How much Boy Scout popcorn can you buy?

On the way home from Mt. Ashland, we stopped for hiking maps/fishing advice. The helpful clerk said:  go somewhere else, they're hunters here but not too much fishing stuff.  She then cited 4 places we could go instead, including for our fishing license.  The best author for guide books:  Sullivan, was sold out for Southern Oregon.  We did score the equivalence of a Delorme gazatteer.

Our routine is to stop, once a week at Young's organic farm stand for local fruits and veggies and to stop at Albertson's while 1 ginormous load of laundry gets washed at the local lanudramat. ( We still haven't fixed the washer.)  We occasionally hit Trader Joe's for  grocery splurge. There,  a tiny boy scout came up to Judd and asked if he would buy some popcorn goods.  Judd said, "no thank you.  We just bought some from you last week." (We had eaten a bag of Boy Scout caramel corn just the night before but I had purchased that at the local grocer's from an entirely different lad. So, thinking Judd was confused, I corrected him and said, "No, I got that from a different guy at Ray's." Then, turning to the wee boys scout, "can we see YOUR merchandise?"  And while we went back to the car to get our grocery bags, Judd verbally kicked me under the table.  He said he knew it was a different guy but this was his ruse for getting out more mercy corn.  He accused me of this honesty policy gaff twice in the same week, as just last week, when he was negotiating with the car salesman about how much someone downtown was charging, I corrected Judd again. We're going to have to work out a wink-wink or pull-your-earlobe-if-you-know-you're-lying rule or I could see it happening again.  I thought 'honesty was the best policy' but apparently it's not the ONLY policy.

E Clampus Vitis - "a historical drinking society or a drinking historical society?"

Judd and I decided to explore Mt. Ashland, the nearest skiing mountain.  It's about 50 min from our house. They did get snow this week when we got rain but most of it was gone.  We found little patches in the north sided shade of most trees and rocks.  Winding our way down the dirt road past the parking lot, we came to signs that said PCT. I think Judd is lusting after a Pacific Coast Trail hike, especially on a tough school day. We hiked the last 1.5 miles to the 7,532 foot summit. The vegetation is different. Smaller than Maine lupines everywhere that must be lovely in the spring. Manzanita, the low evergreen shrub with red bark that I recall from California, covered the rest of the hills. At the top, a couple ham radio guys were hanging out with their antennae and dogs.  We made one snowball. Wish we'd brought 2 hats. Further south, there was a stupendous really-really snow covered big mountain.  We couldn't identify it but we believe it to be Mt. Shasta in northern California. (can you see it in the pic?)

Getting back to the highway home, we passed over the highest pass on Interstate 5 between Mexico to Canada.  There was a monument that we stopped to read about the history of train robberies and indigenous people and settlers. 

Not recognizing the Latin at the bottom of the monument, I looked it up. Maybe we should become clampers.

where everybody knows your name....

Thursday night --

Take a walk after dinner.  Library?  Naw. A restaurant for dessert we don't want? End up at Stage Cellars-- a tasting room for many local wines.  Wine tasting for dessert can be a thing. We meet John from Arizona with a British accent.  He used to be an engineer....working on the space shuttle..... on the OMS-- they very piece that Judd used to work on at Rockwell.  "small world!"  By now, we're on a first name basis with Autumn the bar maid (is that what she's called in a wine cellar?) We  join the wine club so now we're members of a little walkable, pub-atmosphere place where everybody knows our name and we have to buy bottles a quarter. We started out right by taking 3 bottles home.  (and it's a school night!)


