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Journal Archive 10/01 - 10/10 2007
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October 1 Monday
What a change from yesterday, the rain had disappeared, the sun was out and it had all the makings of a wonderful day. You also know that if the Daily Journal starts off with a line like that, the one which mentions the sun being out, somebody slept in this morning and it wasn't just the family grizzly bear. One of the great benefits of where we are living is the view out the front window, and today it was awesome.
It is one thing to have the ocean out your front window, but when hunger strikes, even a view like that does nothing to mitigate the problem. The answer was simple and Linda put it quite succinctly, "If you're so hungry, fix breakfast." It had me, not only fixing breakfast, but also scratching my head wondering what I had done wrong in the brief time she had been up this morning. Women, who can understand them?
For breakfast we had our usual omelet with FF sour cream, but I was not done cooking. I had noticed that Ron & Terry of the Hitchitch website in their personal blog post for September 30 had picked some huckleberries and Terry had made huckleberry muffins. That got me to thinking about just how good the huckleberry scones I make taste, and before long I was digging through Linda's recipe book looking for how to make them. It made me laugh because last year when we were making those scones quite frequently, I could make them without the recipe. Today, I had trouble even finding the right recipe. One glance and it all came back to me, but getting to that point was a bit of a struggle. It also reminded me that we haven't posted any new recipes for quite a while and we have found several new ones that we are really enjoying. I'll have to put the bug in Linda's ear to type them up.
The old bugaboo about how nothing is easy soon struck. I used the last of whole wheat flour, which meant a trip down to the bay to dig out the bag and refill the plastic container, else Linda would really be giving a piece of her mind the next time she baked. It was also when I learned we had whole wheat pastry flour in the pantry, I had just managed to overlook it somehow. The WW pastry flour makes the scones much lighter and fluffier and I prefer to use it over the regular WW flour whenever I bake. Those couple of small problems not with standing, it wasn't long before the scones were baked and cooling on the counter.
I was also doing some serious work on the computer, not for the website, but the behind the scenes things you do when you learning a new operating system and new programs. I must say that I really, really like using Quanta Plus to generate the website, it is by far the best program I have ever used for this purpose, and I've used quite a few over the years. With me engaged in baking and computers, Linda took it upon herself to practice a little role reversal, heading outside and washing the coach. I did manage to go out for a couple of minutes to take a photo, but she was having so much fun that I thought it best not to offer to help.
Returning to the coach after watching Linda doing all that work, I got the idea to look through our South Beach cookbooks to see if I could come up with another good recipe for dinner. This little activity resulted in a difference in opinion, which is not all that unusual, but the circumstances this time were definitely different. It seems that when Linda came back into the coach she thought I was asleep and took a photo of me taking my nap. I claimed that was not the case, that I was awake, but simply unaware of the fact she had taken a photo of me. Here is the photo, I'll let you decide who was right.
There was one last activity which Linda engaged in, which was watching the neighbors pack up and get ready to leave. There is long story, which I do want to write about, but will have to be in few days when I have more time to write, so for now I will just say that originally we were supposed to move down the Windy Cove campground for October, but due to something which, shall we say, lit a fire under me, it is the other couple who are moving instead of us.
October 2 Tuesday
Back to giving tours today with the weather forecast calling for a 30% chance of rain, but our personal prediction is that it won't rain. This prediction is not based on looking into the future as the forecasters do, but rather, looking into the past, since it has never rained to any extent on any of the days we have ever given tours at the Lighthouse. It has rained cats and dogs on days when we've been off, but the days we have worked have been more of the genteel kind, and we just knew that was going to continue.
The first thing I did when I got up was to start writing the Daily Journal, unfortunately it wasn't yesterday's, it was Sunday's, since I'd neglected to do any writing yesterday. Maybe I'd better rephrase that, I did some writing, it just wasn't for yesterday's Journal article. It was also writing that "wasn't ready for prime time", as the saying goes, but the writer has to work at honing his skills sometime, even if the result turns out to be less than scintillating. With me absorbed in writing, it fell to Linda to not only fix our lunch, but also to cook breakfast, and I could tell from the sounds, there being more than a mere modicum of banging taking place accompanied by the occasional heavy intake of air, that she did not appreciate my attention being 100% focused on writing. She fixed a quick omelet and microwaved a slice of huckleberry scone which made for an excellent breakfast. Of course all this was done at some unusually early hour when I was deep into writing, so when she said, "It's ready", I heard her but didn't acknowledge her, nor did I eat until about 15 minutes later. Needless to say, for some time after that the air inside the coach was quite frosty. You'd think that by now she would understand that I practice total immersion writing, not constant interruption writing.
All the time this was taking place, Linda was also making regular visits to the side window, watching and giving a running commentary on what was taking place. I think she was still amazed that it was the other couple who were moving instead of us. I thought about replying to her in order to help remove some of the chill in the air I had caused earlier, but thought better of it. She was in her element and I would simply let her be. That deprived childhood where she grew up without being able to look at the neighbors has been fixed a millions times over during our married life, but it still is an unquenchable thirst for her, and she simply has to watch what is going on around her.
I was having second thoughts about our prediction of no rain as we walked over to the Museum, particularly since the sky was heavily overcast and a light mist was falling. My thoughts were broken when, a little later I unlocked the Lighthouse and climbed the stairs, the walls welcoming me back. Every time I look at them I see not just bricks but also the past, the keepers who worked here, their families and the occasional visitor mirrored in them. Other times it may be the workers who fired the bricks or the brick masons constructing the wall. This is history, real history, and they have so many stories they could tell
The journey back to reality across the parking lot and down to the Museum was broken by the the sight of the two Coast Guard rescue boats out in the channel. I stood transfixed, watching them bob like tiny corks, tossed by the huge waves, and they as massive as we have had for a while, sometimes causing the boats to almost leap from the water as the rush of water swept under their hulls. It was such an mesmerizing experience that it was only when I starting to write today's article that I realized I had not taken any photos.
When I returned, Linda had the first tour ready to go, even though it was only two people, which was something that proved to be more the norm rather than the exception today. I believe that out of the six tours I led, half of them had only two people on them. The highlight of my day was an afternoon tour of just three people, but two of them were from France. They were in their late sixties and the wife had taken English in college, some 50 years ago, while the husband spoke no English and understood virtually none. I had met them up in the parking lot and had sort of recruited them to take the tour, and they surprised me by coming down to the Museum and actually signing up. The result was a tour that everyone enjoyed, they laughed and helped me with my few words of French, I kept things simple, talking slowly and trying to use common English words. The thanks I received from them for that tour truly made my day.
