Kingfisher Cove

It Might As Well Be November

Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago we were shriveling in 97-deg. heat?  Well, it's 34 deg. less than that now, and the rain is absolutely unrelenting.  Today we broke another record!  It's never before rained so much here on July 20th.  Ever.

I expect this in November (my least favorite month...), but July?  Frankly, during the work-week I don't care much.  But now that it's the weekend, I'm feeling cheated!  It's a soggy Harstine and I'm pouting because my Harry Potter book is being delivered to the HOUSE tomorrow and I won't be there to get it!  And I could really use it for these couple of drenching days of desperately-needed escape.

It's still the season for ice cream, though.

I'm Thankful for Cute and Furry

It's been a grueling week, and my uplifted mood about work a couple of days ago has totally gone kaput.  Too much on my plate.  Whatever deadline I'm working toward at any given moment, those involved with the other deadlines that I'm not working on are not happy with me.  Hence, there are a number of people not happy with me at any given moment.  (And for those I am working on, I just get criticism and constant demands, so no happiness there, either).  I am So. Very. Tired. of trying to please people!  It's a losing effort, that's for sure.  Oh, and then my boss has slapped an impossible deadline for getting the newsletter out in the midst of all this, so I HAD to take some time today to work on that, too.  Which really made people unhappy....  ("You're working on that instead of my proposal?") 

Can't clone myself.  Sometimes I think that's an expectation. 

Squished

I had my mammogram today, and it really wasn't too bad.  I recall that my previous one (more than a two three years ago) was really painful, but I think a lot of it has to do with the expertise of the technician.  Maybe man-woman-handling boobs all day long, day after day, makes you hate the damned things and so you get rough or tighten the clamp a leetle too much if your personality is so inclined.  Or something.  The one thing I can't figure out is why the contraption for this procedure is all flat surfaces and hard edges.  Still!  After all these years (my first mammogram was 16 years ago and nothing much has changed).  Why not curves and cups and somewhat-softness?  I'm 100% certain that if men had to undergo a similar procedure to check for testicular cancer the contraption would have comfy padding and rounding receptacles (probably even heated!) in which to place their "package" to take the picture.

Speaking of "picture", I saw the the digital result of my boobs on a screen afterward and it was strange to see.  I asked the technician if things looked normal and she was totally non-committal, which I suppose is typical, since she isn't trained or licensed or authorized to make assessments.  But after time they MUST come to recognize what's normal and what's not.  Kind of frustrating that they are so reticent.  I'll just have to wait until these pictures are compared to my previous ones and learn the results on their time.  I wish the "sicko" health industry could be as quick with results as they are snatching up your health insurance information and sending you the bill.  (And I've noticed that insurance doesn't cover nearly the cost of lab work/imaging as they used to.  Jeeze, I remember when the standard was that whatever insurance didn't cover, we were not responsible for paying the balance!  Well, and our work places covered dependents in those good ol' days, too.  Da Airplane Company still does, but it's been a hard-fought ordeal with the union - and it's a rarity).

Where is Here?

I think I've posted this before (a few years ago!) and I'm going to try to figure out a way to place it in my sidebar.  I've had a few folks wonder where in the world Harstine Island is, and I think this illustrates it pretty well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Update:  The graphic disintegrates when I try to reduce the size of it, so I don't think it'll be appearing in my sidebar -- maybe in a photo album, which I desperately need to update anyway!  Some day!]

Another Day / A Better Mood

Nothing has especially changed since yesterday's pissy post, except that work was pretty much not atrocious today.  It was very, very busy, but I was able to focus exclusively on one proposal and I made a whole BUNCH of progress.  I actually feel somewhat in control of things, at least at the moment.  (That could change in a heartbeat.  Tomorrow is Red Team Review and they could easily throw me a killer fork ball).  So, for now I feel all puffed up with accomplishment and I think I'll hang onto that feeling as time allows, thank you very much.  The technical people have been very helpful on this one and that makes all the difference.  Man!  I realize that the barometer of how I feel about my job totally relies on that.  It doesn't happen very often.  (The barometer is generally in the extreme low-pressure range, which actually equates to extreme "high pressure" in the non-atmospheric aspects of the world).

So, have you been "Simpsonized" yet?  I uploaded a picture and this was the result.  I could have chosen a background, but none of them really related to me (no Simpsonized beach scenes).  It was kind of a silly fun thing to do.  (Via Karen over at Verbatim).  The folks who create these...things...sure must have a whole lot of time on their hands. 

Grumptitude

I'm just all sorts of grumpy.  Here are some reasons.

• It's muggy.  Which means white sky with high clouds (not pretty blue) and overly warm and sticky and unpleasant and not pretty.
• At some point, either over the weekend or today at work, somebody brushed up against the back side of my car and scratched a bunch of paint off.
• There are other issues with my car:  Headlight burnt out, check-engine light on (again), and I need new tires.  Plus it's a filthy pit. 
• Sick and tired of the static on my car radio.
• (My car is totally bumming me out).
• Keep getting comment spam on my blog, so I've had to reinstate that "Captcha" feature so commenters can prove that they are human.  I apologize for that and I wish the spammers would just up and die.  Brutal, maybe, but I'm just in the mood to wish for that.
• Work is atrocious.  Two concurrent and similar transportation proposals and I'm getting things confused between them.  Constantly switching gears on a dime is not my forté.
• Plus, I'm being pressured to put out the newsletter that I'm now in charge of.  I haven't had a moment to even think about it!  (Let alone research and write articles or gather information or lay it out).
• My boss is flaking out.  Absent all the time.  Not dependable.  Dumping excess work on me and my coworker.  Going through a divorce.  Recently had a BIG boob-job and is now having some facial cosmetic surgery and botox treatments.  And she's only in her early 30s.  (However, goes tanning every single day, and has since she was 16.  Wrinkles?  Duh).
• My coworker calls me up constantly and complains about the boss.
• Finances.  What with cooking more (and buying groceries regularly -- that have skyrocketed in price) and the high cost of gas, I'm gasping for paydays to arrive.
• Issues with my lazy son.
• Feeling HOT.  While my husband wears his sweatshirt!  Probably hormones biting me in the butt.

