In which we receive a check in the mail, witness the effect of a snowstorm on our community, and discuss college

Yeah the title sums it up :P


Since I last posted, we have had no END of developments.


Our financially-struggling robotics team received a check in the mail last Tuesday: this allows our team to participate in FIRST this year. Team thrilled, Bethany awed and ecstatic. The donor, someone I have never met, who somehow got enough of an idea about robotics from my many and passionate posts about the joys of FIRST. Thank you.






And the weather.
Let me explain first that our corner of the PNW [Pacific North-west] gets snow on average twice a year.  The fall of more than an inch is a signal for 'MASSIVE PARTAAYY TIME!!!'
More than half an inch, and all the local school districts can be counted on to panic and cancel school. Last night there was a Facebook event started [by someone in the PNW, I think] and it now has over 3000 guests: titled 'No school Tuesday'.


A few years ago we actually had a snowfall around Thanksgiving [we still talk about that]. This is rare however, usually we only get a snow in December or sometimes as late as March.


Anyway, this summer the fearless weathermen forecasted that we would have a 'cold wet winter' [ie, snow]. The entire town has been talking about that since August, I think.


Starting early last week, the weathermen talked eagerly and portentously of snow coming [last] weekend. Despite the ongoing warm wet weather, our town was simply a-buzz. Remembering the big ice storm last year [roads were out for a whole 18 hours], the all-team bonfire organized by the local robotics teams was cancelled.  No snow materialized, and it was only chilly over the weekend. The weathermen, undaunted, commenced pushing back the snow forecast to Monday night.


Monday at school, amidst pouring cold rain, teachers and students alike gazed longingly out the window at non-snow. I was amused to see reports beginning to come in, of snow in the northern part of the state, Washington state, and the mountains to the east [which don't count, because you can snowboard year-round there].
Yesterday evening, in between preparing for a calculus test scheduled for today, I glanced out the door. It was dark by 5 PM, but no snow....the weathermen, now beside themselves, were detailing to-the-minute movements of 'this big Arctic air-mass' which was supposed to produce snow after 11 PM.


Right around 10:30 last night I was killin' time on Facebook, and noticed that every. single. person's. status for the last half hour was some variation on 'snow!', 'SNOW!' or 'SNOWWW!!!!!!!!!'  Mom looked out the door, and behold, it was in fact snowing. It was starting to pile up by the time I went to bed.
Was woken in the small hours of the morning by my mom, who had listened to the bus-route reports and announced that school was cancelled. I went back to sleep and slept until nearly noon :P


Okay, so the grand total of snow was less than an inch. But it is supposed to get well below freezing tonight, so the meltage will likely refreeze into really scary patches of black ice. We are counting on a delay, at the least, tomorrow.


And now for the witty and introspective detailed social analysis of snow upon our town. After a late and luxurious breakfast, dad and I headed into town to buy meal fixings for Thanksgiving, in case the roads should be bad and the crowds worse, tomorrow.
Brushed snow off the car with much jollity and wearing of gloves and knee-socks.


Quick digression here! We have been on a years-long search for Really Good Knee-socks. There are several criteria which must be met: mostly wool, soft, cannot fall down in a puddle around one's ankles. We made a foray to 'the Scottish store' in a city to the north of here, specially to buy socks. They were PERFECT...dad and I each got several pairs. Soft, woolly, don't fall down. SO WARM.


Town was BUSTLING. The stores probably did a FAR better business today because of the snow, hehehe. Got food at every fancy-food market in town....Co-op, Trader Joe's, Market of Choice. Oranges, potatoes, ginger ale, cranberries, milk, etc etc. It's kept snowing a bit all day too. Great fun. Got home and made hot chocolate, cranberry-orange sauce, sampled the ginger ale, and so on.
Oh yeah, social analysis! I don't know if this is true in other parts of the country, but it seems bad weather [or even the threat thereof] causes people here to be a little more chipper and so on. Also they are thrilled to have the excuse to wear their real cold-weather clothes: jackets, woolly hats, gloves, scarves. They would never admit that they are probably a little overheated in these clothes, because it never gets very cold here....


Our town simply shuts down, as previously stated, if there's even the hint of an ice-storm. The newspaper will be busily talking about the snowstorm for days. Kids can grow up, practically, between really good snowstorms. Bethany is quite inexperienced in brushing snow off the car satisfactorily, as we learned today when we started driving and were blinded by a little flurry of snow blowing up in front of the windshield. 


---------
This weekend we also had a lot of college discussion, and the upshot is that I am seriously considering relocating to Texas for college at Le Tourneau U. It's a Christian college with a large engineering focus, something that is very hard to find. We've kinda gone back and forth [every day a different decision], because of some issues to do with vaccinations, the Gulf oil spill, vacation plans, and so on. 


