Traffic Woes

It took me nearly 3 hours to get home last night. I left Burbank at 4:45 pm and got to Long Beach at 7:30 pm. It's only 35 miles. Any time there's a sig alert on the 710 freeway, all the surrounding freeways turn into parking lots. I hate LA.

Green

We're up in Seattle again for our bimonthly visit. What beautiful weather! Clear, sunny, warm...and everything is green and blooming! Of course, I'm working, so I haven't been able to enjoy it as much as I'd like. We flew in Sunday morning, and picked up the rental car, and off I went to work. Sigh. No work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get to relax and enjoy the fresh air and scenery.

What I did on Vacation

Here it is, 2007.

Right before and after Christmas, I worked like a dog and my poor wifey had to do all the shopping and keep Nicole occupied while I was at work. Then we packed like crazy people to fly up to Seattle for our bimonthly visit.

We drove up to our friends' house in our rental car in the dark and were greeted by blazing holiday lights on the house and a lighted walkway. All the lights were beautifully reflected by the snow that was still on the ground from the snowstorm they had had a few days earlier. It was so nice to be up there in the woods! Our friends recently put a wood stove in their living room, so we got to keep a fire going most of the time we were there. Wifey got to chop wood (shhhhh don't tell the doc), and we played with and fed the kitties while we house-sat for nearly a week.

I finally did get to see Snoqualmie Falls! We drove up there on New Year's Day and got some great pictures. It was freeeeeezing cold up there, though; the wind was howling and the mist was blowing up from the falls. We didn't stay long, and as we drove back over Tiger Pass on Hwy 18, we got snained* on.

The other thing we did was go to Tubs. I wish we had places like that here in the LA area! I got a half-hour massage, and then we sat in a hot tub for an hour. What a relaxing thing to do!

Our friends came back from their trip on Wednesday. Wednesday night the temperature started dropping and we woke up Thursday morning to a dusting of snow. We had to go into Seattle on Thursday afternoon, and on our way back we got stuck in horrible traffic. Apparently no one knows how to drive when there's snow on the road! The snow level had dropped to 500' and there was 2 to 3 inches of snow on the highway. Grrrrrrrr I hate sitting in traffic!!!! We finally made it back to the ranch. Later that night, the sky cleared up and the temp dropped some more, and then the full moon came out. What a sight! the reflection of the full moon on new-fallen snow.... We tried to take some pictures by moonlight, but they just couldn't capture the reality. We went to bed around midnight and when we woke up Friday morning, even more snow had fallen - I'm not sure when the clouds moved back in, but we were very sorry to have to leave that day. What better vacation than being in front of a roaring fire with a hot cuppa in the woods, with fresh snow on the ground?

* "Snain" is a weather phenomenon that seems to strike only in the Puget Sound area of Washington, a unique situation in which rain and snow mix in such a way that you are not entirely sure if it is rain or snow; thus, "snain".

Scenes from Rural America

The new local Park 'N' Ride ?????

Over the river and through the woods

The leaves are beginning to turn orange, and the musty smell of decomposing vegetation is in the air. The nights are becoming very chill, and the days are cooling down. The cats are snoozing on the couch, the dishes are done, and I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods. We're housesitting for our friends who took off last night for Las Vegas. We got here early enough to enjoy a couple of days of their company first, and now we have the place to ourselves. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

I love it out here. It's green, it's quiet (mostly), and the neighbors are an acre away. The birds sing, the coyotes howl, and there are fresh deer prints in the mud next to the house every morning. You can see your breath as it mists away from you in the twilight. I'm very conscious of the fact that every time we come up here, we'll have to leave again in a few very short days and return to the urban sprawl and rush hour traffic in LA. I hate that part. Just as I start to relax and unwind, I realize we only have two days left. I can't wait until we're able to move up here to our own place and our own land and gardens and animals. I'll hate leaving my family and my kids behind, but they'll all be grown soon and off to college and their careers. There's no guarantee they'll stay in the LA area either.

It's bittersweet being here.

We're getting ready to make our bimonthly trip to Washington. Normally, this preparation includes begging a friend to take care of the cats on a daily basis and bring our mail in. I always feel guilty about asking someone to do that.

Not this time.

Have I mentioned that my now-college-aged son has his own car?

