The 5th Web Based. . .

"Occasionally" Annual Salmon Beach Bulletin

I've got to tell you, my friends, that this is the first year of my life that every day has been better than the one before, no matter what "niggling little things" may have gone wrong that particular day!  (If you don't know why already, just look at the previous post, a fairly short one right below this one, before continuing on.)   Hopefully, I will not have another year like last 4 months of 2014, and the first 8 months of this year, but it's nice to have gotten through it, without having lost anything of value, except the time, and with everything steadily improving, I couldn't ask for more.  So, enough of that and on to some of the things that have made this year so wonderful!

I guess the most important thing is that for the 3rd time this year, I have just been awarded a "Cancer Free Zone" designation!  And, after waiting for over a year, my taste buds have mostly returned, allowing me to really enjoy the Thanksgiving meal which I missed last year, and I'm joyfully anticipating the upcoming Christmas feast.  All 3 of my oncologists said that the taste buds that are still MIA should return to the fold in the next 6 months or so, so I still have a bit to look forward to, when it comes to my health.  "You don't miss the water 'til the well runs dry."

At the end of April, I had a visit from couple of “kids” from Pennsylvania, one of whom is the child of “ex-students” who became friends, and moved to Salmon Beach for a couple of years back in ’73/4. In 1980, after our wedding, Laurie and I rode the 450 cc Suzuki motorcycle down to Chula Vista, California (right by the Mexican border), to visit them.  That ride was what convinced me I needed a bigger bike (the 750 cc Yamaha Seca), which I bought a year later, and kept until buying the “new” bike, a 1300 cc Yamaha FJR, back in ’08.  Can’t get much bigger or faster (0-60 in 2.6 seconds, although I have not done that!), so I figure that this will probably be my last bike!  Anyway, his folks have remained my friends, and Ian and I have developed our own friendship, and this is the second time he’s been out to see me, although the main motivation for his trip out here was Phil Lesh’s (bass player for the Grateful Dead) 76th birthday party; both of these kids are died-in-the-wool “Deadheads”, which, I have to admit I do not understand, although I do enjoy the Dead’s music.  They stayed with me for a few days, and the highlight of the visit was a hike on Mt. Rainier, up towards Paradise; I was surprised and pleased,  that I could keep up with these guys, whose legs were practically as long as I am tall!
That outboard is now history, as that was the 8th time that I’d been out in the boat since getting it repaired, and only once  did I not have to row home.  Luckily, this time, I had a pair of soft leather gloves with me that prevented me from getting blisters, and Angel didn’t seem the least bit upset by the inconvenience.  3 days later, as I was walking up the hill, I ran into a neighbor who bought a new boat this year, and had 2007 15 hp 2 stroke Evinrude  (the last year that they made them), that he was willing to part with, so again, what could have been a real bummer, wound up being no big deal!  However, I do seem to have picked up an aversion to taking the boat out, as I have not yet worked up the nerve to head out for a prolonged trip!  Luckily, I still have enough dry wood to get me through this winter, although, because of the air pollution which is getting worse around here, so far, I'm getting along with the heated floor in the kitchen and baths, as my main heat source.  


At the start of May, I was on the phone one day, and noticed that the white "shears" that cover the stained glass window upstairs, seemed to be discolored, so I got up and walked over to take a closer look, and lo and behold, I discovered that it was "New Roof Time"; oh joy!  The curtains were water stained, as was the wall above it, so it was obvious that the roof was leaking.  In all that had gone on, the previous year, I had forgotten that back in '92, when I did it the last time, that I figured that it would need redoing, just about now, and although I could do it myself, I thought it would probably take me most of the summer to get 10 squares of 3-tab (50 bundles @ 75 lbs. apiece!) down the hill and up on the roof, and then install it, and decided that it would be worth it to have a good, reputable company do it for me!  Luckily, there was no structural damage, so the roof itself didn't need repair.

While I was talking to the roofing guy, going over the colors and materials they had to offer, I spotted a metal roof, and decided to go for that.  There was no "tear off" to deal with, and a month later, they got started on a Thursday morning, and were done, the following Monday night.  

