Happy Birthday Stu

It was Stu Rickey's birthday on Saturday and a few of us joined him at the Prospector after work on Friday to wish him well.

Saturday it rained off-and-on all day. I spent most of the day reading a biography of Eisenhower by Michael Korda. "Ike - An American Hero" although 750 pages is pretty user-friendly - you don't have to have a doctorate in U.S. history to enjoy it. Not exactly summer beach material; but I would recommend it to anyone interested in WWII or 20th century history generally.

In mid-afternoon the landlord called and told me to look out my bedroom window. Our deer friend was taking a rest in back of the house. I watched her for quite awhile. Nice looking animal.

Taking a rest at the back of my residence...we've had lots of deer in the neighborhood this year!

I went over to Alison's and Doug's for supper on Saturday and had a good time. Joan Kasson and John Greely were also guests.

Yesterday, I got moving early and hiked-up Pereverance Trail . There's still lots of snow at the end of the trail. I took lots of flower pics on the walk and now need to try to identify a bunch of stuff. The most interesting to me were two species - one with yellow flowers and one with purple flowers - that I'm sure are violas. Both were very widespread around the turnoff to the Granite Creek Trail.

Unidentifed viola species on Perseverance Trail

A veritable garden - the wild geraniums and columbine were in full flower

After the hike I mowed and raked mom's yard. Then supper at the elders. It was a very pleasant Sunday.

Eccentricities of the Elders

An Elderfest Day. Don't hardly know where to begin...

But lets start with my Aunt Emilie. Her cat has some sort of alergy. The poor little bugger licks her skin raw - her belly is largely pink - and she has pink and sore spots on several of her legs. This has been going on for six months or so. I take Emilie and Baby to the vet for a shot of steroids and that helps for about six weeks. These trips are always something of a trial.

Today, I got to Meem's - that's Lindstromese for 'Emilie' going back 50 years or so; apparently I could not say her real name as a toddler and it came out MeMe which over the years became Meem.

Today, when I arrived at Meem's abode - the cat was nowhere to be seen. I finally located the wretched beast in the laundry room in a closet. This was after forty-five minutes or so of searching...and several calls to the vet by my aunt explaining - at length - the delay. With a pair of gloves and thanks to my foresight of wearing a long sleeve sweater I was able to grab the little dickens and stuff her in her cage without any serious injury on my part. Lots of cat cursing however.

At the vets the cat was on relatively good behavior. However my social - yet socially deprived aunt - managed to turn what should have been a 15 minute encounter into an hour long engagement. The vet got to hear the whole Emilie/Bud Lindstrom pet history....which includes numerous dogs and cats. The vet finally managed to give Baby a steroid injection. Once we got out of the exam room, I took Baby out to the car in the hope that my waiting outside would expedite matters at the front desk. Fat chance. Another half-hour elapsed before she emerged. When I asked her about the drug regimen for the cat and after she told me what SHE understood, I immediately had to go back inside to get that straightened out - she would have killed the damn puddy tat with steroids. Sigh...

Then it was off to Fred Meyer's for a shopping trip. When we entered the store we had to check-out the electric go-carts for the handicapped. I really don't think she needs one. However she thinks otherwise. There was only one there and it was plugged-in for recharging. We unplugged it; and not surprisingly it did not want to budge.

We got a regular cart and I went off to the pharmacy to get drugs for my other elders and myself while she tottered-off towards produce. When I caught-up with Meem she was driving a cart - don't know how or where she got it - and I did not ask. Hopefully she didn't roll a real handicapped person for it.

Meem's shopping list was eclectic. Meem does not cook. Yet the first thing in the basket was a huge ham. When I inquired, she said this was for my mom, i.e., mom would cook it and invite her for dinner. OK.

Then she sent me on a sortie for 5 lb of unbleached flour, 5 lb of sugar, and Bisquick. She then selected 3 bags of marshmellows (3 for the price of something), grabbed some ice cream, two large packages of cookies (2 for the price of something), a large bag of pork rinds, and low salt saltine crackers.

