Road Closures

Day 31: When a friend posted the bottom photo, it gave me quite a start. "What is Nancy doing in Pack Forest? OMG, does she realize how close she is?" Then my mind registered a few subtle differences in her view from that of my memory, notably the bark on the log across the road. Her scene was too summery as well. Reading her text, I discovered how badly I'd been fooled. Y'see, Nancy's photo was shot in Blackbutt Forest Reserve, New South Wales, Australia. My photo, taken this morning, is on the 1000 Rd. in Charles L. Pack Experimental Forest, Washington, USA.

Actually, I made the four-mile round trip hike in yesterday's rain, only to find when I got home that Nancy's photo (which she graciously gave me permission to share) had been shot in wide-screen and I'd taken several in portrait. Cross with myself for not checking beforehand, I decided to make a second trip today despite harsher weather. The rain held off until I reached the landing, sprinkled through the photo session, and began pouring just as I was putting the camera away. Rain and wind accompanied me all the way back to the car, but I think getting wet was a small price to pay for this antipodal comparison.

Gravel Day

Day 148: It's been about twenty years since my then-neighbour and I spread gravel on our shared driveway. He moved away some time ago, and a succession of less-than-desirable tenants has been hard on it. There's an art to driving on a dirt road so you don't make a mess of it. It's not a difficult science. You simply need to drive slowly and take a little extra care when the surface is soft. Still, twenty years is a long time, and even the portion of the L which services my carport was potholed and puddled. To remedy the situation, I ordered a load of rock, 14 tons. With fences and power lines making it hard for the driver to maneuver his truck and part of the load getting stuck in the tailgate, unwilling to spread evenly, the last third was left in a pile to await my shovel.

Have you ever moved gravel? It's not a sport for sissies. Let's do the math. Two-thirds of 14 tons is 9.38 tons, give or take a few pounds. That's how much the truck was able to spread, but I still had to rake it out. The remaining 4.62 tons were what I shovelled and spread manually. Five hours later, I had achieved my goal and the entire task was done. You can bet your bottom buck I'm going to sleep like a rock...no, please! Don't mention rocks!...tonight.

When Is Spring Coming?

Day 145: Today's interrogative is "When?" as in "When is spring coming?" Of course it could also have been "What?" for "What in the hell is she doing?" or even "How?" for "How did she ever get brave enough to do that?" but I'll just go with "When?" because I keep asking myself "When is it going to warm up?"

The subject of planking came up in a discussion a few days ago. I've only planked once before, and that was in front of the old WDFW building in Morton, and the selfie I took on that occasion so impressed the friend who worked in the office there that he mentioned it to his grandmother, whereupon she planked in a somewhat less public location (a table) so he could get a shot. Technically, planking is supposed to occur in public places; my yard was public enough, with a stream of snow-bunnies and snowplows heading up the road, casting curious glances and possibly making furtive phone calls to the local funny farm to alert them to a potential pickup. The truth of the matter is that it took me four hours to work up my courage to do this, largely because the temperature has risen just enough that the snow has turned to rain and what's in the yard is extremely mushy and wet.

There's a lesson in this, and that is that you can endure almost anything if you only have to do it once. You would only have to do it once if you had thought to take more careful measurements and didn't get your head out of the frame on the first go.

Planking - Chicken If You Don't

Day 58: I have my friend Richard to thank for the inspiration behind today's post. He brought up the subject of planking, so I decided to plank myself on his very doorstep, as it were.

Planking (per Wikipedia) is "an activity consisting of lying face down - sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location. Both hands must touch the sides of the body. Some players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play."

Planking is best done with an assistant manning the camera, however if none is at hand, choose your timer setting wisely to allow yourself time to get up before the police cruiser drives by, and be sure you have your cover story well rehearsed in case you've miscalculated.