Kingfisher Cove

Nightmares and Evil Thoughts

Well, Happy Halloween.  It's never been my favorite holiday (in fact, it's my least favorite holiday).  Mostly it's all about remembering when Nate was young and I was a single mom flying home from a stressful day at work (in the dark) to hurriedly get him fed and in his costume (usually requiring face painting) while the doorbell was ringing every two seconds with trick-or-treaters, and then setting the bowl of remaining candy on the doorstep while I took him out trick-or-treating, only to come back and have all the candy gone (probably by one kid) and the bowl 1) broken, 2) tossed in the neighbor's yard, or 3) gone, and the carved pumpkin splattered in the driveway.

Plus, I've never been a seamstress or creative in the costume-thinking-up way and so I'd have to buy some stupid thing that cost much more than my budget would allow, only to be worn ONCE. 

Those icky memories (nightmares) have stuck with me through all these years.  Just not a fun night.  Where we live now, we have never had a single trick-or-treater because we live on a busy road with a steep driveway.  I buy a package of candy just in case, but it's never been necessary.  I bought Reese's this year which I shouldn't have because they are my favorite and so I'll probably be tempted.  I'll probably take them to work tomorrow and let the dweebs engineers graze.

And maybe I'll inject them with glass, or Ex-Lax, or LEAD -- because I have sooooo had it with dweebs engineers.  The after-effects would be an entertaining start to entering The Month That Shall Not Be Named. 

Evil laugh.  (Fitting).

One Of These Days I Need To Post Again!

I haven't deserted you, all my gazillions of readers!  (heh)  I just got me some adventure game-making software (yes, you read that right...) and I've been absolutely obsessed absorbed with it and I keep losing track of time.  Didn't I just get home from work?  And it's already bedtime?  Crap!

I've got hotspots and icons and clickable arrows dancing around in my head -- night and day.  (Yes, I've even been dreaming about this...)

I'm a dork.

A Walk on the Beach

I can't come close to telling you how much I've needed this.  I just came off one of the worst work-weeks I've ever had, and I drug my aching, exhausted, battered spirit home last night sunk in despair.  Sunk in quicksand.  I was at the point where I couldn't even kick in the survival instinct to struggle to escape from it.  Bad.  Really bad.

Today at Harstine dawned foggy and chilly, but DRY -- so JDub stoked up a fire on the deck and we sat out there and sipped coffee and amazingly watched several hummingbirds feeding on the sage (that continues to thrive).  I hadn't seen a hummingbird in eons and I was really shocked!  We even believe that Little Devil was back with his scarlet throat and the only hummingbird all year long that has perched on the butterfly stained glass stake. I could feel that cloak of dead spirit begin to flutter.

And then the sun came out.  (It was out all day yesterday, too, but I never noticed it because I was so swamped at prison work -- not even a lunch break).  I swear I could physically feel the stress and despair spread its wings and take flight.  Energy kicked in!  While JDub cut more firewood, I grabbed the loppers and trimmed back some of the sage and lavender that had encroached onto the walkway to the trailer.  See how narrow that pathway had become?

I was very careful not to get carried away like I did last year (killed the sage) so I was very conservative and focused mostly on giving the plants a "haircut" along the gravel path.  Plus, I didn't want to greatly reduce one of the only food sources around for the hummingbirds.

(I can't get over how everything has grown -- here's a comparison).   So we headed to the beach -- and Mojo, as usual, joined us.  What an amazing cat he is! He just blows my mind.

It was so incredibly beautiful down there, and so quiet.  No people, no voices, no boat motors.  Just the gentle lapping of the water and our footsteps on the beach gravel.  At one point Mojo saw a BIG seagull floating on the water and he got all arched-back-Halloweeny.  Agates everywhere.

And ducks.

And oyster shells. (They're so primitive).

And clear, ripply saltwater.

  

Our property doesn't show a lot of signs of Fall (mostly evergreen trees) but many of the neighbors' landscaping have ornamental deciduous trees that sparkle.

Mojo was tuckered afterward.

Truly what the doctor ordered.  Big Sigh.      

K-9

Reeling from an ungodly day of work that made me feel that being on a prison chain-gang would be a step up, JDub and I headed up to the neighborhood diner for dinner and a drink (and venting).  When we were paying at the counter, a K-9 cop and his "partner" came out from the bar (?) and I had an intimate moment with the "partner".  (Actually, it's just now that I'm wondering what they were doing in the bar!  Hmm...)  Anyway, the K-9 was a bloodhound and I realized it was the first time I've ever seen a bloodhound in real life.  I guess I always thought they were rather morbidly ugly, but this guy was absolutely beautiful -- and huge.  He was red from head to tail, the same color as our dachshunds, and my first thought when I saw him was that he was a Great Dane, he was that huge.  I petted him and he was all happy and sniffy and he even checked out my crotch.  In other words, although trained to the teeth, ALL DOG. 