I really do hope it works out. I've wanted to have 'the full college experience', cliché as that sounds, complete with dorms and roommates and so on and so forth. Apparently the food is pretty good too, which I hear is quite unusual, lol. So! Looking at Computer Sci.  and starting to make packing lists. I am like kinda REALLY excited at the thought of setting up camp on my own, I must say.  As I emoted the other day, 'one big long camping trip!'.  I'd plan to come home for Christmas and summers, I am NOT thrilled about summers in East Texas, hehe. 


Needless to say I have a few reservations. One, Oregon State [where I'd been planning to attend] has a reputation as a good computer school. On the other hand, I will probably wind up living at home if I stay here, and I have a feeling that will lead to having a very hard time finding 'my own little niche' so to speak. I hear it's hard enough the first year at college, without living four miles away from campus. 
Two, parents will miss me a lot. 
Three, I will miss parents and friends and Oregon. 
Four....um...that's it actually. I am ready to go, should it work out. But I really really hate indecision, so let's hope we can make up our minds -.-


Should I go, look forward with glee to posts of all sorts from the college freshman living away from home for the first time. Wouldn't the patriocentrists have a conniption. 


And now, off to take a walk, then a shower, then prepare some form of dinner. I love snow. 

a non-tornado, denim skirts, and trigonometry

Am currently encamped at a homeschoolers’ hold-out in Oregon: i.e., homeschool book sale in the state capitol of Salem. 

Why do all homeschoolers dress alike? Heh...we conform just as much as public schoolers are supposed to. Just to different standards.....

 There’s always a few mothers in denim skirts...I can see a girl now who could have been me a few years ago, in denim tiered skirt [pale blue, slightly grubby] and oversized t-shirt with a horse graphic...did I mention that a majority of homeschooled girls are horse-crazy? I used to be. And long braid down the back. 

This is horrible, I sound exactly like anybody making a stereotypical statement about homeschoolers, smug in my own public-schooled psyche. 

Then there are the other homeschoolers, the ones that dress ‘hip’ in skinny jeans or black or whatever. Ergh, I used to despise them too, and now I’ve become them. 

Another van just pulled up opposite me...I am sitting in the car [mini-van], because I already browsed the books and there isn’t really anything. Workers at the sale got early access...hehe, I WORKED....brought our own books in and placed them round at the appropriate sale tables, trying to get out of much work because my wrist is almighty screwed up from The Dalles.  

Stupidity....at last week’s robotics event in The Dalles, we were setting up the field and all. There was a plethora of strong burly lads, I could very well have slacked off and said ‘Phsh, let them handle the heavy stuff’. I even had a very valid excuse: I was filming the whole thing. But NO, I must needs get in there and show off the fact that even though I probably can only lift about a third of what any lad can, I nevertheless will work just as hard as them. This resulted in my getting aforementioned wicked cuts on wrists, and in my right wrist becoming rather badly screwed up. I don’t think its sprained, it just hurts a lot when I move it from side to side.  That happens a lot in my daily life. 

Or it MAY have been the wrench-turning, which I also did a lot of [on my side on the gym floor, when our robot broke]. I can usually figure out a way to injure myself pretty badly using nothing but an allen-wrench and some lock-tite [glue that is put in screws before the final installation]. 

I have a feeling that I am going to seriously injure myself some day, merely for the admirable purpose of showing off. The ironic part is that it will almost certainly be when there is no-one else around, and I am just showing myself that ‘Oh yes I can! Watch me heft this plywood!’ and then....*crunch* *agony* *Stoicism* 

Well yes. The wrist situation. It’s happened before [namely the first week of build season, when we cannibalized last year’s robot. I was eager to show my dedication and really went at those screws. They’d been lock-tited of course...] but never for this long, it’s going on two weeks...you’d be amazed how much a right-handed person puts sideways pressure on her right wrist. Yesterday I tried to become ambidextrous in math class. The writing-with-left-hand part didn’t go so well. 

Oh! Today in math class I was told I resemble a rabbit. This sounds awful, but it really isn’t. It’s the wide-eyed bounding enthusiasm I usually have in math class. A sandy-haired rabbit.    You ever read Stargirl? Well one time I got called Stargirl, too. By my French teacher...I was walking past, in bright red robotics team shirt, with an immense bag over my shoulder, hair in two long braids, and trademaked jaunty walk....I was hailed with ‘Bonjour, Stargirl!’.  It seriously made my day. 

Also, trigonometry is officially awesome. Law of Cosines allows you to find the measures of all the angles and sides in a triangle, given only two sides and an angle....

Hmm. Seems to me I was talking about this-here book sale. And the mini-vans pouring into the parking lot. We had a tough time getting here, ran into a load of traffic on I-5 coming up but we wound up ahead of schedule, even. 

