Linda Lou Takes Me To Skagit Flats Beaver Marsh Looking At Olympics

The above is the latest example of something sent by someone in the Pacific Northwest in an ongoing campaign by many, apparently, to try and make me homesick for Washington.

The campaign is working.

The above photo arrived on my phone late in yesterday's afternoon, from Linda Lou.

The text message with the photo said, "The Olympics in all their glory as seen from Beaver Marsh Road".

That made it twice yesterday Beaver Marsh Road was mentioned to me. Yesterday, when talking to sister Jackie, mention was made of Jackie having had herself a mighty fine visit with nephew Joey, Monique and Hank Frank at their farmhouse on Beaver Marsh Road.

Linda Lou called soon after sending me the above photo and when I told her Joey's house is on Beaver Marsh Road, she said she'd driven by it and recognized it from the photo of Joey's house I'd put on the blog.

However, talking to Jackie yesterday, I learned that the house I thought to be Joey's, was not Joey's, but was the house on the 8 acres next to Joey's, which big brother Jason bought. 

As for those Olympics Linda Lou mentions being in all their glory, that is a mountain range to the west of Puget Sound, located on the appropriately named Olympic Peninsula, where you will find the also appropriately named Olympic National Park. 

First time visitors to the Puget Sound zone are often surprised, on a clear day, to see mountains no matter which direction they look.

From the Skagit Flats, which is where Joey and Jason's homes on Beaver Marsh Road are located, one can look west and see the Olympics, to the east and see the Cascades and Mount Baker, to the south and see Mount Rainier, which is also part of the Cascade mountain range, and to the north and see the Cascade mountains as the range reaches the Pacific north of Vancouver.

That makes for two of Washington's active volcanoes that one can see from the Skagit Flats.

No matter what direction I look whilst standing on the Wichita Flats I can see no volcanoes. Or mountains...

Geez, I finished writing this blog post, switched to Facebook, and what's the first thing I see?

Another Skagit Flats photo via Linda Lou. The one above looks west at the Olympics, the one below looks east, at the aforementioned Cascades.

The view here is south of the vantage point of Linda Lou's first photo. Joey and Jason's Skagit Flat location on Beaver Marsh Road would be to the left. If we panned to the left we would also see Mount Baker. The buildings you see on the lower hills are in south Mount Vernon. The main part of the town would also be seen if we panned to the left.

Way back in the previous century, I could look out my windows and see a view somewhat like that above. Well, not the tulip/daffodil Skagit Flats view, but the mountain view to the east...

Geez, it happened again. Added the photo from Linda Lou, went back to Facebook, and saw a new post, with this one asking "Where in Washington are Chris & Sheila? Such a beautiful day, snowy mountain tops can be seen all around us".

Didn't I just mention the fact that from the Skagit Flats one sees mountains no matter what direction you look? And now we have Chris and Sheila saying the same thing. 

That tallest mountain you see here is the aforementioned Mount Baker. Which would make Joey and Jason's location on Beaver Marsh Road to the right in this view. 

I am guessing Chris and Sheila are at the RV park at the Swinomish Casino Resort on Padilla Bay, which would mean we are looking east across Padilla Bay in the above photo. Bay View State Park would be to the left, across the bay. And my old hometown of Burlington would be due east on the other side of that row of trees. I forget what that particular rise above the Skagit Flats is called. Bay View Hill? Is that it?

Okay, I am not looking at Facebook any more tonight...

Spencer Jack In Training For 2028 Panther Island Olympics In Fort Worth Texas

Incoming email this morning in my email inbox from Spencer Jack's dad, he being my favorite nephew named Jason.

Actually it was multiple emails, only two of which had text in their subject lines, with one being, "Spencer Jack's new treadmill."

And the other being. "Jones Family Fitness Week".

Regarding it being Jones Family Fitness Week, the only email with a text message explanation of what I was seeing informed me, "Spencer is training hard in hopes of maintaining his family's emphasis on athleticism and self discipline."

Spencer Jack's dad shares with his favorite uncle a penchant for being sarcastically ironic. I shall not elaborate on what it is about that which Spencer Jack's dad wrote which is sarcastically ironic.

Anyway, among this morning's emails were three which contained videos of Spencer Jack preparing for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Fort Worth, Texas, located on Fort Worth's imaginary Panther Island.

In the first video Spencer Jack tells us what he likes about his new treadmill....



As you can see at the end of the above video Spencer Jack starts running in hyper mode. After doing so, in the second video, Spencer Jack is instructed by his trainer to check his heart beat rate....



So, there you go. A look at the Mount Vernon Jones Family in the midst of their week of heightened fitness training in preparation for the 2028 Panther Island Olympics in Fort Worth, Texas....

Canada's Inferiority Complex Ends With Triatholon Silver

This morning I read a column from the Sunday Tacoma Tribune by a guy named Peter Callaghan. He's funny. The column was about his random thoughts about the Olympics. He seems to take the Olympics about as seriously as I do. And shares my Bob Costas aversion.

In the second paragraph Callaghan writes, "What's with Canada's inferiority complex? It's like they're all from Tacoma." He goes on to say he likes the Canadian coverage better than NBC, but that it gets tedious listening to the announcers make excuses when the Canadian fails, "which is often."

Sample excuses offered by the Canadian announcers were things like, "Was your suit too tight?" "Did you have to get up too early?" "Or is it the bad air?"

