth to the beach, via Astoria, and ate Crab Louie’s at Norma’s near the Seaside turnaround where Louis and Clark finished their epic journey. Here’s proof …

Then we went to Ecola State Park by Canon Beach where we were delighted to see a dozen elk wandering around in the grass by the parking lot.

Guess they like the view, too.

One of the main points of interest you can see from this location, is the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.

It’s fun to watch in a storm.

Then we went to Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock that was in the movie Goonies.

Then, it was time to head home by way of the Astoria Column located on a hill above Astoria.

 

This is just to show off the T-shirts Diane got us. Kinda cool, huh?

We made it home safely from our journey to the coast (that’s the same as ‘shore’ to those of you on the east coast).

Ruth left for home yesterday after spending two weeks with us, looking everyday for a glimpse of Mt. Hood. Alas, it never showed up even one time. Then we put her on a plane. When we got home, here’s what we saw, so this is for Ruth.

I think that pretty does it for the past umpteen days. Now I need to get out of my PJ’s and go mow the yard.

Cheers.

Bayview State Park Washington, and Crabs

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Yesterday we embarked on a journey to Bayview State Park in Washington. That’s about 60 miles north of Seattle in case you’re wondering. The plan was to leave about 9 am so we’d arrive early afternoon. Doing that would have been a modern-day record because we rarely leave on time. Yesterday was no exception. Even with Jeff’s help to load ‘stuff’ into the RV we didn’t actually get all the way to Highway 30 West until 11:00 am. That’s actually not bad from a historical perspective.

We made it through Longview and made it all the way to exit 49 on Interstate 5 when a brief discussion with my lovely bride revealed that I didn’t have my pills. Since there’s no way I could go an entire week without partaking of the finer ‘fruits’ of the pharmaceutical world, I turned around and headed back, automatically making our trip 2 hours longer than it should have been.

Once we got home I got my pills, first thing, then Diane got the Brita filter from the garage refrigerator because I didn’t get it before leaving the first time as she thought I had. We also gained some deli ham that somehow hadn’t made it’s way to the RV. And some raisins.

Then we headed north, once again, record intact for not leaving before noon on any given trip. This time we pulled out around 1:00 pm and it wasn’t nearly as exciting as getting away the first time at 11:00 am. Actually, it was a little depressing as we traversed the same ground 3 times to get to a place just once. When we finally got past Exit 49 the 2nd time, things looked brighter and the GPS reported we would arrive around 7:30 pm. Not quite what we had planned, but at least it gave us confidence we’d arrive. Sometime. With the Seattle traffic arrival time turned out to be 8:00 pm. Incredibly, it was still light enough to see what I was doing to get the car off the dolly, get the RV parked, and everything hooked up. Everything except the TV, the most critical appliance. Thankfully, I was allowed to defer the TV issue to today and can report that, after numerous attempts, I succeeded. Diane has HGTV for the duration.

We read for a while last night, then went to sleep at our normal time – that’s when we’re tired enough to sleep. I only had to get up one in the middle of the night and it was pretty chilly. No, not chilly, but just plain cold. After getting back to sleep I stayed there until almost 10:00 am.

I woke up to the smell of bacon frying. That’s a motivator to get vertical. So I did, and we had BLTs for breakfast. Well, breakfast for me, but lunch for Diane because she was up at 7:30. I asked her why she got up so early and she said, “because I woke up.” Couldn’t argue with that.

Once fed, and awake, I did the dishes, and we jumped in the car and drove around the immediate area and discovered the Padilla Bay National Refuge Area Learning Center, or something like that. Inside we met and talked with Dale and Annie. Both were women, in case you were wondering. Her mom and dad must have liked Roy Rogers and Dale Evans growing up. We had a great conversation and learned about the places we should see and places we should eat. Annie, the younger woman, said that pretty much any place in Edison was good. So, we headed north to Edison.

It’s a neat little town and pretty much every place to eat turned out to be a biker bar. Now, don’t get me wrong, taverns and bars typically have good food. The ones with motorcycles parked out front validate the high quality of the food. We will probably partake of one of those places before we leave here. The one we’ll probably go to has a sign out front – “Adult Day Care”. Looks like a great place. I have a photo of it, but my phone is dead and it must be living in order to get the photo. Maybe later I’ll give it a shot. Maybe tomorrow.

