Football, Flowers, and Sprinklers

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It’s Sunday. A fairly nice one. The thermometer reports it’s 72 outside and 71 inside. Frankly, I think it’s a bit warm in side and have seriously considered doffing my Sunday best (I went to church) and replacing them with shorts and a T-shirt. Or, perhaps, some summer jammies. But, no, we’re expecting company later in the day and I don’t want to embarrass anyone by being dressed inappropriately.

The company we expect live in Las Vegas, and are linked in a family manner to Jewel. One is her daughter, and there’s grand daughters, and grand dogs. They picked Jewel up this morning and carted her off to Seaside for a day at the coast. I suspect there will be a little shopping tossed in there since there are outlet stores in the vicinity. Since Jewel’s gained a whopping 5 lbs since coming to live with us she probably needs a whole new wardrobe. I’ll be curious to see what she brings home. That won’t be for a while.

Friday night was a highly promoted football game between St. Helens High School and Scappoose High School called the 7-Mile War. It’s a traditional rivalry that’s been going on forever, even back to when my much older brothers were in High School. That’s a long time. I don’t have any stats to share as to who normally wins the battle, but Friday night St. Helens put a country boy whoopin’ on Scappoose, beating them 41-21, or something like that. We went early because the crowd was expected to be big, and it was. The game wasn’t until 7:00 pm but we got there at 5:30 pm to some rock and roll music that sounded pretty darn good. Turned out to be Bart Hafeman and The Hit Machine. This is a well-known band here in the Great Northwest so it was special. Making it specialer is that Bart is a Scappoose Boy, a Local Boy, who made it good. Anyway, we found some seats three rows from the top of the stands right on the 50 yard line and there’s Bart and the Boys rockin’ out on the track in front of us. I’ve known about the band for years, and have seen Bart many times at different venues (like the Columbia County Fair), but have never heard them play. It was a treat because they play pretty much everything. Even stuff I like. Amazing. If given a chance, you should go see them.

Now, back to the game …

Scappoose and St. Helens are in different leagues but they play each other every year to keep the war alive. Just for fun. The stands on both sides of the field were filled and there were many more lining the fence surrounding the field. There were even people in lawn chairs sitting in their driveways across the street from the stadium area. What fun. Being near the top of the stands allowed us to enjoy the full benefit of the screams of joy when St. Helens did something good, which they did often. In my personal experience, the noise level was worse than that we’ve experienced at a Portland Trailblazer game and the Blazers are down by one, theres 2 seconds to go and Lillard hits a 3-pointer. That’s really loud. Friday night was louder. And really invigorating.

Complicating our presence at the game was the fact that both Diane and I graduated from Scappoose High School, but our children and grandchildren went to, and are going to, St. Helens schools. So, we sat amongst the St. Helenonites. I figured, yes, we graduated from SHS which entailed a 4-year obligation, but we’ve been associated with SHHS far longer, like since 1989. So, I was OK with betraying my old school. By doing so I wound up on the winning side.

Demonstrating the team spirit of both school, all the cheer leaders from both sides joined together in the field at halftime and did an obviously well rehearsed routine.

img_0504 It was a terrific gesture and made all of us proud. Then all of the youth program football teams and small versions of cheer leaders were introduced and filled the field. There’s a bunch of them so I suspect there won’t be any shortage of football players and cheer leaders for many years to come. There was also a tribute to all the public services when members of the sheriff’s, city police, paramedics, and firemen were introduced. In case you were wondering, everyone was standing, just as they did for the national anthem before the game started. That makes me proud, too.

This was today – another ho-hum Oregon sunrise.

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Here’s Panzee displaying her newest trick. She flops around on the yard for a bit, then gets flat on her back and just stays there for the longest time, her impression of a raccoon that’s been laying beside the road for a few days in the hot sun. She must have seen it on TV because I don’t recall ever coming across one while she was in the car with us. Gonna have to start being careful what she watches.

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Finally, I spent pretty much all day yesterday working on our in-ground sprinklers. They all worked, to some extent, but not quite as good as they should. So I decided to make them all work correctly. I have, after all, a large box of new replacement sprinkler heads that were left by the previous owner and it’s time to use some of them. I managed to replace the obviously broken units, then started trying out different sprinkler nozzles to see which ones give the best coverage without spraying into a bedroom or bathroom window that someone forgot to close before turning on the sprinklers. That happens. Fortunately, Diane’s side of the bed is the wet one when that happens.

