Rubies at the Pacific

Ruby Beach is a part of Olympic National Park and it is actually the first Pacific beach that you arrive at if you drive west from the Port Angeles, Sequim or Forks area. What makes it amazingly beautiful to me are the rugged cliffs and sea stacks. On Thursday it was perfect spring day and my mind was heavy with some thoughts. Nothing seems to allow for clearer thinking than natural, God given beauty and the sound of the sea. Here are some photos I took as I walked the beach and the trail to the beach. This is such a pretty place and if you are in the area it is certainly more than worth your time for a stop.

This is Destruction Island. As you can see there is a Light House a top it that is still in operation even today with improved navigation to warn ships away from it. You can guess from it's name what used to happen when ships got close to the island before the light was installed.

Envy

It is one of those human emotions we don't like to own up to having. We feel silly for having the emotion. Well I'll be honest and say that I have it. Not for something you'd probably expect though. I don't envy the neighbor's car, house or boat. I envy people in the southern part of the county. They have access to a shop that I adore. That I suppose is an odd thing to envy, however I do and I'll confess it. The shop is James Avery. I hadn't heard of the store until I moved to Texas in my teens. I was quickly introduced to it because most of the girls in my high school had a wrist that jingled when they moved. Almost every one of girl wore a charm bracelet with charms from James Avery. Some of the charms were silly. Simply something to spend money on and have as a status symbol. For some like myself though charms were collected slowly and each one means something important. The store even went out their way when I requested a doberman charm. It had been discontinued in the late 1980s however they still had the mold for the charm in their warehouse. Out the mold came from storage and they made one for me. I continue to add to mine even though I've moved away and wear my bracelet almost daily. The charms remind me of people, places and events in my life.

I stay on their mailing list and it was just announced the Tennessee is the lucky state to receive the next new store. I keep hoping they will venture north. I'm afraid though that I have to venture south in order to visit the eye candy I so adore in person.

Fear

Fear strikes at your heart. It freezes you in place and causes you to feel powerless. I was talking about this yesterday and about how overcoming a fear gives you a rush like no other. You can realize that your fear was unfounded and that you are stronger than it. My biggest fear since I was young was of saws. Table saws, circular saws and any other saw you can think about. If it had a motor and a saw blade it made my heart pound and I'd leave the room. Three years ago my family was at work on remodeling a house as a summer project together. It was just the four of us. (Mom, Dad, Brother and Sister) A very happy summer spent as a family. Near the end of the project I got the hair brained idea that the house needed the front and side entry steps covered in slate. The concrete steps were in good shape but ugly. Everyone else was busy with something else on the project and we were pushing to get the house back on the for sale market. That left only me to do this. This meant me to run the tile saw and lay the tile. Oh my! Did I mention I was scared to death of saws? Blades and motors would send me running into the mountains or at least into the house!

Well I set my mind to it and picked out the slate and purchased the tile saw I would need. Set everything up and got to work. My Dad gave me a lesson on the saw. He stood next to me as I cut my first tile and patted me on the back when I did it without killing myself or passing out. I on the other hand was euphoric. I'd beaten the saw!!! The fear was no longer bigger than me.

Fear had no power. I could do anything now. I could cut tile. I could cut boards. Oh there would be no stopping me! This taught me a bigger lesson though. I would never again let something like this have power over me. Kind of like a strange food. Give it a try you can always say you don't like and not eat it again ever. At least you haven't let fear take hold.

Here is the saw I didn't let beat me! ;) I got her pretty dirty but she was such a pretty yellow color.

Wedding Advice

This weekend my husband and I head off to join in celebrating a wedding in the family. These occassions always seem to take everyone's thoughts back to their own wedding and my are no different. I remember so many parts of that day like they were yesterday not in July of 1999.

The picture above is just as my parents have finished walking me down the isle. They are whispering their words of love and happiness. I remember this part so clearly. I then remember my father taking my hand and giving it to my husband, well my soon-to-be husband. My dad was too broken up at that point so he couldn't say anything. I do remember my friend Yvette, who's back is in the photo saying, "oh, Jerry". We all love my dad! Then together my husband I climbed the steps with the Pastor to be married. The vows, the rings, the candle, the prayer, the reading, the blessing and then finally the kiss. Husband and Wife 35 minutes later. Seems quick doesn't it? Something that you will spend hopefully your life building took only 35 minutes to set into motion. Seems like it should be like the birth of a child where people talk about it taking hours.

