This and That

 I fell asleep far too early last night.  I didn't mean to, it just happened.

So here I am, wide awake, at 3:30 in the morning.

It's ok though.  I have a coast vet clinic trip this week and need to adjust sleep to early to bed for the next few days.

Yesterday I discovered one of my elderly feral girls has a bad URI.  She's super wild and did not want to go into the bathroom.  I don't blame her.  She's isolated there from her friends.  She's also on a heating pad, which she needs.  She also needs at the least a long term antibiotic shot since she is far too wild to give orals.   I was going to take her along to the coast clinic but decided to use a vet here.  Her appointment is at 7:00 a.m. in fact.  I hope she isn't in kidney failure.  She's old.

Raindrop has been here over ten years now.  I don't know her real age since she was an adult when she came here.  I'll guess 12?

Update:  Raindrop has died.  She had life ending anemia.  The cold was just something she got probably from being run down from the worsening anemia.  They don't know what caused it.  Cancer is probably very high on the list of possible causes, along with an autoimmune disease that causes a cats body to attack its own red cells.

My brother is so far doing well after his knee replacement.  He gets around on his own with crutches already and probably will do just fine.

The weather here turned back to rain, which is fine.  We do need rain this time of year.

I went to the park yesterday and was astonished by the traffic in the park and there was nowhere to park.  It was crammed in frisbee golf people and I saw, to my horror, the entire field between the river and the road had been now also turned into a golf course for the frisbee people, leaving little room for any other activities.   A friend who walks her dog there said maybe its temporary because the public won't put up with the county turning that whole park into a golf course.  It's dangerous. People were trying to walk their dogs among the frisbee catching baskets.   I hope it is temporary and maybe those baskets and their poles come out and can be stored and maybe it was just for some event.  

They already had an 18 hole frisbee people course on the one side of the park.  Why destroy the parks use for everyone else by expanding it to the rest?    So anyhow, hoping its not true and its a temp thing.

Update:  the extra frisbee catch baskets were temporary, thank goodness, according to a friend there today.  Sigh of relief.

It will be a free for all this summer, with competition for space there and parking between people trying to picnic and swim, play in the river, kayakers and rafters who float to the park from upstream, the people who bring their kids to the new play structure, dog walkers, nature walkers and the darn frisbee golf people.  There are very very few parks in the county that aren't just pull offs or boat ramps.  You have to drive a long way to find something else.  Our parks here in town are just lawn blocks with maybe a bench, if you can call that a park.  There's nothing to do in them, so I'm not sure what their point is.  Trails and nature enjoyment, unless its fishing, are not a thing with the county.  You got to go way out, to the mountains, to find trails to walk, unless you know some logging roads.

Anyhow, it made me terribly upset to see they'd planted those frisbee golf baskets all over yesterday.  I just wanted to cry.  

I guess I'm a wimp now in that I don't like to hike alone.  It's my age I guess and my bad joints.  I don't go on long hikes, thinking I may not make it back because I might injure myself.   I like the hike around Clear Lake.  But that's a long drive from here.  I hope to go do that one soon again.  It's an easy walk, maybe three or four miles, I can't remember.  I park at the Forest Service campground day use to access it at the far end of the lake. I love that campground.  Maybe its time to go camping!    I loved the Opal Creek loop hike, through Jawbone Flats, the little village you had to hike to get to...but its gone now, taken by fire last summer.

Another hike I like is at Ebola State park on the coast, up to the top, although its very very steep.  At the top are these cabins for overnighting on the coast trail.  I took a nap there after climbing the good side of the trail up to it, when at the coast with cats at the coast clinic and being already tired from the very early start and long drive.  It was a nice nap, as it was very quiet among the trees and not another soul did I see or hear. Then you can take a short spur trail for a really good birds eye view of Terrible Tilly, the lighthouse out on the rock in the ocean.  Then down the bad side trail, with now and then views of the ocean. That side of the loop trail isn't well maintained.  That trail was closed for a long time, maybe because of a storm that downed trees, but I can't recall the reason.  I think its open again.

I like the hike to Short Sands beach too, from the parking lot on the highway. It's a short hike, but through a beautiful old growth forest.  The beach is used by surfers but the tide pools when the tide is out are so interesting to me.  I'm often too tired once I get to the coast clinic to do anything but sleep in the back of my car.

Here's a link to fire damage done, to Opal Creek in the Beachie Creek fire last summer. Includes photos of damage to Shady Cove campground and Three Pools swim hole.