Jewel has been instrumental in the resurrection and transformation of our adequate yard into one with lots of color provided by things deer don’t eat. She spends the better part of each day outside uncovering botanical treasures that we didn’t know we had, and adding more that we had no idea we needed. The result is wonderful and we know we’re going to enjoy her efforts for many years to come. But, what I’ll personally probably remember most, after her efforts in the fall and winter, is the sight of her tending her plants will be the sight of her like this …

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She found it at Jilly’s Boutique in downtown St. Helens. She professes that she needed the hat to keep her ears warm on chilly days. The image on the front is a skull so I think it’s more a statement about a previous life style. Whatever the reason, it fits her personality and will, I’m sure, keep her ears warm.

Air Filters, Eboards, Haircuts, Soccer, and iPad Pro

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Today I cleaned our furnace air cleaner filters, attended an American Legion Executive Board meeting, got a haircut, had a couple of naps, and watched a fun high school soccer game, in that order. Oh, and I got my new iPad Pro, too.

First, the filters. I have to do this every month because Diane puts it on the calendar. She knows that I check my calendar every day and am pretty good about doing things listed on the calendar, especially when they are preceded by my name. Like, “Jerrie – Cleans Filters”. The first time I saw that I wasn’t sure what filters I was supposed to clean so I didn’t do it. That, of course, resulted in punishment for Failure To Comply. I quickly learned what filters were involved and have faithfully complied ever since. Now, how I clean them is up to me. Sometimes I just vacuum them off, sometimes I use my air compressor and blow all the dirt in the neighbor’s yard. Or, out into the yard. Other times, like today, I hosed them all down and left them to dry in the hot afternoon sun. Everything dried except for the two big honeycomb things that go on the bottom of the stack. So, I left them in the yard, on a chair, facing the setting sun with a soft summer breeze blowing directly into the little damp holes. That was 8 hours ago and they’re still out there. In the cold damp, dark, night. Guess I won’t be putting them in until tomorrow morning some time. I’d go out and get them, but I don’t want to. I can only hope that some weirdo filter thief doesn’t show up and take them.

Our American Legion Executive Board meeting has historically been held at 10 which is just a little late for breakfast and a little early for lunch. Today it was at 11, making lunch more likely. I had breakfast. Now, calling this the Executive Board sounds a little elegant for our small group, but that’s technically what it is. I must attend because I’m the Sgt. At Arms, keeper of the peace. Yeah, I thought it was funny, too, when they voted me into that position. I actually volunteered to do it because I knew it didn’t involve a lot of manual labor or memory recall. That, and no one else wanted to do it. That was last year. No one else wanted to do it this year either, so I still have the little thing on my hat proclaiming my position. Maybe I’ll do it again next year if things stay calm. At the EBoard meetings everyone else conducts actual business. I just eat and vote when necessary. I voted 3 times today.

After the meeting I got home in time to participate in a haircut marathon involving Diane’s Mom, Jean, Diane, Jewel, and me. We were all in line for a touch-up from the Traveling Hair Dresser which is pretty handy, let me tell you. We just do a little Rock Paper Scissors to see who goes first, then the hair cutter gets right to work and hair starts flying all over the place. Logic says we’d do this outside, on the porch, but it actually takes place on the dining room carpet. Diane likes doing it there because she has this incredible vacuum cleaner that sucks up hair like crazy. We know because we pick up tons of dog hair every week and look at them in wonder, like “I wonder why the dogs aren’t bald?” They actually lose 3 dogs worth of hair every month. I don’t know how they do that. So, picking up a little bit of gray hair from some old people once every couple of months is no big deal.

I had the next to last haircut because Diane told me to get in the chair. I didn’t lose much because it was cut pretty short the last time I had a haircut. Like a buzz cut. Really short. After that I was really tired so stretched out on the sofa and took a few naps while waiting for the next event of the day. I had more than one nap because continuity was interrupted by the UPS lady who delivered my new iPad Pro, an email from Jimbo wanting to know when we were going to go golfing again, a phone call from John to arrange a golf date, and various other noises throughout the afternoon. The result of all the interruptions is that I’m obliged to go golfing three times next week. That’s unheard of for me because nine holes a week is usually my limit. Now I’m going to do 36. Should be interesting. Wonder if I’ll get better as the week goes on. I also wonder if I’ll be able to walk by the end of the week. We’ll see.

