Tag Archive: portland


We Forgot What?!


About a half hour into our drive Thursday we realized something dreadful. We forgot my cd case. There was a hole in our truck the size of this:

 That meant   YIKES!!!!

What is a road trip without music?

Obviously, we didn’t have time to turn around and get my case. I know you more hipster types will say what about your phone? We live in the middle of nowhere, remember? Hardly a satellite ray gets through all this nothingness. And our phones don’t hold much of anything so downloaded music wouldn’t help either.

“I guess we’ll just have to talk to each other.” My honey said. We laughed. And then for most of the hour and a half drive to the next city, we said a few words to each other.

We ran into the store full of hopes of CDs. And it was time for dog and people relief. When I could, I walked to the electronics department, asked if they had CDs. There was a sales display with mostly DVDs but in the back were two CDs. Peter Frampton and Lionel Richie. No offense to the PF fans, but I chose Lionel Richie’s CD because a lot of his best songs were there. I could picture myself singing these for a while. Hello!

By the time we got to Portland, I was hoarse and beginning to tire of RL. But he got us there and helped me not get out of the car during the traffic jam stops.

We knew we would need more music to get through the five hours going back, even though we chose a different route to enjoy. Both ways were beautiful scenery for the eyes. Hubby and I had fun in spite of ourselves. But about three hours in, I longed for something else to sing. I thought about what I didn’t have in my case at home and John Denver and The Supremes came to mind. I figured if I found them they would be cheap,  like the RL, only $5!

But, NO. The only thing that appealed to me was a Beatles CD. It looked like it had a couple discs so I thought the $19 worthwhile. (Turned out one of the discs was a DVD). Ah, but I needed something for Hubby. I found a Celtic Woman that I didn’t think we had in either of our cases. By the way, he has a case, too. But I was the driver so the music needs to be there for ME!

I can’t tell you how happy that Beatles CD made me. I was rockin’ out and proving that I could remember most of the words. I missed friends–Kay, and her sisters and times of dancing and acting silly back in the day.  And my Potpourri (<–a group I sang with a long time ago) friends and our harmonizing Beatle toons on our way to and from the recording studio. Yep, you heard me right. The group was making a Christmas madrigally tape for friends and family. So Beatles and CW were expensive but worth the buy. I grooved to the Beatle CD until we were nearly home. 27 songs!!!

Then it was dark and I needed something soothing and to give my voice a rest:

Yeah, nope. I needed to pull over to the side of the road just to fully enjoy these voices and songs I could sing along with. I highly recommend everyone getting this–and the Beatles one. The Lionel Richie–well it was good for a long time but I bet I won’t listen to it again for a while.

By the way, my go-to music is usually Broadway musicals like Into the Woods, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, etc. Or books on CDs.

What do you listen to on long drives?


So, usually, I can get up and move on the prompt. In this case, it is ‘letter’. Thank you, Linda G. Hill for a seemingly simple prompt. Maybe it is because I have a whole lot to say and I can’t tie this in. YET, I have used it a couple times now–hehe.

Thursday my husband and I got to take a road trip to Portland. He had a minor procedure that he needed to have done on his toe and there are no VA podiatrists nearby. So the VA paid us travel expenses including gas and motel. We paid the $10 pet fee so that Kali could come, too. She was sort of happy. She doesn’t like road trips. But she hates being left alone even more.

When you have an appointment across town or even an hour or so away you can plan your trip accordingly. Planning something for five hours away leaves many variables. Such as, exits whose names are similar but for one letter. (See what I did there?) And that puts you in the wrong part of town.

Portland felt like Los Angeles and Orange County and Inland Empire all put together. I felt nothing weird at all. Just the irritation that had me leave the big cities a few years ago. “It’s called a freeway! Why does it look like a parking lot?” That quote is mine. This picture is the right area yet not nearly the traffic of which I speak.

We had to get there by 6:30 PM to check in to the Inn. But how can you know what the traffic will be like until you are smack dab in the middle of it? Luckily, I was in the non-stop driving mode so we didn’t stop for anything. And we made it there with an hour to spare. But now because we pushed so hard it was all we could do to order pizza and watch Grey’s Anatomy barely able to move. But look at this place. I was so happy to get to stay here at Shilo Inn. This is where Kali and I walked. It was beautiful. Only now do I find out they had a pool. Um, we have a follow-up appointment in June!!! Have bathing suit will travel!

The next day was the appointment. I played dog sitter while C went in to have the procedure done. We were alone too long so we had to take a couple walks around first in the garage and then outside. I was needing something to read. Finally got out my Kindle but that’s when he showed up in one Frankenstein boot and his normal shoe in a bag. Yes, he still had the other shoe on.

C’s toenail had been so damaged as a kid, it never grew out properly and now it was causing problems. So the doctor had to totally remove it and make sure it wouldn’t grow back. I have to admit that this whole thing grosses me out big time. I can’t imagine what it will look like and I thought he would need some heavy duty shoes to protect that piggie. I’ll spare you the pic of pig. But he is back to wearing regular shoes today.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about road trip distraction therapy.

Tuesday Talk


Yeah, I have no idea what I am going to talk about. I just want to make sure I stay in the habit of blogging. No more A to Z. No more CampNano. I haven’t even done any knitting lately.

When my kids were little I felt like I was being followed by four tornadoes. Making a list of what I needed to do made me feel worse when nothing on the list got done even though I was busier than ever. So I started making lists of what I did get done, even if it was a repeat of the same things over and over.

So here’s the list for today:

Moved two chapters from Word into yWriter so that I could detail everything and get lists of items, locations, and characters in each scene.

 

Did a few minutes each of Russian, French, Esperanto, Japanese, Spanish, and German. Yeah, my list has grown on Duolingo but I find it fun to work on all of these. I may never be conversant with any but I may have a better understanding when I meet people who speak these, or when I find words in books of these languages.

Found out that I have a road trip with my Honey coming up. Unfortunately, it is to a hospital in Portland. Fortunately, the motel (hotel?) is covered so for this minor procedure. We just don’t have the kind of doctor he needs close by. Yay, Road Trip!

Unfortunately, I don’t think we can take Kali. Fortunately, there will be two people here to give her lots of loving while we’re gone. One plans to take her on long walks to wear her out. Maybe she won’t miss me? I will miss her.

For my background of the editing, I have been binging on Z Nation. It isn’t as good as TWD but there are moments that I am proud of the way they handle certain issues. And it is more humorous.

I guess that about covers it. What did you do today? How do you edit? How do you get things done? What do you do to improve your brain/body?

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