So, on to the next little project, which was to refill the wood supply for the wood stove, which was over half-empty, since little was done last year, in the aftermath of the diagnosis.  Since the motor hadn't been run for about 2 years, somewhere in the throttle linkage, something had frozen up, and I took it in to be "tuned up", and when I got it back, it seemed to run fine, so I popped it back onto the boat, and after 5 minutes of it idling while tied up to a piling, I took off toward the south end of The Beach at a sedate pace, and, turning around and running with the tide, I headed toward the north end.  Almost there, the motor just stopped!  So, I broke out the oars, and it only took me 20 minutes of rowing against the tide, and a nice blister on the little finger of my right hand to get back home.  My neighbor brought over his gas tank, with new gas, and it fired right up and ran fine for about 20 minutes, so I figured that the gas with ethanol, had separated, and my motor got a big gulp of water.

The next day, on my way to work, I bought a new plastic gas tank, fuel line and some fresh gas and was off to the races. . . NOT!  The following morning, I got up early and had the boat in the water by 10, and at 10:10 I was rowing back home, again!  As I was approaching the end of The Beach, on my way out, all of a sudden, the motor just went. . . "uuuuunnnnh!", and came to a stop.  I squeezed the priming bulb and couldn’t get any pressure, so I looked back and thought that the hose just hadn’t made a good connection, and went back to push it back on, and discovered that it had just broken off at the stem. . .  Out came the oars again, and I got home and put the other new connector on, but since I bought them both at the same time, it occurred to me that it they may have been made out of a bad batch of plastic, so, after running around for another 15 minutes out front, I pulled the boat back up onto the deck until I could go get another couple of fittings, which I will carry with me, after this. And, of course, there wouldn't be favorable tides for wood gathering for another 3 weeks or so. . .

Much to my amazement, I really wasn’t that upset; I was still riding the crest of the wave that appeared the first time that my doc labeled me a “Cancer Free Zone”; every problem that has popped up in my life since then, has been pretty minor, in the grand scheme of things, and very easy to deal with! Even finding out that I was going to have to start filing quarterly reports to Uncle Sam, along with a check, and having to write a fairly large check that I still owed from 2014.  A couple of years ago, that might have sent me into a blue funk from which I might still be recovering!  Like we used to say, "Don't sweat the small stuff!"

After my second "clean" report, I celebrated by buying a new full-frame Sony A99 camera, that's absolutely wonderful; cameras seem to be kind of like guitars; one just isn't enough!

In July, I hired my god-son to give me a hand on finishing up the "3 Year Project" (deck replacement) that I started . . .oh, maybe 15 years ago (don't want to rush into things!), and it looks great!  Of course, we ran into another "little niggler" which would have thrown me a few years ago.  During those intervening years between the start and the end of this project, Trex quit making the material I had been using, and not only does the new stuff look different, it's almost half the thickness that it used to be!  To get a material that even came close to matching the older deck, I had to lay out about half again what I thought it would cost.  No big deal. . .

At the end of August, riding high on my rapidly improving health, the completion of the deck, and a new roof, I once again turned my attention to filling the wood shed, so on a Friday morning, at about 7, I headed out in the boat again.  And, once again, suffered a small “setback”, when my outboard motor had a “coronary”. and I had to row back, again!  It was kind of ironic, as I had gone quite a ways from home, looking for logs (my only reason for going out in the boat!), and didn’t find any, so at least I didn’t have to lose any “booty”.  But I had just finished. . . well, I was in the middle of the thought, “This has been a great day, even if I didn’t find any firewood, because the motor has been working just . . . “, and there was an incredibly loud, “CRACK!” and the motor stopped, and smoke was boiling out of the cowling.  I was so shocked at the timing, that I almost burst out laughing!  So, an hour and a half and 3 miles of rowing later, I pulled up to the house. It could have been much worse, as the tide, which was, of course, going against me, was extremely slow running, and the temp here was only about 70•.  

In October, my friends from Paso Robles, Ca., who's wedding inspired my trip south in the spring of '14, visited for a couple of days, and we had a great time.  Up to Mt. Rainier again, but no hiking this time!  We took a "wrong turn", and after about 20 miles did a U-turn to get back to the right road home, but things like that are what make adventures fun, and it was a beautiful day, so "all's well. .  ."  

A couple of weeks ago, after my 3rd "CFZ" designation, I    celebrated, again, by treating myself to a 16-35mm wide angle lens for the new camera, that I had been lusting after for the last 2 years, and while I was out with it the first day, discovered this beautiful old hand water pump in one of Tacoma's parks.  I don't know why I like this pic so much, but I do.  And, to top it all off, this was about the last truly beautiful day that we've had for a couple of weeks, so I keep coming back to it to see the sunlight!

By now, you must all be thinking, "Sheesh!  How long is he going to keep going?", so, let me wrap it up by wishing you all a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!", and add this little reminder by my favorite cartoonist, Berkeley Breathed, of "Bloom County" and "Outland" fame:

 

 And, this, to bid, "Adieu" to 2015!