Since tomorrow is our 50th Wedding Anniversary, thank you, we thought finding a good place to eat a good steak would be good. The Biker Bar Day Care was a possibility, but we had other places to look. Like Anacortes. There’s a casino there and I thought maybe they would have tasty food worthy of a reservation. We went, we saw, and we inhaled lots of second-hand smoke walking from the front door of the casino to the 2nd floor restaurant. The restaurant was very nice looking, and looked to be hermetically sealed off from the casino proper, but getting all that tobacco odor on the way kinda takes the edge of our appetites. We checked it off our list of possibilities. We’d fiddled around looking for a decent place to eat to the detriment of our now empty stomachs and needed to make a call about whether we go in to Mount Vernon to check out more possibilities or return to the RV and eat the Dungeness crab Diane brought. Hmmm. Tough call.

We went back to eat the crab. I had the biggest crab louie I’ve ever had. Really. She had a 1 pound container of crab meat ($26) of which she put about 3 ounces. That means I got the rest of it. If I escape a raging bout of gout in spite of ingesting that much crab, it will be amazing. If I don’t escape, I’ll happily walk around with a severe limp until it goes away. Yes, I’ll do that for my bride.

While Diane was preparing parts of our afternoon dinner, boiled eggs to be specific, I returned my attention to obtaining a picture on our TV that might be fun to watch, as directed. Doing that required me to ascertain the reason I couldn’t get a satellite signal even though I knew the antenna was in the proper place. After many attempts of moving the antenna, and restarting the receiver via various methods, I finally hit the proper combination by putting the antenna on the RV roof and unplugging the receiver for the specified 30 seconds. That did the trick. We have TV service and no longer have to leave the confines of our motor home. Unless, of course, the holding tanks over flow because I failed to go empty them. I might have to do that because this Washington State Park, that charges $31 a night, doesn’t have sewer connections. Go figure. Don’t worry, I won’t allow them to overflow. I’ll tape down the toilet lid before that happens. It’s a short walk to the out-door toilet and showers.

Now it’s dark, Diane’s all snuggled down on the sofa watching ‘Station 19’, and I need to go potty, so I’m terminating.

Before doing that, however, I must report on some new arrivals who showed up while we were eating our crab. They showed up with a very long trailer and it took the husband more than a dozen attempts, back and forth, to get it inserted into his assigned space. Diane counted them so we know that’s true. I think watching him made her a little proud of me because I’ve never taken more than 3-7 attempts to get our trailers properly parked. Most of the time I just zipped it right in with minor jockeying to get the hoses and cords line up. Now we have an RV and parking is even easier because it’s got cameras.

Ok. Now the potty stop.

Off The Road, and Lydia

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We’re off the road because we safely made it home from the rainy beach. No mishaps and nothing broke. It was a successful trip. Another reason for leaving the beach was due to the crowds …

Now, about Lydia. Today she turned 19.  We celebrated that event yesterday by driving to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm near Woodburn, OR to tramp around in the muddy fields of tulips. They aren’t all in bloom, yet, but those that were are pretty nice. Won’t be long before the fields will be blazing with color. Honest.

On the way home we stopped at one of the two Cracker Barrel Restaurants in the Portland area. The only other time any of us went was to a CBR was in Virginia and we loved it. We weren’t disappointed this time, either. The food was great and we had a secluded table where we could celebrate Lydia’s 19th without bothering anyone else. 

A glass dolphin from Jeran that I’m pretty sure she likes a lot.

I memory frame for Kylo, Lydia’s Rottweiler puppy (he’s one year old). Sadly, he’s got major mobility issues and will have to leave us before he grows up. He’s a great, friendly dog.

 

I think she’s unwrapping earrings.


Jeran and Jennifer (Mom) watching the celebration in their own ways.

Diane doing the same, and Jeran is, as you can see, still fully engaged.

Not long ago Lydia exerted her adulthood by having a hole punched in her nostril. I asked her how she picked her nose without destroying all the Kleenex and she showed me. Turns how it involves some hard-core nose picking.

Actually it wasn’t that bad, and I didn’t ask her how she cleaned that nostril. It was a lie.

Daniel (Dad) and Jeran hung out in front of the Cracker Barrel making good use of all the stuff they have for sale out there. Daniel waxed Jeran at checkers.

Daniel, Diane, and I went home after this and Jeran stayed with the girls while they went shopping at Cabela’s which was just across the parking lot. Diane got us safely home and all the dogs were extremely happy that we didn’t make the day last any longer.

It was a good day, too. The sun shined pretty much all the time even though there was rain in the forecast.

That’s it.

