Sunday, March 20, 2011

Find Me on Mead Hunter's Blog

Happy Spring!

The irrepressible Mead Hunter (pictured at left) featured one of my poems on his blog this week. Thanks Mead!

Cheese party last night! Turning in grades today.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Tsunami Warning Sunrise

I was so pleased to spend time in North Bend with authors Carol Ann Bassett, Henry Hughes and Jennifer Richter!

One nice thing about leaving North Bend before dawn is driving Highway 38 at sunrise. With the mist and fog hovering over the pastures, the Umpqua River on the roadside, and the elk, cows and sheep in the early morning light - it was all quite lovely.

Except for having to leave my hotel room at the crack of dawn! Thank you, people who own the Reedsport gas station on 101 who opened early so people like me could get gas. They had two pit bulls and pit bull puppies in the office - I didn't have much contact with the dogs, though.

After the gas station, and after I turned on to Highway 38, I stopped at the Sugar Shack Bakery (pictured above). It was just getting light when I left there.

Turns out the warning was just a warning, and by the time I'd reached the Denny's in Albany (in the clothes I'd slept in), I wasn't all that worried about tsunamis anyway.

But my thoughts are with the people of Japan. I can't imagine the terror so many people there must be living through right now.

This morning I ran the Shamrock Run and this afternoon I folded laundry and watched Bright Star, the movie about John Keats and Fanny Brawne. I feel grateful to be able to engage in everyday, normal activities, when across the Pacific it's an entirely different story.