All Drift All the Time

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Comment by Baia 7 hours ago

I haven't even looked outside yet. I'm in Kingston, WA for the board meeting of our homeowners assoc. last night. I'm the secretary. The usual whiners who should be living in shacks in the woods were there last night and I decided in the middle of it all that I would not re-up for a third year. I will be on a committee but not on the board. The experience of the last two years has almost killed my enthusiasm for living here and I don't want that to happen.
I looked out the window and now that the leaves have fallen, I have a much better view of the water in Appletree Cove. The fireplace is turned on and I think I will curl up and finish the novel about cheesemaking in Ireland that I started earlier this week. It's called "Blessed Are the Cheesemakers".

Comment by Gary Freedman 11 hours ago

It's a sunny, cool day in our nation's capital today. I might go to the bank this afternoon. Not much else planned.

Comment by Gary Freedman 1 day ago

Well, it's rainy and cool in DC today. I have a psychiatrist's appointment at 3:00. Man, do I need that!

Comment by Baia 1 day ago

Mt. St. Helens' erupting was scary, but the land recovered well and the ash ended up being a great natural resource. Who'd have thought it?

Comment by Gary Freedman on November 18, 2009 at 10:54am

Yes, Washington is a beautiful state. You know, I was living in Spokane in May 1980 when Mt. St. Helens erupted. Spokane was covered in a layer of ash.

Comment by Baia on November 17, 2009 at 7:38pm

Well, if there's no November 31, then maybe the cruisers will be back on December 1. It's been kind of fun having the whole raft to ourselves while the rest of the drifters are cruising.

My daughter has told me that she doesn't want to go on the cruise we had planned for May because she is too poor. I would have to pay the same for the accommodations whether I paid for her or not, but she is willing to go on a shorter one that she feels better able to afford. I have given her the task of figuring out what that will be. While I was staying home working, my kids were romping around the world and when I was younger myself, I was raising them and too poor to travel. Now I am at that awkward age where I have the money to travel and the inclination, but none of my friends and relatives can afford it or want to travel. Darn! I will go by myself if I have to and I have in the past, but it is more fun to share. I must do some more research on this.

I want to do more traveling in Washington State. I have never been to Lake Chelan, Lake Quinault, or Walla Walla and I haven't been to Mount Rainier since 1966. I don't need to go there if I can see it regularly from home, but I would like to visit it up close again sometime.

Comment by Gary Freedman on November 17, 2009 at 10:26am

There is no November 31st!!It's not a significant date. It's not a date at all. It's an imaginary date for the end of an imaginary cruise. That's my take on it.

I regret now never having visited Seattle when I lived in Washington state. I don't know what my thought process was back then. I could have taken a bus, I guess, from Spokane. What was I thinking?

Comment by Baia on November 16, 2009 at 8:50pm

Today in Seattle was sloppy and wet but still warmish and not windy. My carpool buddy had to work late so I took bus home and it wasn't so bad.

The annual rainfall in DC is more than in Seattle, but in DC it is evenly spread throughout the year pretty much. In Seattle, it definitely rains more in Nov-January when it is darker and is dry in July-Sept. It's also hotter in summer and colder in winter in DC.

There are definite advantages to getting older. I'd rather be the age I am now in the shape I am now knowing what I know now than younger and firmer and sicker and more ignorant. But that's just my preference.

Did you notice that the cruise lasts until November 31? Is that some kind of significant date? Have we been "left behind" in other ways?

Comment by Gary Freedman on November 16, 2009 at 9:47am

So I survived the opera. It lasted from 2:00 PM to 7:30 PM. WOW! I was so keyed up when I got home I could only eat a light dinner. Then I had trouble sleeping. The opera is so intense and interminable! It took Wagner 5 years to write it, and it sounds like it! Someone once said that Wagner is better that he sounds. I believe that.

We get all kinds of rain here in DC. Heavy rain, light rain, drizzle, mist, off-and-on rain -- you name it.

Baia, you're really tempting me with that pizza report. I remember when Hubert Humphrey died. That was in about January 1977, wasn't it? I still remember the violinist Isaac Stern and two other musicians played a trio by Mendelssohn in the Capitol Rotunda. That was in my youth! Now I'm a tired, frustrated, old man -- but loving every minute of it!

Take care!

Comment by Baia on November 14, 2009 at 8:17pm

When it rains in DC, does it rain constantly or does it rain, stop for a while, dry up a little and then rain some more?

Yes, you did mention that you used to live in Spokane. I transferred at the Greyhound station there once in 1962 on the way to Pullman. Then we went to Expo there in 1973 or 4. It was cold at night and it snowed but it was warm and sunny in the day time. Yup, east of the mountains is totally different.

I haven't been to DC since the weekend Hubert Humphrey was lying in state at the Capitol. I was visiting friends and we were at the National Gallery and Lincoln Memorial and the Museum of Flight for the raising of the Gossamer Albatross. We weren't listening to the news, so we didn't know what all the traffic was about until we got back to their house in Virginia.

The pizza place next door to our house does an olive oil glaze with lots of vegetables and not so much cheese. You'd like it. I do like the cheese for holding the toppings on, though.

I hope you make it through the opera. Even a matinee of Wagner can be quite draining. You might have to take a nap as soon as you get home. I'll be waiting for your report.

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