A River Runs Through It

I had lunch with a friend yesterday. She's a fellow blogger who is just getting started putting those things that roll around in her mind down onto the keyboard. I mentioned that I felt like I have run out of things to write about. My statement about myself really bugged me all afternoon. If my friend reads this, I know she'll totally get it. We are kindred spirits in many ways.

So I went back into my photos and found this pic from May 2009, our first summer here. I think I shot this on our first long motorcycle ride to Bickleton. We were heading home and stopped to stretch our legs.

The funny thing about the photos I take is that I have this amazing memory for all the "conditions" surrounding it. This particular day was warm and breezy. I remember looking down the gorge at the Columbia River and thinking, "Now, THIS is a river!!!"  Having moved here from Yuma, Arizona, where the not-so-mighty Colorado River trickles through town and should really be called a creek, I was glad to get to see the enormousness of this place. We actually have three rivers running through the Tri-Cities. The Yakima and Snake rivers are just as beautiful.

I love the Tri-Cities. Winters here are mild and can get kind of long but next week is April and I survived. 

What do you love about where you live?  Do tell.

love, susan

Editing Photos

I'm really happy with the way this photo finished up. It was taken at sunset recently.

I don't have any fancy equipment. As a matter of fact,  I have a point & shoot that's almost 3 years old.

I don't have Photoshop.  I opted for a free program called Photoscape I downloaded which I learned about from my friends in the digital photo club.  For what I'm doing, it works just fine.

For instance, take a look at this photo below before I edited it. It's enough to make a person dizzy.

I

I'm not sure why my hand was tilted all funky. Perhaps the fact that this swan lunged at me just a moment earlier was enough to make me just wanna snap and get the heck out of there.

I haven't been out taking photos much this spring. It's been colder than usual but things are looking up.  One of the things I have learned from the photo club membership is to never delete a photo that might be fixable. I delete quite a few but if I think I might have some time later to go back do some editing on it, I will keep it.

Happy editing!

love, susan 

 

Spring Round Up

I have the best friends ever.  This week, my very good friend left me a voice mail to let me know I have once again been invited to the spring round up at Rowdy Barry's Wild R Ranch. This news just puts me over-the-top of happiness.

I wrote about my experience last year in Git Along Little Doggies.  It was one of my favorite days last year, right up there in the top 10. 

Going again this year, I will know how the whole thing works and am hoping to get a different viewpoint from my camera. The entire day was sort of surreal for me and I'm sure I missed more than a few Kodak moments because I was in such awe of what was happening. Branding and castrating ~ not something you see every day.

I plan to be much closer to the vantage point than I was here in this photo to the left. I had no idea what to expect when those cows came around the corner of the canyon so I stayed up high above the cow trail. I thought it would be like in the movies .... angry cows rushing to get nowhere. However, by the time the cowboys and cowgirls got these cows over the hill, they were exhausted. I can relate to that.  That's how I feel after grazing all winter.

I hope to be a little more social this year. I'm a city girl and it shows. Maybe I'll even find a nice cowgirl hat to wear for the occasion.  I'm definitely gonna wear my blingy rhinestone heart earrings. Cowgirl up!!!

My cowboy will probably be riding his steel horse elsewhere while I attend. He was a good sport about going last year but he doesn't have the camera bug quite like I do. He says if it's a good riding day, he's rolling down another trail.

I love having events to look forward to and this one is a big one for me! This round-up is real American tradition  and I am so honored I get to witness and photograph it once again.  

love, susan

University of Idaho - Moscow, Idaho

I love beautiful university campuses. 

We visited the University of Idaho in Moscow today quite by accident. Got up early to take a good friend to the airport in Spokane and decided to take the long way home.

This campus is impeccable. Although it was raining today, the clouds were such that there was a lot of bright light and I ventured out into the weather to get a closer look at this gorgeous building. Don't you think this walkway is inviting?

We stepped into this administration building and found students holding a "conclave" (whatever that is .... guess I should have gone to college after-all) and they had dozens of photos out on display. They kindly invited us to come in and take a look and we gladly went inside the building so we could see it and get warmed up. That Idaho rain chills me to the bone.

I'm sure Gene was more interested in the architecture because when I mentioned how awesome the photos were, he said "what photos"? We didn't stay long but I can tell you it's worth a drive-by Moscow to see the campus if you are in the area. It's just a block off the main street.

 On the way back to the car, Gene spotted this building with the clock.  I love the old buildings in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. It feels like a real step back in time when we pass through these old areas. 

We can check Moscow off our list of cities we've never been to.  I hope we can travel there again on the motorcycles as the highway landscape was really nice.

love, susan

 

 

Fill In The Blanks

The day flew by. I called my dad on my lunch break and wished him a happy 80th birthday.  Late in the afternoon I realized that my days fly by, then it's a week, a month and then the years fly by.  I wondered if my dad was thinking the same thing as he was celebrating his birthday with his family in Arizona.  No doubt.

It's been an emotional couple of days for me. I tried to sit down last week to write a birthday card to my dad but ended up in a puddle of tears. It's times like these it becomes painfully clear that now, right now, is the time of my life. Not when I have enough money, or enough vacation time or the right clothes to wear or ... you fill in the blank. I have to admit that although I was thinking of my dad's life, I was also thinking about my own.

In the 7 years we lived in Arizona, the one thing I heard over and over from seniors who were much older than us was "go do it now". If you wait too long, you might have a health issue or (fill in the blank) issue that prevents you from doing the things you really want to do. 

I think I'll take that advice.