A Birthday and a White Christmas

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Today is December 29th. Two days to 2018 and our temperature is 51 degrees. We had a white Christmas for the first time in about 30-40 years but the warm weather and ensuing rain made short work of that. Still, it was pretty nice.

The dogs weren’t huge fans, especially Ozzie, the little guy. After the snow, we had freezing rain which allowed him to walk on top of the precipitation had he chosen to do so. We’re talking about a little dog that has a hard time walking around the house unless there is a throw rug for him to use. Figure the odds that he’ll walk on a sheet of ice voluntarily. Consequently, there is no photo.

Before Christmas I attended an art class with our daughter, Jennifer, who is the crafty one in the family. This was the first time I’ve done something like this so it was an experience to remember. First off, I was the only male participant and I had to ask permission to participate. I didn’t really, but thought it would be prudent to do so. Thankfully, I knew a few of the ladies so it wasn’t difficult. One of the knowns to me was Kristen, Daniel’s sister. Daniel, for those who don’t know, is my son’s brother-in-law.

Kristen’s Mom and Grandma were also there, I believe, but didn’t get their photo.

As you can see, we all did an acrylic painting of a bear of some kind that wears clothing. Mine wasn’t too bad if you didn’t get too close to it. The farther away the better.

Jennifer did a much better job.

Pretty much all of the class.

The class was conducted in the Running Dog Brewery which is located next to the old Fat Boy’s Pizza in downtown St. Helens, and about 3-4 doors up from Jillian’s, the 2nd hand clothing store that was used as the Seattle store where Bella went shopping for a prom dress in the vampire movie Twilight. Considering that the beer flowed continuously throughout the painting experience, you’d think it would have been pretty noisy and the paintings might have been a bit interesting. It was true for both of those presumptions but I wasn’t allowed to capture any proof. I was going to do it anyway, but they outnumbered me about 20-1 so didn’t see the benefit of risking precious body parts to a potentially vicious mob of enraged women.

Actually, I really don’t think anyone would have minded but I just figured not doing so was a better choice. Everyone was having a great time, even me.

Our church choir practiced many times to prepare for our traditional Christmas Eve 11:00 pm service, and the last one was on December 20th, Diane’s birthday. Jennifer arranged for a fancy cake and we had a party at the church.

Since Diane and I are advanced in age, we had Christmas dinner a day early at our house so we wouldn’t have a need to be in traffic with all those other folks. Jeff and the Littles, Gilligan, Baylee, and Jerrie, were in attendance, as well as the entire Walters clan, except for Cedric. There was a short period of time where it appeared that Daniel and Jeran might go get Cedric but the weather had already turned bad and the roads were terrible. So, they returned to base.

Cedric will be home on leave today (the 29th) and we’ll be celebrating Christmas again with him, tomorrow, at the Walters’ home.

Almost lastly, here’s my new favorite coffee cup that Lydia got me …

She knows me so well.

Finally, if anyone is in the market for a nice vehicle, this one is for sale. We’ve had our fun, but can’t tow it behind the RV except on a trailer. It’s replacement will probably be a 2015 Chevy Malibu.

Happy New Year to everyone. Make it a safe one.

Veteran’s Day & Diane

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Once again it’s 11/11 and time to thank a Vet.

Too bad some folks only do that once a year. Could be they only have that opportunity once a year. I know that I don’t do it every day, but I do it every time I see a vet. Most of them wear hats to advertise their military association so it’s a dead giveaway.

I’ve expanded my thanks to include all manner of public servants, in addition to military members, present and past. I think it’s only fair.

So, if you see some guy on your trip through Oregon, telling a Teacher, Nurse, Mother, Wife, Waiteperson, Cashier, Busboy, Policeman, Fireman, Garbage Man, Doctor, Phlebotomist, or Mailperson, “Thanks for your service,” it might be me.

I’ve found that teachers are especially surprised, and pleased, to get that kind of recognition from an old guy wearing a Vietnam Veteran hat. It’s very gratifying. You should try it.

Now I must share that my wife, Diane, who endured over 20 years as a Navy wife with me, is currently on a mission to get us a Papa Murphy’s pizza. She left me home, alone, in my pajamas. When I told her that I might just put on some outdoor clothes while she’s gone, she said, “Why?” For me, that’s pretty profound since she lived the military life for so long and endured the same deployments that I did.

She’s the best.

I’ll get the next pizza.

