Willamette Valley at 60 mph

I walked quickly in the half light of dawn to my vanpool pickup corner. I was early so I practiced jumping on and off the curb on the way. This is termed pylometrics, where you use your body in explosive movement to build muscle fiber. If you think that's easy I challenge you to stand in front of a curb and jump up with two feet together and no hands. You can do it, but it isn't natural.

I got to the corner and chatted with my fellow riders. Eventually the van came and we loaded in to go to the second pick-up spot. There folks park their cars in the informal park and ride. As they extracted themselves from their vehicles I started counting the seats and realized we were one too many. It took a minute before I understood, as low woman on the totem pole, I am evicted! As you might imagine, a vanpool of state workers has many rules, but predictably they follow the last hired first fired rule.

I called faithful partner and he agreed to rescue me. I walked toward home, we rendezvoused (excuse my French!) and I went home and got my car and drove the 50 miles, arriving only 15 minutes late. This picture was taken out of the car, camera pointed out the window, eyes on the road. Hence the crumminess. What I thought was interesting doesn't actually show up: a low white fog on the ground.

The rest of the day continued in a similar vein. I met a friend for lunch and we ate in a terrible Indian restaurant. I plugged $8 bucks into the parking meter. I tried all day long to settle on accomplishing something but the act of figuring out what that might be used up the whole day. I drove home with absolutely no traffic problems, but a mile from home had to wait ten minutes for a train to cross.

On the upside, the fires in Washington are filling the sky with haze, making a very orange sunrise and sunset. Uncaptured by the camera. Ah well. Happy Monday.