Friday night -- 

C-Street Bistro for early dinner. Only about  4 tables in the entire place so good we made reservations.  Judd has the pulled pork; I have the dungeness crab and pasta-- turns out to be WAY more pasta than crab. Need a box for leftovers.  Walking through town after dinner.  ?Brewhaus? Naw--Oktobertfest starts next week?  winery?  Naw-- did that last night.  A woman walking nearby says there are two movies going on: Dial M for Murder for $20 at the local church theater or the free movie: Ninotchka, at City Hall.  Duh!!  We pick the free movie.  You can make a donation for cookies and tea, which we do. We meet some everyone-is-so-friendly locals but I am becoming acutely sensitive to shaking hands as I believe, and confirm, that the crab-essentially--oily-mac-n-cheese, has exuded through the flimsy cardboard box into my purse, onto my down jacket, onto my scarf, my wallet, and, when I go to check my purse by putting it on my lap, onto my new work pants. We were charmed by the mayor who gives a little historical spiel about Greta Garbo before the movie, and then are amazed by the peals of laughter that accompany the free Tom and Jerry cartoon.  But during the rather ego-centric Orson Wells commentary on the movie, I grab Judd by the sleeve with my crab-smelling hand and say we need to get out of there before the mayor's wife's dog comes after my crotch. Whew!  What an impression we must have made on the neighbors.

from classicmoviestill.com

Cow killers at Table Rock

Judd and I both had Monday off to play with Kelcy.  We went to brunch at Buttercloud Bakery in Medford where they are known for their biscuits.  It was a bit chilly that morning, and a little overcast (with rain clouds not wildfire clouds) so it was a surprising pleasure that the bakery provides thick bright blue fleecy blank-ees so you can still sit outside.  Kelcy chose the " breakfast salad"-- a bed of kale and seeds with a big biscuit on the side.  I had a biscuit "sandwich" with zucchini and roasted red peppers. Judd suddenly felt self-conscious about his vegetarian hash, with a biscuit as it looked as if his veggies were less wholesome than ours.

We found the road 15 min away to the Table Rock mesas.  Driving through the neighborhoods between our house-town, my work-town and Judd's work-town, we can see two big flat buttes around the corner. They are upper Table Rock and lower Table Rock, jointly owned by the Nature Conservancy and the Bureau of Land Management. They're both about 2000+ft elevation. (Kelcy, having just hiked in Alaska, was not too impressed with the height or the challenge level, but he was ultimately polite.) There was an easy trail with switchbacks to the top and then about a mile walk straight across the length of the flat top to a view of Medford on the south end. We saw a couple deer and a couple humans -- no dogs allowed. It sprinkled a little but thank goodness, we never encountered a "Cow killer"  pictured on the poster at the trail head.  They are called red velvet ants which are actually in the wasp family and the female's sting is supposed to be REALLY BAD.
http://southernoregon.com/tablerock/

Tuesday, Judd and Kelcy walked to town and Kelcy book-shopped at Rebel Heart Books while Judd got a real ol' fashioned haircut at a real ol' fashioned barber. The barber lady asked, " What will it be,  just a gentleman's haircut?" and Judd said, " splendid." He looked pretty normal at the end; trimming the  errant eyebrows is what makes it gentlemanly.  Judd and Kelcy did the domestic chores like our laundry and shopping and were all ready to cook me up a steak dinner when I got back home from work. We then helped Kelcy purge and pack for his 7am fight to DC.  He purged some massive boots and salami and books, which I said I would mail him later so he didn't have to schlepp them through D.C.  He did repack one of his frozen halibut steaks, wrapped in sweaters, to give Robert and we bubbled wrapped two Rogue Brewfest beer glasses for Kelcy to take with him as party favors. We're going to miss playing tour guides!

Tour guides for a long weekend

Kelcy arrived from Alaska Thur pm, pounds of his self-caught halibut wrapped up in his sweaters.  At the Anchorage airport, they'll refrigerate your catch while you lay over, say, for 24 hours to get the *next* flight to Portland, OR.  Kelcy had slept in an Anchorage airport chair overnight since he was lucky enough to arrive a day early. He was wearing his Carhartt jacket, big rubber boots and a beard the size of Jeremiah Johnson.  I was standing in line with the other chauffeurs who were holding up family names.  My sign said "CHEESE"  so I knew Kelcy would find me. He did.


