Thunderrific

Last night there was a thunderstorm. It was nice, I've not seen many in the Willamette Valley. It's pretty amazing how something that is functionally the same everywhere, is in reality different. The thunderstorm I drove through while in Western Nevada was by far my favorite thunderstorm ever. Our dogs weren't very happy about it, though they weren't upset either! They may have been barking at another dog, I kept thinking I heard one freaking out in the distance, but I was half asleep when our dogs started getting worked up so I'm not sure.

We have a family of red-breasted nuthatches visiting our feeders on a daily basis now. A flock of chickadees too, though a small flock compared to the ones I see at EE Wilson and Finley. Now we have a family of dark-eyed juncos (Oregon variety) too. They were all out at the same time this evening, it was fabulous.

Yesterday we went to the coast, to avoid the heat (after heading to Sweet Life for breakfast of course). It was cold and foggy and the best get away. We bought an annual pass to Yaquina Head. Then we watched a family allow their daughter to steal cobbles from Cobble Beach (you aren't supposed to take anything but driftwood), their son to dig a large hole in the beach and their youngest son to throw very large rocks into the tide pools (also against the rules). The bumper sticker on the back of their van? George W. Bush, 2004. It figures. All of the pelagic birds were still active, and there were WAY more seals out and about yesterday too. We hiked around on several new beaches, climbed on rocks (my favorite), and generally had a good time. I love Newport.

Tomorrow I have to finish my paper for FW 470. I'm only two pages from the minimum so I feel like it should be easy to do. We'll see though! Thursday night we leave for Southern Oregon. My high school reunion is on Saturday. It'll be just like old times because Derek Hammill and I (and our families) will be responsible for set-up and clean-up. Weird how little things have actually changed. I'm excited and nervous about seeing people. I mean I didn't have that many people that I considered friends. Apparently they've asked about me, which is even stranger since I didn't like many people (though they all say they liked me). What is it about high school that makes people treat others so horribly, and then after graduation admit that they thought you were alright? Ugh . . . I haven't heard from the Student Sustainability Center yet, about the Compost Coordinator position. I'll probably stop in tomorrow to see about it. Also, I haven't heard from the people I contacted about graduate school. This is the second time I've tried reaching people and never heard back from them. I'm not really sure what to do. I'd like to hear back from Marzluff most of all because I find University of Washington to be the most appealing school, with the most appealing research and majors. We'll see.