Last year we attended this same book sale. It is an episode that has gone down in our family folklore so to speak. The weather had been threatening for days...the day before it had been unusually warm, and a thunderstorm came up in the evening and drenched the place. By morning it had blown over but the atmosphere was still oppressive. We drove to Salem [about an hour] and attended the book sale. By 4 that afternoon we were packing up our unsold books when it got dark very fast. The sale is held in a church gym; I made a trip to the car with a load of books and I have never seen a cloud make the sky dark that fast. I think I remember a sickly sort of look to the light.  When it started hailing, very suddenly and very hard, most of the kids helping pack up raced to the gym doors....in a few minutes we went back to the tables, sorting through the unsold books. 

   Then came a moment of terror. A man, one of the dads I suppose, announced [over the pounding rain and hail] that there was a tornado coming down the street and we all needed to evacuate the building [which had a metal roof]. I have been terrified of tornadoes for as long as I can remember. As I like to state, there is a reason I do not live in the Midwest. Well we evacuated that building all right, across the street to the main church building. The street was covered with flowing water, still bucketing down rain. There was no sign of the tornado, I’m not sure if it ever actually touched down in Salem. We huddled inside away from the windows, very damp but not too cold because it was still far warmer than it ought to be in Oregon in June...

We were worried the power might go out [we later learned it did, in my hometown]...I had dreadful visions of being stranded in Salem with the grid down...it was not a happy thought. But soon enough the storm passed and we were let back into the gym. It was still raining a bit. 

We got home and found out next day that in fact a tornado had touched down near my hometown. In a field a few miles from our house they found a spiral pattern in the grass...although as one of my friends said, if they have to ascertain it was actually a tornado from prints in the grass, it does not really count.   It is still a local legend however...or at least I like to think so, I doubt anyone in my town remembers weather events as well as I do. 

Merry Christmas!...and the big robotics post!

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Yesterday was our third day to go into town for supplies food-wise, hehe. Delivered a few gifts on Wednesday, bought hay, etc. Christmas Eve was deeply foggy all day, and turned icy later which helped in the decision not to go to Midnight Mass, somthing I've always wanted to do. Went to an evening church service, opened a few presents and I went to bed late. Before going to bed I heard a couple of owls hooting at each other outside, and a third one maybe half a mile or so away :)

Woke up late also, to sunshine and the smell of bacon wafting upwards, a great rarity...natural bacon is rather pricey.

Had lunch at grandmother's house, outside in the sun at the 45th parallel! Good times.

Just spent an hour or so on the Autodesk website, being annoyed by the apparent impossibility of registering. Finally got that all straightened out, then found that their software is only compatible with Windows, I'd have to partition Eddie's hard drive to run Windows (which has to be BOUGHT of course!) in order to run the software (animation, helpful for robotics stuff). Rowr.

And about that robotics stuff: I keep promising an in-depth post on what exactly I am talking about when I wave terms like "build season", "regionals", "what on earth is a lugnut", "FIRST", "ship date", and "scouting" around in the aluminum-shaving-filled air.

Sooooo....FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) is a nationwide organization. They have several branches including Lego-league robotics competitions for middle schoolers (such as I helped with a few weeks ago) and FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) for high schoolers.
My dad is the team coach/leader for our team so I tend to get sucked into the madness :P

I went to a competition in CA at the age of 13 and sort of got hooked...this will be my third year on the team to some extent.

The kickoff (Jan. 9th at an early hour of the morning) consists of the teams from all over the state coming to La Sells auditorium (goaded by coffee) and watching a live streamed broadcast of the kickoff in New Hampshire (where the founder Dean Kamen has his lair). The stream tends to go down sometimes but that's all part of the fun, hehe. Role-call: all the teams that made it over the dangerous high mountain passes and such give rousing cheers and so on.

There we learn what this year's 'game' will be: whether our robot will have to be designed to herd balls, go up ramps, throw things, or etc. We also listen to a lot of inspiring speeches by Kamen and Woodie Flowers and all those folks as to why we do this, the benefit that engineering is to the world, "gracious professionalism", and how we are going to have the best season ever. Then we all head over to the other university building to collect the kit of parts: the "Kamen tote" and the "Flowers tote" (Woodie Flowers, another beloved founder) and pack the industrial-strength wheels and metal and motors into the van and head out to school for the first day of the build season: planning.

Please note that I am not mechanically-minded in the least. My role on the team has pretty much been confined to 'scout': at the 3-day competition in March I do the whole PR bit with the other teams, convincing them that our team would be a good partner (the games are always played in alliances of three teams)--teamwork is one of the big goals of FIRST. I also do random stuff like team buttons, graphics, etc. This year I'll hopefully be helping more with the build, you know, holding bits of metal whilst people drill them :) Also doing the work for Chairman's Award (animation, essay, etc), and more communications/facilitation stuff like figure out accommodations for the competition and so on.