 


 

The Journey. . .

Many of you may have wondered, last year, why the "Occasionally Annual Salmon Beach Bulletin" ended with my return home from Arizona, at the end of April, so I guess that it's time to let you in on something that I've been playing fairly close to the vest.  I really had no intention of writing this, but I've been chastised pretty severely by a couple of friends who I recently told.  The only people I told ahead of time were my students, because I had to quit teaching for about 3 months, and the neighbors, upon whom fell the responsibility of taking care of my "grrrrrrls" for me.  I'll make it as concise as I can for you, so buckle up!

A year ago today (8/30/'15), I awoke at the University of Washington Medical Center, after spending 9 hours on an operating table, and another 11 hours in an "induced coma".  During the first week of May, I lay down to take a nap before heading off to work, and when I went in to shave, there was a lump, about 1 1/2" long, by 3/4" wide, and about 1/4" tall, just under my ear, by the angle of my jawbone.  My reaction was, "How odd. . .", but I didn't think too much about it; I mean, c'mon, nothing serious happens in an hour, right?  I did, however, try to make an appointment with my doctor at Multicare, but was informed by his receptionist, that since I hadn't seen him in about 4 years, the insurance company insisted classing me as a new patient, and that the soonest they could schedule me was September 9th, so I made an appointment, and. . . off to work.

 A month later, I was supposed to go to a wedding, and on the day of the wedding, again, I went to shave, only to discover that "My Rider" (yeah, I had named it! :)  ) had grown, and I dropped my friend an email, saying that rather than attending the wedding, I was going to spend the afternoon at the "doc in a box".  The doc took a look at me, excused herself, and returned a few minutes later to tell me that I had an appointment the following Monday with an ear, eyes and nose specialist in Gig Harbor.

The "ENT" guy put a scope up my nose, and said that he wanted to aspirate the lump the next day, which we did, and the results were "inconclusive", so he did a biopsy that Friday, and it too came back the next week,  inconclusive.  On the day that they did the biopsy, they also did either a PET scan or a CAT scan (don't ask the difference, because I don't know!)  When I went to get the results, he told me that while he was scoping me, that he had found a small lesion under my tongue that he was more concerned with than "My Rider", and that I had some decisions to make.  He said there were 3 options available to me:
   
      1.  I could do nothing, but he said that he could almost guarantee that that would lead to some                          
           serious consequences that I would regret.
       2.  I could have the lump removed under a local anesthetic and take my chances with the lesion;    
            again, not an option that he would  recommend.  And, since he had not done that operation for
            over 10 years, he was going to send me to a guy here in Tacoma.  Or. . .
        3.  I could elect to undergo an operation that would take care of both.

I came home and called a friend of mine who's a surgeon, to bounce the whole situation off of him, and he told me to hang on, that he'd call me back.  A half hour later, he called me back and said that I was to call the UW Med Center, to make an appointment with the leading research surgeon in their oncology department, which I did, and in July I met with the team of doctors and nurses who would be taking over the reins of my Life, for the remainder of the year.

I was diagnosed with a "squamish cell carcinoma" (yeah, the "Big C") underneath my tongue, which had spread to a lymph node on the right side, which was "contained", and another, on the left hand side , which was "not contained",  and on the 29th of August, I went under the knife at 10 a.m., and woke up on the 30th at about 11 a.m.  I guess that was the 2nd time I woke, but I don't remember the first time, when they removed the breathing tube. . . Thank God!

Four days later, they kicked me out of the hospital, and gave me 6 weeks to recuperate and decide on the course of treatments that we'd pursue.  They told me that if I had to have cancer, I was lucky, because the "cure" rate of this strain is about 80%, with a combination of chemo and radiation.  I debated until the day before treatment was to start, whether to go for the chemo, because one of the possible side effects of the chemo is deafness, and another is loss of feeling in the hands, and being both a guitar player and photographer, they were talking about 90% of my Life!

Coming to this decision was tough, because up to now, I felt as good as I had ever felt in my life and was in better shape, and I knew that somewhere in the near future, that would more than likely change drastically.  I finally decided to toss the dice and live with the consequences, since either treatment without the other is less effective.

