911 in the driveway!

As some of you who follow this blog know I have been in Shoreline, Washington for a couple of months as the primary caregiver for my 93 year old mother-in-law.  What I haven't blogged about is her declining energy level and lack of "air".  Yesterday the decision was finally made to call 911 and transport her to the University of Washington Hospital.  She was admitted and after a series of tests and exams they think she has a blood clot in her lung.  They are going to keep her through the weekend, at least.  So, I am going to take a much needed break and go camping.  Her family will be with her through the weekend.  Monday I will return and find out what's next.

Signing off until Monday.

Deja Vu again

I can't believe it!

I wanna go home!

There is a golden lining

An interesting sunset after a day of gray!

Another visit

I revisited Richmond Beach Park this morning and the Olympics were hiding!

This is only the third time in over a month and a half I have walked in early morning rain.  A pretty dry comment for the great north wet!

Looking West

I walked to the new Richmond Beach Park, sat on one of the park benches and watched the morning unfold!  What a beautiful start for a Monday, the Olympics peeking out, low lying fog dressed in pink!

The returning Kingston/Edmonds ferry in sunlight.  A tug boat and tow in shade.

Evolutionary Process

My first motor bike built by my dad using a twenty-four inch bicycle and a Briggs and Stratton, once cylinder, engine.  The year, 1955.

My 1974 Harley Davidson Super Glide during a trip from Los Angles to Lewiston, Montana across the loneliest highway in Nevada, Highway 50.  The year, 1983.

Finally!  Off my butt and walking!  In this photo, backpacking over McGee Pass.  The year, 2008.

It just gets better and better!

Meanwhile, this morning I walked 5.75 miles and revisited the Interurban Trail and

found the two geocache that flummoxed me earlier in the week. 

Onward!

This morning I walked part of the Interurban Trail when....

I was suddenly startled by a very loud, deep hollow drum hammering noise, looked up and spotted this woodpecker!  Not a dainty tap tap tap or fast brrrrrp no,  "Bam Bam Bam Bam" machine gun style!  So of course I am scrambling to get my camera out of my fanny pack and trying at the same time to not scare him away.  The camera hangs up on something and the bird moves to another snag.  I finally get the camera loose, he moves again.  I turn on the digital camera, he moves to another snag even more secluded.  I hunt for him trying to zoom and focus at the same time and can't find him!  Darn, how frustrating!

And then, there he is!  A Pileated Woodpecker!  My bird book says, "With its flaming red-crest, breathtaking flight and maniacal call, this impressive deep-forest dweller is successful at stopping most hikers in their tracks."!!  I'll say, he got my attention!  I wonder what he is doing in town?

Speaking of town.  Looks like things are getting desperate.

My 500th post!

A frosty morning in Shoreline, Washington, our February moon waning away.

Five hundred posts!  How can that be?  I guess it is sort of like hiking up McGee Pass,  one step at a time and eventually, there you are!  I think it interesting how I started this blog as a byproduct of walking for my health in Fort Bragg, California.  Now, several years later, I am in Shoreline, Washington as a caregiver for my mother-in-law and walking is still the anchor of my daily routine providing me a "mental health time out" each morning before the various demands full time care giving requires.  I will admit I'm currently having a bit of a problem coming up with things to photograph but my walking just gets better and better.  The hills in this area provide a much more strenuous workout than Maple Street in Fort Bragg ever did!!

So.  500 posts!

I check Google analytics now and then to see how many readers I have, a pointless exercise actually because if the number is low I think, why am I doing this and if the numbers are high I get nervous with so many watching!!

Another weird thing I've noticed.  Blogs are like rivers, they just go by.  Who ever takes the time to go back to the source, read one from the beginning, not to mention how hard it is to do.

As for people just discovering this blog, they step aboard like onto a raft and float along with no idea what went before; what "this river" has encountered.  But hey!  I do the same with the blogs I discover.   Funny business, blogs.

According to my friend Charlie Acker the best advice is to, "Just post and let it go".

Walking for cache

This morning I set off for a geocache located down by the new Richmond Beach Park.

