June 26, 2005
Anyone familiar with the S.F. Bay Area knows about microclimates, but Tuesday was a doozy.  We woke Tuesday in the Tri-Cities, Cindy and Terry's house, to the promise of a 100°F day.  Even with the air conditioner running all night, it was warm enough first thing in the morning that Jerry didn't need a sweater. 
Nancy and I headed to Seattle via Desert Aire to drop off some information to my Stepfather, Don.  At Desert Aire, by noon the temperature was in the high 90?s.  Heading west toward Snoqualmie Pass, just before the summit we could see signs of a thunderstorm on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains.  As we peaked the summit we crashed into one heck of a storm.  We hit thunder, lightning, wind and heavy rains.  It was something.
Because it was new to us, we decided to take the back roads north and avoid the metropolitan areas.  The storm had caused a rash of accidents and all the major roads were jammed.  We were pretty much limited to 55 mph roads, but we made good time and were home by 5:30 - just about the time the heavy rains stopped.  The strange thing about our homecoming was the temperature in the house.  After being closed up for a week in crappy weather with no day over 75° F, the house was over 80° F.  We had to open all the doors and windows to get the temperature down to sleeping temperature by bedtime.  Double pane glass and lots of insulation kept the house warm.
There is a certain amount of animosity toward Indians in this region.  It is hard to make general statements about as diverse a group as the American Indians, but the opinion held can be explained as follows.  As the Europeans invaded and settled the North American continent the indigines peoples moved Westward and North ahead of them.  Many of the tribes ended up in the northwest corner.  There are lots of different tribes here.  Most of the Indian people were content to live at a subsistence level before the appearance of the Europeans and have continued with that attitude since.  Most of the more ambitious have moved off the reservations and integrated into the "white mans world".
There is a great number of "Green People" in the Northwest and most of the population favors conservation.  A great deal of work is being done, at taxpayer"s expense, to restore the marine habitat and replenish the fish stocks.  Fish hatcheries, stocking of lakes and "catch and release" fishing are active programs.  By treaty the Indians are allowed to ignore the fishing laws and take fish and shellfish pretty much at will and by any means.  The treaty was set up so that the Indians could take as much game as they needed to feed their families.  In practice the Indians get first the bite at the apple, they take as much as they can get without regard to conservation and obviously sell it. 
As I write this letter, there is an Indian fishing boat a couple of hundred yards off shore from our beach, taking crabs two weeks before the official season opens.  The tribes have veto power over any construction on "traditional Indian fishing grounds" and are happy to use tools developed beyond their "traditions" to deplete the fish and shellfish stocks.  I could go on and complain about granting the tribes the exclusive license to run gambling casinos and sell untaxed cigarettes, but you would think that I, too, had a certain amount of animosity.
Wednesday I got hired onto a summer job.  I will be a marshal at the local golf course.  I will get a free round of golf for every five hours I work plus they are going to pay me.  Is that a deal or what?  I forgot to ask what the rate of pay was, but maybe I'll figure it out with my first paycheck.  Oh, I forgot to ask when paydays were.
I was told by the owner to go ahead and let the lawn go dormant.  But I chose to water and feed it.  It is now healthy, green and growing like mad.  The downside is that all I have is a hand mower and being gone a week left me quite a surprise.  The local attitude is that we haven't gotten to the summer season yet.  Everyone is busy preparing, but I'm not sure what is going to change.  We?ll have to wait and see.
One of the things that Pam brought up last week is insisting that in business everybody is using only one space between sentences.  In this letter and everything before I have used two spaces.  What do you think?  For now, I'll stick with a double space.  Paper can't be that valuable and I can think of no other reason for the change.
You may remember in one of our earlier letters we mentioned that there seemed to be an inordinate number of crows on our part of the beach.  We found out why.  The neighbor, Olstein and his wife, are feeding them.  Why anyone would feed crows boggles the mind, but it seems to be true.  We saw the crows carrying fairly large pieces of bread and hiding them in our beach.  After a couple of days, we figured it had to be close.  Next, we just asked Olstein and he admitted that they have been feeding them for the last couple of years. 
As we crossed the Cascades on our way home (Camano) on Tuesday, Nancy figured that it had been a month since we had been along together.  What with visitors and Nancy"s trip to the Bay Area, there had been no "down time".  Her fervent hope was to sit quiet for a whole week and do nothing.  She made it to Thursday.  Her local knitting group meets on Thursday and she came home from the four hour meeting pumped - she had several new project, she is scheduled to teach a class on continental knitting and I suspect she probably talked the entire time.  Friday we went to a nearby town, La Conner, and enjoyed their street arts fair. It was great to see some new artists from what we have been seeing in California at the art and wine festivals.  They are doing some wonderful photography and painting.  There were the usual crafts people, but a lot of good artists. 
Saturday we went to the opening at a gallery on the island to see a bunch of glass art from a local glass school this weekend.  Apparently, people come from all over the US to take classes at this school.  Saw a sample last week and it was awesome - a full size raven's head of the Haida Indian style.  The event had advertised a jazz band and a BBQ lunch.  The jazz band was one guy with a very loud electric guitar.  So, for lunch we went to the Elger Bay Café and had a seafood stew and a homemade milkshake. 
We then came home had a nap and then did something very restful - rolled logs off the beach.  We've had very high tides this week and conditions were ideal for beach cleaning.  Sunday was dedicated to rolling logs.  There are a lot of logs.
When I got home from Eastern Washington, the camera downloaded the pictures it wouldn't away from home base.  I'm going to have to find out why it does that. It's frustrating.  Below is the picture of Roslyn, WA of Northern Exposure fame.  This picture was suppose to be included in last week's letter.
For those who are fans of Northern Exposure, the picture is taken standing in front of "The Brick".  The three people walking down the sidewalk are Pam, Bruce and Nancy.
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