We were pestered for several days this week by a fly we named "Houdini." He couldn't do what most of our self-respecting fly visitors do and bang himself against the window until he died on the windowsill or try to get a drink from the dogs' water dish, fall in and drown. No, this fly wanted to hop onto our bare arms, necks, legs or whatever part of our bodies he could reach, or investigate the countertops in the kitchen or tease the dogs (although they did find that entertaining). Usually we don't see or hear from them, but Houdini was different. Whenever I tried to swat him, he saw me coming and flew away. I put a piece of apple (because I noticed he was attracted to our apples in a bowl on the kitchen counter) in a big jar and was ready with the lid to put on as soon as he flew in, but he ignored the treat in favor of my open laptop, maybe wanting to check his social media accounts. His folly, though, was investigating a piece of used paper towel on the counter near me. I had the flyswatter within reach, so I moved slowly to pick it up, checked my aim and whack! We would notify the next of kin...if we knew who they were and how we could reach them.
The dogs and I walked almost every day, and sometimes Charlie joined us. A couple of days it was too hot and/or the AQI was in the hazardous range. During one of our walks I got the boys to pose for me at this little garden along the trail.
We've been keeping our eyes on the construction taking place in what used to be a huge wooded area between the trail and 15th Street. They're building rows of little townhomes or quadraplexes in the area closest to where we walk, and they've already built a huge apartment building along the street on the other side. A picture of the proposed development we saw when we were walking along 15th Street a couple of weeks ago showed a pool, so it will probably be a condominium/HOA development. The chain-link fence keeps nosy neighbors and probably ICE out––we frequently hear Spanish spoken on the site.
There is still enough of the woods left to walk through...for now.
On Saturday, we met up at Trinity with a couple of other people for a planned hike in La Pine State Park. I had suggested it last month, and Valerie, who is in charge of organizing the outings had driven down to check out the trail we would use. She elected to take us through the Couger Woods (no relation to Tiger Woods) to end up at the Big Tree, so we would have a destination for our hike. The plan was to carpool down to the Park, but we ended up all riding in Valerie's Jeep, because we were only four people and two dogs. There's a $10 day-use charge, so we saved money by riding together. You pay by using your phone to capture the QR code from the sign at the trailhead, but no one could get it to work except for Charlie, who has a relatively new iPhone. So he ended up paying the fee, which was OK, because Valerie paid for the gas to get there and back.
The Big Tree is a Ponderosa Pine, several hundred years old and worth seeing. We enlisted another visitor to take our photo from each of our phones.
Most of the trail is just dirt, but there is a parking lot just above the Big Tree and the wheelchair accessible walk down the hill to the attraction itself is asphalt. If you don't want to hike but want to see the Big Tree, you can park in the parking lot and just take the short walk down to where the tree is.
Besides the Big Tree, we had some lovely views during the hike, occasionally getting a good look at the Deschutes River. There was a little smoke, but the AQI in the Park area was in the acceptable range, much lower than at home, so we probably wouldn't have walked if we hadn't been driving to another location with better air.
This was our route, out and back.
On the way back, we stopped at Sunriver Brewing in Sunriver––they have other locations––for lunch. We sat outdoors, so the dogs could join us. (We couldn't have left them in the car, of course, because it was too hot.)
We're expecting company in a few days, so I've been spending some time doing some of the H-word. I thoroughly cleaned our bathroom and dusted our bedroom. A few days later I tidied and dusted the living/dining area and the hallway, including upstairs. Charlie will vacuum. We have offered our friends our guest room. We were neighbors with these friends during our time in Indonesia back in the '90s and have seen them only once since leaving Houston, when they came to stay with us in Park City for a family ski adventure. Although they have their own trailer and could sleep in it, the AQI has been fluctuating, often going into the hazardous range, so sleeping indoors in air-conditioned comfort will likely be healthier. Charlie plans to tidy up his mess in the kitchen eating area and vacuum the whole house, so I'll have to get the remaining rooms dusted. The powder room and guest bath will need just routine cleaning, and the kitchen hasn't been thoroughly cleaned for a long time. It will be a busy week, because we have an extra Summer Choir practice. Our performance will be next Saturday.
On Friday, Alexa took the boys bowling with some of their friends. Soren (he's the tall one) got a strike! He seems to be good at sports.
Sunday evening we watched the Coraline Watch Party from LAIKA.
The Portland Stuarts were having a guys' slumber party to coincide with the Coraline Watch Party. It was great. They gave some background information in the introduction, showed the film in its entirety (with no commercials) and then showed some extra material, like interviews with the voice actors and outtakes from the film. There were also some snippets from their new film, "Wildwood." The trailer for the new film will be out on August 19th.
We feel like LAIKA is a family business, because Peter has worked there ever since they started with Coraline, which came out in 2009.
Also on Sunday, halfway (or a little more) across the country, Miss Daphne was making cookies.
The new book is getting the final proofing and I have a new quote from BookBaby for it. It was a relief to see that printing costs hadn't increased that much, in spite of the inflation we have experienced almost everywhere. I've started on Book 8. I want to get a few more books put together so that if I become unable to continue, they will only need proofreading and printing. I feel well, but I'm getting up in years, and one never knows. (Of course, we can get hit by a truck at any age.)
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What's in The Doll's Storybook: What is wool? Where does it come from and how does it turn into yarn? Mandy can explain in this story from The Doll's Storybook. Here's "Soft, Warm and Fun to Make."
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