Out and About and Not in Everyday Ramblings

I did take a few pictures yesterday when we were hiking in a local state park (that I have only been around the edges in before) but the pictures all came out generic forest with creek looking. This is a messy cheerful garden in front of a house near where we parked.

It turns out Mrs. Sherlock has a couple of new hiking friends and as she is retired (and has a car and is comfortable financially) she can go exploring pretty much any day. And she has been. I was grateful though that she had been to this place last week because she was less preoccupied and frazzled about putting together a group hike than she has been lately.

And we had a complete map. It was fun. We started out where she had started out before but she wanted to explore a different set of connecting trails. We found a very pleasant less traveled trail that was shady and smelled of fir trees. We only took one wrong turn and when we stopped to ask a runner in her thirties with her dog the way it turned out she was hearing impaired.

We noticed a lot of women running the trails alone. Some had dogs, but some did not. Almost all of them had ear buds in, which I found rather alarming. I thought it was very cool that all these women felt safe alone on the trails and particularly that a hearing impaired person would feel safe. Her dog was very well trained as well though. She gave us excellent directions and we found our way back to the trailhead without incident.

This state park is connected to an affluent neighborhood not in Portland proper. Wow, this must be how other folks live. We didn’t see any evidence of homelessness and it was nice to get a break from the relentless edgy darkness I encounter here all the time.

We have a raccoon with 5 kits in the neighborhood and they have been getting into our dumpsters that nobody has been locking for a few months. The management bought and installed all new combo locks for all the dumpsters a few days ago as most of the locks they purchased had been absconded with or damaged in some ways. On Friday I could not for the life of me figure out how to get one of the new locks open.

There was a sign that said you have to push down on the shackle and I am like, what the heck is a shackle? I admit I came in and Googled it. I mean, I knew the word, right, shackles and chains but not the thing.

So today I was so pleased that I figured out how to open the lock for my recycling. On the other recycling dumpster (with an older lock) someone had burned it so that the numbers don’t turn. I am assuming that they figure the lock will be cut off and not replaced so they (and the raccoons) can get easy access to the contents. Our bottle deposit is now 10 cents apiece.

These locks are expensive.

This is so sad to me. That mentally ill and or drug addicted individuals are competing with the raccoons for access to our trash.

Yesterday morning when I was leaving soon after sunrise for my Weight Watchers meeting I saw a half downy baby scrub jay. It was adorable! I have never seen a baby scrub jay before. I get mom at dawn everyday when I put out a handful of peanuts. This guy was a bit immature to be out of the nest but I let it be. We don’t have that many outdoor cats in the neighborhood these days.

The crows are a different matter.

I was planning on going swimming this morning but I woke up with a sinus-triggered migraine so I think I will pass on that and have a relatively quiet day with the cats.

As I keep telling my students, constructive rest is very important.

I need to practice what I preach.

Last updated July 23, 2017