It must be...

Did you see the story about the massive 'communal' spider web in Texas? It's a mosquito trap, and it covers a 200-yard stretch of trail in a park. According to the article, it was white when it was first built but is now brown with mosquito carcasses.

I don't know about you, but I would give up hiking forever if I happened upon such a thing. Nightmares are inspired by lesser evidence of spiders than this.

It used to be that everything unexplainable was attributed to Aliens - the outer space sort of aliens, I mean. "What else could it have been?" we'd ask. (The modern-day alien-explanation equivalent is 'Global Warming' but that's another story.) And I think I'd rather it WAS aliens than to think that a group of spiders could just decide to take over a park. So how DO you explain this? What were they thinking? Just how many mosquitoes did they think they needed? So much for the myth about the balance of nature! Is this just a little OCD behavior? One little spider on a binge? Nature's response to the obesity epidemic? Clean-up time? Boredom? Lack of spider predators?

Oooh. I shudder to think.

Fall is happening

It suddenly feels like fall. There is a little bit of color starting, yes, and the temperature has dropped slightly, particularly at night. We've lost a lot of daylight, when we stop to think about it. The potted flowers are starting to fade, the air is just a little bit fresher. But still; it's not quite September. You wouldn't think the little changes would add up - just yet - to a different season, but there it is: Fall is happening in the Northwest.

It all makes me think I need to rush about. That I need to finish things. Or start them. That resolutions, or plans, or commitments need to be made and action taken - after a lethargic summer of not getting much done.

But that's the nice thing about being on the cusp of the changing seasons. I can talk myself out of any drastic action pretty easily. There's still time to sit back without feeling guilty about it.

What a lovely time of year.

Again?

Maybe it's just that I get hung up on certain words. I just noticed that 3 of my last 5 postings had the word "again" in the title. What's up with that? Through a span of 3 weeks, I have an echo in my mind? Or maybe...

Why do the song lyrics "if you paid attention you'd be worried too" come to mind?

Uninspired, again

I haven't had much to say again lately. I'm uninspired. Some days are like that. (Or weeks, or months.) Oh well.

I try not to let my life get caught up too seriously in everyday living. I don't have a routine for going to Costco every Saturday morning like a woman I knew in California, or a day when I vacuum the drapes like someone I read about once. My weekends aren't predictable, my evenings aren't prescribed, my bedtime isn't set in stone.

I like variety. I like to stay involved in life with a wide range of interests and things to think about. But sometimes, it seems, it is just comfortable to sink into oblivion and 'hang out' doing - and thinking - nothing. Putter around the house, maybe. Page through stacks of old magazines to simply look at the pictures. Watch landscaping shows on HGTV. Nap.

We did have a plan for this weekend. We were finally going to make a new gate for our yard to replace the one we took apart last year so that we could get the John Deere tractor between the front and the back yards, and which the big storm last December ultimately finished off. (We think the remains got burned by our neighbors in the 'blackout' after the storm when we were all trying to stay warm! Somehow I am very entertained by that thought.) Anyway, we set off for a Home Depot expedition yesterday morning (getting sidetracked only for a short while by the nearby bagel place) and came home ready to get started. We'd been lured by a 'gate kit' that promised to make gate-making simple and foolproof and which, since we didn't really know HOW to make a gate, seemed like a good idea.

Of course we laid out all the parts and poured over the instructions (Written, obviously, by the Chinese with an inadequate grasp of English, in 5 steps, despite the clearly advertised-on-the-box statement that there were only 3 steps) only to realize that we had way more parts than were mentioned in the instruction sheet and even a few more than were listed on the "Parts" list. Oh well. We pressed on. (With a lot of 'bucking ourselves up' talk of the sign we were going to create and put on the "Gate Kit" display at Home Depot describing its inadequacies for all to see.)

I would have given up in despair several times along the way but Mark was Mr. Optimism himself and we managed to get the thing up. We didn't even have to take it apart half-way through and turn something over or reverse a part. And it fit. It is level. It works!

Well, as far as we got. In our joy at getting the functional mechanics of it straight, we decided to put off cutting and nailing the actual boards in place until today in favor of getting the lawn mowed and some yard trimming done. And therein was our mistake - today it is raining cats and dogs and we can't get it finished. So there is our incomplete metal frame, flapping around on an otherwise wooden fence, for all the neighbors to see...

Again I say: Oh well.

So today I am uninspired, and sinking into oblivion. Not a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday.

Reporting

We put on a lot of miles. We had a great vacation with Gail and Greg. Time to report...


Of course we wandered around in Seattle (street walking) and went to the aquarium where I tried and tried to get jellyfish pictures once again and wasn't even very successful with the otters. Oh well. We took the Underground Tour - very funny - and ate seafood and prowled through the Market. Very nice.




We also drove over Steven's Pass on Hwy 2 - a beautiful drive - and went to Leavenworth but got caught up in the shops (you have to buy fudge, you know) and forgot, until it was too late, about the wonderful riverfront park they have. Oh well. Next time.


We drove all the way out to Hurricane Ridge, watching the clouds close in on our destination the whole way across the Olympic Peninsula. And on the way up the mountain, it was so foggy we could hardly see the road. But when we got to the top, slowly the clouds parted, first a little here and then a little there... until we had an idea of the altitude and the mountains and the vast meadows of this wonderful National Park. Maybe this is the way it is supposed to be seen anyway.

We hiked our favorite trail, saw 2 lighthouses, walked across the big Bridge at Deception Pass, took several ferry rides, watched optical illusions at Snoqualmie Falls. It was a whirlwind tour. And a lot of fun.

Sigh.

Company again!

We have out-of-town company coming again. Tomorrow!

I LOVE having company. We get to be tour guides, show off our town, and get family involved in our lives. It makes me feel more at home. I get to plan what attractions to visit, figure out meals and snacks around Northwest Foods and enjoy a vacation vicariously without all the trouble of actually taking one.

I've gotten a little carried away though. Can't decide what to do and when. Too many choices, too little time.

Oh well. The house is almost clean and the shopping is about to get done and things are all abuzz. It will all come together and we'll have a grand time.

I can hardly wait.

Confidence

Our uber-cat Frik perched precariously on the foot of the bed at the crack of dawn this morning and, with great fanfare and announcement, launched a humongous hairball over the edge. He didn't care at all (as cats don't) that it landed on my ridiculously expensive and fragile bedspread and spilled over onto the beautiful deep red area rug below. That it abruptly woke us up from the deep and satisfying sleep that only a Saturday morning can bring disturbed him not at all. He looked on approvingly as we scrambled for towels and cleaning solutions, and then ambled off toward his food dish in the full confidence that breakfast would be served shortly. A good morning's work, if he DOES say so himself. And he does.

I've always known there were lessons to be learned from our four-legged companions. I've just been unable to learn them. Where does a person get the confidence to just get 'results' without regard for the ensuing mess? Or to do your job and know that others will then have to do theirs? Or to believe that you play your part in the world as an individual, not part of a collective? Is 'confidence' the right term? Maybe not.

It sounds like a bad thing, doesn't it? On first reading you can imagine dictators, money-grabbers, sweat-shop operators, or big-business polluters. But this is also the pattern for successful and innovative entrepreneurs, medical researchers, chefs, political cartoonists, teachers, inventors, writers... cats.

Spectacularly successful and beneficial, or disastrously one-sided. I guess it depends on how you define 'results.'

You get things done with confidence and purpose. I can appreciate that. Just don't puke on my bedspread while you are doing it.