Competition: AKA 'regionals'. AKA three days of insanity. WHOOHOO! Portland (2 hrs away) is our regional...50 teams...one scout to interview those fifty teams (ME)...'The Coliseum' in Portland is rented for the three days...we go up early Thursday morning. Thursday is more or less practice, repairing robots that have glitches, that sort. Some teams pack up the bot at the deadline and are still tinkering with it (saws, drilling, soldering, you know, light little adjustments :P ) on Thursday. Thu. is also scouting heaven, not too stressful: I try to get around to all the teams by Thursday night and have some form of database up and running, be it ever so humble (notebook, last year. Laptop this year, hopefully).
We spend the night in Portland usually but funding is an issue this year. We may have to commute from home (groan!) but I'm looking into an offer of free housing in Wilsonville (friendly robotics team/supportive town = :)

On Friday the intensity reaches a whole other level. There are three areas of concern: The field, where 6 robots (and attendant teams) compete at one time. In the stands we have much-maligned and under-appreciated but very-important scouts watching the teams and jotting things down on clipboards. Music blares louder each day. The pits are the third and most chaotic area: big, big conference room downstairs, full of 50 teams (an average of 20 people on each team), their robots, and whatever their 10x10 assigned homebase has been decked out with (clock, table, toolkit, etc). Noise, noise, noise. Announcer saying who's queuing up next, scouts and team members hurrying to and fro, horrible metallic screeching sounds (remember the last-minute repairs?). Usually several 'bots on their little carts (gotter save the wheels) being shuttled out to the field.

This is when the harried scout feels the insanity. Most teams have 5-8 scouts, or people who can become scouts at moment's notice. That is because most teams have 20 people or so: for the last two years we've had about 5. That's usually the driver down in the field, a human player chucking balls (last year), and so forth. My first year I was THE scout, the one-and-only scout added at the LAST minute because there were so few people. Frantic. We didn't really need the scouting info that year because we didn't do too fabulously but I came back last year resolved to do even better. Had more people to help thankfully: and our team did very well. More on that later.
Yes, by the end of Friday it is essential to have full tabs on every team there: in other words, did their bot break down? Or stall on the field (even worse)? Do they pull a lot of fouls? Do they have a fabulous human player? Are they scoring a lot in each game?
Friday night the scout with full info (laptop with program and info input) rendezvouses with the driver to plot strategy for the final day of competition.
Saturday morning everyone is unbelievably pumped: the first half of the day is qualifying matches for the semis and finals in the afternoon. Scouts firm up alliances: in the afternoon the top-ranked teams go on to finals and get to choose their alliance partners. Last year we were ranked very high all competition until late Saturday morning when we had a series of mishaps. We were still getting courted by a lot of teams, I was in contact with the top-ranked couple of teams and getting things lined up. For the top teams, Saturday lunchbreak is stressful beyond imagining: go over your notes one more time, rank your top 15 teams or so, in case you can't get your first pick; agonize one more time....send your team captain down to the field after lunch with a piece of paper with team names on it.....collapse helplessly in the bleachers.

Last year we were ranked about 16...barely missed being able to chose our partners. We were hoping and praying to get chosen by the top team but the selection process allows #1 to choose #2, and so on. We got picked by a lower-ranked team, who also selected a team that I'd marked down dismissively. Thus placed on a weak team, we nevertheless played in semi-finals, where we played several games. There was an issue with the floor, and static electricity interfering with our remote-controls. Our team had conniptions in the stands as all of the teams on our alliance, by a crazy fluke, stalled from the static, and the 2-minute match went on, and the judges did not call the match (it had been happening all morning and they'd had to keep replaying matches). Needless to say, we lost resoundingly. We were positively livid with panic as they proceeded to have a long interlude....finally announced a rematch!! (getting adrenaline just remembering...)

I think we tied that match...lost the next one...the aforementioned weak team bailed, their robot was down.....that surely has to be the saddest thing that can happen. We got eliminated fairly quickly but there was such a great sense of relief that at least we'd had our chance, the judges hadn't gone with that failed match.

Late Saturday afternoon are the awards, creativity in design and that sort, and of course first place awards for the winning three teams who go on to the nationals in Atlanta. We've never gone, but one year we went to another regional in CA and finished about 4th...very fun stuff :)

And then the first game-hint came out yesterday.

It is supposedly a hint as to what this year's game will consist of. Last year's hint was a picture of a fish, for a game played on a slippery surface ^_^ There are already pages of speculations on ChiefDelphi, the hang-out place for FIRSTies. There seems to be a consensus that the game this year may involve soccer balls, possibly on some sort of raised pathway. That CAD-designed pic is now my desktop on Eddie :)


So! There is the run-down on FIRST and why I will be insanely busy between Jan. 9th and Mar. 6.

Hmm, this really sounds like I'm insane, doesn't it? FIRST is complicated beyond belief at first glance....sounds like a cult to outsiders :)


EDIT: Come, join us in the madness!!

from the heart of the Frozen North!

