Rock N’ Roll!

When I was in my 20s, rock music was my life. I have told a few tales before like this classic post from 2004 and this one when Heidi and I went to see The Cult in Las Vegas.

Last Sunday I did something that I haven’t done since, urgh 2001, and went to a big concert in an arena. Yes, I realize that during the Plague is a strange time to break my resolve to never go to a big concert again.

My cousin kind-of tricked me and next thing I knew I had my credit card out and soon had two tickets to see Guns N’ Roses.

I now own a $75 t-shirt. After I wear it, I fold it in tissue and put it in a velvet-lined box in a special moisture-controlled room.

I have only seen them one other time in 1989 at the Cathouse. They played It’s So Easy three times and turned it into this video (mature audiences only.)

It was *amazing.*

I loved every minute.

So many memories of going to concerts when I was younger. The interminable wait for the band to come on. After awhile, whenever one of the warm-up songs ends, everyone starts cheering and then stops when another song comes on. The smell of pot as soon as the lights go down. The feel of the drums in my chest. It was a good crowd. Everyone was there to have a good time.

It was the first arena show at Moda Center since Covid.

They played 3 hours, 25 songs. Matt showed me his phone when it got past 11. “We’re getting our moneys worth.”

We did.

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Turned the Corner

This is now the third time I’ve caught the coyote on camera so I guess we’re part of his rotation. And smart move for him seeing how many animals we have running around back there. (Also, I think he left us a turd back there.)

Yesterday bunny showed up. I haven’t caught him on camera for awhile.

I do consistently get Stinky but haven’t seen the family. I put the water bucket away and I have some motion lights out there so maybe they are doing their job?

But also who knows what’s going on in the back half of the yard. Maybe I’ll put the camera back there again. I need to research other ways of mounting the camera. We don’t have anything to strap it to back there.

There’s always a moment in August when you realize that summer has turned the corner. The days are getting a teeny bit shorter. When the sun is down there is a coolness in the air.

When you’re young and in school, this is a sad moment because you can see summer is going to end soon. But now I like that moment.

My pumpkin/squash crop is incredible this year. I better check the freezer and see how much we have left from last year. Time to eat pumpkin.

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We Have A Family

I don’t know how well you can see from this but there are four stinkies in this clip. Try fullscreen.

I am escalating my non-harm measures to encourage them to leave. I don’t know what I’ll do if that’s not successful.

One idea online was to trap them. WHAT? And then what? Put an agitated skunk in my car? I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Here’s a story from when I returned from Orleans.

My neighbor texted asking if I wanted figs. “SO SO SO many figs,” she said.

She was not exaggerating. Their tree went nuts and we’d already eaten all the ones from our tree.

They picked me a GINORMOUS bowl. It was Sunday night after a long day of driving and unpacking.

I set aside enough for snacking and a salad and chopped the rest, added a boat of sugar and put in the fridge.

Monday I came home from work and made and canned jam.

Spontaneous canning is not a thing that I do but we can’t let figs go to waste. The result looks a bit runny but I’m sure will taste great on yogurt or ice cream. The uncanned bit that we’ve been eating this week is delicious.

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A Startled Stinky

I like how Stinky looks startled at the end. What do you think it was? It noticed the camera? Bigfoot was hiding in the shadows? Another Stinky?

(Foreshadowing.)

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Surprise Visitor

I brought my trail cam to Orleans and set it up in various spots hoping to capture something fun. I kept getting zero. Not even branches waving in the breeze.

I decided to test the camera inside because the cat wandered around.

Mom and I got up because of a noise so I got clips of our feet walking around. (Do you think a tiny mouse could rattle the screen door?) And I got clips of us letting the cat in.

And I got this surprise clip.

Cat: you have one job.

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It was a 4 Bear Trip

I was in Orleans for just over a week and I am still playing catch up.

I saw 4 bear on this trip which is a world record.

This was not the bear I saw. (Yikes! What big feet you have!)

These photos were taken on Dolan’s Bar.

We saw 2 bear (1 black, 1 cinnamon) on the float trip between Persido Bar and that take out that’s under the bridge (Stuart’s?). Both times they were scampering up a steep mountain face. There was a third bear but I did not see it, only heard it.

I left Sunday morning at 5:30am and I saw two more bear on the road between Orleans and Happy Camp. Same thing, one black, one cinnamon. One scampering up a steep mountain face and the other bounding across the road. If I had a dash cam I would have a picture.