And then Callaghan writes, "And they have to tart up the slightest accomplishment. A swimmer who doesn't drown is dubbed the Canadian Michael Phelps."

So, last night, during hot dogs and strawberries and grilled corn (delicious, best corn ever) we sat down in front of the Flat Panel and watched the Olympics on Canadian TV. It is so much more watchable than NBC. Very little of that non-stop blathering and constant need to have some bizarre narrative, like Lucy's grandma died at 99 a week ago and Bob Costas is sure Lucy was thinking of grandma during that back flip into the pool.

The event we were watching was the Triathlon. I'd not seen this before. It started off with what looked like 100 guys jumping into a lake at the same time with a giant pagoda looking over them. They swam for quite a distance, like a synchronized line. Then the line gradually broke up and became a sort of thrashing triangle. On and on they swam.

During this we were informed of the story of the Great Canadian Hope who none of us America-Centric Americans had heard of, a guy named Simon Whitfield. We were quite a ways into the swimming before we realized there was an American or two among the swimmers.

After the group was done swimming for miles and miles they one by one got out of the water and ran to a bike which they pushed to the start line and hopped on, slipping their feet into shoes already attached to the pedals.

The bike course went on for miles, I mean, kilometers. They had to repeat this course, I think, 6 times. For about 300 feet, I mean, 100 meters, or so, they pedaled in front of cheering people in a grandstand.

I gave up watching after the first time around. I did not make it to the running part. It seemed like the Canadians were covering pretty much every second of this race. With a break for local Canadian news out of Vancouver, which was amusing in itself, with a Brit accented Weather Girl with very unfortunate helmet hair.

This morning I learned that the Canadian Triathlete, Simon Whitfield, he being the Great Canadian Hope, came in second, getting a silver medal. I'm sure the Canadians were quite happy.

Back to that Callaghan guy. I thought his comment that Canada had an inferiority complex, in the same manner as Tacoma's, was interesting. I've not noted manifestations of Tacoma having a civic inferiority complex due to being in the shadow of its more robust Seattle partner in the Seattle/Tacoma Metro area. I've long made note of how Fort Worth comes across in its media as having a massive inferiority complex regarding how it feels about its Dallas partner in the D/FW Metroplex.

I can see where Canada is sort of like Fort Worth and Tacoma, not quite the success story of its nearest neighbor. But that's nothing to have an inferiority complex over. There are a lot of really good things about Canada, Fort Worth and Tacoma, even though they are a bit overshadowed by America, Dallas and Seattle.

In other words, America, Dallas and Seattle are gold medal type places. Canada, Fort Worth and Tacoma should be quite pleased to be silver medal type places. And nothing stops them from aspiring to gold medal status. It'd be a great thing to see Canada become a Superpower. Fort Worth, not so much.

Olympic Testicular Cancer

That's an American Olympic swimmer named Eric Shanteau in the photo. He has testicular cancer. That is not currently being treated.

I was over at Lulu's, up in her attic, making magnets, earlier today. She had the TV on to the Olympics.

The first thing I saw was some women's swimming event. I know the Olympic coverage has gotten mileage out of personalizing an athlete's story, if there is a story to tell. So, for the women they focused on a Pole who had been in a car wreck in which her brother had died. After we heard all about that sad story and saw the race take place we couldn't figure out if the Pole was one of the swimmers.

It was confusing. But Lulu and I are easily confused.

And then it was time for the men to swim. The sad story to tell for the men was about a guy named Eric Shanteau who found out he had testicular cancer shortly before the Olympics were to begin. He opted out of immediate surgery in order to swim in the Olympics.

That's fine. But the way they made this sound so heroic and brave grated on me. First off, testicular cancer, caught early, is highly curable.

Second off, risking your life, even if the threat is highly curable, in order to swim, does not seem all that heroic to me.

Being in Iraq or Afghanistan. That seems heroic. Finding out you had testicular cancer while in Iraq and opting to continue your tour of duty, rather than seeking treatment, would seem foolish to me, not heroic.

But what really grated on me, about the way they covered the story of the Olympic swimmer's testicular cancer, is how they went on and on about it, how brave he was, how heroic, such an inspiration.

Full disclosure, I am testicular cancer survivor. I know it's no picnic. And the surgery Eric is postponing is not a pleasant thing. But every day you leave that cancer growing in your body is one more day it has a chance to metastasize to another part of your body.

What bugged me really bad about how NBC milked this story is they could have used this as an opportunity to tell their viewers what they needed to do, self-exam wise, to early detect if they have a problem.

I figured out I had a problem when I saw a testicular cancer storyline on the TV show St. Elsewhere. Ironically, I believe, on NBC. That was soon followed by a story in the Seattle P-I about the, then, little talked about cancer. From both the TV show and the P-I, I was fairly certain I had cancer, before I visited a doctor.

I'm sure at least one of NBC's viewers who was watching NBC's full of pathos vignette about the Olympic swimmer, has testicular cancer and does not know it. Telling the viewers that they need to check regularly for any odd lump in that special zone and to get that lump looked at immediately would have been what is known as a public service. Instead NBC chose to milk and exaggerate this guy's story for their own self-serving purposes.

And don't get me started on the non-stop yapping of the commentators while the people are swimming. My belief is if you don't need that narration when you are watching something in person. And if you wouldn't allow some bore to go on and on and on in your TV viewing room while you're trying to watch something, then the same principle should apply to how this type thing is covered on TV.

And have I mentioned before that Bob Costas needs to be fired and taken off TV?