During the morning, the switch of coaches had taken place, meaning Linda was in all her glory, watching out the window by the counter in the Museum, and taking photos. I think one of the reasons she is so excited is because it means she can continue listing items on Ebay, with her plan being to sell everything we brought along. It also means she will be able to take along all new items to sell when we head to warmer weather for the winter. That woman does enjoy her Ebaying. And lest you think it is all selling, more than several times has a package been delivered at the Lighthouse that something she has bought on Ebay.
Dinner was leftover Beef Burgundy soup with peanut butter and homemade blackberry jam on crackers. Leftovers are something we try to eat whenever we "work", since we are both very tired at the end of the day, not from physical exercise, but from the mental and emotional aspects of the job. When you are on an adrenalin high for most of the day, it leaves you drained in the evening. For entertainment Linda watched several of her favorite shows on TV while I continued to putter around with Linux on the computer (the new toy syndrome, it's just that it has been going on for over four months). Actually, I wrote the daily Journal article for yesterday, then engaged in aimless browsing until it was time to have dessert. Once again I fixed a fresh pear filled with chocolate goodies, making one tiny alteration tonight, adding the Crême de Cacao a la Vanille and stirring it into the hot melted bittersweet chocolate immediately after turning off the heat. Linda didn't have to say a word, the huge smile on her face and the hummm sounds she made which accompanied her first bite telling me I had done very good. The joy we find in life, sometimes unexpected, but always welcome. May your day also have had some moments of the unexpected which filled your heart with happiness.
October 3 Wednesday
Today is already the last day of giving tours this week, can you believe it? I know it seems like we just started, but when you only "work" two days a week the "work week" just flies by. The day also looked like it would be good in a weather way, the sun already peeking through the clouds, which definitely perked Linda up when she arrived in the front of the coach.
Her smile and laugh brought to mind the memories of things past, and while it took a while to sort it all out, my mind being more of a jumbled morass than well ordered catalog, soon words and music were lighting up my day. You may also remember them as they went something like this:
- I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
- I've got something I can laugh about
- I feel good, in a special way
- I'm in love and it's a sunny day
Working as hard as I could, I almost made it, but fell ever so slightly short. I was really immersed in my writing, but the unmistakable sign that the woman who never forgets had not forgotten about how I ignored her call to breakfast yesterday was abundantly clear to me. It came in the form of my daily dose of vitamins being placed right beside the mouse pad. Normally we each get our own out of the container, today they were, how shall I say it, slammed down on the table in front of me without a word being spoken. A verbal word that is, what that act represented was unmistakable however. Meaning, at the appropriate command, "Breakfast's ready", which rang out a few seconds later, I leaped up from the chair and got my plate. She had added an exclamation point onto to her statement by not getting my salsa out of the refrigerator. That woman does have a way with words without using any.
There was one other minor glitch, the FTP connection gave me some trouble, transferring only partial files of two of the photos for the article. By the time I realized what had happened and got it corrected it was past time to go over to the Museum and it looked like I might have managed to undo all the good the breakfast leap had done. I decided I was still in her good graces when she left, telling me to make sure and bring our lunch, but without giving me a lecture about my being an adult and how I should be responsible and on time.
There were no visitors waiting for her to open this morning when she got there, though by the time I arrived she had already signed up one couple to take the tour. With the warning of, "I told them the tour would start at a quarter after", ringing in my ears I headed up to the Lighthouse and my special time. This morning the combination of cloud splattered sky and bright sun made the lens look even more jewel like than usual.
When I returned to the Museum it was time for the tour to begin and it looked like today would be a repeat of yesterday as there were once again only two people on the tour. Linda is fond of pointing out that the larger the group, the shorter my tours, but give me only two or three people and I can stretch it out for what seems like an eternity. We had this same talk this morning while waiting for the couple going on the tour to come down from the second floor of the Museum and I promised to do better. Once the tour began I found out they had toured a number of Lighthouse, a situation that occurs with increasing frequency as the month goes on. It wasn't that I lost track of time, rather it was that we were having such a great time on the tour that it surprised me when Linda called over the radio. I answered and she informed me there was another tour group ready to leave in just a few minutes. My reply was, "Five minutes", meaning I would be back at the Museum in less than 10 minutes.
This exchange had taken place while I was in the watchroom of the Lighthouse, just finishing the tour. The only problem with tours are that they ain't over till they're over. It seemed like only a couple of more questions were asked about the light and the radio sounded again. I joked with the couple that the second time Linda calls, it means to get back so we needed to be heading back down the stairs. I told them I didn't want to hear Linda radio me the third tome because that meant I was going to be in deep trouble. They said they didn't want that to happen, but also were curious as to what I meant about being in trouble, so I explained our rule that if she had to call a third time, I not only had to do the dishes, but also fix dinner. They laughed and said they didn't want to get me in trouble, so they resumed walking down the stairs. apparently that exchange had taken a good bit longer than I remember because we were at the first landing where Linda came on the radio and said, "The next tour is waiting."
We joked about my being in trouble, though I thought Linda must have called me that third time just make sure I was headed back, plus the tour couldn't have been that long. Walking into the Museum and seeing her standing behind the counter with her usual great big smile, I just knew all was right in the world. She even had the couple who would be taking the tour standing in the waiting room, ready to go. That was when she said, "By the way, what are you cooking for dinner tonight?" And to think, I actually asked this woman to marry me, little did I know what I was getting into.The remainder of the day passed quickly, though we only had five tours, and soon I was being given orders about what time to begin boiling the water for the spaghetti so dinner would be ready when she returned from her water exercise class. Two nights a week she and Gaylyn go into Reedsport and take a formal exercise class that is held in the school's pool. Linda says she notices she is getting stronger and more toned, an achievement I will agree with, but I also think it also gives them some much needed girls talk time. Linda is always in a great mood when she returns, so that also makes it great for me.
