ESPIONAGE!

 

I’m shocked, but sadly not surprised. He held meetings with Putin that he did not allow any witnesses in. He owes a lot of money and soon it will be much more. Can we really claim surprise?

Perfect Summer Day

It’s late now. Being after midnight, I suppose that technically it is early. And it's also technically tomorrow. So, yesterday morning I woke up, showered, put a load of laundry into the wash and left to go on a walk. 

The weather was perfect, sunny and warm just enough with a nice breeze. I thought about taking the bus into Sumner to browse the shops. But I was still stinging a bit from the trip I took to the beach. It was fine, but I really didn’t plan anything. So I showed up and after a while I noticed I was the only single person on the boardwalk. Then I started feeling self conscious, as if other people were watching and thinking I was creepy for being there alone. So I left after about twenty minutes. Today I stayed close to home. I went to the park and then wandered around town for a while. 

The walk was good for me. I walked until I was completely caught up in the feeling of the moment. With the warm day and cool breeze, the bounty of summer around me I was reminded of a hundred lazy afternoons in the sun. 

 

Itinerary

 

I looked for a sunrise picture on the beach and didn’t find one. Of course. The sun rises in the east. Sunrise on a Pacific beach isn’t going to be all that spectacular. It’s sunsets that are going to be the better picture. It makes sense. But part of me still is set for the east coast. 

I went to bed really early last night. I was exhausted. But now I am up extremely early this morning. And I must admit, I’m not sure what to do with myself so early. I’m not much of a morning person. I did it for all those years when I raised a family and worked. It was demanded of me. But very little is demanded of me now, and nobody cares what time I get up or go to bed. 

Today will be almost ideal weather wise. I should stay home and wash my clothes, but I think I’m going to catch a bus to the beach, maybe have fish and chips at Little Chinooks for lunch. 

As Seen On TV

Today is a beautiful day, 83° F with sunny skies and a gentle breeze. It is a little on the warm side, but it is August. 

Do you have any unusual routines that you use to get yourself to wind down at bed time? Some people read, but I'm the kind that reads to the end of the page, the chapter, oh Come On! I can't put the book down NOW! So it isn't really all that helpful. I can't tell you how many nights I have stayed up reading, knowing that I would have to pay dearly for it. But when my children were young, I used  to make up fairy stories to tell them at bedtime. And I would find myself nodding off too. Who knows what impact staying up the night before reading all night had on that process, but it did seem to work. 

Lately I have been watching the surveillance cameras in a nearby tourist town on YouTube and making up stories about what I see. The town is a family orientated vacation spot, so the nightlife is pretty tame. Even the brewhouse seems to close at midnight. But one night I was watching and I spotted four men run out of it in single-file, one right after the other.  Then suddenly a large crowd emerged from the nearby buildings and watched them run off up the street. There did not appear to be any police to stop them and after a while, the crowd just wandered back to wherever they came from. So that night I told myself a bed-time story about the men having been caught trying to steal from one of the travelers who was staying the night in the inn above the brewhouse. I never write the stories down, because that would break the bedtime story feel of it and keep my mind from winding down. 

Last night I was indulging in my routine, watching the tourist town on YouTube. I was about to turn the TV off and go to bed, when I spotted a man wheel a large dolly filled with boxes up to a door of one of the buildings I could see very well on my screen. What happened next floored me, and left me feeling quite disturbed. Beside the door stood an ornamental shrub that looked to be about four feet high. He tipped it slightly and rummaged around underneath it. Then he used the key he's all too obviously found there to let himself in through a different door. I can only hope they have a key lock box under that shrub, and not just a key lying out for anyone to find. But no, it was all too obvious that there is a key lying out under the shrub by the door....And a camera that broadcast live on YouTube exactly where it is and which door it works on.

Remember, the expectation is that if you are in public, you are being recorded.

Big Brother is watching.

Fever Break

This time last week I was gathering table cloths and towels to cover the east and west facing windows of the house. Tonight, the heatwave has broken. For the foreseeable future, we will have normal summer temperatures. A few of the days will be a little on the warm side, but oh so doable. The chance of rain is miniscule, I will be able to get out and view the damage done. I wonder if the heat killed every flower that bloomed. 

I was able to see the mountain when we went grocery store hopping this afternoon. It was visible despite the air quality being hazy. Unlike after the heatwave last year, it is still covered with snow. I did not stop to take a picture, it was just too hot.

This evening I gave the dog a bath and then took a shower myself. Bear was so happy that he grabbed the buckets that I had warm water in and tried to pour more on himself after he'd been thoroughly rinsed. That dog loves to be clean. He even let me trim his nails. I too, was happy to get a shower. I could feel the heat rinse away from my head and the ache that had been behind my eyes eased. It is so nice to smell decent and not feel sticky and oily. It is better knowing that it will be fourteen degrees cooler tomorrow. The dreadful heat is gone for now.