Inspired By Deflated Washington I Am Losing My Texas Inflation

Day one in Washington, August 8, David, Theo and Ruby took me to a neighborhood party at another Ruby's, known for her fried potatoes.

At that party, what with me being known as a Washingtonian who has spent considerable time exiled in Texas, I was asked if I'd noticed anything about Washington different than what I see in Texas (other than the obvious things like scenic mountains and a well educated population).

Well, I told the person asking me this question that that subject had sort of come up shortly after I arrived, when David, Theo and Ruby had their mom drive us to Southcenter to go to Duke's for seafood and to wait out the I-5 traffic jam.

After Duke's we walked the mall til we got to a Lego Store. Leaving the Lego Store I remarked to David, Theo and Ruby's mom that I was freshly amazed at the difference from Texas in what I was seeing, as in, so many people looking like the air has been let out of them, looking well dressed, and, well, just looking good and healthy, as to compared to what I see, way too often, in Texas.

As in, in Texas, I see way more people who look as if they have been over inflated, sloppily dressed, and, well, just slovenly.

I was feeling just a bit judgmental, but then again, ones sees what ones sees and thinks what one thinks when one sees what one sees.

This trip to Washington and Arizona was not the first time I have reacted to suddenly seeing deflated humans.

On a roadtrip back to Washington the human deflation phenomenon begins in the least obese state in the union, Colorado.

In a 2001 roadtrip back to Washington I remember overnighting in Pueblo, Colorado and making note of two noticeable things. One the dramatic decrease in litter from what I was used to seeing in Texas. And, two, the shrunken size of most of the humans.

In February of 2004 I remember getting picked up at Sea-Tac and taken to downtown Seattle, to Pioneer Square and Pike Place, because the person picking me up had to make some deliveries of her crafty products.

Ironically this Washingtonian taking me to downtown Seattle is the biggest Washingtonian I have ever known, up close and personal.  Yet, at a gallery in Pioneer Square, when learning I was freshly arrived from Texas, the proprietor asked me what my impression was of seeing my old home state again. I recollect first off mentioning the unseasonably warm weather was pleasant.

And then that I was struck by how so many people look as if they have had the air let out of them.

I think this instance was the first time I had used that "air let out of them" verbiage.

Previous to my recent return to Washington it had been nine years since I'd been to my old home state.

During those nine years I added over 30 pounds of Texas blubber to my previously skinny self.

I had not quite become a stereotypically over inflated Texan, but that has been the direction I have been trending, even though I have not even remotely adopted the Texas Food Pyramid.

I have now been back in Texas five full days.

I am currently in serious deflation mode, intending to return to my formerly skinny self, abolishing my acquired Texas blubber forever, I hope....

Eye Witness Birch Bay Driftwood Confirmation

Over the years I have mentioned, a time or two, including a mention or two via a blogging on this particular blog you are reading right now, a chunk of driftwood on the beach at Birch Bay State Park in my former home zone of Washington.

Over the years I have asked various Birch Bay visitors if this chunk of driftwood still exists. I have received a photo or two of a chunk of driftwood located on the Birch Bay State Park beach, but I was unable to determine via the photo documentation if this was the chunk of driftwood which lingered in my memory.

So, the morning of August 12, David, Theo and Ruby's Uncle Jake drove me to Lynden, with our route taking us along the full crescent of Birch Bay, including entering the now restricted access state park area.

I soon saw the chunk of driftwood which haunts my memory. Uncle Jake stopped the vehicle allowing me to exit and snap the photo you see above.

The chunk of driftwood of my memory appears to have greatly shrunk. Or maybe I have grown greatly bigger.

This chunk of driftwood is the stump of a cedar tree. Cedar lasts a long time, even when sprayed regularly with saltwater.

A day later I was able to relatively confirm this chunk of driftwood has been at this Birch Bay location for well over a half a century.

That relative confirmation came from Aunt Judy, after I mentioned Jake and me seeing the iconic chunk of Birch Bay driftwood the day before.

Aunt Judy told us that Uncle Mel had told her about playing on that driftwood when he was a kid. What with Uncle Mel having been born in, I think, 1940, hence the fact this chunk of driftwood has been being played on for well over half a century.

