Sunday Serenity #396 - Sister Zen Time

Looking left at the bridge from or spot on the low stone wall

To alleviate my cabin fever and compensate a bit for my having missed the Go Forth celebration on Friday, this afternoon my sister took me over to Lake Sacajawea to walk the path for a ways and then  cross the bridge over to Zen Island* and sit and visit for over an hour.

I'd never been on Zen Island before.  It was developed on the tiny island at the north end of the lake and the bridge put in after Ed and I moved to Silicon Valley, California in 1999.  It is landscaped like Japanese gardens.  Few if any flowers but very manicured grass, hedges, small trees and green ground covering plants along curving gravel paths.

Its the very definition of serenity.

I love this lake and have many fond memories of it from toddler-hood forward.  I wish I could get over there more often.  Zen Island is at the end of the lake nearest Mom's house.  It would be easy walking distance for me now if I trusted myself to manage crossing the railroad track and four-lane Ocean Beach Highway to get to the path and to keep my eyes on the edge of the path instead of the glorious view.

Looking straight ahead (southish) from my seat on the stone wall.

*I'm not sure if Zen Island is its official name or just a local nickname.

[This is one of the posts going up retroactively after the weeks long unintended hiatus that began the week after July 4th.  See She's Back for more detailed explanation.]

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Longview, Washington's Go 4th 2014

I didn't get to go to Longview's Go 4th celebration again this year so I experienced it vicariously.  Watched vids from previous years on the 4th and then those from 2014 later. I'm prepping this days later as I'm still running behind on getting my posts up.

The north end of Lake Sacajawea where the festivities are held each year is only blocks from Mom's house.  The 'party' is held nearly a mile from here in a several block swath on both sides of the narrow lake near the middle of it's length, centered on Martin's Dock and Lyon's Island.

Vendors set up days in advance and there's a timber festival with logging competitions:



and a cardboard boat regatta:

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Snow Enrobed

Snow Enrobed Birdbath

 We're in the middle of a major snow event in Longview today.  Probably lasting through Friday.

I took these pictures from the front porch at dusk.  I couldn't step off the strip protected by the roof overhang as I was not wearing shoes with traction.

This might not look major to folks east of the Rockies but for Longview it's fairly uncommon to get more than a dusting to an inch or two.  And that usually melts off by noon.

At 6pm this evening the birdbath had a 5 inch cap of snow.

Snow Enrobed Neighborhood

Snow Enrobed Street

 With my sister out of town today the driveway remained pristine.

She called shortly after I took these pics to say she will be spending the night in Chehalis, less than twenty miles north of us, because the snow there was deeper and the temps were dropping into the teens already.

Snow Enrobed Hedge

 This is the hedge I see out the window from my workstation.  Those tall evergreens are straight across from me so I spent the afternoon watching them get their frosting, shake it off and get it back again, and the laurel hedge loose it leafy look and the neighbor's roof go white as a wedding cake.

Snow Enrobed Japanese Ornamental

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Lake Sacajawea, Longview, Washington

The north end of Lake Sacajewea is only a few blocks from my Mom's house and is one of my favorite places around here. Second only to the library.

I don't know whether I've been scoping out the Longview vids on YouTube in order to share a bit of the local scenery here or if it is more that I have a raging case of cabin fever and it's been three weeks since I've been further from the front door than the mailbox on the curb.

I simply mustn't leave town without visiting the lake and filling my camera with pictures.

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I Can Almost Smell It

This was where my Dad worked for about thirty years. Though he was the book keeper then office manager then expediter he still had to go out in the foundry area, machine shop and pattern shops frequently. I visited the site a number of times as a child and teen. Two or three times in my teens I subbed for his secretary/receptionist when she went on vacation.

Once, while still grade-school age, I was allowed to watch--from the outer yard doors--the men pouring the molten steel. It looks much as I remember it from forty years ago. I can almost smell it. I cringe as I watch that one guy put his foot so near that bucket of fire, remembering the time my Dad's boss got splashed during a pour and molten metal got inside his boot. I didn't witness that just heard my Dad's many retellings of the event and of seeing the damage done to the man's foot.

Oh, yeah. Ed worked in the machine shop here where they grind and polish the product after it cools for about a month in the early years of our marriage.

