Sunny Day Adventures

Wow, this week the days we keep having slow cloudy morning starts but then the sun comes out and it warms up and turns just gorgeous! On Monday I went on a jog on the Rexius trail as it began to get sunny and enjoyed listening to an NPR Fresh Air podcast on my Ipod…learning while jogging!

Later I met up with Jordan and we biked out Fern Ridge Trail, which I’ve been meaning to do for days. It follows Amazon Creek which runs west out of the city. Initially we work our way through neighborhoods but then the valley opens up and you look out across a wide expanse of grasslands. The trail heads to Fern Ridge Reservoir but first there is a big marshland, and that’s where Jordan took me for some bird watching! Turns out he was a big birder when he was younger and, since he grew up in the area, he knew just where a good spot was. We were able to get up on this platform overlooking the pondy marsh area and we saw some really nice stuff: cinnamon teal, osprey, marsh wrens belting out their wild mechanical sounding song from the thick cover of marsh grass, and a group of about 300-40 huge white pelicans! Sure didn’t expect that! Jordan told me that when he came here in his early teens, the birders made a big deal when they saw just a single pelican. Well apparently populations are on the rise!

I did notice there was a weird half circle extruding from the middle of the top mandible of some of the birds’ bills. The first one I saw, I assumed it was some piece of trash that had gotten stuck on the bill but then I saw it on several more individuals. Well, I looked it up online and it turns out that it is a natural protrusion called a horn which grows anew every breeding season! It seems like both male and female adults have this feature which is shed after mating. Pretty weird! I was more ready to call it some kind of human caused thing before thinking it could possibly be something natural!

We watched the pelicans shuffling along in groups in the shallow water, heads submerged as they herded and caught small fish. They are huge birds, even from far away, when they take flight they look the size of a crane.

We also heard a great deal of activity in the grasses, including Virginia Rail, Sora and Least Bittern.  Some other spots included beautiful Black Terns which seem silver-lined, Caspian Terns and a Black-Crowned Night Heron. It was gorgeous out and warm except when the sun went behind a cloud for a moment or two. I still need to get use to this completely different climate (and remember a hoodie wherever I go)! The Eugeners tell me this is still quite cold for June, that it really should be much warmer. I’m not complaining!

For Tuesday, I met up with a new outdoorsy friend named Damien. We went up Skinner’s Butte and it was so clear and blue that we had a perfect view of the snow-engulfed Three Sisters; peaks ranging above 10,000ft! It has been so fun meeting new Eugene people, I feel like I have so much in common with a great number of them. I feel really lucky to be enjoying Eugene in the summer while everyone is out and playing sports, cycling and soaking up the sun. I definitely won’t be taking this perfect weather for granted, though!

On my way home, I decided to turn up Fox Hollow and go up into the hills a ways. It’s a definite climb, but once you get up about a thousand feet, it’s just so lovely..the purple lupines and the dark green conifers against a brilliant aqua sky…it’s also very peaceful up there. I road for about an hour and hurtled back down the hill with supper in mind. As I pulled out my fixin’s to make a killer salad, I remembered my lack of carrots and was thinking “Darn, I can’t have my salad without carrots! Wait. I’m suppose to be picking up my local foods produce today. I’m suppose to be picking it up right NOW!” With ten minutes to go, I dropped everything and ran out the door. I drove down to the pickup spot with a minute to spare and there was my nice local foods lady, waiting to distribute the last of the pickups-mine! Whew! They give your food away to charity if you don’t show up, which isn’t the worst thing to have happen but man those carrots just made my salad. Not to mention the Tokyo White Turnips and the sugar snap peas, as well as the farm fresh egg from last week that I hard boiled. Put some greens under it all, throw on some onion and pumpkin seeds and Annies Papaya Poppy Seed Dressing and you’re good to go!

Cycling in Rain Ain't as Bad as it Sounds

Breakfast out on the deck this morning under a sunny blue sky. I had planned to make it a lazy coffee shop day.

Cathy had other ideas!

She asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride. Why of course! She suggested out to a couple of the nearer wineries and back. Well I'd seen a sign for them when I came back yesterday from dressy clothes shopping for work. They didn't seem far at all.

Today's bikeride.

Off we went, under oh-so-slowly clouding over skies.

It was a gorgeous ride. Anything south of Eugene is guaranteed to be mind bogglingly beautiful. I was boggled.

And yes, I need to have my camera attached to me at all times. Today I didn't.

