Bit of a letdown...

My brother and sister-in-law were here for the week. We had to be 'vicarious' tourists, since we had to work, but in spite of (well, alright, probably because of?) our not being able to take off and join them in their explorations, they seem to have had a great week. They went off each morning with a suggested destination and their GPS device and had a grand time. They enjoyed some of our favorite places, and found some new ones along the way to suggest to us as well.

(I always enjoy people who know how to have a good time!)

Bit of a let down now that they're on their way home...


So the notion of 'compromises' has already been in the back of my head regarding the whole 'work vs leisure' thing: Compromises on what you'd like to do vs. what you need to do; what circumstances call for vs. an ideal that is probably unattainable; the need, sometimes, to come to a consensus instead of just holding out until you get what you want; the desire to accommodate in order to be 'fair.'

Not really a 'right' vs. 'wrong' sort of thing, but rather a 'right' vs. 'not-quite-what-it-should-be' sort.

And then in the news today, I find, once again, the continued discussion of the biggest and most spectacularly unsuccessful series of attempted compromises ever: national legislation. In particular, this time, federal legislation on immigration.

A committee worked 'behind closed doors' for weeks to hammer out a compromise between two very different positions - open-borders (but only with Mexico?) vs. closed-borders, 'give me your tired and poor' vs. 'lets give priority to those who can support themselves and contribute to our general welfare,' and 'amnesty' vs. 'deportation-for-all-in-spite-of-the-fact-that-we-know-we-will-never-enforce-that' - and came up with a proposal that, evidently, NO ONE can agree to.

Isn't compromise wonderful?

Only with THIS sort of compromise (and just like in their policy discussions on Iraq) the notion of 'right' isn't really the point. They will argue and posture and grandstand and ridicule each other (in front of as many cameras as possible, of course) and at the end of the day go home to their lobbyists and political contributors and report that all will be well for those special interest folks who are really making a lot of money by keeping things just the way they are.

Yes, that's a bit of letdown too.

Hiking again

We couldn't resist it. We had stuff to do today but we were really anxious to get back to our new favorite trail to see if there were more/different flowers and to see what the other part of the trail was like, and just to... see.

So, a couple more pictures from the Iron Goat Trail:

More oddities in observations

I got lost going home yesterday (not the point of this story but, yes, an oddity in and of itself, and related to very winding roads with tall trees and few cross-streets as I was looking for an alternate route to avoid traffic.) Ummmm... anyway, Observations from yesterday:

First -

So, yes, I was driving... randomly... and ran across a lovely and exclusive-looking neighborhood on a ridge with a big rock entrance wall announcing the name of the development: Gunshy Ridge. I thought that was a weird name until I drove down the hill and came to the next cross-street with another sign for yet another, adjacent, development - Hunters Glen. Those poor folks in Gunshy Ridge!

Second -

Having spent hours trying to get home, we decided to just go out for dinner -and went to our local "Teriyaki " place (our little town is FULL of Teriyaki places - go figure) for, you guessed it, Chicken Teriyaki. While waiting for our food and sitting at a table in the small dining room, we noticed that the kitchen, with its open door, had several pizza delivery boxes from Dominos Pizza. They know better than to eat their own food? (We enjoyed it anyway.)

Third -

Browsing the internet after I got home again, I ran across an article about a 90 year old 'mobster' who had been arrested. Maybe the reporter was getting much of his 'background story' from the police blotter because the details provided of several past parole violations (which resulted, previously, in arrests and jail time for this poor gentleman) were of the cookie-cutter variety of where the person was at the time of his arrest, who was he with, what was he doing... And in each case he was in violation of the order to not associate with 'known criminals.'

The article went like this: "He was jailed for three years after a November 2000 meeting at a coffee shop with three Colombo family associates. Another time, he spent two years behind bars after federal agents watched him enjoying a bowl of spinach soup with mob associates at a restaurant." I suspect that the reporter was feeling a little foolish - because he added, to an otherwise serious and professionally written news article, this:

"No details this time on where Franzese had violated his parole or what he might have been eating or drinking at the time."

Our Squirrel

We've been feeding a squirrel. Not, evidently, something you are supposed to do. We can't say we haven't been warned. "They're pests," our friends and neighbors say; just another form of rodentia.

Well, cute rodentia. We have to give them that.

But we have ulterior motives. We have two indoor cats who like to watch the world outside. And if we attract things that move in that outside world, life is more interesting for our cats - and no more threatening to the things-that-move. That's why we have a bird feeder, a wildly blooming fuschia... and a pan of squirrel food underneath our patio table.

Maddie is fascinated. She watches for him by the window on high alert. They seem like they are the same 'thing' - similar size and color except that Maddie has big ears and a skinny tail and the squirrel has little ears and a fat tail.