During some of my awake time I set up my new iPad. Diane said I needed a new one because the screen on the old one is cracked a little from an injury it received from a drop that I have no memory of. Interesting. One I make the transition to the new unit I’m going to set it up for Diane’s Mom, Jean so she can use it. She doesn’t know this yet and we already know it’s going to be a hard sell because she thinks things like the iPad are too complicated for her to use. We think once she sees what it can do she’ll have a changed of heart. She’ll be connected to the world and will be able to follow Diane and me during our travels, getting all the fancy photos we include sometimes. And Facebook! That will really yank her eyes open. Diane will set up a new Facebook page for Mom. She conquered the Comcast remote control so we’re confident she can handle an iPad and all the notifications one gets on Facebook. Should be fun.

In the evening, before the sun set, we headed for the St. Helens High School soccer field to watch our Lady Lions play against the Astoria Fishermen. Now, right away I saw a problem with the Astoria team name. I mean, this is a team of young ladies and they still call them Fishermen. Shouldn’t they be Fishergirls, Fisherladies, or a more generic Fisherpeople? That would certainly be the case if the ACLU ever hears about this. That’s an opinion, of course. The ACLU might not give a hoot. What’s happened with all the PC stuff about gender specific tags? Whatever … our girls played a great game, for the most part, and won 2-0. The score should have been more like 15-0 because our girls kicked the ball over the opposing net about 13 times. In the second half Lydia, our goalie, only got to touch the ball whenever one of her team mates kicked it to her. Oh, there were a couple of close calls, but Lyd fended them off with the help of her best defender, Ceiarra. Morgan, the first half goalie did a lot of standing around, too, and made some good stops to keep Astoria scoreless.

At the game we were blessed with the presence of the lovely Georgie and her lovely Mom Jacqui. I just learned that she reads this stuff so had to name her. Georgie graduated and we miss seeing her play. She’s very good. Just saying. Rumor has it that Georgie and family will be moving to England at some undisclosed future date where she will attend college and major in soccer. We believe this is possible for her because of the uncanny life-like British accent her Mom uses. And, more probably, because  her Mom is really British and they have lots of family still in the Old Country. We look forward to their move so we will have a place to stay when we visit England one day.

It’s almost Eleventy PM now and everyone else in the house is already in bed. I’m watching a recording of the Denver Broncos Carolina Panthers game. Looks like the Jags are going to take it home so I can probably just fast forward to the end of the game to see the final score and go to bed myself. After all, the dogs will undoubtedly wake me up in about 5 hours. Yes, they’ve been edging the time back closer to 4 am lately. I can hardly ignore them since Ozzie is on the bed and he fronts for the big dogs by licking whatever isn’t under the covers until I get up. Consequently, I’m careful about what I leave exposed when I close my eyes for the night, which is just what I’m going to do now.

G’nite.

 

Golf and Soccer

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This morning I was once again forced to participate in a golf match with the Peal brothers, Junior & Doug. As some of you may know, when I began this association with them I was a neophyte golfer, calling anything under 70 for 9 holes a good day. And it was. Back then.

Now that we’re older apparently the competition has become more meaningful, or it’s easier to forget more of the bad shots I make, either of which could be responsible for me lowering my scores to the very low 50’s. Today I shot 53 which is really, really good for me. It would have been lower yet had I been able to make some pretty simple putts. One putt I made from about 10 feet out went into the middle of the cup, hit the plastic edge of the hole liner and bounced right back at me, landing about 4 inches from the hole. Remarkable. But, it was fun for all. Doug also had a 53 and Junior beat us both with a 52. In another couple of years I should be able to get my scores into the 40’s. Could be, too, that I’ll lose all my balls before that happens and I won’t have to worry about it.

After golf Doug brought me home. He agreed to do that because Jewel drove me to the course because I still need to put the windshield wipers on my old truck and it was raining. It rained on us most of the way around, but we didn’t care.

