Word count 19416

Season’s Greetings 2021!

Let’s get the bad stuff out first.  Valentine’s Day freezing rain got us 5.5 days without electricity.  We camped in front of the gas fireplace (see pic)and spent time in the Volt charging the phone and heating our seats.  Lots of trees and branches came down, but we escaped serious damage.  Some mice came in the house to entertain cat Kitzhaber.  In June we got a heat dome with temperatures up to 115F nearby.  In November, the northwest got an “atmospheric river” with heavy flooding and record rains.  Oregon wasn’t too bad, it was Washington and BC’s turn in the (rain) barrel. 

The annual forest fires and toxic air missed us this year but did hit Southern Oregon very hard.  We are now calling Covid the endemic rather than pandemic.  Friend and wife of fellow U of Oregon math grad died, as did Kent Petrie, the second of the three of us who hung out in late grade school and early high school.  We also lost a long-time hiking friend and the husband of the woman who introduced us lo those 51 years ago.

We could go back to gyms, but rules and restrictions plus other available activities limit our interest.  Lake Oswego continues to be a wretched place to drive.  A stretch without a road closure or flagging is a wonder.

We now have some social life.  Hiking is back, but our participation has diminished, partly due to pickiness and partly because one of us is lazy.  We spend time with the Boring Hawleys – good company – including but not limited to the Oregon Garden Resort, birthdays and holidays.  Doug’s graduate school pal Jerry Eagle checked in.  Sharon has daily sib video chats with two brothers and her sister.  These started after brother Ed was hospitalized with COVID last December.  He recovered and now we have all reconnected in a way that has never happened in our entire grown-up lives.  She is grateful.

The dead Portland Old Boys may resume in 2022.  Doug’s niece Demaris and her daughter Iola (see pic) visited us one week in August and Sharon’s sister and brother-in-law came the next week.  They wanted more beach time, but the crowds were untenable.  Doug’s 6oth reunion was meh, but the cds that he gave away were popular and the food was tasty and gross.  One hiking friend turned 100 but was in total lockdown.  Other friends turned 90 last month and we were able to gather for a small celebration.  Sharon pigged out on stuffed cabbage for her 75^th this month.  Not much else planned.

Travel.  We had a cruise to San Francisco scheduled for April 2022, but Princess cancelled.  We did have a three-fer hiking trip to Yachats (spelled Yachats but pronounced Yah-hots).  We got a whale sighting, lots of beaches, a lighthouse (see pic), and a firsthand look at the labor shortage – limited business hours and closures.  Our trip to Astoria got us beer, lots of beached sea jellies, pelicans, eagles, and a good walk with friends.  Sharon travelled vicariously with her Sis to Iceland, MI, and the Greek Islands.

Volunteering.  Doug completed 5000 hours of volunteer work at the Park.  Both of us got “Outstanding State Parks Volunteers” badges.  Doug continues his assault on ivy, but Sharon isn’t sure what role, if any, she will have at Tryon Park.  We frequently combine his work with her walks in the park.  We think these outings helped keep us sane and relatively fit.  Sharon continues to help organize the hike and ramble program and was able to arrange a wrap-up party/hike for the group, outdoors, with 50 fellow hikers attending.

Booktique has two locations now.  Sharon helps with digitizing inventory.  We did a reading of Doug’s story “Nose” at a Bookstore celebration.  The new boss has added complexity that is hard on old-people brains.

Projects:  Doug continues his pointless writing, but he had success this year with two stories from 2015 – “Reprieve”, a pandemic story before it was cool, and “*lr*d” a story which is a good fit for “Strange Religions” anthology available in April.  His writing represents 1/1000 of an unofficial Guiness World Record anthology for most stories.  He has now made $23 and is a professional.  He’s also spent thousands of dollars on writing expenses.  The biggest may be happy hours whenever he gets published.  Check out his website:   https://sites.google.com/site/aberrantword. 

Sharon spent hours organizing and finding homes for much “stuff”.  Recycle bin and donation repositories got most of it.  Doug’s niece got a large collection of Hawley family pictures and memorabilia.  So what do we do with old report cards?  Collage?  It is quite a trip down memory lane.  See the pic of Doug and his sister in the mid-50s.  Related to that, Doug used our collection of these seasonal missives, going back over 40 years, to write a memoir of sorts.  Minor brag:  we got a kick out of reading them.  Hope you do too.

Sharon helped on a citizen science project called “Soil Your Undies”.  To demonstrate the existence and importance of organisms that live in soil, families buried tighty-whiteys in their yards and dug them up two months later.  Healthy soil fauna would feast on the cotton.  See the results in the attached pic!

Music.  Free park concerts came back, and we had a few behind a music store just a couple of hundred feet away.  Sharon has rejoined a recorder group; the Lake Oswego Concert Band is not up and running yet.  We went to an outstanding piano concert at a vineyard – part of a program called “In a Landscape”( see pic).

Sports.  Doug’s softball incompetence continues, but he has fun (see pic).  His team was second in its league.  He was amazed that he didn’t have the lowest batting average on the team.  Someone was worse?  Players even older play with us now, but they are competent.  We continue to play as weather permits.  Sharon fell and cut her arm.  She may get a matching scar to go with the one Doug got falling down in the batter’s box.

Animal News.  Kitzhaber abides.  He has learned to do a head/fist bump on cue (for treats).  Elk and cougars have been reported close by, but we have not seen any.  A rabbit visits our yard.  The honeybees that live in our ash tree swarmed during the summer and attached themselves to a small branch, which broke off.  The bee ball fell to the ground and a beekeeper came out to collect as many as he could.  Fascinating to watch.  Sharon’s mason bee project continues, producing many new cocoons each year that she can share.

We are holding up fairly well for senior citizens and are both vaxxed and boosted.  Only one of us is ready for Sunset City (one of us doesn’t want the other to call it God’s Waiting Room).
 
Power outage Valentines Week

 Niece Demaris and her daughter Iola at family Mt Hood cabin

Lighthouse near Yachats 

Doug and his sister taken in mid-50s

Concert “In A Landscape”. 

Soil Your Undies reveal party. 😜😜

Young Doug at play

So what’s your news?
Happy Holidays!!
Sharon and Doug

Seasoned Greenings 2020

Season’s Greetings From The Pandemic Inferno –

We know this is a lost year, so no reason to mention all of the things that went wrong or didn’t happen.

Pre-pandemic the hosts of the usual Oswego circumnavigation went to see the U of Oregon win at the Rose Bowl, so that didn’t happen.  Two things ended which were not pandemic related.  All of the feral cats disappeared, so we stopped the feeding.  For awhile, Tiger Lily, a local tame cat visited us but gave up without food.  We used  to enjoy seeing the ferals wander about our property, sometimes multiples lazing in the front yard, even though we couldn’t get close.  Indoor Kitzhaber is doing well.  After all these years, he decided that he likes belly rubs and doesn’t always ask for his pound of flesh.  Rudy and Julie’s cabin where many hen parties were held is sold.

Because gyms are closed and official hiking is gone (there is a brave or foolish splinter group that we avoid), we have found other things to do.  We take local walks and short drives – we have not bought gas in the 3,000 miles of driving since the pandemic.  By the numbers – Sharon gets her 10,000 steps almost every day.  She regrets the day she forgot to finish and went to bed 12 steps short.  In bad weather we have our mini trampoline for more exercise and we have a book of daily weight lifting exercises.  After Doug met his easy 2020 resolutions – get a haircut (he may get a second because of a discount coupon) and finished his biography Cities up to the pandemic, he has a more ambitious one for 2021 – get to 5,000 lifetime volunteer hours at Tryon Park.  We can combine the two numerical goals by Sharon walking in Tryon with or without friends while Doug puts in extra hours there.

Doug has been working in the revamped Iron Mountain Park.  The son of our restoration leader, Mike Buck, is Joe Buck who was elected mayor of Lake Oswego.  The son of another friend is in the Oregon legislature.

Booktique has been rather sporadic.  It opens and it closes depending on severity of lockdown we have.  Sharon started working there as well as Doug.  We have been doing barcoding for selling online while in person shopping is closed.  New skills if we want to unretire.  Vivian Scheans who started at Booktique about the same time as Doug and a fine person (she was always amused by Doug’s dumb jokes) died.

A few of the normal things did happen – .Our swim park opened on a limited basis, but without the cheap disgusting hot dogs that Doug ate for nostalgic indigestion, the farmer’s market opened but without food offerings which lost Doug, and unsanctioned softball.  Doug was the worst and oldest player again.  His skill is down to that of an oafish ten year old, but the other players were tolerant and he had fun and a few hits.

We are trying to help the dire pandemic / fire disasters with some donations.  We thought we might need a new refrigerator, but we didn’t. While thinking of ways to spend the money on some luxury, we got plumbing, dentist and tree trimming bills which would have gotten us two refrigerators.  Our early thoughts of taking some great tour for our fiftieth annual adversity were done in by pandemic.  Perhaps a little bubbly and pizza instead.

The lack of in person contact has been relieved a little by Sharon’s weekly zoom games sponsored by a friend and her joint walks.  Sharon also zoomed about nature topic. Doug had softball interactions for several months and his work party people.  We’ve seen a lot of Jim and Phyllis Hawley.  Restated – we’ve seen them many times, they were not exposed.  We mask and keep our distance.

Doug’s writing hobby has sputtered along.  He now publishes in Germany and Hungary.  The latter is run by a scary guy who is a political bomb thrower.  Both of those publications are by ex-pats who primarily publish in English.  He had interviews with two publishers.  For all of that and more see his updated and migrated website https://sites.google.com/site/aberrantword/ or blog https://doug.car.blog/

These epistles should always end on a high note.  We are in good health and lost weight – stress and/or low carbs.  Doug is thinking about entering an all gender and age beauty contest.  Much better, vax on the way and the reign of error started in 2016 is over.

Seasons Greetings 2019

It has been a mostly pleasantly uneventful year.  So far, no holiday accidents or diseases.  We passed on the few possible snow shoes (global warming?), but hiked quite a bit.  Volunteering remained the same.  Looking ahead:  We are planning to celebrate several milestones next year – stay tuned.

Sharon’s Hen Party was cancelled because of a hen’s injured leg.  There were the usual painful passings of friends and family, the worst of which was nephew Robin’s wife Michelle and Doug’s last aunt, Gerry.

Doug got in a whole season of softball and played badly but enjoyed it.  He wrote more stories and did readings for his Bay Area publisher Synchronized Chaos (see pic – he’s reading “Brave Newt World” inspired by “The Thing From Another World, in the other reading he sped through his memoir from Portland State’s College Bowl team) when they visited Portland.  A fan from Tehran Iran has been aiding his writing.  He solicited a Christmas Story which included the author (Doug) as a character.  The result is “Ghost Writer In The Sky – smart car 17” http://www.short-humour.org.uk/8writersshowcase/sc17.htm.  It will also appear in Sam’s website on December 23 (Iraq time?).  https://flashfiction.ir/.  Ah,go ahead and read it, it’s short.  We are convinced that feuding governments should not stop people from being friends.  His music collection is growing through the purchase of grab bags of cds.  He’s still waiting for that rare cd worth millions.

Sharon continues playing in the most excellent Millennium Concert Band.  She was asked to play in a concert with local piano star Michael Allen Harrison, but it didn’t work out.  Naturally speaking, she continues to learn and share her learning at the Park:  mosses, mason bees (see pic), slugs, spiders and soils (oh my!).  She is getting quite adept at NYT crossword puzzles while cat-lapped (see pic).  Best read of the year:  The Overstory.  Google it.

We went to an amazing exhibit called Exquisite Creatures and Doug encountered another Escher fan (see pic).  Doug was recruited for a memory study to see if anti-social guys such as him would benefit from lots of contact.  He could not schedule the phone calls, so he is condemned to losing his few remaining brain cells.

The weather has mostly improved from the prior year.  More rain (until November) and lower heat has meant a lot fewer fires.  We did get a big wind that knocked down our fence, but it was ready to go.

Big bad changes to Booktique this year.  It moved two miles away because the Mercantile Center, where it had been, is being replaced.  A staff member that Doug worked with died, and one of our frequent customers was killed by her husband.