Thank goodness for the comedy from weenie dogs and kitten.  They keep me from wanting to kick something. 

Good Kitty / Bad Kitty

From sweet sleepy sibling:

To bratty little brother:

I may be little, but I AM A CAT:

He's been stalking/chasing birds, and the towhees have been messing with him with scolding fly-overs.  He's also been "hanging out" around the birdfeeder area and JDub had to (gently) spray him with the hose.  (He hasn't been back to the bird area since!) 

Saturday Afternoon Views

Sitting out on the deck with a baby kitty curled up by my feet.  The day has become warm and muggy, and I wouldn't be surprised to see thunder showers at some point -- probably when it's time to barbecue our steaks. 

We took a beach walk earlier and each of us found a few agates.  (It was a warm and muggy walk, too).  I could be inside the trailer with the A/C, but I'm enjoying watching the birds more than I need to be cooled off.  Right this minute there's a beautiful little goldfinch in one of the feeders.  And I've been seeing flickers!  First of the summer.

Anyway, I took some pictures of our camping trailer from the beach.  I used the zoom but it gives you an idea of how slopey hilly steep our property is.  The red-barked trees are madronas and their leaves turn yellow and drop in July!  Mojo loves playing with those crispy leaves that have fallen on the deck:

I took that picture from pretty close to the level of where we want to have our house built.  And from that level, this would be pretty close to the view we would have, as well as nice and easy access to the beach:

(We'll learn on the 24th of this month through a variance hearing whether we'll be allowed to build where we want to.  I'm pretty nervous about it because it is, in essence, fighting City Hall, and we've spent an awful lot of money to do so.  Now it's in the hands of a judge who has never been here and we have to hope he has good logic and foresight and that he "got some" the night before).

So here's a picture walking up the path toward the camping trailer.  We're typically huffing and puffing by the time we get there from the beach.  You can see the bird feeders to the right (that we watch from the deck on the left):

This is interesting!  When we bought the property in the fall of 2003, this is what that exact same path looked like!  See why I hate scotch broom?  Yup, we've hacked down and burned tons of it:

 And then a front view of JDub's new lattice deck cover:

I'm At My Happy Place

Another hellish drive to Harstine last night.  From our house, it took an hour and a half to drive 25 miles.  The remaining 50 miles took another hour, which is normal.  But after this equally hellish week, that first 25 miles about did me in.  Sick, hot, hard work, petty annoyances, traffic -- they all added up to a whole bunch of bitchy.  But once we arrived and settled in on the deck with a fire and a glass of wine I could physically feel all that icky stuff drain away in a massive rush of happy.

There may come a time that we opt not to bring along Mojo, but I have to wonder. He's such a part of us (and the dogs), and he absolutely LOVES it here.  It's his opportunity to be OUTSIDE, which we don't encourage at all at home because we live on a very busy road.  He wasn't wild about the drive -- it was like he'd forgotten the last two rides down here in the last couple of weeks -- but once we arrived it was all, OH YEAH!  I TOTALLY REMEMBER!  I still worry about him, but not like before.  He's a lot bigger and he's so much more capable.  In fact last evening he found his way down to the (empty) bird bath while I was filling the feeders.  Ought to be interesting if he decides to check out that bird bath again now that it's full of water.  (I actually want him to stay clear of that bird area!)

Speaking of "mojo" -- ever since we got this kitty the Mariners are rockin'!  And we signed Ichiro to another five-year contract!  Yay!  ($90 million...pretty obscene but that's how it is I guess.  If the Mariners hadn't signed him for that, some other team would have gladly done so.  Sure wish I had a fraction of that clout with my job.  Heh).

It's a gorgeous Saturday morning here on the deck.  Absolutely perfect.  Lots of singing birds, too.

Today I'm feeling much better.  It might be the antibiotic, or maybe I'd be on the mend by now anyway?  Who knows?

Of course, this "happy place" is the best medicine of all. 

Better (sorta)

Today I wore my handkerchief-hem skirt, and Mojo is totally enamored with it.  He thinks I'm wearing the best cat toy ever.  Thankfully he hasn't succeeded in actually crawling up it, but given half a chance I think he would.  All those tails hanging down are too much like, well, tails!

Da kitty is growing fast and he continues to be just an incredibly sweet thing (when he's not being a lil' shit).  I'll pick him up and hold him belly-up with the back of his head resting in my hand and he totally relaxes and peers up at the ceiling and all around at the upward stuff that he doesn't normally see, just calmly taking everything in, with his motor running.  The first time we heard his motor was the first week we had him when he was sleeping in his little bed between our pillows, and we woke up in the middle of the night to him purring!  You should see JDub's face when he watches this kitten doing something damned cute (which is virtually all the time, even when he's being a lil' shit).  His expression goes all soft and liquidy, like he's going to dissolve into a puddle.  He's mush!  Mush, I tell you!

It was cooler today, but not particularly "cool" -- still in the mid-80s.  Plus, the humidity increased so clothes stuck to the body (except for the tails on my handkerchief-hem skirt...)  And I would venture to say that I'm teetering on the downslide of this awful cold.  All the yukky elements are still in existence, but not quite to the heightened degree as they were.  So we're dealing with dusty rose-colored glasses instead of muddy and scratched.  (Yesterday I was ready to shatter the effin' things, flinging mud every-damned-where).