Sunday morning exercises

If I were going for a swim, I am not sure I would want this guy ready to swoop down and pick me up, but there he was this morning. California Girl waiting to do her laps. This is the part of the day where I was supposed to be wet.
I did a lot of back and forth. My son's hand was steadier than usual for this one.

Then I let my husband take some pictures too. He was counting my laps for the swim, because Kangamoo did not bring her daughter to play with me. Here I am almost dry. Certainly drier than I was for the rest of the event. I am not sure why I bothered with the towel, except it did make it easier to slip on the shorts, shirt and sandals.The bike ride was simpler, there were only two laps: out and back. Too bad it was raining. I guess the evergreen for the evergreen state must come from somewhere. Note the puddle dodging course on the way in.

Then I ran away again, two more laps, out and back on my feet. They called it a run, so maybe I ran some of it, but mostly I walked, which was always my plan. The state was still improving the quality of the green.

Finally, I finished. They waited for me a long time. In the rain. With an umbrella. I was out dodging more puddles in the mud. On your left, behind the large guy in the red shirt, is someone I ran the last half mile with. She was lucky I was still out there, because she kept asking me where to go next. It is good someone paid attention to the guy in the big red shirt when he told us about the course, and I checked out where the finish line was before I started. I like to know where I will be when I am done. We were the last two to cross the line, but the first four heats had a 15 to 65 minute head starts over us, so I will not know where I really placed until results are posted tomorrow.Some of the wait was because I was in the fifth of five heats on the swim. They figured that the fast swimmers were fast on the road too. I think they figured wrong. Some of the folks with the fanciest bikes could barely make it across the pool. Most of the wait was because I was almost the slowest rider and definitely the slowest runner in the fastest swimmer heat. As I was coming in from the run, I saw lots of folks driving up that road with bikes on the back. The run course was on the main road back to I90.

Some things never change. In my defense, I was trying to eat my pear and pack my things at the same time. I needed three hands. The photographer offered to hold my pear, but I told him I was eating it, not just holding it in my mouth. Note the complete change of attire. Other than the swim suit, I stripped off all the wet stuff and found dry clothes in my bag to wear. In fact, I called on my way back from my walk and asked my husband to bring them down from the car before I got back, even though my walk took me right by the car, and I could have stopped to get them myself.How do you put this in there with three people? If there were only two, one could do the oragami thing with the back seat and put it behind the front seats standing up, or one could lay it out flat in the back with both seats down, but there are three of us.Oh, that's right the wheel comes off. I put it in today instead of using the rack because I did not want the bike out in the rain. Silly me, then I took it out in the rain anyway, but at least I did not have to ride it covered with highway grime. Unfortunately, when I took it out, I turned the handlebars the wrong way, and damaged the cable that connects the sensor to the speedometer odometer device that helps me keep track of how far I have been. I never saw the pale orange numbers on the wet asphalt that were supposed to tell me how far I had been. Now I am looking at new cables or new odometers.
For a first attempt, I am pleased with how I did. I met my primary goal, which was to finish. I am pleased that I finished either second or third in my swim heat, which was mostly guys. Swimming is my favorite, so I am glad I did well there. Overall, I finished in about 90 minutes, by my son's watch, and I had estimated that I would take about 2 hours, so I am glad I did better than I thought I would. The woman who finished with me was 12 years younger, which also made me feel good.

School projects

My kids have kept me busy this week. So have my preparations for the big day tomorrow. One child had a field trip, the other has a big project due this week (on the same day her brother has another field trip) which requires a certain amount of parental assistance. The field trip took us to visit the past at the Nez Pierce National Historic Park visitor center where we built a tee pee and heard tales of life before the white man came west. Pounding tent stakes has not changed over the years, pull it tight and set it at a 45 degree angle.The nearly finished product:We also had the opportunity to use an atlatl to throw a dart which looked like a long version of the arrows that my boy shoots in the back yard.

A tale only a mother could love.My girl has been doing research about fear and fairy tales and the connections kids make in childhood that they carry with them all their lives. She started building with some cardboard boxes which she taped together to make a display.Black spray paint gave her a uniform background.A little house in the woods for Grandmother, or the wicked witch or the 3 bears or someone to live in.I was allowed to help with the trees and the door and the windows. She did the words and the white paint on the house.My creative abilities were taxed to the limit, but I found a way to make these trees too. We had lots of help from the dog.

Our big river

Last Thursday, we went down to see the river. It was rather impressive. You have seen some of the stills, here is video footage from my little digital camera and my husband's camera. His hand is steadier than mine. About 2 minutes in, he takes a shot of my hand and camera. The raft like item is actually someones dock which let go upstream. If you go back when you see it to the footage of the foot bridge, it is tossing in the spray under the bridge. I think we are going to mosey down there again tomorrow to see how things are going. It is still warm here, so the snow is still melting, and it has been raining on and off, which only adds to the flow. The city and the county have told everyone to stay out of the water, which is an unfortunate thing on Memorial Day Weekend, but it only makes sense. Maybe we will get to play in the river later this summer.

Get out the vote

One might expect better security than a couple of old guys in a rented truck with a plastic tub to pick up the ballots at the box outside the library. We were voting on sales taxes to support local busses and police communications. Maybe they show up with better security for important issues like who gets to be president. Our county votes entirely by mail, or by dropping ballots at the box outside the local county library. My ballot was in that box.

Then and now

Before anyone gets too excited, you should know that the river is a sufficient number of miles and feet of elevation from our house not to threaten us at all. The road to the ski hill has washed out by a little nothing called Deadman Creek. At least it was not Dry Creek, my favorite name to have a flood. Some people are stranded in their ski condos on the other side, but they seem to be dealing with it well. They could have left before it got really bad, but they made the choice not to. At no time were we threatened by the river. Some houses are, but not ours. We love to go and look at it, and in fact that is what my daughter and I did on our way home tonight. Here are the results.

It is good to understand the foundation of the view. This is what the rocks under the falls looked like in July.These are the same falls tonight, from a different angle.This boy is dry. If he was there today, he would not be floating away yet, but he would be wet from spray.The spot where the boy was standing is near the last light at the bottom by the bridge. Note the bridge pier in the foreground with water on both sides.More foundation of the falls. Note the bridge pier to the left of the picture, standing high and dry.
Once upon a time, we took a walk on the Centennial Trail. We saw some big rocks in the river last fall.Sunday, we took a bike ride and saw the same rocks. They seem smaller now. Some of them seem to have left completely. Happy spring.