You Can Get There From Here

I sent Kathleen, my Iowa pal, over some dunes and down to the ocean, where ol' breathless cannot go, so she could get in her daily three miles of running. Meanwhile, I took this picture of Siletz Bay, which is just south of Lincoln City, on the Central Oregon Coast. I did not show Kathleen my walking on water gambit because she isn't from Missouri ("Show me.").

Backing up, we started in Corvallis, where Katie is working temporarily. Corvallis is like Lansing, Mich., home of a cow college (Oregon State University). We headed for some Mo's clam chowder but as usual the joint was packed so we opted for the Rogue Ale place. Good choice: Got us some "Dead Guy Ale." See, what they do is, they put a corpse in the beer vat, steam it up and.... Well, maybe not. Tasted fine, whatever they did.

We overnighted at Salishan Resort, a ritzy joint just south of Lincoln City. Kathy had chicken (for god's sake; right in the middle of seafood central!!). I, of course, did not have clams, oysters, halibut, bottom fish, shrimp or salmon because I have had all those before. So I got Muscovy Duck. Wow. You should be so lucky.

On the way back, we had to stop at Alder House, where they blow glass into intricate patterns. This guy (Tim?) made a flower vase before our very eyes. You click on this picture and you can see the near-end result of his blow job.

This is a pretty simple operation: You heat up an oven to 2500 degrees, stick your hand in it to make sure it's plenty hot....

You heat up an oven till it's pretty hot. Then you grab some coloring -- Tim says: "This is rose, like in a Crayola box." Nobody had any Crayolas so he won that round. In about 15 minutes he had a beautiful vase, like all the other stuff in his shop. Boy howdy, it would be nice to have some talent like that.

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My favorite word today is talent. N., when extra goes in front of ordinary. Def.: The difference between a kazoo and a piano.