 

Sunset Bay State Park and other Stuff

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Sorry I haven’t been around to make my normal short, concise, posts, but Diane and I were off planet for a number of days enjoying the Oregon Coast from our perch at Sunset Bay State Park near Coos Bay. It’s near North Bend, too, and right next to Shore Acres State Park. Shore Acres is the park that has a botanical garden that volunteers decorate every year. Grant MaComie did a story on it not long ago and it’s a nice story about how it all came together. Knowing about this ahead of time, Diane booked another four days, in the same space (A-13) at Sunset Bay that we vacated last Monday. These four days are for the end of November when the lights are all up and blinking. The crews have already begun the task of stringing lights and they will be lit from Thanksgiving thru New Year’s Eve.

Actually, we were only gone for five days but who’s counting? Really. Just five days. We didn’t have cell service, no TV, no internet, no nuthin. We actually had to sit and talk to each other for long periods of time which was interesting and revealing to one of us. With all the distractions of our daily life on Earth we don’t seem to take time to visit like we should. I recommend such a trip like this for everyone. We were in a beautiful place and found that we really didn’t miss all those things that capture our attention for long periods of time.

We did miss Ziva, however. She’s our camper and loves getting away from the other dogs once in a while. As we packed to leave she knew we were leaving without her and did her absolute best to make sure we knew she knew and that she wasn’t a bit happy about it. It was really tough to leave her standing there, all alone in the driveway, as we pulled away from the house to leave.

OK, we didn’t really do that … she was in the house, but she knew we were leaving. I suspect that she slept most of the five days we were away. Truly, she does that when we’re home. She’s a dog. When not chasing something or barking at something, she sleeps.

Normally I jot little notes down on my next post about things I want to share. Kinda like an outline. But it’s not an outline, it’s just a list. To use this program I need the internet so I used the Notes app on my Ipad for the list. I just now tried to bring it up and got a brief glimpse of what I saved, then it just all disappeared. Like magic. Poof! So, now I’ll have to remember stuff to make it worth your time.

We left home at 1:30 pm on Thursday and arrived after 6:30 pm. It’s a long drive (277 miles) and I had to do it all alone because Diane doesn’t feel ready to drive the RV yet. So, we go slow. Making that more of a necessity was the windshield that was really, really a mess. Actually, it was only a problem when cars came at me causing all the dirt smeared on the window to refract the light to the point where I was just kinda guessing where the road was. Another reason for arriving during daylight. It would have been just fine if we could have left home around 9 am as planned, but that never seems to work out. I dislike having to park and hook everything up in the dark and told Diane that if we don’t leave by 9 am on this next trip, we will wait until the next day. Or, we just don’t go. Just before I could stomp my foot for emphasis, she agreed. We’ll see how that works out.

The next morning we got up really late and didn’t do much right away because it was really foggy crappy looking outside. So, we just lounged around and read our books. Later in the afternoon we launched the Toyota and took a trip up and down the road outside the park, then cruised in to Coos Bay to look around. Diane drives the Toyota so I had an opportunity to view the road with a critical eye and couldn’t help but be amazed that I had actually driven a 35.5′ motorhome around those windy turns without once dumping us into a ditch, or the ocean. It was humbling, let me tell ya.

Over the course of the next 4 days we did a lot of reading, watched one DVD movie that we’d both already seen (Dare Devil) and slept a lot. Once in a while we ate something. I can hear many of you thinking that “you watched Dare Devil twice! Really?” Well, yes we did. It was luck of the draw. We’ll never have to watch it again.

We made a few trips to Fred Meyer in Coos Bay, walked up and down their boardwalk for a while, saw a couple of really interesting sea-going vehicles,

and had lunch at Shark Bites. Diane had halibut fish and chips and I had my crab Louie. We both loved our meals. Each piece of Diane’s fish was about an inch thick and cooked to perfection. My Louie had at lease half a pound of Dungeness crab meat on it. Wonderful. The trip was now worth it.

We were able to spend our last day sitting on the beach watching the sun go down on Sunset Bay. Sadly, I failed to bring my phone/camera to capture the moment. Just believe me, it was really pretty. I’ll take pictures when we go back there the end of the month.

Perhaps the following photos will serve to tide you over till then. These are just shots taken around the park.

This is Simpson Reef. Way back ‘when’ the Simpson family owned all of this.

This is the bottom of a tree that apparently blew over a long time ago.

Just me and my lovely bride.

A different look at Simpson Reef in the distance. 

Then, while driving back to the park one day, we came across this and thought you’d enjoy it as much as we did.