We had a whirlwind 4.5 day weekend tour of the area. He was home alone Friday to sleep in late, shower, eat the fresh fruit and veggies we left him, while Judd and I had to work.  But Friday night we went to the DANCIN winery, just 1.5 miles from our house.  It has the prettiest logo in all the So Oregon magazines; it is described as the 2017 Oregon winery of the year AND we went the evening of live jazz. A good time was had by all.

Saturday we made Kelcy's day when we got his cell phone reset at Verizon. He has been textless for 6 months, resorting to Facebook messenger only.  When the dude at Verizon got him synched up, it took a while to download all the messages he's missed.  He was incommunicado for a while in the back seat but we got his attention again at the BATTLE OF THE BONES in Central Point.   THAT's a thing.  We went the day of the Brewfest and pulled pork tasting. They carded us, gave us wrist bands and glasses and 6 tickets to go around trying different beers or wines from the area.  AND THEN, we had pre-purchased tickets for the battle:  15 kiosks of pulled pork to taste with varying number of BBQ sauces, and then we got to vote on the favorite!  Very well organized; good clean family fun! WoW!  Kelcy and I voted the place with the best maple bourbon sauce; Judd voted for the place NEXT to the ultimate winners: Smoke and Mirrors. We were too full to eat dinner that night, but after a little down time, we rallied to walk up to the Britt Festival after dark and steal some pics/sounds of the GooGoo Dolls.

Movies we Netflixed all weekend:

Guardians of the Galaxy II

Dr. Strange

Sideways

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men tell no Tales

Battle of the Bones in Central Point:  15 booths of pulled pork to sample with varying degrees of BBQ sauces, and only one ticket to vote for your favorite.   

Kelcy steals a special seat at GooGoo Dolls

Light show at GooGoo DOlls

Shakespeare Festival, Ashland to see amazing live performance of Shakespeare in Love

 Spontaneous wine tasting at Ledger David (on our way home from a hike) Unfortunately, Kelcy really like one of the classier reds  (he is getting a discriminating palate-- dang!)




Back to our kitchen for happy hour with 4 kinds of cheese from the locally famous Rogue Creamery..... and salami. They sell salami too. The taste-testing almost sated us too much for lunch.

Sunday we walked downtown to the Jacksonville Sunday open market.  It's like a mini Common Ground Fair in Jacksonville every Sunday that you can walk to from home.  Of all the arts, crafts, kids' tables, fresh produce, homemade jellies and salsas, food tables, what do you think the Thompson men brought home??   Steak.  Yup.  When's the last time you went to a street fair/craft show and brought home steak? And we had to start timing meals so we could fit in the halibut feast Kelcy brought from Alaska. But we fit it all in.

RoLLeR cOaSteR

We've certainly lowered our expectations.  It rained one day. Our air quality went from hazardous to merely unhealthy and we were all excited. Every day is a new up and a new down.

Last night we had tickets to get into the Britt concert, not just "walking around the neighborhood" during a performance or eavesdropping on a performance from the comfort of our deck chairs. Our tickets allowed us to carry wine, beer and lawn chairs to the grassy hill above the pricey-ticketed bench seats.  We had access to all the same sounds, all the same food vendors.  Local merchants came hawking their wares among the pre-show crowd just like at a baseball game.  I captured the last molasses cookie for Judd while he was off buying our dinner from the Peruvian connection.  We made friends with the blanket neighbors, locals who have done this for years or teachers of K-8 Spanish doing lesson plans for next week.  I overheard him tell one of his colleagues, "Elementary school is all about fun for the mammals, otherwise there's blood in the water."

In awe, because we haven't seen it for a couple weeks, we watched the moon rise over the stage, not quite a full moon, but not quite blotted out by wildfire smoke.  And the prequel to Stephen Stills and Judy Collins was an excellent jazz pianist-- (no pics allowed)  See and read about all three of them here:  http://www.brittfest.org/performances/stillscollins17

That was the up. Now for the down: I had to cover the urgent care clinic at work today: white coat, stethoscope, patients, the whole burrito. I thought it was a very busy day. At the end of the day , the clerk came to check on me and said it WAS a very busy day and that I was a rock star. I do so want to believe her, because I go back there next Friday. 

