Anything could appear in this post...
I'm blogging without a net as I wing it here. Anything can happen!

Time Passages: Springtime is the time I always think about Mom and Dad, who left this earth 6 years ago. Mom in March, Dad in May. April 4th was Dad's birthday. Six years. Can it really be that long? Mom would be 81 now, and Dad would be 90. I may now be a good 700 miles from where they rest in peace, but my memories of them do not fade...although, they might be starting to mellow a bit. Maybe time does that; puts all the bad stuff into soft-focus.

I never thought I'd find myself in this position: All my faithful readers (all 3 of them) know that I like rock and roll. Not heavy, speed, thrash-metal, just good basic melodic stuff, you know, Creedence, The Beatles...well, I've been known to veer off into Led Zeppelin territory once in a while too. At jam sessions the last couple of weeks, though, I found myself playing guitar while a guy was singing a song by the Eurythmics...and in another case, I found myself drumming while another guy was screaming out a Judas Priest song. In a million years, I would've never dreamed of playing music by those two artists. I guess music is music, huh?

Amazing, the difference 700 miles makes: We had sunshine on the ocean beaches this week. Yesterday, I sat out on the beach; the wind was blowing, and it was almost a warm wind, with temps up in the 60s. On the ocean! People were flying kites on the beach...and of course, various assorted games of "fetch" were going on. A dog chases a stick all day and he never gets tired of it. I always marvel at that. And at the price we pay for being human beings. Overactive imaginations, wanting too much, undergoing depression and disappointment. In my next life, maybe I can be a dog. As long as I'm not a chihuahua. Or a bird. As long as I'm not a parakeet.

Are they up to their old tricks again? The Seattle Mariners, the team I'll always suffer with, have hit a rough patch. But maybe they should be thankful Friday's game with Cleveland stopped short of being an official game. The game was 'called', due to SNOW. The M's were behind 4-0. The M's had lost their previous game 9-0. That's 13 runs not responded to by the M's. And they're having difficulties with a couple of their pitchers. Not time to say "uh-oh" just yet, but...it's obvious, by the outcomes of these two games, who had the better pitching. And it sure wasn't the M's. Ack...

You can tell this used to be a timber-industry area: There's a free little renegade newspaper in this area called the "Koos News". It's full of articles written by the locals, and classified ads are scattered helter-skelter, under no category headings whatsoever. And, as a salute to the almost-defunct timber industry, in the masthead of this little newspaper can be found the words: "Printed On Recycled Spotted Owl".

Sounds like good advice to me: I was sitting by the waterfront today, in my car, just kinda gazing at the world around me when I noticed a little sign...now remember, I was parked at, perhaps, 2 feet above sea level...and the sign said, "TSUNAMI WARNING ZONE: IN CASE OF EARTHQUAKE, HEAD INLAND, OR TO HIGHER GROUND." Okaaaay...yeah, all right, makes sense. Being from North Idaho, I can handle snow and ice (it tends to freak out the locals here), but I haven't endured a tsunami. Still, I know where to run. So, that's a good start.

Am I really that far behind the times? Many years ago, my brother-in-law gave me one of those cameras where the picture pops out after taking the foto; you know, like the ones they used on "NYPD BLUE", to take crime-scene photos with. Well, it takes Kodak 600 film, which costs about $15 for a pack of ten photos. And as the cashier was ringing up my film purchase, she said, "I didn't know anyone used that kind of film anymore." My conclusion? I guess I must be 'out of it'.

I didn't take my own advice: In a previous posting (you can find it if you scroll down a ways), I advised that if you didn't want to experience 'sticker shock' at the gas pumps, don't look at the price. You need gas anyway, right? So what good does it to look. Just fill up and go. But I am a hypocrite, because I looked at the readerboard that lists gas prices...this week, when I filled up...I paid $2.98 a gallon. Ouch. Never thot I'd see the day when a tank of gas costs more than CAMERA FILM!

The little motorboat that could: I was in a county park the other day. There, you can park near a ledge about 70 feet above the ocean. The seas actually have been quite calm, and a little motorboat (probably a 15-or 20-foot craft) ventured over the "bar" (the channel between the two jetties which connects the bay to the ocean), and headed out into the vast expanse of ocean. And what did the boat's driver do? He headed to a point about 100 feet (yes, FEET) from the jetty (he was about 1/4 mile from the beach) and he stopped and just SAT there for a while. Then he turned the boat back around and headed in. I can just see this guy drinking with all his buddies that night: "What did I do today? I went SAILING OUT ON THE OCEAN"! Yeah, rrrright...

Only on the coast: I can imagine a lifelong coastal resident who stumbles across this blog will think I'm nuts, but I notice different things, because I was landlocked for so long before moving here. There is a little radio station down here, 1610 on the dial, and the only thing the station broadcasts? Weather reports, ocean conditions and boating advice. 24 hours a day. No commercials either. Of course, not the most exciting radio station to listen to (it's nowhere in the ratings book, ha ha), but at times, I'm sure it comes in handy for the boaters way out there. And when the seas are rough, it'll tell you that small craft (like what I mentioned above) are prohibited from crossing the bar. I've seen waves so high on the bar, that a commercial fishing boat will disappear below the wave, and for a moment it can't be seen until it reaches the top of the next wave. Not for the gentle of constitution, obviously. Does anyone sell heavy-duty seasick-pills?
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Well, folks, that's it for this go-round. I've tried "tightening up" on this post, my last few posts being long-winded, overblown with all kinds of exaggerated detail. And we already get all of that when we try to make sense out of what the politicians are saying. So, anyway, HAPPY EASTER to everyone!