The trip home was uneventful.We stopped at the DQ in Reedsport for lunch. Ate inside, then took our drinks and headed north up Highway 101 to Florence, the scene of our last visit to this area a few weeks ago.

One thing I didn’t get while at the beach was a good bowl of clam chowder. I really like that stuff. So, I rummaged around in a bunch of cupboards until I found a can and warmed it up. When it blew up and figured it was done. I was using the saucer as a cover and when it blew it flipped completely over. What fun.

Betty, our County Clerk, called this afternoon to find out if Diane is ready to go to work with the Counting Board tomorrow. I told her that I’m sure she was and that I was currently washing all her underwear to ensure she was properly dressed … then Diane snatched the phone right out of my hand before I had a chance to say goodbye. I thought that was kind of rude

I forgot to mention that I went golfing with the Peal Brothers before we left on our trip and again on the day after we returned. Diane thinks it’s good for me to golf with these guys. So do I.

It was pretty both times.

Little Jennie Has a Birthday!!

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Our youngest daughter celebrated another birthday today. She’s 42. I can tell you that because that’s what the candles on the cake report. You can’t miss it. But, not knowing that, you’d never guess it. She’s one of those perpetually young people who don’t age like normal folks. I think still think she and Lydia are sisters more often than now when they are together.

Lydia and Ceiarra spent Saturday at our house baking and making all sorts of minion stuff for a surprise birthday party they hosted for Jennie. The party wasn’t until Sunday evening because Jennie worked all day. She thought she was coming to our house for a family dinner cooked by the girls so it as a total surprise when Daniel drove her up and the place was full of strange vehicles. It was a good surprise and she had a good time. There was lots of chocolate and sugar infused delicacies galore.

Here’s what the table looked like before anyone showed up …

First, the cooks, Lydia and Ceiarra – they thought it was cute to hide behind the decorations … and it was …

… but they did give me a better look.

I think it’s pretty evident that the entire party was about Minions. They are Jennie’s favorite.

The guest of honor showed up about 30 minutes after everyone else.

We got her into the house …

Then convinced her to put on her minion jammies. Cute.

I didn’t mention that it was a pajama party, did I. Well, it was. Not everyone wore them but it was still a festive mix of people.

It was a fun time for everyone.

The minion ski hat was my contribution. Diane found the pattern and suggested that I make it, so I did. I still had the stitches in my thumb at the time so crocheting was tricky because the my stitches tended to get tangled up with the minion hat stitches.

Jeran tried on the hat.

Austin and Georgie – Austin wore a banana costume and Georgie had a minion hoodie. Should have had them put up their tops.

Jerrie Anne …

The end.

Steaks and Dog Food

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This afternoon I heard the dogs arguing in the living room and had to go see what it was all about before the fur flew. It’s true. The argument was escalating to that point. Actually, it’s only Ziva growling, but it’s a bit scary for me because I know that if they tangle, I’ll have to get between them. They have substantial teeth which makes that move risky for one of us.

When I got to the scene of the event here’s what I found …

That’s an open, and empty, food pouch that the big dogs don’t get to eat. Normally. It belonged to Ozzie. Now, had they ripped the package open from the top instead of the bottom I may have thought one of them retrieved the empty packet from the garbage but the way it was open gave them away.

Perhaps the dogs used this as a teaching moment to say something like, “Jerrie, CLOSE THE STUPID CUPBOARD!”

Or, maybe it was simply them showing off what they can do and to get a sense about how upset I’d be with what they did. You know, not so mad, they could do it again some day. Really mad, they could do it again some day but not too soon.

About the steaks … they are the ones Diane bought to take with us to Detroit Lake last week. They were rib eyes and would have been really good BBQ’d. The problem, as I’m sure you guessed there was one, we left for Detroit Lake Sunday afternoon but didn’t find the steaks in the car trunk until Tuesday. So, they were incarcerated in an unrefrigerated car trunk for over two days. Still, when I picked them up they both still looked nice and pink, and they weren’t warm at all. When I pierced the plastic in which they were encased, I didn’t detect any odors that smelled like spoiled meat and neither could Diane. But, she said e-coli could still be lurking around in there and that I should throw them away.

I just couldn’t do it. They were so pretty, and I really like steak. So, I lit the BBQ and cooked them. Still no suspicious smells, but I cooked them a little longer than the normal 5 minutes a side anyway. Brown all the way through. No red.

