Then This

  wide open spaces not so much      S, D, Marbles and I went to Oak Harbor. Stopped at berry farm to run the dogs. Saw Dennis again.      Hit the Verizon and at&t for due diligence about mobile internet for silver van. Resulting in cancelling Kaiser Garage install of such equipment. May buy new modem/router from Verizon and install ourselves. At&t was pretty clueless on the subject.      Got recommendation for Thai food from Verizon. Shot over to Naung Mai Thai Kitchen for lunch.      Margaret Brons dog park on return towards home.      Partial fastening of 1x6 black painted floor boards to dog tree house pavilion before darkness fell.      Notice from Byram Healthcare of time to order new months' supply of supplies.      Costcovia contacted as to status of drug prescriptions. Moving away from hateful riteaid.

       Long damp walk with D and Marbles in Saratoga Woods.  Trails fairly glowed from fallen needles.

on the trail of the village water line R exits ferry with dog (hidden)      Another rondelay to Freeland and beyond for a cartridge and then the next day a ham hock. The cartridge was for S and the ham hock for the Romanian pork and bean soup which was a lot of trouble and tasted like pork and bean soup although the caraway seeds added something different. Tuesday there was supper at Dean and Mary's house out Saratoga. Wednesday there was a dinner here at home with Bruce and Deon at which the Romanian soup was served. Both those events were relaxed and chatty.      R brought Marbles over on the boat for a handoff as she prepared to fly to New York for the wedding of Maxwell formerly of the Huff Post days.      There was at least a good walk on Tuesday up cemetery and down to commons for a cheddar and jalapeno bagel in which D and I rediscovered Jay's wetland project back of the old middle school field and D got into some deep black swamp mud, but I was able to commandeer the h

  I think I finished painting the floor boards for the dog tree house. Other than that it is a blank. Maybe later I can think of some stuff.

       The UW weather guy, Clifford Mass, was virtually jumping up and down with excitement over the arrival of stormy weather over the populated regions of Puget/Salish from the real excitement of the tremendous storm off the coast and Cliff at least implied that by 11 am it would whoosh in on us here in the village by the sea. But no, we went at that very hour to have brunch at our neighbors just to the west and had a quiet but festive little party. Nor did any weather drama happen the rest of the day; it rained some,       At 5 o'clock howsoever D and I walked in sunshine toward the big Fossek maple but the gate was locked for the first time I had known. I was walking accidentally with a person and dog who I had met years before and she said it was because the cattle herd, all nine, had been moved into that pasture. We walked the parallel drive beyond the maple but not to the houses farther on. D and the four year old dog, Willow, did some pretty good exercises.      The finale

  Young D S swam as always. R came for the meeting following the young man's hanging. I bought and stickered twice as many 1x6's as I needed due to a flat out dumbness. S and I retrieved R at her request to be safe and sure and spoke to Sarah in the dark on the street. There was a lot of caramel corn and peach twisters on the ride home. D and Marbles continued to mouth wrestle throughout the day and into the night.

long ago, far away Quiet day with some sun. Worked on dog tree house. Two hours on the phone about the phone with Apple. Almost that much on phone with Mike. Gathered untold pieces of polyester fuzz from another dismembered formerly stuffed animal in backyard. Realized should have used big red leaf rake.

            It started to rain just after lunch at Duke's with R, which was nice; lunch not the other thing. It had been a very warm dry day, but there were several other difficulties mostly with cars: the subaru wouldn't start when asked to board the ferry in Clinton and the ferry traffic guy wasn't going to let me on until I held the priority boarding pass against the windshield, I drove right past Henry's Donuts and had to negotiate back through a jam caused by a huge truck backing into a parking lot, after 7 hours parked in the next to deepest layer of the SCCA building downtown someone had pushed my off side mirror in and not noticing and missing the north I5 entry and thus heading south on I5 with the heavy rain, spray, glare and dark it was somewhat terrifying trying to turn around and start for home.      More positively I purchased the camp chair of my dreams, a sim card for consumer cellular, and a pair of green jogging pants, but the latter turned out to be t