She enjoyed the spaghetti, eggplant and squash dinner I fixed, even if it was leftovers, then laid on the couch watching TV while I washed, dried, and put away the dishes. Of course I was still not through doing penitence, because for dessert I made another chocolate filled, steamed pear. I think the glow she was exhibiting as she ate far more than just her half of the pear was one of those womanly, I sure put him in his place kind of smiles. I'll look at it this way, I brought a smile to someones face today and I hope you were able to do the same thing. Life is good.
October 4 Thursday
The first of our four days off, so while I busied myself writing the Daily Journal, the floozy topped female sawed logs. It's not that I wouldn't like to sleep later sometimes, it's simply that I can't. When I wake up, I wake up, meaning no going back to sleep. I guess I could look at the good side and be happy with the fact that I had the article almost written by the time she got up, or that those extra hours meant I got to live a little more life today. Still, I'm jealous of the fact she can sleep late with such ease.
As has been the norm of late, an omelet with a slice of huckleberry scone got us off to a good start, but this was followed by some bad news. Our plan had been to drive down to Coos Bay, get our flu shots and do some shopping. Linda had been checking on the availability of those pesky, but necessary vaccinations and had discovered that the date they would be given in Reedsport, we would be working. That was not the case in Coos Bay, but the schedule was a little up in the air however. They had several walk-in days scheduled, but otherwise, you needed to call and see if they were giving the shots before arriving. That's what she had just done, and they weren't giving any shots this morning (not that there was much of it left), but they would be resuming in the afternoon after one o'clock.
Time flies when you are having fun, and before I knew it Linda was once again fixing a meal, lunch being turkey rollups, bean salad and grapes, then it was time to get ready for our trip to the big city. That was when I said goodbye to an old friend. I've had a pair of jeans which have served me faithfully over a number of years, but they finally have simply worn out. I have no trouble wearing jeans with holes in what might be called non strategic areas, after all aren't they always in style, but when the uncovered areas are, shall we say critical, it is time for them to be retired from duty. There are many ways to describe the condition of these pants, but I'll just leave it with, they're no longer all they're cracked up to be.
Soon we were dressed well enough to be seen in public and driving down to Coos Bay, first stopping to mail a package to my mother who will be 90 years old next week. I know it will be a happy day for her, but then to her all days are happy as she lives in the world that her Alzheimer's has built for her. While she no longer has memories of her life, I do, and it's why I want to live it to it's fullest for as long as I can. I don't want to be one of those people who say,- Someday I'll.... because the odds are that day will never come. Linda and I are closing in on living two years on the road, because instead of saying, someday we will retire, someday we will travel, someday we will buy a motorhome, but we can't now because......, we got up one morning, quit our jobs and a week later were on the road living the first days of the live we have come to love. Should Alzheimer's strike me and take away all my memories, we shall still have lived our dream.
After leaving the Post Office we had one more stop before Safeway, the hospice thrift store, where we looked for the usual things, denim jackets for Linda to bejewel, that special book to read or maybe simply the thing we never thought about, but when we see it we will just have to have. It was a bummer as we we came away empty handed, but that's the way it goes sometimes. We had just a brief wait at the Safeway before we got shot by one of the Pharmacists. She was quite young, and just as she was getting ready to stick me, her grandfather walked by, a fact she mentioned, so I teased her about whether he wanted to see if she brought another old man to tears. That was when she said, "All done", and I had never felt a thing. It was the most pain free shot I had ever received. I even had to ask Linda if I had actually gotten one, because I sure couldn't tell if I had or not.
We did a reasonably good job of filling the cart at Wal Mart, there being a good mix of food and Christmas presents. We did have one purchase that was somewhat different, a sizable bag of pinto beans, not for ourselves, but for the Museum.
Gaylyn is always adding something new to the displays and one thing she as been trying to improve is the collection of items which portrays the foodstuffs which were supplied to the Lighthouse Keepers by the Lighthouse Board. We had been carrying around an old collectible cloth bag, the kind beans could have come in, so Linda had donated it to the cause and today she was buying beans to fill it to add realism to the display.
This has probably caused you to wonder, why in the world if they live in this motorhome with very limited storage capacity, would they have a collectible bag along. The answer is simple, Ebay, it just hadn't gotten listed yet. The rest of the day went by quickly enough, the leftover pork and green peppers making for a good, though not quite filling dinner. The key words here are "not quite filling", which meant we had one of those very infrequent evening attacks. That is attack as in we attacked the peanut butter and jam, the result being we cleaned out the PB jar and manged to devour almost all of a newly opened jar of homemade peach jam, our last one to boot. Rather than have the editor need to do a lot of correcting of these last few sentences, I will point out that most of this gluttony ended up in my stomach and not hers, but she was still shoveling it in at a good rate for a girl.
Sunset tonight provided one of those spectacular shows that have you unable to put into words what it was that you were seeing. The kind where all you can say is, "Come look." Linda made several separate trips outside to capture the majesty we were privileged to behold, and I will let her photos end the day in a most appropriate way. I guess the other reason for showing the photos is because I can't close by talking about the dessert we had, seems like we had so pigged out on the PB & J that neither of us wanted any dessert.
Why we love our time on the Oregon coast.
October 5 Friday
I woke up this morning and within seconds had the feeling my world was spinning out of control. No, there wasn't water all over the floor or some other problem like that. It was just that when I raised up after turning off the electric blanket everything started spinning. What a pair Linda and I made at that moment, Ditsy and Dizzy would have been the perfect description for sure. After what seemed like an eternity, actually only a couple of seconds, Linda told me, it stopped and other than feeling bad all over, I was fine.
- And I'm feelin' bad all over
- Yes I'm-a bad all over
- Baby I'm bad all over
- Bad all-o the time
Just think, if Dave Clark had got up feeling like I did this morning on the day he wrote Glad All Over, maybe the lyrics and title would had been more on the order of the above. I wasn't sure whether the way I was feeling was due to the flu shot, or as Linda diagnosed it, something in my inner ear, but whatever it was it was with me off and on, for a most of the day. I wasn't sure whether her inner ear comment was to be taken literally, or she meant inner ear, as in between the ears. The good news was that once the spinning stopped, it stopped pretty much for good, with just a few times during the day when I had what is best termed, an uncomfortable feeling. Now that was as far as balance was concerned, otherwise I continued to feel bad all over for most of the day, which meant not doing much more than either sitting at the computer doing next to nothing, or reading one of those types of books that certainly isn't literature, but at least takes your mind off things even if it provides nothing of lasting interest.
