Sigh. It’s that time of year in the coastal NorthWET. Summer wasn’t sterling. Late August brought early foreshadowings of the rainy season. But on October 1, somebody flipped the rain switch. We actually got a little break from 24-hour-a-day rain this week. Sun yesterday, even. Not until Thursday was the deluge due back — and due in a big, big way. But now Wunderground says forget today. That big solid blue band? That’s something well beyond a few days of unpleasant dog-walking.: For this area, these are big, big rain totals. Unlike what you guys in the semi-tropics or the…
Category: Rural and small-town living
Life far from freeways, Starbucks, malls, and other benefits/distractions
You might recall that late last winter I stumbled upon a most touching doggie grave in the woods. (More photos at the link.) Isabelle Boothe (of various spellings) had died only a few days earlier. It said so on the marker. And a whole family of children had written and drawn their goodbyes. The plastic-protected mementos fastened to the cross also included photos of the beloved dog returning from a victorious hunt and more. All in all, a great act of love by a family for their too-soon-dead pet. I’ve visited the grave many times since then, saying my hellos…
Wednesday was a heartbreaking end-of-summer day. Beautiful. Perfect. But sad because even without looking at the weather report, you know you might not have another one like it for a long, long time. So Ava and I took advantage as much as possible. I worked and read and knitted (another dragon) outdoors while she lounged and barked at the neighbors’ invading chickens (which they’ve given up attempting to keep in their hole-y yard). In the afternoon, we took a long drive, followed by a walk along the river. And there we had one of those odd moments where it’s hard…
So I’d just started walking Ava this morning on the trail that winds through town. And a seagull, with obvious deliberation, circles overhead and comes to a landing three feet in front of Ava’s jaws. Then starts walking toward her. Ava has a killer prey drive and has sometimes snatched at birds, cats, and in one case a Chihuahua before I could snatch her back. In this case, though, she was completely nonplussed. She looked at me for guidance. I looked at the gull’s sharp, pointy beak. We both made a long, slow arc around the bird and kept on…
I love it when I find a garage-sale find. Here’s the latest. A fancy-schmancy, new-in-box, dual-band Linksys WRT AC1200 “smart router.” Price on Amazon $133.99 (depending on the day of the week, your browser, the casting of the I-Ching, your astrological chart, and Jeff Bezos’ mood; you might find it for as little at $99.99, thanks to Amazon’s recent habit of mucking around with prices). Receipt in the shiny new box said the seller paid over $160 for it at Best Buy or somesuch place a few months back. Dunno why he never used it. It was marked $45, which…
Amazon. It’s amazing. I don’t always love it, but it’s always amazing. Take today, for instance. I don’t exactly live at the end of the world, but we’re constantly reminded that this is an out-of-the-way corner. The DMV office is open four hours a week — if the one guy who staffs it isn’t sick or out giving driving tests. We have a hospital, but its one-and-only surgeon visits just two days a week. When we were cut off from the outside world for three days after a devastating storm, nobody we were cut off from gave a rat’s ass…