Falling.... forward

Ok this is it...Probably. It's probably the last visit to the cabin till Spring. Each Fall we have to shut things up to protect the pipes from freezing. It's an emotional time because at the moment it seems like an ETERNITY before our return in March-April to open up. Turn around thrice and it's June.

All the same, we HATE (I HATE) 'closing up'.

But right now (I'm calming down and breathing deeply)... right now it's just been nice to be here for 4-5 days. Nobody's in Tract C but us, or so it seems. Things quiet down to the max. Even the Kokanee Cafe is closed, and the Camp Sherman Store is keeping 'Winter Hours'... Friday-Sat-Sunday only.

But the river basin is beautiful and we are glad to have each other, Julie and I, to share it with...to smile and exclaim "Ain't it wonderful?... the sunlite, the colors almost blinding!". Yeah...it's nice.

The pine needles are off the roof(s), hoses put away and a few things remain to be done, but all at a leisurely pace. Is there any OTHER pace on the Metolius?

Labor Day Weekend 2010

It's Saturday of a long weekend...My first NOT serving on the MRFHA board in 9 years.  As a result I have nothing to do and everything to do.  I think I'll opt for nothing.

The weather's mild but sunny.  The dog is bathed...Julie just finished an 'amazing' workshop on writing at the Metolius Preserve site and soon..but not too soon...we'll head off to walk one mile to the store for the annual Labor Day Camp Sherman store BBQ.  It's not that the food is better than what we have at home...It's just what we do.  And we'll see friends there...ones we've known for years and ones we haven't met yet.

Then tomorrow the Community Hall Pancake Breakfast benefiting I can't remember what.  Doesn't matter; I'm going.  Same reasons as given for the BBQ.

Later in the afternoon we gather at the Johnson property near the head of the Metolius for a MRFHA potluck.  Same reasons, again.  I'd go no matter what because the Johnson property is the most amazing spot in Oregon, maybe even the Universe, though I can't say for sure.  It's just a gut feeling.

There is some sort of video made to Honor Toni Foster, whom I had the good fortune to know.  She was the protector of the Metolius Basin, even when the basin wasn't so unanimous about wanting her protection.  She was at least 5 human beings in one and I think it would be fun to see what a GODDESS film has made of her.  The Camp Sgerman Historical Society benefits.

And after ALL that I STILL have to stay here till around the 20th of September.  I know....pity me.

Can-Be...Can't BE, or...My Summer on the River

It doesn't seem possible that I haven't had a thought to post in ten months... and yet... maybe it CAN be.  I don't remember a thought I meant to write that I just forgot to...'course, that's the nature of forgetting, isn't it?

I've wandered through a summer unlike any I have ever had in my life...nothing close...and yet what do I say about it?  What is unique about this summer?  It's the summer nothing happened.  No one died, no one was born, no one was married, so one suffered terribly... Nothing happened.

"Nothing", I say?  "Wait...lots of deaths, lots of births and marriages and the like...".  Ok TO ME.  I mean that I was numb to all these externalities. I didn't entirely miss them, you understand; I think I've just been in a fog.

This is, you see, my 'summer on the river'.  Never before have I spent two full months almost entirely uninterrupted on the Metolius.  It's something I've always WANTED to do, but how could I?  Ailing family, new businesses (my own or my childrens') various responsibilities real and imagined kept me occupied.  But not this summer of 2010.

I think I've been numb to the surprise of it...that I/we actually could be...no, we ARE, actually parked here in the pines and the dust, reveling by the river.  It's felt different...odd...less familiar and at the same time entirely TOO familiar.  Perhaps this is a physical manifestation of the way we come to know our closest companion; not with contempt, but maybe with a dollop of complacency.  I NEVER imagined that would happen.  Not to me.  Not here. Not with my River.


So this post is about change.  What CAN BE, rather than what is.  Stopping.  Looking again, for the first time.  Remembering what it is I love and who it is I love.  Just writing about it makes me smile and breaks the spell a bit.  I can see it ahead of me...the change...the return to NORMAL, where normal is excited about the morning, the air, the sun, the sound of the river and waking to the sound of a coffee grinder and the amblings of the one whom I love so, making my and her life better; doing the things she does without thought that at the same time are so completely thoughtful.  Me.  Excited about....EVERYTHING.