I quickly changed my clothes and jumped in the back seat of Diane’s truck and we headed for Dallas to watch Lydia play soccer. That’s Dallas, Oregon, not Texas. It’s near Salem, toward the Oregon coast.

The first half Lydia sat on the bench watching as the St. Helens defense floundered a little and went to the locker room down 2-1. Morgan, the first half goalie, didn’t get a lot of help from her team mates keeping the ball out of the net, and she made some really good stops. Lydia took over goalie duties in the second half and the girls’ offense kicked into gear for 3 more goals. The defense, aided by some pretty awesome saves by Lydia, held Dallas scoreless ending it with a 4-2 win for our girls. It was a really good 2-hour bus ride home for St. Helens I’m sure. They played very well as a team.

Now we’re home and it’s time for bed so I’m stopping.

G’nite.

Listening

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Listening involves a lot more than just hearing what someone says. There’s a whole lot of body language that one needs to pay attention to, too. I’ve never been very good at the listening part, but I’m getting a handle on the body language that results when I don’t listen as hard as I should.

For instance, while out shopping in the outlet mall in Lincoln City this past week, Diane went to the Maidenform store to get some new bras while I took the long way around the facilities in search of stuff. I had no plan. I’d already purchased the cheese cutter I wanted from the Kitchen Kaboodle store and there wasn’t anything on my list. Know this, Diane suggest, I’m told, that I should seek out another nice shirt for our trip back east later this month. I filed that away and made a concerted effort to comply but shirts were scarce in the stores I thought I might visit. I suggested that I would be happy to go pick out a bra for her if she would get the shirt, but that summarily dismissed as inappropriate. I guess she still doesn’t know that I always cruise the bra section at Freddie’s when we go there.

So, I wandered off, passing many stores that featured women’s clothing … I mean, I passed a bunch of them … but not one men’s store encroached on my field of vision. That could have been a subliminal thing, I suppose, since I really wasn’t looking for men’s clothes.

Something shiny in a tool store caught my eye as I passed so I stopped and discovered it was a new kind of meat tenderizer and lawn aerator combination thing that you strap to your feet. It had 3 inch spikes all over the bottom of a piece of rubber with little bungee cords to keep the user from falling off. I supposed it would also be useful in really bad weather to keep one from slipping on the ice. Surprised that it wasn’t mentioned on the brochure, I figured the manufacturer missed out on another sales opportunity.

I set the spike shoes aside after the store manager noticed I was making little holes in the floor, and moved on to the section where a vast array of hand tools were displayed. By this time, of course, thoughts of getting a new shirt had been removed from my short-term memory, and out the door. It just wasn’t there any more.

Then I came across this table of shirts that were obviously made for men and the words “GET SHIRT” scrolled across the inside of my forehead and I knew I needed to get one of them. Thankfully, they were all the same color and there were only two choices for the wording.

Simple, right? Well, I pondered for about 30 minutes between the two and finally made the choice …

Shirt

The other shirt read, “When a Man says he will FIX IT, he will FIX IT. There’s no need to remind him every six months“. I would have gotten that one instead but there were too many words on it.

Although it’s not what Diane had in mind, she liked it so I was able to defuse a potentially contentious situation by doing the wrong thing. Too bad all my wrong decisions don’t turn out that way.

Good Day.

Toilets

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Sometimes, when the weather’s nice, I kinda wish we still had out houses instead of indoor toilets. Toilets are complex and require special tools and parts to get them installed and maintain them. You need screws, screw drivers, hammers, nails, wood, a water source, wax rings, and either connection to a septic system or to a city sewer system.

Out Houses? All you need is some old lumber, like a barn that fell down, a saw, nails and a shovel. Dig a suitable sized hole, build a small room (one or two holer) to fit over it, add an old Sears catalog and you’ve got a totally functional facility. What’s even better is that once the hole you dug fills to a certain level (a couple of feet below ground level, say), all you need to do is pick the house up, move it out of the way, and dig a hole close to the last one and simply fill the old hole with the contents of the new one. When done, set the house on the new hole.

