A fine sunny day

Robert and Leo at Avellino's

This picture was taken yesterday morning at Avellino's Coffee Shop, the place where I first met Leo when he was six months old. The slant of the sunshine coming in as Leo drew pictures for me while his dad Robert read the New York Times—it all reminded me what a great life I've got going here in Bellingham.

The coffee shop has local artists display their wares here, and a new collection came just came up. I love this picture of the legs, especially when sunshine gives it an even more interesting play of light. Leo was busy drawing a picture of the Loch Ness Monster, which he told me was a plesiosaur, an extinct dinosaur. Well, I believe him, since Leo is a dinosaur expert.

I'm putting this post up to appear on Saturday, when I usually have a post, but I'm actually writing it Friday night. I'll be spending the day tomorrow (today) at Skydive Snohomish, attending their annual Safety Day event. When I was skydiving every weekend, I didn't really need it as much as I do now, when I go for the entire winter period without a jump. Since I'm flying to Elsinore in southern California early next month, I need to get current again. Although I won't make a skydive, I'll be reminded of aircraft safety, freefall safety, and will be reminded of what to do if I have a malfunction with my gear. It's all very important, and it feels especially poignant, since I do believe it's my last season of skydiving.

About my infected hangnail: my visit to the Physician's Assistant, Keith, was not a whole lot of fun, but he did drain the finger and gave me a topical antibiotic to put on it after I give it a good soak three times a day. He also prescribed an oral antibiotic to take if this doesn't clear it up in a few days, but I can wait to see if this works. He said that the infection was getting better but it wouldn't hurt to get the stuff out. (He was wrong: it hurt, trust me.)

Today (Friday) the sun came out for long periods, and I enjoyed it so much, noticing how many people were smiling as they went about their business. I saw these pretty primroses at the Community Food Co-op, and they made me smile to think that winter is definitely coming to an end, and spring is, well, springing up all over the place!

Primroses for sale

I hope you have a great weekend! I plan on making sure I have a good one; even though I no longer go to work, my weekends are still special days. The rain is set to return, but I'm just thinking about all the pretty flowers I'll be seeing in a month.
:-)

Raptor Ridge from Arroyo Park

Hikers making our way through downed trees

We were nine today, which again amazed me. Since it rained hard all night long and the weather forecast was for more of the same, with a little break here and there, I wondered who in the world would be as crazy as me to join Al for today's hike in the Chuckanuts. It's our usual stomping grounds, nothing spectacular, and with rain much more likely than not: I'm not the only crazy person!

Diane in front of Chuckanut Falls

As we started out, all ready for the rain, some stray raindrops fell... and then stopped. I noted that the first hour of our hike was dry, as we made our way to Chuckanut Falls, where we figured there would be lots of water since we've had so much rain. We were right.

Tree, Chuckanut Falls, Kirk

I am always enchanted with the greenery we have here in the Pacific Northwest, and I asked Kirk to pose for me to make the picture even better. Notice how light it seems? Well, the sun actually came out, and the rain stayed away! We made it to Raptor Ridge, but even though there was no rain, it was extremely windy, and nobody was willing to stay for long.

Raptor Ridge

The clouds were low at this time, but they still held their moisture. We marveled at our good fortune and went to Madrone Crest for lunch. The weather was about the same as this, so I won't bother to add any more pictures of it. However, to get to Raptor Ridge, we took a new trail, the Huckleberry Trail, which is still in progress but seemed pretty nice to us. There is a viewpoint from the old part of the trail, which I have shown before.

Huckleberry viewpoint

At lunchtime I was moaning about my finger, which still hurts, and once Al took a look at it, he insisted that I see a doctor. Steve said that he never wants to hear a doctor say to him, "well, if you would only have come in sooner." So right then and there I called my doctor's office and have an appointment to see him (actually a physician's assistant) in an hour. I felt a bit sheepish saying it was for an infected hangnail, but they wanted to see me today. I'll keep you posted.