Linda, on the other hand was acting like she hadn't even gotten a flu shot, and we laughed in the knowledge that each year when we get them, one of us usually feels like crap the next day, while the other is their usual perky self. Obviously it was my turn to take the hit this year, but I guess I'd rather it be me than Linda because she really, really wouldn't like to feel the way I was feeling.She did take sympathy on me as far as breakfast was concerned, fixing an omelet that was better than usual. Maybe it was the thick slices of mozzarella cheese that added something, or perhaps the sun dried tomatoes, but whatever it was, it was the perfect meal for how I was feeling.
The rest of the day could be summed up by the statement, nothing much of interest happened. Linda opened envelopes, as we had received a package of mail from our daughter on Thursday, then spent time paying the enclosed bills and updating the records we keep. While most of our bills are paid automatically online, there are a few of the ones which are due once a year that require her attention. I always get a chuckle when she is in this mode, when after all those years of keeping the financial accounts for others, you're suddenly no longer doing any of that. Her first reaction after we hit the road was how glad she was to be free from all that, then the emptiness set in, something was missing. That's where keeping our records and financial house in order comes into play. It not only gives her something to do, it gives her a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. (I'm sure if anything I've said in the proceeding is in error, she will set the record straight when she edits this entry.)
Later she had fun researching some of her planned listings on Ebay. Many people probably just list the items they want to sell, but we have learned that a little research goes a long way in making for a successful listing. Understand that success has different meanings and the primary one for most of the items she lists is to sell them, not to necessarily maximize the monetary return. That wouldn't have been the way she looked at it in our former life where time was money, now her motto is more like: more time is more space. As you learn once you live in an RV, space becomes more important than anything else.
All the while we were working (Linda), or doing much of nothing (Bob), we were being treated to one of those special shows that the ocean occasionally presents to us, or as we so fondly like to refer to it, the view out our front window.
Having completed the Daily Journal quite early this morning, I spent much of the day doing some cleanup work, running Tidy on a few of the website pages, then removing whatever errors were found. Next I checked the HTML compliance on several of those pages, the results of which made me feel good, as most were in compliance with HTML 4.01 Transitional standards. It was while looking at the pages I was working on that I discovered the little copyright symbol at the bottom of the page was incorrect. I corrected a few pages, but figured I'd do the others, when or if, I ever worked on those pages.
There was one major project I also decided to do, write a new article for the Home Page. There have been several times when I resolved to change that article on a regular basis, whether at the first of the month, or once every two weeks, but only once have I ever met that goal. I guess it's one of those, if I'm not in the mood, it's not going to happen things. Well today I was in the mood, so there is a new article. Now if I can only feel like writing another one in a couple of weeks.
On days when nothing much happens, food seems to come to the fore, but because my stomach had decided to take a page from the rest of my body, it was also somewhat unstable. That was what made the Pimento Cheese Spread on Whole Wheat Triscuts that I had for lunch so disturbing for the remainder of the afternoon. Linda bears no responsibility for that error, it was all my doing. Bless her heart, she didn't even crack a smile when I told her later that of all the days to eat that for lunch, this was the worst possible day to have it. Now if I could just have been able to read her mind I am have no doubt have seen a completely different side of her, the one where she was doubling over in laughter.
By the time dinner rolled around, I was feeling much better, so the grilled 7% fat hamburgers with sweet potato salad and a grilled chili pepper was the perfect meal, with no regrets afterward. I have very few TV shows I really like to watch, but as always, NUMB3RS was very good. Maybe it is the chemistry major and math minor in me that gets turned on by the cool things they do to solve the crime, but whatever it is, I do enjoy that show. Later as time for dessert approached, Linda got a package of rhubarb out of the refrigerator and turned it into a fabulous rhubarb cobbler. She had found a recipe on the Internet that wasn't South Beach, but when you've eaten this way as long as we have, it is actually quite easy to take almost any recipe and South Beachize it. Believe me, that's much healthier than going into McD's and Supersizing it.
The day had started with my world spinning out of control and ended with me quite satisfied with my place in the world. As a good friend used to tell me, "It's balance Bob, it's all about balance."
October 6 Saturday
- Did you find the directing sign on the
- Straight and narrow highway
- Would you mind a reflecting sign
- Just let it shine within your mind
- And show you the colors that are real
Those words from Spinning Wheel by BS&T were what was going through my head when I first awoke this morning. For the longest time I kept my eyes screwed tightly shut, afraid that if I opened them, there would be a repeat of yesterdays spinning sensations of instability. But when I let the colors that were real into my mind by opening my eyes, it was indeed a straight and narrow highway as opposed to a winding curvy road that stretched out in front of me.
To me the verse above is truly poetry, it causes mind images to form, diffuse, then congeal once again, repeated over and over, each time appearing as a different apparition than before, the melody not simply accompanying those visions, but driving them forever forward. The gift to look through the eyes of another, isn't that what poetry does; transcending the reality of the present to give us a glimpse of what might be. But enough philosophy for one day, with everything under control, it was time to meet the day head on.I became aware of the fact that Linda had gotten out of bed and walked into the front of the coach by the girly giggles I heard emanating from behind me. That was when she said, "Are you sure you're okay this morning?" "Sure", I replied, to which she responded, "Yesterday you portrayed yourself as dizzy and me as ditsy, today it looks like ditsy perfectly describes you." It seemed like a strange way to start the morning, but whatever, then she said, "If you're going to do your best imitation of Jamie Oliver, I'm going to have to take a picture."
I'll leave to anyone who reads these words to figure out what she meant, as for me, the huckleberry scones I was making turned out to be very light and fluffy, mostly on account of the fact she got me so flustered, I ended up adding half again as much milk as the recipe called for. But the way they turned out you can bet that I'll make that mistake again.
What with the slight disorientation I had displayed this morning, Linda had another term for it that will have to remain unmentioned, most of my day was spent either working on the website or reading. Linda on the other hand, plunged full bore into getting a number of items listed on Ebay. Her research into whether items such as she is contemplating listing that have been sold on Ebay by other people influenced how several of the items were listed, which meant she shouted with joy when several received bids shortly after being listed. As I've said before, it's not so much the price she gets as it is the fact she is getting rid of the extra stuff that means something, especially for those items she has already listed before that didn't sell the previous time.
