Easy now, fuzzy little man peach.

Last week I was introduced to Old Gregg.  I'm in love.

Weird Wind and the Cat Couch

Last weekend I went back to Rockaway Beach for "girls' weekend."   It was me, my friends V and S and two other ladies I hadn't met before (G and D).  Lots of good food, too. My S'mores cupcakes were a hit.  

I got off work Saturday morning, drove home, picked up a few things, hugged Tank and headed to Rockaway. V and G had gotten there late on Friday and when I arrived, they were getting ready to walk down to the beach. I work graveyard with V, so she knew all too well how tired and in need of sleep I was, so I crashed in the back room and asked V to wake me up at two.  She did, and I think I slept for another hour, then got up and hung out with the gals. It was very quickly decided that another walk to the beach was in order, so we spent an hour or so walking by the water, taking pictures, talking, enjoying the sun. 

Basically, we just lazed around, ate, drank, smoked, etc. until dark, and then we loaded up the cooler with some wood and marshmallows and headed down to the beach for a fire. 

(G, D, me, S)

If you've never sat around a fire at night on the beach with the waves crashing (visible) nearby, you're missing out. Oh, it was lovely. I don't know how long we were down there, but eventually we packed up and headed back to the house.  More eating, smoking, drinking (arnold palmers and, I believe, oolong-infused whiskey? sooo gooood), bullshitting. Lots of laughter. I passed out on V's dog for a little while, and then we all went to our respective beds and konked out. 

In the morning, we had breakfast, cleaned the place up, packed up our stuff and hit the road. On the way home, G, V and I stopped at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company in Tillamook. They were there for the cheese. I was there for the petting zoo.  We didn't stay long. V and G took off and I stayed for a little while to wander and take pictures with my Nikkormat. Then I got in my car and headed home.  

A few hours later, I was back on the road, headed to Portland to meet up with my friend A and her four kids (ages 13, 9, 4 and 2).  The plan was to go to Lents Park and see "The Goonies."  I had a great time, though the kids scattered pretty soon into the movie. It was an awesome crowd, cheering in the right places, yelling out lines, cheering for the Goonies. My people. I'm willing to bet I was the only honorary Goonie in that park, though. HA.

(me and the kids. the 13-year old takes great pleasure in being taller than me.)

On the way home, I stopped at Walgreen's because I lost my hair tie thingy.  Walking the store, I noticed two guys standing in the parking lot. One of them was honking. That's when I noticed four ducks standing in the handicap spot.  Long story short, I spent a half hour in the parking lot watching four ducks with two stoners at 1:00 in the morning.  It was awesome. I fed them some graham crackers and an Odwalla bar and me and one of the stoners tried to convince the other stoner that ducks are man-eaters, that they have shark teeth and prey on humans.  I said I'd seen it on National Geographic. We almost had him convinced.   Stoner #2 and I tried herding the girls down to the pond at the bottom of the hill, but they ran into some bushes and waited for us to walk away. Then they waddled after us.  That's when I shot this video:

Good times.  Eventually, I made it back home and the rest is history. 

In other news, I'm teaching myself to play "Wish You Were Here."  I was having trouble getting a handle on it and then I found THIS guy, and viola! 

If everyone taught songs by singing the chords, the world would be a better place. 

An adventurer is me.

My sister and I went on a little adventure yesterday, took a little trip to Vernonia Lake Park, site of the former Oregon-American Lumber Company.  I've been wanting to check this place out for a couple of years now because I knew there was an old building covered in graffiti on the site.

It was a bit of a drive but totally worth it. I had been expecting something like the Blair Witch Project, but the site is actually a park now with a bike trail going all around the mill pond (Vernonia Lake). There are even picnic tables and a couple of grills.  You could see one of the old buildings from the parking lot, west of the lake. It was a short walk and soon I was standing inside the old fuel shed.

I was in Goonie (not to mention photographer) heaven. My sister and I walked around and took pictures of graffiti for a while, and a teenage couple came in and walked around. They climbed up in one of the windows and asked me to take their picture.  The guy said, "Mine isn't as good as yours, though." Hee.  I had both of my Nikkormats and my stupid digital with me. 

I climbed up in the window after they left and my sister took my picture.

I really wanted to see the old refuse burner because there's a tunnel underneath it, and the toppled cyclone blower, but everything was covered in brambles and I'm not even sure if they're still there. I'm definitely going to look again this winter. 

I had a good time prowling the grounds and climbing around everything. Took over two rolls of film, and I can't wait to get them developed.

I love old, abandoned stuff. I wish there was more of it around here. 

On this day, Galway liberated from Indians, Marathon becomes Snickers. Aha: Ice Age ends.

In summary

Sing loud for the sunshine, pray hard for the rain 
And show your love for Lady Nature
And she will come back again 
The people turned away
The people turned away

Tank and I went to Rockaway for the Fourth. My friend's family has a little beach house out there (JEALOUS).  It was quiet and ... well, quiet.  I didn't have a good time, but I had a nice time. I got to be with my dog and just enjoy his company without being bothered by other dogs or people. It was bittersweet, though, because the last time I took Tank on an adventure, just the two of us, he was young and strong and unstoppable.  He's still a happy dog, but he sleeps a lot and it makes me sad. He's going to be 15 in September and it's hard for me to see how much he has aged, particularly because he's always been so puppy-like. Losing our other dogs really took a toll on him, and he hasn't been the same since. But he's still Tank, just slower. 

I had the Doggy Ride and we went down to the beach for a few hours. Tons of people around and Tank wasn't bothered at all. It could be because he's mostly deaf and kind of blind, but either way I'm glad he was able to relax. He's been "owner protective" his entire life and it makes him incredibly anxious. 

I took him back down to the beach later for the fireworks. He's never been bothered by fireworks, thunder or any sort of loud noise, but when they started up, Tank looked around in confusion, and I was worried he might start to get anxious so we walked back to the beach house. I gave him his Goodie Ship (stuffed with peanut butter) and he lay on his blanket and went to town. I watched "American Movie" and then "Wayne's World," had some dinner, played my guitar and fell asleep. 

I didn't want to leave, but I had work Thursday night and wanted to get home early enough to get some errands done and take a nap.  

I never got the nap and was dead tired at work, but it was worth it. Tank was so happy to be back home with the other dogs, it was adorable.

Getaway

I'm taking my dog to the beach on Wednesday. I hate the Fourth of July, but I need to get away and not think about things.

I'm taking the Doggy Ride my sister got for her (now deceased) dog because Tank is 14 and can't walk as far as he used to.  It'll be good for us. I can't wait. Going to bring my guitar, my camera and some movies and have a nice and hopefully relaxing time with the only joy of my life: Tank.