We hiked nine-and-a-half miles, going up and down around 2,300 feet, so it was a pretty good workout for all of us. When we were only a quarter mile from our cars, the rain started, hard and steady! It only made us laugh, because we were feeling incredibly lucky! A game we played as we stood in the parking lot, getting drenched, was to guess how far and how high we went. I vastly underestimated the number, by two miles, while one other overestimated it, but not by much. It was a very good day, and now I'm off to the doctor to have my paronychia examined, otherwise known as a hangnail.
:-)

Entertaining selfies

Not easy taking this selfie

I tried to get a picture of my poor index finger, but it wasn't easy to focus on it while holding the camera, and trying to find the button on the camera that would actually take the picture. See that red around my nail? That's the final stages of what I learned is called paronychia. Last Wednesday, almost a week ago, it started: it felt like a hangnail had gotten inflamed, but by that evening I wasn't able to sleep without taking some ibuprofen for the pain. I also hoped that the inflammation would be reduced by it as well, and it did help, I think. When I woke in the morning there was a small pustule on the right side of my nail. For the next three days, I was in pretty much constant discomfort, but after researching the problem, I found that unless it begins to get worse, it should clear up by itself, and it's definitely better.

I think I caused this by incessant hand washing after I got that cold and didn't want to give it to Smart Guy. It might have been caused by something else, I have no idea what, but now it's no longer painful except right where it is reddest, and there is no more swelling or throbbing. I think by tomorrow or the next day it should be completely gone. I'd never had this before, but if you look at the link, you'll find it is a very common infection of the hand.

My new glasses

Yesterday I picked up my new glasses. I'm getting more and more nearsighted in my left eye, mostly because of a hefty cataract in there, and a much smaller one in the other eye. By this time next year, I'll be getting cataract surgery, I suspect, but for right now my vision can be corrected to nearly 20/20 with glasses. The lens on the left is much stronger, as you can see from the refraction on the outside of my left lens. It looks like my head is caved it, but it's an illusion, I promise.

I was surprised when I put on the new glasses at how much older I look: I can see ALL my wrinkles now in chilling detail. I thought about touching up the picture before I published it, but heck, by the time you are 71, you are entitled to these marks of distinction, right? That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
:-)

More signs of spring

First of the season

When I walked out of the YMCA yesterday, I saw these beautiful crocus that were open and soaking up the sunshine. This spot gets lots of sunshine and gave me my first sight of these beautiful flowers this year. I guess it's really true that in only three more weeks spring will officially be here.

Today, however, winter has returned. The bitter north wind coming down from Canada and cloudy skies have made a return after those nice days of sunshine we experienced. We are even expected to get a little snow again tonight and tomorrow. But for now I'm sitting in a warm room and looking forward to seeing a play with my friend Judy this afternoon. We're going to the matinee showing of The 39 Steps at the Mt. Baker Theater. It's sold out, so I'm pleased to know she thought to get tickets last week. If it lives up to the hype from the above link, I should get more than a few laughs today:

Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python, and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced comic whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre. This spectacular treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of 4), lightning fast quick-changes, an on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned romance.

Ohhh! An on-stage plane crash? That's about the only place I'd like to see one of those. And then I'm back home after the show to hunker down and wait for the weather to hit. More later...
:-)

Bowman Bay and the old orchard

Bowman Bay and madrone tree

Today nine Senior Trailblazers headed south to Bowman Bay on Fidalgo Island, and because of the recent snow, we learned that the other Trailblazer group (which starts an hour later) would also be doing the same hike. The area is far enough south that it didn't get hit by any snow, but there were plenty of boggy spots because they did get a fair amount of rain.

The trail, with lots of old leaves and moss everywhere

We walked around the trails above the bay and then took off on a trail above Pass Lake to an old orchard. We add this because if we just went to the few spots on the bay, it wouldn't really be long enough to justify the moderately long drive. It was a lovely day, with no precipitation and even a few sun breaks.

The old orchard, with a magnificent tree

At some time in the past, there was a farm house where this old orchard still stands. There is still a swing in this ancient tree that somebody manages to keep in working order. (I've taken pictures of other trips here when other Trailblazers have tried the swing.)

Carol on the swing

Today Carol was one of the two adventurers on the swing. As we looked around at the old orchard, there didn't seem to be any signs of spring in evidence, until we looked closer. I was having a nice snack when Diane motioned me to come up to where she was, indicating I should bring my camera. And what did I see?

Violets peeking up through the old leaves

Violets! Yes, definitely a sign of spring. Peggy said these are not native to the area, so we must have been right in the area where the garden was kept when the farmhouse still stood. And then, through the leaves we saw other signs of spring.