We pedaled on, encountering one hill, among many smaller ones, that did NOT want to end. We crawled up for what seemed like ages. Meanwhile the scenery was lovely, lots of evergreen hills and the forests revealed wild gnarly maples that were adorned in lichen and draped with moss. There were always houses tucked in along the way, some yielding gorgeous gardens and meticulously tended vegetable gardens. The rhododendrons are still flamingly in bloom. The fields were either grasses, cover crops or livestock. On one hill in the distance a moving white cloud of sheep moved it's way across the green slope.

The rain couldn't decide if it wanted to have it's way or not. We kept getting sprinkled upon and would belatedly notice it stopping again.

The vineyard we passed looked like it had been long harvested, the vines were cut way back.

We made a long loop and joined back up with the road we took out into the country. Here was where the rain made it's final decision, accompanying us all the way home. It wasn't cold, though, especially with the work we were doing. My biggest fear about riding in the rain was that I wouldn't be able to see, being glasses'd and all. Seemed, though, that my prescription sunglasses are the best solution: they protect my eyes from the drops and they didn't get anywhere near obscured enough to not feel like I could ride. Well there I go! That was my biggest fear of the rainy winter to come and I just found out something promising! Not to mention the visor on my helmet, when I cocked it lower, also proved to be great protection.

Three hours after leaving, we pulled back into our driveway, completely spent!

A warm shower and a late lunch did the trick, though! I enjoyed the second half of my Chef's Kitchen Plum Curried Hallibut which I got for working and ate half of last night. A night in the refrigerator and that hallibut is still to die for!! The curry sauce and firmness of the meat, MM! It's not a huge dish but I think it's worth the whopping thirty dollar price tag! Nice to get it for free!

Now what for dessert...hmmm...

Maxed Out in a Good Way

I was jogging the Rexius Trail yesterday I was thinking of how dehydrated I've been after my jogs lately. I don't like carrying water with me while I run and, as I neared the end of my jog, I was thinking  maybe next time to fill a nalgene and hide it in the woods near the playground before I started to have at the end of my loop. Well, I was done and was walking on the sidewalk to cool off when I saw a sign in the grass at the edge of the front yard of the first house after the park. Walking closer, I saw a big cooler and a bowl. The sign read something similar to: “Water for Dogs and Humans, Help Yourself!”. Well I never....I never would have dreamed!! I opened the cooler to discover three jugs full of water and 2 bags, one with fresh paper cups and the other for the used cups.This was too much...

Where else but Eugene?!

That afternoon I met up with Jordan, my new friend, and we played some frisbee and tossed the softball. The day was glorious. You can simply look around at the amount of people so thoroughly enjoying the outdoors to understand how sun deprived these people can get. I wonder how it will affect me?

Afterwards we got dinner at this Thai place in the western section of Eugene (not anywhere as cute as my stomping grounds, I’m glad I researched thoroughly to know the good places to look for housing). Nonetheless, I will definitely go back thattaway for more Thai!

Afterwards, he showed me Skinner’s Butte, which was a few blocks away. It rises up next to the river and there’s a paved road to the top so we biked up. The long summer days are easy to get use to, I’ll be sad when they go. We could see the entirety of Eugene below us and sections of the river as well as the mountains beyond. There were lots of people up there enjoying the scenery as the sun went down.

Today was the most packed full day I’ve had yet. It started with a 9am GEARs bike ride up to Harrisburg, 20 miles north of here. The group this time was a bunch of speed demons! I was panting hard for an hour straight, giving it my all to keep up. I fell behind far enough at one point that the “slower” group realized they could slow it down a bit. The funny part was, all four of them were saying how fast it was, like they wouldn’t have been going so fast if someone else hadn’t set the pace so fast but no one claimed to be the pace setter!

It was a cloudy morning that persisted into the afternoon. There was a shroud over the mountains that was really lovely and the chill in the air lasted for the entire ride as the temperature settled into the sixties. Apparently it’s been 10 degrees cooler than it should be at this time of the year, but you don’t hear me complaining, no, you only hear me boasting to the poor easterners who are all suffering in the 100 plus degree heat and humidity!

There was a younger couple that rode with us who had just moved here from Georgia. They had charmingly twangy accents and I liked them right away. I appreciated them as the ones who made sure that I didn’t get left too far behind!

We took a different way home which I really like, GEARs always does loops rather than out and backs. Keeps the scenery changing! It’s cool, we were able to see Spencer’s Butte (the butte up above where I live) from so far away! It slooooowly got closer. We all parted ways at the river trail to go to our respective parts of town and I felt the way Cathy and I did after our Wednesday ride: like the 4 miles home was the hardest part of the entire trip! 

