ADJUSTING IS GONNA TAKE SOME TIME

I received a text Wednesday that a hair product was waiting for me at the hair salon in Castle Rock, and I texted back that I would pick it up near the weekend – so, today I called her and said I’d come get it: she said okay, she’d have it ready for me.

People are out and about, so it's time for the County to get busy with road work ... never fails.

I get to the hair salon, and am told as soon as I walk through the door, to go wait in my car and she’ll come get me when she’d done with the head she’s working on. I’m thinking, ‘it’s a 5 minute pickup – I pay, she hands it to me … and I go home’. But, I say, “Okay – my car is the blue Horizon”; I point it out the her, she says “okay” … and I and go sit in the car.

Now, mind you – it’s ILLEGAL to leave dogs in the car (even with windows down): it’s ILLEGAL to leave kids in the car (even with the windows down) – but it’s perfectly okay to tell a 63 year old woman to go sit in a stifling car, (with the windows down) and make her wait, and wait … and wait.

I waited 35 minutes.

It was 79-degrees outside; considerably warmer inside the car.

I see her coming out of the salon and walking towards me, so I get ready to open the car door and prepare to pay/collect/go.

INSTEAD, SHE WALKS RIGHT PAST ME (!), gets in her car, AND DRIVES OFF.

WTH?

I can’t believe what just happened.

So, I drive off too, thinking, ‘That was strange; that was rude.’

Driving over Delameter, the mountains were sparkingly beautiful with the bright sunlight sparking off the frozen glacial tops. My heart yearns for Mt. Rainier.

Mt. St. Helens seen from top of Delameter, on the right ...

... and on the left, is Mt. Rainier seen from top of Delameter. I wished I was there. I really miss being in the mountains; I miss walking the trails in Mt. Rainier National Park.

Box Canyon in Mt. Rainier Park is my favorite haunt; and Bob took me there several times a year for decades - I would live there if I could. Bob & I walked the Wonderland Trail in 2014. I don’t like heights ... but, strangely, when I am in the mountains - heights don't seem to scare me. I don't like standing on the edge, but heights from a safe distance don't freak me out. It's weird.

We had fun. If Bob was a sick man, he NEVER let on; According to the specialists that were assigned to him the Fall of 2018, Bob had "been sick a very long time". He never acted sick - Bob didn't feel pain like everyone else. I am still reeling - but I know Bob is happier beyond the clouds in a new body that will never get sick again. When we came to this little stream, Bob tried to coax me over the log "bridge" ... but I refused. He laughed when I said I'd rather wade through the water. Man! I MISS my man!!

I think I’ll just let the hair product sit on her shelf: I am not making another trip there to be kept waiting – then totally blown off. I think I’ll scout around for another place to get my hair done too. She may have a valid reason for leaving … but to leave without an explanation of why she buzzed right past me and booked outta there is inexcusable. She walked right past my car to get to hers – I was the only blue Horizon in the parking lot. A simple, “Sorry – gotta go” would have been explanation enough: but to say nothing, is just plain wrong.

It’s almost as if bad behavior and lack of manners is excusable now – especially among business people who think they are so important the rest of us will just suck it up.

Not this one!

I don’t have to suck anything up anymore.

No husband – no kids: I can say ‘piss off’ to rude people and not feel the least bit sorry if anyone got embarrassed. There’s just me now – and I don’t embarrass easily; I for sure don’t feel embarrassed saying ‘piss off’ to people who blow me off.

Coming off Coal Creek, I decided to walk the trail at Willow Grove; it’s been a few weeks since I’d done that. And I was too antsy to go home just yet.

A hatched Kildeer egg shell, laying in the grass alongside the paved trail.

Tiny dark brown Tricholoma mushrooms.

A Puffball mushroom & a cluster of small puffball mushrooms.

Lots of people on the river today - the hot weather is making people feel more comfortable getting outdoors in the open air.

Baby Kildeer birds! So cute. Kildeer birds are ground nesting birds.

A tug pushing a barge upriver.

Cottonwood trees - the 'cotton' floats on the breeze like dandelion fluff. Elohim has been faithful to keep my lungs and head clear this year: no asthma attacks so far ... no migraine headaches, either.

The white kite is gone (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2020/03/sundayfunday-8-willow-grove-trail-walk.html); it was still snagged in the tree limbs when I was at Willow Grove 2 weeks ago, walking with Trudy, Ed, & Bruce. (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-chat-with-stranger-willow-grove-hike.html).

An annoying drone was buzzing over my head at this end of the Park; the guy operating it was wearing a simulator eye mask while working the hand controls.

I always get nervous seeing people swimming in the Columbia River – they seem very stupid to me. There are safer places to swim.

I'll have to plan my future walks here before people arrive: seeing kids in the river is just too stressful for me.

The Columbia River is one of the most treacherous rivers in the PNW; if not the most dangerous river in the PNW. To swim in it is to literally court trouble, and flirt with death.

Turning towards home off Willow Grove Road & Industrial Way Intersection. Mt. St. Helen’s isn’t as beautiful as she was before she threw a grand-slam temper tantrum, but she can still grab the eye, and demand attention.

Walking into the house, hearing the hum of the air conditioner and feeling the coolness immediately surround me, all I could think was, “Thank you, Babe – I love you! Thank you, thank you, thank you … for being so good to me :-D Until we bought this house, we never had air conditioning, and that was okay – our other homes were in rural areas where the house could be opened up all day long, for the cool breezes to blow through; and that was good enough. But, here in town, no one leaves their windows and doors open: for any reason. It’s not safe to do with all the vagrants on the loose. So, Bob was happy this home came with a heat pump and air conditioning – I wish he could have enjoyed it longer than he did.

I was out watering the garden before Suppertime, and almost jumped out of my skin when some guy up the street turned his table saw on – the whirring caught me off guard, and for a minute my thoughts were tripped, thinking Bob was in the carport dinking around again. My head whipped around before reality snapped me out of it – I finished watering with shaky hands and a painful thumping in my chest.

The continual whine of the saw biting into wood reminded me of the last thing Bob was doing, before circumstances and situations careened out of control 22 months ago: Bob had been in the carport cutting boards to length, and mitering trims for the garden boxes he had designed and built for me … and we placed along the side lot line together: the boxes I was staring at while watering the plants and trying to steady my hands and heart.

Bob building the garden boxes he designed for me.

These boxes were finished and set in place the day ron’s and candy’s egomania craziness killed my husband; I filled them myself 3 months into widowhood.

22 months.

So long ago … and yet not so long ago.

This new life – and all the triggers that come with it: 3 today; are going to do me in.

It’s a continual series of adjustments that I’m never ready for when they hit.

Adjusting is gonna take some time …