Snowdrops in the form of flowers

Yes, when these flowers begin to bloom, the crocus and other early spring flowers are not far behind. We figure that in another week or so, this entire area will be alive with flowers on the ground and in the nearby bushes. That all put a spring in our steps as we walked back to the bay, where we then took a nice two-mile trip over to Rosario Point. While there, someone thought they saw an eagle in the tree, but no, it was instead this wonderful creature.

Great blue heron, I think

Sitting there in the tree as I tried to get him into focus, it didn't even look like a bird until suddenly it turned its head so that the beak was visible. It was totally serendipitous that I was able to get this shot with my telephoto. Right after the shutter clicked, it flew off, squawking with that prehistoric sound it makes.

All in all, it was a really good day, and we covered more than eight miles and went up and down around 1,800 feet. The best part was the company of my fellow Trailblazers and the lack of wet stuff coming down out of the sky. Now I am home and sipping my well-deserved wine as I write this. Hope your day was a good one, too. I'll sleep well tonight, I suspect.
:-)

I guess it was our turn for snow

Walking to the bus stop on Sunday

Here in Bellingham we haven't had much snow in the past few years, but that all changed this weekend. All day Sunday and most of the night brought us cold air from Canada and moisture from the south, which converged right in Whatcom County. Just fifteen miles south of us, precipitation was all in the form of rain, but we got anywhere from 6 to 18 inches of heavy snow. After that picture was taken, it continued to snow all day long. I know it doesn't look like much for those of you in the Midwest and East, but it was a lot for us.

Downtown sidewalks clear, but this sign is unreadable

I enjoyed it, mostly, but it was cold and when the brisk wind blew, I wasn't exactly excited to stay outside to make a snow sculpture. I did consider the idea, but once we got home after going to the store for a few groceries, I stayed inside with a very entertaining book. I'm reading Bill Bryson's book, One Summer: America 1927. The link takes you to a very good review of the book in The Guardian, written by Sarah Churchwell. She points out that the book is a light read:

Breezily written, conversational and humorous, One Summer also includes sentences such as "Then things went eerily quiet avationwise," which is positively painful prosewise. 

I had to laugh at that, because I did enjoy Bryson's style, although sometimes it made me feel as if I were at a carnival observing a rather exciting ride. So many things happened that year that I knew about peripherally, but now I feel like that period in the history of my country is much more vividly alive in my memory.

Oh, and one more thing: I've been saving that post about how to tell which of your eyes is the dominant one. I guess I'm curious how many left-eye dominant people are out there, who are also right-handed, like me. I already knew I am a lefty, because in past years I filmed videos in freefall and needed to know where to place the ring sight, and for this you need to know your dominant eye. Just curious.
:-)

I miss my sisters

Norma Jean and me in Florida

It seems ages ago right now that we were together, but it was only a few weeks ago this picture was taken. I talked with Norma Jean on video chat just last week, but it really does seem like the events of the past month have receded quickly into the past. I downloaded some pictures from my camera, and I realized that the ones I took of the five of us together after PJ's memorial were forgotten in there. I spent some time editing and organizing them, gazing longingly at my siblings, wishing we were back together.

Was it just a little more than a week ago that I traveled home? Catching a cold and recovering from it took some time and energy, of course, but it just doesn't seem possible that PJ died this month, but yes, we are still in February. And all that has transpired since then.

Markee and Fia in Texas

I miss my other two sisters as well. Markee lives in Canada, and she's returned to her own life and job, while Fia has gone back to work at her job in a doctor's office in Fort Worth. They are very close to one another, too, and although twenty years separates me from Fia, we will always be connected by the threads of family. Now that one of us has gone, it feels poignant every time I think of our loss. Since PJ was not a part of my everyday life, I sometimes forget how drastically my family circle has changed.

My brother Buz and his wife Phyllis are on my mind, too; when I travel to the area I always enjoy staying with them and soaking up some of their good vibes. Although we are living in different parts of the country, I expect everything to stay just the same as it was when I was last with them, but that's not how life goes. So I'll continue to cherish my memories and hope we can get together again soon for something really positive.

By the way, about my last post: I have not found another person yet who normally clasps their hands together with the right thumb on top like I do. The link I found stated it should be 60-40. Are you an anomaly like me? Just wondering.
:-)