Even though I went to bed a bit late last night, I got up at the alarm. Dreams last night were interesting in that they continued after a bathroom break. The first one I remember, I had been framed for murder and they were preparing to execute me, which wasn’t a very fun dream so I was glad it got interrupted by a bathroom break. But then when I went back to sleep it continued. My exoneration was due to my lawyer also having had a small fish shoved down his throat by the framers (who were bad cops). This totally made sense at the time. Then there was another one that was a more benign adventure, and included a sighting of Ambrose as an angel. In the dream, I knew he had passed on, and that only I could see him.
I wanted to make my way to Council Mountain Hot Springs today. That was my goal when I got out of bed at the alarm, and even though I didn’t get right out the door like I’d hoped, my timing turned out to be good. I left the house a little after 8, and ended up at the trailhead just before 9. There were two other vehicles parked there, but I decided to check it out anyway. Surely the people there could share!
The group I found when I got there seemed far larger than two vehicles could hold, but they did end up leaving soon after I arrived. I soon had the place to myself. Only two pools were cool enough for me to soak in, and I made the most of those.
After I got home, I had a late lunch. Then I gathered up all my trash and took it to the transfer station. Then I was off to Ontario. I need to get a passport book if I want to be able to fly to Canada to visit relatives, and I currently only have a card. The only way that I can figure out to get a book is to use the renewal by mail form, which means I need a physical passport photo. The closest place with convenient hours to do that was the Walgreens in Ontario, so that’s where I went.
I finished Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon on the drive. I think I’d listen to that one again, or read it. The main character is a woman in her seventies, and that’s not something you see very often in science fiction. I started a new book on the way home, but I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it. There’s two plot lines and one is kind of interesting, but the other is boring me so much that I doubt I’ll make it back to the interesting one.
Getting the passport photo was easy enough. The clerk wasn’t sure if septum rings were allowed in passport photos or not, so I turned my ring up into my nostrils to make it disappear for the photo. It’s very easy to hide, though with the jewelry I’m wearing right now, that maneuver is very uncomfortable due to the sharp edges of the gem beads. There was a wait of about 40 minutes for the hard copy photo, so I went grocery shopping. I didn’t pick up a whole lot. Mostly drinks. I was running very low on my nonalcoholic beer.
On the way home, I stopped at Kelley Orchards in Weiser to pick up some more fruit. I haven’t quite finished what I got in Moscow, but I will soon. I like having fruit in my diet. And it’s the season for it. Kelley Orchards had some very nice looking peaches, and I also got a couple of tomatoes and some dried fruit to sock away for later. I had a nice conversation with one of the owners, who was impressed that I did solo backpacking. I gave her my youtube channel handle.
I put in a bit of actual cooking effort for dinner. Minute Rice, fried Spam, and tomato, some of which I ate by itself and some which I heated up with the Spam. I want to try and make a mess of beans to eat on for a while, but I keep getting bogged down in not knowing what to do. Which is silly, because I can totally make a mess of beans. I’ve done it before. Though that was a very long time ago. I should have cooked more when Ambrose was alive to keep my hand in it. Like driving. There was a period of time when he did all the driving, and then when it came time for me to do some driving, I wasn’t used to it anymore. I was rusty and out of practice, and from then on, I made sure I got driving time in regularly.
I don’t really have any plans in particular for tomorrow. I kind of want to do some house cleaning. A strange sensation, that.
There’s a fire in the West Mountains. The trailhead for the hot springs wasn’t all that far from the closure area. And today the smoke drifted over to my house. It’s felt very dry today, and the sun has been filtered through layers of smoke and particulates. The mountains were veiled, and even invisible from sufficient distance.