  this would have been a nice spot for D to fall out at, but no because it is late.       We voted, and met with Jason about the silver van. He went all hot about the  fancy antennas on the roof and we should get the cell boosters, mobile routers, multi-modems, that go with them and get hella connected everywhere.      At Ciao for chow and cider. D walk at pocket park at West Beach. Turned out to be a large pocket, took trail that teased access to the Pacific but never did give it.      Messed with the rebar and chicken wire rabbit thing, which was pretty horrible. It's out there now throwing a harsh light.      Yesterday we started out with a Double Bluff D walk, but he only wanted to graze on whatever grass he could find. On the way home he fell out of the rear passenger side window as I swerved a little. Going about 20-25 mph. He was just gone, but fine as I could see him running around in the road behind us. He seemed a little disoriented.      I put together the base of the do

still lives with hotdog      Woke up a R's place in Columbia City. Continued working on steps until 10 am when David and Marcus arrived to help. Marcus the helper only a month out of Buenos Aries. Both originally from Venezuela, not sure what Marcus was doing in Buenos Aires but David is helping him transition, they are friends or relations.       We problem solved our way forward and after a while I stepped away from front line involvement to trim bushes, shovel evergreen needles, sweep, etc. S went to dog park with D and Marbles. Marcus accepted a strong brew of Mukilteo's finest with a generous helping of brown sugar. Later there was fat pizza all around. Finished work at 3 or 4. Everybody happy. Packed and headed home.

  Load, load, load tools and material for CC steps. Drive, Drive, Drive there. One stop for donuts at Henry's. Tear out lower steps. Find new problems. Watch Titanic.  Feel better about steps.

  a circuit through the cemetery, woods, highland cottages and the middle school. a purchase and haul of cinder blocks for the dog treehouse buckets of gravel from Saturday for Columbia City steps vegetable beef soup in instapot a tepid mocha at Sprinkels

       Dog is strangely melancholy this morning, seemingly. Who knows what really goes on inside that creature. He ate his breakfast at least. As did we all.      Rain.      Bargain hunting for acetaminophen. Star Store lacks complete product line. Get Banshee bread. Head to Freeland RiteAid, score value bottle of item.      Two 5 gallon buckets of crushed rock - 5/8 minus with binder from Landshapers, buck a bucket, upick. D never out of Subaru.      S suggests west beach walk with next door D girlfriend, Biera. Off we go as far as where the trees lie horizontally over the sand beyond the bulkhead now gone. Three flat bags of oysters lying at the tide line. D and Biera continue slightly abusive relationship which exhausts them.       After all that, I create burst cherry tomato pasta which is acceptable, but not exceptional. 

  recent but generic shot of Fossek property from maple      Out early with D in Subaru to get in line to donate old clothes to Senior Thrift. First in line, listening to two women discuss ferry boat problems. Off load all but lampshade and gone to Frontier to shake S's paint. D invited in by cashier, but blocked from interacting with store Lab by paint girl. Checked concrete products. On to Double Bluff for poor D. To Hanson's for screws and to check concrete products; found needed products except screws. Bought less desirable screws.      Home to rest. Did research on dog treehouse and laid out location under willow using frame for cancelled dog sandbox project. Spray painted outline of corners on grass. Progress. S off on swim.      Met B at 5 for west beach walk. Penetrated beyond former second bulkhead. Discussed S24O possibility. Water lapping shoes but tide going out so forged ahead through heaps of seaweed and grass. Squishy.       S takes D to dog park and apparently g

