10 years and counting...
So this was supposed to be typed up last night, but I was extremely exhausted and scatterbrained, so it's a day late. Deal...
So Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the day that
shatterpath and I met for the very first time. In fact, at around 2130 PST on 1 March 2001, we met face to face for the very first time. She has been the closest friend I've ever had. She's my soulmate, my other half. We've had our ups and downs, and there have been several times that one or the other of us wanted to walk away, but we never did. And here we are, 10 years later. I can't imagine my life without her in it, and I hope I never have to experience that sensation. We are a comfortably old married couple without the romantic entanglements. And I'm completely good with that. I have everything I need in a relationship with her.
Wednesday, 2nd March, started on a low note. First off, it was the 9th anniversary of our first rattie Sammie's death. Still miss her to this day, even her spiritly visits are less now... And then, somewhere between 0130 when I'd gone to bed and 1100 when
shatterpath went to take her shower, she discovered that Mami, our female bluegill, had passed away. She was in her favorite hidey hole, her mason jar. She was with us for about a year, and we knew that every minute we had with her was borrowed time. We had only lost Papi a few days before we got her, and she reminded us of him so much when we saw her in the store, we HAD to get her. Hell, we got her for free from Petco because she had tail/fin rot so damned badly, they weren't sure she would even make it. But we nursed her back to health and she thrived. By the time she passed away, she'd at least doubled in size. She was no monster like Papi, but she was a damned fun fish in her own right. I miss her, but I also fear that she may have died of loneliness after we'd moved our desks. She didn't come to the front of her tank anymore after we moved across the room from her, and she wasn't really seeming to eat as much either. I feel bad if that's what happened. But she's buried under the lilac tree in the backyard, to the left and southwest of it, by Papi and Bailey. And she's in her beloved mason jar. It seems appropriate to have done so...
So between finding out she'd died and actually burying her, we went to take a trip out to Point No Point lighthouse as our way of reenacting our first trip to the water together. When
shatterpath had first moved here, she got here on a Thursday night and we sat up yammering until 0430. School was out of the question that day [or I didn't have classes and took the day off from work], and I decided to take her out to the Columbia Gorge to look at the waterfalls. Unable to hit the Gorge yesterday, we decided to hit our favorite local lighthouse, and wanted to see what beach combing we could do after the recent storms. We had pizza at Central Market for lunch first. Yay! On our way out to Hansville and the lighthouse, I got to see a hawk. It was either a redtail or a red shouldered hawk, but all I know is that I saw it swoop down to my right, then glided up into a tree, wings totally spread out. It was gorgeous! And further down the road, there was a downed tree, complete with downed power lines or phone lines. Not sure which, but we went across them and continued on our way out to the lighthouse.
The tide was in when we got to Point No Point. We later found out that high tide hit about an hour or so after we'd hit there [and yes, we were still there at that point]. Between the tide coming in, the winds, and the storm surge, there was quite literally no beach.
shatterpath even commented to the water, "Please let the car still be here when we get back." She wasn't exactly joking either. On the north side, where there's a rock "wall", the water was up to said wall. Normally, we have about 20-30 feet of beach between those rocks and the water. The lowest tide we've seen out there gave us about 40 or so feet of beach in that spot. Yesterday, the water was a couple of feet deep right up against those rocks. And the point was completely gone. On the east side, where we always beach comb, there wasn't much beach either, and what was tehre was completely littered with a passive pile of driftwood.
shatterpath did wander through the driftwood about 60 feet tops and took a few pics with her phone. She said that the ginormous boulder [between 8-10 feet tall] was mostly under water. We'd actually expected the boulder to be completely submerged.
