PictureTrail is going bye bye. PictureTrail, where I store ukubillion photos, even paying for additional storage that would be there “forever”. I even took the time to write captions on my photos. Shoots. So I’ll transfer everything over here to my blog and make albums in my computer. Twice the work, but then I’ll have them archived here and there.
Nolemana and I took this drive in May, 2005, and it was wonderful. So hold on…we go!
Highway 141 Towards Trout Lake
Nolemana and I had been doing our walk in Boring and Gresham, and this day we decided to walk at Red Sunset Park, also in Gresham. I’m glad we did, because that’s where I’ve been walking ever since. (Nolemana goes with me on Sundays.) This is what the entrance looked like.
I don’t get it. I’m at home more, and have been writing less. It doesn’t make sense, does it? I’m doing different things…like being part of a team that delivers food boxes to farm workers and needy people. How that blesses me to be able to participate in this! And I’m running all the errands now so that Nolemana doesn’t have to go out. And in November I had to take him to the retinologist several times a week because of an infection. (He’s doing better now but it was a scary time.) I’ve also gone back to work part-time, though not too part-time. And cooking. Laundry. I’ve managed to do some knitting and spinning during the Zoom calls that I’m hosting. Oh yeah, and WordPress redesigned how my blog works, so I’ve had to learn all the new da kine with that. I’ve had six friends come down with Covid, which weighed heavy on my mind, and thankfully, all are recovered. Still yet…
Continue readingWell, back in 2003 I wrote this post:
Anden in 2008, this one:
You really need to read those ones first before I tell you the latest. I’ll wait.
Continue readingLest you think that just because the smoke was gone the excitement ended. And silly me. Why would I think it would? Just because my heart rate had slowed down did that mean our worries were over for the time being? Apparently not. Because on September 18th, six days after we’d gotten home, we had a major windstorm, complete with hour-long rolls of thunder, during which, this happened:
We had listened to music all the way home, and were relieved, oh, so relieved, to be home and to see it still standing. I cried driving up our little gravel road. I was so glad we’d left the hummingbird feeders completely full, but I worried about all the tiny birds breathing in all the smoke. The Rufous Hummingbirds had left, and the Annas took their places.
Getting on the road felt good. I put the a/c onto recirculate so that we didn’t have to keep breathing the smoke from outside. The kitties were quiet in their carriers and Hulunani was happy. I was surprised but grateful that there wasn’t more traffic. This is what the freeway looked like as we started out.
Late Friday afternoon I checked out pizza places where we could get takeout so that we wouldn’t have to eat inside. I found this one, Lexi’s Pizza, in Kelso. It got great Yelp reviews, so off we went, again leaving the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door to our room.
Although it’s in Kelso, we had to cross the Columbia River to get there, and despite the smoke, it was really a pretty drive. The place was really busy, but our pizza was ready and service was friendly and easy. It’d be a great place to eat inside, too. We got ours with red sauce instead of ranch sauce. So nani da crust!
California Veggie
Ranch sauce, spinach, mushroom, onion, bell pepper, artichoke, tomato, sun-dried tomato, and shaved parmesan
We woke early the next morning and let the kitties out, got them fed (we’d kept them in the bathroom overnight), and though they didn’t eat much, we knew they were okay. This was our view when we woke up; the smoke was bad even an hour away from the fire we’d just left. I-5 is just over the berm.
I don’t even know how to begin this post. It’s been a whirlwind that started with the Riverside wildfire southeast of Estacada. On Wednesday, September 9th our area was in the Level 1, “Get ready” zone. So even though there was no immediate danger, we began gathering photos, important papers, and irreplaceable memories. Nolemana was still trying to work, too; that didn’t stop non-local clients from needing their appraisal work done. I was tense, and yeah, kinda fearful. The fire was moving fast. A number of my good friends were at Level 2, “Get set!”. Smoke from the fire began to make its appearance.
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