So that leads me to advice. What advice to give? What advice did I get? Well I was told A LOT to never go to bed angry. Sometimes that just doesn't work out in real life. Sometimes you can't solve it all in one day and you need to sleep on to see it clearly and that you were blowing something out of proportion. Sometimes you also need to sleep on to realize you need to ask for forgiveness. The Lord works best when we are quiet. I was also told to always keep doing those small romantic things that helped us fall in love. Well sometimes life isn't romantic. It is filled with dirty dishes, laundry, bills and work. None of that inspires constant romance. So along with these two I've thrown out most of the advice I was given by well meaning people on the day that I got married. I want to actually give advice that means something. I think what I've come up with is treat your spouse with the same care you would your best friend. When your best friend calls you make time for them right then. You don't say...I really need to back to doing this or that, making them wait knowing they have to understand. You also make plans to do fun things with your best friend. You are kind to your best friend. You probably wouldn't pick a fight with your best friend just because you are feeling frustrated either. Your spouse has married you because they want the best parts of you and love you in spite of the worst. You don't want to just give them the leftovers at the end of the day.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.

Ecclesiates 4:9-10 NIV

Playing Tourist

Yesterday I spent the afternoon playing tourist in Seattle. I hit all the big places. Rode the ferry in. Took in all the color and energy at the market. Got to watch some fish fly even. Had lunch at my favorite little place. Which is 101 years old now the Athenian. Grabbed a chai at the first Starbucks. Walked further into downtown to catch the monorail out the Space Needle and then rode all the way to the top. The view was pretty nice. None of the mountain ranges were out, but the city and the sound were beautiful. It was a great day in the city!

The famous Pike Place Market sign and clock.

The Space Needle

Seattle from the top of the Needle!



Now for a little TV Seattle


If you have ever watched Grey's Anatomy this is the helo pad they use for the outdoor scenes. It actually belongs to KOMO TV 4. It is across the street from the Space Needle.

If you ever watched the show Fraiser this is the converted condo building where he lived as seen from the top of the Space Needle.

Interests

Interests. They can be a passing fancy or they can become a life long passion. They can be something that you spend little time on and love very much. Yet others might require much more time and dedication. I have one, flight. I've never gotten to explore it to the extent that I'd like. It is on the someday list. Even if I never get there...the cockpit of a plane, it doesn't stop me from enjoy flight or loving airplanes. Growing up I had a couple of loves/interests. They were odd for a girl or at least many around me thought so. Space, planes and cars. Space I think I came by that naturally with the shuttle program starting when I was so young and getting to visit John F. Kennedy Space Center when I was 5 in 1980. Back then so much of the NASA site was open to you to tour. A much more innocent time. Planes I also came by naturally with my family traveling so much from the time I was a year old when my father was transferred for his job. Cars now this I'm not sure about. My Grandfather used to race them but it was before I was born. My Great-Grandfather helped perfect the tires we use on them when he was a chemist at Goodyear. Again though this was before I was born. Maybe its just in my DNA.

This past week whatever it is that gave me these interests was jumping for joy. A friend who remembers my love and adoration of a certain plane linked me to a recently declassified flight manual. I've switched from reading fiction this week to reading a techinical flight manual. Yes I know I'm a bit of a dork for loving this so much however I'm in heaven. It lets me dream. The plane I speak of is the most beautiful plane ever built by the human hand. The SR-71 Blackbird.

She was officially retired in 1991. However an elite division of the Air Force as well as NASA continued to fly her until 1999. They retired her only when they absolutely had to. She served well as a recon plane flying at Mach 3.2. That is just under 2,200 MPH and at 80,000 feet above the Earth's surface. Some teens had boy bands on their walls I had this plane on my wall! ;) Well and one of these...

An American classic...the Corvette!

I suppose interests are as individual as the person and part of what makes this world so interesting. We all have a slightly different way of making each day here enjoyable for ourselves.

Granted

No one likes to be taken for granted or to be a given. Everyone likes to be appreciated. I was recently reminded of this lesson by a very kind gentleman.

Long ago on a drive from the Midland airport back to San Angelo with my two closest friends and my boyfriend, at the time, he told us to listen closely to this song below and never take each other for granted. He had seen how close we girls were. We had been friends in high school and had chosen to go off to college together. We could have the serious talks and we could also be goofy together. Something we nicknamed "idiot bonding" back in the day. I guess with my counting my blessings today on Mother's Day of having a great Mom I'm feeling a bit sentimental. I've got family nearby. An older brother (only 43 when it happened) that survived a heart attack a year ago. Family far away but we are pretty good at staying in touch. Thank you Facebook! Friends all over the country and the world as well as close by. I need to make certain these folks know I'm not taking their friendship, love and support for granted. I know if I need them that they are there for me and vice versa. Even if its just an email that makes me smile, a call to catch up and laugh for a bit, or a text like one I got from Steph in Alabama this week that just puts everything in my world in its place. She has a talent with a 160 characters I tell ya!!

Don't take them for granted! You just might make their day. :)

The song is from 1991 called I Will Not Take These Things For Granted.

A new sight!

Someplace I've never been...Freshwater Bay. I'd been near it before and friends have a house on the other side of the bay so I've been in the very near area before. Just not THE bay. It was beautiful yesterday. The cold front that had been making our days feel like March instead of May moved out of the area and the weather has improved. The mountains have a fresh layer of snow though and what a beauty they are! I hope I never get so busy or so bogged down that I can't see the beauty of what is around me. I say I'll never take this place for granted. I really hope I mean that!

