The Great Wide Open

Tom Petty's passing is on my mind, and I bet he is on yours as well. Immediately after learning the sad news, it reminded me of another Tom I knew who died in much the same manner. That would be our dad, Tom Price. He was also 67 and I wonder now if I thought he was as young as what I'm thinking about Tom Petty. Of course, being just three years younger than Tom Petty, my idea of young and old surely differs from when I was 28, and had my whole life ahead of me.

And then there is the news from Las Vegas....there are no words for that. A madman at work. :(

I wrote recently that I think I'm loving the sky show so much because there are no trees to hinder my view. The corner balcony, indeed, affords a great wide open look at my immediate surroundings and I am taking every advantage of it while I am here.

Did anyone see the full moon last night? While it was tremendous in the dark, if you were up quite early this morning, it was even better. The  Harvest Moon turned a lovely shade of, well, it's hard to describe the color, but my point is that it was tremendous. I watched as it dropped into the Pacific Ocean.

My photograph does it no justice that's for sure. Last night, while trying to capture the moon as it rose over the buildings, unsuccessfully, I might add, I watched as one of the large boats made its way out to sea. Before living here I had not a clue about how many types of watercraft are in use. There are several large boats such as the one below, mostly party boats that take folks out in the evening, presumably a sunset dinner cruise. This one, however was way too late for that, so why they would head out at night is beyond me.

In the daylight hours I have been definitely putting some miles on this old body! And I've been sewing. Monday, my steps took me across the city, once again, to DressSew on Hastings and Homer. When first I visited the store, I was overwhelmed with the merchandise, however, on this occasion I began looking through much of what they have in stock and it is a lot, and I do mean a lot. Somewhat messy too.

What I discovered was every type of fabric I've ever heard of, and some I've not. Seersuckers in multiple colors....check. Vast variety of knits....check. What may be even more astonishing to me is their vast array of notions. Unreal how many zippers they have in every length and color. This shows only a fraction of their stock.

My mission that day was to find just the right buttons, a familiar theme now, for the blouse I just completed. I'd purchased the fabric at DressSew during one of my first visits, however, I waited until I bought the sewing pattern at Fabricana before using it.

So that's all done now, as are a pair of cotton pajamas I made. I know, they sell them in stores, but what's the fun in that? Another day, another trip there for, you guessed it, the perfect buttons for the pjs.

Tuesday I finally got up the guts to call Apple about my photo library, but first I moved the computer out into the living room so I could use the "landline" to make the call. So much easier for me when I know I'll be on the phone for longer than I would like.

First I talked to a woman in Oregon who was sure she could help, but then she couldn't. Next it was Travis in Austin. We talked, we screen shared, and then he had me do something that was going to take several hours. Rather than keep my eye on the screen, I took a walk on Davie Street towards the West End. You cannot escape America here as there are signs of it everywhere.

Leaving the commercial part of the WE, I walked on one of the residential streets, loving the changing colors.

When I returned, Travis and I had another session and finally we are back in business after I imported nearly 4,000 photographs that had gone to the wrong place. Whew...all of our cross country trip photos and nearly two months of our stay here.

When I told Irene I was nervous about the winter weather she told me it comes on gradually so you have time to become acclimated. Well, as it turns out, the leaves changing comes on gradually as well.  As this is my first Fall experience, I'm not quite sure how I thought it would work, but I'm learning.

Homer Street runs alongside David Lam Park and we take it frequently as it runs into Beach Crescent. I've no idea why the field is closed off, and what all those barriers mean, but I can say the grass sure looks better than it did about a month ago. Plus, all the yellow trees!!

It is not often that I see any police presence here. While I'm on that topic, I bet I forgot to mention that on our entire cross country journey we probably saw only about four police or highway patrol folks which seemed somewhat remarkable to us.

Our health insurance brochure claimed that a doctor's office on Hastings did direct billing, except when I visited them, they do not. I did see a neat piece of artwork in the lobby though.

Unlike, in say New York City, there are no guards in lobbies of the big buildings I've been in. I do so remember the joy of popping your head into some of those grand buildings in NYC before 9-11 that are now off limits.  How about you?

More walking, more sights.

More fall color...

After walking past it on any number of occasions, I finally went into a home decorating store on, yep, Homer Street. My friend Sue would go crazy in here, especially if her wallet was full.

Your friend Gail was digging this display.

Walking along Hastings Street I came across a cooking store so I popped in to see about buying a rolling pin and I was in luck. On sale too as they were having a promotion for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday which is Monday, October 9. That date makes a lot of sense to me....instead of having two major holidays, sometimes within a month of one another. Zarita and Gregg have invited us for dinner!

One of the items I purchased on our recent Wal Mart run was a mixer, and although it was crazy inexpensive it works surprisingly well.

Because I have to rely on Google for recipes, it is really interesting how one of the first websites to come up is from Ricardo cuisine, apparently a Canadian celebrity chef. I can certainly vouch for his recipes, having made this oatmeal cookie one, as well as a delicious apple crisp. Now I have a mixer, a pastry blender, as well as a rolling pin. A pie plate too, however, I cooled the cookies on the broiler pan after baking them on a nontraditional cookie sheet. Baby steps my friends.

Finally, you don't see a whole lot of graffiti here, well, hardly any, so it surprised me to come across this seemingly very West Coast ideology.

And that's all for now folks....off to order new eyeglasses for both of us. Of course, that will involve walking...

yours truly,

Gail