30th DIKE HIKE ~ Walking In The Rain

I logged into FB this morning, and saw that Big Brother is now cyber bullying me – with the help of obamanite lapdog, zukerberg:

This angered me. What part of “NO!” does Big Brother not understand? And how dare the government tap me on FB! Of all the fricking nerve!!

I shut FB down – giving BB the cold shoulder, finished my morning coffee, and decided to practice social distancing from the internet and other social media sources.

I decided to go for a walk. I called around to a couple County Parks to see if their trails were open; they were, and I was cautioned to practice the 6 feet distancing and to avoid the restrooms even if they were open, in case of contagions being on hard surfaces. While dressing and putting my shoes on, I thought and planned to drive to Riverside Park in Lexington, walk the dike there and see if I could spy a seal or two swimming in the Cowlitz River.

Driving through downtown this afternoon, it looked like Longview was open for business – I didn’t see a single business shut down. Fred Meyer parking lot was full; as was Les Swabb, Wal*Mart, Subway, Hart C’s Thai Food, Safeway, Walgreen’s, Lowe’s, the Dollar Tree, Harbor Freight, Big Lots, JoAnn’s, Church door were open and people were coming and going, ALL the gas terminals … the bank buildings were closed with curbside windows open, Winco was busy: only selling bottled water in 48 packs now (pretty heavy to lift and shift) & still NO TP (I do have TP - but it won't last forever). If there was any business closed downtown, it wasn’t apparent. It was business as usual here in Longview.

So, I stopped at Winco to grab water, paper towels, pringles, and some fried chicken to munch on while I hike the dike at 30^th. While I was in the checkout line, a woman in front of me was nervous about placing her groceries on the checkout counter – and then she held up the entire line while she bagged her groceries that were piling up in front of the cashier because she didn’t want them moving down the conveyer belt and ‘getting germed’…

Lady holding up traffic because she doesn’t want her groceries moving onto the conveyer belt.

I moved around her and waited to bag my groceries as soon as she got her stuff bagged and moved along. While I was waiting, and watching her paranoia play out, I shook my head when she stood there with gloves on her hands, nervously making sure none of her food touched any surface that would make her head spin around like the exorcist movie … and then, she slapped her phone and her calculator down on the touchpad counter while she slid her card into the touchpad slot. And as fate would have it, when I reached my car outside, she was parked directly across from me; she loaded her groceries from her cart into the back end of her car, pulled the plastic gloves off and threw them down on top of the groceries she had held the line up to protect. 

All that paranoid protectiveness undone in a flash. I felt like shouting, “BOOM!”

Instead, I went across the street to Country Village – the local Health Food Store – and picked up an herbal supplement I am adding to my Senior health regime. They were open for business … if you donned plastic gloves; which was ridiculous because the 6-foot-distancing was not practiced.

At the Dollar Store where I picked up some garbage bags for the kitchen, there were slashes of red tape across the floor, “measuring 6 feet” for safety precautions. And the cashier very dramatically said, “We have to have it because the police check us to make sure we’re following the guidelines”:

I don’t know it that is a truth or not, but what I do know is that as the cart in front of me moved forward to stand before the cashier, and I moved up to stand behind the red line … I was told, “Miss; Miss! You’ll have to move back.” I pointed to the red line and my toes that were clearly behind the red line, and she said, “You’ll have to move back”. She had me move back further: twice. When I gave her an exasperated look, she said, “The lines aren’t exactly 6 feet apart.” She totally contradicted her earlier self-important statement. I rolled my eyes and waited. When I finally stood in front of her cash register waiting to pay, the fan she had set up was blowing at about 100 mph right up my nose cutting off my breathing – I asked her if she could please redirect it until after I paid … and she snipped out a curt, “No!” I moved to the left and told her I couldn’t breathe with it blowing that fiercely up my nose (I’m a shortie), and she shrugged and tapped the touchpad: more fearful paranoia – all that fan’s forceful blowing is doing, is actually insuring she will get hit with a coronavirus bug if an infected person stands at her register sneezing and coughing. That hurricane force blowing is not doing a damned bit of good protection wise. But, people are caught up in hurricane force fearmongering insanity right now; there’s no reasoning with idiots. I moved back into the hurricane force wind of her {protective} fan and punched out my code.

By the time I left Dollar Store, I was not thinking kindly about people – at all. From Big Brother bullies down to snippy Dollar Store peons. I was d.o.n.e. peopling.

Chucking the bagged garbage bags into the back end of my car, I noticed there were angry gray clouds hovering over Kelso, so I also chucked the idea of going to Riverside Park … and decided to hike the dike on 30^th, instead. I hadn’t been there for a while; it’s closer to home, and it’s shorter. In case I get caught in a rain shower.

George Carlin’s take on stupid people ran through my thoughts as I drove out of the Dollar Tree parking lot: George was right.

Bob & I used to walk the dike on 30^th – it was Bob’s favorite place to walk – if walking was on the day’s docket: and it usually was … I like to walk ;-)

We liked to watch the ducks that swim here; and we saw some interesting species. But we really liked it when the babies made appearances.

Parking, I noticed the trail along the dike was empty of people as far as the eye could see.

Good – I was wanting solitude.

I clipped the walk-a-meter onto my jeans pocket, grabbed my walking stick out of the back of the car, and started walking …

Northern Pintail duck couple. Blue billed ducks.

Gadwall duck couple.

A Mallard & his hens resting.

Rural setting along the dike on 30th. We used to have that much property behind our home on Merritt Drive, 20 years ago – I’m glad we downsized: maintaining that much back yard is a lot of work.

Bufflehead duck couple.

About half way into the hike, it started drizzling:

IF YOU HAVE SENSITIVE EARS and a pious attitude, SKIP THIS YOUTUBE VID LINK:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rh6qqsmxNs) - in today’s society, substitute pelosi and the rest of the hysterical minions for the Dan Quayle quip ;-)

Before I met and married Bob, I had never heard of George Carlin. Bob used to listen to the Johnny Carson Show (I hated that show; didn’t think Johnny was ‘witty’ at all: very dry – very droll), and Carlin was a frequent guest … one night I overheard George and thought he was a hoot: he perked up the Carson show tremendously – I watched him with Bob every time he was Carson’s guest.

Then, the rain picked up and started falling in earnest.

But, I was not deterred; I need to walk off some irritation, and I wanted to measure exactly how long this dike hike actually is.

Memories of Bob walking with me, holding hands and talking back-n-forth; and echoes of George’s off-color humor, kept me smiling while walking in the rain …

Angry female mallard duck.

Skittish Eurasian Wigeon duck (I researched it when I got home); Mallard in background.

Eurasian Wigeon duck: Bob would have loved seeing this colorful duck.

Nearing the end of the hiking trail.

End of the trail – time to turn around and backtrack back to the car.

Exactly 2 miles (1 hour) from start to finish. And 3/4 of that hike was done in falling rain.

By the time I got back to the car, I was soaked.

But, I was also stoked.

I did the hike in power-stride without breaking a sweat; and my knees aren’t screaming either. I actually felt more of a knee burn when I woke up this morning … walking kinda loosened the knees up, and helped alleviate that burning sensation.

I’ve noticed that when my knees are kept in a bent angle (aka sitting position) either at home – or while driving; that is when they pitch fits.

Walking helps stave off the burn.

Walking is what works for my fussy joints - and balances my pyche :-D

Sunset over the house ...

Sunset over the Columbia River.