The adaptation process continues...
...or, "coast life" adventures, volume 857...

I, being a transplant to the Oregon Coast, have been advised by well-wishers that it takes a couple of years to get comfortable in a new area. Of course, the town where I used to live was STILL taking getting used to, and I'd lived there for 40 YEARS. I'd stayed the same, but the town had changed, and it was getting just a bit too big and crazy for me.

There are probably only about 50,000 people, TOPS, in this county, spread out all over the place. But I am finding that I really have not sacrificed any of the creature comforts. There's cable TV, I'm online just like before, there are stores, shops, a nice library, and in addition to the ocean, there are quite a few lakes around here. Plus, unlike the area in North Idaho that I left, the cable TV outfit down here STILL carries the FOX network! Evidently the monolithic Time-Warner cable outfit bought out the bankrupt "Adelphia" cable outfit up there, and as a result, say some of the Coeur d'Alenians, service is worse and the bills are higher. And, Time-Warner didn't want to pay to carry the Fox network, so Fox said, "g'bye!!!"

While watching some of the weathercasts here, the weather-guesser on the news tonite forecast 22 degrees as tonight's low. He called that a HARD FREEZE, in which pipes burst. Oh, I should clarify, that was 22 degrees ABOVE zero. Huh? Back in Idaho, my pipes were just fine until the temperature at night began hovering around ZERO fahrenheit. On one of the TV stations down here, there is one "regional" news program that covers various towns, and there's a 10 minute segment midway thru that regional newscast, that features a separate LOCAL newscast, from that regional channel's LOCAL newsroom. I've never seen TV news done that way before. A novel concept, that!

One of my favorite things to do up in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, was to go to the local "java place", which I wrote a lot about in previous blog-entries here. Well, I was driving around in this area's old, funky uptown section last week, and I saw a sign on a coffee-shop that said, "opening January 8th". I thought, "well, they must be closed for the holidays". So, I went in today, and guess what...TODAY was their FIRST day in business! So I hope my finding that place and drinking a cuppa-Joe there was a good omen.

In North Idaho, it was common to hear someone say, "if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes and it will change". Down here on the coast, cut that time in HALF, and you'd be at least fairly accurate. I drove down to the shore today to watch the waves crash upon the rocks. It was foggy out there; visibility was probably a quarter-mile...but, after a while, the fog blew away, revealing a glorious blue sky and an even more glorious SUN. So, I went a-walkin' on the beach. Cheaper than any other therapy I know of, for sure.
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Tidbits and other exercises in the manifestation of glittering generalities:

*Spokane's South Hill Rapist, KEVIN COE, is evidently gonna undergo some sort of examination which will determine how dangerous he still is, after serving a quarter-century in prison. He could be kept behind bars, albeit in a nicer area, for the rest of his life. I've seen the footage where the cops are marching him down the hallway to the courtroom...and Coe still looks dangerous. It's all in the eyes. Ughhhh...

*Prezzident Bush wants to send more troops to Iraq, but that's not my "chief beef"...I understand that we bombed a location in SOMALIA, where (allegedly) Al-Qaida sympathizers have a concentration of sorts. THERE YA GO, GEORGE...let's make some MORE countries mad at us! We're already hated for forcing "democracy" upon countries who obviously don't want it!

*The Seattle Seahawks are gonna be playing the Chicago Bears this coming weekend in an effort to try to get to the Stupor Bowl. One radio sportscaster said, "if Chicago is cold, the Bears have a better chance of winning"; implying that if El Nino has its way and Chicago is warm, the Seahawks could win. So if yer goin' to Vegas, what do you bet on? Football, or the Weather? I feel sorry for Dallas QB Tony Romo, who fumbled away Dallas' chance to win, taking that field-goal snap and having the ball slip outta his hands. He can't be a very happy camper these days.

*These "erectile dysfunction" commercials have me confused. One features a guy & his wife sitting on a couch...he's watching football, cheering his team on; she's halfheartedly looking thru some catalog. Then, his bombshell-knockout-centerfold quality wife gets up, heads for the boudoir, raking her hand across his back and looking at him with obvious bedroom eyes. And this guy is young and virile. So I have to ask, who is gonna have erectile dysfunction with a wife who looks like THAT??? So he slaps in a blank VHS to record the rest of the game, then he follows his wife to the bedroom. Okaaay...fast-forward to a couple of hours (or 15 minutes?) later when he's watching the game he taped so he could indulge in a bit of whoopee. His wife yells at him, "YOU RECORDED THE GAME? WHAT, WOULD YOU HAVE TURNED ME DOWN IF WE DIDN'T HAVE A VCR???"

Another one of those commercials says, "if the moment isn't right, you have 36 hours to decide when you can make whoopee". (Well, close enough) A man and his wife are coming home, obviously in an amorous mood. He puts the key in the door to open it, and the door opens, and several hundred people in the house greet the couple with "SURPRIIIIIISE!!!!" So, obviously, the moment isn't right. So when the moment IS right, what do they do? The next shot in the commercial shows them walking on a bluff above the ocean. Huh? Hey, man, you've only got 36 hours...don't waste your time WALKING, for cryin' out loud! I do plenty of walking and I don't need a 36-hour prescription for THAT...
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Okaay...I've got my post done early...and I microwaved a TV dinner tonite, and managed NOT to poison myself (I'm not the best cook, y'know)....the La-Z-Boy awaiteth!