Much of the Hawley clan got together for Thanksgiving at Phyllis and Jim’s place.  Despite perusing dozens of Hallmark movies (Sharon only! – blame the cat-on-lap!), we will have a minimalist Christmas.

Doug was involved in a couple of celebrations of the Portland State College Bowl team, in spite of Portland State University (same place, different time).

Our travel was modest.  Our 3-fer hike took place in Sisters, OR, which gave us a chance to visit the widow of Doug’s friend Gary Adams.  When the tsunami destroys Western Oregon, it would be a nice place to go.  We took a cruise from Seattle to Astoria, San Francisco, Monterrey, Victoria and back with Jim and Phyllis Hawley.  In San Francisco, we got to visit with many of our old Bay Area friends and some of the Hens.  In Monterrey, while in the Aquarium, we ran into a co-worker from Booktique who was with her hen party.  What are the odds of that?  Doug won a bottle of champagne during the Sail away party for his dancing (see pic) and got to sing a short duet from Satisfaction:  “He can’t be a man because he doesn’t smoke the same cigarette as me, I can’t get no satisfaction.”

Joy and Peace to the World.

Seasons Greeting 2018

A little mystery was solved this year.  Neighbor Bob started to worry in a Rear Window way about not having seen Sharon for awhile.  He was relieved when he saw her back from her Hen Party.  Or so he thought.  What it really was is that Doug had found a perfect duplicate of Sharon.

We learned three new words this year.  Intracostal tear, A1C and Transient Global Amnesia.  Sharon got one new word, Doug got one, and they shared one.  Getting old is so much fun.  Doug had four fourth quarter celebrations this year.  One was at Mary’s Woods where an increasing number of our friends are retiring, one was a part of a Madison High School reunion, another was a pizza and beer do with a couple of friends going back more than fifty years, Tryon buddies and family, and then there was pizza at Booktique where Doug has been a book seller for twenty years.  By the time that you get this Sharon will be n^n+1X(n+1)^n    

Our tribe is decreasing rapidly – we attended three memorials in ten days.  We are trying to stay healthy with yoga, exercise classes, hiking and a little snow shoeing.  This last year we made three of six snow shoes.  The hills are getting steeper and the snow is getting deeper.  Doug started with a “fun” softball bunch.  It was much like what he did sixty years ago at his grade school.  However many show up (never enough for two full teams) made up a game to play.  His skill level has dropped to roughly the ten year old level, but he has fun. 

Sharon continues with the Lake Oswego Millennium Band, but there will be a new conductor soon after nineteen years with Dale Cleland.  She is still nature guiding and taking part in nature events at Tryon Park.  Doug had a milestone at Tryon when he passed 4444.4 volunteer hours this year.

Our adventures are dwindling.  Sharon’s nature guide group stayed at Sunriver Resort which was relaxing, followed by stopping in at East Lake, home of the Hawley family vacations sixty some years ago.  We were happy to see Stan Cole when he dropped in.  We again got a spot for a close look at the Grand Floral Parade.  Dancing was a particular pleasure.  We were treated to sexy zombies and we got respect for our boogieing along with the Black Chamber Of Commerce.  Sharon got her wish to go to the Zumwalt Prarie in Northeastern Oregon.  We saw many birds and flowers.  Sharon went to the aforementioned hen party.

Our nature viewing included weird jelly like pyrosomes at Tillamook on the beach and too much contact with bees.  Sharon got booty stung and Doug was stung multiple times.  Kitzhaber abides, and there are still four ferals to feed.  Sad note – we saw and petted baby elephant Lilly just nine days before she died of a virus.

On an intellectual (?) level, Sharon organizes hiking locally and Doug has written everything that needs to be written, but may continue anyway.

We went to the State Fair and saw Styx, big 70s rockers.  It was so loud that it hurt and we couldn’t recognize the songs.  Our local groups, of which we saw many, sounded much better.  Doug’s music collection broke 130k, with lot of Ella Fitzgerald added.  She did a lot of good stuff.

Wildfires in the West continue to get worse.  We visited Paradise CA about twenty years ago, a lovely town, now completely gone.

Seasons Greetings 2017  

This wasn’t a good year.  Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way.  Doug’s leader / mentor for their Tryon park stewardship died in the spring.  Phil had 25,000 volunteer hours in 25 years.  Even before that work had tapered off from bad weather and less time from Doug’s fellow workers.  From October of last year until sometime in June we were inundated.  Big trees fell down in an adjoining house  and big branches fell into our neighbor’s yard.  After another undistinguished Alaska cruise Doug was hospitalized for three days with the flu.  The flu wasn’t so bad, but being hospitalized was.   The whole West Coast has been plagued by fires.  As this is written Los Angeles is threatened.  Some of our favorite trails will be unavailable indefinitely from fires, including the one set by a juvenile fool with fireworks.

We skipped Sharon’s 2016 birthday at the beach because the weather was so bad.  We did get a couple of day trips later in 2017.

Moving on to better things.  Sharon had several birthday parties to celebrate her x0 birthday.  She also concluded a whole year of 10,000 steps or more a day.  We have substituted yoga and silversneakers /strippers.   We enjoyed the Multnomah county fair.  We got an up close view of the Rose Festival parade for the first time from a University of Oregon building.  We had a short, but passionate three way affair with Stumpy Earl, the cat down the road.  After a few months the very friendly feline’s people moved away.

Sharon’s nature guide trip was to the Winston Wild Life Refuge.  We were surrounded by buffalo and got to feed leaves to a giraffe.  Around home, we have spotted deer (as close as 20 feet from our house) and rabbits in various locations.  For awhile we were plagued by crows.  We suspect that there was a crowbar somewhere close.

We went to a comics convention in Portland and saw some of our favorite and least favorite comic artists.

Random – Doug’ song collection hit 125,000.  After around a hundred publications in places you have never heard, half of which are defunct, his writing has slowed to a crawl.   He’s hoping for a posthumous revival.  Now he uses some of his spare time feebly attempting to learn website development.  Our new plug in hybrid Volt does so much stuff; we still don’t understand everything after three months.  The Portland Thorns Women’s Major League Soccer won it all.

Seasons Greetings 2016

Every year we get interesting weather.  This year it was record setting rain in October (28 days with rain, just short of record inches).  Our “Indian Summer” showed up in early November instead.  Much more rain has resumed and it shorted out the underground electrical wiring into our house.  As this is written, we are thinking about snow shoeing.  There is plenty of snow on the Mountain.

Sharon continues with the Millennium Concert Band, and nature guiding.  Her hen party was in Truckee again.  The Band highlight was a trip to DC where they played in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  Her fitbit inspired her to walk at least 10,000 steps a day since August.

We had a few adventures.  Sharon realized a 50+ year ambition to visit the Sea of Cortez based on reading Steinbeck’s “Log Of The Sea Of Cortez” in college.  Later we did back to back trips: First to Mt. Rainier (or as we know it Rain-ier) with the nature guides.  The rumor of a mountain was confirmed on our last day when the sun finally came out (see pic).  Other highlights – marmots and hiking.  Next we went with our hiking group for a 3-day trip to the Oregon coast, near Charleston, just outside of Coos Bay (you could find these things on a map).  We also visited the infamous Shanghai Tunnels in Portland.  Our friends, Fran and Johnnie came through in their airstream (nice way to host guests, when they bring their own lodging!).  They gave Doug his Duuuude hat, which has garnered much interest (see pic, with the huge pile of pulled invasive ivy next to him).  Doug led a ramble in early September, and in one hour on the PCT above Timberline Lodge, we met 8 through-hikers.  Trail names:  G String (he carried a guitar), Gut Punch, Snake Kicker, Kirken, Tea Tree, Happy Feet, Tourist, and No Trail Name.

Doug continues to write, collect music (122,000 songs) and volunteer at Booktique and Tryon Park.  His published story count is around 90.  Details are on https://sites.google.com/site/aberrantword/.  Since inspiration has deserted him, he has concentrated on converting a bunch of LPs in the attic to computer. He managed another quadrafecta this year with dropping flower baskets, hanging same, working in Tryon Park then unloading food drive postal trucks.  We don’t know how much longer he can do all of that in one day.

We had some animal encounters.  At HawkWatch, Sharon got to release a Sharp-shinned Hawk that had been caught, weighed and banded in 15 minutes (see pic).  We continue to feed four feral cats, who have boundary issues.  We were twice splashed by carp while beside Oswego Lake.  Doug hung out with eight baby goats in Tryon Park that had left their corral at the local environmental farm.  We saw a very social bigfoot / sasquatch (see pic) while snow shoeing on Mt. Hood.  We saw a huge number of whales plus some sea lions (Sharon snorkeled amongst the babies), dolphin and flying fish in the Sea Of Cortez.  Fireflies entertained us in DC.  We hadn’t seen any in many years.

We celebrated the 90th birthday of Doug’s aunt Mary Rose, and the wedding of 2nd cousin Bethany Berson and Michael Adams, which got moved at the last minute from the Washington Coast to Portland, due to severe weather.  No mean feat!  Sharon will celebrate her 70^th this month.  She has been exploring her Polish heritage, especially food.  Ah golabki, pierogi, kiszka and kielbasa!

Maja Wielke Rok                                                                                            Sharon and Doug

Seasons Greetings 2015

2015 has been both extremely typical for us, and unusually extreme!  Hope your year has been uneventful in a good way or full of fun events.

Typically, one or both of us have continued to hike, work restoratively and guide naturally at our local State Park, play in the band, sell used books, write and sit with a cat on lap.

Atypically, we had not a single snowshoe (the season of the noshoe) due to lack of the white stuff.  Summer brought record highs, including 28 days over 90 (previous record 24, average 12).  Our AC broke and took a month to replace.  For some reason all the AC people were busy.  We started giving the cat ice water, had 4 fans running every night and slept downstairs.  Hiking?  Not so much.  We resorted to such tactics as leaving the house at 7am to take a quick (7-mile) turn around the lake and getting back home before 10.  In early December, Portland tied its record for most rainfall in a 24-hour period (2.69”) and broke the high temp record for the day at 3am (61 deg).  Of course, many parts of the country had more dangerous and prolonged weather events.

Doug’s writing has taken a phenomenal turn.  His hobby has resulted in appearing in seven or eight anthologies that you never heard of ON REAL PAPER, including a couple of first issues, getting around 60 stories published (even one under a pseudonym), a nomination for a Pushcart prize (whatever that is), and getting two thirds of his Vernonia trilogy serialized in AWS (Canadian I think).  Details are in “Amateur”, which explains how someone with no talent or training can be published.  Most of his recent work, which has many fans around the world, is in Nugget Tales located in Manchester.  His product can be found in his website https://sites.google.com/site/aberrantword/.  He became a twit recently @dougiamm.

Sharon finally got an iphone a week before our January trip to visit cousins in Yuma.  What a revelation!  The trip included a taste of the snowbird life, spotting big horn sheep and baby at Anza Borrego Desert, and seeing where the Colorado River just about dries up.  The cousins had mucho dental work done just over the border for way cheap.

This year brought a number of milestones: 

• The 50^th anniversary of the unbeaten, unrivalled Portland State College Bowl Team’s victory (Doug was an alternate).  Y’all remember this TV show in the 60’s?
• A grand gathering of family in September to celebrate an 80^th, 70^th, 50^th, and 10^th birthday.  Plus 6 other birthdays that were not milestones.  Bala (wife of the 50th celebrant) rented us a huge, fab house overlooking the Columbia Gorge.
• Sister Alex’s visit resulted in a gathering of Brenamans plus.
• The 20^th annual gathering of Sharon’s Hen Party – this time outside of Truckee, CA, with 6 wonderful women.  As usual, we walk and talk and eat and drink.  We had an uncanny encounter with a flicker, who followed us down our trail, and kept posing.  One of us, Julie Freestone, and her husband, have published their book, Stumbling Stone, about their unusual relationship, journey to their past and reconciliation.

Speaking of animals, eagle sightings are pretty common, but in February where the Klickitat River comes into the Columbia, they gather to feast on the salmon.  We saw dozens, as well as red-tailed hawks, and the salmon spawning.  Our group encountered a mountain goat right on the trail on Mt St Helens.  See pic.