I told Aunt Judy that when one Googles "Birch Bay Driftwood" a photo shows up of Aunt Judy's two eldest offspring, Jeff and Sheryl, sitting on a log in front of the chunk of driftwood.

Moments ago I repeated this act of Googling to discover it is via me that this photo shows up when Google searching. In one of my ubiquitous bloggings about this chunk of driftwood, titled Birch Bay Driftwood Confirmation From Lynden Via Tacoma I wrote the following...

Then this morning my little sister, Michele, emailed me the photo you see here, gleaned from our Aunt Judy's Facebook page. My best guess as to the identity of the two little kids is that those are my cousins Jeff and Sheryl.

So, it was from Aunt Judy, via sister Michele, I got the photo above which now shows up when one Googles "Birch Bay Driftwood".

I pretty much have almost zero regrets regarding my latest week in Washington.

But there is one regret.

I regret that our plan to have a picnic at Birch Bay State Park did not materialize. It's not the lack of a picnic I regret. What I regret is not getting the opportunity to get a picture of me on this chunk of Birch Bay driftwood with David, Theo and Ruby onboard with me.

Perhaps there will be a return to Birch Bay at some point in the relatively near future. There was some talk about buying a timeshare in the appropriately named Sandcastle Resort...

Theo's Birch Bay Sand Castle Building

This morning I found the flash drive upon which I placed a lot of photos during my recent visits to Washington and Arizona.

This recent trip was the first time this century I have traveled without bringing a computer along with me, which rendered me only able to do the blogging, emailing, youtubing, internet thing when I had access to my sisters' computers.

The sister computer in Arizona was easy to get into use mode. The sister computer in Washington was a bit more challenging.

Among the many things I anticipated having fun doing at Birch Bay was anything beach related. The bay at Birch Bay is extremely shallow. When the tide goes low and the sun shines bright the tidal flats get HOT, which heats the water when the tide decides to roll back in.

This particular Birch Bay phenomenon occurred only on the day we arrived, August 11, with Mother Nature delivering the best birthday gift of the day.

A warm saltwater swim.

David, Theo and I ventured far off shore, to the horror of the parental figures, back on land, who did not realize how shallow the water was. The deep water illusion may have been exacerbated by an uncle suggesting his nephews create the illusion they were up to their necks in deep water. After a few minutes of hearing screaming from shore the nephews stood to their full height with the water depth instantly dropping to waist deep. Calm eventually was restored on shore.

Two days later, on Sunday, the tide was once again out, but not too far. We decided to do some sand castle building. A wall was built, with a moat around the wall, and a mountain of sand constructed inside the wall.

Only three sand castle builders stayed with the project til its final flood.

Myself, Theo and Mama Kristin.

Ruby helped for awhile, digging a ditch to connect the moat to the nearest body of water, figuring this would help drain the moat when the tide came in. But, the sand castle building engineers miscalculated from whence the main flood threat would come. As in, Ruby's ditch turned into a back door flood as the tide reached the previously isolated body of water.

When Spencer Jack showed up he helped for a little while. And then Ruby talked Spencer into going swimming with her in the heated pool.

David also helped, but no one could figure out the method to his sand castle building madness.

Eventually the tide filled the moat and began to attack the wall. Theo directed a heroic effort to shore up the crumbing wall, but soon the effort proved fruitless.

The next day Theo's Uncle Jake went on an early morning walk during which he text messaged informing me the tide was heading out and the remains of Theo's sand castle wall were visible, surviving, somewhat.

After getting that message from Uncle Jake I located Theo. He and I then ventured via the elevator to the fifth floor clubhouse sunset viewing venue to check out the remains of Theo's Sand Castle. Theo then posed for the photo you see above, with the remains of Theo's Sand Castle in the center of the photo.

Theo is the funnest, best Sand Castle builder with whom I have ever built a Sand Castle....

Brother Jake & Me With A Dad Photo Mystery

Saturday, August 12, 2017, after a ceremony at Lynden's Monumenta Cemetery, Aunt Judy invited those in attendance to her house for some pleasant relative time with tasty vittles, including a table with dad's favorite goodies, such as chocolate and cashews.