Then, as the coup de main, we were off to incontinent supplies for a thorough, and I do mean thorough, examination of the products on offer. As I understand it, Emilie had once found a product that was ideal - but it apparently went off the market - and she has since been on a quest for a similarly satisfying substitute. With her comfortably ensconced in her scooter it was my task to bring her selections. She would then read the product descriptions out loud. While I am a prostatectomy veteran and have had some (thankfully brief - pardon the pun) experience with incontinence products, I am certainly no expert on the long-term incontinence needs of elderly women. FINALLY, she made a decision - buying one product because it was cheap and another because it was expensive but on sale. I hope one of them is the product she has been looking for...

And then...not as trying...but just as long...the cat food conundrum. Is this, or is this not, the dry cat food that Baby craves? The color of the bag looks the same...but the pics of the bits just doesn't look quite right. Again, I had little to offer...

I love my Aunt Emilie dearly...

We then motored over to my folks - transfered the ham, one bag of marshmallows, and one bag of cookies to another bag as an offering to my parents.

I had taken my Jeep to the shop for servicing this morning and was driving mom's car so my mother came along with Meem and I to Meem's house downtown to allow me to collect my Jeep at the Jeep dealer after dropping auntie and her provisions.

The good news of all of this is that mom is seriously interested in purchasing a new Jeep Compass. With luck, this will replace my sister's decrepit 1990 Honda Accord AND my mom's equally decrepit 1988 Honda Accord. Both Linda and mom are ready for a new car.

That still leaves dad's 1970 something Toyota pickup with manual transmission and manual steering (it amazes me that a 93 year old can even turn the wheel); but I'm not ready to fight that battle yet. My goal is to have one vehicle in the household that can be driven by my sister in the Winter in the unlikely event that I can find a way to get out of this place.

Ain't life grand?

Fear and Loathing

An interesting item on the Very Short List today- a new movie on the life and times of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson will be released on July 4th. You can view the trailer at:

http://www.huntersthompsonmovie.com/

As a young person in the 1970's, I found Dr. Thompson to be truly inspirational...I read and re-read both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail of '72 with great enthusiasm. He is near the top of my list of most enjoyable writers - along with Winston Churchill and H.L. Mencken. An odd group certainly - but all were masters of the English language in their own ways.

The movie trailer makes me feel old... And listening to Pat Buchanan make nice about him is vaguely surreal. Goddamn it...where's my Ibogaine...

"Hallucinations are bad enough. But after a while you learn to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth. Most acid fanciers can handle this sort of thing. But nobody can handle that other trip—the possibility that any freak with $1.98 can walk into Circus-Circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas twelve times the size of God, howling anything that comes into his head. No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted." Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

In other news, it's been a fairly sedate week. All the elders gathered at my folks' on Sunday for Emilie's 83rd birthday bash...featuring meatloaf and chocolate cake. Monday was mow Emilie's yard and weed the flower beds day. Yesterday I cleaned the inside of my car - I believe for the first time since I bought it in 2003. It smells nice. I think I collected enough labrador, basset hound, and dachshund fur to stuff a small sofa.

On Monday afternoon I also went for a walk out by Dredge Lake in the hope of photographing tweety birds, beavers, wildflowers, and anything else that looked interesting. Eric had warned me about the mosquitos; but it was pretty breezy at my place and I thought that the bugs would not be a problem. When I got out of the car - it was dead calm. The little bloodsuckers lured me into the woods and then I was set-upon with a vengeance. I took about 30 pics and not one of them is usable. It's difficult to maintain one's focus when one is being sucked-dry by a swarm of blood-thirsty insects. Yesterday morning one eye was damn near swollen shut. And I'm still scratching...

So...you will have to be satisfied with a couple of previously taken wildflower pics:

Dodecatheon Pulchellum (Primrose Family) Shooting Star on Airport Dike Trail June 11, 2008

Epilobium Latifolium (Evening Primrose Family) River Beauty on Airport Dike Trail June 15, 2008. This flower is closely related to Fireweed; but has multiple stems and is much lower.

Potentilla Anserina (Rose Family) Silverweed on Airport Dike Trail June 11, 2008.

Lathyrus Maritimus (Pea Family) Beach Pea on Airport Dike Trail June 15, 2008. This is probably subspecies pubescens.

