my river

I love my river walks, but it pisses me off that it's name it will forever be associated with Gary Ridgeway. The Green River.

new places to walk

I keep finding new places to walk. The other day I saw a couple walking down a road leading to the other side of the Black Forest park in Renton. Yesterday, after I crossed over the Ft Dent bridge, I cut under the tracks and went over to check it out. Nice walk! and it followed the train tracks for a long ways. Maybe some Google Earth satellite photos can show me where I came out at the other end.

Fooey. I wanted to draw a line showing my route, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Oh well. The Naches Ave SW road towards the top of this photo is actually blocked off, and it's only for hikers/walkers. The part I walked was between where it says Monster Rde on the left, and curving up and around to where it comes out of the forest going down towards SW 7th St.

You may get a larger image by clicking on the photo.

"how about I come over to your place and I kick your butt"

from another brother, Pat R:
"28 years ago, I was passed out lying face down on the floor of a dingy apartment I was living in in Ballard. The phone started ringing. I came to and picked up the phone. It was Dad.  He asked me if I was going to the AA meeting we had talked about the night before.  I had no idea what he was talking about. He said I agreed to to go an AA meeting with him.  In my blackout the night before I had no memory of the conversation. I told him the same thing I had been telling myself for years.  I said, 'Dad I am not going to drink or take drugs anymore because I've had enough and I can't stand it any longer but I am not going to any dammed AA meeting.' I had never been to an AA meeting before but I wasn't going to stoop to that level of needing help. 'I could do this on my own', I told him. Dad said, 'I'll tell you what, how about I come over to your place and kick your butt to a meeting.'  I could tell by the tone of his voice he was serious and he would do just that.  I let him take me to a meeting that day.  After the meeting, I remember looking at Dad and saying, 'Those people are just like me.'  It has been almost 28 years now and I have not taken a drink or used drugs in all these years."

Vise grip

from my brother, John R.(I chose to sign this John R. because I didn't want to write the whole name for some reason, and 'my brother John' sounded like he was a Monk or something)

Vise grip
"I remember Dad taking me to see Uncle Bill G in the home he was in those last days. It was wierd because 1) I'd really never been in a place like that before and 2) Dad was going to be in that state in awhile. Uncle Bill was lying in the bed and looking like he was on his last days for sure. Dad was talking to him, and it looked like he was aware of Dad being there, and maybe he understood him...not sure. Then Dad introduced me to him. I told him it was nice to see him and I told him my one memory of him was his vise like hand shake...he kinda looked up at me...held his hand out, and I shook it...and wow, what a vise! I blurted out 'you're still there huh?' I swear he had a small smile on his face, looking me right in the eye.
Uncle Bill died the next day."

meandering thoughts, while walking

Walking in the rain this morning... When it's have-to-use-the-umbrella weather, I actually get more exercise. No stopping to take photos. I was tempted to pull out the camera a few times, when I saw these large raindrops on bare tree branches and such. My kind of images. Closeups!  But with the pouring rain, holding the umbrella, etc, no way.
Tri-focals! I knew the day would come, and it has been a little easier since I've been wearing bi-focals for quite awhile anyway. But it's still a challenge. I've been juggling three different pairs of glasses for several years, and that routine got very old! I liked what happened yesterday when I was reading in the front room, and Inday had a basketball game on. Something exciting happened, and when I looked up from my Kindle, the TV was in perfect focus! Yeah me!

not very scholarly

I got an A- in Asian Art History. The Professor arranged for four Chinese scroll paintings to be put on display at the UW Burke Museum, and our Final was to study the scrolls and write a paper. He wrote on my paper "not very scholarly, but you've got a good eye!"

gauguin again

I really did enjoy the Gauguin show. One of my favorite painters is the Norwegian Edvard Munch, and Gauguin's canvasses remind me of Munch's work. Not very 'painterly' in some ways, but I feel both painters are good examples of Expressionism. The colors underlying colors with Gauguin make me wish I could see a Munch original right now. That's reminds me...a friend and me were sitting in a cafe across the street from the Munch Museum in Oslo, waiting for our bus, and drinking some beers. We saw our bus go by. Oh well. Me being a lightweight drinker, my friend held up his forefinger to order one more beer. The waitress brought two more, so I drank another beer. We missed the next bus also, and my friend ordered another beer. TWO more beers...and on it went. The thumb counts as one and the forefinger in Europe makes two... Oh well...

Hey you! Individual!

That's what the Drill Sergeant yelled when he saw a young recruit doing his jumping jacks out of synch with the rest of the group. Made me smile...
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Thinking about "individuals", I saw the Gauguin show at the SAM with Bob and Mike yesterday. From my FB entry just now: "Thank you Bob and Mike...the Gauguin show was super! The colors in his paintings were amazing, and I was surprised by the detail in his woodcuts. I didn't realize how much he had worked in wood. I like how he incorporated Polynesian motifs into pieces like his paintbox. I enjoyed the show so much that I decided to renew my SAM membership, which had expired. They gave me credit for the day's admission...yeah me!"

sierra gold and cream

56 Chevrolet Belair, 2-door hardtop, sierra gold and cream...
Living in "the Projects", waking up in the morning and looking out the window.
Gone. Repossessed. Hard for a 14 year old boy...

quiet time

I love this quiet time of mine, these early morning hours when I have my just-right cup(s) of coffee, check my favorite websites, watch the cats napping, look at the fireplace, read the paper, and look for the changing light outside for nice sunrises, anticipating my walk...Early Sunday mornings are my favorite because of the silence, even when they are drizzly and gray like today. It's different from a hike in the forest, but still peaceful. The distant sound of some planes landing at Seatac, very few cars, some geese? honking as they fly overhead, ducks landing in the river water, a breeze...

living room

One of my favorite morning walks is the Black Forest/Springbrook Trail in Renton. The Black Forest trail skirts a small lake and marshy area before merging with the blacktop covered Springbrook Trail, and that trail follows a small creek south towards Grady Way. A very pleasant walk, with lots of water fowl, a lot of green... More often than not though, I end up doing a u-turn when I get close to one particular road underpass. A homeless guy sleeps there at night I think, and I usually decide to make a detour. Not because I feel threatened or anything, but because I feel like I'm walking through his living room...

Pasayten Wilderness

We were hiking along a stony ridge on the Pacific Crest Trail in the Pasayten Wilderness area. The fog was so dense and the hill so steep that we could see the tops of fir trees poking out of the fog bank/clouds out to our left as we walked along. Quiet, no conversation, just walking. There were small birds, dark in color, swooping in and out of the white mist in front of us, appearing and disappearing like magic...