Our weekend of fire and ice......

Actually, more like hot water and snow


Deciding to be around for the 3 day weekend meant we were looking for local things to do to staid our ennui.  We purchased a backgammon game for each other for Valentine's Day, so we've been practicing that daily.  We still need the cheat sheet to even set up the board correctly.  We used to play in Peace Corps but that was 38 years ago and we're rusty on the strategy. I'm über conservative and it works for me about a third of the time. Our board-that-turns-into-a-suitcase fits perfectly on our camping coffee table so we can go outside and play in the sun which comes out in between snow flurries.

It snowed for an hour, great big fluffy flakes that melt when they hit the ground.  But the weather made things cold and gloomy enough that we wanted to get out of the house. This old historic house comes with modern heating but when you set it to automatically turn off when you're gone to work (or to be away,) the indoor temperature drops pretty rapidly despite all Judd's "weather proofing."  We keep telling each other, "It's an old house." An 1850 house to be precise.

So to warm up the weekend, we researched hot tubs.  Not to own, just to sit in--day use. Jackson Wellsprings natural hot springs is 25 minutes away in Ashland. We read about it on line, comparing it to the Chozu Japanese Soaking baths and gardens. Chozu was fancy and classy and expensive and even with our yoga discount, we opted for Wellsprings. They claimed a $10 day-use pass would get us in the hot mineral springs, sauna, steam room and cold splash.  We went to find out.  Driving in we were skeptical. It looked like a low grade RV park where there was hardly spitting distance between RVs. But there was a nice office building with a yoga studio, healthy snack bar and common meeting room under a huge tent called the casbah. The $10-each got us a code to enter the baths: Clean showers, well kept, cubbies for your shoes, clientele from 12 to seemingly 112 years old. A group of women friends, chatting too loudly. A couple young couples . A family, alternating from the hot tub (which holds about 40) to the "mini-Olympic" sized cold splash pool. We were there around 4pm and spent a couple luxurious hours. The pool content is a natural alkaline water heavy with sodium, chloride, calcium and slight hydrogen sulfide, redolent of hard boiled eggs but good for your skin and aches and pains. On the way out, the manager reminded us our pass was good until midnight and after 6pm the baths become clothing optional so we could come back after dinner. We were home by then, relaxed and/or dehydrated to the point of sleepy. Maybe next time. 

Sunday was National Drink Wine Day, so we did.  2Hawks Vineyard is just 20 minutes from Jacksonville and one we'd not yet visited.  It purported to have views of Mt. Ashland but we arrived in a torrent of windy snow and could barely see the vines. By the time we left, 2 flights, 2 glasses and a flatbread pizza later, it had nearly cleared up and we could see the ski runs in the distance on Mt. Ashland.  The vines had recently been trimmed. We can't wait to come back in the spring and sit outside. If Louis Pasteur says it's hygienic we should definitely drink more.

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Year of the DOG

Happy New Year!

http://soccachinesenewyear.org/chinese-new-year-2018/

Yesterday Jacksonville held many Chinese New Year festivities.  There is a rich history of Chinese immigrants here, especially during the gold  mining years of the 1850s. It's also a great holiday to throw a parade.  This is Year of the Dog so it was a great big dog parade.  We took a new friend from the VA, just moved here from Miami, so showed Eric some little town bling.  Every shopfront has sported silk Chinese lanterns for over a week. The downtown roads (all 3 of them) were blocked Saturday morning for the parade. After the 30 min cavalcade of dogs were the marching or dancing local clubs as diverse as ROTC and K-9 rescue units to Belles and Beaus (period costumes) and antique cars. Afterwards there were booths in the park for Smooch a Pooch (Dog kissing booth) and professional dog portraits.  My favorite were the dancing dog dragons - see my awesome 5 second video on youtube:  https://youtu.be/4AHs88fdBoM  okay, not that awesome.

Last weekend, when we were out hiking the hills, we came across several signs of old China town, some signs historic (see below) and some enigmatic  (see farthest below.)