Tucson and Jasper Pack Their Bags

Well, adios to my pals Tucson and Jasper. Joan returned on Saturday and I packed the boys and their belongings up and hauled 'em back to town. I enjoyed their company immensely and I think they enjoyed their stay - kinda like a doggy summer camp. The experience has taught me several things: 1) I really want a dog; and 2) My apartment is too small for me and a dog.

I am a dog person.

In other doggy news, an amusing story in the Corvallis Gazette Times this morning about a little pooch, Alfie, rescued from a horrible home. Alfie's new lifestyle includes spending time at a doggy day spa and he has now won a Portland doggy talent contest.

"The added attention, fame and acclaim aren’t likely to go to the little dog’s head; he’s used to admirers," Harding said. His charm is on display at his own website: http://www.alfiethedog.com/

In other news, Alison, the boys, and I had a great walk on West Glacier Trail on Friday afternoon. On our way back to the car we walked out on a little wooded peninsula that juts out into Mendenhall Lake where we saw numerous Spotted Sandpipers and watched several Arctic Turns do their hovering and diving routine. It was quite fun.

Arctic Turn hovers in mid-air searching for a meal

Spotted Sandpiper

Well, time to head into town for a work-out. Big doings tonight at the folks - Emilie's 82nd birthday bash.

More Walkies

We had a beautiful Tuesday and Alison and I took the hounds to the dike trail for a walk. Too long a walk as far as Tucson was concerned...I wasn't sure he would make it back to the car. As payback, he had me up to let him out at 1 AM, 3 AM, 4:15 AM and 5:30 AM the next morning. A little lower tract issue.... We took yesterday off - just did a couple of short walks near the house. We did startle a deer in the neighbor's yard last evening resulting in some serious howling.

Alison has developed an interest in birding. (By the way, Alison, you should camp-out in my driveway some night. The 3 AM tweetfest is damn near deafening.) So on the dike trail she was looking in the trees for warblers and the like and I was looking at the flora on the ground.

Indeed, we were so engrossed in our respective pursuits that we lost track of Jasper on the last segment of the outbound trip. He doubled-back on the trail to spend some quality time with a couple of gals enjoying a picnic with their young kids. I believe Jasper cadged a half a ham sandwich. The boys are always on the mooch.

I didn't have my 200mm telephoto lens with me on the walk; but I did get close enough for one decent pic of what Alison identified as a Lincoln Sparrow.

Lincoln Sparrow on the Airport Dike Trail

Tomorrow is supposed to be quite nice so we'll take the dogs out for another adventure - maybe a bit of the West Glacier Trail.

THEN AND NOW

I've done a fair amount of work at my aunt's place this Spring (lots more that could be done, of course). So here's a couple of pics of her front yard in 2008 AND a pic of the same front yard in about 1959. The 1959 picture features yours truly, Aunt Emilie, and her two cats - Inkle M'lord Schilling Battler Lindstrom the First and Twinkle Toes, aka, Ink and Twink.

Aunt Emilie's front yard.

The Japanese Iris naturalize very well.

Elmer Alan (also known as Little Elmer at this time), Emilie, Ink and Twink.

Uncle Sugar Stimulates Me

Well, well...a little fiscal stimulus from the U.S. Treasury. A whopping $429.65 which will cover my lightbill of $304.92 with a little left over. I'm actually proud of my lightbill. If I had not brutally conserved electricity I'm sure it would have been well over $500.00. I took all my showers at the Club, installed energy efficient lightbulbs throughout the house, turned down the heat to 58 degrees at night and when I left the apartment, limited my cooking to stovetop stuff, and made sure I had a full load whenever I did dishes or laundry. Nothing that was really a hardship...and it appears that I cut my use by between 30-40%. Cool.

The hounds and I are getting along better all the time. Lots of exercise really makes a difference for them. Jasper is demonstrably less neurotic and Tucson's endurance has improved considerably.

A happy hound.

Yesterday was quite nice. We took our walk at Auke Rec. I was surprised how many people were on the beach - lots of moms with kids. Everyone was in good spirits in the sunshine. Tucson said hello to everyone (hoping for a hand-out) and Jasper kept himself busy in a futile chase of birds of various species. Several ravens found Jasper most amusing and led him down the beach...repeatedly landing a hundred feet or so in front of him then flying-off when he tore-off after them. Mighty clever them ravens.

