I’ve been waking up early, lately, as though I had had a good night’s sleep. And I’m waking up feeling rested, but then, later in the day I sort of pay for it? because I guess I’m not actually getting enough sleep, so I’m getting tired earlier than I should had I gotten the rest my body needs.
There were at least four of us in that pull out parking lot that freecampsites.net had listed as a place we could park without being bothered.
And, gratefully, we weren’t bothered. 🥳
Brain exercising app, gospel song, chatting with the Big Guy, and some gospel study started my day–once again on a rather upbeat note. 😊
My body is revolting, though. Definitely a rough day spine-wise, from my neck issues that affect my arms and hands to my mid back issues that just hurt my mid back, to my low back issues that pretty much cause problems in seemingly every possible location from my low back itself, down to the bottoms of my feet.
Gratefully, it wasn’t a tossing and turning night because I couldn’t fall asleep because of all the pain and discomfort. Seems like the pain discomfort, this time, started shortly after waking up.
So I guess I got some relief from it during the night.
But it was a rough day with the body.
I spent some time playing around the tide pools, with it being low tide. Which was great for being able to see all the critters in the tide pools, but not so great if you wanted to see the tide come in and blow water through one of the holes in the rocks.
Between the two, I think I lucked out, as I love seeing all the creatures in tide pools–starfish, crabs, and anemones, muscles, etc.
I wasn’t sure if the Oregon coast has octopuses, so I didn’t look too hard for those, but I found out later in the day from my brother that he had seen a baby octopus on the Oregon coast, so, I guess there are some. Had I known, I probably would have looked a little harder to see if I could find an octopus. 🙃
Are we going to have ago, or so, I told my sister that I was likely going to show up todayish, and it made most sense to me to show up on a weekend when they would have more time, if they had time, for a visitor, so I didn’t do much sightseeing today. Mostly, I pointed Rover’s nose north, destination the southern end of Washington State, town of Camas.
I did pause a little bit here and there, but nowhere in particular for any great length of time.
While driving through Depoe Bay, I noticed that there were whale watching companies, and I noticed a bunch of whale watching boats out in the water, so I decided to pull over on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway and just take a look out into the Bay to see what I could see, and to my delight, as I was staring out there, I saw the exhalation of misty air from the blowhole of a whale!
🥳
I’ve only seen a whale once in my life? The killer whales leaving that River in the far north of New Zealand heading back to the ocean.
Granted, I didn’t actually see a whale this time. I saw the blow hole exhalation cloud of mist I think twice, and watched as the whale-watching boats all sped in unison toward the area where the whale spray had been seen.
Fun stuff. 🙂
I stopped off at a random State Park that sounded like it was really cool, but it turned out to be sort of… meh–one of those places where there are gazillion people, so you think that there should be something really cool, but it was just a rocky shore, and not even really an impressive one 🙃.
Stopped by Lincoln City, and hung out at Road’s End State park, just a few houses down from my grandparents old house. I was too young to have lots of memories of that house, but I do remember being there as a kid in that huge old house, the backyard being the beach, basically, just walk down the concrete steps from probably 30 or 40 ft above the beach, down to the sand, and boom, you’re there.
Beautiful place.
Had a little sibling reunion there way back in, gosh, I think it was maybe 2009. Yeah, spring of 2009, right before I started working as a teacher for that private high school in Utah.
I think that was it anyway?
Trying to remember. Did we do it twice? I feel like I have two different memories, one time driving down and coming up with the name of my band, which would have been probably 2006 or ’07?, and one time driving down and while down there getting the phone call inviting me for an interview for the potential teaching job, which was definitely 2009.
🤷
Anyway, fun to be on the beach. Took some pictures of the house from the front, and also from the beach in the back. Played around a little in the water like I had done the other night dancing in the dark on the beach with the cold water rolling in, sometimes just enough to be standing on liquid, and sometimes shin deep.
Back on the road, headed north until I got to Blumenthal Falls, where I parked just as it started to rain a bit. At first, I decided I wasn’t ready to go on a walk in the rain come with it cold, and being tired of everything, but it dried up decently well, still a little misty, but not bad, so I decided to slap on my extra jacket and my son hat and head on down to the beach.
It was a little bit of a walk, but not too bad, and I arrived on the beach just behind a rather large wedding party. 🙃
Apparently, it was a great place to hold a wedding. 🙃
If the weather wasn’t very cooperative, but I’m guessing they are from oregon, so they’re probably well used to it. 😆
Hung out on the beach for a little while before heading back up the hill. Oh, I forgot to mention that I saw a couple of elk just off the trail staring at me through the greenery. 😊
I love the world’s critterses. 🥰
From there I headed north, chatting with my sister Heather for a good little while. I bought her a set of marshmallow earbuds and a little type-c headphone adapter dealie hoping it might be of benefit. I use mine all the time to listen to audio stuff and to make phone calls without having to have the phone on speaker.
