Five Simple Things (November 27)
Hello.
It's the day after Thanksgiving and I am extremely thankful to make it this far in this year. This year was rough. Not just rough, but extremely difficult. Putting words on a screen on a blog post doesn't even depict the right way to show how emotionally draining, and physically hard this past year has been. From a major surgery, to storms, to wildfires, to the pandemic, to mental health issues crashing in on me, I am honestly looking forward to a new year and a do over. 2020 will be the year going forward to never repeat. A lot of people are saying this year hasn't been hard on them, and that is great to hear. We struggled, in more ways than one, so it's nice to know that not everyone has had those struggles. We enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving this year and this past week I've had some issues with my anxiety, so this weekend will definitely be very low key. Here are five things this week.
1. This Picture.
Five Simple Things (November 20)
Hello.
We are finally and completely out of the wildfire threats in Oregon. The ones that were close to us are now contained and a lot of the smaller ones have been completely contained. It's sad to hear that more people perished in the fires and the way Talent, Oregon, looks is devastating. I feel so much empathy for the people in Talent that not only lost their house, but also their place of work. During this pandemic it's just heartbreaking to hear the stories of some of these families. Here on our side we are slowly cleaning ash up in random places. Of course, our pool was a casualty of the ash, but we've had to clean out some of our gutters, along parts of the roof, and also along our fence line. It's weird seeing so much ash here. A lot of our plants look dead right now and I hope we didn't lose any of them during this time. We replanted our crabapple before the wildfires happened and we are worried it might not make it because of the smoke blocking the sun. Fingers crossed it pulls through. Here are five things this week.
1. This Memorial.
Vista House-Crown Point (Columbia River Gorge)
Skylar and I took a small day trip to Crown Point Scenic Corridor and through the Columbia River Gorge. We wanted to get out of the house for a bit, unfortunately Jeff was at work and it seems that most of our day trips don't include him because of his work schedule. In the middle of the pandemic there wasn't a lot of people around and we ended up at Vista House. Vista House is a overlook of the Columbia River and the view was amazing. -Even through the gray skies. (The Vista House is currently closed because of the pandemic, but the outer ring of the house is accessible to the public with respect to the area)
“It could serve as a comfort station for the tourist and the travelers of America’s greatest highway and inspire the traveler along the highway making the wonders of the gorge accessible. And, I suggest it be known as the Vista House." -Samuel Lancaster, Assistant Highway Engineer for Multnomah County in 1913. Supervisor of the Columbia River Highway project.