So Mark will be house-sitting as well as cat-sitting while we're gone. I'm sure he's thrilled at the prospect of having some time and space to himself for the first time in his life. It's a little extra prep for us, because it means making sure there are fool-proof and microwave-safe meals available for a hungry on-the-go 18-year-old, but I felt absolutely no guilt asking, and no begging was involved. The cats will be thrilled cuz they know him so well. And okay, I'll have to give him some cash for it, since it's a little further from school and he'll go through a little more gas. And we'll have to make a To-Do list for him so nothing gets forgotten. But I am still very much relieved.

As my wife says, "Children are wonderful labor-saving devices, if used properly."

Back down south

Seattle was HOT and HUMID! The whole time we were there - nearly a week - the temperature was above 100, and 15-20 degrees warmer than the average for this time of year. And of course no one has A/C. We sweated and sweltered, didn't sleep well, and I had no energy. Once the shade hit our friends' backyard in the afternoon, it cooled down a bit, and a quick dip in the pop-up pool or standing in the spray of Charlie's ingenious "Arizona sprinkler" did help. The bees were busy, and the deer flies were buzzing, and I swear we heard a bear in the bushes several times. Never did see him though. The one benefit of the heat? the smell of pine and cedar trees on a hot day....mmmmmmm! And of course it was still about 10 degrees cooler in Seattle than it was in LA during that week. You do know there's no such thing as global warming, don't you?

Traveling during Mercury retrograde is always fun, too. When we booked our flights, we ended up flying up at a really weird time - we usually fly out first thing in the morning (which is normally the cheapest), but we ended up with a flight at 5:30 pm on a Friday night (which was the cheapest this time - go figure!). Of course, the outbound flight was delayed. First by a half hour. Then an hour. By the time we actually took off, our flight was two hours late. We didn't land until 10:30 or 11 pm, picked up the rental car and drove the hour to our friends' house, where we arrived at 12:30 am. At least there was no traffic at that hour. Coming back home wasn't quite as bad. Our flight was only delayed by a half hour or so, and we landed in Long Beach with 7 minutes to spare before curfew. If we'd been 7 minutes later, our flight would have been diverted to LAX. Yuck.

My honey got to celebrate her birthday with her long-time friends, BBQ, cake and ice cream. We got to see her dad every day, and spend time out of the hussle and bustle of our everyday lives. I wish it had been a little more restful; it was awfully hard to get up and go back to work right away. Hopefully our next trip (October) will be more restful!

Wildflowers

Bull thistle and Common Tansy at Pike Place Market

Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) and Common Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) are both members of the aster family. Neither are native to the Americas; both were introduced from Europe, and both seem to thrive along roadsides and other disturbed areas. Thistle down was once used to stuff upholstery - the fluffy down, NOT the prickly bits! The leaves of the tansy may be used as an insecticide, but they are poisonous, so don't put them in your salad!

North to.... no, not Alaska

We're prepping for our bimonthly sojourn to parts north. Still have to do laundry and pack and tie up some loose ends before we catch our late afternoon flight. Usually, it's cooler up there, but this trip, it looks like Seattle is about the same weather as LA - humid, hot, temps in the 90s. At least we'll be out of the rat race, and have a chance for some R&R. Better run... lots to do!




Drac thinks he's going too.

Scotch Broom

Maple Valley, WA

This hills are covered with this stuff. The color is unbelievable.

Scotch broom -- giolcach shleibhe in Gaelic -- is very toxic. It has been traditionally used for protection and purification purposes, and is said to have been used to make brooms, hence the name.

Seattle, cont.

Friday, we did go to the Boeing Museum of Flight. Ivy rode with us, and Christy and Debbie met us there. I wasn't feeling too well (IBS attack), so I wandered around taking pics while the rest of them ooohed and aaaahed. I'm not a real big plane fan. I was much more interested in horses! But I am a history buff, and enjoyed reading all the placards and seeing the ways that planes and flight have developed over the last century. Mary loved it. We went back to Ivy's and barbecued some dinner. Her kids and grandkids came over for a bit, and we watched "Wedding Crashers". Stupid, mindless comedy. Not a great flick, but good for relaxing.

On Saturday, we didn't get to do much. We packed, relaxed a bit, then headed off to see Mary's dad for a while before heading to the airport. We had enough time to actually sit down and eat dinner at Seatac instead of grabbing fast food on the way to the gate.

A short trip, but relaxing. We didn't do nearly as much running around as we normally do, which was nice. We're going back again at the end of July, when we'll have a big ole BBQ birthday party for Mary!

