Sunny Weekend

Astoria, Oregon ~ October 6, 2013

It's super nice out today after last weekend when we were doused with an epic rainstorm, where we got 9.7 inches in three days (or 10.1; see below). Here on the river it didn't seem much different from any other heavy rain. It poured at times, but not all the time, and the River Walk didn't seem any soggier than usual. At least not where I was. We did have some thunder, which is unusual. One loud burst came within a mile. I love storms. 

Here is the scoop: "Astoria recorded 10.1 inches during the same period, the most since records were started in 1890 and a drastic increase from the city's 'climatological normal' of 2.14 inches for the month of September, according to the weather service."

My Web Page: Tapirback.com

Water, Water

Astoria, Oregon ~ November 23, 2011

It's been storming and blowing for days. A lot of the area had power out last night from downed trees, but I was fine here - only a flicker of the lights during the evening. In the photo, the rain on the river was so heavy my camera didn't know where to focus. It's always interesting to see what washes down. Above, it was a good-sized leaf. Below, a small log.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Faces of the Season

Finally, after a long and pleasant summer, it rained like crazy for a couple of days straight. It seemed unusual just because it hasn't happened for awhile, but soon it will be almost a daily routine. I love the rain, so no problem here. The piece of two-by-four is a harbinger of real logs to come as the rains wash the shores upstream. I took this picture on October 22, and today there was one of those interesting reed mats that cover the water just in the area of the photo. I got distracted before I took a picture of it, and soon it was gone.

You can't see their full beauty in the bright light and high contrast of the photo, but these flowers outside my front door have been my friends all summer. They found a niche, then withstood all events, including someone pulling off the bloom either because they liked it or "just because." There is a ton of foot traffic on the River Walk, so you never know. Anyway, they came back wonderfully and are still looking good today even after a couple of days of our first cold-snap. I'm sure they like the reflected heat from the building and the blacktop!

When I see a pink glowing sunrise like this one over the water . . . 

. . . it usually means there's a brilliant sunrise over the River Walk.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Egoscue Method, Day 23: Loosening Up

Astoria, Oregon ~ November 20, 2010

This photo has nothing to do with my Egoscue Method theme, except that the morning brilliance reflects some of the feelings I have after my appointment yesterday. It was my third appointment, and a long drive to Portland in pouring rain with a little snow over the pass on 26.

We went through the excercise routine I'd been doing for two weeks, and Matt asked if I felt I was still getting benefit out of all of the exercises or if there were some I felt done with. Being new to this, I didn't know how to evaluate that, except that if I was still feeling stretching or pain with any of the exercises, I guessed they were still doing something. So, we went through them and talked about how I felt doing each one, where there was still any pulling or stretching, and he watched how I walked and moved, asked about feelings of balance, etc., as before.

Then he tried me out on a whole new set of exercises. After my first visit, he had kept the original routine and added three. Most of these new ones were very different, so it seems I had made enough progress with the original set to begin stretching further to deepen the results or add to them. They were hard, and some of them hurt, while others were easy, just different. By the time I was done going through the new ones, I really felt limber and less painful in a whole new way. I'm beginning to have a real feel for how this works. Matt answered some questions I had about why I still have pain in certain areas. My feet have been especially bad the past few days, and I realize that probably has to do with a) being more active, b) getting into positions with my feet at the computer or during work that exacerbate the problem, but he also explained again how the twist I've developed over the years in my upper body affects how my feet work when walking and standing. He didn't say this, but I envisioned a marionette. If you twist the shoulders and upper body, the feet aren't going to contact the ground the same way any more. You spend years walking and hiking in that condition, and you're going to create problems in the feet. I also asked about some issues with strength for lifting vs. pushing in the upper body, and he demonstrated that, too, so it made sense for the first time. What we will be doing is correcting these things, and as we did the new routine, I could see even more than with the old routine how one side of my body performed differently than the other. The goal, of course, is to balance it out. I left feeling extremely positive about my progress, and I when I got home, despite a difficult drive in the rain with car headlights in my mirror and fog on the road, I felt looser and more natural in my skin than I have in a long time.

A few things I've noticed over the past few weeks:

1. I've taken stairways rather than the elevator just because I felt like it. I used to do that until I crashed at the end of last May. It felt good doing this again.