The blue sky had emerged from the clouds, so I stopped for a picture on the bridge..

For the evening, I had my first real obligation since I'd arrived to Eugene: I was scheduled to go to work. Yep! I got a job! Didn’t even really have to apply. I found this restaurant that is about a mile down the road from the house called Chef Bruno’s Kitchen. It sounded neat-only Bruno is the cook and he changes the menu weekly based on seasonal local foods. Well, I thought I’d email and ask if he had any employment he could offer, explaining that I’d been a hostess at Ella’s Restaurant in DC (where my favorite brother works). He wrote back and said he had “an opening up front” and to bring in my resume. Well I dropped by yesterday and saw him out back of the restaurant, coming out of the kitchen and I walked up (knowing it was him from the pictures of the big guy with the grizzly white beard. I introduced myself as the girl who’d been corresponding with him and he sticks his hand out and just before I took it in a shake hello he says “resume!”, so I put that in his hand instead. He glanced at it and asked me what my class schedule would be and I bumbled out the hours of the morning class and he says, “nonono, I don’t care about the morning, I want to know when you’re done!” so I flusteredly gave him that and he says, “when can you start?”..um, sometime next week? “What about Saturday” (tomorrow!?), um..I guess if you really need me.. “Can you be available tonight?” Guhhh..um, I guess? “I’ll have my manager call you at six and tell you if she needs you in”. Um okay…thanks..? “See you soon. Oh and good luck on starting classes!”.

I felt like I’d been mowed over by a tornado!!

So the manager (his wife) calls at 6:30 yesterday while Jordan and I are biking to dinner and tells me she could use me in a half hour “Uh, I’m not really close to home..” “Oh, well then tomorrow is fine, be in at 6” “Erm, can I ask what you want me to wear?” “White on top, black on bottom..ironed!”

So after eating lunch today when I got home exhausted from my bike ride, I turned right around and went back out to find some halfway nice clothes because nothing I own is white or black, much less dressy…

I had to drive, since the mall where I got the clothes was too far to get back in time (not to mention the fact that I had absolutely no desire to set out another 10+ miles on my bike that day..).

So my driving fast has been officially broken!

I got home with time to drink some coffee to keep my brain in operating mode and make a sad attempt at ironing the new button up white shirt I’d bought. I had 6 minutes to run out the door and pedal my little heart out to make it just in time to the restaurant.

Walking through the kitchen, I was welcomed by Bruno and introduced myself to the prep boys. Chelsea and (?) were the two servers, two wonderfully sweet and silly U of O undergrads. They were great about telling me what to do as we went along…which soon became evident that I was destined not to be a hostess, but a server! They didn’t even have a hostess position there! Well damn, suddenly I’m becoming a waiter! As scary as it’s always seemed to me (I never understood how my brother could do it) it was a blast! So much more fun than being a hostess. I was all over the place, busy every second and having fun interacting with really nice customers who ALL raved about the food. I mean, they were beside themselves!  

The kitchen is basically right around a corner from the server’s station so there was a lot of interaction between us and the kitchen boys and Bruno, lots of joking and it was laid back in a really fun way.

So yea, I’ve got me a job! Pretty much out of nowhere, but suddenly I’m neck deep in it. I think it might be okay with my school schedule since the restaurant doesn’t even open til 5 and it’s closed at 9. They are closed on Sunday and Mondays. So I think I’ll definitely have a lot on my plate but I’d like to think it won’t be over the top…I can only wait and see, though!

Whew! What a loooong, busy day! Good thing tomorrow I can relax. 

Darn Trusty!

Yesterday I cleaned out of my car the rest of the carnage left from the cross country trip. I road out on my bike on a mission to go grocery shopping. I still had yet to find a Market of Choice grocery store and am starting to question if they exist. Well, after a few u-turns and parking lot cut throughs, I finally found one. It’s a really great market! Much like Whole Foods but I don’t think quite as expensive.

First, though, I had to get my coffee fix and got to try out a new place called Supreme Bean. They make a delicious iced soy latte and I appreciated that it was very low key, comfortable and uncrowded. Many of the clientele seemed to be very familiar with the staff which gave it a community feel. It’s very close to me, so much so that I only realized I passed the shopping center when I was 10 blocks beyond it! I took my time paging through a magazine that featured the green businesses and other establishments around the area..like a green yellow pages, if that makes any sense.