Ok, so I'm ALMOST awake, after my two month slumber and I'm finding that like Scrooge I didn't miss it after all.  It's all still happening all around me.  I didn't MISS it!  Oh thank god.

Snow comes to Camp Sherman & the Metolius

It's not that it's such an unusual event, mind you...that snow comes to the River Basin; almost every time this year you can count on it. A light dusting, usually...marks the REAL barrier to folks making more pilgrimages from less seasonally challenged climates.

But it is beautiful when it first comes, in part because we have all the wonder of children in us as it falls this early in winter...before we 'grow up' as the season winds on and we grow tired of slips, extreme cold and that &*%$! other driver that nearly clipped us...again.

But the river flows on. The aquatic life settles down and we have...silence. Lots of it. And can silence be bad? It's the balm that heals our jangled nerves and the scars from 9 other months of going full throttle, taming the world. Now, ... well, ... the world tames us.

Relax, light a fire and enjoy it. It'll be Spring before you know it.

Life is a Beach...and then we LIVE

Not at my beloved river today. No, instead I'm at Arch Cape. The family beach house. A wonderful spot that doesn't get its fair share of visits from us because...well, because of the Metolius. There is no other place to put blame.

But the Beach, our beach, is nice too. Better than nice, especially in the Dog Days of Summer. Days aren't as long anymore, and when it's hot in town here it is not. Here it is....Perfect!

What does it have that Camp Sherman does not? Sand, for one, though you can FIND sand at the Metolius or at near by lakes. But not this much sand; and not sand like this. And seagulls, squawking as they scavenge, forever cleaning the beach and forever messing it as well.

And crab, though now we are deterred somewhat, that early summer prices of 4.99/lb. have given way to late season $8.99. Salmon, line caught yesterday or this morning. Clams, the small steamers, so good that butter almost seems to detract. Caramel corn? Sea foam? Taffy? Oh yeah, all that too.

But if I there were nothing more than to wake up at the beach and smell the salty ocean air and see the Pacific one short stones throw from the door, to hear the gulls ... to maybe walk the dog the short distance to the sand she loves so much ... well ... Dayenu ... it would be enough.

Maybe it's Just Me, but....

You know I'd almost swear that there aren't as many people along the river in the Cabins as there usually are in the summer. But who am I kiddin'..when was I ever here this long to take a survey?

The fishing at my favorite (unnamed) spot is 'good to great'. Going there again this evening. Mostly small fish, but they all go back in the water anyhow so what's the difference? Is fishing a barbaric practice? The pleasure associated with tug-o-war with a frightened sub-species seems to root itself in machismo. Still, they ARE beautiful and we who catch them salute those who are about to LIVE on.

Hot weather. Upper 90's coming, with lower 90's now. Not complaining, mind you; just recording for posterity. Get in the river and its all JUST right.

Haven't left yet and already looking forward to returning.

Oh Yeaaaaaahhhhh!

Oh yeah, I'm up at the River and it's a bit of all right. In fact, it's amazing! It's warm (HOT even), the Metolius bubbles by at a healthy clip, making that wonderful little river sound it ALWAYS makes, soothing jangled nerves and restoring clarity of purpose.

• I love the sounds of children of all ages at play.
• I love renewing old friendships and making new ones.
• I love mornings when the sun first hits Green Ridge and warms MY side of the Basin
• I love long walks to the Camp Sherman Store that take FOREVER if I allow myself to stop and visit; and I almost always do.
• I love arriving back from my morning walk and reading the NY Times, the Bend Bulletin, or the Nugget News on the porch before it gets too warm. Not because I care diddly squat about what's going on in the world (ok, I do...kinda); just because its so damned pleasant a thing to do before starting the 'important matters' of the day.
• I love finally getting to 'the important matters' of the day sometime late morning or even afternoon. Important, as in goofing off, walking or sitting by the stream, going to the lake (any lake), fishing but seldom catching, reading, day dreaming ...
• I love the late afternoon/early evening when the light gets low and the sun paints the tops of the trees with gold, leaving marvelous shadows everywhere else.

I love it all. I love the Metolius. But shhhhhhh ... keep it quiet. Or everybody and their DOG will be here. Well, ok;  they can come too.