Just on a lark I did a search on YouTube for Longview Washington and this was one of the videos I found. I've no connetion with whoever uploaded it and only hope they don't mind me embedding it here. I'd had the thought I might find some nice vids of local scenery and historical parks and buildings etc. It never occurred to me I'd find a flashback.

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Loitering at the Library

Standing on the mezzanine where the fiction is, overlooking the second-floor reading room.

I got another chance to go hang out for couple hours at the Library. I came very close to tapping out my sister's library card, adding nineteen items to the nineteen already on it. Thought that latter might have included the three DVD I returned. Last week I was just browsing and gazing. This time I went looking for specific things related to WIP, including research related to my stories and unfinished book reviews.

I am understandably eager to spend some of this precious late evening quiet time looking at my haul. So I'm posting some of the pictures I took last Thursday with brief comments. Remember this is the library of my childhood and has not been my library for over nine years. But of course in a sense it will always be my library. I love this library. Throughout my childhood and well into my twenties this library was a landscape in my dreams. As a young child I fantasized of living here.

Here I was standing under the mezzanine and aiming towards the reading room though I caught the edge of the media shelves--CD, DVD, audio books etc. The section of shelve directly to my right are the last of the 900s in the Non-fiction

Here I just turned a few degrees right and aimed down the center aisle. That is the same 900s shelf to the left. The 100s begin behind me and to the right. The elevator is to my left.

The children's picture book area on the first floor. There are at least two more of those carpet-lined bathtubs scattered about the J area. There is a separate room for the YA or 11 years and up which I didn't go into.

This is the story hour area. The far wall is part of the chapter book fiction for 2nd to 5th graders. There is a separate room for their NF and Reference books which I didn't take pictures of because there were kids studying in there.

The story hour area from the other side, showing the carpeted 'bleachers'. This was put in around the time I entered Jr High and thus graduated to the upstairs collection. Back then you had to be 13 to check out items upstairs without a note from your parent. Back then the YA shelves were just beginning to be kept separate and were a fairly small section of shelves at the end of the upstairs reading room. Now they have a room of their own.

This is the other end of the chapter book fiction. The backside of the story hour amphetheater is ten feet or so to my right and the picture book area directly behind me.

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Flooding in My Home Town Area

By hometown I mean the town I grew up in, Longview, Washington. And though I currently live near Phoenix, Oregon, I'm visiting my Mom this month in Longview. The following pictures are from this slideshow of pics on The Longview Daily News web site. There is another slideshow here of pics submitted to The Longview Daily News by readers. Both slideshows contain pictures from all over the flood and mudslide affected areas of Washington state. Some of the shots are mind-blowing.

A Department of Corrections sandbagging crew shores up the Coweeman River dike at the Grade Street sewage pump station Wednesday. Bill Wagner / The Daily News

The swollen Coweeman River churns and glistens as it passes beneath the Grade Street Bridge in Kelso as sandbagging crews shore up the South Kelso dike under floodlights Wednesday night. Bill Wagner / The Daily News

Kelso High School security officer Tara Garcia-Fromdahl looks at a car in high water in front of the school Wednesday morning. The parent was able to get out of the car safely earlier when the water was even higher. Pumps were working to remove the high water. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News

Kelso and Longview are sometimes called The Twin Cities. They are on either side of the Cowlitz river as it meets the Colombia River. The Coweeman River flows into the Cowlitz on the other side of Kelso. The local mall, The Three Rivers Mall is beside the Coweeman and was evacuated this afternoon.

Castle Rock swift water rescue team members Stu Hodnot, left, and Maria Schuh, rear, use a kayak to bring Stacy Burnett, 28, out of the flooded Westover Drive neighborhood near Nevada Drive on Wednesday afternoon. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News

I'm pretty sure the Nevada Drive they are talking about is here in Longview and if so it is not far from us in the part of town that is north of Ocean Beach Highway and west of Lake Sacajewea.

Phil Ranta of the Cowlitz County Road Department walks through flooded Pacific Way in the 4200 block Wednesday. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News

We're on the 2000 block of Pacific Way so this is practically in the neighborhood.

Martin's Dock at Lake Sacajewea was submerged Wednesday afternoon. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News

The north end of this lake is about three blocks from us. This dock is at about the midpoint of the length of the lake. This is the area where the audience sits for concerts and July 4rth fireworks.

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