I made my way slowly through the market, figuring out where my mainstays were and discovering a lot of new to me brands. Eugene has a lot of local manufacturers- a creamery nearby that produced Nancy’s Yogurt, there is Bob’s Red Mill, Stash Tea, Tillamook Cheeses…so I went extra slow finding all these gems. Buying local is so good for the earth and it’s so nice when it’s made easy. If only it could be that way everywhere.

At the checkout line, I watched the bagging girl expertly fill up my pannier and I lugged it out to my bike. I had to stop, though, coming out the door to take a few cloud pictures…

I’m always so surprised that it isn’t harder to ride a bike with all the weight on one side, but it isn’t. I got home easily and, because I’m a dork, weighed myself with the bag. 25lbs of groceries all fit in my trusty pannier! I love that thing. It’s funny, I only remembered at the end of my shopping expedition that I needed to cycle it all home. Now I know I needn’t have worried!

For the beautiful evening, I lounged out back on the deck listening to my music and drinking tea.

Three Rivers Tour

Oh wow, today was a day of polar opposites! I started it out at 2pm (seriously!) because at around 3 in the morning I woke up feeling feverish. Sweaty and freezing cold, monster headache and every part of me was achy, even my skin! Cathy hadn’t been feeling well the day before and heard at work that something was going around. I got up and drank a big glass of water and took some Advil PM in hopes of getting rid of the headache. Well that PM packed a punch! I felt better when I emerged from my mountain of pillows and blankets.

I took it easy for the day, knowing that I wanted to still be able to make the 28 mile GEARs (Greater Eugene Area Riders) ride that evening.

This'll get you to their website..

My (what turned out to be absolutely genius) idea was to cook up a big batch of millet mixed with coconut milk and some of my yummies from Eugene Local Food: kale, shitakes and carrots. I refrigerated it so that when I came back from the ride I’d have dinner ready and waiting.

Genius. I got home and only just barely had the strength to put some in a bowl and nook it in the microwave.

Despite being totally pooped, I feel elated after what turned out to be a fantastic ride!!

The meet up point was 6pm at Alton Baker Park (across the Willamette River, pronounced “Will-AM-it”) and the turnout was good, about 20 riders. The makeup was mostly age 40-ish (I’m guessing) and up, and only 4 females including my roommate Cathy, who road straight over from work, and me. There was a pair of undergrads from the U of O, a couple. The girl, Rachel, surmised that the lack of students was due to this being finals week, “everyone is either studying or out drinking”.

We rode out via the north bank of the Willamette river trail and made our way through a residential maze before getting out onto more country roads with farm fields and rolling mountain views. The majority of the ride was flat save for one uphill that showed me that I have some training to do before I feel confident that I can maintain some dignity on some of the more hilly rides! 

Here's the route. I called it the Three Rivers Tour.

We kept our speed up the entire loop so even during the flat areas I felt like I was getting a good workout. Gary, the ride leader, stays at the back of the group ensuring that no rider be left behind. We talked for awhile along the way and he told me how he’s been here for three years and the man was just raving about how much he loved it. His enthusiasm, three rainy winters in, was definitely great to witness. He ensured me that I’d certainly be able to stay on my bike through the winter (I don’t want to use my car at all if I can help it, save for my out-of-Eugene excursions) he, along with everyone else, just says I need to be sure to have the right gear which is a synonym for good rain gear.

I also got to talking with Ruthy, a retired U of O professor who taught linguistics. Everyone was so friendly and wildly pro-Eugene. She had moved here 13 years ago from Pennsylvania and “never looked back!”.

The end of the ride took us through Springfield which is just east of Eugene. We hooked back up with the river trail around 8pm and said our goodbyes as pairs and individuals peeled off to head to their various home destinations. Cathy and I crossed the Frohnmayer Bike Bridge to Agate Street towards home. We stopped into her office building so she could pick up her belongings because she biked to work.

We groaned our way up the final hill to her house and peeled ourselves off our bikes. Exhausted and satisfied, we gulped down dinner (Mmmillet! I’ll say it once more: Genius) and crawled off to our respective rooms.

I have to say, I feel pretty great now! I am glad I started with this ride, though, instead of one of the 40 milers that are coming up this weekend. This way I was able to get an idea of the pace of group rides and where I fall in the ranks. I’m definitely going to have to work up to the higher mileages, particularly since they tend to get further out into the hilly areas. Being on my bike every day like I have been, hopefully I’ll get there sooner rather than later!

