Of Inuit and Epidurals

Where were you when the USA made Obama president? I was at the hockey. One of my bosses has season tickets but he was optimistically planning to host an Obama party on 4th November. Jessie and I didn’t get invited, instead we got his tickets. And a very good deal that was.

Within minutes of arrival, Jessie had told me everything I needed to know about the game. The captain, and goalie, is Luongo. Then, there’s the fat one, the young one, and the funny looking twins. A hockey team has twenty players;presumably the other fifteen have no distinguishing features and therefore were not worthy of comment. Players sorted, she told me about the rules; most seem to relate to penalties for violence. There are separate penalties for tripping, boarding, hooking, high-sticking, slashing and spearing but if the umpire can’t decide they use an all- inclusive roughing. That’s pretty much all there is to know about hockey. Well, I should say, that’s all according to Jessie, who despite being Canadian seems to know very little about their national sport. [read on]

Are there bears in Oregon?

Until this thought, I was quite enjoying my solo adventuring, especially the walk around Trillium Lake. Hiking with other people usually means chatting as we go, lovely, but I never see the wildlife. On this excursion though, I watched otters gambolling by the water and a deer prancing through a meadow. I stood completely still for an eternity waiting for an owl to turn his head to the camera for me. I twirled beneath a canopy of cedar, trying to see where the tap-tap sound of a woodpecker originated. I had not a care in the world. At least, until I started thinking about bears. Because if I was going quietly enough to hear the woodpecker’s tap, I was probably going quietly enough to surprise a bear. My solution was to start singing. Unfortunately the only song I could think of was that children’s song “We’re going on a Bear Hunt”, not great for the nerves. I have to assume it did the trick because I didn’t see a bear. I didn’t see any more wildlife either, so had to go back to taking photos of landscapes instead.

[read on]

Not sure why the school bus was out on a Saturday but I liked that it matched the leaves!

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