Of course the entire day was not consumed by things Ebay, the innate female yearning for order was coursing through her veins and I was surprised at seeing her doing domestic duty in the one manner she had trained me years ago to never expect seeing her perform. Yes indeed, that is the little woman of the house busily ironing one of the wall hangings for the coach. For me, I don't care if it is a little wrinkled, for her, if it hangs on our wall, it needs to look right.
Dinner was a simple matter, we defrosted some of the tuna we had grilled last week and ate it cold along with a tossed salad and the last of our Acorn Squash. It was actually a very good dinner, but then since neither of us was required to do any cooking, that in itself made for a good meal even leaving out the food. I think we both had enough computer time for one day, because we spent the evening reading. Linda beginning on a book that described living in this area in the 1940's, while I finally got engrossed in a book I had been struggling with for quite some time, finally figuring out it was a better read when I partook of multiple chapters at one time, rather than reading a single chapter a night. A page turner, it is not, but it has so many plot lines going that reading it in great gulps is the only way to make sense out of it. The real problem is that I think I've already deduced how it's going to end, I just don't know what other plot twists the author is going to throw in. Suffice it to say that it would never be confused with literature, but then, everyone needs a little escapism now and then. Which is what I'm gong to do now, escape at the end of a very good day just after eating dessert, which was once again the rhubarb cobbler with milk, only tonight Linda splashed on a little Crême de Cacao de Vanille, the perfect way to cap the day.
October 7 Sunday
It was a week ago today that I had resolved to "do better" on Sunday mornings, and since it was Sunday, it was necessary to start putting those words into action. The problem on previous Sunday's had been that I had gotten into the habit of sleeping a little later than usual, which put me behind to the point I was struggling to finish the Daily Journal when I should have been getting ready for church. When I repeated my proclivity for remaining in bed this morning, I decided to postpone writing the Daily Journal until later in the day. That turned out to be one of those good decision, bad decision deals. Sort of a writer's version of the late Dale Earnhardt's oft stated commentary on the pitfalls of automobile racing, "It was was just one of them racin' deals."
Of course to say, 'It was just one of those writin' deals" does not describe what has been happening, but it certainly gives an idea of the atmosphere in which it took place. The bottom line was that I was in no mood to write once it finally came time to do so. In fact it was mid evening before the journal became reality. I'm not sure what I should resolve to do next week, though except for the delay with the journal, it turned out to be a great day so I may just leave things as they are.I think it really surprised Linda when I was ready for church a good 15 minutes before we needed to leave, maybe I even managed to ruin her morning when she didn't have anything to complain about the way I was doing things. (Editor's comment: Lissten to him!) As always, the message at church was very enlightening, being about Joy, and for the remainder of the day both Linda and I seemed to go out of our way to the see the joy in whatever was happening at the moment. With me pulling a couple of my usual "moments of idiocy", I'm sure it took some serious thought on Linda's part to see the joy in what I did, While there was once or twice I was in the same situation, gritting my teeth to not say the wrong thing after getting a stinging rebuke from her. Guess you could say that going to church worked for us.
Since we were already in Reedsport, there was a little shopping that needed to be done, so we stopped at the Safeway, mostly to pick up some things for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift that we wanted to put together. Every year in our former life we had helped our local church assist needy families at Christmas. Now we are no longer able to do this act we had so enjoyed, until this year that is. Operation Christmas Child was exactly what we needed to fill that void, the simple act of taking a shoe box and filling it with items that a child in a war torn or poverty struck country would receive at Christmas.
I've read articles where a number of "commentators" mock these efforts at helping people which Billy Graham's son, Franklin has undertaken. That how it would be much better to provide other things, assist the whole family, or provide aid directly to the government of the country the child lives in. What's wrong with bringing a joy to the life of a child? After reading how the millions or even billions in aid the US government shovels at petty dictators and their governments, simply because we consider them friendly to our causes, then finding that most of the money ends up in those same officials pocket, give me a break. Maybe there are better ways to accomplish what should be the real aim of aid, to help the people of that country, not their leaders. We think this is one of those ways, so we are glad to be part of it.
Of course it wasn't a case of just buying things for the shoe box, we also found some 7% fat ground beef on sale, something that was transformed into a meatloaf once we were back at the coach. The oven also held a sweet potato and a chunk of Hubbard squash, so our noontime meal was looking very good indeed. While all these were baking, Linda was busily engaged in stuffing gigantic pile of goodies into a half a gigantic pile shoe box, a task that required several attempts to accomplish, but which she was successful at in the end.
And the completed box ready for Christmas.
The meal proved to be fantastic, proving once again that you can can have both healthy and tasty food. The highlight was the new bottle of horseradish we had bought at the Coos Bay Wal Mart the night we had visited with Ms Tioga and George. The aroma of horseradish wafted up when it was opened, proved to be packed with flavor, and since we used just a little too much at first, we even got to experience the famous horseradish head rush, several times, and yes, there were tears in my eyes as Linda so gleefully pointed out.
After I had finished washing the dishes we attacked our only scheduled project for the day, changing the grit in the rock polisher. Due to the disappearance, or maybe better put, the non appearance of the plastic polishing pellets, things were a little less than joyful as far as Linda was concerned, at least for a couple of minutes. That was, until I went down below into the bay, digging out "Box 32" and low and behold hidden under some books was the errant bag of pellets. That made all well, and soon Linda was fondling those pieces of rock that were being turned into objects of beauty. I'm not sure what the end result is going to be, they may end up simply as rocks in the kids aquariums, but whatever it is, they will also be jewels as far as Linda is concerned.
The remainder of the day was relaxation time, a little TV, a little reading, and a little playing around on the computer. There was one interlude about 6:30 when I fixed dinner, Linda having incorporated additional covenants to the proclamation that women in her family don't cook a meal on Sunday night. You can see what her ultimatum caused to happen in the photos below.
And the final result.
The photo is a bit dark, but after thinking about it for a couple of seconds I realized why. Both our mouths were open so wide in anticipation of eating that plate of beans, guacamole, sour cream and salsa that we sucked up most of the light in the room. Not only had I made the guacamole, I had also made the refried kidney beans, the results of which we both concluded were the best ever, and I can vouch for the fact that Linda was most definitely of that opinion. Would you believe, that woman ate more than half of that plate, not bad for someone who is almost as tall as I am, yet wears size 6 jeans. Yes, I am proud of her, brains, beauty, looks far younger than other people her age, plus is blond to boot, what more could a guy ask for.