Closer to home, Doug was working in the Park when several police cars pulled up into the shop lot.  Turns out a coyote had been hit by a car, and they brought it to the Park to dispatch it.  When our Field Trip Coordinator heard about it, she arranged to have it taxidermied for use in our classes.  Ah Nature!

We just took over feeding the 5 feral cats that live in our immediate area.  The neighbors who moved away had set up a feeding station and a couple of insulated igloos for the cats, which are now in our yard.  Our cat, Kitz, (short for Kitzhaber – but he wouldn’t make a good governor either), continues to thrive.  See the pic of his “scratching post”.

On the sports front, we lost a great guy, former Blazer Jerome Kersey.  We saw him at a garage sale last year and he was amazingly friendly and humble.  The Blazers started this season without several of the stars from last season and their current record reflects that.  On the other paw, GO TIMBERS.  The Portland MLS team just won the whole shebang!

Who remembers Eric Burden and the Animals?  We saw them at the Oregon State Fair – quite a good show for a bunch of old rockers.  Saw our first drone up close there.

As you may have guessed, we love living here.  A new Portland landmark opened this Fall – the Tilikum Bridge (Bridge of the People).  No cars, but everything else.  See pic.

So . . . . . what are your stories?  Hope all is well.  Happy Holidays

Auf weiderschreiben,

Sharon and Doug

Seasons Greetings 2014

Starting with the bad news:  The worst of the year was losing Doug’s cousin Tamara way too young.  Joan Ziegler, who led lunch bunches before Sharon, also died.

The hikers have had a number of problems over this year, the most dramatic of which was a snowshoer being airlifted from a snowpark on Mt. Hood following a heart attack (he survived).  Aside from that it was a horrible snowshoe year with only four outings.  Doug was crippled much of the year with bad knees and feet.  At one point his knee was the size of a grapefruit and he was using a walker.  His new bracelets (small braces) seem to be helping.  Sharon has had her share of joint problems too.  Compared to other people it is hard to complain.  People died on a bridge to the Ramona Falls trail in a flash flood shortly after we were there.  On hiking: 7 miles is the new 10 miles.

Funny if it didn’t happen to you – our friend with the sports fan injury – he tipped over his chair in disgust at a UO game.  On that topic, how about them UO Ducks and Portland Trailblazers!

Around here:  Hottest August … Ever.

While Oregon goes from medicinal marijuana to recreational marijuana, we are using medicinal shoe inserts.

Lake Oswego became Lake Osnogo much of the year with the water project boondoggle.  For awhile we were in a gated neighborhood – the gate was due to the many closed streets.

The cat formerly known as Honey has become Kitzhaber, because he wouldn’t be much of a governor either.  He has warmed somewhat to Doug after continuous snack-based bribery.

Local author Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” impressed, depressed, and inspired Doug.  Because of book, he decided to do something physically impressive like she did, restart writing and examine his past.  He walked another 2 miles on the Oregon Coast Trail – big deal, an incomplete.  So far he has placed stories in the literary journals Potluck (4x), Insert (2X), Oblong and Short Humour (3X) – all publications that you have never heard of, whose subscribers would fit into your living room.  Not bad, a B.  He has written some memoirs and found out something about the mystery woman from his past – give it a C.

He concentrated on literary magazines listed in Poets & Writers and Duotrope.  It is a whole new world out there.  Most of the lit mags are on line and don’t pay or charge the writer.  It is somewhat like the old Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland “Babes On Broadway”:  Hey kids – Let’s put out a magazine!  With the internet you can do it on the cheap.  If you want, you can make a magazine for gay Latino mountain climbers.  Some of the mags are very promiscuous about what they publish and others have metaphorical chastity belts.  Duotrope allows Doug to find the promiscuous ones.

Besides riting, his other r’s were reading and rating some of his 112,000 songs.

As a part of his writing career, he grew a disreputable beard to go with his already disreputable hair (see pic).  He has been called Santa Claus (a cheap shot – he’s not jolly), the Unabomber, Einstein (clearly a reference to the hair, not the brain), Jerry Garcia for those Grateful Dead fans, and his favorite, Mountain Man.  He is now IAMM (International Author Mountain Man).

Enough about Doug.  The big 4 newsies in Sharon’s year were creating a banana slug workshop for fellow nature guides (see pic), joining a recorder group, attending her (gasp) 50^th high school reunion and celebrating the 20^th Hen Party with same. 

She was totally into the NW native banana slug, finding research papers, keeping a dozen slugs in the house for 6 weeks and putting together her first powerpoint.  On request, she will forward a link to the naturalist blog she also created.

The reunion in Utica, MI, was a lot like speed dating.  She did reconnect with a good buddy and that will last.  Two out of three HS crushes have passed on.

Musically, the Lake Oswego band plays on and the little recorder group is a very satisfying add-on.  Attached is a pic taken at our last concert.

The Hen Party in Cambria, CA, was, as always, a time for great companionship, food and walking.  This one also featured the CA drought, elephant seals hauled out on the beach, over 400 scarecrows and watching the Giants win the pennant in the company of huge fans.

Our friends from Marin California visited in their airstream on their way around the US.  Sharon’s sister and brother in law came for a visit, and Ken fixed paleo meals all week.  Actually quite yummy.  The diet helps reduce Cindi’s chronic CIDP symptoms.

Late breaking news – The Friends of Iron Mountain (a local restoration project) are being recognized as Unsung Heroes of Lake Oswego.  Doug helps, including removing  ivy from 1000 trees.  The Librarians, a new TV series, is being filmed in Greater Portland.

Have a great holiday and a great 2015!

Sharon and Doug

  2013 Seasons Greetings

As the dead hearing aide batteries in a Styrofoam cup, so are the days of our lives (Soap Opera Reference).

Bits and Pieces One –Aubrey Cleland , granddaughter of Dale Cleland, the conductor of Sharon’s community band (she plays bass clarinet therein), went on the American Idol this year and just missed the top ten, but, as #11, got to tour with them.  Doug & Sharon are one of two usher and band member couples with the same first names.  The Band played at an invitation only concert in San Ramon this year and gave us a chance to reconnect with a lot of our Bay Arean friends.  We noticed that we sort of know Wyatt Earp in that we know Ron Wyatt and Michael Earp.  Doug’s music collection now exceeds 100,000 counting many duplicates.

We are still volunteering at Tryon Park.  This summer we saw a coyote couple there.  Later there were sightings of a couple of pups.  Doug’s mentor /colleague hit 20,000 volunteer hours (see pic).  Doug got to “roast” him.  For example, no one ever mentions the missing volunteers and shallow graves.

Bits and Pieces Two – We keep trying to one up each other.  One of us gets a bad shoulder, the other gets one.  This year Sharon wrangled with a “Bulgarian” neck (known in some parts as a bulging disk).  Doug’s shoulder has not gotten bad enough to get him out of any work, worse luck.  Local blogger Linda Chase did a little park work with us.  She is writing “Job-a-Week” based on her experiences.  Friend and snowshoe leader gave us a logging demo on his Scappoose property.  One of the loggers was on “Axe Men”.  The local newspaper went to four-day home delivery, three days online.  Is this the wave of the future?

Our Road Scholar trip of the year was to a monastery in Idaho, including a 4 hour round trip into Craters of The Moon (see pic of the Snake River canyon).  The most interesting parts were probably the City Of Rocks and geological talks.  Not so interesting – making our own beds.  The annual Hen Party revisited Mammoth Lakes in the midst of wildfire season, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time.

The group September Birthday was in Terrebonne, OR, and Thanksgiving was here.

Cat tails – After a cat time-out with the demise of the mellow Harriett, we were convinced to take on 18-pound Honey / Jerry Lee / Kit.  His owner was moving to Indianapolis and the internet still can’t handle a cat.  Almost immediately, he got spooked, pushed out an upstairs screen, fell off the roof and vanished.  Turns out he was scrounging off a neighbor’s catbowl.  After a month, their patience wore thin, we trapped him and brought him back, two pounds lighter.  He still thinks he is an outdoor cat, so we have to watch our orange escape artist closely (see pic – the feeder came with him, as did his friend, the cement dog).  From indoors he acts as our guard cat doing his siren imitation when he doesn’t like the activity of neighbor cats.  At other times, he is simply a voyeur.  Despite many bribes, he definitely prefers Sharon.  In 10 years he may take to Doug.  He’s now down to a perfect 14 pounds.

Car tunes – We got a new Ford Fiesta and are having some trouble getting used to the differences from our Subaru – gas tank on different side, no daytime running lights, different controls and gauges.  At least they are both 5 speed sticks.  Once we spent 5 minutes trying to turn off the car alarm before we found out it was the car parked next to us.  A friend has it easy – two Corollas.  Downside – he has two Corollas.

After a several-year dry spell we got to a wedding on a hill in Damascus and an engagement party in Corbett overlooking the Columbia Gorge.

Sharon and her 3 siblings finally got together at the same time in Michigan.  A really great trip was highlighted by a visit to a new Polish eatery (see pic).  Can you find the kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, city chicken and dill pickle soup?

Late-breaking news, and worth a chuckle, knowing Doug:  He was just introduced as the new “Social Event Planner” for his Portland Old Boys breakfast group.  And one more:  local county, town, tribe, river, shopping center name “Clackamas” came out “Quacker Butts” on a recent closed caption on the TV.  Go Blazers – best in NBA!

With that we wish you happiness all through the year and many chuckles.

Sharon and Doug

Seasons Greetings 2012 

Greetings!  We got home just before Christmas from two weeks at sea and HI, so this will be a end of year wrap-up.  Sharon advised Doug against any long jokes.  He doubled down by not having any long or funny stories.

Again with the bad news – not unusual at our age.  We lost our sweetheart of a cat.  At least we had several happy years together.  Doug’s best friend from high school died.  Some hikers didn’t make it.  The hen group got smaller by one.  The husband of one of our snowshoe group was murdered.

Doug has yielded to Sharon’s request to hear her sometimes and got fish helpers (herring aides).  He is in denial and claims they are used for tracking the FBI and CIA.  Based on age, Doug will not have any more jury duty.  All that Perry Mason show watching wasted.  His last experience not being picked for a grand jury was an education in matters civil.

It was a year of NBA players.  We see ex-Trailblazer / former gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley around town from time to time.  The winner is guber-retread (see also California).  Saw Jerome Kersey (also ex—Blazer) at a garage sale.  Friendly guy.  Long time NBA player, ex-Beaver Mel Counts was observed at a restaurant where he was holding a real estate seminar.  Said he: “Some of my best friends are short”.  Because he is 7 feet tall, that covers almost everyone.

Related sports item – we had connections to both teams in the World Series.  We lived in the SF area for 14 years and Sharon is from north of Detroit.  Sorry Tigers.

More global storming.  It was the wettest March on record, followed by a long dry period into late fall, and now is extremely wet.

Song count on computer  is now up to 78,000.  Would have been more, but Doug put some on a flashdrive and lost his drive.  Sharon says he never had any drive.

History lesson -Orville and Wilbur Wright had a South Pacific garment factory named Two Wrights Make Sarong before taking to flight.

This year flower basket hanging and local food drive happened on the same day.  Doug got a well deserved aching back.  On the subject of volunteering, Doug discovered his good works were really criminal – Bookie (Booktique) , Pusher (Hospital), and Killer (ivy and other invasive removal).

Different cities have different seasons.  Chicago has winter and road construction.  In Denver, it is July, August and Winter.  LA has riot, fire, and earthquake.  Here in greater Lake Oswego, it is Too cold to open windows, Too noisy to open windows (leaf blowers AKA the Devil’s Tool), and too cold and too noisy to open windows.

Most interesting unnatural feature, the Blair Beach Project.  On a rocky beach in Oxbow Park on the Sandy River there are hundreds of rock pillars or cairns.  (See pic).  Sharon’s investigation reveals that they are constructed by a 60ish woman who works nude in the morning.

Hiking (see pic of Mt Hood at Burnt Lake), snowshoeing and travel continues, perhaps at a slower pace.  Our (now) annual Road Scholar trip was to Death Valley (see pic) via Las Vegas where we saw Sharon’s sister, Cindi, and brother-in-law, Ken.  Because we had only been through Death Valley once quickly in too hot weather, this visit was a lot more enjoyable, educational and active.  Sharon sister had just been diagnosed with Guillain Barré Syndrome, and unfortunately it has turned out to be the chronic form.

