WHEN TIME STOOD STILL
I feel like we are all in a science-fiction movie (title above). You know, one like The Omega Man. This movie was an adaptation of the book "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, and it starred Charleton Heston as one of the last persons on earth after a plague. Anyway, it is one of those apocalyptic films showing how things would be after almost everyone on the planet is wiped out. We are nowhere near that point now (and hopefully won't be), but it makes you feel a bit like that when you don't get to see any other human beings for weeks on end (except for Linda, of course). On April 13th, I am coming up on one solid month of not being out in public. Having been retired for a few years now, I am somewhat used to not being out and about very much, although I did get to go grocery shopping every week, and we did go out for a coffee date every now and then, and to run errands. My honey, being a much more social person than I am, is about to go stir crazy. I am sure a lot of you can identify with that. But what we are all collectively doing right now is all that we can do, and it seems like it might work.
So hang in there, everyone. Take a socially-distant walk if you can, just to clear your mind and get away from all the bad news that comes screaming at us off of our screens. Read, work a puzzle, write a diary, draw silly pictures, play with your pets, get out in the garden (if the weather is nice enough), wash your vehicle, do whatever comes to mind, just keep yourself positively occupied.
We have had some really nice daytime temperatures this week, with it getting up to 73 degrees just yesterday. Flowers are starting to pop up everywhere. The birds are chasing each other in the trees, looking to pair up for mating season. The one thing I am most happy about this time of year is all the color that reappears in the landscape. This past winter was especially drab because we only had one snow that lasted any period of time, so most of the winter was brown, brown, brown. Now when I see a nice colorful scene, I try to grab my camera and get a shot.
Linda and I still try most days to go on a long walk. Sometimes we skip it on house-cleaning day, and I usually don't go on my blog-writing day. But other than that, we have been keeping up with it pretty well. My favorite place to walk during this time is the cemetery. We usually don't see anyone else there, but if we do we have plenty of space to give them a very wide berth. On a recent walk at Tahoma Cemetery, we saw some of our Canada Geese friends. One guy was asserting himself from atop a gravestone. Perhaps he was singing an aria in Canada Geese language for the female on the ground.
We made a wide circle around the cemetery and wound up on one side where we don't usually walk, where we came upon an interesting sight. A goose was perched up in the crook of a large tree. We slowed walked closer and closer to see what was going on. I didn't want to get too close because I didn't want to spook the goose (that sounds like some new kind of game). She (I'm arbitrarily calling it a "she") started getting a little antsy so I decided to stop filming and continue our walk. Still, we wondered what she was doing up there.
When we got to the other side of the tree, I turned around to see if she was still there and was surprised to see this...
There were actually two of them up there. I'm not sure if geese nest in crooks of trees like that, but just in case that was their intention, we left them alone and continued our walk.
A NOXIOUS WEED
Back at home after our walk at the cemetery one day, I took off my tennis shoes and found no less than six Goatheads (link here) imbedded in the bottom of my shoes. I must have walked through a big patch of them. I had never heard of such a thing until we moved to Yakima. Back in North Carolina we had sandspurs all over the place, especially down at the beach, and I stepped on many of them when I was younger and would go barefoot a lot. Ouch! So I knew a little about that sort of thing. My first encounter with a goathead came not too long after we had moved here. I went to ride my bicycle and discovered I had a flat tire. I took my bike to the shop and the repair guy fixed it, and handed me a little thing that looked like this picture below.
That, my friends, is a goathead. Now, can you imagine stepping on that thing (or six of them)? Yikes! They are about the same size as sandspurs, but the spike is thicker and when dry they are very hard. An alternate name for this weed is Puncturevine, which is very apt. Despite trying to ride my bicycle only on the street, I've had two flat tires on my bike so far from goatheads. You know they are hard if they can puncture a bicycle tire. I am so glad we didn't have these things back in North Carolina. And as if their puncturing properties weren't enough, they are also toxic.
PUZZLE UPDATE
Last week was Linda's turn to pick a puzzle, and she picked one depicting a drawing by Charley Harper, "The Alpine Northwest". We have done this puzzle a couple of times before, but we just love illustrations by Mr. Harper, so it was a great choice. Although this puzzle is pretty hard, I do think it is a little bit easier than the Television one we just did. However, we are at that point in the puzzle that is the hardest, as evidenced by this picture below.
All of the pieces left are completely white. A puzzle with large areas of just one solid color is usually the most difficult. We tend to work on the areas that show a picture of something first, as I think the majority of puzzlers do. That leaves you with what we have now, but to me it seems like all-white pieces are harder than other colors. And all-black pieces are the hardest of all, especially when you consider we work on a table with a black top. But we will press on and hopefully finish it today or tomorrow. Here's a picture of what the finished puzzle will look like.
PARTING SHOT
Summer Girl is doing fine with our quarantining and has been tolerating our constant presence well. When she gets tired of us she just asks to be let outside, and then she quarantines herself in her own little house. However, there have been very limited photo opportunities, so today we have a guest appearance by none other than Zorro, who seems to be a big lug of a goofball.
We have yet to meet this cutie in person, but one day, when we all get turned loose to socialize again, we will rectify that situation.
That's all for this week, folks. Join me again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!
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