Fireworks

The Fourth of July is always accompanied by displays of bright colored lights exploding in the sky. Most everyone enjoys them. Some who have been in harms way cannot, and for that I am sorry.

And NOISE! The felines of the household do not appreciate the sound and the fury. We have found a type of cat treat which supports stress reduction. They seem to work pretty well, although growls are still elicited when the neighbor's cannon erupts.

I thought to watch the Gasworks Park/Lake Union display which was to be televised from the lake.
The station decided to change their broadcast and instead fit several short sequences of fireworks into a news broadcast. All in all I think I saw 5-7 minutes of the 35 minutes estimated for the display. The fireworks started at 10:20. I was going to watch the news at 11:00. The pre-show from the park started before 10:00 and was a review of the previous evening's talk about what was new and different for this year and shots of the crowd on the darkening park grounds. The news broadcast commenced at 10:22. I was extremely disappointed. Next year I may just watch the early showing from WA DC, NYC, or Boston - all of which seemed (according to the schedule) to have full coverage. BAH!

We cannot see the Celebration Park 4th display from home because of elevation and trees. We can hear it. It isn't far distance wise but is pretty popular and the grounds get crowded well before noon. It is a small display which commenced at 10 PM and was finished  by 10:25. The local exuberance however lasted until nearly 3 AM. It had quieted down around midnight, with the intermittent firecracker going off somewhere. At 1:15 AM there arose quite a racket from just across the street in a backyard 2-3 houses down. We could see the lights, we could hear the whoosh as the rockets went up. We were unimpressed to have been gotten up. If I could have been more sure which house was involved the FWPD would have been called. The cats, who had been settling, were even less impressed than we were.

Someone, however, must have complained to the miscreants.  About an hour later the effects began again - this time from the schoolyard 1/2 a block the other side of us.  Guess they just HAD to finish shooting off all their shells. At least I hope they did and there will be no reprise tonight.

Grocery store

It was said that hot dog buns were needed for a 4th of July potluck at my Dear Heart's place of employment. As I needed to go out to pick up a prescription we decided to journey together. Medication purchased we headed to the grocery.

We perused the selection of hot dog buns and the preferred packs were placed into cart. Now we turned to the selection of breakfast items behind us as I had not prepared anything to be quick to hand the next morning. Muffins were decided upon.

Dear Heart asked if we had salsa at home, a staple. I replied that indeed we did but I wondered whether we had sufficient chips. (Chips and salsa is often an apre' work nibble for Dear Heart.) Off we went to the chip aisle.

At the end cap of the aisle were the shelves of numerous sizes and types of tortillas. It was wondered if such would make a good wrap for left over roast beast and horseradish cheddar, with possibly some lettuce and sour cream or guacamole for a bit of moisture. The 10" mixed grain rounds were added to cart. We proceeded up the aforementioned aisle to select the tortilla chips desired to accompany salsa. Dear Heart wondered where the salsa for chips was as it was not in sight. I informed him that said item was, of course, to be found with the Mexican food items (they moved it when a couple of stores combined; I was told it was to simplify stocking, which then made me wonder why honey is now to be found in 2 locations based on size of container).

As we exited the aisle we found an "inducement" table stocked with a goodly quantity of dark red and yellow cherries. Dark sweet  cherries were now added to cart.

It was decided that we were now finished shopping and headed to the check out lines. While Dear Heart got into line I headed out to the car to retrieve a larger shopping bag. I had taken a small bag into store as we were only going to get hot dog buns. Heard this one before have you?

Dear Heart proceeded me to the checker and stood ready to retrieve our bag(s) when they were tallied. Hmmm wonder where those Reeses Sticks came from, my love's eyes went toward ceiling and he did a little whistle.

We exited store with one quite full bag, the unused bag being slipped down inside. 

Have you ever noticed how frequently this scenario seems to happen. You run in to quickly pick up an item, possibly two, and it turns into a 1/2 hour or more of gathering "oh yeah" items. My grocery list helps immensely but there are still times when I think that grocery stores can be very menacing.

A new attempt

We started this year adventuring. Over New Year's we took a 10 day Mexican Riviera cruise. Quite enjoyable; the #1 memory from the cruise was the whale watching. While on board we signed up to do a 2 week cruise for our 25th anniversary. Relatives have been invited to celebrate with us.

April brought a trip to the other side of the Mexican peninsula. We did an all-inclusive at the El Cid resort in Puerto Morales (south of Cancun). Yes, you can sunburn while lounging in a cloth enclosed cabana. There is a lot to see in that area, we will be returning. We need at least another full day at Xcaret park.

For the 1st year since 1960 we do not have barn swallows nesting under the front eaves. I guess I didn't do a good job of cleaning after they departed last fall. I miss my little birds.