Over the next 7 weeks, I had radiation treatments every morning, 5 days a week, and 3 different chemo treatments.  For the first chemo treatment, and the first 3 weeks of radiation, I felt fine, and the recuperation each day was made easier by the friendship and sanctuary in Seattle, provided to me by my long time friend, Michelline, in her home and beautiful yard:

After that, I felt compelled to move back to The Beach, and the second chemo treatment kicked my legs out from under me, and although I never felt "sick", my energy level dropped to the point where I had to stop several times to rest, climbing the 200 stairs each day, between The Beach and the parking lot.

I think that the worst part of this whole trip was that my taste buds went "MIA" about the 4th week of treatments, and anything I put in my mouth felt like cardboard, and had absolutely no taste!  The doctors had wanted to insert a "feeding tube" directly into my stomach, and I had vetoed that, because, with a dog and 3 cats, I saw that as simply another possible source of infection.  The doctors told me that I wouldn't be able to eat, and I told them that I would force myself, but I had no idea what was coming, and the only thing that saved me from suffering the installation of the tube, was my nutritionist telling me that a liquid diet of Boost VHC (YUK; it's the consistency of thick oil or paint!) would sustain me, and what a blessing that was.  I had dropped from 150 lbs. to 138 lbs. in 5 days, because of a case of "thrush", due to the antibiotics that they gave me for the operation.  From the middle of November until the second week in January, Boost and 10-15 glasses of water were all that I "ate", and I considered myself lucky, because just before I started in on the liquid diet, it took me an hour to get through just a small apple!

For an idea of what it's like to not be able to taste anything, dissolve a couple of tablespoons of salt in a glass of water and take a sip; it tasted like plain water to me; I couldn't taste the salt for a couple of months after the cessation of the treatments!  When I could, it was a beautiful bright spot in my existence, because I knew that the loss of taste wasn't going to be permanent.  Now, 10 months later, most of the taste buds are functioning, although not 100%, because anything with tomato sauce doesn't taste right, and neither do sweets, which eliminates 2 of my major food groups: pizza and ice cream.  That's OK, because the reason for watching my weight has flipped 180•; I used to have to watch my caloric intake because I have a tendency toward putting on weight, and now I have to watch it to make sure that I'm not losing weight.  Eating is not as enjoyable as it used to be, but, week by week, it seems to be improving, and I'm definitely looking forward to the holiday season, this year!

As of now, I've been declared a "Cancer Free Zone" twice, with 2 more follow ups still left this year.  I do realize that I'm on a "5 Year Clock" before I can consider myself cured, but with my energy back to it's usual "over the top" level, and no fluctuating mood swings that I suffered for a couple of months, I don't think much about it, except to appreciate every single day more than I used to.

A couple of years ago, I posted that you all should stop, every once and awhile, and count your blessings, and take the time to appreciate all that you've been granted in this Life, because things can change in an instant.  That was right after my 6 year old cat, Kassie, died unexpectedly, and I had no reason to believe that the lesson would be reinforced, a couple of years later!  This is the second time that I've had a close up look at my own mortality, and I can tell you that the whole world takes on a little different complexion when it happens; colors are a little more vibrant, and it seems as though everything is in just a bit sharper focus.

I apologize to those of you who might feel. . . "shorted"(?), because I didn't share this before, but, as you know, I'm one of those kind of private individuals, and I didn't want to worry my friends with something that I was pretty darned sure was going to have a positive ending (no pun intended!).  I also didn't want to spend a lot of time talking about it, and even with the relatively few people that knew, it got to be a boring subject, very quickly, so. . .

'Nuff said; onward & upward!


                

The 4th Web Based . . .

"Occasionally" Annual Salmon Beach Bulletin

finds me sitting here and thinking how lucky we are to inhabit this beautiful world, and how, hopefully, this most wonderful time of year will find us all celebrating another year filled with family, friends and the joy of Life and love.  

At the end of last year, I stepped up to a wonderful new camera, a Sony A77, which I quickly learned was as much a computer as a camera!  Not only that, I quickly discovered that my new camera hobby made the cost of my my music "habit" pale in comparison!  Lord, there's nothing you can get for a serious camera that is cheap!  I spent a lot of time the first 3 months of the year, studying photography (on my own, no classes this year), and in April, I took the Subaru, and my camera and hit the road south.

My old friend, Jon O'Hare, who I had not seen for about 35 years, provided a great excuse for me, by getting married in Paso Robles, Ca.  The time of year could not have been better, and Jon and I spent about 5 hours hiking and roaming around the area, which was still green (!), before his wedding on Saturday.  He told me that we would have been looking at brown, had it been 2 weeks later.

(If you "click" on any of the pictures below, they will "blow up" so you can see them better!)

