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

Velcro's twin

Last night we walked up  the 2 blocks to the Britt Festival just as Joan Jett* was getting started.

*best know for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL5spALs-eA

Anyway, on the neighborhood walk, we came across a decrepit, one eyed black cat who walked right up for some pats....... I didn't know Velcro (our Maine matriarchal kitty) had a twin... A neighbor walked by and said he called her the hobo cat. She's just more of a slow-go cat.

Weather forecast this week: Hot with patchy smoke

So many fires in so many acres around us that the very close mountains are obscured by smoke.  This weekend we tried to get out of the valley and drove 3 hours to the northern coast. (More late on that). Some of the worst, evacuation level-3 l fires are on the closest coast to us so those roads are closed.  Judd and I reside in that bowl of white smoke just to the east of the big red Chetco Bar Fire on the coast below (just north of the blue arrow where the smoke almost obscures the town of "Medford" just north of the California border on the NASA today map of Oregon/Washington.  I'm told Oregon used to "manage" their forests but now they don't  so they have grown up into big, dry acres of tinder with the 90-100 degree weather we have.  The cause of the fires is generally lightening strikes which have been unusually prevalent this summer.  Because the geography of being surrounded by all those beautiful in-April mountains, the smoke comes and sits in the bowl of Jacksonville/Medford/ *I wonder why they call it:* Ashland.  We hear it only gets this bad every 3-4 years.  And just when we start to be grumpy about it (and we are, because we have headaches and itchy eyes and the school kids have to have inside recess) then I hear today about one of the doc's whose home is 5 miles from the fire.  And I chose not to watch local news so I don't even realize how many people have been incovenienced by evacuation or worry for their homes.

And below the map is the 10 day forecast..... Contrast that to Kelcy's 10 day forecast in Alaska.  He's done the 14th there and on his way here.  Hope we can warm that guy up without setting him on fire.

What's up pussy cat?

Solar eclipse on first day of work  WAS auspicious.  We were allowed to take our morning break  by dashing outside for about 15 min on either side of "totality."  We were about  4 hours south of actual totality, but it was impressively about 94% of totality and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees over 30 min.  I loaned my special eclipse viewing glasses to some dude on the street outside my VA orientation building.  It turns out he's a supervisor in HR and he's been super helpful and friendly every since.  (Maybe he is also repentant since he assumed that, of the two of new hires starting that day, Zach and Melanie, that Zach was the doc and I was the pharmacist.)  Surprise!

Judd was home that day awaiting internet installation man.  Also auspicious!

Judd and I  checked in with our landlord for a couple minor things that were not optimal: dimmer lights that don't work, washing machines that don't spin. AND, back in July, the landlord had leaked to us that he loved his Moxie when he lived back east, so we stashed a couple cases for him in the U-haul. He came by for delivery. We commented about all the deer and turkey in our yard every night and he mentioned that Jackson county has the highest density of cougars in the US. I tried to do some fact-finding: While it appears the west-of-Medford area is pretty red for cougar population, it doesn't seem like the highest density....

But found a beautiful website about cougars and their loss of habitat.... maybe Oregon is greener than some of the west coast.
http://mountainlion.org/us/-us-population.asp

image from the Bend Bulletin 

State of Jefferson

Judd and I starting hearing about Jefferson on Day 1 (seven days ago.)  I thought maybe it was the county name until we looked it up.  Some cars had a license plate frame that said State of Jefferson and we ignored it.  Then a work mate of Judd gave him the low down: back in 1941, it was proposed that part of northern California and Southern Oregon merge to become the 49th state called Jefferson.  Then Pearl Harbor happened and spoiled their plans.  But to this day, some folks in this area still wish they were part of this mythical state. I'm going to reserve my decision until I've met some Jeffersonians. Learn more here:

https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/state_of_jefferson/#.WZnEh5OGOT8

U-haul came through in the nick of time and we picked up our U-box yesterday in Medford (15 minutes away.)  That means work clothes and shoes in time for tomorrow's start date. We spent only 2 hours emptying the crate after a 30 minute scavenger hunt looking for someone in town with a crescent wrench so we could open it.  We had pad locked it in China and had our key, but someone at the Augusta U-haul had bolted it shut for good measure.  Our tool box, packed in Maine, was safe inside the U-box. But Jamie at the gas station loaned us her wrench and we calmed down. The real chore was unpacking the 'OPEN FIRST' boxes and finding a new home for each item. This 1880 house has unusual cupboards and makeshift closets but we do have an extra room upstairs, although about 50% is unusable because it is mostly under the eaves. Good for hobbits or house elves, bad for Judd and me. We also did some furniture shopping so we'd have somewhere to put our TV and school books.  Our house went from sparse to replete in just 24 hours. Thank goodness for thrift stores and Fred Meyer.