Afterward I wondered if I was inappropriate for petting/gushing over the dog because I remember when I was a little girl my grandmother scolded me for petting the see-and-eye dog for this old blind guy that would come into my grandparents' clothing store.  "That dog has a job to do and you were distracting him!"  (She was normally very kind to me so her scolding hurt my feelings and has stuck with me all these years -- if she was still alive she'd be 101 tomorrow).  However, when I looked up and smiled at the human cop, he smiled back.  At least he didn't scold me.  (I would have been mortified if he had).

Work Is Kicking My Butt

I figured that once things got crazy at work again that the most difficult thing about it would be re-acclimating, since I've been out of the horrific deadline stress the past couple of months.  But now that it's hit, I realize that not only is it about re-acclimating to the busy/crazy deadline-driven stress of my job, but also having to re-familiarize myself with the Twilight Zone.  And it hit me:  That's what I hate the most about what I do.  I haven't had to deal with it lately because I've had control -- and complete knowledge -- of banging out the newsletter.  Total confidence.  What I'm dealing with right now is insanely Greek to me and I loathe feeling over my head, floundering, and well, stupid -- with the assumption on the part of others that I do know what I'm doing.  I don't!  And one of the many Twilight Zone aspects of that is when I ask the questions I need to know to try to get a grip on this, I don't receive a response.  (Or if I do on a rare occasion, it's "yes" to a very complex question that does NOT warrant a yes-or-no answer, but an EXPLANATION.) 

The Twilight Zone is alive and well. 

My cold is still kicking my butt, too.  I really thought I was on the mend, but it keeps on keepin' on.

I'm Tired

• I’m tired of rude drivers who, when you’re needing to turn left at the green light and there is no left-turn signal (for whatever idiotic asinine reason), the on-coming asshats clog the intersection and will not, on their life, allow you to make said left turn. So you sit through umpteen cycles of that green light that does you no good.
• And then these same asshats lay on their horn and wave their arms at you all aggressively as you assertively – but not aggressively – creep into the (green light) intersection to make said left because, hey, you’d like to eventually get home so you can cook dinner.
• But then you get home and cooking dinner feels right up there with scrubbing ten thousand square feet of tile grout with a toothbrush.
• I’m tired of work not being rewarding. (Except for the newsletter which, as I knew it would, has to take a back seat to vaguely communicated, ungratifying, need-immediately busy work for asshat engineers who never answer their phone or their emails but assume you are telepathic and are outraged when they discover you are not).
• I’m tired of politics. The lying ads, the mailbox bulging with the after-effects of dead trees to promote more lies, the ungodly amount of money spent on said lies, the deep pockets of the corporations and the rich with “special interests” that foster the lies and “buy” the politician – money that could have gone toward solving a lot of problems in the community (state, country…) but instead go toward killing trees. And lying. Because, after all, the public is pretty much C+ average and they’ll believe what they are told lied to. Or they’ll vote a straight-ticket party simply because “the family always has.”
• I dread these next 12 months of accelerated lies, half-truths, and the actual truth buried in the fervor, because after all, Dumbledore is gay and that threatens everybody’s marriage, and we all know that a homo is the same thing as a pedophile and all those kids who have read those nasty books will now be tainted and destined to choose to be a homo.
• Gag me.

Announcing a Roll-Out!

I've been working on a new Page* for my blog, and even though it isn't completed yet, I've accomplished enough that I think it's worth mentioning, and it might even be worth taking a look at.  It explains and describes Harstine Island in pictures from the time that we purchased the property and what all we've done with it so far.  Since I mention Harstine a lot in my posts, I figured some background might be helpful, especially if someone was visiting my blog for the first time (Ha! As if!)  But it's also fun for JDub and I to have an ordered record of some of the photos of our progress and all the memories associated with that.  It'll never be totally completed because there's always something new happening (other than this past summer when we were in such limbo not knowing about the outcome of our variance -- plus the weather sucked).  It's not quite current, but I'm getting there.