Gorgeous day, by the way, the evening light was so lovely. I managed not to ever ride off the road (as I’ve been known to..) while taking in the scenery!

Oh how the bed is calling…goodnight!

It's Official!

So I started out the week getting some things taken care of around the U of O campus, starting with the very important and official student I.D.!!

I meandered around campus for a good while, getting lost and found and lost again. It really isn’t so complicated; I just didn’t want to be the one kid holding her campus map upside-down trying to orient herself while walking off the path into some bushes. Oh wait, that was me.

I explored the library and it was very large and nice. I’ll be having my classes there this summer. I also found that the student life center was enormous and there are lots of nice little pockets to settle into for studying. At Warren Wilson, our student life center was a tiny basically basement room. I think so, anyways, I never went in there.

Monday was kind of my get-lost day, I tooled around the city just getting an idea of where everything was which was fun. There are so many cute little restaurants and cafes! I’m also figuring out bike routes through the city, like which streets are one-way and which don’t have a bike lane. I am glad that I’ve already become old hat at city riding in DC. I liked riding there but here, there’s less traffic, more bike lanes, people are nicer and actually stop to let you pass when they aren’t required to, and the trees, parks and phenomenally tended residential gardens are just the icing!  

I ended up going onto the river trail and followed it for several miles, crossing from one side to another on the pedestrian/bike bridges. Violet green swallows nest under them and you can peer over the rail and see them zoom in and out. There was a pair of mouthy ospreys meanwhile soaring high above.

Cathy and I watched a movie before bed. She can project it up onto one wall so it’s like we’re in the theatre. Now that’s just classy!

Oh bicycle, love of my life how I adore you...

Today I met a kid at the coffee shop who had a frisbee in his bag and I asked him if he played with a group of any kind (I’m desperate to find a leisurely, non-competitive pickup group) well turned out he didn’t but we got to talking and turns out he’s an aspiring writer! He just finished grad school for creative writing and went to U of O for undergrad, we ended up chatting for a long while about cool places to see around town. How could that not, you ask, lead to a frisbee tossing session? How not indeed! We threw it back and forth under the cloudy turned sunny day at a park around the corner for an hour or so. My first official Eugene friend!

On my way home I stopped by to pick up my Eugene Local Food share that I ordered last week..I can’t describe how happy it made me: a HUGE bag of frozen blueberries, kale, fresh eggs, snap peas that were so crispy and sweet, chives and carrots right out of the ground, and shitake mushrooms that brought memories of my college days inoculating logs and harvesting those tasty little forest dwellers. Ahhh. This is how life should be. And each thing was from one happy farm or another just a stone’s throw from Eugene! Well, perfect timing that my pannier, a sturdy bag that fits off one side of my rear rack had just arrived in the mail that morning! I piled in my produce and road happily home, the green carrot tops waving in the wind. 

Gettin' on my Bike!

Since I wrote last, I’ve made a world of fantastical discoveries! 

So Eugene has a good number of lovely hidden wonders that are slowly revealing themselves to me and the first that I came across was the Hendricks City Park. While the name sparks nothing in the imagination, I was told there was a rhododendron garden there I didn’t want to miss. So I hopped on to my Surly (aka the love of my life, aka my bicycle) and started down the hill toward Amazon. Well, my bike, which had spent the past week on the back of my Nissan Versa hatchback as we barreled across the country, was clicking and clacking. It did not sound happy.

After a quick adjustment, I was able to carry on although now I had Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life as my destination to give ‘er a look over. Nothing too ghastly, just that the derailleur needed some adjusting and the whole thing needed a good oiling. Five bucks later I was on my way, smoothly sailing.

I was delighted at the wide roads and the ability to take a residential bike route to avoid the busier roads. I went along looking from one side to the other at all of the cute houses and beautiful landscaping and carefully tended gardens.

After a few wrong turns, I found my way to the park. Surprisingly enough, the two dimensional map did not give any hint at the fact that the park was 800ft up! So I down-shifted and labored my way up and up and up. The foresty wonderland was beautiful, though not totally distracting. Breathing heavily and starting to sweat, I made it to the top of the hill and coasted down to the gardens. I parked my bike in a conveniently placed rack and locked ‘er up (I can’t decide if my bike is a him or her…somehow ‘er sounds right..). Then I walked through a winding network of pathways leading through a maze of rhododendrons. Many were past their prime but there was still enough in full bloom to take my breath away. I walked slowly and didn’t neglect to notice the tiny, delicate blue, white and pink flowers that covered the forest floor. All around were enormous dark fir trees that made for a stunning landscape. In the middle of it all was a large swath of grass where I resolved to have many, many picnics and reading/study sessions upon in the near future. I was enamored.