I found a fabulous piece of driftwood that came home with me to become a walking stick and a couple of wands. We then walked along the trail between the beach and the wetlands for a while, surrounded by native rose briars/bushes on either side of the path. While walking, we got to see three bald eagles, including one that was hunting in the water. Not only was it hunting, we watched it actually catch a fish, then be chased by one of the other eagles when it was just trying to eat its damned fish! LOL! And they were chattering and bitching at each other, too. We also saw a whole flock of sandpipers that kept flying past us, and the ubiquitous gulls, of course, and a couple of cormorants. In fact, one of the cormorants looked like a really big grebe by its coloring, but otherwise looked like a cormorant. While walking the path by the wetlands [our first time actually], there was a bush/shrub that totally reminded me of a coyote. Oh, and as we were driving away toward home, there were two herons in profile, hunting about 10 feet from each other, in the wetlands.
On the way home, we got rerouted between Hansville and Poulsbo because of those downed lines I mentioned earlier. Or at least that's what we're assuming it was. Amusingly enough, the reroute allowed us to stop in at Sluy's, our favorite bakery, for some donuts. We each got 2 donuts, one that was eaten when we got home, and one that was eaten this morning for breakfast.
It was a really fun day, and I was more than definitely needing the recharge of being near powerfully worked up water. I could feel Poseidon's presence, which was a much needed balm for me. I've been far too complacent lately in my spirituality, and that needs to change. And it will change. My spirituality and creativity are getting some rejuvenation, which is sorely needed. And I need to do some research into the animals I saw as totems in connection to Poseidon. But I will admit that I was completely and utterly exhausted and mentally useless once we got home. I'm pretty sure I got a download from Poseidon, but I'm not sure yet what it was.
And now, for a visual... Below is a picture of Point No Point from Google Maps. And no, it's NOT from yesterday. This shot is pretty typical of what we see at the beach when we go there. And once I remember to send the pics from
shatterpath's phone to my computer, I'll post her pics of what it actually looked like...
Original post @ Dreamwidth with
comments. Commenting is welcome on either post.
So Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the day that
shatterpath and I met for the very first time. In fact, at around 2130 PST on 1 March 2001, we met face to face for the very first time. She has been the closest friend I've ever had. She's my soulmate, my other half. We've had our ups and downs, and there have been several times that one or the other of us wanted to walk away, but we never did. And here we are, 10 years later. I can't imagine my life without her in it, and I hope I never have to experience that sensation. We are a comfortably old married couple without the romantic entanglements. And I'm completely good with that. I have everything I need in a relationship with her.
Wednesday, 2nd March, started on a low note. First off, it was the 9th anniversary of our first rattie Sammie's death. Still miss her to this day, even her spiritly visits are less now... And then, somewhere between 0130 when I'd gone to bed and 1100 when
shatterpath went to take her shower, she discovered that Mami, our female bluegill, had passed away. She was in her favorite hidey hole, her mason jar. She was with us for about a year, and we knew that every minute we had with her was borrowed time. We had only lost Papi a few days before we got her, and she reminded us of him so much when we saw her in the store, we HAD to get her. Hell, we got her for free from Petco because she had tail/fin rot so damned badly, they weren't sure she would even make it. But we nursed her back to health and she thrived. By the time she passed away, she'd at least doubled in size. She was no monster like Papi, but she was a damned fun fish in her own right. I miss her, but I also fear that she may have died of loneliness after we'd moved our desks. She didn't come to the front of her tank anymore after we moved across the room from her, and she wasn't really seeming to eat as much either. I feel bad if that's what happened. But she's buried under the lilac tree in the backyard, to the left and southwest of it, by Papi and Bailey. And she's in her beloved mason jar. It seems appropriate to have done so...
So between finding out she'd died and actually burying her, we went to take a trip out to Point No Point lighthouse as our way of reenacting our first trip to the water together. When
shatterpath had first moved here, she got here on a Thursday night and we sat up yammering until 0430. School was out of the question that day [or I didn't have classes and took the day off from work], and I decided to take her out to the Columbia Gorge to look at the waterfalls. Unable to hit the Gorge yesterday, we decided to hit our favorite local lighthouse, and wanted to see what beach combing we could do after the recent storms. We had pizza at Central Market for lunch first. Yay! On our way out to Hansville and the lighthouse, I got to see a hawk. It was either a redtail or a red shouldered hawk, but all I know is that I saw it swoop down to my right, then glided up into a tree, wings totally spread out. It was gorgeous! And further down the road, there was a downed tree, complete with downed power lines or phone lines. Not sure which, but we went across them and continued on our way out to the lighthouse.