As I speak we expect it so begin snowing any moment!
The weather has been amazingly cold for the past few days....I know 8 degrees and 20s/30s in day sounds mild for you hard-core Northerners, but it is unheard-of here!
The Mary's River is frozen over where it intersects with the Willamette, and that has NEVER happened before.

This morning it was clear and sunny, but when I came out after B block math class it had clouded over ominously and at the end of culinary there was an announcement that the winter formal dance tomorrow might be canceled. I'm not going to anything this weekend very crucial, so I'm all excited :) We stopped at the feed store to pick up some chicken feed and I've never seen it so busy.


Yesterday in math I managed to get myself into the wrong room for about half the class period...looong painful story....it turned out okay fortunately. They all headed into the computer lab...I stayed behind to talk to teacher...then went to the computer lab where we had been the day BEFORE...wondered occasionally why the teacher never showed...they were in a different computer lab..there was another class there, but after two days I still didn't recognize the kids in my class .....so darned FUN! gr...it's really hard to come from homeschooling to large public school....oh wellz
Then today we had a test...there's a lot of review stuff right now, in prep for tests in sync with local community college which grants college credits....I've got SO much of the book left to work through...weekend plans include math, math and more math....

Tomorrow morning I've got a robotics meet of sorts...actually it's for helping the local elementary-age kids with their lego-robotics competition....looks good on your application for the Chairman's Award. I shall have to post about robotics, because it it a large part of my and my dad's year, January through early March.

A note about the film of the play, and Road to Freedom: I am currently in limbo on the video of the play, the recording we got was very unsatisfactory and I'm trying to get hold of a better recording, if that goes through I might get them done by after Christmas break but with trying to catch up with algebra and such I really can't make any promises, and in January life gets slightly insane. Road to Freedom could go out at any time however. I'm sorry, I will need to charge for the copies, shipping and the rough cost of the DVD, shouldn't be too bad though. If you feel comfortable with giving out address, feel free to pop me an email (goatgirlbethie at gmail dot com) and we can work something out. I will try to post clips here eventually, but I imagine the upload times would be rather ghastly on my end, my DSL is slow.

Merry Christmas everyone, it is really beginning to feel like winter! :)

coooollld weather!

Was so terribly thrilled at biology class yesterday to be able to offer two AA batteries for the camera so that we could take pictures of our cell models. Preparedness for the win! The Boy Scouts' motto should have been mine: "Be prepared": after all, everyone knows that girls always carry quantities of random crud in their purses! I have a purse, and it has a large stash of stuff: blue tape, gloves, hand warmers, and a secondary stash of all the stuff in my pockets. But with my pockets alone I could subsist for a looong time. Might have to resort to eating the band aids, but whatever.
culinary. we didn't cook, did book work, watched video (REALLY boring, haha) etc. My team (four peeps all told) always sits together, back row, and the lads (two boys and two girls) are rather exuberant, shall we say? Katie and I try to squelch them at intervals...anyways, Nate had a rubber-band...he and Katie, who is older, have a love/hate relationship, lol....so he asks me if I have a rubber band and of course I did, in me pocket....he said he wasn't going to shoot it...i forked it over...he took aim and i promptly snatched it back....Katie and I exchanged glances....it was hysterical. there was pencil-stabbing going on, mostly without the teacher's noticing. I wound up confiscating his final rubber-band..i love those things...


At school today I went over the whole school and part of the grounds, hunting up math teachers. I had previously decided to, if possible, join the College Algebra/Trig class which is in the spring term. To the office to sign up, then off to find the teacher. Found that I likely wouldn't be able to do it after all, so it was back to the office and off across the school to hunt up the Advanced Alg. teacher. FInally found him on the other side of campus overseeing the delivery of some oranges for one of the sports teams.
As it stands, it looks like I'll be starting for the tail-end of the Advanced Alg. class, through the end of the term, and then (hopefully) going on to College Alg. GULP!! but just think...College Credit!!


other stuff:
my dad thought he was growing a goji berry (little asian thing) last year...he planted the seeds..nursed them up from the soil...tendered them through the rigors of life..only one survived. I kept saying it looked like a hot pepper plant....in September it developed little hot peppers....clearly identifiable as the Bolivian Rainbow he'd had in the pot the year before.

bread is epic in our house.
my dad has always been a connoisseur. he used to drive up to Portland to buy good stuff. wonder bread or equiv. is not allowed in the house. of course he's tried to make it but no luck. last Christmas we got a book on artisan bread in 5 mins. a day and all heck broke loose. the recipe requires a really wet dough that sits about menacing people for a few days before being baked. it then has to be put on a baking stone (the pursuit of which item down isles of Bed Bath and Beyond is a whole other chapter). and let to rise....it would crawl eerily forth...down the side of the pan...into the sink...into the woodstove...he'd usually get it in the oven around 10 pm, it was quite exciting....and always the wondering, would it turn out??

hum-ty-hum....made a header for Carpe Diem....took a walk...struggled against the freezing weather. There were places in the shade that never thawed today.