The nature guide trip was to Dufur again except without Doug’s gall bladder and kayaking problems.  We also visited a new, not-yet-developed 8000 acre State Park on the John Day River.

We had a swell trip to friend Sabine’s wedding in Eugene followed by visit to Don & Barbara Smith’s Rogue River summer place.  Our highlights were the jet boat up the Rogue, s’mores, better luck at kayaking, bear and other wildlife sighting and the weird and wonderful rockhound.  Said rockhound had a large flat rock with which he played his version of fetch.  He would push the rock over to you, and if you understood, you pushed the rock away and he would push it back, for as long as you could stand doing it.  (See pic).

Our end of year Anniversary and B-day trip (Sharon’s) was a 14 night cruise out of LA to HI.  Sister Cindi and her husband Ken were along.  It was a very people-centric trip with catching up with old friends in Honolulu and Lahaina, meeting a friend for lunch on Kaua’i and huddling together on the 4 rough cool days on the way back to LA.  Cindi is doing well lately in dealing with the GBS and we all climbed Diamond Head, had a few beers at the Kona Brewing Co, swam in the ocean and revisited Captain Jack’s in Lahaina where we even got the local discount, thanks to Brendan, son of old HS buddy.  See pic at black sand beach on the Big Island.  Glad to be home. 

Save the Date:  For those in the SF Bay Area, Sharon’s Community Band will be playing at the San Ramon Convention Center at 8:30pm on Friday, April 5, 2013.  We will also stay around for at least the weekend and hope to see old (and young) friends.  We will contact BayAreans with more info as the time approaches.

A suggested motto for an honest politician (oxymoron?) – I remember nothing, I regret everything.

Hope all is well with you.       

Sharon and Doug

Seasons Greetings 2011

Let us cover the bad news first. There are several obits:  Senator Mark Hatfield who occasionally visited our book store, Booktique; Greg Baldwin, a friend, husband of fellow hiker Joan, and a power in Portland; Russ Jolley, who wrote the book on Columbia Gorge wildflowers; Jan Tucker, wife of our former business partner, and a genuine hoot; and Bill Martindale, golden boy of Madison High class of 1961, and all around good guy.  We will miss them all.

Some things haven’t changed.  We still have breakfast in bed every morning – we vowed to push ourselves hiking and that worked despite snow and fires.  When we get a little pooped we take a look around at our hiking buds:   just turned 90, almost 90, many over 80, including 8 of those milestone birthdays this year.  Rainy Spring hike this year on Dog Mt (7mi rt and 2900 ft gain):  7 women, 1 guy, 5 over 70, 1 quintuple bypass, 1 cancer survivor, several knee or hip replacements.  Doug and Sharon didn’t make that one.  Volunteering is still big.  Cat Harriet (the Hairy Pet) still hanging in there.  Same good friends.

The class of 1961 had our 50^th this year.  Joan Goddard Warren did a swell job of organizing the affair at McMenamin’s Edgefield, and your reporter was the disk jockey.  A good time was had by many, and no observed fights took place.

There are some words that should be changed or added.  Should the name be changed to global storming?  Why do we never hear longcut, longchanged or longhanded?

We took a Road Scholar trip to Sedona this May with many of our local hikers.  The catchphrase was “trust your boots” on the sandstone slabs.  That worked, but some of us had screaming quads!.  We visited old native settlements and a few newer stills.  Everyone survived nicely.  Top hiker was a 76 year old woman from Colorado.  Shorter trips were a nature guide affair along the Columbia River and into Central Oregon, and a “Friends Of” meeting in Newport, OR with a nice Yaquina River cruise.

Despite the rain and cold, it was a huge year for being stung by ground hornets.  The three people including Doug that work on Wednesday at Tryon Park were stung at least 30 times, as recently as November.

We both changed doctors this year.  Doug’s went to the Bay Area to get away from him, and Sharon’s took the more extreme step of dying.  Sharon is now on Medicare.  Much better coverage for 1/3 the cost (if you don’t count paying in while working).

Authors one or both of us are reading:  Locals Chelsea Cain and Philip Margolin, and Boston’s Dennis Lehane.  Mr. Lehane’s non-mystery novels are particularly impressive.  Sharon likes Brian Doyle (Mink River) and Carole Nelson Douglas. 

We met for the annual Hen Party in the charming little town of Murphys, CA.  Lots of good talks, good food and good exploring with good friends.  The hiking highlight for Sharon was Big Trees State Park – where one of our group has a history. 

Late “breaking” news:  Last night at the scheduled concert of Lake Oswego Millennium Concert Band, we “brought the house down”.  Some stage sets, stored above the sound and light baffles, fell onto the stage, mostly landing on a row of trumpet stands behind Sharon.  One band member was taken to the hospital and we cancelled the rest of the concert.

Total song collection now up to 50,000.

Hello, how are you – We are advised that these newsletters should be short and avoid bragging.  We’re shooting for 50%, a good batting average.

How about the SF Giants and the Oregon Ducks and the Giant Ducks?  How about our 40^th Annual Adversity the Friday after Thanksgiving (observed).  How about Happy Birthday to Sharon?  She is 2⁶ years old today (12/14) – not exactly in her “prime”.

Our volunteer activities continue.  Perhaps most interesting are the OHSU Parkinson’s balance studies.  Both of us keep diaries of our falls.  Doug set the bar high (or low!), when he fell down 3 times in half an hour.  He claims extenuating circumstances.  Other odd trials were walking with a cane, walking through doorways and “push and release”.  Doug was surprised to find out at his volunteer hospital job that people had heard he was in room 365.  He checked and it didn’t look like him at all.  Sharon wears many hats at the State Park, but her fave is exploring nature (and big spiders – see pic) with children.

We are amused by closed captions.  In February “definition” was translated to “deaf Tibetan”.  Idea for a TV show with no chance of success – America’s Smallest Loser – featuring people who are no more than 30 pounds overweight.  This week’s winner down 14 ounces.  America loves excess.

A new phone service now allows a few select people to call God.  Our friend Joe, who lives in Colorado, called God from Denver for $1,000.  He asked about his sister and two brothers who had predeceased him.  God told him his brother Jack was very happy because he could now add stamps to his collection from several galaxies.  Sister Susan is wowing Heaven with “Stairway To Heaven” played on harp.  God hemmed and hawed about brother Phil, the televangelist, and finally said that he thought Phil was someplace warmer.  When Joe had business in Las Vegas, he decided to call God again, but he was told that it cost $50,000 because God really did not want to be called from Vegas.  Something about the sinning and requests for gambling advice.  On the next leg of his trip, he decided to call from Oregon.  He was pleased to find that the call was only $1.  Why so cheap, you ask?????.  Because it is a local call (see pic).  In Oregon, we don’t get older, we get wetter.  Oregon, like the crazy state to the South, elected governor retread.

We could go on and on about our trip with the Organization Formerly Known As Elderhostel (subsequently Exploritas and now Roads Scholar).  We stopped at our friends, the Brusses, in NV, proceeded past Mono Lake down 395, checked out Death Valley for the first time, stayed at Caesar’s Palace as guests of Sharon’s sister and bro-in-law, then finally to the tour staging point, St. George, UT, where we were treated grandly by Doug’s high school and college chum Don and wife Barbara.  The tour itself included 5 National Parks and featured some hiking (see pic in Bryce), interesting people, spectacular landscapes, mediocre housing, some cheesy entertainment and too much eating.  We stopped to see our old friends in Marin, CA, but didn’t stay long because the weather was nasty.

The weather continued that way through a soggy spring into Juneuary, July and Fallgust. We got a break before winter set in.  As of this composition, we have had our second snowshoe.  For the first time, Mel’s annual corn feed in September had rain and store-bought corn.

We did a couple of overnights with our hiking groups (“3-fers”:  3 hikes fer the price of one drive) – one to the Coast and one to Central Oregon, where the hikes were rearranged because of forest fires.  See pic of Mt Jefferson from the mouth of Boca Cave.  Niece Demaris and her children Star and Iola visited us this summer.  We saw Wally and Jennifer in Bothell (rhymes with brothel) WA before their move to Oahu where their son in law is interning.  The Hen Party had a “blast” at Crater Lake.

Doug has periodic foot and knee pain, which caused him to ponder “intelligent design”.  Why don’t we come with modular parts for easy replacement?  Why do we have an appendix?  Wouldn’t pop-up displays work better than pain to indicate something is wrong – they  work for cars and computers.

The whole bipedal thing is a mistake.  So many of our problems – difficult childbirth, back pain and sinus problems – are caused by walking on two legs.  Many years ago Doug popped something in his calf that hurt a lot but quickly healed.  Dr. Shelly explained that it was the plantaris tendon.  Wikipedia said that the aforementioned tendon is pretty useless in humans, but in apes it can be used for grasping with the feet, something most of us don’t do.  After moments of consideration Doug decided the Centaur configuration would be best.  Side note – those who claim to know say that Centaurs were conceived by people seeing men on horseback for the first time.  Ask about the unicorn sometime.  The Centaur configuration would alleviate our bipedal problems while still leaving us hands for tool handling.  Redesigning furniture would be a small disadvantage.

Doug’s music collecting continues apace.  He is now up to 40,000 songs including many duplicates.  Possible low points of the year – the Lettermen’s take on the Doors “Light My Fire”.  There are some bonzo collectors out there – a recent Craigslist ad offered 4 TERABYTES of music.  That is huge – something like 58,000 albums.  The generation gap in music – the question “Are they 45s, 78s, or 33s” to a teenage seller got this response – “I don’t know what year they are.”  While going to the annual Lake Oswego Car Show, we were sitting opposite someone with a “Tjader” name tag.  Turned out he is the brother of late jazz fave Cal Tjader.  Wow!

Our literary pursuits for this year are the “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” series (who knew the Swedes had anything going on beyond socialist utopia) and local bad boy Chuck Palahniuk (we find that “PaulaNick’s” famous “Fight Club” may be the tamest of his works).  To get a quick overview of the “tattoo” books google Nora Ephron Umlaut.

In cold war Bulgaria mad scientists attempted to create perfect soldiers.  They experimented with 4 sets of rats rated by increasing aggression.  They further broke each of the 4 groups into regular and meta groups, with the meta group being beyond normal for the group.  In order to get even more aggression, they interbred the 4^th meta group.  The rats broke out and killed the scientists.  Some said that they were punished for playing God, but any English teacher would know their mistake was mixing meta-fours.  Further meditation on metaphors:  Sure falling off a log is easy, more to the point it is painful.  Shouldn’t the metaphor be “As painful as falling off a log” and as “Easy as a banana”?  Nothing is much easier than a banana.  They are soft; it’s just peel and eat.  What’s so easy about pie or a piece of cake?  Is it the eating or the preparation?  Sweet as pie or piece of cake makes more sense.

Feeling old?  Our friend, Omar, an 89 year old, was tied for most hikes for the Thursday hiking group and 3^rd on Tuesday (most miles).

Let us know what’s up with you!  Late-breaking news:  a tornado just touched down about 30 miles from here!  Global warming?

Keep on Truckin’,

Or Other Suitable Sign-off

Doug and Sharon

Seasons Greeting 2010

Hello, how are you – We are advised that these newsletters should be short and avoid bragging.  We’re shooting for 50%, a good batting average.

How about the SF Giants and the Oregon Ducks and the Giant Ducks?

Our volunteer activities continued.  Perhaps most interesting may be the OHSU Parkinson’s balance studies.  Both of us are keeping diaries of our falls.  Doug set the bar high (or low, depending on your perspective) when he fell down 3 times in half an hour.  He claims extenuating circumstances.  Other odd trials consisted of walking with a cane, walking through doorways and “push and release”.  Doug was surprised when he was told at his volunteer hospital job that people had heard he was in room 365.  He checked it out and it didn’t look like him at all.  Sharon gets to introduce spiders in a BIG way as a nature guide (see picture) and is excited about starting the 12^th season with the community band.

We are amused by some closed captions.  We noted “definition” was translated to “deaf Tibetan”.  Idea for a TV show with no chance of success – America’s Smallest Loser – featuring people who are no more than 30 pounds overweight.  This week’s winner down 14 ounces.  America loves excess.