2. I can box up orders in the store with less pain than before.

3. The exercise routine became easier over the two weeks, and I didn't find myself doing only part of it and then taking a break and going back to finish. (I also learned from Matt that it's good to do it all at one time and in the right order, because one exercise may get your muscles ready for the next one, etc.)

4. I've generally felt better with less pain, but then when I feel better I do more, or maybe I've spent more hours at the computer, so it creates a feeling of being static and not making progress unless I really notice something like taking the stairs or walking farther without thinking about holding myself back to favor my feet.

5. The pain and symptoms of fibromyalgia are improving. I don't know that I could have done this routine back in June when the relapse was new, but during the summer I did find some very simple Egoscue excercises online for fibromyalgia, and with those I began the process of feeling better. They were not as dramatic as these, but they made a difference, and they were easy enough that I could do them at the time. (I did the one linked here and two others. Here is another page that describes all three. There may be a better link somewhere that shows all three visually the way the first link shows the one, but I want to get going.)

I thought I would be really sore this morning after yesterday's new and somewhat painful workout, but I was hardly sore at all, and I still felt flexible . . . better than waking up most other days. After yesterday, I thought I would be dreading the new set of exercises, but I'm very much looking forward to them. There are 11 exercises in all, including the new ones and a few of the old ones that were kept or modified. They'll take a little longer, because one requires lying on the floor for about half an hour. I would usually rather be DOING than not doing, so this is always a tough one for me to follow through on. It will make me feel better, though, so I'll just turn up the music and relax into it.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Another River-front Weather Report

October 24, 2010

I love the light and colors of storms! Today's storm was more about shading than colors. It began early. In fact, the lightning flashed through my eyelids before my eyes were open. The lightning didn't last long, but it came back later. I didn't see any of the strikes, and they were not terribly close, maybe four miles away at the closest.

I've noticed that the seagulls hunker down and look very flat in the rain.

This time it's not rain, but hail.

Heavy hail.

Hail and rain against the side of the workroom window. I thought I was getting the mother and baby stuffed opossum (top of the bins on the left) in the photo, but they aren't visible. They seemed not to mind the crashing hail or the thunder.

Hail outside the window. This is where the lovely tangle of plants lived until last summer. The neighbors tore them out, then got as far as putting in a few big rocks, but no plants I guess until next spring (I hope).

When the downpour stopped, a familiar pattern of clouds emerged. So often, there's this layer of clouds over the river obscuring the hills of Washington. It takes one form or another, but is usually separate from the clouds above. I thought the arrangement today was striking.

And it rained again. As I type this at 9:37 p.m., I've just seen lightning outside the window. I wonder what's in store for tomorrow? The big winds didn't materialize yesterday. The forecast usually gives a hint, but it's usually not spot on.

Web stuff: I finally decided today that I had too many blogs going on, and while I like the theme of all of them, I concluded to integrate "On the Pavement" with Tapirgal's Daily Image. I had very mixed feelings, like ripping up a piece of artwork, but went for it anyway. I also spent some time putting these plastic floating/swimming fish online in a way that people could order them from the site. It turns out that the page on the gift shop blog featuring these fish was by far the most popular of all my pages, but since I didn't have them online in the store, people had to order them by phone. Here's the new set-up. Let's see if they're as popular as I think they'll be.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Rain and Boats

October 23, 2010

9:47 a.m.: The National Geographic boat Sea Bird comes in to dock at the Maritime Museum.

10:43 a.m.: It doesn't look like much of a day for sailing, but this boat was headed in the direction of the bar with all hands in gear for heavy weather. The spots in the foreground are seagulls, also hunkered down for the rain. We had a high wind warning for the day, but the really strong winds didn't materialize. All we had were buckets of rain.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Today's Colors on the River

 Astoria, Oregon ~ October 20, 2010

I'm still astonished when I look out the window and see something like this, and sadly, I still have not been able to get it right - to show how dazzling these ships really are when the morning sun catches them full force on a clear day.

This may be a better example, but it doesn't have the GLOW of the way it looks in real life. "Pan Bright" is the name of this vessel, and the "bright" part is certainly fitting.