       My sentiment. Not my photo. Stump 1 Stump 2 D and stumps Bulldog stump 1 Bulldog stump 2      Up before six. Thought S was already perched on the corner of the couch since the end table light was on, but no. D scared by coyote singing, on the pillows and staying there. Ostomy puffing and burbling as though it at least was happy with the dawning of a new day. Cars and trucks and school buses blasting by at Mukilteo Speedway rates even though there are no tire stores, coffee shops or donut retailers on this street to get to, only day care tots, ambitious elder walkers, dogs, cats, children waiting at bus stops, deer, rabbits, etc. Squirrels. I'm thinking, conspicuously arm waving or open carrying adults or teenagers with an official 25 mph sign hanging front and back like sandwich boards standing on the center line at random times of day and night might do it.      It's 7:16 now and blue white light is pouring through a break in the eastern overcast putting these fantasies

  end of Edgecliff pup descends through Langley city well catchment area pup contemplates mortality up at the Langley burying ground      After thinking about it for a while decided to get out and do some walkin'. Took D and headed up to the Woodman Cemetery, out the back end of same, through the unnamed woods and the Highlands cozy cottage community, down through the well woods to the middle school, out Edgecliff to the end and home as the rain began.      S painted, shopped and eventually dog parked the dog; a real hot session she reported.      I cleaned the back lawn of various destroyed objects, dog shit and mowed.      Purchased a copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land with high hopes of actually reading the whole thing. I had previously enjoyed All the Light You Cannot See and the book that the author of those two novels claimed was a big influence on him, The Cloud Atlas . So there is hope.      Made my numbers.

  the strange formations of the bluff face at Double Bluff are the stuff of nightmares      I honestly can not cough up the morning at this point. There is nothing really compelling to mow.      At any rate lunch with S, Deon, Sanju and Fred at the Flower Pot Cafe was a good time, at least after I got over a slight attitude disfunction and could join in the hoot. Saw Issac of the Vienna Budapest ride working the outside tables. Had the grilled cheese.      To make it all up to D who had stayed in the car S suggested Double Bluff and off we went. Got a great parking place, D met and romped with a good cross-section of the genus dog and the bluff was crazier and more menacing than I remembered, unrecognizable.      a good day but you could begin to sense the shortness

          Or so it seemed as R and dog began their return to the mainland after our retro breakfast and a walk in Saratoga Woods. There is a quasi-religious uprising among ferry workers against the blasphemy of the vaccine mandate that is playing a little havoc with the crossing. R and S were strategizing on the phone as to how the situation might play out but in the end it all worked out and R was on the 11:30 pretty much like in the good old days.      Myself, I am thinking I am dealing with the effects of low T.  I was at 158 ng/dl in early August and a month later I am registering 102 both of which are around half of the low end of the standard range. So double napping is totally excusable and besides many normal animals hibernate during these coming months. And it's not like I'm not getting enough caffeine. Still reading Pollan ( This is Your Mind on Plants )on that score.      Another rumpus that shouldn't have been: Having chatted with B and B who were doing somethin

  Random closeup of random sculpture D under the old alder by the creek in Brookhaven reacting to a joke I told him to get him to smile       She and Marb are here a little past 10 in the morning and a furious but ecstatic rumpling, wrestling and face chewing ensues.       Soon we went to Greenbank Farm for the open sky and off-leash. Spoke with Dennis about his partner Jonny's travels in Mexico and Costa Rica.      Shopping for steak.      Naps.      Wonderful retro dinner of boneless ribeye, big old brown baked potato and asparagus. Jasmines for drink.      Walked to play at WICA that was kind of fun for a while. Cider and wine and tables in the theater.      Walked home at halftime a li bit tipsy.

  German has a word for this look - Weltschmerz a breakfast with left over mongolian beef      Spent morning studying an iphone camera app and eventually took out a year's subscription, but really was not able to successfully use the software for closeups that were much to write home about. Maybe more due diligence will help.      D and I went east on Langley beach to the marina where the ferry Evergreen State was parked at the Nichols dock for something.      S made the bushes out front smoother and shorter with the hedge trimmer. Looks real nice.      Walked with Bergquist and D down Edgecliff in the beautiful evening discussing cryptocurrency and medical progress.      Returned home to find Dean and S watching the candidate forum for fire, city council and school board. Not heady stuff.      Forgot to show B the fancy sprinter camper down at the 5th street commons and he forgot to show me his new vespa-like scooter. Another day. 

