A wee bit of hooky for me...

I went on a trip last week to the coast.  Husband and I worked out how to give Mom a belated Mother's Day present.  A friend of ours has a place on the coast, and Husband was offered use of it.  After some back and forth, Husband and friend were able to get organized, that Mom and I could go and spend a couple nights.  I, with permission, skipped work the day before we went.  Figured I would do my blog from my phone.

I forgot two items when I went over.  Binoculars, and my password to get into my blog.

AHEM.

Soooo, I will now get back to bloggy stuff... 

It was a nice trip, we went to Newport, and had a nice place to stay.  The first night was just stay in and rest.  Mom loves the chicken soup I make, so I brought a container, and I had made a loaf of Stupid Bread* to go with it.  It's a bit of a drive, so I was sort of glad we didn't go out and make an evening of it. 

I just enjoy most of the activities on the coast, so I told Mom this was stuff she wanted to do.  We ended up going to Yaquina Head Lighthouse, as she'd not seen it before.  I meant to take her to Cobble Beach nearby, but forgot.  It's a bit of a walk to get to, but it sounds like applause when you listen to the waves on the rocks!  We also went to the interpretive center, I enjoy looking at all the "educational and historical" stuff.  Obviously, there was someone who didn't.  I didn't see the girl, but Mom said that there was a teenager that was walking behind the family, nose glued to her phone.  I told Mom, that might be for the good, at least she wasn't ruining the rest of the family's time... 😞 

I pointed out to Mom one of the "Easter Eggs" they have.  From the first lighthouse keeper to the early sixties, there was a book exchange.  They would have X number of books, and then the next time they were supplied, the books would be put in a big box, there would be new ones given, and then the old books would go to the next lighthouse.  Well, they had samples of the books in a crate.  Victor Hugo, Dickens, Bronte... Star Wars...  (I noticed it right off, the docent told me it's to have the kids notice so they will pay more attention, they have sort of a scavenger hunt thing... She also said I was one of the few adults that that noticed. SIGH...)

We also went to a majorly talked about restaurant.  I won't eat the clam chowder there, as it made me sick!  But I found out they have many, many other things to eat, so I told her, if she wanted to go, I would have something else.  I ended up having a cod burger.  Mom had a cup of chowder, and... Something with shrimp?  Anyway, we finished up, and she was okay with it, but said the hype, was hype, it was okay. Not great...  My cod burger, on the other hand, was perfect, and HUMONGOUS.  I was VERY full. 

The next day, we went to Depoe Bay, and went to the Whale watching center.  I guess there was a small whale that had spouted, but I was borrowing the one of many sets of binoculars, to watch boats, and missed it!  Mom saw it, I think.  The ranger was quite sure.  The people that were all glued to the windows, not so much... Oh, well, it was still an interesting stop.

We then went to lunch, at a place we've eaten at for years.  They have changed the menu, and had breakfast until 11:30.  Erk.  We were there at 11:10.  We asked if they were serving lunch yet.  No, the only thing they have ready is clam chowder.  We both laughed, that's exactly what we'd come in for!  So, we had clam chowder.  Quite good, too.  The only oddball thing, I kept getting a whiff of maple syrup.  Turns out, the gent behind me had a stack of pancakes, and was drenching them accordingly.  Fortune would have it, it didn't bother me, just was odd to smell maple, and eat clam...

We then drove home.  WHOA BOY, do people seem to want to drive fast.  I set the cruise to 55, the speed limit on the road home, and I was needing to pull over quite often, as there were lots of people late for pole position at Indy wanting to go considerably faster.  I don't fight it, I just figure, if there's a safe spot, or I can get to the passing lane, let the stinkers by.  I was just sooooo happy we didn't go on a weekend.  We were going HOME on a Friday.  The road going in was bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper...

If I can later, I will see if I can get a picture up.  Being immodest here, but I think I took a very good picture of the ocean... I hope to maybe make it into a poster or some such.

But for now, back to the home stuff!

