All bookstores are not created equal.
This one is long on character and short on pricing.

book stores

Yesterday was book store day.

I took grandson 6 (of 7) to Hastings book store. Hastings is one of those book stores that mixes used and new books. A sign said that all used books (value under $30 - which was about all of the used books) were on sale 5 books for $25.

So I found a new book that I wanted and then looked for a set of 5 used books whose price was over $5 each!

It took a while, but I found 5 really good books that I wanted. So I saved $40 or so on used book prices.

Later in the day I went back to the same store with daughter 1. She found three used books she wanted to buy and I found two more to make the 5. That was 8 books (mostly gardening books) in a single day!

In the early evening while daughter was waiting for a friend, we visited another used book store.

Hastings is a picture of organization and cleanliness. The other store was not.

The sign proclaimed 20% off, but since the books rarely had a price, we never could figure the price that was to be discounted!

So I took pictures with my iPhone and we looked around.

Later we visited the other book store in this smallish town. It is family owned and operated. All new books. Everything was in order.

Three stores, three different visions.

We live in the desert and don't see a LOT of rain.
Portland, on the other hand, gets rain and rain and rain.
While waiting for daughter 4 to go into what used to be Kinko's I shot this picture out the pickup window.

change

I notice how my plans go astray and get modified.

Once I listened to my parents for advice, now I listen to my children, who are not children.

We drove to Portland for the wedding, intending to take an easy two days back home. However, we are scheduled to be back here in SW Washington in another week.

Granddaughter 1 attends school a few hours from here and they have Grandparent weekend next week (the 11th and 12th). It is a hundred dollar trip to go back to Idaho and return to this part of Washington, so daughter 1 who is always scheming ways to get us to stay, suggested that we just stay here for that week.

Not a bad idea, I reasoned, and hundred dollar bills do not happen easily or often, so it will be, and I am not complaining.

But it is time to start seeds for the garden. Not all seeds, but early veggies: Onions, Parsley, Broccoli. Tomato seeds need to get started next week then Lettuce.

We could, of course, skip going to see granddaughter and go home and plant garden seeds instead, but that is a bad trade off, one I would never make.

For some reason there are a few mother/daughter events, and an occasional father/son one, but I have never ever been invited to any father/daughter event, so invite me to a granddaughter/grandparent event and I will be there in my best suit!

Even if I spend part of that hundred on garden plants.

the Steves

I guess you could say I am an Apple guy.

There are three Mac computers in my house, along with two iPods, and an iPhone.

So I pay a bit of attention to the company.

In case you don’t remember, Apple Computer was formed by two Steves: Jobs and Wozniak. The Steve with the long name is portly and seemingly jolly. He is not an active participant in the company right now, but he has a big pile of bucks.

Jobs is the 45th wealthiest person in America. Besides his Apple holdings, he is a part owner of Disney, (7%) thanks to the sale of Pixar, which Jobs owned.

Said gently, both Steves have more than they can easily spend, unless they buy a country.

Right now Jobs is on medical leave, not his first.

He can afford the best medical care in the world. That may do the trick or it may not, no one knows yet.

All of that makes me very thankful for good health. Money is fine, but Health is “more fine.”

By the way Jobs is a Pescetarian. I had to look that one up. A pescetarian is a lacto-ova vegetarian who eats fish and seafood. When People find out I am a vegetarian they often ask if I eat fish. Now I will answer: “No, I am not a pescetarian!”

Hmm. My great grandfather was a Presbyterian, though.

These tires and wheels are really nice to look at.
I do remember driving on snow with tires like these.
They were terrible.
Say what you want about modern cars, but the tires are infinitely better than they used to be!

ice

We drove over the passes where there was the most likelihood of problems.

Nothing.

Earlier in the day the freeway had been closed down for three hours after a set of tripple trailers tangled up on a slick section. It was dry when we went through.

But Friday down along the Columbia Gorge, we came to a big backlog of cars and trucks. It was below freezing, had snowed the day before there was serious ice.

Parts of that road are in the shade, most of the time, and without the sun shining on the dark pavement, it did not melt.

I sped along in the fast lane at 30 mph. At one point I passed a car going about 20. The driver was hunched over the wheel and I could tell he was terrorized. There were others too.

But we made it safely.

Today the temps have warmed up a bit over freezing. People who do not get a lot of cold weather find freezing to be really bad. Places that regularly get near zero find temps in the just freezing level a good day.

I fit in neither category!

There should not be this much snow, I hope!

The new pantry is fairly small (5 1/2 wide and 16' long).
It should serve us well, though.

road again

Today is travel day -- again!

My best friend David (I have a lot of friends named David!) has two sons and the younger is getting married this weekend.

The wedding is near Vancouver Washington, which is across a bridge from Portland, Oregon.

We will spend the weekend with daughter 4 and granddaughter Emily. They live in downtown Portland.

But today, and just to make it easier, we will stop to see daughter 2 who lives a couple of miles off the freeway half way to Portland. So, we will drive there tomorrow and then go on Friday.

By the time we get home the trip will be about 900 miles. A 19 or 20 mpg rig is not my idea of a perfect ride, given the daily raising price of gas. I could save a bit by taking the car, but it is 19 years old and it does not take much in line of problems to negate the difference.

And there will be new snow. It can get pretty nasty, but Oregon is good at keeping the road open and keeping it plowed and sanded. So I am not overly concerned. And I do have tire chains if I need them.

Yesterday I finished work on the new pantry. I have not moved all the bulk food buckets in place yet, or set up the grain mill, but those are easy to pull off, but the canning jars are organized and stacked in nice rows.

There is so much good feelings getting a project like that finished.

And, I can travel with a clear head

My "winter garden" has included sprouts.
They are easy to grow, tasty and I healthy (I am told!).

at night

At night I hold her close. I warm her cold feet and hands.

For a while I pretend we are newly married and are full of the love and passion of youth.

I love you, I tell her, she snuggles close.

For a while, lying there before we go to sleep, I pretend that all is well and all is what it always was and what I always wanted it to be.

“I love you Bertha, I say,” using her middle name.

“Good,” she says. Yesterday she added: ”Stay with me, stay with me until I die.”

I promise I will, and I will if I have any say in the matter.

Ouch