I have so many updates and scribbled notes and I am not feeling super energetic about sitting at the computer.

Possibly some more updates or a few photos or something to come.

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Garden Bounty

Our office building is getting more people back to work but earlier in the year when there were very few of us, I made friends with one of the security guys.

I was in the mailroom and this door that says “No Admittance” or “Technical Only” or something like that opened and startled me. The security guy came out and let me see inside. He’d carved out a tiny break area around the building innards. One chair, small table, and tiny microwave.

The kind of conversations you would never have in the before times. I think I already wrote how I’ve befriended my bus drivers.

These are my lemon cucumbers I started on the windowsill. How do you think they’re doing? I keep watering them.

Look at my giant tomato!

HAHA. I got that tiny tube of toothpaste last time I was at a hotel and I’ve been saving it to use for scale when I photograph my garden bounty. You’ll be seeing it again.

The other morning these two raccoons came through late. Looks like a mom and young one? Look how the smaller one hangs back, like he’s ready to go to bed, why are we running around in the daylight?

They hung out long enough to get a drink and bath and look cute for the camera.

After this clip there was one more of them wandering into the hedge.

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Complaining About the AC

One afternoon I got on the bus with a driver I’ve never seen before.

The bus AC was weak. Only enough to keep us from roasting but it wasn’t cool on the bus. This is unusual because if it’s more than 60 degrees and the sun is shining the bus is usually freezing with cold air blasting from every corner.

There were three women on the bus and one man. As soon as the man sat down he started grumbling about the AC. He changed seats three times and then complained out loud and then marched to the front of the bus where he berated the bus driver.

The women all sat in our seats and read our books.

Then the man returned to his seat which was the seat behind me and he called customer service and complained some more. He said the bus driver didn’t know what he was doing, that he wasn’t communicating, that he wouldn’t answer his questions about the AC. He also demanded that the bus turn around and take him back to the transit mall.

He may have been onto something in terms of the bus driver not knowing what he was doing because he drove the wrong route and stopped in downtown where Mr. Complainer signaled that he wanted to exit. Then he went to the front of the bus and complained again and said he was getting off the bus to wait for another bus.

So he exited into 98 degree heat to wait for another bus rather than sit on the bus another 10 minutes and get to his stop.

In the last couple of days a squirrel has discovered a rich food source under the bird feeders. Every time I look out there he’s parked under there. There are also some larger birds that can’t fit on the feeder that pick up some snacks there.

I had this brilliant idea that I would set up the trail cam to get some shots of the squirrel and the birds.

I ended up with 8 hours of clips of nothing but waving flowers and a dead battery. (It wasn’t 100 degrees. The camera was in direct sun.)

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We Were the Hottest (Except for The Dalles)

So this was one more ridiculous thing that happened that proves that Mother Earth is mad and wants her planet back.

It was really terrible but also not as terrible as I thought it would be?

We have AC and were able to stay locked in the house. I can’t wait to see the electric bill.

I went outside and stood in the sun so I could tell myself this is what 115 feels like. It feels like a radiating hot oven of terrible. There was a hot breeze. It felt like one stray spark from total disaster.

I went to the office on Monday because we had a conference call that I could not take from home. I left early and I had to wait for the bus for about 15 minutes. There was plenty of shade but it was intense. There was a 30 second period where I thought: I can’t do this.

But I didn’t know what else to do. If I went back to the office, I would have to come back eventually and wait for the bus.

The last day of the extreme heat was the strangest. It was 115 at 6pm and by 9pm it was down in the 80s. By morning it was okay.

The yard did better than expected but my one super productive blueberry bush has lots of shrivels. The rhodies have burned leaves poor babies. The hydrangea is looking fried.

The tomatoes loved it. They grew taller. I should have ripe cherry tomatoes any day now.

Let’s all agree not to do this again.

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This Guy

I don’t leave food out for the raccoons and normally I’m careful about not leaving anything accidentally.

But apparently Mr. Blue Jay did not pick up his evening peanuts.

I set the shallower dish out for animals that might not be able to drink from the bucket and this hilarious guy found the peanuts and then spent some time prepping them for his snack.

He washed them and stirred them around, making sure to get his feet in there to get the flavors right before finally eating them and leaving the shells in the water to ruin it for everyone else.

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