A new phone service allows a few select people to call God.  Our friend Joe, who lives in Colorado, called God from Denver.  The going rate was $1,000.  He found out that his brother Jack was very happy because he could now add stamps to his collection from several galaxies.  Sister Susan is wowing Heaven with “Stairway To Heaven” played on harp.  God hemmed and hawed about brother Phil, the televangelist, and finally hinted that he was someplace warmer.  When Joe had business in Las Vegas, he decided to call God again, but was told that it cost $50,000 because God really did not want to be called from Vegas – something about the sinning and requests for gambling advice.  On the next leg of his trip, he decided to call from Oregon.  He was pleased to find that the call was only $1.  Why, you ask?  Because it is a local call.  (see picture).  In Oregon, we don’t get older, we get wetter.  Oregon, like the crazy state to the South, elected governor retread.

We could go on and on about our first trip with the Organization Formerly Known As Elderhostel (subsequently Exploritas and now Roads Scholar).  We stopped at our friends, the Brusses in NV, proceeded past Mono Lake down 395, checked out Death Valley for the first time, stayed at Caesar’s Palace as guests of Sharon’s sister and bro-in-law, then finally to the tour staging point St. George, UT where were treated wonderfully by Doug’s high school college chum Don and his wife Barbara.  The tour itself featured 6 National Parks with hiking, lots of interesting people, spectacular landscapes, mediocre housing, some cheesy entertainment and too much eating.  Fifteen of our hiking group came along.  We saw old friends in Marin, CA, but didn’t stay long because the weather was nasty.

The weather continued that way through a soggy spring into Juneuary, July and Fallgust. We got a break before winter set in.  As of this composition, we have had our first snowshoe.  For the first time, Mel’s annual corn feed had rain and store bought corn.

June & Ralph put us up in Manzanita while we were hiking on the Coast 3fer.  Later we stayed in Sisters for our Central Oregon 3fer.  Lots of hikes were rearranged because of forest fires.  Niece Demaris and her children Star and Iola visited us this summer.  We visited Wally and Jennifer in Bothell (rhymes with brothel) WA before their move to Oahu where their son in law is interning.

Doug has had periodic foot and knee pain, which caused him to ponder “intelligent design”.  For example, why don’t we come with modular parts for easy replacement?  Why do we have an appendix?  Wouldn’t displays work better than pain as an indication that something is wrong – displays work for cars and computers.

The whole bipedal thing is a mistake.  So many of our problems – difficult childbirth, back pain and sinus problems – are caused by walking on two legs.  Many years ago Doug popped something in his calf that hurt a lot but quickly healed.  A few years ago Dr. Shelly explained that it was the plantaris tendon.  Wikipedia said that the aforementioned tendon is pretty useless in humans, but in apes it can be used for grasping with the feet, something most of us don’t do.  After moments of consideration Doug decided the Centaur configuration would be best.  Side note – those who claim to know say that Centaurs were conceived by people seeing men on horseback for the first time.  Ask about the unicorn sometime.  The Centaur configuration would alleve our bipedal problems while still leaving us hands for tool handling.  Redesigning furniture would be a small disadvantage.

Doug’s music collecting continues apace.  He is now up to 40,000 songs including many duplicates.  Possible low point of the year – the Lettermen’s take on the Doors “Light My Fire”.  There are some bonzo collectors out there – a recent Craigslist ad offered 4 TERABYTES of music.  That is huge – something like 58,000 albums.  The generation gap in music – the question “Are they 45s, 78s, or 33s” to a teenage seller got this response – “I don’t know what year they are.”  While going to the annual Lake Oswego Car Show, we were sitting opposite someone with a “Tjader” name tag.  Turned out he is the brother of late jazz fave Cal.  Wow!

Our literary pursuits for this year are the “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” series (who knew the Swedes had anything going on beyond socialist utopia) and local bad boy Chuck Palahniuk (we find that “PaulaNick’s” famous “Fight Club” may be the tamest of his works).

In cold war Bulgaria mad scientists attempted to create perfect soldiers.  They experimented with 4 sets of rats rated by increasing aggression.  They further broke each of the 4 groups into regular and meta groups, with the meta group being beyond normal for the group.  In order to get even more aggression, they interbred the 4^th meta group.  The rats broke out and killed the scientists.  Some said that they were punished for playing God, but any English teacher would know their mistake was mixing meta-fours.  Further meditation on metaphors:  Sure falling off a log is easy, more to the point it is painful.  Shouldn’t the metaphor be “As painful as falling off a log” and as “Easy as a banana”?  Nothing is much easier than a banana.  They are soft; it’s just peel and eat.  What’s so easy about pie or a piece of cake?  Is it the eating or the preparation?  Sweet as pie or piece of cake makes more sense.

Feeling old?  Omar, an 89 year old, was tied for first hiker (most hikes) for our Thursday group and 3^rd (# of miles) for the Tuesday hikes.

Suitable signoff, Doug & Sharon

Seasons Greetings 2009

Greetings.  It has been another interesting year.

Our weather may not have outweirded yours, but it has been strange.  The year began with the end of the snowstorm that paralyzed the region.  Some didn’t leave their houses for two weeks.  The summer registered two 106 degree days (we hoped for 2 more to break the record).  Two trips to the Tigard Balloon Festival left us with no balloon sightings – too windy.  We are in the middle of a cold snap (as is most of the country) as I write this.

Sharon celebrated the onset of Social Security by reprising her 50^th birthday belly dance (see picture).  With many months work, she could duplicate all the moves from 12 years prior (and the ones she couldn’t do then? . . sadly, no).

There have been some interesting Oregon movies the last few years.  Oregon movie meaning one made somewhere else (mostly Canada), but supposed to be Oregon, or one made in Oregon.  Music Within is about a disabled activist who went to Portland State about the same time I did.  Hector Elizondo, an average size Greek-Hispanic, played Ben Padrow, a short, squat speech coach of different ethnicity.  Hollywood.  Padrow may be the first character that I really knew portrayed in a movie.  Ice Twisters is a cheapie Canadian SciFi movie in which Portland is ravaged.  At last we are getting a bit of the abuse heaped on Tokyo, LA, NY and London.  Big Nothing oddly depicts an Oregon containing the Isle Of Mann, South Wales and parts of Canada.  The first Twilight movie was filmed in the area.  I think that my high school (Madison) was used in some scenes.  The second and third shifted to Canada.  The Road has scenes filmed in Fort Stevens and the Columbia Gorge.  The TV show Leverage claims to be in Boston, but is now filmed in Portland.  A latter-day, lesser Mission Impossible.

Doug is now a Portland Old Boy, a group that meets for breakfast and gives short speeches.  He has done two of the speeches – The Death Of Columnism and China Camp in San Rafael.

As our volunteering (over 4000 cumulative combined hours at the State Park) and hobbies have increased, our hiking has decreased, but continues to be addictive (in a good way).  It was a blooming year for beargrass (see picture).  We thought about a holiday picture with Bare*** In The Beargrass, but an unexpected attack of good taste precluded that.  Our group took a bus trip to famous Smith Rocks (google that) and we had lunch at the famous Monkey Face (see picture).

We had no truly exotic travel this year.  We spent time at the coast.  The biggie was our cruise to Alaska.  We had done similar cruises, so no surprises, but a lot of great scenery, beer and fairly good weather.  We walked a lot.  Sharon’s hen party was back to the Mendocino NF cabin.  Temperature hit 109 on the way up.  The wise women made modifications for the heat (starting our hikes at 7:30am!) and had a close encounter with a rattlesnake.  We joined the Tryon nature guides in the Wallowas and Baker.  The tram to Mt. Howard, the spawning of kokanee (Doug is the anti-salmon, they want to work really hard to spawn and then die), and the huge Baker Museum were highlights.  Sharon went to her nephew’s wedding on the shores of Lake Michigan, which turned out to be a deep bowl full of satisfying family soup.

We got face(book)ed a lot.  We don’t understand social media.  One of us doesn’t understand any kind of social.

We had the funniest phone survey ever from Doug’s health care provider.  After a few questions about general health (are you drunk now, do you sleep hanging from a tree), they got into mental health (are people plotting against you – they are but he didn’t admit it).  The funny question was “Do you think that you have superpowers?”.  After ROFLHAO, he told them “no” in order to protect his secret identity.  This story has some artificial ingredients for added humor.

Doug’s music obsession continues apace.  The song count is around 24,000.  There are more standards, big bands and jazz.  After many sales, we still need to move around 1,000 LPs and many CDs and cassettes.

We have been tired this year.  One tire had six flats.  We ended up with a whole new set.  After putting on new winter tires, one went flat with a valve stem failure.  Doug is much better than he would like to be at changing tires.  Addendum:  Another valve stem failure last night!  Had all replaced on the new tires.  This ties Doug’s record for flats, established 40+ years ago on his ’49 Buick.

Doug’s mother Sue (see picture) died January 8, a little short of her 95th.  Although not doing too badly for her age, she had been ready for a number of years, so we were prepared, but it does hurt.  We think that she would have made it to 100 except for the smoking.  She was in a long term brain study at OHSU and reminded us often that they were to get her brain fresh for autopsy.  They found old subdural hematomas.  Later, a friend suffered from same and came close to dying.  Another friend did die from one, despite being in excellent health.  A hiker died from a fall downstairs.  So many people that we know are having health problems that we are reminded, do it now.  Got that cure for cancer, want to go to Italy, thinking about the missing Gospel that changes the whole meaning of the Bible?  Act on it now.  This has been an unpaid, nonpolitical, nondenominational message.

Harriet, the Hairy-pet, is still on a diet and doing well and never leaves hairballs on the rug.

We are pleased to be in mediocre health, not looking for work or wanting to sell a house.  We do have a brand new, environmentally-correct driveway we would be pleased to show off should you find yourself in the neighborhood, so y’all come!

What’s up with you?

HawleyDazily yours,

Sharon and Doug

Seasons Greetings 2008

So, how about this year?!.  Interesting election.  We actually contributed money to a (winning) candidate.

We started the year with a trip to California.  Initial weather was miserable, but we got to drive through giant redwood trees on the California coast.  We saw lots of old Corte Madera friends and ended up in our old vacation spot Morro Bay where we caught some excellent weather, followed by a trip up the coast through Big Sur.  Sharon found the elephant seal birthing site on the way.  What a sight!  (see picture).

Sharon developed a program about the lovely Pacific Lamprey for educational purposes at Tryon Creek State Park, where we both volunteer.  A face only a mother could love!  (see picture).

In February, Doug got serious about his popular song collection (mostly crappy rock and roll from the 50s & 60s) by getting an iPod for his birthday.  By the time you receive this his song collection should have hit 10,000.  Styx and (Rolling) Stones don’t bother him.  We just got a bigger hard disk for all the songs.  He was also selected as a community columnist for the Oregonian and thought that meant he could write columns of his choice for that newspaper.  When his editor disabused him of that notion, specifically regarding his fairy tale version of Portland politics, the only other press he did was depressed.

In April he was called to jury duty, but no one wanted him.  He missed being on the jury that made a historic huge award to Adidas for copyright infringement.  Payless had to pay.

In May and June he did more weird clinical balance trials (walking in circles blindfolded for example) at OHSU Hillsboro.  In August he finished an 18 month trial which should help in the treatment of Parkinsons.  He also tried to get our fat cat more exercise in May.  She liked to stay upstairs for most of the day, so we moved her downstairs in hopes that she would get some exercise walking back up.  She decided that downstairs wasn’t so bad, proving that cats are smarter than Dougs . . .  Or one cannot teach old Dougs nude tricks?

Sharon’s Hen Party in June took her to Nevada and California, which was burning.  We found hiking at 9000 feet above sea level and 90 degrees in the Lake Tahoe area to be challenging.  The best part is being together.

In August Doug did his 2nd Portland to Coast walking relay.  Older and fatter going farther turned out to be slower.

The strange key saga occurred in September.  Doug was clearing Tryon ivy in rotten weather.  His keys were lost out of a hole in his pocket.  After four different searches including one with a metal detector, S and D gave up and got new keys at great expense.  Later he worked in the same area and found the keys he had quit looking for in a place he had looked over thoroughly.  He thinks that someone pranked him or that it was an alien abduction.

