Summer is Slipping Away.....

Early morning lights,
Vancouver, WA







        I woke up Friday morning with the realization that most of my summer adventures have been accomplished.  I did go to bed early Thursday after the long senior travel day.  I think I slept 10 hours.  I had an 11 o'clock appointment to have my car checked to determine why the "check engine soon" light was on AGAIN. (It started August 20, 2012 somewhere in Glacier National Park.  We drove through the Canadian Rockies that way, though we didn't tell my sister Kate that or she would have walked through the Canadian Rockies.)
      Anyway, by the time I casually passed the morning hours, it was 11 before I left the house.  I wasn't concerned since in the past the fellows at the shop were always casual themselves and gave the impression that a little late wasn't a problem.  Not so that day.  There was a new fellow at the desk.  No time to look at it today.  Made a new appointment for Monday at 11AM. 
      Now leaving the shop was a problem.  A work crew was busy blocking off street lanes for black topping and funneling everyone to one lane for several blocks.  The fellow at the shop had told me how to get out the easiest, only he didn't know that I still don't know my way around completely.  I ended up going in such a way that I had to drive several blocks out of my way just to find out I had to double back and end up where I started.  I could feel the tension building.  I finally found my way to a familiar street and decided to go on to the grocery store another several blocks away.  All was well again.  Well, sort of.  After getting out of the car in the parking lot I discovered my purse was missing.  I couldn't even call anywhere since my phone--my whole life--was in that purse.  There was only one place it could be---the car repair shop---in the very messed up travel area.  Fortunately I now knew a short cut. Whoops,  they closed off more streets.   Fortunately, again, my purse was there waiting for me.  Now what? Go home? Go back to the grocery? I'd been craving a rotisserie chicken all day.  Back to the grocery I went, purse safely in the car with me. 
       With summer travel out of the way it was time to restock my refrigerator and pantry.  I did find a bit of  "used to be" back home.  And a yummy rotisserie chicken.

    Cheese from Green Bay, Wisconsin

(I notice the "Western Select" print)

 

       Once back at my Vancouver home there were several plastic bags to carry in and items to put away.  I figured it was a great time to clean out my very messy pantry so I can know what I have or don't have.  (It was mostly stuffed with plastic bags from the past 12 months.)  So that, interrupted by a double episode of Star Trek and followed by washing dishes and blogging comprised the rest of that day.   
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Mt. Rainier

       Early to bed one night means late to bed the next night---or early like 1AM.  Then up at 8 for water aerobics.  It has many weeks since I participated, but it is time to get back into that routine.  It was good I went because I found out Red Hats is on Monday rather than Thursday.  Yay!!  One more summer adventure to the dahlia festival in a nearby town.  And I don't have to drive.  It is good to know the ladies enough to inquire how each is doing, to feel like we are becoming friends concerned for each other.  They also asked how I am and how my travels have gone.  Nice. 

       It is a good feeling to have had a satisfying summer.  I am ready to settle into a work routine--once I find work.  (SIGH/SMILE)  I feel like I am a full citizen of Vancouver, WA.  Now to become a USEFUL citizen, with some money coming in.  (Sigh/Smile)  

      Time to get back to the piano, relearn my songs, make them rewarding for me.      

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FLASHBACK:

THE 3 SENIOR SISTERS

GREAT CROSS COUNTRY ROAD TRIP

AUGUST 23 AND 24, 2012

 



                                RAINY DAY IN BANFF, CANADA




TRYING ON SUVENIER
CLOTHING



















TRYING OUT OUTDOOR, ROOFTOP SWIMMING





THREE SISTERS/ MOUNTAIN RANGE AND SISTERS

 
 
 
 

HERE'S TO BANFF AND GOOD FRIENDS

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

LEAVING ON A CLOUDY DAY

GRASS BRIDGE FOR THE ANIMALS
TO CROSS OVER THE TRAFFIC

                    
TRUCK STOP SOMEWHERE ENROUTE.....

       This has been a good 2 "getting back in the groove"  days in the life of Grandma G. 

        "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared."  (Exodus 23:20)

 

Mt. Rainier Adventure....

An early morning waning "blue moon" gibbous
and plane departing Portland airport 

   Wednesday started very early for me--5:30AM.  I was going on a senior travel adventure from 7AM to 7PM.  All I knew was that we would have a good view of Mt. Rainier and would have an opportunity to walk a few trails.  It was dark when I got up but the sun soon came up with the weather a bit cool.  (It wouldn't stay cool with the temperature rising to 90 during the day.)