When we got back to the house, Rocket J. Squirrel was sitting on the ground by his feeding station. I had not seen him since the hounds moved in. He appeared glad to see me hoping, no doubt, for some walnuts. He was extremely offended when the door opened and a black torpedo in the form of Jasper shot-out yapping frantically. Mr. Squirrel beat a hasty retreat up the tree and proceeded to chastise us both.

Although I do not speak Squirrel, the message seemed pretty clear and I'm sure Rocky was accusing me of being a traitor and a sandbagger. I will have to hire one of the neighbor kids to start my gas grill for the rest of the summer. Last summer Mr. Squirrel sabotaged the landlord's grill by chewing a hole in the gasline. The landlady got real concerned when one day the whole front porch smelled like propane...

I have been taking lots of pictures of local flora and am now trying to figure out what to do with them. I borrowed "Flora of Alaska" from Alison and have been trying to identify various species. The book is the most definitive guide to the vascular plants of Alaska. I owned a copy many years ago - I think I gave it to my cousin about the time my interest in plants changed from the wild variety to the smokable variety somewhere around my sophomore year in high school.

I thought the book was the height of sophistication thirty-five years ago. Today, I find the volume largely impenetrable. All the descriptions of plants are highly technical and I have long since forgotten what little botany I once knew. And the pen-and-ink drawings now strike me as something akin to prehistoric cave drawings. A senior moment...

Nevertheless I am persevering and get considerable satisfaction when I positively identify a species. In a bow to 21st century technology, I can verify my identification by Googling the scientific name and an image of said plant magically appears on my computer. Pretty cool.

All of this is a long-winded way of warning you that you may be seeing lots of pics of plants. Exemplia gratia:

Trientalis europaea (Primrose Family) Airport Dike Trail June 15, 2008. Low ground cover. This is probably subspecies arctica.

So there you have it. Yet another pointless retirement pastime that gives me pleasure and satisfaction.

Reveille

Hey kids! I'm feeling much better...still a cough and a drippy schnoz...but much better.

And speaking of drippy...that remains the weather forecast for the foreseeable future. No big storms. No big wind. Just overcast and occasional rain...for the next week. On the other hand, I noted in the Oregonian this morning that Portland has got a wonderful warm weekend forecast. Hope you cats get out and enjoy it!

In other news, the hounds and I continue to get to know one another. Tucson is getting in shape. We travel a little further each day and he is no longer limping by the end of the walk. I have scrounged a bit of plywood to serve as a ramp to get him up the first couple of steps to the apartment. He is an old man with arthritis.

Tucson has generously taken it upon himself to let Jasper and I know when it's time to roll-out in the morning. His internal clock is very accurate. Tucson sleeps on an old comforter right beside my bed and he starts bathing himself promptly at 5:30 AM. Slurping, shaking of the jowls, and an occasional sneeze continue for about fifteen minutes at which time he rises and heads to the living room where I have placed the water dish. More slurping. A good shake and a sneeze. Then back to the bedroom for the main event.

Tucson is a very talented percussionist and the confines of my bedroom provide him with a near perfect venue. Every morning he demonstrates his virtuosity by beating-out a tatoo with his tail. This morning he was seriously into reggae - a remarkable steel drum solo accomplished using a brass bedpost as the instrument. Yesterday, he went for the traditional Japanese drum effect - the hollow core sliding closet door makes a nice BIG sound. Enough to wake the dead in fact. Reveille with Tucson.

Meanwhile Jasper and I have reached an understanding. He pretends to respect my authority and I overlook a number of his minor transgressions like his obsessive/compulsive harrying of his squeaky sex toy.

The three of us are very much enjoying our daily walks - usually on the airport dike trail. The wetlands are now fully greened and the Spring wildflowers are in bloom with the lupine and buttercups leading the show.

Less obvious, but very pretty in their own right, lots of other wildflowers can be found both on the dike and on the wetlands.

A Chocolate Lily on the Airport Dike Trail

I don't know what this is...almost looks like Astilbe. It's about 8 inches tall and quite showy.

Have a great weekend everybody!

A Day of Rest

I woke up about 2 a.m. with a sore throat and by breakfast time it had already progressed to a full-blown cold. I feel pretty crappy.