Funny story. When I was very young this is what we had. My much older brothers are much more knowledgeable about the use of out houses. One of those brothers was known for his ability to jump over the old hole after the house was moved and the other brother was known for his ability to only jump half way across the hole. In his new white boots. It is my understanding that Mom told Dad that if the half-way jumper sank to just leave him there. Lucky for him he only sank to his armpits. I think he lost the boots, too, but I’m not sure.

So, I leave you with that image in your head – a small child up to his armpits in effluvia from the bowels and bladders of many, many people, littered with all manner of saturated cleansing media, and maybe a bee’s nest or two.

Sleep on that.

Beverly Beach State Park to St. Helens

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We’re home, and I’m now able to use my handy-dandy keyboard instead of the fake one on my iPad screen. Although it worked OK, I much prefer the clickety-clack of a real keyboard.

We slept in this morning, again, like we’ve done all week. Once we were up and navigating, Diane made a very weak pot of coffee so I’ve been uncaffeinated all day. Even though I doctor my coffee with half & half & sugar, it just wasn’t quite right. She agreed with me and it’s OK to make a mistake once in a while. But I let her know that it better NEVER happen again. You believe that, right? Ya. Sure you do. You know me better than that.

We just mosied through the morning getting everything put away in preparation for the trip home. Diane takes care of everything inside the trailer, and I do the outside. The rule is that if anything inside the trailer breaks, it’s her fault. If anything outside the trailer breaks it’s because something inside the trailer was stowed in the wrong place. Not true, of course. I just have to get the trailer strapped to the truck, the bikes strapped to the back of the trailer, and Diane strapped in her seat. Then we go to the dump and empty the holding tanks. That’s one of the funnest parts of a trip. We left a little early so didn’t have to endure the unending line of people waiting for the slowest guy in the world to finish so the next slowest guy could take his place until it’s finally your turn and you find yourself taking your time, making you the slowest dump guy in the world. It’s a “thing”.

After the dump we jumped on Highway 101 North and drove non-stop to Warranton where we stopped at PetCo and got the dogs some more food. Then we took a short trek to Doogers which is located just before the Youngs Bay Bridge. We planned to eat our afternoon meal there as soon as we got in the truck for the trip so the anticipation built for almost 3.5 hours until we finally arrived. Diane had a tuna melt an I had halibut fish and chips. Both were very good. I ate all of mine but Diane couldn’t finish hers. It was a huge sandwich so I understand.

From Warranton we drove straight home, arriving somewhere between 5 and 7. I don’t know exactly when because I didn’t check the clock. I’m pretty sure I’m right, though. It took me a while to jockey the trailer back and forth to get it in just right spot before unhooking it so Diane could put the truck away. Then I rescued the bikes and put them away, also. Diane wanted to leave the trailer plugged in so she wouldn’t have to empty the refrigerator tonight, but it kept blowing the breaker. So, I just unplugged it and left the reefer on gas. That simplified things, a lot. After doing that I think I discovered the reason the breaker tripped … the trailer water heater was still on electric. That’ll eat up some juice.

Now my day is done, except for some photos …

 

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There’s a whale in the middle of the photo about 200 feet off shore.

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Beverly Beach is the long stretch of sand toward the top.

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Beverly Beach looking south

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Beverly Beach looking north. It was so crowded that we didn’t stay long.

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Goodwill parking lot. Diane said, “See. I’m not the only one who parks this way.”

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Remnants of an interesting tree in the park. Looks like some sort of critter, doesn’t it? You can see on top where the tree was removed, leaving just the roots.

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Interesting.

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Yes, we rode our bikes.

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Diane sat on the beach and just watched the waves while I roamed around picking up brown rocks.

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That’s the way back to Beverly Beach State Park, under Highway 101.

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There was a big dog running around on the beach before we got there. Would have liked to seen it. 


Thrift Stores and The Newport Cafe

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Newport Cafe. Need I say more? That’s where we ate lunch yesterday after an arduous couple hours of wandering around town looking at stuff. Actually, the stuff we were looking at was in the thrift stores we found. We also went to a Restore Store where I bought a portable air tank that still had air in it. I was so happy because last week I almost bought one half as big at O’Reilly’s for twice the price. And it didn’t come with air already in it. I just need to spruce up the old tank with a wire brush and some paint. I just hope that when it’s totally filled with air that I can still pick it up. It had 50 pounds of air in it when I got it which didn’t seem too bad, but the gauge indicates it will hold 160 pounds and I’m not sure my tiny little biceps are up to it.  We’ll see. 