The weather is getting very interesting....supposed to be low 20s tonight, looks like Sunday through Tuesday will be coldest, 18-19 at night and barely above freezing in the day...yowps!

Me: (talking about the upcoming cold) I bet the lake freezes.
My dad: Oh boy! We can fall into it!

hehe.

Pumpkin pie! And smoke! And Fall!

Baked a pumpkin pie today, yum-yum. The air is full of smoke, as the burn restrictions were lifted a few days back.
Went off bright and early to market of course. The rain began just as we were leaving and it bucketed down. I like rain in the abstract but not in the concrete. Or we could say that I like rain, I just don't like water falling from the sky.

Dance rehearsal last night was small but definitely not subdued. We rehearsed in a grassy field at mi amigo Dallan's hacienda. In the absence of sufficient boys/girls who can do boys' parts, I endeavored to flip the tiny and flippable Felicity over my back. We both wound up on the ground, fortunately uninjured.

WHY is facebook being so annoying?? I have a new message in me inbox but it won't load!! Grrr! And let's boycott Facebook chat, it just managed to completely screw things up. rowr.

Bethany luvs her town :)

After school today I lunched in town with Eva and had a splendid time. Very autumnal weather, chilly and rainy at times. Had turkey panini sandwiches and gelato, then ventured out and down the street to Grass Roots bookstore which is totally my favorite bookstore in town, I could spend all day there :)

Then walked cross-town, passing by a couple of alley-ways. They have poetry and photographs on the walls. Haiku, drawings of plants. The back wall of one store is painted turquoise....you'd never notice it if you didn't look down the alley. I LOVE MY TOWN.

Got asked for directions by a couple of Japanese tourists. Petted a couple of dogs.

Then we found this awesome little consignment shop that I have never seen before. [It's only been there for three weeks, so no surprise :) ] It's fabulous!! Nice, hippy-ish and modern things mixed, fun scarves, cute shirts, natural-looking, very Bethany-ish, lol. I got a nice little plaid faded rose and tan dress, I can hardly ever find dresses that I like so this was a happy day :)

And I'm seriously thinking about buying a MacBook. But should I go for refurbished and save a hundred bucks, and possibly experience the dreaded Random Shut-down Problem???
If you have a macbook, let's talk!!!!!! [I'm currently operating on a HP using Windows XP, aka Windows XD: hahaha why are you using such a piece of misery?]

Bethie is happy :) But wondering how you make the (heart) symbol on facebook chat. ???

too much Facebook...

Sorry I haven't been posting lately!! FB is taking all my computer time :(

Today I had a Spanish class after culinary, a homeschool class in someone's home. Eh. Then raced over to rehearsal at the Grange where I creeped Eva out by how much I know about her schedule, plans for the weekend, etc. I have a tendency to do that to people. They start slowly backing away from me. "I am the human BlackBerry," I joke, as we plan our next rehearsal. As the other two distract me by sundry exploits with frozen bottles of water: "The BlackBerry's hard drive is overheating! It can't multitask!"

My current FB status: Bethany is looking forward to a nice evening. Risotto [with farmers' market chantarelles] on the stove--check, fire in the woodstove--check, biology homework completely [as of yesterday] pwned for the WEEK--check, new Artemis Fowl book from the library--check, geekiness--check.

Fall is here. I was just warm enough last night. At farmers' mkt today there was a notable presence of woolly hats, jackets, wellingtons, and a general air of brisk heartiness.
I wore a lovely pair of mismatched woolly long socks to school today and my feet were toasty.

Tomorrow at bio class we've got a field-trip [all of 50 feet, I think!] out to the pond to collect samples of pond-water which will then be allowed to percolate for a week, prior to excited inspection by us with microscopes. It's always fun to chase a swift-moving Volvox across the screen.

Oh wow--Blogger found about a dozen "mispelled" words in this post!
And OH YES......WHO knows about Pogo Possum???? Grandma, is it you????

That chair in front of the woodstove is beckoning me....cheers, folks!

Take 2

Yes, allow me to present....um, whatever it was that I was going to present. I hit Publish instead of Save, whoopsies.
Thank you to my 3 new followers!!!!!!! Liberty, Cassie, and Kevin Atteridg!!!

So anyway,  my polls are indicating that the general populace (my beloved Readers) would like More Humor, More Photos, and More Writing. 
There is a two-way split between More Posts and Less Posts.  I assume that some want to see more of my briliance, and some think I am overloading their dashboards.
 I am glad to see that no-one requests that my posts be marred by any more seriousness; that would be a gloomy day for all of us, me not least.
Also there is demand for Bethie Getting Nostalgic, and More Mentions of Other Bloggers.
It is with that last request that I comply with now.