* I called it Stupid Bread because it was so incredibly dense.  I was making it, and the bread machine tried to commit suicide by leaping off the counter onto the floor.  After cleaning up the dough, (i.e. cutting off the stuff that had managed to actually HIT the floor, eeeewwwww... )  The dough that was still intact was set to bake.  I thought. 

Husband reset it, and it went through the whole process of raise, beat down, raise, beat down, all over again.  It tasted fine, but soft and fluffy it weren't!

FIRE!!! Right? Hmm.

I was driving home after working at the sub, and as is often the case, I was driving right during rush hour.  I also have a small car.  I am not picking on anyone, much... However, I have noticed that large vehicles seem to think my car is fun to be right against.  I guess I also create road rage- by driving the speed limit... Meh.

Anywho, while turning the corner to get on the road to my house, I cross train tracks.  While worrying about a dingbat passing me on a double yellow line, I happen to look down the tracks.  It's a reflex, you know, avoiding even BIGGER vehicles... And I see smoke.  White smoke, which is usually lawn type grass, (this is Oregon, I specify), or wood.  The glimpse I got was the grass was on fire.  But it's not impossible that someone was burning slash wood.

But it bugged me.  I don't really have a logical process when I see things, but the mental gears kicked in.  It wasn't near a house... It WAS by train tracks...  That, in and of itself was odd, unless there are Railroad workers near, they don't just set a fire and leave.  In fact, there wasn't a person around.  Sadly, that can be not so unusual, but it was near the center of a field.  Most farmers would at least have someone watching it...  It just bugged me, the whole way home. 

So, I called it in.  The info was taken, and I figured it was probably a fluff on my part, probably getting the emergency guys out for no reason...

The next day I receive a Flash Alert.*  It said that a fire had been called in.  Yeah...

And it turned out it was not one, but 2 fires were burning, and they had to have 2 engines called out, as it was in a bad area to fight fire in.  (The railroad goes over and by a swampy area.  Oddly, the grass can be tinder on top, with the soil the consistency of a wet sponge below.)  They were able to put out both fires, and I gather since I'd called it in fairly early, the damage was minimal.  They didn't know how it started, though.  That bothers me a bit, but I guess, they will hopefully figure it out later.


*Flash Alert is a notice that fire, police, schools, etc., use to tell people about 'news' and events.  I am signed up for several of them.  It was originally for a job I had, now it's just because it's interesting, and I am nosy... :)

All Steamed Up part 2

Walking around the area was a caution, you had to be aware of the drivers.  There is a reason that most of them are men... Those things are a monster to get turning one way or another, brute force is really an asset.  Quite a few of the rigs had 'chain drive'.  This amounted to a large logging style chain wrapped around the steering gear, which you more or less yarded on with levers to turn right or left.  This is NOT a Mini Cooper!

The various engines would roar to life, and they would parade around the outer perimeter of the area, then go back and park, to let others out.  Parking was its own unique experience, backing is possible, but slow and very cumbersome...

I went over to the stationary engine area, there was more than a few pumps.  Farms had to have water pulled up, and this was pretty much how they did it.  (And is that not a cute "fence post"???)  You would be amazed at how many of the machines just had a big old strap that would make some other machine work... OSHA wouldn't be pleased, but it was really a pretty effective way to get things going. (For these demos, they would put a hose in the pan to pull up water, then run it through the pump, to pump it in the pan... To pull it up again!)

Other than the amusement factor, (the little bird blew the exhaust out of its beak, giving it a Hee Haw-esque effect while the engine was running), I was not entirely sure what this small engine did.  I didn't see a sign, but I am guessing it was just a small power generator, for a small pump or washing machine.

This was rather cool to watch, it was a model of an actual Farmall, and the gent set it up on a pivot, so as the tractor moved, it would be continually turning, and it had tiny disks on the back.  If you look closely, you can see where the wheels and the disks were actually starting to 'plow in'.  Little Babushka stayed on very well, too!

Some gals were selling a quilt (I didn't win, sigh), and had some turn of the century sewing items to go with the other engines and such on display...

And someone with a sense of humor decided we needed Singer Farmalls, and John Deeres!

Next up, tractor pulling, and parade of vehicles...