Category Archives: Orleans

Long week in terms of sitting at the computer and getting stuff done. Completely beat.

Out of town on business until late Friday night. Two social events Saturday.

Perhaps decent update on Sunday.

This is going to be a rambling post from many topics scribbled on this tiny piece of paper next to the keyboard.

Pihnêefich has taken up residence in the house. My computer died. The laptop won’t connect to the wireless. The DVR didn’t work last night and every time I tried to pick a show it told me to try again later.

bwah! How do we appease you Mr. Trickster?

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For the first time in history I’ve been skipping yoga class due to an injury type situation with my back. I hate calling it an injury because (a) I don’t remember a moment that I injured it and (b) people who talk about their injuries are tiresome.

I’ve had this situation before (last year and 2005.) The discomfort lasts for several months but usually only bothers me when I first get up in the morning or if I sit in certain positions. This year it hurts during practice so I’m laying off class. I still practice at home and work around it.

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Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in at least 5-6 years. I took a bath. Our bathtub coating or whatever it’s called disintegrated and we didn’t do anything about it until this summer when I got a pretty new bathroom.. This is the first chance I’ve had to use it and it was more wonderful than I imagined.

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Bob and I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night and thought it was totally stupid. Yes, we laughed. That rock star guy was hilarious and Paul Rudd also funny but that movie was about 20 minutes too long and really, really dumb.

Here’s one of Bob’s photos of the fog on the way down from Greyback.

I was going to do my NaNoWritMo Wrap-up today but this is already taking too long so I’ll do it tomorrow or later this week.

I did make the 50,000+ word goal.

Oh, also I have a weird rash on my scalp/face. It’s an inner rash. You can’t see it but I can feel it.

Klamath River, December 07

I’ve been cranking on my writing project for two full days now and I would like to weep. My neck is ruined, my mouse-arm feels like someone sat on it and my eyeballs are dried and shriveled and rolled back in my head. I’m not done but for health and safety sake I am going to have a no computer day tomorrow.

Beside, tomorrow is bluegrass day.

This is from the river looking up toward Mom and Dad’s place. They call this part of the place “the meadow.” The shed thing is a small shelter that’s good for shade in the summer if you’re having a get together.

I had a bunch of ideas for a post earlier and now I’m drawing a blank. An uneventful day.

Shadow is my sister’s dog but Erin was out in the field so he was staying with Mom and Dad while we were visiting.

One morning we took him on a walk to Dolan’s. We park on the road and hike down a long hill to the river bar.

Shadow took off the second the car door opened. We followed behind in no big hurry. About halfway down the hill we rounded a turn and we could see Shadow, crouched in the dirt. We couldn’t figure out what he was doing until we got all the way around and there was a huge doe standing in the middle of the road.

I had my camera on me but I wasn’t fast enough. My Dad called the dog and I’m not sure who sprang first, the deer or the dog but they were off up the mountain crashing through the brush. We kept calling the dog, like that was going to do anything.

Shadow makes funny yipping noises when he’s chasing things, apparently. That’s what Mom said when I made a worried face. I didn’t think he could catch the deer but I was a bit worried when I heard that noise.

We continued walking and not far from where the doe was Mom stopped me in the road and pointed. Just off the road, standing in the brush and not moving except for the twitching ridiculously huge ears, was a little fawn. So cute. The doe was drawing the dumb dog away from her baby.

We did our entire walk without seeing or hearing the dog again. Dad was wondering if we should just come back later and look for him or what.

As we trudged back up the hill we kept calling him and as we got close to the top, we heard a voice and then came my husband followed by a tired dog with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. My sweetheart had come to join us. He found the dog flopped out in the shade from the car and it took a lot of convincing to get him on his feet and back down the hill to meet us.

I just scanned a few old posts and see I never finished writing about my trip. One of my goals is to make an Orleans, CA page that I can link to with photos and maps since it’s a small town on a two lane highway in the mountains with two gas pumps, a café and a tiny grocery store and it’s unusual to find anyone who’s heard of it.

The discussion usually goes something like, “You mean New Orleans?” “No, Orleans.” “Oh, I’ve never heard of it.” Then you say Humboldt County and can usually get some name recognition there. I’ve traveled to some pretty far off places where they’ve heard of Humboldt County. But the webpage thing remains on my to do list.

My normal summer visit in at the end of August and a huge number of extended family are there and it’s fun but hectic. (By huge number let’s say around 20 grownups and another 20 kids ranging in age from 15 to baby sproglet.) Bob went to the High Sierra Music Festival the first week of July and suggested I visit the family during that time. Also, my Dad’s birthday is 4th of July and I haven’t celebrated with him in a long time. Very quiet visit with lots of reading and daily swimming trips. I spent more time in a bathing suit that week than I have in the past 3 years. My bathing suit is old and grotty but since I rarely have occasion to wear one, I can make them last awhile.

There’s a point where the elastic turns on you and I’ve reached that point and should probably see if I can find a new one. And there’s no better place for bathing suit shopping than Portland Oregon in the middle of July. (sarcasm). I just found these attempts back in 2001 (here, here, and here.) My current suit I found in 2004.

I went to the river with Mom and my Aunties and they do these Cryptic Crosswords. Have you ever seen these? They have a clue like: Man on horse: plumber? and the answer is: Mephistophiles. I know. I never got it either. You have to be a total brainiac and even then, the group mind is critical for working on these puzzles. I got one clue per puzzle we did and this after staring at the clue for 2 and ½ hours. I’m going to get Cryptic Crosswords for Dummies this winter and practice so next summer I’m ready.

I’ll tell one other story before I run. I’m not a cat person. It’s not like I hate cats, I just don’t love them and would characterize my interest in living with one as: not at all. My Dad used to not be a cat person but now my parents have two cats. They were feral cats who have been tamed (and enjoy free meals). One is very shy (name: Shy Boy) and keeps a low profile when I’m visiting. The other one is much friendlier (name: Friendly) and its favorite thing to do is crawl on your lap while you’re reading and knead its nails into your thighs. Then it drools on you. I kicked Friendly off my lap one morning and it went downstairs and returned awhile later with a flapping bird in its mouth. What a cutie.

Because I am lame I had no gut instinct about how to react to this so I said: “Ack! Ack! Mom! Make it go away!” And Mom chased the cat out of the house and Dad chased the cat out of the garage. The poor kitty had to rip up the bird somewhere else.

Wow. Fabulous trip. Exactly what I needed. I kept a few notes about what I did and a typical day says: wake up early, read, pick raspberries, go swimming, eat dinner, early to bed.

I’ll probably write more about it tomorrow. I’m beat right now. I woke up at 1:30a last night and drifted without really sleeping until morning. I finally just got up and packed and hit the road. I keep having this weird dream where I think I’m awake but I can’t move and I tell myself, “This feels like a dream, but I know I’m awake and I’m going to move now,” and then I can’t move. It’s really disturbing.

It was over 100 the past two days and I was expecting the drive home to have furnace-like qualities but it was mild and I kept the window down the entire time until I hit Portland and then it felt too hot and turned on the air. (Of course now my eyeballs feel like felt covered golf balls dipped in battery acid.)

The first thing I did when I got home was crack open a cold beer. Then I turned on the computer. Then I checked my dahlias. Lots of flowers out there now.

I’m going to go and wash the car before I run out of steam.