Trip to the Coast

John and I went to Newport on Thursday for our annual trip to the Oregon Coast. We visited the harbor and had lunch in Newport and then traveled up the highway through Depoe Bay and Lincoln City. It's been a long time since we'd been in that direction as we usually go to Florence. I remember Depoe Bay from trips we made when I was growing up. There are a few storefronts which look the same, but most of it has changed. There was a lot of traffic for a week-day in September. The weather was just perfect; sunny and 75 degrees and just a little wind. John and I stopped at several viewpoints to take photographs and we also walked hand-in-hand on the beach. It was a lovely day.

August Heat

I like reading the police reports in the local newspaper because I so often find strange things there. The heat we've been having the past few days seems to really have caused some people to go crazy. How else can one explain, for example, the recent report "subject is throwing raw hamburger at passing cars"?

Raymond Chandler's short story Red Wind contains this passage

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husband’s necks. Anything can happen.

I bet he wrote that on a hot day in August.

Blackberry Season

Nobody needs to pity the farmwife, however scratched and bedraggled she may look, coming out of the blackberry patch. She has got something more than blackberries from the time out there. There is no better place than the blackberry patch for that hour of solitude every farm woman craves now and then.
From Rural Free: A Farmwife's Alamanc of Country Living ~ Rachel Peden

This is probably one of the reasons why August is one of my favorite times of the year, despite the heat. There are times and places when I have an excuse to be outside, by myself, to think my own thoughts and dream my own dreams. Those are rare and special moments, even for women of a certain age who live in small towns.

Traveling to Work

I work about 20 miles away in a university town. The road I take to go to work follows the Willamette River which means it curves a lot but then, that makes it fun to drive even if one is not driving a little red sports car with a stick shift.

I go by Mennonite farms with their neat gardens, clotheslines, orchards, houses with wide front porches, a blueberry farm with row after row of bushes loaded with berries, and then through a little unincorporated town with its old church and its notorious speed trap. Yes, I remember to slow down.

I see flashes of the river as I drive and hawks hovering above grass seed fields on my right hunting for rodents and snakes and, on my left, others soaring over the river, looking for fish. The boat landing is often crowded with cars and yet I seldom see even a single boat on the river. If I'm lucky I'll see a blue heron or two standing in the fields.

And even better, it is exactly the same when I drive back home.

Sunflowers

I have a big bouquet of sunflowers on my dining room table.

It's Really Summer

August has the smells and tastes that mean summer's finally here--sweet corn, tomatoes, green beans, cantaloupe, peppers, and cucumbers from the garden, blackberries, peaches and at the end of the month, apples and pears. There is so much it seems never ending. It makes me feel rich. It's the smell of the last of the raspberries coming to a rolling boil for jam at the beginning of the month and the pungent vinegar of bubbling kettles of bread and butter pickles ready to be canned at the end. It's walking by rose bushes lush with flowers with scents so sweet they can make me swoon.

Later in the month comes the county fair and then, at the end of the month, the state fair. There will be animal barns filled with cows lowing and chickens clucking. I love to look at the poultry, the sheep and goats, and the rabbits best. On the midway, there's the music from the merry go round, the happy sounds of those on the rides, the smell of hot dogs and popcorn. I enjoy the flower arrangements,
the baking (oh, those fancy decorated cakes!), and the quilts! I never miss the quilts!

The weather will be beautiful day after day with only a few days here and there that are a little cloudy or have some showers and some that seem too hot, but it will be so lovely for so long it can lull me into thinking it'll last forever.

Oh, there are a few clues summer is ending-- ads for sales for school clothes and supplies, but school won't actually start until after Labor Day so there's time yet. And one thing I've noticed about Oregon--we're always one month behind weather-wise. It's still cool and rainy in June and September is almost always warm and clear and the trees don't even think about changing color until mid-October. So enjoy summer while it's really here. It won't last long!

Post-It For Annotations

I use post-it notes for many things and one use I especially like is using it for is annotating library books. I often find sentences or pieces of sentences or even an entire paragraph I want to remember, but I don't want to jump up each time and type it into a Word document. Instead I place a small stack of Post-It notes on the inside front cover of the book and when I come across a great quote I just put one right where the quote begins. It doesn't slow up my reading. If I have a pencil handy I might add a few words about why I like it. When I'm done reading the book it's easy enough to transfer the quotes.

I do this for fiction as well as non-fiction, for books of projects and poetry books too.

Father's Day

Me and Dad (1922-2005)
Summer, 1950
Minnow Lake, Ontario, Canada

Happy Father's Day, John!

Jack Edward










Owen Charles














Gavin Arthur













Hugh Griffith

Pop or Soda

It's finally starting to feel like summer although the highs are still only in the upper 60s. I came across this website which has a map keeping track of whether you call a soft drink pop or soda. I guess nobody calls it a soft drink; that must be under "other". Me? I prefer Diet Coke or sweetened iced tea.

Mobile Phone Use While Pregnant May 'Seriously Damage Baby,' Study Says

The post title is from this piece from FoxNews and if that is truly the conclusion of the study, then I have some questions. Of course, the article's title may not accurately reflect the conclusions of the study. Journalists always tend to simplify things and seem too many times to get it all wrong. They want sensationalism. Subtle analysis is just not a forte of modern journalism.

The article states

Pregnant women who regularly use mobile phones are more likely to have children with behavioral problems, according to a study by a UCLA researcher who had previously had previously written there was no proof of "any adverse health effect."

Mothers who used their mobile phone while pregnant were 54 percent more likely to report issues such as hyperactivity and emotional problems in their children, Britain's Daily Mail and The Independent reported Monday.

One question is which came first, the behavior or the cell phone usage? Is the mother on her cell phone talking to her therapist, friends, and relatives about her youngster's behavioral problems? Or are the child's behavioral problems caused by a mother who's always talking on her cell phone and ignoring her child? Or maybe mothers who use cell phones are more likely to view their children as being hyperactive and having emotional problems (there doesn't seem to have been any outside evaluation of whether or not that is true) because those darn kids just won't behave while she's trying to chat on the phone.

The First Laser

Google was celebrating the anniversary of the first working laser in 1960 with a laser logo on their home page. I first saw a laser in 1966 when a high senior in my class brought one in with a professor from the University of Oregon physics department for a demonstration. I was entranced. I had no idea what it might be used for, but it was indeed beautiful. I don't remember that student's name although I remember he was admitted to MIT. I wonder if he did anything more with lasers.

August, 1981

Me and John with Jack (1 month old)

Happy Mother's Day

Me and Mom (1922-2004)
1969

Lilacs

The second story bedroom in the house I grew up in had lilac bushes under the windows and on warm spring nights I'd open the windows and fall asleep to their scent. I've loved lilacs ever since.