Asterisk Pass

Yesterday the fambly and I and my bro and niece headed to Smith Rock State Park for a little hiking and poking around. The day was drop dead gorgeous with crystalline blue skies and not a cloud in sight. The serrated rocks cut the sky with a crispness in sharp contrast to another day I spent at the Park. But I will defer that story for the moment.

Yesterday was just about the perfect temperature for the park. Warm but not roasting in the sun and cool but not freezing in the shade. What a Goldilocks moment. The Mimsical creature got a little toasty, being a black critter, but a dunk or two in the river seemed to cure that ailment and she scrambled up and down the rocks to Asterisk Pass like a little goat. I didn't quite make the pass, being on the road to recovery from a chest cold a couple weeks ago the lungs were willing but not able to sustain the effort. So I sat in the shade partway up and penned a draft of this entry.

As I looked eastward I remembered another day we had spent at Smith Rock with some friends from Hungary. It was not a perfect temperature day, I think it might have been August and the sky had that hot hazy look to it and the edge of the rocks were smearing against the sky. A stiff hot breeze kept the air moving and things somewhat more comfortable than if the air were still.

We had just set up a top rope on a short pitch and were about to do some climbing when we noticed little wisps of smoke passing overhead. Clambering up to the top of the pitch (and the parking lot) we found that the park was full of dark smoke so we pulled up our rope and headed for the car (which was all of perhaps 100 yards away). Driving back through the park, we were berated by park personnel for lingering so long in the fire zone, while we wondered why park personnel hadn't check the series of pitches where we were climbing because they were so close to the parking area and were popular climbing spots for that time of day (being in the shade).

Later we found out that the fire started because a park employee was welding a fee box for the bivy area and with the stiff hot wind caught the nearby grasses on fire and it spread fast through the rest of the park.

Yesterday, about 15 years later, it was hard to pick out signs of that fire. But maybe I missed a few as my lungs labored to recover from the trek back up the grade to the parking area. The Mimsical creature provided invaluable assistance by pulling on her harness to give me a little boost up the tough parts. I thought she well deserved the ice cream cone (minus ice cream) to chew up on the way home.

Oxygen Deprived

I ponder the time I spend in bed,
Coughing up a lung, a gore I dread.
Why can't I use this extra time
To put down words in prose, in rhyme?

I stuttered my starts, nothing would click
Until, days later, it started to stick.
I find my pen can take off again
I chalk it up to lack of oxygen.



~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been an interesting exercise in observation noting the lack of mental fortitude that comes with lung congestion. I've just wheezed my way through my first chest cold in I don't know how many years, but I would have happily gone longer without the experience. I realized that I was mentally glacial in some small corner of my mind when I had to ask questions multiple times because I couldn't remember the response. I'm sure that certain critters made off with a few extra meals because I couldn't remember if I had fed them or not.

I noticed the mental impairment because it came on quickly and I was getting frustrated with myself. I cannot imagine not noticing a cognitive decline. But, I am assuming a person will remember how full their cup was at the beginning. I understand that early stage Alzheimer's sufferers do notice a change of some kind and may act out on their frustrations until ... they forget.

Eat right, drink plenty of fluids, move, use your brain, breathe.

Matter of Trust

Grunting I chunter, growl, complain,
I stomp my way on down the lane.
Pound stupid, because penny smart
Makes big oil leak money.  I find a start
I make to show how I care,
It turns out the Gulf can use my hair.

Matter of Trust

Spring in the High Desert - 2

Over a month ago I pondered the presence of spring.  Now, June 17, I have decided it is not coming.  Winter will be shading directly to summer it appears.  The only question is when.  Certainly not this week. 

The threat of freezing temperatures last night spurred me to cover the tender tater tops to spoil the prospect of wilted mush this morning.  I had already lost my tiny morning glory seedlings to the cold a couple days ago.  Don't know what I was thinking, not starting them in a more protected place.  The hardier starts in the garden, while surviving the frost, have definitely gone into no-grow mode.  Can't say I blame them, myself. 

The  rhubarb is glorious.

