UNNERVING DEVELOPMENT AT WILLOW GROVE

I got bored sitting around the hose this afternoon, so around 4:30 p.m., I decided to grab another Cheeseburger Basket from the Baker’s Corner Grill, and head out to Willow Grove to eat it.

The sunshine was warming; and my body will appreciate the natural shot of Vitamin D ;-)

It was relaxing. But it was making me nervous too - I don't understand the tides: Bob did though. But Bob is not here now; and the waves were literally moving some of the driftwood near the anchored ship, that at low tide, has quite a stretch of sand between it and the river water:

A steamer clam half-shell dropped by seagulls - those litterbugs! LOL

A feather. Probably from a seagull.

The wind was noisily gusty, and the tide was coming in when I arrived; the lapping waves kept creeping in, moving me further and further back.

Seagulls. The wind gusts - and the waves, kept getting stronger.

I found this Word Search book in the car cubby while searching for paper napkins – Bob always kept one in the car to work on if I had to make a quick stop in a store, and it wasn’t worth him getting out of the car for.

Pages Bob had completed: tears smarted my eyes when I saw his handmarks on the pages … Bob loved doing these word searches. I always bought scads of them - there are 3 more in the bedroom, in his nightstand. Untouched.

After I ate Supper, I decided to sit in the warm sunshine, and pick up where he left off – on page 38.

And I was enjoying the escapade.

Then 2 things happened …

As I was finishing up page 38, a beachcomber stopped right in front of me and lit a cigarette: so, instead of saying, “Do you MIND moving along? I have asthma, you self-centered idiot …”

I mean, REALLY! A vast beachfront, and she has to light up in front of me – where my lungs can’t escape the choking smoke being blown down them on the gusty river winds???

Instead – I gathered my things, and decided to walk along the beach for a while; and saw this crude artsy-fartsy beach shelter, constructed from gathered driftwood beach wood. So, I stopped near it, and sat down on a big driftwood log; and watched the seagulls glide, swoop, and swim – and people watched:

Female kayaker.

After a bit, I got restless & thought I’d walk up towards the kid’s playground area – and back again, to the car: that would be a nice stretch of the legs.

What I saw on that walk concerns me …

The greedy, wild, Columbia River is eroding Willow grove beach.

The paved trail has been scooped out, by wild nature activity.

Serious undermining erosion – it looks like this section is about ready to drop off too.

I don’t like this new development.

I think I’ll be looking for another place to eat my out-of-house-Suppers, I the near future. Water makes me nervous. And rivers do not “call” to me; so, it won’t be like a major sacrifice to eat some place else.