So, I put one of them on a plate and started easy with little teeny bites to see if anything happened to me. I ate slow, chewing each bite until it was so well masticated that it could easily have come fresh from a really good blender. Suitable for ingestion by someone with no teeth.

I’ve got to admit that it wasn’t all that satisfying. It took me a while to figure out that it was probably the dried onion I used in lieu of the seasoned salt I normally use which was still at home on a shelf in the kitchen.

Diane’s words about e-coli started rolling around in my head about the time I got half-way through the steak. That, and the wrong flavor of the meat, convinced me that I probably shouldn’t be eating any more steak right then. I kind of lost my taste for meat and decided that common sense dictated that cease and bow to my bride’s superior knowledge about such things.

Then the wait began. I figured it wouldn’t take long for the stomach cramps to begin and was torn between calling an ambulance right away, or just wait for the pain to begin. I decided to wait. I waited for 3 days and nothing happened.

Apparently I’m immune to e-coli, or whatever else could be wrong with meat that should have been totally spoiled due to lack of refrigeration.

Yup. I’m immune. It’s been 7 days and I’m going with the option that e-coli normally strikes 3-4 days after exposure.

That part about e-coli taking up to 10 days to make itself known is a myth.

I may have a different story to tell in three days.

Detroit Lake State Park, Pacific Crest Trail, Sauvie Island, and Home Depot

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We spent last week out of the country camping at Detroit State Park. That would be the reason you haven’t heard from us in a while. Our parking spot was close to the lake and gave us ideas about a family event next summer since all those sites are big enough for many tents.

Detroit Lake is known for good fishing, something neither Diane nor I do. Catching fish involves cleaning them, unless you give them away. We find it much easier to just lay around and watch others fish then go to the store when we want some for ourselves. It’s a beautiful place.

We took walks multiple times a day. Per the rules, all dogs had to be on a leash so we complied. I just didn’t hang on to Ziva’s all the time.

During one walk Ziva had a notion that she was some sort of water dog who liked ducks and was moving in on this one swimming away.

Once we talked some sense into her she got out of the water then walked briskly down the docks to a slip where the ducks were just sitting. Of course they bailed off and I honestly thought Ziva was going to follow them. But, apparently dog sense prevailed and she just watched them swim away. Odd that she liked the ducks because she didn’t give the numerous geese in the area a second glance.

There are nice trails like this all over the park.

After one long walk around the park lasting a couple of hours we returned and discovered that I left my keys in the RV door. I did that, of course, so I’d know where they were.

It rained almost the entire time we were there but that was OK. It was the first real rain we’d seen in almost 3 months. The dogs didn’t mind it either, but it kept us busy drying them off.

Went to Sisters one day to look around. It’s a neat little town. Almost like moving downtown Seaside from the beach to the high desert. Very touristy kind of place. On the way back we took a walk on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Since it was snowing we didn’t go more than a couple of miles up the trail before Ziva’s feet got too cold to continue. It was pretty chilly. Turns out she’s a warm weather dog. I had to carry her back to the car.

The area was burned off at some point in the past, not from recent forest fires. But, it gives you an idea how fire can decimate the environment and makes us appreciate those who fight the fires all the more.

On the way home we stopped at a Home Depot to buy baseboard material for our hall project. It was Diane’s idea, a good one, because we had the motor home with plenty of room to carry 20 foot lengths of material. As it turned out, we only got 8 foot lengths because that’s all they had of the kind Diane wanted. Still, it was nice to not have to figure a way to carry all that stuff home. Ziva and Ozzie enjoyed the shopping trip, too. Ziva even helped me tow the cart around the place.

OK, so Ozzie wasn’t so hot on riding in a cart but he had to. If Diane would have left him on his leash he would have stopped and peed on every display he encountered. We know that’s true.

Before leaving on our trip, my good friend and golf buddy, Doug, drove down to our back 40 to save some apples. He said his apples are all gone and the deer need some to eat. So, he picked a few.

Saturday we participated in a beach cleanup on Sauvie Island which is in the middle of the Columbia River between Portland and St. Helens. About half of the island is farmland and the other half is a wild life preserve. There is no mention in the history books about this beach where Diane signed us up to clean.

During the summer Collin’s Beach is a pretty popular place for the brave at heart. The link contains a photo of me that I didn’t want to use but Diane insisted.

After we cleaned up the litter we stopped at Kruger’s Farm for some fresh veggies. They have great prices on pretty much everything they grow. This sign in the store caught my attention and thought it would be a good way to end this.

The sign was there, but I didn’t see any chickens.