CHECK UP

Behind me is the windowed view of the Lithia Nissan's shop. My Pathfinder is right over there, back end peeking out on the left.

No, nothing really wrong, but I'm at 33K miles and just about in the middle of my trip. Knowing that I won't make it home before the warantee expires, I thought I would stop here in Eugene, OR where I have friends to stay with, and let these people take a look at a couple of things that need.....well, looking at.

As I was leaving Crescent City, CA, yesterday morning, I stopped again to wander amongst "the trees" to see if I could find a view that would speak to the size of these wonderful giants. If you look closely at the end of the path, you'll see my Pathfinder just visable -- yes, that tiny little blue thing.

See, I told you they were big. But still, dealing with their scale eludess me. One thing I have discovered they are very difficult exposure-wise with the sun streaming through the trees. The canopy of many trees grouped together, and with the dense undergrowth of ferns, it is dark at the ground level. Best time of day is early morning while the night-time ocean fogs that have penetrated this far inland are still obscuring the bright sun. The burning off of the fog brings with it breezes. During the early morning, shrouded in fog, all is quiet and still.....and a bit eerie. As I stated in a previous blog entry, I think a person would have to spend considerable time with these trees in order to render some understanding and create a critical dialogue that would result in meaningful images, rather than a mere recording of facts. Or at least significant facts.

That's my friend, Rick, and we ate at the "Cafe Lucky Noodle" last evening. A bit pretentious with regards to their wait staff, but the food was OK. I had three cheese tortilini with "tiger"prawns -- give me a break, they were plain ol' tiger shrimp. Of course, the good part of the meal is that Rick and I had long coversations about where we are in life and gave much credit to our wonderful spouses. For sure, they deserve much, much credit. Rick's wife, Julie, I have known since I worked for the New Service at UTAustin. That would be 35+ years. And I have probably known Rick just as long. I knew them both separately before their paths converged.