I’m not sure what I meant to write today. There have been several ideas, none of which made it to this page before becoming sidetracked. We have been exploring, balancing our checkbook, and spending almost half the week in Portland. Sunrises. Pedicures (not mine). Travel (not me either).
This is not a sad story, so bear with me. No one dies in this story. A car is injured, but we’re over that.
My husband has an unfortunate relationship, or anyway some unfortunate experiences with wild animals. He worked at Woodland Park Zoo and got on well with the wolf and the birds, but did suffer an injury from a frightened elephant that resulted in surgery many years later. He was not the one who frightened the elephant and he never blamed the elephant for his injury. He loves animals. There was also the time he pulled over to the side of the road because of the herd of elk, and while he sat in our nearly-new Honda wagon on the shoulder the elk ran into the car. The elk were fine, but the car almost died.
But today’s story is about the deer.
Continue readingThe package contained only the book and the note. It’s true that my classroom Bible had vanished, a New International Version, but that would have been at least six years ago before I retired from teaching full time and had to clear my classroom book shelves. I usually kept a Qur’an on my shelves too. I am interested in scripture. I am respectful of sacred text.
RATTLE is a poetry journal that emails poetry each morning, including a weekly response to a current event. Today, I received a form poem that made me sit up and feel. What follows is the mother’s explanation of where her words were birthed and a link to the poem.
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We’ve been busy hustling back and forth, walking our 25 miles a week (and me running a few of those), working on our second home, and admiring everything we see.
Continue readingToday is my high school reunion, the 50th delayed to year 51, and it is also my elder son’s 41st birthday. I will be baking a vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free cake later today. Our family is coming. They’ve had good reason to stay safe, isolated, and healthy. So that is the best reason for staying home. But there’s also the pandemic, which is the real reason.
My 50th high school reunion is coming up in less than a week. It is actually our 51st graduation anniversary, but there was that pandemic. Actually, the pandemic is still raging, and locally it’s worse than ever with more cases daily than we saw in a month last year. I live in a tourism destination and we routinely see license plates from Texas and Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, not to mention plenty from Washington, Idaho, and California. Sometimes there are more cars from out of state than Oregon on the road. Who can blame them for coming?
Ripper: I don’t know how well I could stand up under torture.
Mandrake: Well of course the answer to that is, boy, no one ever does. And my advice to you, Jack, is to give me the code now. And if those devils come back and try any rough stuff, we’ll fight them together, boy, like we did just now, on the floor, eh? You with the old gun, and me with the belt and the ammo, feeding you, Jack! Feed me, you said, and I was feeding you, Jack.
—Dr. Strangelove: or,
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
There was fog this morning, lovely fog and a bit of wind during my run. Yes, I ran. I am running a bit faster than ten minutes miles. My old easy “light run” pace was nine-minute miles, and that might be what muscle memory is giving me now. I thought my knee might be giving me trouble again, but it didn’t. Sore, but not impeded.
It’s been a crazy week, crazy for a number of reasons I will not try to explain. Gorgeous skies. Pelicans fishing right in front of us. Sand sweeping in. And struggling to find out information. Is it because I am old or because I am a fanatical researcher that I sometimes know more about other people’s jobs than they do? It’s been happening for years. Does that happen to anyone else?
Continue readingThe largest fire in the nation is burning south of us. The Bootleg Fire has destroyed nearly 400,000 acres, the third largest fire in Oregon history, and it merged with another fire on the 19th. It is only 38% contained. We have a family member currently fighting that fire. On top of that, firefighters have been testing positive for covid.
Maybe have a care?
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