As always, no day is complete without dessert, and ours was a little different tonight. It was the same rhubarb cobbler we have been eating the past two evenings but with a twist. For the first time in over a month we had ice cream on our dessert. Today at the Safeway Linda mentioned that we might have room in the freezer for ice cream. Having had half of my genes contributed by a man who never considered a day complete until he had his ice cream, I made a beeline to the freezer section. Not only did they have non fat, sugar free vanilla chocolate fudge swirl ice cream, it was on sale, two containers for the price of one. That was when Linda spoke up, quipping "It isn't a good deal if we buy just one, but if we buy two it's a very good deal", to which she immediately added, "and we could put the other container in the freezer in the Museum until we finish eating the first one." Disregard the things I said before about her just a minute ago, THIS is why I absolutely adore her.
October 8 Monday
Monday morning and it is time to go back to work, but as we both say, it's not work, it's fun. The job that is, the getting up early part is something that only one of us seems to enjoy; meaning I was up early writing the the Daily Journal as the sun started to cast it's welcoming glow. Linda always has told me she was born in Appalachia, but after living with her all these years, I believe she was actually born in Oregon. The first toy a native Oregonian always gets is a child's chain saw and with Linda doing her best imitation of one every morning, I think those noises are simply the residual memories of the dreams she has every night about the place she was born.
The nice thing about starting early is that you are finished early, so for the second morning in a row, I was all ready to go when she was. Tomorrow will be the true test, but if I can manage three days in a row it may become a habit. Breakfast was once again provide by Linda, scrambled eggs and a slice of huckleberry scone. The way she is going with breakfast I may want to just copy that phrase so I don't have to retype what we have for breakfast every morning. I can't say anything about it to her because I already know what her answer will be. I can even give the exact words she will use, "Every time I find something easy to cook, you want something different." That will be followed by a loud deep breath and sigh, before she says, "Tomorrow YOU can fix breakfast." As you might have guessed, I ate my food in silence, the only detectable movement of my lips being when I took another bite of that wonderful, delicious breakfast she had so carefully, conscientiously and considerately created for me.To say that we were eager to start the day would be an understatement, because it was only 9:45 when we headed over to the Museum, and as Linda opened the Museum I did the same with the Lighthouse. Of course opening the Lighthouse is a simple enough matter, hang the sign out on the fence and turn on one light switch. Each time I do this simple task there is something which strikes my fancy and this morning it was the difference in color of the red panels in the light.
Looking at the lens I was certain it was those colors that are real, which reminded me of another song that has a verse that goes something like this:
- I'm lost in you everywhere I run
- Everywhere I turn I'm finding something new
- I'm lost in you something I can't fight
- I cannot escape
- I can spend my life lost in you!
I always say something about the connections with history whenever I give a tour, and this morning I was certainly lost somewhere in the past as I watched those panels move past me. It was a good feeling and I smiled as I moved back down the steps, I could tell that it was going to be a good day. By the way, if you're wondering, those lyrics are from the song, Lost by the group Red.
Back down at the Museum we prepared for a busy day since it was Columbus Day and there were a lot of people spending the three day holiday on the coast. However, instead of being greeted by hordes of visitors, we were greeting by overwhelming silence. There was no traffic on the road, the parking lot was empty, and Linda and I had only each other for conversation. The day proved to be a colossal disappointment, there being only four tours, the fewest we have ever done. That's not to say the day was without its moments. The last tour had almost half of all the people who toured the Lighthouse for the day, and proved to be a blast. Among the people taking that tour were 7 cousins, all girls between about 10 and 18 who, once they realized learning about history and Lighthouses can be fun, had everyone on the tour chuckling with their answers to my questions. Cyndi Lauper had it right, Girls Just Want To Have Fun.
Yours truly got to fix dinner, since Linda went to her water workout class with Gaylyn. So I not only had a glass of wine and warm Swiss cheese ready when she walked in the door, dinner almost ready, which was the meatloaf we had made yesterday, a baked sweet potato, sautéd squash with onions and garlic, plus a tossed salad. If she gets me trained any better I'd better watch out or she's going to start referring to me as an "old maid".
The evening was spent with Linda working once again on Ebay, she's a woman on a mission right now. The mission being to get rid of as much stuff as she can. A task she seems to be succeeding quite well at, exceeding her fondest dreams of success. I spent time on a task that has been bugging me for many months, a mistake I made when originally setting up the file system for the website photos. Somehow or other I had managed to create a monstrous file with no sub files. That was what I was correcting tonight, creating a new file structure and then moving the files, which was the easy part. The hard part came next, renaming all the image files in the archived Daily Journals to correspond with the new file names and structure. If that wasn't done, none of the images would show. It wasn't as hard as I thought, taking only a couple of hours to get everything done, then I checked and rechecked everything to make sure it worked right. The hardest part was noticing all the mistakes that I had made in the HTML code for the Daily Journal articles as I worked on them and completely ignoring those errors. Might that be a crack in what Linda refers to as my "perfectionist tendencies when it comes to some things." Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Dessert was once again the rhubarb cobbler buried under an avalanche of ice cream. We had indeed had a good day and I headed back to read under the cozy warmth of the electric blanket while the computer uploaded all those new directories and images to the server. Then later, crossing my fingers that not only would all the files be uploaded, but also there would be no errors, I turned out the light and was soon lost in a world of dreams.
October 9 Tuesday
Another gloomy morning, but no rain yet. Now let me put that into the context of the weather report which called for a very severe storm to begin during the late night hours and then continue through most of the day. The forecast also called for very strong winds today, possibly 60 mph and higher, but looking out over the ocean when the sun first came up, it sure didn't look like a storm was out there. Once Linda was up, she straightened everything out, pointing out the storm is supposed to be coming from the South, meaning I couldn't see it approaching if I was looking west out over the ocean.
