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Wednesday, March 31, 2010 Heading east It’s 5:13am. Gary and I are sitting in a Central Oregon airport bound for Philly … and grandchildren! You don’t even want to know what time Gary rolled me out of bed this morning.
We’ll base out of my brother’s home in West Palm for the week. He says the temps are in the 70s and the humidity has set in. This does not compute. My smart phone tells me it’s 25 degrees here with no humidity anywhere in sight – just beautiful white snow on the nearby mountains. I think I’m in for a rude awakening. Speaking of awakening – signing off for a short snooze before they begin boarding.
Sunday, March 28, 2010 March Madness Gary, my computer geek husband, comes up with the idea for a little friendly family competition. Which means we’re in the middle of March Madness and the stakes are high – a large candy bar and trophy presented to the winner at the annual Johnson family reunion in May.
Before WVU’s big win yesterday, Gary’s brother e-mailed: “Wendy said to tell you she expects a HUGE candy bar,” to which I replied, “Don’t count your candy bars before they hatch!” (The nerve of some people.) This is the sister-in-law who has started all the water fights at the family reunion, who loves competition and loves to win. I’m thinking if I show up at this year’s reunion as the winner of the Johnson Family March Madness Pool, I'd better be wearing rain gear. Go, Mountaineers!
Friday, March 26, 2010 Welcome to spring I just popped a pan of Pumpkin Cornbread into the oven (think soft gingerbread with a touch of crunchy cornmeal). The smell of molasses and cinnamon baking puts me in mind for the winter holidays. Of course, it helps that snow is falling and the fireplace is blazing.
Someone in a neon green jacket with black tights just rode by on his bicycle. Another thing I love about Central Oregon – the die-hard outdoor enthusiasts. Snow? Phssw … I can still ride my bike to work. Watch me. So on this spring morning – my day off – we’re enjoying pumpkin cornbread and hot tea for breakfast, snow falling, fireplace light, and writing projects. It just doesn’t get much better than this!
The Tumalo Feed Company, just a few miles north of Bend, was featured in Sunset Magazine as one of the 11 “Top Steak Houses of the Great West.” Well deserved. The décor is warm and inviting and definitely cowboy-ish. Our friendly waitress was wearing a short denim skirt and cowboy boots, and Dale Evans and Roy Rogers were crooning on the overhead speakers. Gary orders a juicy steak that comes with a salad, onion rings, country potatoes, beans and garlic bread. Being the self-disciplined girl that I am, I order a salad and the trout with asparagus, although I may have helped Gary polish off the onion rings and garlic bread.
If you visit the Tumalo Feed Company Web site, you’ll learn a little history about the place and its owners, John Bushnell and Robert Holley. Apparently they met while working in a popular steak house in Northern California and then later Bushnell recruited Holley to work as manager of a well-known California restaurant. “Robert was the only available restaurant manager in town at that time,” says Bushnell. “It was a town of seven, and the other six were in jail,” recalls Holley. You see why it’s a fun place to eat. Back to rule making: One of the rules is not to let the guy make up too many because then he thinks he’s the official rule-maker. A girl has to draw the line somewhere. Earlier last week, Gary asks what I’m getting him for his half birthday. Half birthday presents? I don’t think so. Right there – that’s where you draw the line.
Friday, March 19, 2010 Destinations Our original destination this morning may have been the little meadow at the base of Three Fingered Jack, but the true destination was getting outdoors and participating in life. With shorter work hours that usually mean Fridays off, we awoke to blue skies and sunshine. The webcam on Santiam Pass showed clear roads with a bit of snow along the sides, so we took the chance that the road up to the Jack Lake trailhead was open … and that there wouldn’t be too much snow on the trail.
The skies were clear and deep. We heard sounds of a woodpecker working his way through a tree, and stopped a couple times to peer at wildlife tracks and decipher what activity had taken place there in the night.
So even though we set out to reach Canyon Creek Meadows at the base of Three Fingered Jack, if the idea was to get outdoors and enjoy each other’s company and the physical activity, then I would have to say that we reached our destination today.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 Most romantic bridge in the world One of the things Gary and I talk about in our cancer survivorship presentation is the importance of having an attainable goal (or two or three), determine the first steps and then work in the direction of your dreams. We figured we probably ought to practice what we preach ... so, with our dream of hiking the Swiss Alps in mind, we set up a fun savings account, Gary applied for a passport and I got mine renewed. And now – a year or so later with a few detours along the way – we have enough saved.
A guy we met this past weekend who hiked in the French Alps had some good tips, and a nursing student at one of our presentations wrote down the names of three must-see places in Switzerland with good hiking trails. So now that we have a cheerleading squad, we figure we’d better not let anyone down. We are shooting for the last week in August and the first week in September, after the European vacationing crowds have returned to their respective cities.
Friday, March 12, 2010 Stellar team Gary drags me out of bed early this morning – my day off, I might add – to attend Grand Rounds at the hospital. The guest speaker is Dr. Tomasz Beer, Professor of Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and Director of its Prostate Cancer Research Program. We first met Dr. Beer (pronounced “bear”) in September 2009 at an OHSU prostate cancer conference where we were on the agenda as presenters. I blogged afterward about how we immediately liked him—“I was struck with the thought that we are ordinary people stepping outside our comfort zones into the presence of greatness.”
Gary is a radar-screen patient of Dr. Beer’s, which means he gets his hormonal therapy treatment locally and sees Dr. Beer once a year to stay on his radar screen – a really great place to be since Dr. Beer is on a mission to find a cure for prostate cancer. So there you have it, part of our stellar medical team. Personable, brilliant … and vigilant when it comes to cancer.
Today, with temps soaring into the 40s, we hiked up to Misery Ridge at Smith Rock and ate our lunch in the glorious sunshine, entertained by the talented rock climbers making their way up Monkey Face. When it comes to rock climbing, talent isn’t optional; it’s a matter of life or death.
In case you’re wondering where our talents and abilities lie – I’m quite gifted when it comes to discerning a good cup of Chai tea and Gary has become an amazing amateur photographer … only sometimes it feels as if paparazzi are following me around. A girl can’t even take a bite to eat without the photographer clicking away. Nothing is sacred.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 Upgrading into the 21st century So, Gary and I finally joined the 21st century this week. By upgrading our existing cell phone plan to include wireless connection, discontinuing our landline Internet service and taking advantage of my hospital employee discount—an advantage I had not taken heretofore, and one that follows me the rest of my life—we now have phones that are smarter than we are. As for smart phone applications, don’t get me started. Did you know there’s a coin toss app? This will come in handy the next time I’m asked to referee a football game and forget my coin.
Of course, my all-time favorite is the “Find Starbucks” application. Self-explanatory. I just now clicked on “Show all stores” and there are 9 in our hometown of Bend. What a country!
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