Catching Up: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (July 29, 30 and 31)
We're in the middle of another HEAT WAVE here in Portland (and the surrounding areas). Second day in a row of 100'+ heat. And frankly, we're NOT a part of the country that normally gets this hot. Just sayin'...
I've been pretty remiss this week with my blogging. I guess I'll crack it up to being on vacation. But there are a few things to share, so here goes!
Wednesday: We decided not to go to Winston, Oregon -- Wildlife Safari -- on Wednesday, because we wanted to go with sister Sue, and she has cribbage on Wednesdays (and has been running it).
The BIG DEAL for that day? Marilyn and I drove over to the St. Johns bridge to see the Greenpeace protest over the ship Fennica. If you haven't heard, 13 people suspended themselves from the bridge in order to block the river below, making it impossible for the ship to safely pass beneath it. The Fennica is a Shell icebreaker that was in dry dock here in Portland, and their goal was to keep the ship from departing to head to the Arctic where Shell is drilling for oil. (All part of the 'Shell No' campaign.)
Anyway, we'd originally believed they wouldn't be letting anyone get close. And it was true that the bridge was shut down (you couldn't drive on it). But Cathedral Park which is located at the base of the bridge in St. Johns was open -- and had NO SECURITY that we saw! We were able to go right down on the docks close by the bridge where tons of others had also gathered. And took loads of pictures of those people hanging from the bridge.
That was a hot day, and I can't imagine what it was like for those people! And the next day was even hotter! They didn't come down until evening on Thursday. It's highly controversial here, by the way, because they messed up the commute for people.
I don't know how people stand on the subject, but Marilyn and I feel strongly about the RIGHT to protest -- which is something we grew up believing in! We were kids and teens during a time when protesting was just NORMAL -- and happened all the time! Civil rights, equality, anti-war, pro-war, you name it. We talked about being RELEVANT and making changes. We were fired up. And that's what our nation is supposed to be about. Whether or not I agree with you, I'll try to support your right to state your opinion and to protest.
I do agree that you shouldn't be doing damage to property or injuring others in the process. But making a commute unpleasant doesn't really qualify. As Marilyn said, EVERYBODY here in Portland knew those people were hanging off the bridge. There should have been ways to avoid the area. But if not, deal with it.
This was HISTORY-MAKING and exciting and I'm glad we went to see it up close. I got photos on both my camera (haven't downloaded those, yet) and my iPhone. This was a worldwide news event. I think it showed remarkable guts to be up there (it has to have been a scary thing). Anyway, in the future, we'll always remember that we were there when it was going on.
We did not end up seeing a movie on Wednesday night. We just stayed home and did the usual stuff: Watching TV, playing with our iPads, reading and SLEEPING. It was all good.
Thursday: It was a VERY hot day! And Marilyn and I didn't do anything, to speak of. More of the same: Watching TV, on our iPads, sleeping a bunch and reading. We didn't even get out of our nightclothes all day long. We had decided it would just be TOO HOT to go to Wildlife Safari -- plus the animals would just be hiding out in the shade, anyway. (We'll probably go in September at this point.) I did get the recycling done and out, but only gathered up part of the garbage (it wasn't real garbage week, anyway).
Friday: Another VERY hot day. And again we did very little. But we did both wash our hair. And we went out shopping long enough to pick up a few things at Safeway (and a couple of items at Freddies).
I spent part of the day on the phone (more than once) dealing with an IT issue at the festival office. Steven called my this morning. Ariel's computer was acting up -- and it was nothing he could deal with. I put Donn on it. He went to the office and thought he had it fixed, but then decided he needed to take the machine home to fix it.
I asked him to bring out one of the spare machines off the shelf and Profile it for her. We went back and forth on whether or not he should take the time to Profile it, but eventually he saw my point (that it needed to be done). However, neither of the two spare machines were working right, for whatever reason. So he took one of the floor machines (an Intern computer) and set that up for Ariel and Profiled it for her. All those are really GOOD machines now, so that works fine.
Finally, he took the three problem machines home to work on this weekend. Hopefully they won't be too much trouble for him to get up and running again.
I'm on the second book in the Wayward Pines series, having finished reading the first one. Marilyn and I need to start watching the TV series.
I made quinoa today -- and we had it mixed with refried beans. We made some tacos, then just ate it in bowls (we like it fine without the taco shells).
And I mopped the kitchen floor, which really needed it! I need to get in and do some cleaning around here. But I just haven't felt well enough to do much. And, boy, was I sweating when I got done doing that floor! It was pretty HOT upstairs, even with the air on.
We haven't decided if we'll drive to the beach this weekend, or just stay home. We'll play it by ear.
Cool news! In August (in two weeks), Marilyn, Adeena, Candee and I are going to take a roadtrip to Richmond, California for the Rosie the Riveter Rally!!! On August 15 they want to have 1,000 women show up to break the Guinness World Record, and we want to take part. Marilyn has already picked out the hotel we want to book. Just waiting to hear if Candee's in for sure or not... Anyway, it should be fun!
That's pretty much it for the last few days. Sorry I haven't been getting this done each day. I'll make a bigger effort in August!
Hope you're all staying COOL, wherever you are!!!