Aunt Judy and Uncle Mooch made two large photo boards, with dozens upon dozens of photos of my dad. Many of which I did not recollect previously seeing.

The following day, Sunday evening to be precise, Aunt Judy, Uncle Mooch, Aunt Jane, Cousin Amy and Amy's cute kid Kwan came to visit. It had been a long day with a lot of visitors, topped by the extremely enjoyable visit with the Uncle Mooch entourage.

Sometime around  midnight, my time, the Uncle Mooch entourage departed, but before doing so one of the large photo boards was given to us. The next morning I was tasked with removing the photos from the board so as to facilitate transit to Tacoma. Among those photos was a large one, in the center, of dad and his siblings, which I think was taken at a sibling reunion in Ohio earlier this century.

It was decided that I would take the large photo with me, to Arizona, to give to mom. When I arrived in Arizona and unpacked that which I had brought for mom, I was surprised to see two additional photos, photos I did not pack, that I had not been given to take to mom.

At the time I wondered how I came to have those two additional photos, but then thought nothing more about it, until the day before I flew back to Texas, that being Monday, August 21. On my last evening in Arizona I went  to my sister Jackie's place in Chandler. My brother, Jake was also there. Soon upon my arrival my brother gave me an envelope with a photo inside, which is the photo you see at the top.

With that photo being a montage of that big photo of dad I took with me to Arizona and the other two photos I accidentally took with me!

My brother and I have no idea how this happened. The next morning I located the three photos at mom's and took the photo you see below.

I then text messaged my little brother the photo I'd taken of the three photos he'd made into one photo, to which Jake replied, "That is beyond what I can make sense of. Think of the odds. It can't be a coincidence."

So, we have at least two mysteries here. One being how did I end up taking the two additional photos to Arizona, photos which matched those Jake made into a composite photo? Second mystery is what caused Jake to select those two additional photos to add to the big one of dad, from all the photos available, photos which matched  those two additional photos I inadvertently took to Arizona?

The photo on the right I can sort of understand why Jake chose that one. We had not seen a color photo, before, of the day mom and dad got married. In the color photo that is my dad's dad, dad's mom, mom, dad, mom's mom and mom's dad, well, step-dad, who was the only person I ever knew as grandpa.

The other dad photo, the one on the left, I think with dad in that photo is the aforementioned Uncle Mooch being the little guy in the foreground, with Uncle Ivan on the right.

The big photo which I delivered to mom has morphed into a new controversy in the last 24 hours. Apparently mom thought this was a painting of dad I brought from Washington, which has now disappeared. I have informed the photo searchers where I last saw this photo, that being the spot I returned it to after taking the composite photo you see above.

Items have a tendency, these days, at mom's, to disappear, and then reappear, at a new location, after mom reports them missing.

Or stolen....

Eventually Escaping The Trump Phoenix Debacle

What you are looking at here was my view on the world for well over an hour yesterday, stuck on the tarmac in Phoenix at Sky Harbor Airport at over 100 degrees, with the plane in stuck mode not able to keep the plane interior comfortably cool.

We were boarded and starting to move when the pilot informed us that ground control had halted all flights due to an incoming menace to the world, America's international embarrassment, Donald J. Trump.

The first pilot announcement announced that the delay would be for 30 minutes, approximately. Because the president's plane was landing and security had to secure the airport. The collective anti-Trump groan was pleasant to the ears.

A half hour later, give or take a minute or two, the pilot had a new announcement. Turns out the president's plane had just landed, the pilot saw it land, and that now we were to be stalled for 40 more minutes.

There was palpable panic onboard as victims tried to make arrangements to fix their connecting flight woes. It was pitiful to listen to. I assume this was taking place all over the plane, in addition to the lamenting I heard all around me.

I did not have a panic attack because I had almost three hours to make my connection. With that multi-hour window greatly shortened by the time I arrived at DFW.

The flight from DFW to Wichita Falls was what is known as a bumpy flight, due to passing through a thunderstorm. I left Phoenix sweltering with Trump over 100 degrees. I arrived in Wichita Falls to an outer world chilled into the low 70s, lightning striking and rain downpouring.

