Escape
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Random
Leaving Seattle was one of the better things we could have done. What fireworks we’ve been exposed to (including Wednesday evening at home) have scared Ronan pretty bad. We walked on the beach today, low tide at -3. We walked on fields of kelp and seaweed, poking sea cucumbers, checking out hermit crabs, and seeing a thousand starfish. Ronan loved it of course.
I crashed out hard for an hour after lunch. A bit of sun and some hard beach walking will tire me out these days. Good exercise for my knee though.
We’re making strawberry ice cream for dinner tonight. I think we’re making some jam tomorrow for me to take home. Nom!
Busing to Whidbey
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Random
We originally found a route with 5 buses, taking 4 hours up to the ferry terminal. Resigned, we decided to make an adventure of it. We took the 10 downtown and when we went to check the time for our 2nd bus, found a different bus that would take the place of 2 bus routes instead. It shaved 90 minutes off our commute.
The problem with busing is that we have a dog. Dogs are not allowed on Sound Transit and are not allowed on Community Transit’s commuter routes (as in from Seattle to Mukilteo). So we had to bus a confabulated way up to to Mukilteo. Lucky for us, we realized when we arrived that the wait time for the ferry was 3 hours, but by bus, we could walk right on without waiting. HAHAHA SUCKERS. So in the end, busing for 2 1/2 hours saved us at least an hour of ferry wait time. Go figure. It should be the same story on the way home Sunday.
We introduced Ronan to the invisible fence today. I accidentally exposed him to the collar shock before I was ready and now Ronan doesn’t trust me. He’ll probably forget by tomorrow and learn the boundaries, but for now, he’s sticking close to the house and won’t walk anywhere with me. He’s likely going to spend a few weeks on the island while I am in Asia, so he has to get used to the collar.
Anyway, glad to be out of the city. We have fresh air, no traffic, no concrete plans, and I think we’re making strawberry jam in a day or two. Life is good.
Success, I think
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Random
I’m going to test it out this weekend and if I change my mind, it’s back to REI I go. I like the price, the fit was great, and I barely noticed the 20lbs I threw in the main compartment at the store. I talked to some of the staff about packs that I could use both for this trip and for back-country camping starting next summer and this one seemed to fit my needs. We’ll see.
Fierce Photographer
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Images
Heat? It’s not so bad
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Random
I heard that Seattle reached an official temp of 94 yesterday. I am glad that we came home late enough to avoid the extreme end of that. As much as I lament our north-facing apartment, it does stay nice and cool during the summer months. We set up the small fan last night to blow cool air across the bed and slept just fine. I’m chilling in the apartment (current outside temp is 80) with the lights off and it feels great.
I gave the Prius back to my mom-in-law late this morning. It was good to hang out with her for a bit. During this part of my summer break, I’ve been working on not letting myself feel so rushed all the time. I am learning to go with the flow, to get there when I get there, and to enjoy my time off. After meeting my mom-in-law, I managed to find my way home via bus without stressing about it. It’s an amazing feeling and I think more people would benefit from not focusing so much on the actual time but instead take time to relax.
My skirt came. It’s black and white, not black and pink. Maybe they screwed up? It’s still cute though.
Tonight’s dinner: cold chicken salad with cilantro, fava beans, and peas. I can’t wait.
Oregon Coast Camping Photos
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Images, Oregon
We had a blast.
Photos
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Images
This was bigger than my hand.
With the entire apartment, she chooses to sit on a bag.
Weird hot fork love.
Crap
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Knees
I was just notified by my orthopedic surgeon’s office that after July 31st, they will no longer accept Premera insurance. This means that I will have to seek a second surgeon to perform the surgery on my left knee. I am very disappointed. I trust my current surgeon and his staff and would really prefer seeing him again. *sigh* I’ll have to ask his office to refer me to a different office and ask them to pass on my charts and X-rays. This is frustrating.
Continued: Opting out
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Human Behaviour
When Heath Ledger died, I became so aware of the lengths that some people will go to in order to be the first to post it, the first to mock it, or to be the first to pass along speculation. I used to play the game, but I finally reached a point where I just couldn’t live with the guilt and yes, the shame of participating in the cesspool of gossip.
I found out about the most recent celebrity death via an email that my mother sent. She didn’t email me to gossip; she wrote to tell me about her connection with the man and how she was sad at his passing. Later, I checked LiveJournal and was not surprised at all to see so many people posting about it. The thought occurred to me though. How many people were just passing it on for the reasons I listed above, using the wide-spread fame that this celebrity had in a chance to perhaps get some attention themselves, versus how many posted because they had a lot of respect for him, his work, and his humor? I could see which side of the line that many of you stood on by the contents of your post.
This is just one example of what I saw today, and my apologies to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
badrobot68 for using part of the post to demonstrate what I am referring to: “Who posted it first on your FL? YES IT IS A CONTEST! Celebrity death is serious business.”
Is this when I start reevaluating the people that I have surrounded myself with? I have been removing people from my life and from my LiveJournal friends list for almost 3 years now based on differing world views, the feeling of no longer having a connection with someone, or due to the bad influence they may have (inadvertently) had on me. I have removed many of the previously-amusing communities from my flist, such as ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
wtf_inc and ohnotheydidnt. I am still maintainer of the community omg_too_soon but sometimes I even question why anymore.
I have passed 3 months of trying to maintain a snark-free online presence and I still believe at this point that many of the posts I see online are based purely out of a combination of habit and attention-seeking. I still have a need to try to receive as many comments as possible, I can’t deny this, but I can try to gain comments that praise my photography or from content that sparks discussion not gossip.
Does this mean that I am looking down on those who still continue to gossip from my imaginary high-and-mighty throne? No, or at least that is not my intention. During the LJ Elections, I was repeatedly told that I would have been a great asset in “the fight” (no explanation, it’s too big a can of worms to go into) if it hadn’t been for my stance on not snarking anymore. This is just an attempt to further explain why I feel that I cannot participate in this type of online behavior anymore.
Middle Fork Camping
Posted by wesaturtle | Filed under Camping, Carl and Wesa, Images, puppy
