Vacation II

Remember, at a High Mass the subdeacon no longer wears the humeral veil; the paten is left upon the altar, and the subdeacon joins the deacon in assisting the celebrant.
Thus endeth my instructions regarding the "Vacation II" post.
When we last ended I was describing our trip home from Spokane. Karen and I wanted to take some pictures of the area where we grew up.
This is a picture along Highway 395, near the junction of Highway 17. If there is a "nowhere" this is really close. This picture is typical for this time of year in Eastern Washington. I think it was a little cooler than normal that morning, only around 80F. For a long time the signs here didn't include "Othello." We were really excited when they changed the sign and we were on it.




This is a view looking Southwest from 395. The mountain in the distance is Rattlesnake Ridge. Rumor has it that it is the tallest hill in America without a tree on it, but I can't find any substanciation on that. You can decide for yourself. Here is a link to another blog with the same claim. Hey, if two people who do not know each other make the same claim, it must be true, right? Anyway, as you can see, there are vast areas of flatness in Eastern Washington puntuated by high ridges. And farms, lots of farms.

This was taken several miles down 395. They have harvested the wheat in this field, then cut and baled the straw, and are now picking it up to stack it. If I remember that is a John Deere 4850 driving around there.

Well, after viewing all this excitement, we met my sister for lunch, which was very fun, then made our way home. We stopped at REI in Tuallatin before continuing to Salem. Karen got the hiking bug after trying out some backpacks.

I close with perhaps my favorite pic of the trip......

Owl poo. Cool.

Finally, News from the Vacation, Ch. 1

I finally have a minuet to sit down and do a thourough job reporting on our vacation! I got back, worked a long week, then had an IICRC class for work. I learned how to do repairs that I have already been doing for 5 years, but at least I'm certified now!
Well, Karen and I left home for Washington Saturday, July 22. We left late because I had to work Friday night until 10:30pm. We drove a rental because our Outback was going in for a face-lift and hip surgery (new front bumper and fixing a dent on the rear quarter panel). It turned out the vehicle we has reserved was unavailable, so they had to give us a luxury car! It was a brand-new Mercury Montego. A nice cat indeed. I chronicled our time at my parent's house already, so I won't dwell on it much, other than to post a few pics.
This is my dad. I am up in his bucket truck, about 40ft. off the ground.

Notice in this corner the hay bales and hay bunk. There are currently about 12 lambs occupying the pasture around my parents' house.

This is the dog. His name is Sam. He's old.

There were the typical beautiful sunsets while we were there. The mountain at center is Mt. Rainier

We had a lot of fun...













From there we went to Karen's parents' cabin near Deer Lake, Washington. It is a great "cabin" tucked back in the woods, but still close to the lake.
We went boating a lot


This is Karen being dragged along by her papa. He tied a rope with a buoy on the end so swimmers wouldn't float way. The wind would push the boat across the lake, so he had to move it. He'd just putt along and pull us through the water.

There was an osprey nest near thier cabin. I went up to take some pics of them. They are a beautiful bird, and smart. This one is the female. She would fly off and grab a stick and dive-bomb me with them. She got within about 10ft. of me at one point. I decided it was time to leave them alone for a while.

We (Frank and I) also did some projects around the place and went shooting. It was nice doing some manly stuff with him.
Just down the road from thier cabin there are hundreds of acres of dry-land wheat fields. They have been growing wheat in the Spokane area for over 100 years. If anyone is interested, there is a large farm for sale along Hywy 395 for sale. The fields with the mountains in the distance are breathtaking. Spokane was at one time the biggest city in Washington, largely because of wheat production. We noticed also that the area is relatively clean. There wasn't very much garbage along the road, and where Frank and I went shooting there wasn't the piles of garbage there are in some of the areas of Oregon. There is also much more small areas of private property. Here in Western Oregon, the land is either Weyerhauser or State Forest. Eastern Oregon has either huge ranches or BLM land. Near Spokane there were lots of medium-size farms and little 20 acre areas of forest.
Well, it seems I've uploaded the max ammount, so I'll post a "Vacation II" post later. It will loosten regulations for readers and all posts will now be in the native language, rather than in Latin. Also, the phrase, "anoiting the sick" shall replace "extreme unction." Further, all things destined for use in divine worship should have simple dignity; lavish display does not accord with the worship of God (I guess they haven't gotten around to taking down all the "lavish displays" at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). Each blog should have its own Commission of Sacred Art; ecclesiastical laws, relating to the building of posts, are to be revised wherever necessary. ;-) I am of course, jesting.

Back from Vacation

Got back from vacation and apparently a week being unhooked from power, then re-connected caused my power supply to fry. I had to go get a new one, but I was so busy with other stuff, I just now got around to it!
I've been tagged!
Angie the "IBEX Scribe" tagged me.
1. One book that changed your life: Being the complete dork I am, I cannot say, "the Bible" as the Bible is actually a compilation of many works. As far as "writings," I would say James' letter. My wife and I went through it this winter, and thoroughly got our butts kicked. Other than sacred writings, Wild At Heart by John Eldrege and Every Man's Battle by Steve Arterburn and Fred Stoeker. Wild At Heart has been criticized for some of it's theological issues, but the central theme of it is solid, that men need to be men. We need adventure, risk, and "battle." I think it may have changed my wife as much as or more than me. Every Man's should be read by every man. We do not realize the hold our culture has on us through sexuality. Christian men must by "constantly vigilant," as my wife and I like to say, against falling into sexual sin (especially through our eyes and thoughts). I realize that was more than one, but it's my Blog - deal.

2. One book that you've read more than once: All of my Calvin and Hobbes compilations. I don't know how many times I've read Revenge of the Baby Sat. Connecting to the previous answer, Calvin and Hobbes cartoons present my view of the perfect life of a boy (Here's a site dedicated to Calvin's snow art).

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: It began as one book, but has been subsequently broken into 5 volumes, but the Dune series. It takes a looooong time to get through them. By the time you get through the whole series, you forget what happened before. I think it would also take years of thought to understand what Frank Herbert was trying to say.

4. One book that made you laugh: See answer to question 2.

5. One book that made you cry [or feel really sad]: Charlotte's Web.

6. One book that you wish had been written: A fictitious story of how Russia progressed as the West did, set in the early 1800's. Eastern Russia is akin to the western USA. Oh yeah, and the Mongols rise to power a few centuries later than real life and threaten Russia. Too bad for them Russiaentrepreneursrs have perfected the self-contained center fire rifle. Instead of "Winchesters" and "Colts" it's Mosin rifles and Nagant revolvers. Europe is stuck in the Dark Ages as well, and America is only inhabited by Indians (until Russian explorers reach the Bearing Sea and begin colonizing the West Coast). I think I've been reading too much alternative history and playing Rise of Nations.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: I like Angie's answer of The Book of Mormon.

8. One book you're currently reading: Around the World in Eighty Days, by Verne

9. One book you've been meaning to read: The Spreading Flame, by F.F. Bruce

10. Now tag five people: Karen, Bill (If he reads this :-) ), umm, don't really know anyone else with a blog.
I will write more about our trip at a later date, but I thought this was fun, so I did it first.