Getting struck by chilly rain was quite pleasant last night. I did not get horizontal til well past midnight, with my alarm set to wake me at 6am. However, soon upon getting vertical I got a text message postponing a meeting this morning back in DFW. I could have slept in this morning, had I known.

So, this morning, rather than driving back to the Dallas zone, I think I will find  myself going through the thumbdrive of photos I have collected the past couple weeks.

On another Dallas note. Last night I wondered how bad it bugs Fort Worthers when they land at DFW and hear the pilot welcoming them to Dallas. Or mentioning the impending arrival in Dallas, multiple times.

I see a bike ride in my immediate future today, weather permitting...

In Arizona Watching The Solar Eclipse With David, Theo & Ruby

Soon after the most stupendous American moon related event of the year I received photo documentation of five Tacoma eclipse viewers viewing the eclipse of the sun behind eye doctor approved viewing glasses.

Forming a triangle around their parental units we see my nephew David on the left, niece Ruby at the bottom, with nephew Theo on the right.

The nephew/niece triangle trio opined that the eclipse was extremely cool from their Washington viewing location.

Meanwhile in Arizona I watched the eclipse with grandma Daisy, on the TV. It was riveting television viewing. When the eclipse reached our Arizona location me and grandma Daisy did not make note of any dimming of the sun. Other Arizona sun observers did indicate they did notice some dimming.

I am currently at David, Theo and Ruby's Aunt Jackie's where the Arizona Diamondbacks are once again playing baseball.

Tomorrow I leave Arizona, making my way east from the sublime to the ridiculous. I am sort of looking forward to a bit less of the sublime and a bit more ridiculousness...

Driving Miss Daisy Searching For Jeremy While Navigating Around South Mountain

Yesterday began soon after dawn with the Miss Daisy Uber Taxi Service delivering my favorite brother-in-law, Jack, to Dobson's Ranch, site of a housing development of one of America's notorious criminals, last name Keating.

Jack was not in Dobson's Ranch for any nefarious criminal activity, but instead to make his ride connection to Prescott, site of a Pickle Ball Tournament, where he is paired with his first wife, whilst staying in a replica of the Bates Motel.

A few hours later Miss Daisy had her driver drive her to Tempe, to find her grandson Jeremy, to visit his jungle backyard which serves as a sort of Arizona Noah's Ark. We failed in our quest to find Jeremy's jungle.

Failing the Jeremy finding quest Miss Daisy directed her driver to drive to South Mountain. Eventually we made it high above Phoenix where I used my phone to take one of those rare, for me, selfie photos.

Another view of the same selfie scene, but without me in the view. South Mountain Park is the largest city park in any city in America. The drive up and down the mountain is a fun roller coaster of ups and downs and twists and turns.

South Mountain is home to a forest of saguaro cactus of various sizes and shapes. I dodged scorpions and rattlesnakes to get the cactus selfie closeup you see here.

When we left South Mountain Miss Daisy directed me to head west, rather than east. West heads away from civilization. Soon we were in an agricultural zone growing cotton and other such stuff, with irrigation ditches flowing a lot of water on both sides of the road.

Even though Miss Daisy directed me to go west, soon Miss Daisy decided maybe we should have gone the other direction. I opted to continue west, countermanding Miss Daisy's directions.

Eventually we came to a highway which headed south. Around South Mountain. This seemed a logical direction to go. A few miles later we entered the Gila River Indian Reservation and passed a casino.

Soon after passing the casino Miss Daisy announced we were on Riggs Road.

Riggs Road is the road which leads back to Miss Daisy's home location in Sun Lakes. Riggs Road runs east and west, not south and north. I informed Miss Daisy of this fact.

A few miles later Miss Daisy announced that she was now certain we were on Riggs Road. I tried to gently tell Miss Daisy that this was impossible, that the road sign says we are on Beltline Road.

A few miles later the mile marker said 2.0, which indicated we were 2 miles from some sort of junction or road change.

Imagine my shock as Beltline Road took a bend to the east and when we hit mile marker 0.0 the road name changed from Beltline to Riggs.

There are some who insist Miss Daisy has serious memory lapses. I have notice such lapses myself. And then I have an incident like this knowing we were on Riggs Road thing and I get confused as to how bad mom's, I mean, Miss Daisy's, memory actually is.

