Ocean Trekker

After years of hearing how she wants to move to Tillamook and found being rather close to Oklahoma rather flat, my beloved sister finally came to visit us on the coast. Or perhaps she came more to visit the ocean and I was just an ancillary addition to the trip. Regardless the reason, We were glad to have her out here.

Now that I’ve lived on the coast for a number of years it is interesting to watch different peoples reaction to walking down the beach. Some gaze out longingly at the ocean, contemplating insurmountable seas and immeasurable volumes of water. Others find fascination in the exotic wildlife. For Abby, it was the equivalent of mud puddles. She tried to convince me she was tide pooling while I tried to point out that the sand had recently began to move offshore and had just exposed the little nooks in the underlying rock and that nothing with half a brain would have moved residence yet as the sand was still swirling around with each passing wave.

Something we do share in common is the random urge to become engrossed in random hydrological projects–whether it is damming the river or just changing its course. Thinking that we had chosen a easy location to divert the flow we dug in with both hands feet. The ground sloped down, there were natural dams created by the slowly exposing bed rock, and we only had to move a little bit of sand the river would take over. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The wind picked up, the rain came pouring down, and while the ground did slope down nicely, convincing water to change course is actually rather challenging. Even after carefully calculating the slope’s potential energy, taking into account the water’s momentum, as well as the stability of the sand we only managed to get a trickle diverted, and most of that seemed to be coming from our clothes.

I am beginning to notice a strange correlation between the number of visits from friends and family and the remaining time before the departure on long sailing trips. I guess that as helpful as most people are and as much as they still care about me, they know it is a hopeless uphill struggle to get the boat ready. This being Abby’s second trip to visit me at close proximity to a departure date I tried to spare her from the tortuous list of remaining projects, but we didn’t fully succeed. Interestingly she actually seemed to enjoy cutting foam for the new cushions. With enough help and few more projects done knife wielding and threats we once again headed out to the beach for some fun. Perhaps a playground with a swing would have been more appropriate.

As with all good visits, the end had to come. For a final excursion we headed up the trail where only a week before we had run into a black bear. But with no bear and the sun setting we returned home where Abby gained Squeak’s undying affection by introducing her to the spanking. While I can’t explain what pleasure our weird cat finds in being spanked, I can say that I’m glad my sister finally came to visit me on the Oregon coast.