Happy Today!
Have a fantastically wunnerful up-coming week.
I love you. I appreciate you. You are wonderful!

Public Service Announcement:

I had a poem accepted by Casa Urraca Press for a print anthology. 
Believe me, I’m over the moon on this one. AND, I have two poems
published in this month’s edition of Quill and Parchment for which 
I’m also over the moon— People of the Desert and Shadows of the Crow.
Please click on the link, and scroll down, and stop and read some 
of the other poems on your way to mine. There are some great ones. 
The Two-Week Vaca That Was—Sorta 😉

Okay, it was a vacation, much enjoyed, and wonderfully productive, it just wasn’t what I’d planned on and hoped for. Those of you not familiar with Washington geography, I live in Kennewick (on the Big Bend of the Columbia River in south central/eastern Washington. Tacoma is on the Dark Side, south of Seattle, Federal Way is just north of Tacoma, the Narrows is the place Puget Sound narrows enough for two bridges to span it to the Peninsula. (Olympia is farther south, where the Sound ends.) Port Orchard, Poulsbo, Bremerton, Port Hadlock, Port Townsend and farther north up the peninsula, with Pt. T. at the NE tip. Arlington is just about straight across the Salish Sea (real name of Puget Sound) and inland a bit, ie, north of Seattle, Everett, and Marysville. I had planned on coming home from Arlington via Highway 2, then down through Wenatchee, etc. Oh, well, next time. 😉

I had planned on spending Friday evening with my Sister of the Heart, Marjorie, in Tacoma, then drive across the Narrows and spend Friday night, and Saturday night, with my ex-Boss, Bill. As we all know, life happens, and when I arrived at Marjorie’s, the house was dark, and no one home. You ever get up on a Friday but you just know it’s Thursday? Uh-huh, she was a day late and a dollar short, so to speak.

So, I spent the time with Bill, which, per usual, was great fun. We drove from Port Orchard up to Paulsbo, bought goodies at the bakery, came home, and had them for supper. Oh, evilness never tasted better! 

Sunday, I drove back across the Narrows up to Federal Way, not far from where I used to live, actually, picked up my good friend, Dixie who lives in Virginia but was at her granddaughter’s, then drove back across the bridge and up to our VRBO rental in Port Hadlock (just south of Port Townsend.) A gorgeous drive, a beautiful home—but we couldn’t open the key box to get the key to get in. Of course, we also couldn’t get through to the Host and after spending a couple hours on the phone with VRBO people, they sent us to a hotel for the night.  They couldn’t get the host, either. So, we drove up to Pt. T, found a hotel, with some great views

Gulls on hotel roof. The grass on roof is metal, meant to keep gulls off.

Olympic Mountains in background; they should be white. Mfg unk.

In the meantime, VRBO kept trying to contact the Host, and Monday morning succeeded, with a three-way phone call, the Host directed us to return to the house, the on-site mgr. would meet us and let us in. So back we went, and were so embarrassed when we were shown how simple it was to get in. Every lock box we’ve ever used, the bottom released, in this case, the ‘door’ pulled out and down. Oh, sigh.

The house was gorgeous, with fantastic views. When Dixie rented the house, she emphasized we had one person who could not do stairs, and was assured that person would be fine. Yeah, right. We went in on the main level of huge kitchen, dining room, living room, door out to deck, and a double set of stairs, one going down to the daylight basement, and one up to the second floor. Bathrooms were up, or down, stairs, none on the main level. Being an old Girl Scout, and a Vet, I assured Dixie that if there wasn’t an easy path and door to the daylight basement, there were lots of bushes. She was, rightly so, horrified. I, on the other hand hoped for the path, which turned out to very pleasant, and a huge slider downstairs, and a fairly comfy sofa on which to lay my weary body 😉 The bathroom was a full bathroom, though the textured floor of the walk-in shower was very slick when water, soap, and or shampoo, was on it. One shower was enough, and I bathed out of my helmet (the sink) thereafter.

