Saturday, June 18, 2016

Father's Day and Camping Trip



That's Dad.  He was a handsome guy, but whenever he was going to have his photo taken, he put on his Picture Face, which he's wearing in this blurry old scanned photo.  Golf was his game, after he quit playing baseball. He'd have been a professional at baseball if it hadn't been for WWII.  As it was, he was shortstop and manager for a Pacific Coast League team, and he batted clean-up.  

 Speaking of fathers, the one who lives here is off on a motorcycle trip.  He says he's getting one in while he still can, since he doesn't know how long he'll be able to keep doing it.  But he thinks the B-31 will be a good motorcycle for an old guy because it's light, smooth, easy.  Except, he's still having armature troubles.  So though he loaded it up, it's not what he took.  I put a B-31 photo in a few posts ago, and it was one taken while it was still in New Zealand.  He bought it on Ebay many years ago.  It's much nicer now.  Just so you know.


The next bike he loaded up was the 250 Ninja.  It's extremely reliable, nimble, easy, light, and amazingly fast. (He says that about everything).  I failed to get a photo before he unpacked it and put everything on the 750Four Honda.   Can you see the Ninja in the background?  It's the one with all the graphic design and more current stylings.  Here's the Honda all ready to go.  He left yesterday and went up to Goldendale, Washington and met his friends from Seattle.  I'm not sure what all they were riding.  He took the camera, so maybe I'll see photos.


It's a very special bike that used to belong to his step-brother in Ohio.  He was a father, too.


I was out watering the turtle this morning, when I thought I heard thunder.  These days, lots of things make noise that sounds like thunder.  I looked around for neighbors moving their yard scrap recycle barrels.  Those are usually the cause of the sound-like-thunder.  There were some solid grey clouds to the southwest, but my view of the sky is blocked by gables.

A neighbor came over looking for HH, and I asked him if he'd seen any lightning.  He said "No, but I heard it."  Ha! Well, the sound like thunder kept up, and rumbled on in that rolling way it sometimes has, and the clouds got darker, so I decided to start winding up the hose.  Just about the time I was done, it began to pour, and I even caught a glimpse of a flash, and that crack was LOUD.  My back is still wet from moving a planter that doesn't drain in under the eaves.

There's something so exciting about thunder and lightning.  I guess it's because it's so dangerous.  I came in here and looked up all the places HH was on the weather map, and I think he's clear.   He should be home tonight, so we can have fun with Daughter tomorrow.  Don't think I'll plan a picnic.

3 comments:

Avus said...

Loved the bike pics and camping story, Vita. Also the stuff about thunder and lightening. I love to watch a storm and when my kid were little we would often take off in the dark to the nearby hills just to experience one. In a Morris Minor tourer, with the top up of course ( I was going to say "with the hood up" but remembered that that means something different to you Yanks)

Vita said...

My mom always wanted a gazebo to get a better view of storms from our house, which was on a knoll on the side of a hill by itself overlooking the Klamath Basin, so the view wasn't bad except where the house walls were in the way, but she never got one. What she did get was what they called a bay window. It was mostly just a lot of glass walled room extension, but it did the trick.

You know I'm in awe of your hood-up Morris tourer trips to storm-watch. Which reminds me of the time we took logging roads in the forested mountains to fish and the biggest storm of my life blew in from across the lake making very eerie and frightening howling sounds. It was my opinion that the rest of my family were being much too calm about it, taking much to long to change plans and go, and Dad always said I ran the wrong direction (away from the car.) My little brother and I were terrified, but it was very exciting and dramatic. Little brother hid under a blanket and yelled that we were going the wrong way because the lighting turned us around. He and I were about 3 and 4 years old. We got home and there was no electricity for days. (We lived in town then.) That's my nearby hills thunder and lightning story.

I remember why I was running. There was a burned stump of a huge tree in the middle of the clearing and I asked mom what happened to it and she said it was hit by lightning.

Avus said...

Well, those storm experiences were certainly "burned" on your memory, Vita. I think that kids (and pets like dogs) accept storms far more readily if their parents/owners actually enjoy them.