When I'm not in urgent care, I'm cruising the 7 miles of corridors connecting the 20+ buildings or sitting in my office (below) , studying spreadsheets, policies, timecards, emails, congressionals, central office briefs, you know, administrative-y things where my comfort level has been.

table for conferencing

3 windows, art and a really low clock

signage, warning all of inhabitants

"worst air quality in the nation"

Yup, I heard that on the news this week.  And last night our Shakespeare Festival of Merry Wives of Windsor was cancelled due to poor air quality. We found a place for up to date news on where the fires are (and where their smoke is:)
Check out Medford on this map just now:  8am  9/4/17
oregonsmoke.blogspot.com

It's making us a little sad and grumpy.  Judd's school's field trip was re-routed due to the smoke conditions and he had to take a school bus 2 hours south to California for a 2 night excursion.  It was still super hot and not very clear. Still no outdoor recess. We drove by a farm stand and, in addition to fresh strawberries and peaches, they advertised smoked salmon from Brookings.  (That's where the Chetco fire is still burning, uncontained. ) We thought it was a bad joke but turns out even when there's not a wildfire, they make really good "smoked salmon Indian style."

Yesterday, we defied all recommendations to stay indoors and walked the 8 minutes to downtown Jacksonville to check out a few shops we haven't been in.  Everyone is super friendly. The shop keepers ask where you're from (assuming we're all tourists) and we say, "here, now, but we wonder why we left Maine for all this smoke." They're all apologetic and say they've been here ____ years (we've heard everything from 8 to 18 to 83) and "it's never been this bad, never lasted this long...."  They assure us it will be better soon and we'll have a crisp fall with colored leaves and everything. "It'll start raining, blah, blah, blah...." We smile and look hopeful. Then another person walks into the shop wearing a face mask. We just now had breakfast at the bistro table in our kitchen and watched the turkeys in our yard under the too-orange sun, then watched ash falling gently past the window into the grass. It looked like a first silent snowfall but it didn't cheer us.

Only sun bathers were pinnipeds

Made it to the Pacific!

Not too many sunbathers on this beach

misty morning in Charleston

Well, parts of last weekend were clear.... We escaped the wildfires by driving up to the coast after work Friday.  There was the "we need gas but have no cash" issue that led us 3 miles out of our way into a hole in the wall where gas was $3.50/gallon.  We got $3.00 worth. We arrived later at our destination than expected in Coos Bay but had great seafood and sushi at a tiny place called Momiji (because it looked like the last place to eat food at 8pm before crossing the Coos Bay bridge.)  It was good and fresh and, just FYI, if there's only one wine glass chilled, the waiter gives it to the lady and apologizes profusely! The hotel was a steal on Booking.Com  (i.e. with about 25 hours notice) although the "view of the bridge" was out the bathroom window--we got there at 9pm and left at 7am: it accommodated us well.

Saturday morning we had a larger than life  breakfast at the Pancake Mill Restaurant (about the only place open before 8am.)  We  had plenty of leftover fruit salad for Elevensies and lots of advice about the best places to see the ocean.  We continued on to all the State Parks we could find on the coast within our 30 mile drive to Bandon. We late-lunched at Tony's Crab Shack where you wait 30 min on the dock for your order because it is so worth it. Fresh oysters, crab cakes and fish taco sampler while watching a worker-dude tear up stacks of crabs the size of your head. The ride back to the Rogue Valley got progressively less clear and by bedtime we were back in the thick smoke of Jacksonville again. I think there will be more coastal trips in our future.

Charleston  -- am dock    11am museum    
7 Devils State Recreation Park
Shady Cove --Simpson Reef-where all the loud mammals were--
         CHeck out my video on the YouTube I made:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnIV3sWCD4c&feature=youtu.be
Cape Arago Lighthouse
Shores Acres State Park

Shore Acres State Park

the red ones are Stellar sea lions; big one is Northern elephant seal and all the rest are California sea lions

Volunteer Harold had 3 siting scopes set up and was loaning out his binoculars