The next morning, early, I hit the road again, south to L.A., where I made a hard left and headed over to Apache Junction, Az., to hang out with my my friend of the last 47 years, Bobby, and after a couple of days, we headed north to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyons.  I had never been in country like this before, and was just blown away by the variety of scenery, and the sheer beauty of Zion:

A walk down a canyon brought me to:

Bobby had abandoned me at this point for a return trip to our room for a nap, since I had dragged him out of bed at 4 a.m. for a sunrise shot:

And the morning was cold, and a wind of about 20 mph was blowing; I thought it was worth it, but I still wonder if he did!  

A 45 minute hike up a steep trail, and turning 180 degrees brought me this scene:

Just to the right, bottom center, you'll see 2 RVs, which gives you some idea of the scale of what you're looking at, and look just to the left of that, and you'll see that the center of the shot is framed by a "keyhole"; one set of cliffs behind another.

We were so enthralled with the area that we wound up staying 2 nights, instead of the planned 1, and we'll have to return, because there is just so much to see!  The last night brought us this scene, right behind our room:

The next morning we were off and running toward the Grand Canyon, and since we got there fairly late in the afternoon, we were scrambling from viewpoint to viewpoint, as the day was drawing to a close.  Although it is indeed, "grand", staying in the park that night was impossible; "No room at the Inn!" (Tip o' the hat to the present season!  :) )

Actually, at any of the motels, so we pushed into a little town about 20 miles outside the park, snagged a room there, and decided that we'd head off to the fabled town of Sedona, the next morning.  The drive was beautiful, the companionship wonderful, and I was wondering if the town could possibly live up to it's "hype". . .

This was the view off our room's balcony, and here's another of the road into town:

Well, you all know how much I love my li'l slice of Heaven, here on Salmon Beach, but I have to confess that I was smitten with the town and it's surrounding area!  If, for any reason, I ever lost my place, Sedona would be a serious consideration for a place to move!

We hit the road back to Apache Junction, and 2 nights before I left, we made a sojourn into the desert to get a shot of the first of 4 "Blood Moons" that occurred this year.   1:25 a.m., and you know that I'm  a night person, but it still was late!

The next day it was pretty "tired out", so it was early to bed that night, and I hit the road for home at 5 a.m. the next morning.  A hard 2 days of driving, brought me home, where all the animals put on a "circus" for me, for a couple of hours, just to make sure I felt welcome.  And the next morning, there was a "Welcome home!" parade for me, about 30' off my front deck:

It was amazing, because most of the time when we see them, they are way across the Sound; man, talk about exciting!

The rest of the year has been a real let down, after all this excitement, and nothing I really wanted to share with you, until about a week ago, when I happened to glance out my window one day, and got this shot from the other side:

After leaving The Beach for 2 trips within 6 months (Nova Scotia last October, and this one in April), I find that I'm anxious to be on the move again, so I'm planning another visit to Arizona, and then, later in the spring, a trip back to Pennsylvania, on to Halifax, and then on to Newfoundland, which I missed when I was living in Halifax from '67 to '69; "Ah, there's always time for. . .", but sometimes there just isn't!  And, I'm dreaming of maybe a trip to Iceland, in the fall; guess we'll see what the future holds!

For right now, let me bring the year to a close by wishing you all the absolute best of Christmas's, and the happiest and safest of New Year's, and telling you how very much your friendship and love means to this ol' dude!  

The 3rd Web Based. . .

"Occasionally" Annual Salmon Beach Bulletin 

finds me in kind of a strange mental space.  Although I usually love this time of year, with the bright lights and all of the festivities, and all the folks running around desperately trying to figure out what special gift they can find for their loved ones, I'm inexplicably finding myself feeling kind of "blah" about the whole thing.  Very weird, because this has been a wonderful year, with only a couple of exceptions.  I've decided that next year I'll go back to actually sending out cards again, because from what I'm hearing, this practice is going the way of the dodo, and, being the contrarian that I am. . .  Actually, I'm hoping that that will renew the feeling of involvement and excitement that is lacking this year; if it doesn't, I'll know that I'm starting to turn into The Grinch!  :)

I wound up taking a couple of photography courses at Tacoma Community College last spring, had a great time, and learned a lot.  They were the "intermediate 1 & 2" classes, and I signed on for the "advanced" class at the start of the summer, but it was canceled due to lack of interest.  That was kind of a bummer, because as most of you know, I need something to motivate me, and I found that I wasn't getting out with the camera as much without the class "pushing" me.