Our trip to SE OR in Sept included a number of treats – spotting bitterns, antelope (see picture) and other wildlife (dancing squirrels! – see other picture).  We missed the wild ride and the wild horses on the southern slope of Steens Mt because we opted to hike the one mile and 1000 feet down to Wildhorse Lake.  Sheez – then we had to hike back up.  Fields, OR, is known for its milkshakes and cheeseburgers and we can say we partook.

September also gave us the spectacular Vaux’s swifts by the thousands nesting in the Chapman School chimney.

Sharon and Doug were both volunteers of the season for a second time at Tryon Park for different seasons and reasons.  Doug got on a Tryon Watershed restoration project.  He specializing in killing things.

A mole dug up our yard in October exposing splinters of wood, thereby indicating why our yard and driveway are collapsing.  Sharon went to Michigan and helped her brother move.  Detroit was sad and getting sadder – maybe beyond fixing for a long time.

Sharon turned early soc sec age in December.  She will be bellydancing in February, in honor of her first actual check.  Thanksgiving and Christmas bring family get-togethers.  And this year a huge deep freeze that will last about two weeks (see picture, taken today!)

Auf Wiederjoken   . . .  like the new cookbook banned by PETA – Wokking Your Dog.

Sharon and Doug

Seasoned Greenings 2007

Send email address if you have one – ours is doughawley@hotmail.com

Early this year we flew to Hawaii for a cruise.  Our plans to meet friends on different islands was defeated by sea conditions and a cell phone that did not make it to the islands.  The good and bad of cruises these days – They are cheap and you get what you pay for.  In order to visit a foreign port for purposes of the Jones’ Act, the ship went to Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati a thousand miles south of Hawaii.  Fanning has a fascinating story.  Look it up.  Sharon did cultural things.  Doug intended to spend the day in the wonderful water, but stepping on a rusty Spam can spoiled that plan.

We did a big circle drive to Nevada and California in June.  There are many jackrabbits in NV.  Our stay with good friends in their new home, pretty much hand-built by Larry, included flying to CA for breakfast, small plane style.  We went on to CA to visit and hike.  Sharon met up with the Hen Party out on the Point Reyes peninsula and had an excellent adventure – what ho, baby skunk!  The Hens weren’t thrilled with my dissertation on banana slugs.  Maybe a little too in-your-face slug-wise.

Doug got in good condition for about 15 minutes at the end of August for his doctor appointment, 50^th grade school reunion (how did he go to school with people 10 years older than he), and Portland-to-Coast Walk (no running allowed).  He was even asked if had been weightlifting.  In all modesty, he had to admit that he had the body of a 20 year old – don’t tell Sharon – he keeps it in the refrigerator.  The doctor appointment went well, but he still checks the obituaries to see if he should get out of bed.  The reunion was a quiet affair attended by many of the survivors in the country around Clatskanie.  Our old school is now a Native American resource center.  Heavy nostalgia.  The 126-mile relay walk went well except for being repeatedly bitten by some varmint while he was sleeping for 2 hours in a field while awaiting the 3:50AM start of his second leg.  The team came into Seaside well ahead of our projections.

Our last major trip of the year was for several days in Washington State.  We first spent five days at Stehekin Ranch at the north end of Lake Chelan east of the Cascade Range.  Five days of hiking, reading, eating and drinking.  Next stop, North Cascades National Park, a craggy scenic wonder.  Our day in Bellingham was spent with the O’Days and their ten social cats.  Next through Whidbey Island and by Ferry to the Olympic Peninsula.  Finally a stay at Long Beach Peninsula with the world’s longest beach and the cranberry museum.  Home at last.

Sharon had a hospital stay – first one in 57 years (tonsillectomy at that time) – for a GI bleed.  Watch out for those black stools!  She was IVed, endoscoped (inconclusively), transfused, rehabbed and released and has had no apparent problem since.  Probably an ulcer, no special diet, on Prilosec.  Four days will use up at least 5 years of the savings on premiums for our very high-deductible medical plan.

Our weather this year brought us massive fungus in mushrooms and other types and many fat spiders.

Neighbor Tai offered his expertise in Doug’s big music project.  Doug loaded over 6000 tunes from LP’s, tapes and CD’s to his computer.  The music is mostly moldy rock (Jerry Lee, Fats, Rolling Stones, Elvis and like that), but ranges from Caruso, to local bands, to jazz and classical.  He is now examining headsets and Ipods.  Doug’s other big project is picking a Medicare plan.  He starts February 1.

Harriet the hairy pet is now also known as Wooly Bear as inspired by her colors and shape.  After her traumatic loss, she seems to be happy a year later with us.

Volunteering up some, hiking and snowshoeing down.  In order to save gasoline we have limited our longer hiking drives and have put a deposit on a smart car.

The march of time – by the end of this year, we will have had our 37^th annual adversity, ten years in Lake Offwego and four years in this house.

Doug and Sharon

Seasoned Greenings 2006

Send email address if you have one – ours is doughawley@hotmail.com

Since we last wrote there was the cheapo cruise to Mexico in December, during Sharon’s birthday.  As a bonus we got to visit our Bay Area friends.  The trip included Catalina Island (boss garden), San Diego (zoo, huge boat parade) and several Mexican ports.  Highlights included warmth (see picture), eating, sleeping and no phone calls.  Snorkeling off Cabo San Lucas was a bit cold, but fun.  We had the sense to overindulge eating and drinking on the ride back to the ship (after snorkeling).

Our September trip covered Central/Eastern Oregon from North to South.  We started with some of the Tryon Nature Guides and broke off after a couple of days.  We hit such locally known locations as:  Shaniko (formerly big in wool, now a ghost town), John Day (with a perfectly-preserved home/pharmacy of a Chinese herbal doctor), many fossil areas (including the hill behind Fossil HS where Doug believes fossils are made in a ceramics class), Sumpter (where we saw the last remaining Dredge and 8 square miles of land dredged for gold up into the 1950’s), Seneca (coldest recorded spot in OR – 54F below),  Malheur Refuge (a plethora of birds and a couple of fearless coyotes), Frenchglen (historic hotel), Steens Mountain (see picture), Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge (home of – you guessed it), Crater Lake (ride around the lake and climb up Wizard Island) and finally Umpqua River waterfalls.  Perhaps the most interesting fossil was the oreodont whose teeth were adapted for eating cream filled cookies. Whew.  All in six days.

Off to cruise Hawaii in February, 2007, returning in time for Doug’s (Medicare – 1) birthday.   We had been thinking about a vacation at a detox center until we found that liquor is not included.

Mother Sue is doing well.  We lost Doug’s uncle Al, a Navy vet of WWII this year.  His sister Alex has produced another book in the Cassidy McCabe series.  After a year and a half cat-free, a Mazama (Oregon mountaineering club) member on his deathbed asked his friend to look after his 12-year-old cat.  Said friend has an FIV-infected cat and could not take her, so we got Harriet, the Hairy Pet (see picture).  She is still a bit shy, but is a sweetheart and getting used to her new people and house.  Appears that we are catted again – our status of most of the last thirty years.

Our almost twenty-year-old house has gone through its most thorough remake in the last year including roof, decks and insulation.  Also a wall heater in the bathroom – yummy!  We got a 40-year roof.  The salesguy buttered us up with “You may outlive the roof”.  One of the few advantages of our age is that is not likely.  We went on Craigslist and got a good home gym cheap.  Now we just need to use it.  We hope that the major changes are soon behind and the fates don’t give us an earthquake.  We late-adopters finally got a DVD player.  That spawned purchase of 50 “Classic” Sci Fi and 50 “Classic” Horror movies for a total of $25.  Whatta country!

Sharon hosted her Hen Party at our friends’ cabin (thanks Ruth and Shelly) on the Siletz River close to the coast.  A good time was had by all which has been communing together for (probably) 13 years.  Clothes shopping became part of the shared experience with hilarity ensuing.

She also had a trip to visit family in Michigan.  With brothers, she did a nostalgia drive that included the best Polish food around and sighting of the place their mother worked (almost a Rosie-the-Riveter) during WWII.

Doug stayed close to home.  He cajoled and bribed his way into being the MC at his 45^th high school reunion.  He was great, but the audience was inattentive.  Send SASE for speech.  He’s trying for a wider audience because no one listened to him there.  He still does not understand how everyone in high school was ten years older than him.  There was so much CRS, CHS and CSS there (can’t remember / hear / see stuff).  Doug however has a memory like a steel trap (rusty and full of dead furry things).  He is holding off on hearing aides because yelling WHAT WHAT WHAT is so much cheaper.  Don’t get started on his eyesight.  Soft drinks could be consumed from his eyeglass lenses.

To improve on the big reunion Doug was fortunate in getting his three good buds – Gary, Roger and Wally plus spouses together at McMenamins in Troutdale.

Sharon turns sixty, we had our six squared (for the innumerate, that is 36) annual adversity so it is a six-y year.

Volunteer stuff remains much the same, except that after two years as the head of the Friends of Tryon State Park, Sharon’s term is over, but she remains on the Board.  She was also a volunteer chef (the cheese lady) at a fundraising event at the Park.  The blue cheese-stuffed figs and walnuts were a huge hit.  Doug was one of Tryon’s representatives to the SOLV (a state cleanup group) awards at which the EcoTrails group got the community award.  As the picture shows, they clean up well.  Doug was also tapped for another Parkinson’s trial, this time for learning to keep his balance.

Interesting weather here.  We broke the November rainfall record.  While others go for the gold, Oregon goes for the mold.

Recommended reading – Doug went back to the mystery classics and reread most of the works of Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammet and Ross MacDonald.  Interesting people (in the case of Chandler, horrible person) and fascinating writers.  He also started on the very strange Patricia Highsmith, the author of Strangers on a Train, a childhood favorite movie, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Sharon is enjoying her next three years worth of Christmas/Birthday presents – in the form of a new (used) bass clarinet.  It had been performing with the Oregon Symphony for many years.

Sustainable Living / Global Warming – we are down to one car, walking even more, buying local products, signed up for wind power thru our local utility and generally trying to decrease our energy footprint.

Enough about us!!  Send us your news.  Also, we have a real guest room and bed and plenty to show off in our beautiful area, so y’all come.

Mele Kalikimaka

Sharon and Doug

Seasoned Greenings 2005

First the  Mid-Year report from Doug and Sharon 2005 (originally via e-mail only – send us yours to doughawley@ hotmail.com ).

After twenty and a half years our loyal companion Pooch finally came to the end of the road.  She was greatly diminished at the end, but still liked her lap time and could get around, so she had a good run and greatly enriched our lives.  We intend to go pet-free for awhile to catch up on our traveling.  So far we have gone 120 miles to KahNeeTa and its hot springs, signed up for a MidWest tour and reserved a Caribbean cruise.

Doug’s mother moved into a retirement home.  His sister got a new publisher for her books.

Ken and Ellen Willoughby from California visited while staying at a time share on Mt. Hood.  A good time was had by all.

Weird weather.  We had summer in January to March, while California turned into Oregon and now we are experiencing spring when some would expect summer.  Our snow shoeing was very limited because the snow didn’t show up.

We saw two paintings of Marin hangouts at our Lake Oswego Art Festival – Buckeye Roadhouse and Erik’s Drive–In (now closed?).  We hope to get down there this year.

Doug qualified (by age, not virtue) for early Social Security (something he has never had) and a Golden Age pass.  We’re hoping the government doesn’t spend all the money on more invasions.

Our volunteering remains the same.  We hope that when Sharon is no longer Board President of Friends of Tryon, we can have the time for bigger adventures.

We still like our new (to us) house.  Y’all come.

Followed by our year-end update:

We always forget something.  Our memories are going fast.  Since Pooch, our feline companion of 20 plus years died this February, we are making good on our resolution to travel.  We looped Lake Michigan with our friends Dick and Pat Johnsonbaugh, starting in Chicago.  The trip started well with the sighting of the juggling bus driver.  We got to see a train museum, a nature preserve, Taquamanon Falls in the UP that Sharon visited about 50 years ago (she was younger then), the Soo Locks (I’d tell you the name of the city, but I can’t spell Sault St. Marie), Fall colors in the Agawa Canyon of Ontario (by train – see picture), Macinac (pronounced Macinaw) Island, and took a Dune Buggy ride.  Impressive, but we are not ready to move.