(When my sister was here Maddie alerted us to the presence of both the squirrel and a large cat in our back yard. My sister thought the cat was stalking the squirrel and that maybe Maddie was 'about to have a traumatic experience' - so we opened the door to yell at the cat, with unexpected results. It was the squirrel who charged the cat, not the other way around! I think the cat was embarrassed; it wandered off, pretending that it didn't see anything. That's the sort of squirrel we have.)

"Critter food" is available from our local grocer. It has corn and grain and peanuts in it. What the squirrel doesn't eat, the jays get. But what the squirrel seems to really LOVE to eat is the peanut part. So in addition to the critter food, we've been buying bags of peanuts in the shell. (Trying to give him a balanced diet, while still attracting him to our feeder.)

And those peanuts have been disappearing as fast as we can get them down. Boy, that squirrel is eating peanuts!

Or so we thought.

We were out in our front garden on Sunday digging holes for some new plants and found a couple of peanuts-in-the-shell under the daffodils.

Hmmmm...

And, while there, we overheard our neighbors talking as they were cleaning out their boat from its winter storage. They were wondering about who had ever been eating peanuts in their boat, and when?

I guess we figured he was OUR squirrel, in OUR back yard and OUR tree and OUR deck. We didn't realize his territory might cover a much larger area, and that he might be a pest to our neighbors too.

Oops.

Old friends in new places

When I lived in Alaska I had a lilac in my front yard. In spite of embarrassing neglect, it put on a spectacular show every spring and was the one thing I mourned the loss of when I moved away. We planted one in our yard in Oregon the following year, but it was too young to bloom for a while and only started putting out flowers the year we moved away. The California yard wouldn't support one, I never got one going in Kentucky, and of course we spent last spring in Horrible Apartment Hell without even a thought of flowers. When we moved to this house late last summer I started dreaming of landscape design again - with lilacs high on the list of 'hopes' - but with the drainage situation... well, you know what happened there - nothing but water and mud so far.

But miracles happen. There is a straggly shrub/tree in the corner of the yard, outside the kitchen window, that started showing signs of buds. Sure enough. They opened to great fragrance and fanfare - I have a lilac again!

We'll need to fertilize and maybe trim some, and try to make sure its feet don't get too wet. But if it bloomed this year, it will bloom again next year as well. I'm confident.

Actually, I'm thrilled!

Waiting in line at the Post Office

I had to go to the post office this morning. This is something I try to avoid at all cost, having had dreadful experiences with this sort of thing for years.

First, always, there is the people-watching opportunity. This is not a group ready for prime time. At least I always expect ‘characters’ at the post office. And sure enough, in walked a woman easily in her mid-to-late 40s – wearing the shortest skirt I have ever seen outside of a skating rink. Substantial ‘pins’ on her too. She looked like a circus elephant in costume. Oh well.

It’s a ‘new’ post office, from the old days. All kinds of merchandise is now available, including some quite-nice mailing supplies – colored boxes and envelopes with big designs… and toys, designed to be demanded by all the little kids who are whining while their parents are waiting in line. (And I can certainly attest to its efficacy.) We are talking ‘impulse’ buying here. Point-of-sale, psychological appeal stuff.

I get that. Stamp collectors, people with mailing needs, whiny kids...

But who do they think will be attracted to the Thurgood Marshall lapel pin they have for sale?

Hiking

There are many 'rails to trails' projects in our area - as I've said before - and we finally managed to find one that we knew was there but couldn't locate the trailhead before - the Iron Goat Trail. It is in the Stevens Pass area of the Cascade Mountains and was the original site of the Great Northern Railroad's first attempt to get through the mountains.

The fascinating thing about this trail is the artifacts left from the railroad: remains of 'snowsheds' they constructed over the rails to protect the trains from avalanche, huge concrete barriers to hold back the erosion of streams, flat sheets of metal used for roofing, and even pots and pans from holdovers in the snow.

The railroad ran steam engines over this pass and the sparks from the engines and wheels caused forest fires - many forest fires! So between the extensive cutting for lumber to make all the 'snowsheds' and the forest fires, this is a relatively new forest area. There are beautiful deciduous trees and wildflowers galore. Because of the higher elevation, a lot of the trees are just getting started with their leaves, but the trillium is going nuts just now and other familiar Northwest plants are coming out as well - skunk cabbage, salmonberries, and beautiful wild violets. We even found a big patch of Bleeding Heart just starting to bloom!

Heaven.

But I really am going to have to start carrying my reading glasses along for picture taking. I thought I was getting wonderful close-ups of the trillium - even the pinky variety - and when I got home and looked at the pictures on the screen I saw that the flowers were damaged. I should have been looking for 'perfect' specimens. Oh well.

I just had to share:


This is a stream that was protected from erosion by a timber 'floor' - an artifact not discovered until the 1990s when volunteers were working on the trail conversion:

Skunk Cabbage, for you 'outlanders' who might not recognize it:

I hope it doesn't look too wintery for Carl and Kathy's visit!