What a day!

This past evening was just wonderful in the sense that the birds were singing and the sun was out. It's warm enough now to head down to the water for sunset. Saying it's warm enough does not mean that its warm. It means only that instead of coming home frozen you get to come home chilled!

Along the water it was perfect though. The tide was out enough that instead of walking along the road I could walk along the rocky beach and enjoy the waves crashing. I'll never take living here for granted.

It was so lovely.

Another day coming to an end with such a lovely glow

Returning to my car and looking towards PA I noticed that Hurricane Ridge was making an appearance for the first time all day. The mountains had been covered in clouds all day. It is very odd this time of year but it's been snowing something like 10 inches a day up there the last few days while we have had a cold front in the area. Snow in May!!

Go West Young Lady

I like to drive and I like to hike. Both activities focus my mind and around here it is hard not to enjoy the scenery. So west I went this afternoon. It was my intention to have a nice long hike, however the weather had another plan. Here at home it was nice and sunny but out west it was anything but sunny. After dodging rain drops I shortened the hike and it became more a nice drive filled with lots of the areas beauty.

Canadian Goose nesting. Seeing this made me wonder why its called a Canadian Goose when clearly this goose is American! ;)

View looking west from the last 1/3 of Lake Crescent. There is almost some sunshine on those foothills way way in the west.

The trees are so tall. Describing how tall is difficult. Being in the forest here is almost like being surrounded by sky scrappers in the city. Only it smells a whole lot better!



It is so green too!

I took this one as I was getting back to my car. My first thought was...it needs washed. My second thought...look how small it seems next to those tall trees.

Customer Service

Every job I've ever held has depended on my ability to provide customer service and also to ensure that at times those I supervised provided customer service. Because of this when I go into a business I have expectations that I'll receive customer service to certain level. Today I found myself again wondering when employees are trained if they are taught the basic principles of ...

1. The customer is always right
2 If the customer is wrong, please see rule #1.

And also

That a happy customer tells approximately one other person but an unhappy customer tells five to seven people.

I'm hoping that tomorrow when a call is supposed to come from this business that they recover with grace. I did my best today to handle the situation with tact. It will begin to move quickly out of control though. One of those moments where you can see the car accident coming and it simply isn't in your power to stop it.

The Hoh

This was to be tomorrow's blog entry, however tomorrow is going to find me away from my laptop. I wish I was going someplace as lovely as ONP. Instead I'm headed into the city for an appointment.

Several weeks ago some friends were visiting from the midwest and we headed to The Hoh Rain Forest in ONP. The mild winter we had been having gave us a day filled with sunshine and no need for jackets. My friends joked that this was the second time I'd taken them to Forks and both times they didn't see clouds or rain. They are begining to doubt the rumors. I promise though its true the winters and the springs are rainy! Just check out that moss in the trees in some of these photos.

Did she just say that?

Now I call the Pacific Northwest home, but before I came to live in the land of rain and tall trees I resided in the land of Tex-Mex. North Central Texas was home until college and then it was West Texas. So to listen to the southern accent talk about a town on an island I can see from my current house all I can say is it doesn't get much better than that. However the laughs that are provided help too. I am considering a trip to the north in February though. I had no clue the calm Canadians did such things to raise money for charity! ;)

It is a bit long however I'm certain you will laugh so give it a watch!

Editor

This past week the local paper had an error in one of the front page headlines. The error caused the headline to pretty much not make any sense at all. It was a glaring error. As soon as I saw it I wondered, a bit sarcastically mind you, if the paper had an editor. Of course they do but as we all know to error is human.

I did start to think though how nice it would be if our life came with an editor. Someone to tell us, "Oh you shouldn't do that. It's not going to turn out well." or "If you phrase it like that your spouse will understand better."

We all tend to over use the words I'm sorry. That phrase lets the people in our life know we didn't mean to do or say whatever has wronged them, however it doesn't take away the pain or fix the situation. Maybe if we all came with an editor from birth we wouldn't have to say we were sorry in the first place.

Agent Dale Cooper

In case you don't know remember who Agent Cooper is or heaven forbid Twin Peaks here is a clip of Agent Cooper's introduction in the pilot episode from 1989. Agent Cooper has a thing for good coffee, cherry pie and trees.





Even back in the day Sesame Street got in on the Twin Peaks fever with this skit "Twin Beaks"

Dream Come True

Well sort of...kind of...well a small one any way. In 1989 a show called Twin Peaks started airing and I fell in love with the story, the characters and the scenery. Little did I know that in less than a decade I'd live in the general area where the show was set. I've visited the falls but I hadn't visited the cafe for the famous cherry pie. Well my high school friend and I made that small dream come true this past week. Agent Dale Cooper was right this cherry pie is amazing. Really!! So now the cafe is called Twede's Cafe and its in North Bend. At the time the show was filmed it was Tamar's RR Cafe. If you are ever in the area its worth a stop to use Agent Coopers words.