Sharon did her annual Hen Party at Mammoth Lakes, revisiting beautiful Shadow Lake.  The hike up there seemed shorter, speaking of getting old!  We started up at 7am to avoid heat and traffic restrictions.  Next year the group is coming back to Oregon.  See picture of the Fab Five Hiking Hens outside Janet’s place in the desert.  She is a long-time tree and mountain lover who has embraced the desert (Smith Valley in NV) as her own.  I was tempted to send many more pictures!  By the time you get this we will be close to taking off for our visit to SF Bay Area and a ten day cruise of SoCal (Southern California is too long to write out) and the Mexican Riviera.

In our post-cat life, we visit cats in the street and at friends’ houses.  We keep busy.  Sharon goes to meetings.  Her efforts at Tryon Park got her recognized as the “Make a Difference” person in the Oregonian [local newspaper].  Doug watches TV and reads old mysteries.  With more yard work and housework in our bigger house, hiking was cut down.  We got early snow, so there was some early snowshoeing (see picture).  Doug has returned to pumping iron and is thinking about committing tennis again.  Our community is building and revising parks for our amusement.

Mt. St. Helens is acting up again.  We saw some of the action after we spelunked through the nearby Ape Caves.   Given our powerful connections (we know someone, who knows someone who is his son) we got to hear Jack Klugman talk about his life and his friendship with Tony Randall (Leonard Rosenthal).  Macy’s has bought out a lot of department stores.  Our local Meier & Frank will become Macy’s soon so we took a last look at the original version.  Apparently along with the name change the top floor restaurant, the Georgian Room, will go away and several floors will be converted to a hotel.  Lots of changes, some good, some bad.  I’d like to have Woolworth’s back, but not fabric roofs on cars.     

As Doug ages, he recognizes more than at an early age that two things are important in life.  Do good things for yourself and your community now.  No one knows the number of his days and as the sands in the hour glass, so are the days of our lives.  We tried that herbal stuff, what do you call it, Rocky Balboa I think, and it did help our memory for awhile, but we kept forgetting to take it.  We just had our 35^th annual adversity.  Maybe it will last. 

Volunteer stuff remains the same except that Doug became lab rat for Parkinson’s research.  In three different tests he portrayed supposed normal reach, chewing (see Hannibal Lecter picture!!) and falling down of the superannuated.  We hope that some good comes from this because Parkinson’s has affected so many that we know.  We know two people who are amazing – One is about 73 and puts in 1,000 hours or so of hard physical labor improving parks and other areas, and the other who is very disabled from a car accident and still puts in volunteer hours.

Did that sound grim?  Have a great holiday & and a whole new year.

A  priest, rabbi, minister, people of various ethnicities [tough word], a horse, a grasshopper, John Kerry, George Bush, a diminutive piano player, a termite and a disembodied head get out of a taxi [this isn’t the joke, but I like the visual] and go into a bar.  The bartender says [wait for it, wait for it] “Is this some kind of joke?”

T  T  T  T  T  T  T  T  T  T  T  T 

Seasoned Greenings 2004 from the Hawleys  Part 2. 

Back to the first half of the year:  After an article in the Oregonian about no more snow in Portland, we got plenty in January.  The town shut down.  We could snow shoe out the front door.  Isolated snow piles lasted for weeks.

As a consequence of the Nike RunHitWonder demographics (few old runners in the 5k), Doug won a spiffy trophy for his placing second in his age / gender category.

Our 33 1/3 anniversary occurred at the same time as Doug’s mother’s 90^th  last spring. 

We are happy that the election is over, but sorry about the result.  It is unfortunate that the only well known candidate who did not think repeating Viet Nam was a good idea is loony as a bedbug in other ways.  Doug was both jealous and relieved that others wrote letters to the editor about the LBJ – Bush and Iraq – Yugoslavia parallels. 

Hiking – We took a short vacation to East Lake, where Doug camped with his family way back when.  Hiked in the snow over Labor Day weekend, climbed the obsidian flow and went to the High Desert Museum.  Later that month we hiked with our group up Ollalie Butte to celebrate the 5^th anniversary of our friends who were married up there.  Mt St Helens was rumbling, but Mt Jefferson was putting on a show with a humongous cumulus cloud.

We finished our 3^rd year of coordinating the Daytrippers hiking group and passed the baton.  Our end-of season potluck celebrated the group’s  25^th year with many of the old hikers in attendance.  Sharon is busy as the Chairguy of the Friends of Tryon Creek State Park and Doug has many cuts and scratches from falling down and walking into things while battling invasive species there.  Sharon has started an e-newsletter for the hikers, the DayTripbune.  She contributes news and Doug does his cultural column and his self help column Heresee under the pseudonym Beau D. Holly (sample advice – “Don’t fear the Reaper”, and “Its Not about You”).

Based on years of loyalty, a little hard work, libeling the competition and strategic payoffs, Doug was honored with a promotion to day manager at Booktique (no pay, more work and use of his higher math skills on a cash register), a designation as Make a Difference guy (which applauds volunteers) in the regional section of the Oregonian for a week in September, and the opportunity for a small return to show business with a toast / roast of four couples’ 50^th anniversaries at the Lake Oswego hike potluck.

We try to spend hours at a time in front of the remote-controlled fireplace with cat-on-lap and book-in-hand but manage to stay way busy.  Much of it is the dreaded “oh, no, more dirty dishes!” but much of it is fun, energetic and satisfying.  What a life.  How’s by you?

Namaste, Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men                Sharon and Doug

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM SHARON AND DOUG 2003

Sorry this is so late.  Our excuse is that we moved in December (see below).  If you have e-mail please please please send us one at doughawley@hotmail.com so we can get yours.  We’d like to keep in touch more often that way.  And now for something completely different:

The man from Texas became president without winning the popular vote.  He got the US into a war in Asia over a total fabrication.  Many died, but his Texas cronies were enriched by the war.  The deficit exploded and the economy went into the tank.   At first he was supported, but Americans eventually came around to see how horrible his administration was.  His policies made the US a pariah among nations.   As a result Johnson didn’t run for reelection.  Et tu Bush?

Don’t stop now, the following will be more cheerful.

I’ve forgotten most of what we did this year.  After a slow start, snowshoeing (14 dates in all) picked up.  More hiking, swimming, band, tennis, volunteer stuff.  We continue in our last year as Coordinators of the Daytrippers our Tuesday hiking group.  After many suggestions about what a horrible job we were doing (from us), Verne and Mickie Church agreed to apprentice this year and take over next.     Sharon is chairman elect of the board of our local park group, Friends of Tryon.

There were several 60^th birthday reunion events for Doug, both high school and grade school.  One was a trip to Las Vegas in which we walked a lot and gambled little.  An aside – my old grade school – Whitaker – became tangentially semi-famous.  The locale of Cannes-winning Gus Van Sant film Elephant was filmed at Whitaker, but the Whitaker used was a mile away from my version.  This may be both confusing and pointless. 

Our biggest trip was one to the Midwest Triangle (cue Jaws music) where objects turn to cheese.  We started visiting our friends Rick and Harriett (who were holding a Bat Mitzvah for Joanna) in Indianoplace, the Deans and Halls in Louisville (some good ice cream and lots of changes), Sharon’s family in the Detroit area and the Johnsonbaughs south of Chicago who were just moving to their new house.  If this seems more like a rectangle than triangle, note that Chi, Indy and Louisville line up.  Much reminiscing and eating.  Our trip to Kristen and Ken’s wedding in Bear Valley had more driving, but no flying.  Kristen is the daughter of our former neighbor and great friend from Corte Madera, Janet Brusse.  Kristen had learned to ski starting at age 4 and met her husband to be there.  Before getting to Bear Valley, we stopped in our previous home, Marin County.  Lots of old friends and familiar sights and familiar traffic jams.  At least one of us wants to go back for a longer visit, but with housing prices doubled since we were there, returning to live is prohibitive.  We saw a lot of your scenic grandeur along the way.

Biggest news is that we moved 1.78 miles away to 15687 Boones Way.  Same town, state, zip, phone and email, but we are leaving communist Multnomah County for Clackamas.  We shopped in the First Addition (because it was the first addition to Lake Oswego) area for awhile and were stopped by the California-level prices.  The sale was official December 9.  We will have much better guest quarters, so y’all come.  Our new place has such wonders as giant conifers, a lily pad in a mini-pond and a two person jetted tub.  Is this why we spent so many years in college? 

Happy Holidays, Peace, Namaste, Doug & Sharon

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM SHARON AND DOUG 2002

Summary:  Hiking, volunteering, band, softball, family, marathon, visits, travel, cat, family, self help, snowshoe and war.

If your mailing address or telephone number have changed, please let us know.  This e-mailed greeting (and the attached picture) is replacing our usual card.

Hiking highlights – We now Honcho the Tuesday Daytrippers and have nifty “Hiking Beaver” shirts.  Sharon did lyrics and choreography for the end-of-season potluck entertainment – called Leader with a Pack (to the tune of…).  We completed our five-segment, two year hike around Mt. St. Helens on the Loowit trail.  Doug now does most of his running in Tryon Park with running guru Jim Squires.  Compared to formal runs, you start and quit when you want, it costs nothing, but you don’t get medals, shirts or food.  A good trade off.

Team Sharon supported sis Cindy and bro-in-law Ken and Doug for the 2002 Portland Marathon.  Cousin Jim Hawley was not on the team, but did run.  Approximate times:  Ken 3:29, Jim 4:11, Cindy 4:48 and Doug 5:24.

California buddy Rich Tash and the Dressler family of New York also dropped in on us in 2002.  Y’all come.

Sharon continues with her most excellent community band, but has switched to the larger bass clarinet, going so far as to buy one!  Support has been terrific.

Doug got on a coed softball team – much better looking than the over 40 and over 50 teams he played on in California.  He got the most-timely-hit award and the hustle award.  The accolades probably derive from playing the age card – he is about 20 years older than the next older player.  His team, the Strays, lost in the finals by one run, so all the players feel good.  He also continues to commit the occasional tennis interspersed with falling down.

Both started snowshoeing in 2002.  We got great exercise and views while justifying massive doughnut ingestion.  When it snows around here again we hope to restart.  The enclosed picture was taken by master photographer and all around dude, Omar Bose.  With his photography magic, he added the top person who was on the beach when the rest of the snowbound scene was captured.  See his work at http://tentmaker.50megs.com (get it?).  You can occasionally see us on one of our hikes and get a glimpse of the wonderful NW without having to sweat. 

Not much travel in the last year except our Wallowas and John Day Fossil Beds trip – Sharon’s usual hen party and Michigan trip while Doug catsat.  We did cruise around Puget Sound with mother and cousin-in-law Phyllis.  Doug and Sharon literally “climbed the wall” on the ship.

In all the years that we have lived in Oregon we had never gone to Oregon’s Alps – the Wallowas.  This year we went to this beautiful area in Northeast Oregon.  Once there we stayed in a rustic lodge, took the steepest tram in North America (Doug held on tight enough to the center pole to keep it from falling down), hiked various trails, watched the spawning of the red landlocked Kokanee salmon and viewed the ruins of a Boy Scout camp which was flooded out this summer.  Sounds good, but wait there is even more.  On the way back through central Oregon we visited the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument as a throw in.  They were possibly more impressive than the Wallowas.  We were aweshucked  by the brightly colored and weird formations of Sheep Rock and the Painted Hills.  In the town of Fossil, we gathered fossils behind Wheeler High.  Because Doug had found fossils here when he was in college, he continues to suspect they are made in a ceramics class at the high school and tossed out back for tourists.

Volunteer stuff continues.  Sharon nature guides and Chairs the Education Committee for Friends of Tryon Park.  Doug plays Hindu Gods in his work removing invasive species and improving trails in Tryon – he is the destroyer, the builder and the maintainer – Mahavishnu, Brahma and Shiva in some order.  He also continues to be a book and person pusher at the Friends of Library bookstore and The Hospital With Too Many Names.  Sharon gives blood.