To my mumblings about how are we supposed to see if it's coming with the trees blocking the view to the South, Linda once again had the answer. A few clicks of the mouse and she had the current weather radar for the area on her screen, and announced it was here now. Now it may have been early and perhaps neither of us was fully awake yet, but everything I could see outside said there was no storm buffeting the coach. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to ask what she meant. She showed me the screen which indicated it was raining heavily where we were. That was when we looked at each other and smiled, both of us thinking the same thing, maybe the radar wasn't always right.Of course I hadn't been wondering about the weather when I first got up, I had been working on the computer, but not doing what I knew I should be doing, which was working on the Daily Journal. Instead I had continued to clean up the files I had been working on last night, an act which was going to prove somewhat harmful to my health in the very near future because now I was way behind on writing this morning. As I struggled to get the article written, Linda fixed both our lunch and breakfast, finally announcing, "The oatmeal is ready." At that very moment I was deep in thought about what I was writing and instead of doing what the little man on my shoulder was saying, get up and get your oatmeal, I continued to type away.
By the time I was at the point where I felt I could stop, I was actually way beyond the the point I should have stopped. Linda's body language and fixed stare (glare?) told me I had done my usual, once again telling her loud and clear early in the day that I was thinking more of myself than of her. Changing habits is so very hard and it is slips like this that hopefully will cause me to redouble my efforts, only time will tell.
The end result of all this was that she left the coach at the usual time to open the Museum, while I tried valiantly to get the article proofread and uploaded to the server. I didn't get over to the Museum until 10:08, so I wasn't sure what was going to greet me when I walked in the door. Linda was not only smiling, she was even acting very pleasant which got me to worrying. What plan of retribution was she hatching in that pretty head of hers? Turned out there wasn't any plan of retribution and I finally chalked it up to another of those mysteries of women that men, or maybe it is just me, will never figure out. Walking up to the Lighthouse for my morning opening ritual, I could finally see the storm, and indeed, while it was still off to the South, its approach was eminent. The two flags flying above the Coast Guard tower standing in mute testimony to what was taking place.
Once I was finished opening the Lighthouse and back at the Museum, it quickly became apparent that this was going to be a slower day than yesterday. In fact it was after 10:45 until the first visitor of the day appeared at the door. While waiting I read some of the original contract documents for the construction of the Lighthouse, while Linda folded wrapping paper into small gift boxes. As you can see, on stormy mid-week mornings in October the Lighthouse can be something less than a hot bed of activity. To pass the time, Linda also set up a photo shoot. Okay, okay, I exaggerate to a slight degree, but she did have me take a photo of the bean bag we had filled a few days ago.
Later I found out she had some fun with the boss, asking Gaylyn if she noticed anything new. It took a few hints to get Gaylyn in the right room, but once there she immediately noticed the bean bag and was really pleased at how nice it looked. It's things like this that make volunteering at the Umpqua River Lighthouse so very special.
With still no visitors darkening our door, I discovered a newspaper clipping which had a photo of the Lighthouse while it was being constructed.
It was shortly afterward that our first visitor of the day approached the door. Actually, Charlie, the resident cat, had been here before, so Linda decided to take his photo.
Eventually we did have some real visitors, though there were even fewer than yesterday, and all to soon our work week was over. Then there was just time for dinner, a quick reheating of the leftover pork and peppers over rice before we needed to leave to go to a program at the Discovery Center being presented by Jim and Shirley O'Brien. The O'Briens had been the first volunteer couple we had ever met at the Lighthouse, having given us our first tour three years ago when we on what turned out to a very fateful vacation, and as they say, the rest is history. Speaking of history, that's exactly what their program was all about, the history of the Umpqua River Lighthouse. We rode over with Gaylyn, had a very enjoyable time, and made it home early enough to get in a little reading before it was time for dessert.
"We don't have anything for dessert but ice cream" were the words I heard as I sat there reading. Linda wasn't even looking at me when I glanced up at her, so I suspected there was more to the story than the snippet I had just heard. It was about a minute later, just as I was reading a very key passage that her voice penetrated the curtain of thoughts about the action taken place in the story. "...getting ripe..." was all I heard, but after what happened this morning, I really was trying to do my best. The result was that soon, instead of me sitting in the chair, the book was setting on the chair and I was preparing one of the Bosc pears, removing the seeds and stuffing it with bittersweet chocolate. It didn't take long before it was done steaming and Linda was enjoying what I had prepared.
I did get the last laugh because a little later, while once again engaged in reading I made the comment, "Were we also going to have some ice cream?" that got the seed planted in Linda's mind, and a little later I heard her sigh, then get up and dish out a bowl of ice cream for each of us. I just knew that once she had visions of ice cream floating in her head she was going to have to have some. {Editor's comment: Little does Bob know I also had some natural peanut butter on mine-yum!} Believe me, I made sure to thank her profusely for also getting a dish for me, then because of the program about the Lighthouse, we just had to walk up to the Grand Old lady of the Umpqua and take a photo before calling the day complete.
October 10 Wednesday
Guess you could say the one predictable thing about the weather lately has been the prospect of rain, and today looked like it wasn't going to break the pattern. One thing we have learned about Oregon this year is that while people may think of this State as being known for its rainy weather, the actual state of rain can often be deceiving. There is the barely detectable mist, the intermittent sprinkles, the brief periods of light rain, the longer periods of light rain, I could go on and on, but the foregoing gives a picture of what it means to say it is raining in Oregon. Yes there is frequent precipitation, but the meaning of that phrase varies greatly.
I could tell from the sounds outside, it being dark when I first got out of bed, that a very light rain was falling. That in its self was not cause for apprehension or concern, but when I tried to log on to the Internet it wouldn't connect. Looking up at the electronics for the MotoSat I could see only two lights on the DW7000 router and one light on the D3 controller. That did cause a little apprehension because normally there would be five lights on the router and three lights on the controller.I tried a couple of more times to get online with no success, so I did what I had promised myself I would do, which was work on the Daily Journal. As I was typing away, I would occasionally look up to see if there had been any change in the router status. Sometimes in rainy weather we lose the connection for brief periods of time, so my thinking was maybe that was the problem this morning, something that fell totally within the realm of wishful thinking. Then, looking up, I noticed all five lights were on, and shortly I was connected to the Internet. But then, just as mysteriously as those lights had come on, they went out, meaning the connection was no more. This happened several times as I worked away on the journal, but finally the lights went out and did not reappear.
