I am on vacation. I mean, I’m home, sitting in front of the computer, but I am officially On Vacation and oh hell yeah, I am currently drinking a third small glass of wine. Whoooo! Living it up! Watch out! If you knew me in my glory days you will be shocked by how little I drink now. I sure am. But anyway, I figured out that I could get 11 straight days off for the price of four vacation days, so that is exactly what I am doing. And three of them are gone already and so far I am shocked, shocked to find out that what would ordinarily be my regular weekend turned into. . . wait for it. . . my regular weekend! I have gotten neither more nor less accomplished but I have been a bit more cheerful about it.

On Tuesday my daughter and Five and I are all going to Portland for a couple of days. Last spring I bought a share in an Alaskan salmon boat and on Thursday we get to pick it up. I have never done anything like this before, by the way, in case that nonchalant sentence has you fooled. I have no idea what this entails or how it’s going to work out or how much salmon my share will include. In a state of mild panic, I bought a freezer on sale from Costco. It’s now at my daughters because I don’t have anywhere to put one here, despite, sigh, needing an extra freezer. I was thinking it could go in her garage and I could run up there and get dinner but alas, no, she makes the good point that the electricity in her “garage” *cough* shed */cough* is unreliable. And by her I mean I own half that house, but I suspect the half I own is the unreliable bit. Anyway, it’s now in her laundry room and Tuesday, off we are going to the big city, the Oregon Zoo, the hopefully cheaper grocery stores, the kids’ consignment shops, the Acura dealer and the camera repair place. Three days of fun and errands!

My brother had a small fall last week and so I am a bit concerned. He was fine but we had to call 911 which meant that 9 guys showed up to troop through my laundry room. The cops, the firefighters, the EMTs, all to lift one man back onto his bed. Then they fled and I do not blame them. Anyway, my son will be here, my daughter’s friend will be staying at her house to take care of the kitten and will stop by to keep an eye on my brother and, best of all, our amazing caregiver has agreed to start working five mornings a week. It takes more than a fucking village, these days. I like the way that Northwest Senior and Disability Services tells you that you can be reimbursed for respite care without mentioning that actually, respite care does not exist! In Clatsop County, it is a myth. But that is for a longer post to come, someday. Maybe. If you are unlucky.

And, the week that was: Sunday morning I went to Fort Stevens and encountered BABY ELK! I did not get too close – I genuinely do know better – and I got lectured anyway by a park volunteer who was absodamnlutely determined to lecture at some length. Sigh, but she’s doing the lord’s work, so. She can lecture me all she wants. Monday, I was in Skamokawa! I was there for a work thing and these are the swallows that were everywhere around us. It was amazingly cool and also, I will put up a photo below, but the shipping channel runs CLOSE to the beach in Skamokawa. It’s kind of crazy to see. Tuesday, the oh so familiar walking trail – I am so very sick of it but with a reactive dog in a beach adjacent town in August, you do what you got to do – with wonderful clouds. Wednesday, we went to that other one of three trails that we walk regularly, here is a ship, and Thursday, Mr. Binks hopped up on the roof of the car to be his glamourous self. Friday, Five and I went downtown to look at the sea lions, pictured here, and also to walk down to Frite and Scoop and have not just ice cream but also french fries because, you know what? I am the grandmother after all. Also I can’t choose between the two myself, so I’m not going to expect Five to do it. She had strawberry ice cream and I had chocolate sorbet and then we had frites with garlic oil and parmesan. It was glorious. Saturday was yesterday and here is Harvey observing the cloud reflections in Young’s Bay. And as you can see, the weather has been just, well, flawless.

Turning means the seasons are turning; off we go to buy back to school clothes. See you next week when I will have some big city photos to share!