Hope Rides Again

I'm up early hours again.  Hard to get my schedule back the same, after the coast trip, and preparation for it, which meant early to bed, early to rise.

Doesn't matter, because I'm going again.  Need to keep the early to bed schedule at least til after that.  So I have been.

The coast trip wasn't so much of a problem because I was early to bed the night before, despite a very very busy couple of days prior, rounding up cats for Monday's clinics.

I knew which cats I was taking also.  Charlie was so easy, since he was in the bathroom and such a nice sweet boy, unlike my hordes.  But Mooki had to go, and he is always in the bedroom early morning, so I just closed the door once up, and later pulled him out from under the bed and into a carrier.  But he slams into any carrier door with such force, even though he's old, I had to put him in a trap, for security.

There was not such a line at the clinic this time, maybe because I arrived a few minutes later than usual.

Traffic now, even early early morning, is rather severe.

No longer can early rising ease completely the pain of a trip through Portland.

On the way home---yikes, it was terrible getting through Portland.  Like a nightmare.

After I checked in the boys, I headed straight to my usual parking lot, at the beach.  I thought I would take a walk.  I like this parking lot for its amenities.  It's not usually as crowded as all the other ones.  It has a nicely maintained outhouse.  I can watch the waves hit the jetty from my car, or go for a walk on the beach.  There's cell service there, in case the vet needed to get in touch.

But by the time I got there, my eyes wanted to sleep.  I climbed into the back of the car, lay down atop the folded heavy quilt and pulled another over me.  I had my reading glasses and this book:

Saturday when I saw my friend she said she had to go to Target.  I went in with her and she vanished then reappeared with this book.  She said she was buying it for me. My friend is ultra conservative. We'd been engaged in conversation, several months ago, and she was ranting against liberals and the candidates and I was trying to steer out of politics and said I can't think of Joe Biden as anything but a crime fighter.  I told her about the book my brother had given me for Christmas two Christmas's back and how it made me laugh and laugh.   I told her I thought there was a second one out now.

Well, she being a reader, she went out and bought the first book, which shocked me, since she had railed so, against Obama, when we'd meet for coffee when he was President.  Then she'd bought the second book, because the first one made her laugh.  And now she bought it for me.

The first book, I forget its title, did make me laugh.  The writer has Joe Biden's idiosyncrasies and insecurities down so well.  It must be tough to be an ex VP, you know.  What do you do with your time?  How do you get over going from big important world leader politician to.....well, to what?   That's hard!

So I saved the book til Tuesday by sticking it under the drivers seat of my car, and got it out once I was at the coast, in that parking lot, to read.  I didn't last long, however, before I was sound asleep.  I didn't wake up for three hours.

On the drive over, the rain pounded down.  But by mid morning, the sun made a break through and never gave up its place in the sky to the clouds.

I did take a long walk on the beach, once I woke up, and ate lunch at Costco later, before picking up the boys for the trip home.

The Coast Guard trains over the Columbia crossing near the south jetty, so its common to see the helicopter out.

I grew up on the coast and with the belief Coast Guard helicopters are guardian angels.

When I see them I still get a feeling of security.

Beach Bubbles!