On the right side-bar at the very top under "PAGES" you'll see "About Harstine Island", so check it out!  Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.

~~~~~

*Pages are a new fun feature from this blog host (Typepad) that allows us to create a page in the style of our blog that is a separate element from the blog itself.  I placed my "100 Things" and also a full listing of all my archives with links in Pages. It would be easy to get carried away with it, it's that fun.

Countdown

Still at Harstine, but the hours remaining are numbered.  Now that heading home (read: back to work tomorrow) is imminent, I'm wanting to hang on to the time left here, even though it's gray and dreary and not particularly exciting.  (Beach walk?  Fuggitaboudit!)  At least I'm feeling better, though.  I'm thinking I'm on the mend and this (knock on wood) isn't going to be the horrific marathon cold that last July's was.  No fair having two colds within three months!

I finished my adventure game -- it was pretty fun, although short for most adventure games.  It was a murder mystery that took place in Sweden, which is where these games are developed (I just played "East Side Story").  They are rather simplistic as far as production, but still very entertaining and also inexpensive.  And this one was tricky enough for me to have to consult the hints now and then (actually, I always do because I HATE being stuck for long and I invariably DO get stuck because I am right-brained and don't always rarely think in the logical sense that is expected.  So why do I enjoy this?  Because I like the story.  And the exploring.  And finding stuff).

Mojo's been pretty happy today because even though it's gray and dreary outside, at least it's been dry and not extremely cold -- so I've had a window open so he can use it as the Cat Door.  He loves that.  He expects that (bonk!) even when it's raining or cold and so the window is closed.  Here's a picture of him entering through the window.  He's getting so big. Time to make an appointment to be de-nutted.

Life Continues to Drip and Blow

Holing up here at stormy Harstine Island, feeling like crap.  Yet another storm passed through yesterday, this one with heavy rain (and wind, but not as strong as Thursday's) and then also thunder and lightening.  We only heard the roars of thunder here but didn't see any lightening; I read on the internet that many places were pounded with it, plus hail!  I swear that summer transformed directly into winter without a pause.  JDub is getting over his cold while I'm in the peak throes of mine -- and need I say miserable.

Not a bit of damage here, thank goodness!  Boat tent and lattice deck cover were firmly in place -- even the (empty) birdfeeders.  I know the area had gusts Thursday of 50+ mph, so we just didn't know what to expect.  Last December's storm was much stronger.  Also, there was no evidence that the power had ever gone out here!  I was surprised about that.  No blinking 12:00 anythings!

But it's been pretty nasty since we arrived yesterday about noon.  I took a long nap, JDub's been working on his 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and he cooked spaghetti last night!  (Unfortunately my sense of taste is pretty much nil).  I also started another adventure game on my laptop.  Today da kitteh is bored beyond reason.  Climbing walls, literally.  We've offered to let him outside (in the slamming wind and rain) and he'd venture out but want right back in.  He's a bit miffed, but I know he really likes to be here with us.  He was just as excited as the dogs were yesterday morning when we were getting ready to go. 

Wow, I'm actually seeing the sun trying to poke through out there!  My sorry blood-shot eyes don't quite know how to handle that.  (I'm certain they won't have to adapt to it since it'll be a quick anomaly).

Runny Nose and Bendy Trees

I guess it's fitting that the first autumn wind storm is concurrent with my first autumn head cold.  My head feels like it's All Nose All The Time.  The day has been all about "blowing".  (Blowing down trees and blowing my nose).  I've been shedding snot at about the same rate as the trees have been shedding  leaves.  (Probably an image you don't want to dwell on for long).

Overall, a miserable day.  Nate called me about 3:00 to tell me that the power had been out a couple of hours.  And when I got home from work, the power was still out.  Nate and JDub had gathered up all the flashlights, bought batteries, lit a fire in the wood stove, and had the generator ready to go.  I lit candles (burning the tips of my fingers like I always do) and then...the power came back on!  Woohoo!  Although, I didn't dare feel too smug about it because it was still howling out there and it very easily could have blinked out again.  But it hasn't!  We lucked out, because JDub drove up to the grocery store a town away and the power was out up there.  He said the store was packed with people buying candles and presto logs and here he was buying ice cream and getting nasty looks.

So, we didn't head to Harstine tonight, obviously.  We figured if there is any damage we wouldn't be able to do anything about it until tomorrow anyway, or if the power was out, it would make it miserable.  So we'll head down tomorrow in the daylight and keep our fingers crossed that the boat "tent" or the lattice deck cover didn't blow away.  These last couple of years have been just awful with nasty weather!  This particular wind storm was a result of the remnants of Tropical Storm Ling-Ling (also the name of a panda, go figure), and it was surprisingly warm out there throughout all of this.  And what's also strange is that rain did not accompany it.  My drive to work this morning was very wet and dangerous with all the semi trucks hydroplaning, but later in the morning when the wind started kicking up it remained dry the entire day.  That is wacko around here.  

It's died down out there now, with a strong gust now and then. 

Sure wish the cold had such a short-lived life span.