So...skipped the workout today and contented myself with some computer maintenance and photo shuffling. Note that most of the pics previously posted to the right are gone - however they are now on my Kodak website if, for some strange reason, you miss them. There are probably a few other pics posted there that have not previously been posted on the blog - so if you're bored, you can give them a look.

I do want to post a couple of new collages on the blog. The first, a happy 79th birthday present to Marian Harrigan and another of Terry and her best pal, Pogo the Irish Greyhound.

Terry and her beloved Irish Greyhound, Pogo. Seattle March, 2008.

The Harrigans - photos courtesy of Terry's Uncle Bob taken around 1959.

Well, I'm going to rally and take the hounds for a walk. They have been glaring at me for several hours. More later...

Let Loose the Hounds

On Friday morning I took Joan Kasson to the airport. She's spending a couple of weeks with her folks in the Boise area. I readily agreed to board her two hounds - Tucson, the Basset Hound, and Jasper, the Dachshund. I'm also stopping by her house daily to feed Skelter the cat.

The hounds and I are still working out the living arrangements. My apartment seems smaller all of a sudden. Jasper and I are engaged in a deep philosophical discussion regarding the nature and use of power and authority. Jasper thinks he is lead dog; and I feel compelled to differ. To date I have more-or-less prevailed simply by force majeure; but I suspect the coniving little bastard is plotting a break-out.

Above: Jasper searches for a weakness in the security fence. "The screws think this place will hold me - but it's just a matter of time before I'm on the lam"

I am a longstanding Basset Hound fan. And Tucson is a fine representative of the breed. Tucson is a live-and-let-live kinda guy. He is amiable. He is well behaved. He does not make unreasonable demands. In short, he is a gentleman - although perhaps not the brightest star in the firmament.

Above: Jasper is a bad influence on Tucson. "Tell me the rabbit story, Jasper!"

Dachshunds, or at least Jasper, has none of these endearing qualities. He pesters. He plots and schemes. He is self-centered to the point of megalomania. He wakes up his roomates in the middle of the night by noisily copulating with his squeaky sex toy. He's a pain in the ass.

Above: Jasper's squeaky sex toy.

Stay tuned for more on the adventures of Elmer, Jasper and Tucson!

Family and Felons

Sorry no birdie pics. I got carried away with the vin rouge on Friday night and was unwilling to muster for the dawn patrol. As pennance, I spent the afternoon working in Emilie's yard.

Yesterday, I played tour guide to my Seattle-based cousin, Anne Marie, and her husband, Gene. Dad came along for the ride. Both dad and Gene are deaf as posts and my ears are still ringing from all the shouting in the confines of my Jeep.

After the tour we convened at the elders for pineapple upside-down cake and coffee. And a serious airing of the grievances that included (but was certainly not limited to) George W. Bush, the price of gas, the price of food, immigrants, aches and pains, and other relatives (both living and deceased). I won't bore you with the details; but it was kinda like some bizarre mash-up of Archie Bunker and Hillary Clinton as might be produced by Judge Judy. There were just enough tidbits of family history to keep me in the room.

Today's schedule of events includes hauling and spreading another half-ton of gravel in the folks' yard.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Great Land a couple of items from the Anchorage Daily News.

Former State Representative and recently convicted felon Vic Kohring will be spending time as a guest of Uncle Sugar at a prison in Taft, California. Vic thought he was going to be at a Club Fed in Oregon and was outraged to learn otherwise.

"It's a real slap in my face frankly to send me to the desert of southern California," he said.

Online comments posted on this article by my fellow Alaskans suggest that Vic's outrage is not widely shared. Several express the sentiment that what Vic did figuratively to the Alaskan public he deserves to experience quite literally while in prison.

And in other news from Vic's hometown: "A Wasilla man described by acquaintances as 'psycho,' 'crazy' and 'not happy at all' shot and killed himself Sunday, ending a 23-hour standoff with Alaska State Troopers that began after the man allegedly killed a former neighbor"

What's truly appalling about this story is the underlying fatalism of everyone interviewed - this murder was about as surprising as the sun rising in the morning. Life on the Last Frontier. What a bunch of rubes.