Both my sister Heather and I end up with brain melt if we put the phones to our heads (for some reason putting the phone up to my ear will create a really warm spot inside my head itself. It’s pretty freaky, like it’s cooking my brain. 😅 Definitely uncomfortable, and even makes it hurt a bit. Maybe I should go get my brain scanned while I’m using a cell phone held up to my ear. Maybe science could learn something. 🙃
But it’s so blasted uncomfortable, that I just never put my phone up to my ear.
🐿️
Anyway, I also use my headphones to block out noise at night to help me be able to sleep more soundly, so I’m hoping my sister can do the same thing. 🤞
Took the PCH all the way up to Astoria and around the southern end of the Columbia River until I got to just before Rainier, Oregon, and then crossed over the Columbia (which is where I got the name for my band way back when 🙃) to the town of longview.
From there it was taking the I-5 South East to vancouver, quick stop off at a gas station to fill the tank, and then another stop off at the Walmart Supercenter to buy oil and an oil filter for rover, as I’ve gone nearly 6,000 miles without an oil change. Should have done one at about 5,000 mi, so I’m definitely behind. I’ve probably burned through a fair bit of oil as well, so I’m probably pretty low. I think I added a quart somewhere around 3,000 mi, so I’m probably a quart and a half or two quarts low right now. But I’ll just change the oil this time, and then I’ll be on my way again. Should only need to change it this one time for the rest of the trip… Unless I end up driving a whole lot more than I expected. I’m already on Pace for a much much longer mileage trip this time. Last time it was about 7,000 miles, and this time it’s probably going to be somewhere around 10,000 mi. 🙃
Cory called me just as I was about to go into the Walmart again 🙃, and we chatted for a little while. I had just pulled into the parking lot and was going to eat a little bit of food before I headed in. I was starting my little pre-migraine ritual, so I knew I needed to eat some food and take some pills before heading over to my sister’s place, and I was exhausted, partly I think from the pre-migraining starting to take place, and partly from just the ongoing pain and discomfort from all the spine issues.
Those are exhausting.
And despite being in such a great place emotionally and spiritually right now, the neural pathways that I’ve developed are likely going to take a good while to reroute. I think it’s kind of like the erosion that happens in the dirt when you send water through the dirt. You start to carve a channel, and every time you send water through that same channel, it carves it deeper and deeper and deeper.
I think that’s what I’ve done with some of my thought processes. For example, despite being in a really good place, with all the pain and discomfort and exhaustion, my brain went immediately to just wanting life to be over.
Crazy how persistent practiced thought patterns are.
But boy, how real they are! I had to consciously stop the thought processes, and be like, no, actually, life is worth living, even with the pain and discomfort.
But I think it’s going to take a lot of work to fill in those neural pathway channels that have been carved out, deeper and deeper and deeper over time.
But we’ll get there.
Rolled into my sister and brother-in-law’s place about 9:30ish, and then spent the next 2-ish hours just yacking with them, enjoying each other’s company, laughing, joking, looking at pictures from when Craig was at work in Europe just a little while ago.
Fun stuff. Good to be catching up. 😊
Grateful to be with family.
And I guess that was the day! It’s about 2:00 in the morning right now, so I’m kind of proud of myself for writing this entry before going to bed. Hopefully, I can keep up writing each night before bed like I always used to years ago.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful to have started my day off again happy and smiley despite the discomfort and pain starting nearly immediately after getting up for the day.
- I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be a blessing to other people.
- I’m grateful the Rover is getting me here and there and everywhere safely and reliably, at least to this point.
- I’m grateful to have this sort of gift of self-reflection. It seems to me that I pretty much always know what I’m thinking and feeling and why, and so it’s easy to recognize when these neural pathways are kicking in because I’m quite well tapped in to my own brain and paying attention to what it’s doing.
- I’m grateful to be able to spend time with my sister and brother-in-law and their family. So grateful for the love and kindness and family bond. 🥰
- I’m grateful for the support that I get from Cory. He is the best kind of friend.
- I’m grateful I had the courage to press the button on the automatic sliding divider door from the main Walmart area into the automotive area. It seemed as though it was closed off and inaccessible, but there was a little button on the big divider door that said press to open, so I figured what the heck, and I pressed the button, and the slider started accordioning itself open, which allowed me to access the massive wall of oil, which I did, buying 10 quarts of oil, enough for an oil change and a half, and an oil filter. I’ll probably change my oil here in camas, probably at the local AutoZone itself, so I can just walk inside and dispose of the oil as soon as I’m done. Don’t want to make it to canada, if I actually go to canada, and have to change the oil there, because there’s nowhere that takes the recycled oil, at least the auto parts stores don’t. Maybe I could take it to a shop or something, but no, I want to get that done here before I even go there, if I go.
Success:
- I think I was a lot better today at not letting myself get distracted while driving. Still some room for improvement, but I would say today was a really good, strong progress forward kind of a day. 🥳
Improvement:
- I found myself avoiding someone on the hiking trail, just because I was tired and uncomfortable and in pain, and I just didn’t want to have to say hello walking by. I just wanted to avoid human contact. 😅 I want to be the kind of person who, even when I’m not feeling so hot, still reaches out to uplift others, even in a little situations like that.
Love to all!
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 