Now, having said that, one evening getting towards dusk at the end of June, I was working at the computer, and the phone rang.  It was a neighbor asking me if I was seeing what was going on out front, so I looked out and darned near killed myself running down the stairs to grab my camera.  In my almost 50 years of living down here, I've seen an incredible number of beautiful sunsets, but I have never seen anything like this:

And it was literally changing, second by second, so I'm standing out there on the deck, shooting, for about 3 or 4 minutes before I notice, up in the left hand corner of the viewfinder, a big red "X"!  No memory card. . . D'oh!  So I scrambled back inside, slammed in a card, and got back on the deck, and started shooting again, while roundly proclaiming myself a friggin' idiot! It continued to change, and 20 minutes later:

  

I'm not kidding you, guys, even in my younger, "crazier" days, I have never seen a light show like this one, not even back in the '60's(!), and I don't expect that I'll ever see one again.  The "take away" from this li'l experience was the old Boy Scout's motto:  "Be Prepared!"  I'll never again leave my camera laying around without a memory card in it.  If you're wondering how I got that first shot. . . I didn't!  About a month after, I was talking to a neighbor, and she said that she had gotten a shot, so I bummed a bunch of photos from her.  (Thank you, Lizzie!)

Last year, I told you all that there were 2 new "additions" to the family, in the form of kittens, who have been an absolute delight.  However. . . Once again, "Quigley-luck" has raised it's ugly head; in April, I noticed that Sia, the calico, was favoring a back leg and I figured that she had just pulled a muscle, but took her into the vet anyway, only to learn that she has dysplasia; I didn't know cat's even had that, but, of course, I wound up with one!  I debated surgery for awhile, but after talking with an animal surgeon up in Seattle who specializes in hips, I took his advice and decided against it.  Nine months later, and at the end of fall, I'm finding that she's having less trouble with it if I keep her active and playing with "flying things" (toys), 3 or 4 times a day.

In June, my friend, Barlow, from Pennsylvania, came out and spent a week with me.  We spent one afteroon bumming around Tacoma, checking out the parks and the mansions in old town.  We stopped and did some shopping and then returned to The Beach, and I fixed us a Ceasar Salad, and we watched some Monty Python.  He headed off to bed about 12:30, and I was taking a shower before coming upstairs, where I sleep when I have visitors.   I had just finished drying off and the phone rang.  Ya know, a phone call at 1 a.m. is never gonna be good news, and it was my neighbor asking if both the kittens were in the house.  I told her I thought so, but I had just gotten out of the shower.  She told me I'd better check, so  I walked out onto the deck because I had left the door open, and Sia had fallen off the deck into the water.  She was clinging to a piling and howling her little heart out.  I grabbed my sneaks and went for a quick "midnight swim" to retrieve her.  The poor li'l girl was in the water, up to her shoulders and that water is really cold!  She was shaking like a leaf, so I brought her in and rubbed her as dry as I could with a couple of big fluffy towels, and then spent about 45 minutes with the hair dryer on low, getting her dry and warming her back up.  She didn't dig it, at first, and she still wasn't crazy about it at the end, but she was dry and had quit shaking.  She climbed up onto my lap and was purred for awhile, and then got up on the top of couch and spent some time straightening her fur. Darn, good thing it wasn't Kydai, or I'da been down there with the hair dryer all night, 'cause her fur has a dense soft undercoat, very much thicker than Sia's.

The heated slate floor that I put in last summer proved to be a wonderful investment last winter, and this summer.  In the winter, I set it at 65•, and in the mornings, it was a pleasure to get up to a house that was reasonably warm, even if the fire in the wood stove had died.  And this summer, when I turned it off, it acted as a "passive air conditioner", and kept the downstairs nice and cool during the hottest weather.  All of the cats wound up spending a lot of time laying on it!

In October, I exercised my passport, and returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) for the first time since '69, for a week, and my old friend, David, and I put about 600 miles on his car, just roaming around within a couple of hours of Halifax.  Because of the changing season, all of the trees were sporting their fall colors, and the countryside was beautiful.

A few miles from here was Lunenburg, one of the most picturesque little towns that I've ever seen:

Looks like a model railroad display, doesn't it?  No crowds and you can see the main street running up the hill, in the center of the picture. There was no traffic, and the weather was sunny and bright, the whole visit.

About 35 miles down the road was one of Nova Scotia's landmarks, the Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove :

Definitely a different type of "beach" than we're used to out here!