Along the way I noticed this Lion bedding down with a Lamb.  Well, close!

And this gargoyle guarding some one's yard although Wikipedia says it is more likely a chimera.

And how is it this sign says "Welcome to Richmond Beach" and right below "City of Shoreline".  It is my understanding Richmond Beach existed long before City of Shoreline was thought of.

All in all a confusing morning.  I walked over five miles for this geocache which was located between the two points shown, one below at the park and the other high on the bluff.  It was impossible to walk that wee distance between points, I had to "go around".  And still I didn't find it.  But the cherry blossoms in the first photo more than made up for it.  Spring's a coming!!

Out and about

I wonder if their dinners are as good as their chicken?

Miles and miles of Puget Sound shoreline view property is taken by the railroad.  Photographed though the chain link fence on a pedestrian overpass.

Richmond Beach Park statue with resident crow added.

This is the smallest geocache I have found so far.  Sorry about the ugly cigarette butt but I used it for size comparison.

On a different note, I want to show you the airplane one of my son's is building.  I visited him and his family last weekend and Jeff and I went out to his garage to see how it is coming along.  Currently he has most of the cockpit instrumentation installed.  For you private pilots you will note that Jeff has elected to go with mostly "glass" instrumentation with some "steam powered" gauges for back up.

He has been working on it two hours each day before work for several years; one rivet at a time!!  The end result will be....

An all aluminum, two place, tricycle geared Van's RV7-A

It is so cool!!

Help!

Remember how we saved the "tie-down" rings on Franklin street when the streets and sidewalks were redone?  Well now the cross streets between Main Street and Franklin Street are being redone and two tie-down rings are in jeopardy!

They are located in the curb on the north side of Redwood Avenue across from the Golden West.

They are smaller than the ones along Franklin but still just as unique in this day and age.

One is missing its ring but I know a blacksmith that can restore the ring just like he restored the ring for the tie-down in front of Racine's. 

The rings are located in front of what used to be a frame shop and a reality office east and across the alley from Coast to Coast.

I am currently in Shoreline, Washington until June so I hope some local Fort Bragger will step up and help save these oddities.   E-mail me at ron@walkingfortbragg.com if you are willing to help keep an eye on them.  The contractor Argonaut and City Hall was very accommodating last time.

Let's do it again!

Happy Valentine's Day

Some folks know what love is.

Other's are still trying to find it.

Oddities

I photographed these steps this morning from a different angle and am surprised at the weird light streaks.  I must have moved the camera before the "shutter" closed!

Yesterday while doing the laundry at the Edmonds laundromat I went looking for a nearby Geocache and happened upon another entrant for the CTC, "Crooked Tree Challenge".

And also spotted this goose sleeping on one foot!  Note the nictitating membrane over the eye.

On the way home I happened to spot a tug boat pulling something that looked like a ship.  Note how long the tow rope (cable) is!

Hmmm.  One more step away from Brick and Mortar!

Speculating

Yesterday afternoon I spotted this unusual looking ship heading south on Puget Sound.  It looks like a floating dry dock to me.  Sorry about the darn environment getting in the way!!

This street-side basketball hoop has been in the neighborhood for years.  The kids that used to use it have all grown up but hopefully grand kids will someday appear and put it back into play.

Wake up sleepyheads, it is 7:00 AM and getting light out!!  Woo Hoo!!

Not raining.  Not snowing.  Not freezing.  No wind.  No ships.  No Olympics.  Nothing going on in my corner of the great north wet.

Perfect!

Icy walk

Cold, clear and slippery this morning.

I walked to Echo Lake where a geocache was hidden.  I found the cache but also discovered these Cormorants roosting in a tree by the lake!

A bunch of them making quiet pre-historic sounds as they woke to a new day.

Looking in my Birds of Northern California I'm not sure what these guys are.  My book lists three types of Cormorants and of the three, Brandt's, Double Crested and Pelagic I would say these are probably Double Crested Cormorants because they are hanging out near fresh water.

Returning home I see the recent snowfall covered the foothills again.

Here's one of the two cache I found.

All in all, a successful walk.