Ghost is in training to be an indoor only cat. He had one too many expensive trips to the vet after a tussle. He knows the sound of the door knob turning well enough to try streaking for the opening. It's a learning curve for both of us.  Pearl still goes out, she usually wants back in in just a few minutes;unless she goes out just as I head for the UPS and/or grocery.

I continue to submit applications for employment. I admit that I am very frustrated. It is depressing to be bypassed for position after position for which I know I am qualified. One local store had openings for 4 positions. A couple of days ago I had occasion to be there; all the new hires were under 30. Do I want to be a WalMart "welcomer"?

I'm in the window for social security and medicare registration. About to be eligible for more senior discounts.I need to look into the feasibility of delaying soc.sec.benefits for better payment at a later date.

I wonder when this year's summer family reunion will be. I haven't heard from any of the OR contingent for quite a while. At times I feel the the Salem/Federal Way distance to be more than just a distance of miles.

Guess that will be enough for now. I "intend" to come back to this site on about a weekly basis, use it as a sort of diary. Hope I  can maintain that. 

AAAARRRGGGG

Sometimes technology is not a friend.

I just entered a full page of new blog, went to preview, and then when I tried to return to post and publish - the whole blooming thing disappeared.

I will try to reenter what I wrote after I regroup from the aggravation.

TOO MUCH RAIN!!!

Those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest have a love/hate relationship with rain.

We love that it keeps the air (relatively) clean, and it maintains our green appearance. We do like our pretty flowers and summer gardens.

On the other hand, we get pretty darn tired of it when it goes on day after day for a week or two, or three.

This past Saturday one of the worst (remember St. Helens?) natural disasters in state history occurred about 55 miles north of Seattle. It took mere seconds to wreak horrendous devastation.
.
The mountainside, becoming saturated and having a predominantly clay composition, broke off and slid down slope. The slide was 1 1/2 miles wide and slid about a mile forward. [think an area the size of the entire downtown of Seattle]

It virtually wiped out the town of OSO, WA.; taking out both sides of the North Fork Stillaguamish River, and covering SR-530 in up to 15 feet of mud. Nearly 1/2 the population of the town is still missing. Because of all the debris there is no way yet to know how high the death toll will rise. Suffice it to say that we are in shock. Responders have been working round the clock for days trying to locate the missing. Their stories and the stories of the survivors are heart wrenching.

As if more bad news was needed - they are still getting rain. The forecasters are saying that it "might" be drier by this Sunday.

There are 2 "good" things: 

The voluntary aid to Oso, monetary and material, was immediate and generous; everyone wants to be involved. A couple of terrific recovery plans were actually suggested by young people; I'm talking under 16 here.

The other thing is that the river immediately started cutting a new channel through the slide, so the flood risk was much diminished. I heard last night that the river had reverted to an earlier riverbed, one that had been blocked by an earlier less extensive slide.

A geologists report from 1999 has been found, and pulled into the light, which suggests that "someone" knew that a catastrophic slide was a clear possibility in that area. This has raised many questions about why permits were given to build. Homeowners are saying that they were never told of the danger when buying properties. I wonder how thorough the appraisal reports were, or if anyone read them.

I cry every time I think about this, and yet I am not directly affected. So much loss. I hope that the families can rebuild their lives. They will have a difficult time. They are in my prayers, I hope that they will be in yours.

Do we still have a comet?

Comet ISON passed its closest to the sun on Thursday morning. We had been told that two things might occur.

1. The comet could disintegrate from the heat.
2. The comet could develop a new intense glow, and become more highly visible in the night sky.

Thursday the astronomers watched.  It went into the solar horizon - and disappeared.  Reports went out saying that ISON was no more.

But then -

they started to see a dust smudge on their images, and it got brighter.

As of Saturday, there is still no certainty that there is enough of a nucleus to form a new comet. There IS something happening which has the scientific community watching. The news reports now say "stay tuned".

The little comet that still might.

I'm still interested, how about you?

What happened after the dinner

Neither of us is very fond of turkey giblets, so we offered them to the cats.

Apparently neither of our 2 current cats are fond of or even very interested in turkey giblets.

I took the pro-offered and refused giblets, put them into a small recyclable plastic container, and put them out for Stranger; our unofficial barn cat.  They disappeared. So someone likes giblets.


The cobbler, yeah, hmmm

I had covered the cobbler with foil and left it on the counter. Thankfully I had used enough foil to wrap over all sides and crimp down a bit.

It is still fine, just a bit smashed. The filling pushed out of part of it into open section of pan. It will need to be eaten from a bowl, I think.

Seems that overnight some feline decided that it was in a perch spot. Said feline SAT on it.
It was heavy enough foil not to split - saving both the cobbler and the cat's rear end.

Cobbler now resides in oven.