That brings us back to the Newport Cafe. After all that shopping we were hungry so started looking for places to eat. As soon as we turned the corner back on to Highway 101 the Newport Cafe was just right there beside us so it was kind of like an omen the at we should eat there. It’s a small place and we weren’t sure if we would be able to find a place to sit. But, stepping out of our routine of opting for a booth in the back, we took two seats at the counter. We were lucky to get them because there are only five of them. I sat next to a lady, whose name I did not get, who is a deep sea fisherperson. She was ingesting eggs, hash browns, and a ribeye steak before heading out to sea to catch black fish. Don’t know what those are, and didn’t ask because it really didn’t matter. She told me lots of stuff about how she catches fish that I knew I’d forget, and I did except for the black fish info. That, and her boat is 36 feet long. Oh, and she strings out about 10 miles of line from fifty buckets of line that has segments with hooks about 3 feet apart. Those are dropped with an anchor and a buoy so she can find them later in the day. I agreed with her that it’s a lot of work to haul in 10 miles of line full of fish. Must be brutal, but lucrative.

The Cafe employees were all young men wearing baseball hats, with flat brims, that covered the top part of their ears. They all looked like they had either just finished a rap video or had just cruised in on the skate boards. They were all incredibly nice, very pleasant, and served us one of the best hamburgers (me) and  melts (Diane) we’ve ever had the pleasure of wrapping our lips around. It’s a place we highly recommend in case you ever find yourself in Newport and are in need of a terrific meal.  

When we were done eating we came back to the park and wandered around in the beach in a daze. We’ll, I wandered around while Diane sat on a log and watched me pick up all the brown rocks on the beach that no one else wanted. I found it interesting that I’m the only one on the beach that picks up brown rocks. They’re so pretty. Way prettier than the black ones. 

Another coup for the day was that the satellite antenna found some satellites. I put the antenna on top of the trailer theprevious  evening to try it out but couldn’t get it to work so just shoved it off to the side so I could get on the ladder. Yesterday, on a whim, I tried it again and discovered that I had apparently pushed it out of the way in just the right way so that all the HD channels showed up. Now we’re roughing it with HDTV. 

We also rode our bikes all over the park. I think that was this morning, but it could have easily been yesterday afternoon. I’m pretty sure it was this morning, though. It was a nice long ride during which I discovered a dire need for air to fill my back tire. I either gained a lot of weight recently, or the tire has lost some air, because it was embarrassingly low during our journey. Diane’s was fine, so I’m going with the weight gain.  Now I must go on a diet.

Today we went to Lincoln City just for fun, and to visit the Goodwill store, which gave us a perfect reason to have lunch at the buffet in the Chinook Winds Casino. It was great, and not a bank breaker like those in Las Vegas. It only cost $21.00 dollars for the both of us. Cheaper than the fast food places we’ve recently visited. 

After lunch, we stopped by Goodwill on the way home. As we left Diane said she had set a time limit of 4:30 pm and we left at exactly that time. 

Now we’re back in the trailer for our last night away from home for a while. It’s the place to be because it started raining cats and dogs on our way back. It’s good to be in a trailer when it’s raining.

Now I must go to bed. 

Whale, Crab, & Depoe Bay

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Today was a real lazy one. Although we got up at a reasonable time, we didn’t leave the trailer until afternoon when we decided to visit Depoe Bay. While pondering that short trip we just sat and read our books. We read a lot, just sitting here in the quiet. 
It must have rained last night because there were puddles on our picnic table.  By the time we got in the truck the sun was trying to shine, and by the time we got to Depoe Bay it was in full bloom. Sunshine everywhere. Our objective was lunch at Gracie’s Sea Hag restaurant.  We always eat there when in the vicinity because it’s good.  I have the Crab Louie, and Diane has fish and chips. It’s the best around. 