The tide was in when we got to Point No Point. We later found out that high tide hit about an hour or so after we'd hit there [and yes, we were still there at that point]. Between the tide coming in, the winds, and the storm surge, there was quite literally no beach.
shatterpath even commented to the water, "Please let the car still be here when we get back." She wasn't exactly joking either. On the north side, where there's a rock "wall", the water was up to said wall. Normally, we have about 20-30 feet of beach between those rocks and the water. The lowest tide we've seen out there gave us about 40 or so feet of beach in that spot. Yesterday, the water was a couple of feet deep right up against those rocks. And the point was completely gone. On the east side, where we always beach comb, there wasn't much beach either, and what was tehre was completely littered with a passive pile of driftwood.
shatterpath did wander through the driftwood about 60 feet tops and took a few pics with her phone. She said that the ginormous boulder [between 8-10 feet tall] was mostly under water. We'd actually expected the boulder to be completely submerged.
I found a fabulous piece of driftwood that came home with me to become a walking stick and a couple of wands. We then walked along the trail between the beach and the wetlands for a while, surrounded by native rose briars/bushes on either side of the path. While walking, we got to see three bald eagles, including one that was hunting in the water. Not only was it hunting, we watched it actually catch a fish, then be chased by one of the other eagles when it was just trying to eat its damned fish! LOL! And they were chattering and bitching at each other, too. We also saw a whole flock of sandpipers that kept flying past us, and the ubiquitous gulls, of course, and a couple of cormorants. In fact, one of the cormorants looked like a really big grebe by its coloring, but otherwise looked like a cormorant. While walking the path by the wetlands [our first time actually], there was a bush/shrub that totally reminded me of a coyote. Oh, and as we were driving away toward home, there were two herons in profile, hunting about 10 feet from each other, in the wetlands.
On the way home, we got rerouted between Hansville and Poulsbo because of those downed lines I mentioned earlier. Or at least that's what we're assuming it was. Amusingly enough, the reroute allowed us to stop in at Sluy's, our favorite bakery, for some donuts. We each got 2 donuts, one that was eaten when we got home, and one that was eaten this morning for breakfast.
It was a really fun day, and I was more than definitely needing the recharge of being near powerfully worked up water. I could feel Poseidon's presence, which was a much needed balm for me. I've been far too complacent lately in my spirituality, and that needs to change. And it will change. My spirituality and creativity are getting some rejuvenation, which is sorely needed. And I need to do some research into the animals I saw as totems in connection to Poseidon. But I will admit that I was completely and utterly exhausted and mentally useless once we got home. I'm pretty sure I got a download from Poseidon, but I'm not sure yet what it was.
And now, for a visual... Below is a picture of Point No Point from Google Maps. And no, it's NOT from yesterday. This shot is pretty typical of what we see at the beach when we go there. And once I remember to send the pics from
shatterpath's phone to my computer, I'll post her pics of what it actually looked like...
- This is where we parked. That beach in front of the parking area? Yeah, not there yesterday.
1A. This is the rock retaining wall I mentioned. - This is Point No Point lighthouse.
2A. That really light stuff on the beach to the right of the green of the wetlands is the normal driftwood area. Some of that was pushed up further toward the wetlands and there was NO beach showing. - This is the ginormous rock I mentioned. There's only been one time that we were able to get out to said boulder without getting into the water at all, and it was still 2-4 feet above
shatterpath's head. - This is where we stopped along the path to watch the eagles.
4A. This is roughly where I was standing when I saw the coyote bush the second time. - This is the area where the eagle tried to eat its fish, before it took off again for a different spot.
5A. This is the general area where we think the mated eagle pair has their nest.
Original post @ Dreamwidth with
comments. Commenting is welcome on either post.