       the lonliness of the short little dog      Getting to be a habit to post about previous day from the next. Just reading a review of a new non-fiction book,  THE TAKING OF JEMIMA BOONE  Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America  By Matthew Pearl that tries to post about things that happened 200 years ago. How well is that going to work?      There was a walk on west beach Langley with a short meet with a cranky and barrel-shaped cattle dog, another pleasant hello from the kindly and unassuming David, as well as a scone from the loud authoritarian at the Commons.      A mowing of the front for the first time in months, noting the empty yard sign holder indicative S found out of a spate, yes a spate!, of that sort of thing with the added twist of the same yard signs being repurposed to spell FU on the high school verge. Thus I can only claim the faintest connection to the large cultural tides to-ing and fro-ing around here.       In the afternoon, there

     With the back 40 in the background, this student was working in the new garden. That's my dog, Bella. This is how it was the last time I was in the woods we worked in today.      Lot of lumbering back and forth to Hanson's lumber emporium for Columbia City porch wood some of which is drying in the living room.      For some reason it seemed there was scant time after that to having to go to the elementary school's west 40 due to some scheme Mr.B had for cleaning up some potential field headquarters for his squadron of 4th graders. It was familiar but exhausting work, but I had to get stoic because M. B's father was on second chainsaw and he's got a bunch more years on than me. Highlight was really B's classroom; it was clearly a sanctuary of peace and security with a lavender mist flowing from a glowing orb, a sound system of near studio quality, and a curriculum calculated precisely to balance the academic and experiential realms. Course the kids weren'

  nothing to do with just decorative same In case I get confused or confusing.      A good day for dogs. In the morning on the run down Anthes to lower Langley we met a fellow graduate of Agility 101 and her owner, speaking to D directly, said your cousins are down at the beach, so we glided down and found them still on the seawall. Off they drove across the wide expanse of low tide to the edge far out and commenced to annoy a heron which in turn annoyed the cousins' owner but his shouts fell short as the trio was running and splashing and so caught up in it all. Eventually his shout of "leash" and mine of "treat" turned them, although I don't know why yelling leash would be attractive.      Later I took D for a long twilight march from Saratoga Woods parking across the connector trail, down roller coaster to an obscure little gulch path just before Moss Valley and back in the early dark. I made my numbers and D didn't bother the horseman, nor the severa

       Pasta e fagioli is pretty much it for this day. The highlight, the only effort, the only accomplishment, the only success at least in terms of its societal impact by which I mean S had seconds.      Except perhaps for the trimming of the rampant holly bush on the southeast corner of the home, but that was a sidelight, a mere after thought.      My mom took a lot of interest in cooking and this pasta fazool as she called it was a dish, along with caramel dumplings and swedish pancakes, that I remember from those days. Trouble is, as is too often the case, I failed to take a photo of the dish at its most photogenic moment or at all and now even with 6 out of the original 10 servings still available the pasta has sucked up most of the broth into its fat little self and that moment is not reproducible. It's good stuff though and I recommend using a whole can of those little anchovie fillets rather than just the 3 specified in the recipe above from Cook's magazine. Also bacon

  peaceable kingdom Appalachia off Quigley Road      Finn, Ruby and D graduated today from Agility 101 and were awarded 15 minutes of straight-up playtime in lieu of a parchment or bronze symbolic item which I think was fitting considering their joyous romping. S did most of the running and prompting; in my one outing into the ring I bumped my sore finger on the seesaw challenge and had to go sit down.      Pretty sure I mowed the lawn. The rain and not-cold has brought it new vigor.      S emailed David the carpenter of Columbia City our final distillation of the steps project.      Subaru emptied.      Did due diligence on the ostomy supplies question; I don't seem to need anything which I don't know if that will sit well with Byram Healthcare, Inc.'s procedures. Probably call them Monday, maybe even order some of those new pouches with images of ponies in color.      Got some photos from Canada of long ago (1975) habitation on the island. See above. Note nice transplante