Before going in to eat, however, we sat on a bench overlooking the inlet to the bay from the ocean and we were treated to a terrific show by a pod of whales. They were spouting all over the place and some were rolling to show us their fins and others gave us good looks at their tales. It was pretty awesome.  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen whales off the Oregon coast. I forgot to mention that on the way through Depoe Bay on Monday we had to stop at the light and saw whales spouting so we knew they were in the area. What a treat. 

We returned to the park around 4:30 pm and sat on the beach for an hour, huddled in our winter coats watching the little children play in the freezing water unfazed. I actually remember those days when I thought the Pacific Ocean was warm. Brrrrrr. 

When the wind picked up, making the kiters happy, we returned to the trailer to warm up. Before going in I reconnected the satellite dish just for fun (it didn’t work yesterday) and it worked. Diane’s ecstatic!  It works. Our southern exposure is severely limited so I’m surprised it worked. Now we can watch HGTV all night. Great, right?

I’m quitting now, before I get into trouble. 

Don’t forget to revisit this weeks entry next week because I’ll be adding photos. In case you’re interested. 

Beverly Beach & Wal*Mart

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So, here we are at Beverly Beach on the glorious Oregon Coast. We arrived yesterday afternoon when it was bright, sunny, and warm. The space (C7) had all the necessary features (water, sewer, electricity, cable TV) but it was only 32 feet long. The trailer and truck need more like 45 feet of space.  But, we parked, got the trailer stabilized and spent a pretty good night in the quiet. Right behind our spot is an ongoing bank stabilization project to keep the park from falling into the creek behind us. Big trees coming down and big rocks being added. Fun to watch but noisy when they got to work around 9 this morning. 

People gathered in the closed spot next to us to watch the chaos. So, I went to visit the Rangers to see if there was something a little further inland that was available. I though it was worth a shot because we watched a lot of big rigs filing out of the park.  Luck was with us and Taylor, my Ranger, closed us out if C7 and logged us into G36. Doing this meant we’d have to rough it without sewer and TV. There was an outside chance the satellite receiver might work but it didn’t. 

BUT, G36 is a 65 foot long pull through spot so it was OK. We just decided we’d skip showers and only go to the bathroom every second time we felt the need. Now, considering our advanced age, that last bit was a stretch so we decided instead that we’d only flush every second time. After careful consideration we decided the heck with it, we’re on vacation, so we’re just going to use the bathroom whenever we want to. As many times as we want to.  When the tank gets full we’ll deal with it.

Sadly, when removing stuff from the truck I discovered that my treasured iPad has a cracked screen. It still works good, but it’s very unsightly and I just know that it won’t be long before I suffer a sever, life altering injury while swiping through one of my books. So, I’ll be looking at new ones sometime soon. 

Speaking of books … I downloaded a new one from iBooks yesterday and it doesn’t work like all the others. I checked. Instead of advancing a page forward when tapping the ride side of the screen, it goes back one page. Just the opposite of all the other books I have. Also, when viewing it in two column mode, you must read the right column first, then the left one or it doesn’t make any sense. So, I put it in scroll mode, which I don’t like but will use because I like the book. Very odd behavior. 

This morning, before changing spots, we went to Wal*Mart in Newport to get Diane some socks because her feet were cold and she didn’t bring any and I wouldn’t let her use mine. I knew right where Wal*Mart was because I had to go there yesterday to get an RV water regulator to replace the one I left laying on the garage floor at home. After returning “home” we went to the beach and took a nice long walk.  According to Diane’s Fitbit we went 3.5 miles. Pretty good. I came back with a nice load of rocks to mess with. The first one I found was an agate. The rest weren’t. 

I have photos for all the things I mentioned, but can’t add them from my iPad. If I remember, I’ll add them when we get home next month. Until then. Stay safe and don’t believe everything you hear on the news. And, I lied about my socks. Diane can wear them any time she wants. 

Observations From The Road

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The other day I noticed a Tesla Model S in the park and ride lot for the Columbia County Rider.  Seemed a little odd to me that someone driving an electric vehicle would park it then jump on a gas guzzling bus. Could be, I suppose, they needed what charge they had remaining for their trip home after work. 

Speaking of electric vehicles. Do you, like me, find it unfair that electric car drivers are provided premium parking places, with chargers, all over the place? Seems to me that we who can’t afford an electric car should be provided comparable parking spots with gas pumps. 

Just sayin.