In this case, the camera actually heightens the color. I wanted to capture the green of that anomalous fern on the concrete tower base; it came out well, and the water seems bluer than it is in real life.

I love the old "feet" of the radio tower. I may be sorry if they ever paint them.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Helicopter Transfer

Even though the day was rainy and the photos don't look nice, there's something interesting going on here. Usually the ships are pretty quiet out on the water, but today I heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter as the ship was passing. I kept looking into the cloudy sky, so it took me a minute to realize that the Coast Guard 'copter was on top of the ship.

Here a Coast Guard boat is following in their wake.

The pilot boat was alongside but hanging back.

The camera didn't want to focus at this distance, but there is someone in the doorway.

It looks like one guy is still in the door of the helicopter and another guy is on the pole (or whatever you call it; are they still called masts even on a ship like this?) of the ship.

Speaking of poles, the name of this ship is Pole.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

A Drizzly Day on the Columbia

This is another of my "weather report" photos. Nothing special, except that looking out over the river is always special. It's been drizzly, and it's the most wintery summer I've seen here. People are starting to complain about it. I'm not bothered by it yet, but it is a little weird to be wearing a sweatshirt every day in August and still feeling cold. This is the only photo I took today.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Sun on the Jin Ping

I love the way the sun shone on the Jin Ping this morning.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

A Gorgeous Day

The day dawned spectacularly blue and balmy.

I took this one mainly to record the name of one more ship. This is the Jin Yue. Although I didn't get any further info, ships can usually be found online these days. By the way, on the left is the new, colorful cap to the railing improvements on the pilots' building.

The other end of the Jin Yue.

I thought I'd drive to Astoria Health Foods to pick up some NADH instead of walking, just because I was feeling so tired, but it seems everyone was visiting the coast on this beautiful day, and the parking spots were all taken. I ended up walking about as far as I would have anyway. It was a nice day to be out. This bench seems to be new. I'm noticing new benches and planters all over downtown Astoria.

My first thought was just to capture the old Art Deco tile in the unused entrance to the Astor Hotel ballroom on Commercial Street, then I noticed the strange "flower" growing the pot. Later I noticed the blue glove on the window ledge. Since they're working on the ballroom, and since people leave their trash in inappropriate places, there's no mystery or story at all, but simply visually I thought it was a kind of fun '30s-style mystery image. No?

This is no mystery, it's the front of Amazing Stories. See today's Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo.

I liked the way the light was playing on the curtains, but you have to click to enlarge in order to see the effect of the old glass.

Coming back, I was struck by the color of the center building, although it doesn't show as well in the photo. Still, I like the image.

This is the sign for Amazing Stories. I'll capture it someday it better light. I think it's one of Astoria's nicer business signs, and the Deco certainly goes with the building.

Here's another bench I hadn't noticed before.

I'm always a little surprised to see kayakers out. There's a kayak rental place on Pier 39, but it's not every day I see them on the water down here. I'm sure there will be more as the weather actually turns into summer.

Evening on the old Englund Marine building. I always love this view, and the pilings are so green right now.

This evening shadow of the deck railings above me always catches my attention, but it doesn't photograph very well. The lines are not sharp. Maybe someday I'll get it.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Sunset Glow

As I looked out the window, I was struck by the magnificent effect of the sunlight reflecting off the vertical parts of this ship below. But once I got onto the deck, I realized I'd have to be quick to catch the more subtle backlighting on the pilot boat. Tricks of the light often take my breath away, and this was one of those times. You may have to click on the photo to see it.

The ship was moving fast, and once I got it into the frame and focused, I'd already lost some of the drama of reflected light.

But it was gorgous. The timing was perfect. It's such an exciting moment to glance outside river and catch something like this.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Boats and Rain

This morning the tugboat Betsy-L passed by my deck in good lighting for a photo that shows some detail, if it's not dramatic. She's the same tug that posed in this dramatic lighting and ended up on my Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo blog.

Six minutes later, at 12:13, the storm had come in.

After work, I drove over to Warrenton to Starbucks and sat in the parking lot for awhile talking on the phone. I became interested in the way the rain on the windshield broke up the sign pole into jagged fragments.

I also especially liked the shape of the bare, damaged tree to the left of the pole and the way the street rippled.

It wasn't all that long before there was blue sky again.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.