Here at Salmon Beach, an extremely high tide will run 12-14', and twice, in  extremely vicious storms, we've had 16' tides, which caused an amazing amount of damage.  The Bay of Fundy has tides that run up to 56-60'; the highest tides in the world!  Every year they "lose" a tourist or 2, stupid enough to ignore the plentiful signs along the coast (see the sign in the lower left hand corner), telling them to stay off the mud flats.  This picture kind of demonstrates how dramatic that is, and David tells me that at high tide, all you see are the trees, surrounded by water.

I was extremely happy that I had taken "Google Earth" for a spin around Halifax, before going back, because what was once a quiet little city with a working waterfront has somehow, in 44 years, turned itself into a smaller version of Seattle's waterfront, complete with condos, shops selling plastic lobsters (made in China!), whale watching tours, and crowds!  They say, "Ya can't go back!", but you can; it just wont be the same.  Still, I had a grand time with my friend, And it does look as though they were expecting me; I found this sign outside of a music store in Dartmouth, a city right across the bay from Halifax:

The trip was so much fun, that this spring, I intend to head down to Arizona, to meet up with another old friend (also into music and photography) of mine who "winters" down there, and see if we can hit 3 or 4 of the national parks: Bryce, The Arches, and The Grand Canyon.  I haven't figured out whether I want to drive or fly; if I drive, I could always catch Yosemite National Park, but after the fires this summer, it might be better to put that off for a couple of years!

You guys know that I love cars, and in September, another old "motorhead" friend of mine got me into the Kirkland Concours d' Elegance as an "events photographer".  I hit several car shows every year, but this was truly something special!  It was the 50th anniversary of the Porsche 911, and there were a lot of them in the parking area south of the event itself, but they paled in comparison to the cars in the Concours itself.  Most of the cars were. . . well, I started to say, "Classics", but I think that most of you would think I was talking "muscle cars"; not so:

A 1963 Mercedes Benz 300, whose seat belts (2) the owner paid $11,000 for, because they only sold something like 11 of the cars with seat belts as original equipment (they were optional, back then), and he found a set of "new, old stock" in the basement of a garage someplace.  He also found a set of original, fitted, beautiful leather and brass studded, hard shell suitcases that were made for this model, to fit the trunk, and paid a measly $45,000 for them!

The standout car for me though, was the 1934 Alfa Romeo Roadster:

 

I heard someone say that the owner paid $22 million for it; I felt like Alice in Wonderland, wandering around this crowd of people, who are noticeably different than the owners of cars at the "Good Guys' Car Show" that I go to each summer.  There were also a lot of contemporary "exotics", but somehow, they were overshadowed by all this old "heavy metal".  By the way, these pictures are just a hint of what the cars actually looked like; the finishes on these machines appeared so "deep" that you could have swum in them.  Now I've kind of got my sites set on attending the Pebble Beach Concours d' Elegance, which is a 5 day affair in California, which, they tell me, makes our show appear fairly drab. . .

The first weekend of November, we had an incredible windstorm, and about 1 p.m., I'm enjoying one of those wonderful Pacific Northwest windstorms that you all know that I'm so fond of, when the phone rings.  The caller ID tells me that "Anonymous" is trying to get hold of me, and I never want to talk to him, so I just ignored it, until I heard one of my neighbors telling me that I might want to get up to the parking lot.  A tree has come down, hitting my beloved Subaru. . .

I got dressed and hauled up the hill, and was "kind of" relieved to see that it "only" took out my windshield. . . Well, that's not exactly true, because you can see that there is a slight divot in the passenger side fender, right above the wheelwell, and bent up the back corner of the hood.  I went to get my keys, so I could call my insurance people and found that I'd left them down the hill, but that was OK, because I needed to get a tarp, some rope and my camera, anyway.  Back down the hill, grab the stuff & my keys, and  back up the hill, and I fired up the camera, and found that it's "dead"; been awhile since I used the little "point & shoot".   After a 15 minute search for the insurance card, I called the insurance people, and they tell me that it'll be a 20 minute wait, because lots of people are calling, and I looked at the cell phone, and it was about to run out of juice, so I told them I'd call back.

Back down the hill for another camera, and back up the hill. . . again!  Oh, yeah; safety glass?  All over the interior of the car!  I tarped the car, and came back down the hill and called the insurance people again, but only had to wait 10 minutes, to find out that, yes, indeed, I'm covered, but. . . $1000 deductible!  On the other hand, the windshield is one of the "flash thaw" windshields, and I expected that it would be close to that, never mind the ding in the fender, and the hood.