Some may have noticed that my last post [scroll down!!!] elicited an interesting string of comments [read them!!!]. It even inspired a post by the splendid Danzibar, on a topic which my readers [specially the older element] will find interesting. Also my good friend Scotland has been posting recently on the same subject. I invite you to check out the well-thought-out and somewhat philosophical musings in their latest posts.

I will endeavor to mention a few blogs each post! The more comments you've left, the more likely it is that your blog will be mentioned! :)

Lessee. Yesterday was not even typical of the random excitment associated with Bethany-the-amazing. Friday night I had resolved to walk to the Grange in the morning, to help out with the work/paint/etc day which began at 8 AM.
The Grange is about a mile from my house, if you take the picturesque shortcut over the fields.
At around 3 in the morning I was awakened by excessive rainfall outside my window and decided to be wimpy and not walk. [remember that I have never bicycled in my life]  But when I arose at 6:45, I was as determined as ever to cover myself with glory [and rainwater] by walking.

I did.
The rain had thankfully slacked off a little. I encountered a coyote at one point, but nothing else untoward occured. The folks at the Grange were, as predicted, awed [heh] by my fortitude. I wielded a paintbrush there for a few hours, and then my dad picked me up and we headed to farmers' market, in the rain which had picked up a bit. Got another flat of tomatoes, which occupied me all evening. Stopped in at the natural foods co-op and got some chocolate, then over to Dairy Mart for cheap cream.

I came home for a quick lunch and then it was off to the Grange again, for play rehearsal. That went well and swiftly.
After that we did a few more miscalaneous things and I came home to deal with the tomato-sauce making. I also had to deal with roosters in the plural. Catching them, in fact. Not fun.

Went to Home Depot and the co-op [again] in the evening. Bought some cheese-curds yum yum!
Then I stayed in the blog world way too long, checking peeps' blogs, and replying to comments on my own. I switched to the New post editor-----does it have spell-check?? I can't find it!! Gah!

The weather is being nasty. It's pouring rain and chilly today. My dear friend Eva is, alas, camping. She is being rained upon. I do not envy her the joys of pitching a sodden tent, attempting to dry things out after being rained on all night, huddling in the van trying to stay dry. I speak from the pinnacle of painful experience.
It's windy, too. This reminds me of one happy incident that I was thankfully not a witness of. 'Twas during the last week of school, when I was taking a few classes at a private school. We had just got done with Mini Sessions and one group had gone camping.   At the final assembly the teachers were regaling the appreciative crowd with anecdotes.
The boys' camping group: "We remembered the tents. The tent-poles, on the other hand, were left behind." [Hilarity from the audience] "We were trying to rig things up with duct-tape"

I do so hope that it is dry next weekend, for my birthday festivities. There is to be a Party of Special Magnificence, on Saturday night. I wish you all were here!!!!!
I am not a flower-buyer, but I intend to pick out a nice boquet for myself at the market on Saturday, one of the lovely brilliant orange-and-pink-and-yellow concoctions sold by the little Peace Seeds stand that I emoted about in my last post.

things

How many emails have I titled "things"??

The sky is an absolutely insane coppery orange colour. It clouded over earlier and I've never seen a sky like this. I took a photo but who knows if it'll turn out.

Farmers' market this morning; very nice. At one of the stands there was this fellow who looked exactly like Billy Boyd (Pippin in LotR). I've never seen anyone so hobbity looking. Curly longish hair, rough shirt, slightly grubby feet. Oh serendipity.

A few hours working at my grandma's---painting walls with clear-coat, and clipping grass and brush.

Then home, where I spent way too long catching up on people's blogs...that dashboard sure does fill up quickly!
And out to play with the goats. Oh, they are so. cute.

I weeded the garden for a few hours this evening; it's been terribly neglected. There are various random happy little sprouts here and there, where I scattered seed earlier. "Oh look! There's some more lovage! Eh--no, it's a blackberry. (pause, while I prick my fingers on thistles) Is that a rabbit? Good grief that's the biggest rabbit I've ever seen. So much for the fence. Miserable fat thing, sitting there eating my garden. (I chase rabbit out, squishing the carefully nourished soil beneath my feet in doing so).

I brewed another batch of mugwort tea. It's good for encouraging dreaming.

Shall I, or shall I not, change my blog colour scheme? I rather fancy green, again.

and it's a record-breaker!!!

It's official: Yesterday's temp was 108, which ties with the all-time hottest-in-my-town record set back in 1981.

The newspaper said we could have been cooler in Miami, Houston and a place in Saudi Arabia.
A few animal events have been postponed at the fair, til later in the week.