        Turns out that we spent 8 of those hours driving.  But the time we had on the summit was worth the hours on the road. 

        We enjoyed a 10 minute gondola ride up to 6,872 height of Crystal Mountain where we viewed the majestic Mt. Rainier and ate lunch at the Summit House, the highest restaurant in the state of Washington. 

GOING UP......

  

 FIRST VIEW OF MT. RAINIER



THE ONLY WAY TO EAT LUNCH 

 

 

 

                                                                              

                                                                     

 PORK TENDERS AND COUSCOUS

  COVERED WITH BERRY SAUCE

NEW FRIEND AND INSPIRATION, JENNIFER, 88, IS STILL TRAVELLING

 

 

 

 

GOING DOWN....

 

 

 

2 HIKERS GOING UP

 

SMALL GLACIER IN THE BACKGROUND 

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FLASHBACK:

THE 3 SENIOR SISTERS

GREAT CROSS COUNTRY ROAD TRIP

AUGUST 22, 2012

 

      We visited beautiful Lake Louise and ventured onto the Columbia ice fields for a trip out to the Athabasca Glacier. I retrieved a bottle of 1,500 year old glacier water to drink.  

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This has been a good Mt. Rainier adventure day in the life of Grandma G.

 

 

       "So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, 'On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided'."  (Genesis 22:14)



Once In a Blue Moon......

This article is SO much fun.  Haven't seen anything like it in a blue moon. 

By GABRIELLE LEVY, UPI.com | Blog

Look up in the sky Tuesday night, and you'll get treated with a something pretty rare: a blue moon.
No, the moon won't actually be blue -- and no, it's not the second full moon in August.
Tuesday's full moon will be the the first "seasonal blue moon," meaning it's the third of four full moons in a season, in nearly three years.
The official definition comes from the August 1937 page in the Maine Farmers' almanac, explaining a Blue Moon is when "one of the four seasons would contain four full moons instead of the usual three."
       "There are seven Blue Moons in a Lunar Cycle of nineteen years," continued the Almanac. "In olden times the almanac makers had much difficulty calculating the occurrence of the Blue Moon and this uncertainty gave rise to the expression 'Once in a Blue Moon.'"                                                         
And if you thought a Blue Moon meant the second full moon in a month, you're not alone: The common misconception was started when James Hugh Pruett defined, wrongly, a Blue Moon in an article in the March 1946 issue Sky & Telescope magazine:

"Seven times in 19 years there were -- and still are -- 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon. 

Pruett's misinterpretation was cemented when Deborah Byrd used it in an episode of NPR's StarDate on Jan. 31, 1980, and has since been considered an alternate definition.
And yes, a moon can sometimes actually appear blue, usually when a volcanic eruption or a bad fire temporarily changes the composition of the atmosphere.
In 1883, the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded, sending ash high into the air. The particles in the ash cloud were just the right size -- about 1 micron in diameter -- to scatter red light, allowing white moonlight to shine through clouds to appear blue, or sometimes green, for years worldwide after the eruption.
It happened again after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.
                                                                                                       
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    PICTURES OF BLUE MOON OUTSIDE

GRANDMA G'S HOME  TUESDAY, 8/20/13 

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         Tuesday was my last day in San Diego.  Bill and I stopped to view the seals in the cove.  They were not very active, but we did observe a few and Grandma G looking like the wild professor.

 
 

                                          San Diego connection;
                       Jude, Gemma, Gerry, Bill, Grandma G

Goodbye, San Diego.....

     Hello, very warm Portland---almost 90 degrees.

 

Today, Wednesday, was a great day to stay inside with air conditioning while the temp again soared to 90. It was a good day to relax, do some stretches, blog a bit and get ready for a senior day trip tomorrow.  (Well, I can stay home in later years when I am old.)

 

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FLASHBACK;

THE 3 SENIOR SISTERS

GREAT CROSS COUNTRY ROAD TRIP

AUGUST 20 AND 21, 2012

 

 

       The evening before we left Glacier National Park the four of us had a long discussion of what route to take.  Sometime during that day the "service engine soon" light went on in my car.  Should we drive across the "Going to the Sun" road through the mountains and risk car breakdown or go several miles out of the way through lower, well travelled highways?  All evening I was for the conservative, safe choice.  In the morning, however, it was "What the heck, let's just go across the mountains".  

If you look closely you can see the narrow road and hairpin turns



 

 
 
 
 
 









Prehistoric Nautilus shell

        This has been a good 2 "once in a blue moon" days in the life of Grandma G.

 

 

       "The Lord watches over you---the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night."  (Psalm 121:5 & 6)