On Saturday, I enjoyed a long bike ride with my housemate Cathy. She was glad I got her out for the first time this season and so was I. She took me out on Fox Hollow Rd. which climbed higher and higher, out of the southern neighborhoods and up to the more forested landscape. There were farms and occasional houses and sometimes we were given a view of layers of hazy mountains, receding into the distance. The climbs were certainly do-able, but definitely had us puffing. I think, for me, the hardest part was the downhill. It. Was. Steep. I mean steep! And went on forever winding and twisting down and down and down. We were flyyying. I stayed on my breaks nearly the entire time while Cathy pulled far ahead. It was never scary, just a little nervousy, especially imagining how far one could fly were they to lose their bike for whatever reason out from under them! I was happy to grind down my breakpads to mere nothingness to keep from having to find out.

We were beat (but alive!) at the end of that ride! Such a great day.

Today I got up at 6am for a group birdwalk I’d seen a posting about that was held at Hendricks Park. I was the only one without gray hair in the group of about 15, which was of no surprise. It was a fun time, though, brushing up on these western bird calls and songs. I spotted a raccoon totally konked out, up on a branch high in a fir tree! It was the greatest pose: his butt towards us with tail hanging down and his body curled around to reveal his little face, eyes closed in a deep, deep sleep. Lil’ guy was tuckered! We saw hoards of cedar waxwings, feeding on Oregon Grape berries and the leader pointed out a Bushtit nest…the group was laid back and really nice, although I only talked to a few people. They were excited to tell me about all the upcoming walks I could come along on, I hope I can keep it up once classes start!

I biked to Vero, the café that Monica, Jarrod, Matt and I had tested out and had an iced coffee and a late breakfast of eggs, toast (homemade bread!) and jam, and fruit. I sat out on their brand new deck and read for a couple of hours in the shade. The weather was delightful. 

I got home and tooled around a bit before deciding to take a short jog. I went along the Rexius Trail to the trailhead that leads through the forest up to Fox Hollow Rd. It was a mile long and an elevation gain of around 1000ft! Definitely a huffer, but it was spread out enough that I never felt like keeling over. Only almost. The forest was beautiful and lush! I can’t get over the moss covered tree trunks and branches. I made it up to the road and took another trail back into the forest that went toward Mt. Baldy. I didn’t go all the way, just a mile and walked back, taking my time, watching and listening to the forest life. I can’t believe this is practically a stone’s throw away from my doorstep!

Topping it all off, I've had multiple amazing sunsets right outside my sliding glass door...

 

Imagine the pink to be multiplied in hot pinkness 100x..

A Eugene Kind of Life

So here I am, sitting at my small wooden desk and feeling comfortable in my snazzy office chair that I adjusted to custom-fit my stature. There is crashing outside of my closed door; shut to keep out the wild cats tearing through the house. Boscoe and William are their names; two long-haired Persians which fit better in the category of feral over domestic.

My huge sliding glass window looks out to the deck, with a fresh sheen of newly fallen rain. The droop-branched fir trees tower high enough that I cannot see their tops. It is cool and cloudy. Spencer’s Butte, a nearby 2000ft mountain is half within my view and tumultuous clouds of gleaming whites and grays contrast against the darker more ominous rain-bearers.

The neighborhood is charming and quiet. I can hear cars on Amazon Rd, but they are far enough to not be an annoyance. My room is large and cream colored. Cathy made the curtains which are cheery with designs of colorful birds and flowers.

I finally feel somewhat settled. My clothes are all put away and my various things somewhat organized. I have a long, shallow closet which hides my clothes dresser. I stow my tupperwares there so my room is left spacious. The wooden floor may need a rug, but for now I am content with my slippers. The bed is large and comfortable and was even already bedecked with a large feather comforter, sheets and pillows.

I went jogging along the 3 1/2 mile Rexius Trail which is about a block away and loops from the top (or "headwaters") of Amazon Creek down towards town. It is a mulch trail which cushions the crunching noise my knee likes to make. The trail has East and West Amazon Roads running alongside it so you're not off in the midst of nature, but it was a great way to see the neighborhood and the many joggers/bikers/walkers of the area. 

My hope is to join in on the Eugene Audubon Club birdwalk this weekend so I can see some nature and meet some birding buds!