How about you?  Is there something you want to do or see, or someplace you want to go but you think you have to wait until (fill in the blank) to do it?

love, susan

My Top 10 Pet Peeves

SuddenlySusan's 10 11 Pet Peeves 

• Parks charging $5 day fees
• Outdated messages on signs
• People being rude to young workers
• Leaving cupboard doors open in the kitchen
• Wastefulness
• When my credit card doesn't work at the gas station
• Poor customer service
• Parents belittling their children
• Junk mail
• Solicitors 
• Text language

First, I don't intend to turn this into a negative blog post. I've got pet peeves just like everyone else. It's March 1st, it's cold outside and I'm running late. I've had this post in the wings so today's the day I'm using it. Maybe one of your pet peeves is reading other people's pet peeves. LOL (Laugh out loud!)   Oh, that's another pet peeve of mine ... text language. I'm trying to get with the times but it's hard.

Okay. So, if I had to pick my top pet peeve it would be ..... well, it's hard to choose. But I think the one that burns my butt the most is when we go motorcycling and try to fill up our bikes and the credit cards won't work. Shell stations are the WORST for this. I understand the computer thinks maybe it's a stolen card when we have to fill up 6 times in one day, but that's how it is. My husband's bike takes a different test of gas than mine does so we're both using the same card literally 6 times a day sometimes. Solution (cuz that's what I'm about): someone suggested I get one of those pre-paid credit cards. What an awesome idea! I'm going to try it this summer.

Uh oh, I'm on a roll now.  Park Fees! Really?  So, you're telling me a nice family living on an extreme budget has to pay $5 to park their car so they can take their family for a picnic at the park.? Or, pay $5 so we can stop and use a restroom out in the middle of nowhere. Or, stop to take a picture?  Solution: roll on by those parks that charge day fees.

Solicitors: I put a tacky, bright pink sign on my door.  Problem solved.

What's your biggest pet peeves? Come on, I know you have some. Give 'em up!

love, susan

Good Riddance February

Remember Summer? The warm air, blue skies, and endless days on the road? Me either.

If it wasn't leap year, today would be March.

Just sayin'.

Canadians and Gravy

I'm dedicating this blog post to my favorite Canadian. I never name names but you know who you are. 

Thanks to my Canadian friend, I spent this afternoon thinking about the gravy and french fries of my youth. Canadians have a name for this dish, Poutine.   I can live without the cheese curd our Canadian friends add to the dish but gimme steaming hot brown gravy on french fries and I'll stand on my head for you.

I can picture the diner where we hung out when I was a teenager, growing up in Haines, Alaska. We were not rich people but I usually made enough money at babysitting jobs and the theater to sit at a table and enjoy fries with gravy once or twice a week with my friends after school. There's something about the gravy soaking into the fries that makes them better than just about anything in the world. 

Along with a plate of fries & gravy, I loved a big icy cold Coca Cola. You need that when you're consuming a week's worth of salt on one plate.   Salt and sugar, I love you.

As much as I love fries & gravy, I love my Americanized Canadian friend. Whenever she takes a trip to her hometown, she always brings back Canadian chocolates and toffee for me. I forget she is Canadian until she emails me and tells me the only thing she wants to eat after a root canal is a bowl of gravy.  I get her.

So, sitting at my desk today, I was remembering all the way back to high school as if it were yesterday. I don't know how it is possible that memories lay dormant for so long but most of mine are welcomed when they show up. 

Thank you, my lovely Canadian/American friend, for jogging my noggin' regarding a precious time in my life that seems not so long ago. Have some french fries, eh?

love, susan

Mañana

I love playing "beat the clock".  Just had this conversation with the husband last night.  I drive him crazy.

He doesn't quite understand why I can't be ready for anything 10 minutes sooner than what I am. Can anybody relate to this?

Getting out the door to work in the morning is not all that much fun for either of us. He asked me why I can't just be ready earlier.

How do I explain it?

I'm just hanging on to the last few minutes of my time. When I walk out the door to go to work, my time belongs to somebody else.

I woke up feeling like my animals this morning. The alarm sounded and I slapped it out of its misery and slept another hour. It's 5:30 a.m. and I gotta start the countdown to departure time. My plan to try his plan (do everything 10 minutes earlier) is not working this morning.  I'll think about that mañana.

Here I go!!!!

love, susan  

Flowers and Ice

I shot this photo last July when we were near Detroit Lake, Oregon. I always love seeing the opposites in things. I laughed when I saw the "ice" sign behind the flowers, trying to imagine how such a beautiful, warm place could get cold enough for ice. I also knew this picture would come in handy for a blog post one day.

I have little clumps of deep green stems poking up in front of my house. When I mention it to my friends they ask me if I have crocus.  Truth is, I'm not sure.  I can't remember what flowers I have.  I only know that seeing life spring up this time of year makes me very happy and I always send a little "thank you" up in the air to whoever planted those perennial flowers. I'll bet they have no idea how much their thoughtfulness is appreciated.  As the temps are not all that warm at night, I think it's a miracle that the yearlies poke their heads up already.

I know it's not officially spring yet ... but it's real  close! 

love, susan

Weather You Like It or Not

According to the weather station out where I work, the temp is supposed to rise to 65 degrees today. It's hard to imagine because we woke up to snow falling on Monday.

There is a saying around the Tri-Cities:  If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change. 

It's no secret that my mood is often weather-dependent. I was downright giddy yesterday when I read about the rise in temperature.  But then, there was bad news following it.

 

Seems there is a cold front moving in right behind the warm weather the following day.

I'll think about that tomorrow.

Today?  I'm gonna bask in the windy, warm breeze.  Spring is right around the corner.

love, susan