This was to have been a Writer’s Retreat for 3 of us, one had unexpected defugalties and couldn’t come, so Dixie and I had our retreat and it was marvelous. She brought her project, I brought mine, and though I did no writing, other than my daily poems, we both got a great deal done. She is working on getting her late husband’s articles together for a book, and I worked on getting my late adopted brother’s poetry together for a book or maybe two. The first thing I did was put them in alphabetical order and get rid of all the duplicates and early versions. Then I broke them into categories. Now I need to go through and read each one and make a decision whether or not to put in a book (or one of the books). 

We did take one day off and drive up to Pt. Townsend, where we toured Fort Worden, then walked a bit in downtown, gawking at the old buildings. We went into a fabric store—District Fabric—that was fabulous! All kinds of fabric, most on rolls, not flat bolts, and even a section where some was on hangers that was ‘gently pre-owned’. Fabrics from all over the world. OMG! It was hard to leave. I bought two pieces, one of pre-owned blue with yellow-gold hash marks, the other blacks, grays, like a hurricane rainband.

Then a kitchen gadget store, The Green Eyeshade, where they had every kitchen knick-knack known to cooking-hood. I bought a tiny spoon I use in my Szcheuan pepper sauce, from Japan with a kitty on it, and last night it dawned on me, it’s probably a caviar spoon. Well, I can afford the pepper sauce 😉

From there, we wandered down the street to All About Me, a clothing store with a sale rack of clothes outside. The colors were all wrong for me—earthtones—and some guy with a soprano sax a half block or so away decided to entertain folks. I told Dixie I was going inside and if not back in three days to call the Gendarmes. I really did not like the guy’s sax playing. Found a coat I really liked, more like a long jacket, summer weight, then saw where it had to be hand washed. It went back on the rack, and I wandered on through the store. In the back were shoes. And some were on sale. Dixie wandered back to join me, and there were two pair sized 38 and 39, red, fun, on sale. The 39 fit me, which was a surprise, most Euro sizes are too wide. Alas, Dixie could get the 38 on, but it was uncomfortable. She bought a pair of slacks, I bought a pair of shoes. Then we headed back to the house, with a stop off in a diner that was actually pretty dog gone good, then home for a glass of wine. 

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but we bought a bottle of wine our first day there, the standard 750ml sized bottle, and I brought enough for two more glasses home with me. Yeah, our glasses were probably between 1-2oz. We’re pretty big drinkers, huh? I drank the last of it the next Thursday. 

On the following Sunday, I was scheduled to return Dixie to her granddaughter’s and drive up to Arlington to see my adopted Little Bro and his husband. Alas a couple days prior, my BIL was admitted to the hospital, and I am delighted to say he is now home recouping, but at the time, it was deemed the better part of common sense for me to toodle on home and not see them. So, I got to see 2 of the 5 people I wanted to see. Yes, it was a loverly vacation, but I miss not seeing those I didn’t get to see. Oh, well, it just means I have an excuse to go to the Dark Side again. (It is called the Dark Side due to the fact that the clouds roll in about half past September and stay until (usually) 5 July, not really rainy, just gray, wet, gloomy—dark.

Great Blue Heron on tide flats outside our rental

Dawn at Bruce Pond (near side of spits, see heron above) Oak Bay far side, Salish Sea

Mt Tahoma (Rainier) at dawn

Susie says, Hi, to everyone. She’s very friendly.

Our rental. The upstairs windows on the left was Dixie’s room, the downstairs sliders was mine. I could go up the outside stairs, but wasn’t comfortable going down them.
The house behind is used for storage.

Mt Tahoma, Guardian of the Southern Salish Sea

Best quote, possibly ever: I did that!

This is the pump at the gas station I went to in Port Hadlock. In the middle of MAGA country

All photos by Lenora Rain-Lee Good, using iPhone 17 Pro Max