To try to get the MotoSat before we arrived. That simple request is what triggered the abysmal situation that destroyed our day.
to connect, I had asked it to search several times, which it did, but without success. The next thing to try would be to stow the dish, pull the plug to reset all the electronics and redeploy the dish. The only problem with this was, Linda was still resting and because we had been up fairly late last night, I didn't want to wake her. When she did come out from the bedroom, and it was much earlier than I thought she would get up this morning, she immediately noticed that we were not connected. I was afraid even those little adjusting tweaks the MotoSat had made might have awakened her, but she said they hadn't.Soon she was standing on the front seat pulling the plug to reset the electronics while I typed away. I didn't need to connect, but she did, checking on the items she has listed on Ebay. After a minute, she plugged it back in and we soon had three lights showing on the Motosat D3 controller. That was step one, now to hit the search button and have it find the satellite, a job that is the D3's sole purpose in life. That's when the fun started because it went up, searched, found nothing and stowed itself. Three times we tried this same routine with no success, all the while Linda getting a little more anxious to get online. I on the other hand didn't care about whether I got online now or not, my sole aim was to get the Daily Journal written and I found this interruption to my writing very annoying.
before we arrived. That simple request is what triggered the abysmal situation that destroyed our day.Now I could have worked with Linda to get back online, which would have made her happy, but not Bob, not this morning. Maybe I was still smarting over not getting the journal written on time several days ago, or maybe I'm just a grumpy old man, but whatever it was, I was heading towards a point of no return, driving like a blind man in a snow storm on an icy mountain road that had no guardrails. When she brought the phone out from the back to call for technical service and reached right across my line of sight to plug it into the phone jack beside where I was sitting, I sort of lost it (Editor's comment: HE DID), grabbing a book and heading back to the bedroom. If I couldn't concentrate on my writing, I was out of there, so what if there was a problem to fixed, I would simply go away and sulk because I couldn't do what I wanted.
A few minutes later Linda came back into the bedroom, a big smile on her face, saying the problem had been fixed. It turned out that HughesNet, the company who provides the satellite service had switched the transponder we connect to on the satellite. Whenever they do this, (this was our first time in 20 months) they just switch you, no warning, no notification, no instructions about how to reconnect, then when you can't connect, and when you call them, they have you do some checking as to what setting you have, then work with you to do some simple changes needed to get you back online. Obviously the president of Hughesnet never read the book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, or if he did he considered it hogwash. As always, the rich and powerful care only about themselves, not giving a rats rear end about you or me. And if you think those kinds of people really do care about you, then you probably have a brain the size of which would actually fit up a rats rear end. (end of rant)
Linda was happy and I was back to my writing, but I wasn't done acting like a jerk, because a little later I really managed to piss Linda off but good. When we had been at the Life on Wheels Conference, I had taken a number of classes on batteries and solar systems from Greg Holder, actually I took every class he offered. Then since we were going to have a few days from the time we were finished at the lighthouse until our appointment at the Monaco Service Center in Harrisburg, we decided to make an appointment with Greg's company, AM Solar which was located in Eugene and have our system checked out, plus undertake any repairs or upgrades that were needed. Linda had already made an appointment by email several days ago, but they needed some additional information about the type and size of the system, the batteries and battery compartment size before we arrived. That simple request is what triggered the abysmal situation that destroyed our day.
Sometime after the phone incident, Linda decided it was time to take the measurements and emailed the information to AM Solar this morning. Now mind you I was still struggling with writing the Daily Journal so this was just another needless interruption that would throw me totally off my train of thought. Something that Linda, who doesn't write at all has no comprehension of how disrupting it can be. The other thing is that our appointment wasn't scheduled until the 31st of the month. It wasn't like the the earth was going to end if it wasn't done this moment, or at least in my mind it wasn't. She asked me if I was going to help her get the requested measurements, to which I may have or may not have given a grunt in response (Editor's comment: he even confirmed an affirmative grunt), then after a number of seconds with no movement on my part other than my fingers striking the keyboard, she stormed out the door.
Nothing more was said about the incident, but even a person who was deaf and blind could tell that she was somewhat upset with me for the rest of the day. My take was that we were both wrong, but for entirely different reasons and to entirely different degrees. I've tried to explain to her on numerous occasions that I need to be able to concentrate on my writing, which is obviously why many writers have a room they shut themselves into when they write. Living in a space the size of the coach, that is not possible, but a little consideration is.
For my part, which is where almost the entire blame for what happened most justifiably resides, having acted like a jerk a little earlier, I acted far worse this time. I was wrong, completely wrong, what else can I say. Both in how I perceived the situation and my reaction to it. I should have smiled when she asked me help, immediately got up and quickly obtained all the information so she could email it back. It would have done me some good to move around, taking my mind off my imagined hurt from the satellite incident, but no, the pouting little boy in me just couldn't do that. To say that the world that we live in is of our own making was never more true than in this case. Hopefully I learned something from it.
We did communicate some during the rest of the day, but not much more than necessary, and I could tell that Linda was deeply hurt by what I had done, or not done. That didn't mean there wasn't some degree of beauty in our lives which only required either of us to look out the front window, was just that it was very fleeting.
Most of the remainder of my day was spent working on the website, not really wasted time, but also not really accomplishing anything. I did make lunch and dinner, and yes, I was trying to make a pathetic attempt at helping Linda, but it was also to take my mind off the trouble I'd caused for myself. When Linda left for her water exercise class, I made a plate of guacamole, then later got out the fixings for meatloaf sandwiches. It actually made for a great dinner, but I could tell it was a meaningless gesture when she ate at her computer rather at the table. At least I had a pretty view of the ocean as I ate by myself, plus the meatloaf sandwich was one that rated an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Later we both spent the evening reading and watching TV. I did manage to finish reading the one book where I had claimed a few days ago to have figured out the ending, but just not the plot twists. I did get the main plot line ending correct, but then if you have a man meets woman story, you always figure that in the end things will work out, but brother, were there ever some wild plot twists along the way, a number of which had you asking, would people actually do those things. Then after living my own life today, I realized, yes people will do some really stupid things, but life will go on. Today was one of those days, Life mirrored in a book.
I'll finish with a couple of lines from one of my all time favorite songs which was written by P F Sloan and sung by Barry McGuire. Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy. Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say? Can't you see the fears that I'm feeling today?
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