Shopping, Restaurants, Water, and the Webdesign Business

Tonight my daughter and I drove to Oregon to go shopping. Well, on my birthday, which is already passed, I wanted to go out for dinner in Cave Junction (Oregon) and everyone I mentioned this to was telling me there were no restaurants there except a pizza place and a Chinese food place. So today we went through the town looking around and saw a lot of restaurants, both large and small, cheap looking and expensive looking... really a variety - and I wonder why those other people don't realize how cool it is to have all those places to eat out just over the hill... accessible in the summer when the road's not closed, anyhow. There were actually at least two pizza places and two Chinese food places. Anyhow, should we ever be able to afford it, we will go out to dinner there. Right now we barely have enough money to buy groceries until the end of the month.

When I got home, there was an email waiting from a guy who wants to talk to me about redesigning his website. I know I should be excited but for right now I'm having a panic attack. I don't know if I'm ready to start earning money! I don't even have my own webdesign site done, my business plan is only about half written... and I'm just plain scared. I'll go ahead and check out his project anyhow.

I love good bottled spring water. Now, if you happen to be in Mt. Shasta City or Dunsmuir, you can take your bottle and get your own fresh spring water at the source... filted through miles of lava within Mt. Shasta... I just love that. Here in town I'm at the mercy of the local grocery store, but usually there's some kind of good water. However....... over the hill in Oregon, there's some really interesting water. Right now I'm drinking Mountain Mist - premium artesian spring water - from Washington. It is so good! I also brought home four large jugs of Earth2O water from Opal Springs in Oregon - one of my favorite waters... and I don't know why it isn't sold in California... but every time I go north of the border, I get some of this.

My favorite water of all is Castle Rock spring water from Dunsmuir, CA... but the company changed hands and it is hard to find. I can only find little 16.9 oz. bottles here in town now. Castle Rock was my constant water source when I lived in the SF Bay Area - and when I moved north I found their bottling company in Dunsmuir - where I stayed for two months while looking for a home. The Dunsmuir site tells the story of The Best Water In The World... well, I believe it!... their "water supply" is piped into fountains all over town that run constantly (no on/off valve) so to get some, all we had to do was take our gallon jug to the nearest fountain and fill up.

Now if you look at a photo of Mossbrae Falls in Dunsmuir - you'll see where Keith and I went on our first "date" if you want to call it that..... the Falls are about 1/2 mile down the railroad tracks in northwest Dunsmuir and if a train comes you have to step aside... or else. Well, two trains passed us when we went to the Falls that day. It was fun and Mossbrae Falls is one of the most beautiful places in the world... just very hard to get to... so it is not crowded. :)

Fires continue and he air is smoke filled ... and fire crews were coming into Cave Junction to spend the night - at about the time we were leaving. There was so much smoke in the air tonight that on the way home the nearly-full moon looked like it was behind a cloud... barely visible. So far it hasn't been enough to make my eyes sting.

My Fiftieth Birthday

Well, Saturday July 13 (which has been over for 2 hours and 20 minutes now) was my fiftieth birthday. It wasn't so bad. I realized, "I'm fifty, I'm not dead." Yes, it could be worse. I think the day before was worse... I sat thinking all day that it was the last day of being in my 40's. That was just so wretched, because you can't hold onto it, can't keep it... time just slips away and there's no controlling it.

Speaking of controlling time - it is really beginning to bug me that people say "I don't have time" [to do something]. I've probably said it a thousand or more times myself... but that is so bogus. EVERYONE has time. Why don't people say "I chose to do something else with my time" instead? I'll tell you why.... it is TOO HONEST.... something like saying "your concerns are not a priority for me".

So anyhow - to celebrate my birthday - well, I didn't get the dinner out I wanted because we're low on income this month. I went to a great community picnic here in town - really wonderful to be there - and they even acknowledged my birthday as one of the musicians played the birthday song on the keyboard... really cool if you ask me. Because I couldn't take my whole family out to dinner for my birthday, I ended up going to the café by myself to re-write the outline for my novel in progress. I can spend two hours writing there for less than three dollars (I always buy coffee and garlic bread).

Anyhow, I just wanted to add something in here about how my fiftieth birthday went so now you know how old I am and when you get to fifty (if not already) you'll know it really is quite painless.

Writing, Writing, Writing

News... there's not much new going on here. Things are starting to get so peaceful here again, I've started back into my writing projects. I spent a peaceful afternoon letting the waiters at Indian Creek Café fill my coffee cup, while getting some preliminary writing done to plot my protagonist's inner turmoil and progress. Yes, it is another novel in the making - this one for the young adult age (teens).

The helicopters were making so much noise today, Keith and I decided to take a drive to see what they were up to and get fire pictures for Happy Camp News - but as it turned out, it was only a training exercise.