Oh, a few hours later we found Jeremy. He showed up at grandma's to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks lose again. Neither Jeremy or I have seen the Diamondbacks win. We are watching those D-Backs likely lose again tonight. Miss Daisy is slow cooking one of her recovered pot roasts...

Palm Tree Trimming With Sun Lakes Lady Fun Floaters & Mom's Curfew

Ever since I have been in Arizona, for what seems like a month, but has only been three full days, mom has been tasking me with all sorts of tasks I am not used to being tasked with.

Such as this morning I was tasked with helping mom crack a strong box so we could see what my dad had locked strongly in the box, accessible only via a key hidden where key seekers could not find the key which they might be looking for to gain access to the locked strong box.

Once we succeeded in cracking the strong box we found nothing too surprising. Well, there were the two two dollar bills my dad had secreted in his wallet. And I found a document or two I told mom to set aside because I thought David, Theo and Ruby's mom might want to have them for framing purposes. Such as the document which mustered dad out of the service way back in the early 1950s.

Yesterday mom tasked me with using dad's chainsaw to trim the fronds from the palm trees. It was a bit tricky figuring out how to shimmy my way up the tree's trunk, with the chainsaw dangling from my belt. Eventually I figured it out.

The palm tree trimming photo documentation you see above is not actually me in the tree doing the trimming on that particular palm tree. That is a tree trimmer I saw whilst in the pool this morning with what remains of the Sun Lakes Lady Fun Floaters.

Only Beverly currently remains from last June's Sun Lakes Lady Fun Floaters. The Queen of the Floaters, Jacqui, is currently up north, in Washington, enjoying the natural air conditioning. Beverly did not know the location of the other Fun Floaters, including Ann and Phyllis, who have been mysteriously missing for weeks.

Today mom gave me permission to only be gone for two hours. Yesterday apparently I created a panic by being gone for over three hours. And not answering my phone. I do not seem able to get mom to understand I seldom answer my phone. Or I don't realize the phone has been summoning me, which was the case yesterday when mom made her worried call.

I am enjoying the relatively chilly Arizona temperatures, barely in the low 100s. Last June when I was in Arizona it was actually HOT, as compared to now, with the temperature at that point in time going over the 120 mark multiple times. We are currently chilling into the 80s over night, which is making the pool cool. I don't know when it gets cold enough to kick in the solar heaters...

Sad Washington Departure Leaving David, Theo & Ruby Behind After Blackberry Milkshakes

My week in Washington began with a boisterous arrival greeting from nephews David and Theo and niece Ruby.

On Tuesday my week in Washington ended with a somber departure from David, Theo and Ruby.

Especially Theo, who you see in front of me.

If there are a cuter trio of kids on the planet, I would like to meet them.

Eventually I will return to Texas with a thumbdrive bursting with material from Washington, material in the form of photos. Along with material consisting of my impression of what I was seeing when I was in Washington.

I will likely wait til I am back in Texas with a computer connection to the world, with which I am more familiar, before I blog that aforementioned material.

Suffice to say, though the reason to be there was a sad one, I had the best week I have had in a long long time, this time, in Washington.

On Tuesday, on the way to the airport, David, Theo and Ruby took me to Tacoma's Theo Foss Waterway. An area I will later photo document and refer to as the Tacoma Waterfront Vision (a vision which you can actually see, with no weeds or rusted re-bar or polluted water or drunken inner tubers) unlike another town's vision, which few sane people are seeing. Tacoma's real vision has an actual real signature bridge, built over actual real water. What a concept.

But, I digress.

Back to my last day in Washington.

After we left Tacoma we stopped in Fife at the Pick Quick Burgers Drive-In for burgers and blackberry milkshakes, and views of Mount Rainier.

With the sky finally clear of smoke the Mountain came out spectacularly on my last day in Washington, including a direct overhead view as my flight to Phoenix routed over the Rainier summit. I will save the full mountain view for later. Suffice to say, for the first time ever, I saw the Mount Rainier summit, and could make out markings of some sort at the summit, which you can sort of see below.

I arrived in Phoenix with a thud.