My animals are well provided with water but they are still suffering. As are we.
It's actually kind of fun, for a change!!
Wednesday farmers' market is today. We need tomatoes really badly. I can't believe it was just a week ago that I did a very long post about going to town, and "Food Inc". Anyway, market runs from 3 to 7, and we have to decide whether to go right at 3 to get the best selection, or wait until it cools down slightly.
I just found a really good song, "Shuttin' Detroit Down", about the economic slump. Now I don't like Detroit, for one reason and another, mainly due to a rather ghastly sojourn there two years ago when our plane got rerouted to there, because of a tornado at Chicago. We spent an hour on the tarmac, in the plane, watching storm clouds getting closer, then a few more hours at Detroit airport, then a 6-hour nocturnal bus ride to Chicago through classic rust belt urban desolation...anyway, Detroit is not my favorite place. But it's a good song, if you like country music, which I do. I posted the chorus in the sidebar [look right!]

And there were 4 more cases of swine flu confirmed in my town recently. Oh-be-joyful.
September 30th, here we come.
We don't need no education
We don't need no force-control

Will you take the vaccine??? We're here from the goverment, and we're here to help you.

As one of my friends said a long time back, jokingly, when I was discussing how I was swamped with one thing and another, "Don't die, Bethany! Don't die!"

turning up the heat!

We just got back from a day-trip to the coast. We decided it was well worth-while to escape the valley heat on the hottest day of the year!

The trip started out with my dad holding not one, not two, but three stalks of celery [with leaves attached] in his mouth whilst attempting to speak. [He told me to include that bit of trivia.]

Also in the picture were two of his thick sweaters. Yes, it was about 80 when we left but we always anticipate the coast to be cold. Oh yes, and a wool hat. We were nothing if not prepared.

I had specially picked two new songs from iTunes for the occasion.

That was when I got up at 5:45 this morning. I had gone to bed early, so as to be able to rise before the sun and garner a few hours in which to function without dripping with sweat

Took some nice photos in the wheat field across the street, of the sun rising swelteringly from a dusty haze. Practically as soon as the sun rose I could feel it warming up.

Here's a nice self-portrait! hehe

Pottered about Newport, Lincoln City, and other coastal areas. Nothing greatly out of the ordinary happened, save for a few humorous encounters with sundry enthusiastic dogs.
Here's me on the beach.

I am not doing anything, well, just sitting in front of the computer moving my fingers, and occasionally shifting, to avoid sticking fast to the chair...anyway, scarcely moving and there is a slow mist of perspiration forming on my brow! Ugh.

Fare-thee-well!

h e a t

It is so hot. About 95 now, I should say, and it's 6 pm.

This morning we worked at grandmother's again, moving 2x4s and plywood. Grandma exhorted us not to work too hard. I swilled water.
Went to town, ran some errands, bought a ticket for County Fair, bought a watermelon. Came home and drank more water.
Cucumbers and their larger cousins watermelons are a true boon to the person attempting to subsist in a hot climate. Not that Oregon can be described as "hot"; it is rarely above 90, and almost always a dry heat. I've experienced Virginia and, to a lesser extent, Midwest heat and we are balmy in comparison.
The lower 1/8th of the sky has turned an indecisive shade of pale tan.

I have true sympathy for those comrades of mine who I know are even now engaged in preparing their animals for County Fair. Tomorrow and Wednesday are supposed to be over 100, and fair week is the hottest we are likely to have this summer! Just the thought of sweating at the Fairgrounds, feeling the tarmac radiate heat, wearing showmanship clothes, trying to stay in the shade, and, if you are lucky, perhaps locating a puny whiff of hot air terming itself a "breeze"...
I'm going to Fair on Thursday evening....there is a country music group performing that night, Lady Antebellum, which has received various accolades.

One can stay bearably cool if one does not move.

We harvested our first tomato yesterday: very passable.

Do pardon the extreme lucidity of this post; I have just been reading the authoritative Eats, Shoot and Leaves and that, combined with a reaction from writing my extremely casually-voiced story, has made me feel very wordy.

And now 'tis off to read Rochelle Blue's post here about unschooling: an education philosophy to which I must admit considerable leanings at times. Aren't I lucid?

I like that word, lucid. I used it at a shoot for The Rose of Gondor, the movie I filmed last summer. It was at the beginning of the shoot, and I was telling someone to "Allow me to elucidate what you will do in this take". The other: "What was that--hallucinate?" with a look which implied as much.

ANYWAY....

il pleut

It's been raining all afternoon. We lunched at my grandmother's, and on the way home the windshield was fogging up----60 F and rainy is NOT what Oregon is supposed to be like in the summer!
It's stopped now. That'll be good for gardening, and trimming the goats' hooves--they're much easier to trim when damp.

I wonder who reads this blog...please comment! :) :) I noticed my profile got about 25 more hits while I was on holiday...welcome, folks! And I just got done toodling around adding blogs to my "follow" list, so hopefully a few more people will find this!

Hopefully I'll get time this week to make this blog a bit more interesting with gadgets and such, and more pictures...viewers with dial-up, wail and weep! heh

My dad just came in looking, as I cheerfully commented, like a drowned rat. He'd been fixing a broken gutter. We love rain!

And what does everyone think of the new style? Was the black background easier to read?