Based on his “Are We Here Yet” revelation while hiking, Doug is 16 pages into his probable self-help best seller “Heresy™” (pronounced Here–see).  Rest assured it will be much better than “The DVD’s That People Play”, “Jupiter and Saturn” and other dreck from that execrable genre.  Send lots of money if you would like a prepublication version.  All of this might be a joke.  Time will tell.

Sister Alex is continuing her Cassidy McCabe “Murder I Shrunk” mystery series.  The rest of our families are getting along.  We had a 150^th birthday party for mother Sue and Sister Alex this year (that is 150 years combined), as well as Boring (Oregon – look it up out-of-staters) seasonal festivities.  Our aged gray feline is increasingly mellow.  Maybe there is hope.

Let us be serious for a moment.  Or, if you don’t like serious, skip this paragraph.  The subject is Mr. Bush’s planned war.  We don’t know what will happen if there is no war.  If there is a war:

            A lot of people will be killed or maimed.

            Much property will be destroyed.

            The US will spend something like 100 billion which might find some other use.

            The US will approve by example aggression and intervention.

This is the land of the free.  Tell citizens and your government what you think.

Have a Wonderful Holiday and a Happy and Healthy (and hope that you can afford your health insurance) New Year!

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM SHARON AND DOUG – 2001

Errata – Last year’s newsletter stated that we had never had an Oldsmobile.  In fact we had an Olds convertible in the early 80’s in LA.  It was no end of trouble, so they should be out of business.  We forgot that Doug had shingles (locally known as roofers disease) when he climbed Mt. St. Helens.  He caught it orally – another hiker told him about his case a few weeks before.

MEddie Jones had a business taking produce to market with pack animals in the late 1800’s in California’s Sacramento Valley.  His business bored him, but his imagination soared with wild tales set in Africa and on Mars.  He finally interested a publisher, but they thought he had to have a grander name to go with his heroic tales.  They had him name himself after his transport business – Edgar Rice Burros.  With the last name changed slightly, he went down in history.

Biz has gone full circle.  Hawley Actuarial Software / HAS (1983-1998), begot SALT WATERR (1998-2000),  which begot Hause Actuarial Software / HAS (2001 – ?).  We don’t care as long as it is gone.  We are the overjoyed unemployed.  Doug has come up with a scam to fleece people who spend money on “Women are from Pluto, Men are Dogs” and such dreck.  It is the “Are We Here Yet” movement, the ultimate “In the Moment” / “All who wander are not lost” nonsense.

We were in Stehekin at the north end of Lake Chelan for 9/11 (please consult map of  North Washington State Cascades).  Newspapers and radios were hard to come by and TV was unavailable.  Thus we were spared continuous views of Ground Zero, but treated to wild rumors.  We were not however, spared views of scenic grandeur.  The enclosed picture is of  Horseshoe Basin in the North Cascades National Park.

This trip was with twenty-some hiker friends of ours.  The only way to get to the camp was by boat or plane.  We spent the whole week hiking, eating (a choice of seven pies every night) and drinking.  Pretty darn good.  We got great views including firefighting helicopters, an old mine and more rattlesnakes than we wanted.

Many people have been depressed by 9/11 which is easily understandable, but let’s look at things to be thankful for, particularly in light of the season .  This is our partial personal list.  Your results will vary.

• Friends and Family
• Oregon and the Northwest in general – What a region
• Biggest hits CD’s
• Volunteers – We’re amazed at how much time and effort some people put in
• Capitalism – this is controversial, but remember the Soviet Union not only lost the battle but impoverished its people and environment along the way
• Not working while we are still (relatively) healthy
• Those that buck the system without blocking traffic

The above list leads to several possible segues.  Doug’s new volunteer job (in addition to his old park work and library book sales) is delivering patients, cards, flowers and medical records at a local hospital.  Job descriptions – unpaid escort, pushing people around, a pusher, roll (sic) model.  Sharon is still nature guiding at Tryon Park.  She is also a board member for our condo, her band, and Friends of Tryon.  She is not as board as you might think (this plays better spoken than written).  Doug and Sharon are Co-Coordinators of the Daytrippers, our Tuesday hiking group for 2002.  That means the work will be split fairly:  80% Sharon, 20% (I don’t do phones) Doug.

Doug took up running for the shirts, food and company of young ladies.  He hates running, is very slow (usually finishes the same day he starts) and never trains, but the ancillary benefits persuaded him to enter an event a month for the last 9 months from 5k to half marathon (which he half walked).

Biggest deals hiking this year involved Mt. St. Helens.  We are in a two year project to walk the Loowit trail around said peak by splitting it into several segments.  It is slow going because much of the walking is over lava fields.  In one walk in the area we found a Boleta(?) mushroom with a 13 inch diameter cap.  What a monster!  We also went with our friends Gary and Joyce to “climb” (more like a long snowy hike) said mountain.    Closer to home we spotted our first wild bear in Oregon while driving up to Larch Mt.  Doug tied for most hiking of our Thursday group and Sharon tied for second.

For non-hiking fun, Sharon continues with her band, having now moved to bass clarinet (it is used for fishing) and Doug is now committing crimes against tennis.

Biggest event of the year?  Could be Doug’s 40^th high school reunion.  Despite his lack of memory cells, he actually recognized several people and had a great time.  A lot of work got him close to his highest high school weight.  It paid off in that several complimented him.  Unfortunately some also had the unkindest words of all – “You haven’t changed Doug”.  He is eating again and it shows.

Also in the running – Sharon’s annual Hen Party at Mammoth Lakes, CA, Doug Prescott’s Greasers Reunion on Mt.  Hood, Sharon’s concerts,  Portland State’s College Bowl reenactment, mother Sue’s running on the beach, visit to L & J Brusse at their home-in-progress in Smith Valley NV  and sister Alex’s sixth book in the Cassidy McCabe series.

Family is doing well.  Old gray cat Pooch has become very mellow during the 10% of the time that she is awake.  Sharon made 3 trips to Michigan and is reconnecting with some family members.  A year-long project has been creating albums for siblings and nephews.  We finally got an offer on the  family property and are keeping our fingers crossed.  Since Sharon’s Dad built the house and the folks lived there all these years, it’s a mixed blessing.

MA dental hygienist was very depressed because she couldn’t have children.  She sighed the whole time she cleaned teeth.  One day, she kidnapped a baby from one of her clients.  Then she was further depressed through guilt.  She surrendered herself to Scully and Mulder of the FBI.  It was an X-file because it was the first verified abduction by a sighing flosser.  This only works orally if at all.  Anyhoo, try to have a good laugh.  No one wants to hang around with a sourpuss.

Have a Wonderful Holiday and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM SHARON AND DOUG – 2000

Do we have a president yet?  Can’t we get along without one?

This year we went on two cruises.  In May we went on a cheap and easy run with Doug’s mother and her friend Olivia from Seattle to Vancouver BC and to Vancouver island.  We had very good weather.  In October we sailed from Portland to Puerto Vallarta with a stop in San Deigo.  The interesting parts were making the national news by losing power just outside the Columbia River (insider joke – we renamed the boat the New New Carissa) and having incredibly unfunny comedians.

Cat news – after being given two years to live with failing kidneys, Pooch was given another two years for good behavior.  She is actually a profit center because giving her a subcutaneous injection every week keeps us from spending money on travel for longer than a week and her continuing decoration of our carpet keeps us from getting a new one.  She exhibits a most loving approach to each day.

Doug’s big adventures were a lot more pleasant than Sharon’s.  He climbed Mt. St. Helen’s (marked down 1500 feet by an eruption 20 years ago) and ran / walked the Portland Marathon again (if only he hadn’t hit the wall 15 miles early he could have attained slow rather than glacial results).  He’s still writing creepy short stories.  His last effort is a novella about the first Libertarian President.  There isn’t anything much scarier than politics.

Sharon’s mother died suddenly 4 days before Christmas last year.  She has spent much time in 2000 traveling to Michigan and helping the family, including, especially, one brother, who always lived with the folks.  The family property is now on the market, brother Ed is in a retirement apartment, and things seem to be settling down.  In November, the 4 siblings sifted through thousands of pictures.  What a trip.

Both of us continue to hike (see picture, with Mt. Hood in background) and participate in various volunteer activities.  We led several hikes this year and both worked in our local Tryon Creek State Park.  Doug is still an amateur part time unpaid bookseller and has recently been recruited as an escort in a local hospital.  This gig is a bit out of his comfort zone, but one has to be jolted a bit.  Sharon continues in the Lake Oswego Millennium Band.  Retirement apparently is a full time job.

We finally made it made it to our 30^th Annual Adversity.  Just think, that’s about the same amount of time as between WWI and WWII.  And speaking of wars …. .

Late breaking news – a president-elect (until a new lawsuit), Oldmobile is dying and we just got back from Las Vegas to find our car converted to ice sculpture.  I never owned an Oldsmobile, but I have fond memories for a 1953 Rocket in which I almost killed myself and two friends.

Send us your e-mail address – ours is doughawley@hotmail.com.  This is a new one since last year.

Is anyone celebrating the REAL end of the Millennium in a special way?

Vaya Con Dios      Y’all Drop By      Namaste      Party Like its 2000!!!

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM SHARON AND DOUG – 1999

The year of walking dangerously.  1999 will probably be our maximum hiking year of all time , with almost 1400 combined “official” miles.  Sharon’s back has mostly been OK, but she still has an injured nerve in one leg (that does not hinder hiking).  Some amazing “feets”:

• First marathon in the immediate family (Sharon’s sis and bro-in-law have previously marathoned) – Doug walked the Portland marathon (finished same day as he started).
• Sharon’s hen party hiking in the wilds of No(rth) Cal(ifornia).
• Sharon and Doug leading several Day Tripper and Lake Oz Park and Rec hikes.
• Sharon and Doug climbing the highest mountain in the Oregon coast range.
• Doug climbing the highest point in the Columbia Gorge, the aptly-named, lung-busting Mt. Defiance.
• S and D hiking for 4 days and about 50 miles along the wild part of the Rogue River.
• S and D circumnavigating Mt Hood on the Timberline Trail (50+ miles over 5 trips).
• S and D serving as document keeper and ring dude at a hiker’s wedding on Ollallie Butte.  This fantastic day included hauling champagne over 7 miles and 3300 feet up.

We remain gentlepeople of leisure.  Doug’s ex-business supplies a trickle of royalties, but the youthful new owner hopes for improvement.  We have a new computer and hope to get better service for e-mail and the internet, but so far it’s been frustrating – bad connections, error messages, incomprehensible instructions (just frazzle the html hyper icon and packet the url frammis) and other abominations.  Maybe next year we’ll do better if all computers don’t die by January.  Send us your e-mail address – ours is 76342,2601@compuserve.com.

New wheels.  We are hoping to hit the Outback in our Outback 2000.

For fun.  We travel, volunteer, hike and play.  We cruised the “Texarribean” this spring.  We had the flight from hell (even made the local telecast where Doug was quoted optimistically – “Nobody Died”), but otherwise a good time – visiting the Tulum ruins in Mexico, snorkeling, kayaking and burning our feet off in Roatan (we had never heard of this island off Honduras before – great place, so it will be ruined in a few years).  Sharon flew to Michigan for a family gathering and went to a ballgame at Tiger Stadium for the last time.  We got to Las Vegas for our first time since 1992 – WOW – pyramids, lots of Elvises, indoor skies, really tacky – and a couple of trips to California to visit our old buds.

Sharon plays in two, count ‘em, two bands and also nature guides.  Doug volunteers doing trail maintenance in the local State Park and sells used books to benefit the LO library on Fridays besides starting his further writing career.  So far a couple of short stories are finished, the computer ate one, another is about halfway done, and one is somewhere in the long term process of translating the scripture of the people of Elrod.  Anybody know a tolerant publisher?

Pooch, etc.  We are happy that we have come through this year mostly intact after our losses in previous years.  Our cat Pooch is 15 and has kidney problems, but fortunately does not know it and is becoming quite mellow as she ages.  Her bedtime purring may start to wake the neighbors.

Our featured picture.  The Reptile Man took the photo.  All the way left to right is an albino Burmese python.  The people are Doug, Sharon and Sue.

Vaya Con Dios      Y’all Drop By      Namaste      Party Like its 1999!!!