Literally. To use my nephew David's favorite word.

The plane landed with a jolt worthy of a theme park ride. A few people screamed. I was not one of the screamers. But the lady from Terlingua, next to me, was.

I was surprised as I exited the Sky Harbor security zone to suddenly see my mom and sister Jackie, sitting, waiting for me. Mom had walked her walker in from the parking lot, a couple elevator levels below or above. I'm not sure. I was sort of too tired to pay directional attention.

Wednesday morning I went swimming with what remains of the Sun Lakes Ladies Swimming Club. Most have let Arizona, temporarily, for cooler climes. Yesterday, post swim, I drove mom and Jackie to Maricopa to see Penny and to have ourselves a McDonald's feeding.

Today mom and I boxed up a lot of dad's stuff and took it to Goodwill. Then we went on a long drive to Coolidge, a town right next to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. We did not go see the ruins. I've heard there is not a lot to see. That they are sort of ruined. Which would seem to me what one would want ruins to be.

Eventually we made it back to Sun Lakes, where I left mom, to go to my current location, my sister Jackie's house, which I have all to myself, because Jackie is up north, in Prescott, playing in a Pickle Ball Tournament. Tomorrow mom and I return to my current location, that being sister Jackie's, at six in the morning, to chauffeur Jackie's first husband, Jack, to Dodson Ranch, so he can pick up a ride to Prescott, where he Pickle Balls tomorrow.

I am enjoying Arizona. But this is not the scenic wonderland of natural air conditioning, large bodies of water, and towering mountains, which is the reality in Washington.

Mom and I are making BBQ Ribs tonight. I have never seen three freezers so stocked with frozen stuff as what currently exists at my mom's abode....

Ruby Slotemaker Finds Road With Her Name On It

I think I may have mentioned I might not get back to a computer for about a week. But then whilst going through photos taken the past several days I came upon this one which quickly became my favorite.

And thus felt like sharing.

Slotemakers and a Jones or two from across the country were in Lynden Saturday August 12, converging at one in the afternoon at Lynden's Monumenta Cemetery.

Prior to one in the afternoon my little brother, Jake and I left Birch Bay and headed to Lynden to check out a thing or two or three, like our grandma's houses, and the old Slotemaker farm and Slotemaker Road.

I sort of thought I knew the way to Slotemaker Road. My little brother was more confident than I that he knew the way. And so we headed south across the Nooksack River.

And then proceeded to drive many miles in a futile search for the Slotemaker Farm and its namesake road. Eventually I asked Google "Slotemaker Road Whatcom County Washington". Google proceeded to be worthless, giving me a list of Whatcom Country history links. Then I called my little brother's eldest, Jason.

Jason was of no use because his dad had gotten us so convolutedly confused Jason could not figure out how to tell us how to get to Slotemaker Road from our extremely lost location on what turned out to be the wrong side of the river.

We decided to give up on our Slotemaker Road search and proceed to the cemetery, planning to ask Uncle Mooch the way at some point in time.

Asking Uncle Mooch proved unnecessary, because after we left the cemetery to head for Aunt Judy's Ruby consulted something called Siri on her iphone, with Siri telling Ruby how to direct her vehicle to Slotemaker Road.

Meanwhile my little brother and I had trouble finding Aunt Judy's after we left the cemetery. We mistakenly thought we were following someone who was also going to Aunt Judy's. We once again called Jason to ask if he knew the way to Aunt Judy's. Jason sort of patiently told me Aunt Judy clearly gave us all directions. But your dad and I were not listening, was my excuse to Jason. Jason then walked us through how to get to Aunt Judy's. Eventually we saw Jason holding his phone in front of Aunt Judy's.

A few minutes later I found myself talking to a relative who told me she first met me when I was two months old. That lead to me calling mom after which a group conversation ensued, having mom in virtual attendance.

And then Ruby triumphantly arrived, freshly returned from finding Slotemaker Road.

A couple hours later we left Aunt Judy's and followed Ruby the what turned out to be short distance to Slotemaker Road.

On the north side of the Nooksack River.

Which is how the above photo was taken of me trying to help Ruby continue the family tradition of purloining Slotemaker Road signs for display in our various home locations....