2010 Wild Rye.mp4

Here's a video of the local (Bend, Oregon) band, Wild Rye on YouTube.  This debut appearance at the Tower Theatre contained some technical difficulties, but the band played along, even if partly unplugged for a chunk of the performance.  I attended the gig the following night when they were spot on, technically and musically.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATeh5TRyLuk

Hick French Cuisine

I was cruising through my recent acquisition of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" when I came across a plethora of crepe recipes.  There are entree crepes and dessert crepes and and crepes for filling and for not filling...apparently never the 'twain shall meet.  I, being the hick cook, always used the same crepe recipe for all purposes and never thought twice about it.  How gauche! 

I thought it would be nice to do a family brunch for Memorial Day with crepes and assorted fruits and stuffings in a "build it yourself" crepe bar.  The fun with this approach comes from the different combinations that can be assembled and the various comments around the table of "Oooo, this combo is really good!  or  "Ew, don't mix these."

For the occasion, I settled on the crepe Suzette recipe rather than the yeast version because I wanted to make the batter the night before.  And with a nod to making a crepe for filling, I planned on adding the beaten egg whites to make a stronger pancake.  Well, the night before turned out to be about a quarter to eleven because we dawdled over dinner and a movie and so I can only guess that my cognitive powers were not at their sharpest. 

I started by following the blender instructions even though I was not using a blender and the instructions for not using a blender are quite a bit different.  I passed through that challenge with a reasonable batter, at least a batter that would fix certain problems as it sat overnight.  However, it was a slightly different matter when it came to the point of melted butter. 

I tend to keep my extra pounds of butter, no, fortunately for Irish dance, not on my hips, but in the freezer.  In this case I was working my way through a four pound batch of butter when I needed about 10 tablespoons for this recipe.  To my chagrin, I realized I would have to work with the frozen supply and stoically chipped apart a stick to make up my 10 tablespoons.  I then popped the bowl of frozen fat into the microwave to soften and melt.  Washing up a few things to tidy the kitchen before bed I heard the first pop in the microwave and turned to see there were four seconds left on the time.  My hands being wet I grabbed for a towel but, in the last second before the microwave shut off there was a loud thump and liquid butter erupted out of the bowl to coat the interior of the microwave.

I groaned, and I'm sure swore, and contemplated the mess.  The tired grump that I was wanted to leave it all for the morning, but I dutifully swabbed out the several tablespoons of melted butter dripping from the walls, ceiling and floor of the microwave.  Then I looked at what was left in the bowl and muttered under my breath as I didn't even bother to measure how much was there and dumped it in the batter, gave it a quick stir and shoved it in the fridge for the night.

It turns out it is too bad I didn't measure the butter because I don't think it's needed.  The crepes were very nice.  I doubled the recipe for the five of us and, barring the two first off the griddle that were shapeless masses, we finished them all and weren't really wanting any more when they were gone.  I might triple the recipe next time to have leftovers.

It also turned out that crepes not for filling are fine for filling because I realized I never added the egg whites later in the day.

Quality Water for Drinking - 2

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About the same time, in 1996, Deschutes County embarked on a project entitled "Regional Problem Solving for Southern Deschutes County."  This project was funded by the state of Oregon to look at the problems in the region and work with the public to identify solutions that may fall outside the rulebook.  The job announcement came out a couple months after I started as a planner, but I hesitated to apply even though the job description read like it was tailor made for me because I was just beginning to learn the ropes and actually relished the idea of not being on soft money for a change.  I also wanted to learn more about the state land use system and the region in general.  So I kept on with my learning and working on the land use process. 

It turned out pretty well because the Regional Problem Solving Project (I'll call it RPS from here on out) convened some topic oriented working committees, one of which was water quality, and county planning staff were encouraged to participate.  I joined the water quality committee and started getting my feet wet, so to speak.

There was a huge amount of activity over the next few years, including a small memorandum type report produced by the Oregon DEQ that said their sampling and 2-dimensional modeling showed that the groundwater was becoming polluted from the long term use of septic systems.  At the time the region was not fully developed, which meant that there was actually a huge opportunity to change how much pollution was being loaded into the groundwater.  Not only were there opportunities to change sewage treatment practices, but there were opportunities to change development patterns in the region.