And, of course, I didn't have the "rental reimbursement" option, so I was now a "hardcore biker";  Thank God the bike didn't suffer any damage!  Although I have the ability to get out on my bike, there is no desire to do it, because there is no enjoyment for me in riding in the wind and rain; all the tupperware (full fairing) acts like a sail, and makes riding work, and not fun, so I usually don't.  I had to go to work the following Monday, and while the ride there wasn't bad,  I came out of the studio and found that it had started raining, and the streets were slick, and it was dark, and it was at the height of rush hour, so I elected to ride through town, rather than the freeway, which is a madhouse!  Not moving very fast let the rain gather on my helmet's face shield, and since Tacoma is in "economy mode", a lot of street lights are not on, and I was pretty tense by the time I got home.  NO fun!  Two weeks later, and just before a week of weather in the mid-20's, I got the car back, and they did a beautiful job of putting it back in shape.

Here's a couple of seasonal musical treats for you, from one of my favorite vocalists; go full screen for them as the photography is beautiful, and hopefully, you can put the sound through your headphones, as laptop speakers just do not "make it"! :

http://tinyurl.com/q6cnarc

http://tinyurl.com/l4favkf

Well, you guys are probably getting as tired of reading as I am of trying to extract memories of the high points of the year, so I'm going to wish you all a very "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" and a safe and "Happy New Year!"

Pickin' at a scab. . .

I've been feeling like I wanted to get back to writing for awhile now, but I've been so pissed off at what's going on in the world, for almost a year now, that I just didn't want to lay it out there for people to read, but that itch. . . So, I'm going to scratch it, but there is going to be no politics tonight, my friends!

The last 2 nights, I've been "falling in love" with an artist that I'd never heard of, and he has just tickled my heartstrings, and I decided this would be a happy, wonderful way to get back to the blog, and perhaps bring some joy and laughter into some other peoples' lives.  Somehow, I stumbled across a documentary (yeah, I know. . . "Ho hum. . .") called, "Beauty Is Embarrassing; The Wayne White Story", and this guy is simply unbelievable; his life is an art study, and Life is his medium.  He paints, he jokes, he's a puppeteer, and a sculpter; he was part of the design team for the TV show, PeeWee's Playhouse, which I never saw, but will now make a point of checking out!  He plays banjo, and is a whimsical free spirit, who, if you're not offended by the "F" word, will entrance you within 5 minutes of the start of the movie.  If you are offended, then just shy away, because it's a natural part of his vocabulary, and he obviously doesn't use it just for shock value.

The movie, if you are a Netflix subscriber, can be rented or streamed for free on your computer, if you subscribe to their "Watch Instantly" offerings.  It's also available on Youtube, and this is the first time that I've seen anything you have to pay for ($2.99), although I was aware that they were going to start moving toward this business model for some of their videos; what a drag!  I guess all good things come to an end sometime, but it's always sad to see.  They do have some short segments of the show, and some interviews with Wayne, that I haven't watched, but intend to, in the near future.  Just punch his name into their "search" engine.

He also has done some music videos, one of which is the Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight, tonight":
http://tinyurl.com/6pd9s5q , in which he designed all the sets.  He also won a Billboard award for best Art Direction for Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" video, in 1986.  http://tinyurl.com/d45ykpp  In 2009, he published a 400 page book of some of his art, which I've now added to my "Wish List", and I'm hoping that Santa will stuff it in my sock this Christmas, because I don't think that I'm going to spring for the cost of it, no matter how much I admire the guy!  If you watch this show, I believe that you'll look at Life a bit differently than you did yesterday, and I can guarantee, should you choose to follow his example, that not only will you enjoy your life a little more, but the world will be a better place because of it!

A couple of months ago, I was treated to a David Russel concert at beautiful Benaroya Hall, in Seattle, and he played a song called, "Spatter the Dew" that just knocked me out!  I've probably listened to this video 30 times or more, and it still just blows me away: http://tinyurl.com/b86dhc4

Hard left here!  I can't even begin to guess how many musicians have recorded the song, "Hey Joe", which I think I heard first on an album by The Leaves in '65: http://tinyurl.com/7y38tez which is a pretty fast version of the song.  A lot of people think that this is still the best rendition, ever, but for contrast, and more in the vein of Jimi Hendrix's version check out this cut by a New York singer/guitarist/songwriter, Popa Chubby, who I've been following for almost 20 years now: http://tinyurl.com/pvc7muy  Notice how much the quality of sound has changed over the years?

Since it's getting late, and I want to bring this to a close, I can't think of a better way to end it than to take yet another musical turn: http://tinyurl.com/pseyrdk

Good night!  :)