 

flowers and vino

Truth be told, we've gotten used to this Oregonian weather--walking/hiking everyday.  NOW they tell us the real truth. When we admire the temperature or the flowers already blooming, all the locals say, "Yeah, but this is atypical; It's WAY TOO EARLY.  We're going to have some more winter and all the blossoms will freeze."

Great! Now they tell us.  We've seen crocus, snow drops, daffodils already blooming.  I guess the danger is if the grapes and pears wake up too early.  Those blossoms freezing will horribly impact the harvest for the year. And the "really close ski area" they brag about near us, hasn't opened for the season from lack of snow.  That sounds like it'll make water scarce this summer.

We've consoled ourselves with more wineries.  ("Gotta catch 'em all.")

I told our pourer at Schmidt Family Winery, that my mother's maiden name was Schmidt. (TRUE!) He gave me a free pen. I was expecting part ownership. We had visited the winery last sunny Saturday afternoon and we sat outside by the fountain. It looked like an adult amusement park and the gardens were all green and burgeoning.  We heard there was live music for Friday night, so we went back and sat outside under the heaters to have brick oven baked pizza.  The lady purchasing wine behind me heard me tell the cashier I was from Jacksonville and she said she was from across the street.  I said I thought that quite convenient.  When I got our bottle back to the table where Judd awaited our dinner, Kaylee came over to invite us to the fire.  Judd asked how I had such a ready-made friend. I assumed she thought I was single and she was hitting on an older lesbian. Judd thought by "across the street" that she was our neighbor in Jacksonville across the street by our mailbox  (someone we've met once.)  All was cleared up after our pizza when we went over to the fire pit. She and her partner do live, literally, across the street from the winery--she moved up from Shasta, CA  wanting to farm food and chickens; he from Virginia, wanting to farm pot. "The market is flooded."  They just seemed happy to make new friends, even older-than-them friends. by a few decades.  The live music was a dude playing a programmable piano and singing old Johnny Mercer/Frank Sinatra tunes.  No one was sitting at his fire pit. But I knew the songs, hummed along and I tipped him. 

Schmidt Family Winery on a sunny Saturday in February

Mount McLoughlin from "panoramic view on Rich Gulch Trail"  3 blocks from our house

Crocus on Applegate St.

daffoldils outside Bella Union Restaurant on Main St.

Minneapolis for almost SuperBowl

I had the ?good? fortune to travel to Minneapolis for the first week of February for a work conference. Snow already all over the ground, -4 to +4 degrees by day. It was charming.  And did I mention it's the week before the Superbowl is held here? In fact, the conference hotel Radisson Blu [sic] was chosen for it's convenience to the conference and is joined at the hip to the Mall of America-- making it convenient to walk to the massive food court or to divert your attention by shopping or the amusement park. The conspicuous consumption and noise stimulation were overwhelming.

By happenstance, the Philadelphia Eagles were also staying at the Radisson Blu for their pre-Super Bowl LII festivities: bomb (or drug?)-sniffing dogs on every floor 3 to 6 security guards or police at every entrance, a hierarchy of MEDIA personnel with some special badge that let them special places. We regular patrons were tagged with blue bracelets at check-in (like entrance to the county fair) and we couldn't walk through the hotel lobby or get to the elevators unless we showed our bracelet to the guards.  At one point, several of us tried to access the walkway from the mall back to our hotel room and the door was barred, the guard reporting the hotel was on lockdown.  When we  were finally allowed entrance, it turns out it wasn't a lockdown due to any threat, it was because "the team" was using  the elevators. Seriously?  They're THAT special that they couldn't be inconvenienced by a few well-behaved doctors sharing the hallways? And there were signs saying no autographs or photos, as IF I would recognize an Eagle if I saw one...

On a different note, Judd and I have devised a way to be outside on a cool evening.  After BBQing dinner, we sit around with candles and adult beverages and warm ourselves around the gas grill.  Under the full moon, it was almost like being at a campfire or chiminea. Almost.