Seattle

We're up in Seattle this week for our bimonthly trip. When we landed on Wednesday morning, the weather was beautiful, and you could see the snowy Mt Rainier off in the distance.... what a tall mountain that one is! I'd hate to see what would happen if Rainier pulled a Mt St Helens. It would be quite a show.

Wednesday after we landed, picked up the rental car. We usually rent an "intermediate", and imagine our surprise when we walked out to the car to find a Sebring convertible!!!! I double-checked my contract to make sure this really was an upgrade and not a mistake! Then we had our usually first morning breakfast at IHOP in Renton, and headed out to our friend Ivy's place near Black Diamond. Had a restful afternoon, visited a neighbor whose cat has three-week-old kittens (awwwww!) and then had a bonfire in the backyard. That was fun!

Thursday morning we slept in, puttered a bit, then got ready to head into Seattle for Mary's doctor visit. While Mary was getting ready, Ivy and I had a visit from a fawn who wandered in the yard, munching leaves until the neighbor's dog chased it off. When we left to head into Seattle, a coyote ran across the dirt road a few yards ahead of us. After the doctor, we went to see Christy and Debbie and had din-din with them. When we got back to Ivy's, we drank rootbeer floats and watched Narnia.

Today, Mary left early to have breakfast with her ex. Ivy and I have been watching tv and chatting. The plan is to go to the Boeing Museum of Flight later today.

It's so restful out here. Quiet, green, big open spaces. Wish we could stay a lot longer!

A whole month gone...

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to blog more often.

Great job so far, eh? LOL

January was a very busy month. The first weekend, we were up in Seattle for five days. We go up every couple of months cuz my honey's doctor is up there, and so is her family. We stay at a friend's place out near Maple Valley, and enjoy the quiet scenery and forest smells in between trips into town. We love that area, and are hoping to buy some property ourselves up there in the next couple of years. We've already staked out our plot, but it's not for sale at this point. It would take a lot of work, because the plot is undeveloped, but it is beautiful, and the land is calling to both of us.

It was a great trip, but the return flight was a real white- knuckler. I haven't had a flight that rough in years. Very turbulent takeoff.

So then I worked for 4 days, we unpacked from Seattle by dumping everything onto the bed, and refilled our suitcases for a road trip to Tucson the following weekend. Yet another rental car -- and since the car wasn't ready until an hour AFTER my reservation, we didn't get on the road until 4pm -- on a Friday, on a 3-day weekend. Needless to say, we didn't get to Phoenix in the 5 hours suggested by Mapquest. It was actually 9 hours by the time we got there. As if it wasn't bad enough getting out of LA/Orange County/Riverside, we had to slam on the breaks just outside of Blythe, where there had been a bad accident. But we did finally find our motel in Phoenix, checked in, and passed out on the bed. The next morning we drove to Tucson, stopping for lunch at Govinda's.

A lot of people have asked me, why Tucson? Well, I do a workshop called "Beyond Categorical Thinking" for Unitarian Universalist churches who are searching for a new minister. The goal is to ensure that ministers who are people of color, have a disability, or are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender have an equal opportunity at getting a settled position. I've been doing these workshops for 9 years now, and it's something I really enjoy. So, that's why we were there. Of course, the best time to drive across the desert and visit Tucson probably is in January!

So I preached and did the workshop there on Sunday, then we drove back halfway and stayed in Blythe Sunday night, finishing the drive home on Monday morning. Even breaking up the drive like that doesn't seem to have helped much. I used to be able to handle really long road trips with no problem, but nowadays it takes me better than a week to recover from them. I end up exhausted, stiff and sore, and barely able to get up and to work on time.

And now, here it is the end of January already! I think I'm finally recovered from the two back-to-back trips. Our next trip isn't until middle of March, thank Goddess. Mabye I'll have the time and energy to catch up on some paperwork and organizing!

An Amazing Trip

(from my previous blog...)

We got back on Wednesday night after a week in Washington. We stayed at Ivy's place in Ravensdale, out in the woods, at the end of a private road. Quiet, green, beautiful... the energy was so amazing. We didn't want to come back home... But at least we know now where we belong, and we will start keeping our eyes open for a good deal on property out there. We got great plans: straw bale yurt/roundhouse, retreat center, medicine wheel, sweathouse, firepit, growing our own herbs and food. No one out there is offering Reiki or alternative healing; the closest one is in Kent. Gotta look into became a certified Herbalist, too, and start getting MM set up and bringing in some cash.

Must be home, cuz Mary and I both tear up when we talk about it....