Month: April 2015

Tiptoeing Through The Tulips

Panarama

About a 40 minute drive north of Granite Falls is a place in Washington state that resembles Holland in climate and soil, and at this time of year, in flowers. And like this time of year in Augusta, Georgia where the “Golf Traffic” signs appear along the Interstate, in the Skagit Valley, “Tulip Route” signs are added to the exit signs of I-5. Just like a visit to the Masters, a visit to the tulip farms are best accomplished on a weekday and early. When we arrived at RozenGaarde Farm we were there with few other people, but when left around lunch the parking lot was filling rapidly and cars were now waiting to get in.

Hunting Eggs

Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday Donna went to Easter service with Scott and family while I hung out at the cabin. After the service there was an Easter egg hunt, making that 3 egg hunts in 24 hours for the kids. On Saturday to go along with the one Donna’s brother’s family puts on for a few of the neighborhood kids, there was the one held at the local IGA.

That’s right, the only grocery store in the town of Granite Falls, hides hundred of plastic eggs filled with candy on the floor and in the bottom couple of shelves, then turns lose about 75 scrambling kids from 2 to 12 years old looking for them. Each kid is also given a special egg with a number in it so at the end they each get a separate special prize ranging from bubbles to plastic toys to chocolate bunnies.

Because the event starts at 10:00 AM on a Saturday there are invariably 1 or 2 people who end up doing their weekly grocery shopping during this small riot of kids & parents and just shrug it off. Ahh, small town life.

Today was a rainy and cool day, so we hung around the cabin while the Morrisons did their own thing. We did go over for supper where we made plans to go tulip hunting tomorrow.

Lost Without GPS

Lake Bosworth

This is the view off the back deck of our home for the next week, Lake Bosworth with Mt. Pilachuck in the background.

Well, it wouldn’t be a complete trip for us unless we left something behind. Something somewhat essential, but realizing its absence at a point to far away from home to warrant turning around for. Partway to Atlanta we realized that the car GPS was not in the car we were in. It was home in the trunk of the Miata.

This way wasn’t too a big problem, we had a paper map of the state, plus the DeLorme map book and we could find our way to Scott’s in Granite Falls, but finding our cabin on the lake might be an issue. We did have the hand held GPS which we brought along in case we go hiking where there might be geocaches. I could plug the coords into that and use its turn by turn feature, but the screen is postage stamp sized compared to the car GPS.

We decided that if we could get an add-on GPS for the rental car for about $5 a day we would do it. We are members of the Emerald Club at National, so normally we just grab a car and go, but this time we stopped at the counter. I asked the lady how much and her answer was $16.95 a day! Yikes, you could buy a new one for that after 6 days. Donna asked if there was a weekly rate. That was sixty bucks, which was almost tempting. Then the counter agent remembered our Emerald Club membership and commenced to clicking to see what the Emerson discount might be. For us it would be $50 or a bit over seven dollars a day for rental period, so we took it.

Good thing too, because the hand held GPS wouldn’t have been any help, turns out all I loaded was the southeast US topo maps not the whole USA like I thought. Which is sort of almost like what I did our last trip out here.

Full Moon Flush

Full Moon Flight

Shortly after takeoff from Atlanta, Donna noticed the full moon out her window hovering just off the wing tip, so I thought I’d get a picture. About the time I got the camera out from under seat in front of me and leaned over her to take some pictures the plane started its turn to the west. Just managed to get one with the wing and moon1 in the same frame.

About 30 minutes into the flight the Captain made an announcement from the cockpit they were having toilet troubles, seems like only a couple of them would actually flush. He literally told us to hold for a bit while they tried a couple things to fix it. If those failed we were going have to land shy of our destination to get another plane. A few minutes later he came back on and apologized for the inconvenience, but good news, they all seemed to be working now.

The rest of the flight was uneventful and we finally arrived at our hotel near the airport at about 11:30 PM Seattle time, but for our bodies it was really 2:30 AM Saturday. We got checked into a room and before we even got settled in we had go back down to the lobby to get a different room, the reason – the toilet wouldn’t flush…

1I wonder if the Man in the Moon knows he’ll be passing through the earth’s shadow tomorrow morning? We won’t notice, it’ll be too cloudy here to see it.

Draughtlander Is Finally Over

Six long months ago Starz showed the 8th episode (of 16) of the first season of Outlander. They left it at at cliffhanger, our time traveling nurse Claire was being held captive by the aptly nicknamed Captain “Black Jack” Randall the great-great-great-granfather of her 20th century husband. Just as Black Jack was about to have his way with her, in through the window bursts her 18th century husband Jamie – fade out. Now, it was only technically a cliffhanger for folks who have not read the book, for some of us it was like we were sailing around the world solo and we dropped our only copy of the book overboard. We know what happens next and would have to wait till we get to the next English speaking port to find another copy.

If you can’t wait until Saturday at 9:00 PM, here is the first 3-1/2 minutes of Episode 9:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4LOmMA-xWQ

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1474

Who Is The Fool Now?

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always had a fear of monsters under my bed at night.

So I went to a psychiatrist and told him: “I’ve got problems. Every time I go to bed I think there’s something under it. I’m scared. I think I’m going crazy.”

“Just put yourself in my hands for one year, said the shrink. Come talk to me three times a week and we should be able to get rid of those fears.”

“How much do you charge?”

“Hundred seventy-five dollars per visit,” replied the doctor.

“I’ll sleep on it,” I said.

Six months later the doctor met me on the street. “Why didn’t you come to see me about those fears you were having?” He asked.

“Well, at $175 a visit, three times a week for a year, is $27,300.00. A bartender cured me for $10.00. I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought me a new Miata.”

“Is that so?” With a bit of an attitude he said, “and how, may I ask, did a bartender cure you?”

“He told me to cut the legs off the bed. Ain’t nothing under there now.”