By Bob Spiwak
It’s been an interesting week, underscored by unusually cool nights. We had our lowest temperature last night, Sunday, when the thermometer dipped to 32 at wake-up time. Whether this has anything to do with the lunar eclipse is questionable, but at this point it seems certain that the world is not going to come to an end. At least not today. The sun is hot already at 10 a.m., perhaps mocking the moon.
Being in a geophysical hole here in West Boesel, it takes a long time before we see moonrise. Thus, we missed the opening stanza of the red moon phenomenon and when we looked later on, the eclipse was waning.
We saw no red, although there were others who did, like Larry Miller — who saw the event from the elevated vantage point of his son’s home. We had a pretty good look at it on the Internet, and the temperature was a lot more comfortable that way.
One thing not attributable to celestial events was the surprise arrival at SLIME of Dick and Nancy Gode. They were long-time residents of suburban Mazama and now live in Kirkland. Their son Geof is a caregiver for Bob and Maryann Sitts up the road. Daughter Jen and her husband, Scooter, previous owners of the Mazama Store, now reside in Hawaii. It was nice to see the parents again. It’s been a long time.
The newest event at the store was the top-sealing of the parking lot, replete with a brand new set of stripes for the parking area. For some reason, the eastern half of the lot has now been painted in diagonal lines; closer to the store is still the traditional ones vertical from the road. This is of consequence because those in the diagonals, once backing out, have nowhere to go but east on Lost River Road in quest of a turn-around if they are leaving the area of urban Mazama.
A caution for dog-walkers along the river: Our hound, on her own at the riverside, apparently discovered a dead fish and rolled around in it. We have no idea how many times, but it must have been a big fish because this dog, usually absent of odor, could be smelled at 20 feet when she returned to us. Not only is the stench of import, but I have long heard of dead salmon being poisonous to dogs. And where there are fish, there may well be bears.
Our neighbors, the Westermans, spotted a big bear emerging from our place last week as they were headed for their driveway. The bruin looked at them as they slowed their car, then crossed the highway and watched as they pulled into the drive. Jay Lucas noted several bruin visits at his Mazama digs, and recently saw one that dived into a container of apples and pears. The bear ate all the apples but did not touch the pears. On the hills of Edelweiss, Larry McWhirter has seen one cruising the neighborhood with some frequency.
Our own problem appears to be not bears but raccoons. Something has been raiding the garbage container, managing to open the high-tech device and withdraw goodies along with other stuff that it leaves strewn around. One item was an empty plastic meat container about 30 feet from the can. On a sunny day, I spotted it and picked it up. Bad idea. It got to about knee level and was greeted by an uncountable convention of yellowjackets. In an uncharacteristic moment of intelligent response, I dropped the container back upon them and ran like hell.
As long as this has turned into a visit to the animal corner, let’s mention the cows that are still coming out of the hills. This past Friday there was a small gathering of Angus casually strolling along Highway 20. With all respect for the ranchers, it seems it may be time to reconsider what is open range along a 60-mile-per-hour road.
