Thursday, April 26, 2007
Life on the Back Porch
Some days, Tuck eats most of his dog food. Some days, he doesn’t. There have been occasions when I’ve wondered whether he has help - if the squirrels are at it as well, and they don’t come as much when they have the better peanuts from our neighbor.
Well, I’m wrong. It’s not the squirrels.
This morning, when I was drinking my coffee and looking outdoors, I see a flash of blue. Jay is hopping along, hopping along. Quite nonchalantly, because he has no agenda and not a care in the world, he hops along the deck. And absolutely casually, just to see if there is a world out there, he looks around to check, yes, there is sun, no, it’s not raining yet today. Not, of course, checking to see whether anyone is watching him, just observing the wonderful day. And then, he hops onto the rim of the dish of dog food.
You’re waiting for me to say he flips it over onto himself, aren’t you?
Well, I’ve bought a very good kind of dog food. It is really smelly! I’m sure that Jay could smell it across the yard. It also has different size pieces. Some are long and skinny, like pretzels. Some are big and round, like cherries. And some look like miniature dog biscuits. Jay stands there, on the rim of the dog dish, evaluating his options. He is no dumber than any of us - he chooses the biggest piece there.
Now, not at all nonchalantly, with a - you didn’t see me, I’m outta here - attitude, Jay takes one hop, and flies off.
Not for nothing does Bob call jays “camp robbers”. Anyone who would stoop low enough to steal a blind dog’s food deserves an epithet!
But he’s so cool. I’ll probably get him shades instead.
Some days, Tuck eats most of his dog food. Some days, he doesn’t. There have been occasions when I’ve wondered whether he has help - if the squirrels are at it as well, and they don’t come as much when they have the better peanuts from our neighbor.
Well, I’m wrong. It’s not the squirrels.
This morning, when I was drinking my coffee and looking outdoors, I see a flash of blue. Jay is hopping along, hopping along. Quite nonchalantly, because he has no agenda and not a care in the world, he hops along the deck. And absolutely casually, just to see if there is a world out there, he looks around to check, yes, there is sun, no, it’s not raining yet today. Not, of course, checking to see whether anyone is watching him, just observing the wonderful day. And then, he hops onto the rim of the dish of dog food.
You’re waiting for me to say he flips it over onto himself, aren’t you?
Well, I’ve bought a very good kind of dog food. It is really smelly! I’m sure that Jay could smell it across the yard. It also has different size pieces. Some are long and skinny, like pretzels. Some are big and round, like cherries. And some look like miniature dog biscuits. Jay stands there, on the rim of the dog dish, evaluating his options. He is no dumber than any of us - he chooses the biggest piece there.
Now, not at all nonchalantly, with a - you didn’t see me, I’m outta here - attitude, Jay takes one hop, and flies off.
Not for nothing does Bob call jays “camp robbers”. Anyone who would stoop low enough to steal a blind dog’s food deserves an epithet!
But he’s so cool. I’ll probably get him shades instead.
Friday, April 06, 2007
April 6, 2007.
The event of the week - because the weather was good, Bob and Andrea took the day off. One of those “Well, it’s a nice day, I guess I must have a stomachache,” kind of days. And we all went to Ecola State Park. Ecola was originally spelled (by Lewis & Clark) Ekkoli. Ekkoli in the local parlance meant big beached whale. When I look at it today, as Ecola, it has become a crose between “e. coli” and “ebola”. Such a healthy place!
Ecola is near Cannon Beach, 2 hours away from home. It has wonderful rocks and tide pools. We got there about an hour after low tide, so the tide was coming in, but we still had opportunity to see starfish on the rocks, and sea anenome in the tide pools. Soren kept yelling at me that the tide was coming in and I’d better get out of there or I’d be cut off. Well, I made it home, as you can tell. Either that or the computer is waterproof, and I’ve joined Ariel.
After climbing on the rocks and poking at tide pools, I made Soren and Bob take a walk on the beach. I wanted to explore some more rocks. They looked cool from the distance, but as we approached, there wasn’t a lot of tide pool activity. Just the coolness. As the morning was very foggy, one has opportunity to wonder whether the rocks are really there.
We walked around a bit more, seeing more stuff (including a few arty things), and went to a great viewpoint where we tried to see whales and seals. Even with the binoculars, we had limited success. But Soren was able to fly a kite. After lunch, Soren still feeling punky, we decided to leave. So the sun finally came out, in time to accompany us on our return drive through rush hour traffic.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
When faced with the possibility of no activity during a spring break, one must find alternatives. Even if they require EFFORT! Said effort being envisioned, and achieved, Multnomah Falls was surmounted.
In other words, we decided to hike to the top of Multnomah Falls on Sunday, because it was the last day of my Spring break and the first day of Soren's. Soren didn't want to go, but I made him. and as we drove through the waterfall district, he said - I want to climb THAT one! I guess we have ac
tivities for another weekend - or another day.Multnomah is TALL - 620 feet, says the blurb. And it's all uphill. Both ways, says Bob, who has more knee trouble going down that up.
We all fought over the camera. By the end of the hike, Soren was taking pictures of little cascades. I asked whether he preferred little waterfalls. He said "I like little THINGS". (such as rabbits, squirrels, and cascades). Consistency.
