Christmas

 Late Saturday, I left for the coast.   I took one change of clothes.

Yup, left late.  There was stall ups on the freeway.  I'd seen that when I went over and rigged one plastic cover over where the three cat colony caretaker feeds.  He could have done this long ago, but he is full of excuses all the time for everything.  So I put the plastic cover up under the fence, after punching two holes in one end, with some scissors in the car and running a long zip tie through the holes and out.  I was kneeling by the fence in pouring rain to do this.  From under the fence I worked up the end and finally worked the ends of the zip tie through the privacy screen and fastened it off, to that it on the other side, it was at a good slant out and would cover his food boxes.

When I was driving home other side of the freeway I saw the slow up, near to halt, on the freeway south, of traffic and thought I'll wait to leave.

I finally left, for the south coast, to spend the day Sunday there,  but the slow ups continued, for no apparent reason, with traffic crawling at 20mph and finally I left the freeway in exasperation and found my way down a different route, crossing to the coast from the valley via the beautiful highway 38 to Reedsport and down.   

My brother and his wife had been stuck in Eugene over the ice storm day, trying to retrieve their daughter who had been trying to get down from Fairbanks to see them.   Cancelled flights stalled her in Tacoma.  Then she got a train but it had problems with a bridge maybe over the Columbia or in Portland which caused the trip to lengthen and lengthen.  They stayed over two nights in Eugene trying to figure a way to pick her up, tried briefly the freeway Friday but quickly abandoned the plan with the terrible slick ice.  Finally did retrieve her in Salem, late Friday night, when things were starting to thaw a bit, where the ever slow train ride had stalled out again, (she'd been on it forever from Olympia).  They got her on Friday evening, not getting back to their home in southern Oregon til nearly midnight.

They had reservations Saturday late afternoon to see the Shore Acres State Park holiday lights.   I have no idea how I made it on time to meet them there.   I did, arriving a good half hour after they did, but still in plenty of time, to find it dark there, raining lightly and crowded and my left foot too painful to walk on far.  

Tendonitis. Clutch foot caused in that week of taking in 37 cats culminating with the trip to Portland with 12.  When you are tired out then drive to congested Portland in a manual transmission car, your clutch foot will not be feeling great by the end of that trip.   I'm trying to figure out how to get myself and a few cats to Portland in just under two weeks, since the lady I'd hoped could transport up a few cats to be fixed, now can't.  With my painful clutch foot, that is.   Darn that such a trip is the only means now to get cats fixed.

Shore Acres is on the coast out past Sunset Bay Beach and campground, out past Empire and Charleston, not that far out though.  I worked summers twice as a teen out at Bastendorf Beach County Park.  Shore Acres is a ways on past Bastendorf. 

The lights were beautiful.  We wandered the acres of beauty for some time.  The lit up house had cookies and hot cider inside for visitors.  

Already there were three other family members staying with brother and his wife besides their daughter from Alaska, so there was juggling for them to sleep that many of us over.  It got worked out and was just a delightful time together.   I was gone again, on the road home, within 24 hours or so of starting out to go down there.  

We went nowhere once back at their place, from seeing the lights at Shore Acres, for the rest of the time I was there--just hung out, slept of course that night, ate breakfast and had fondue for lunch Sunday, Christmas Day.   Lovely to see my brother and his wife, their kids, kids family and my brother's wife's family.

It was nearly dark by the time I left at 4:00 in the afternoon.  I drove through rain and some heavy fog with little traffic until I hit the freeway.  I found a bathroom to my relief at the elk place outside Reedsport.  It's the elk habitat overlook, that I love.  One can see, on a good day, all kinds of wildlife and bird life out in the protected area including herds of elk.  The highway is between the river and the viewing area.  There were elk in the fields before the elk view rest area on the way down but it was dark and foggy on the way back when I stopped in, having had too much coffee, needing that restroom, which was trashed from so many people stopping during the day.  And not another car to be seen.  Just the way I like it.  I could be a hermit at heart.

My cats were happy to see me, briefly, then mad that I'd ever left and acted like spoiled kids.

We only had a couple days of ice here.   The east coast is having a terrible time of it, with blizzards and snow and freezing cold.