Alas... time has come to say good bye to Xanga. Xanga was then. Blogspot is now.
So for those of you who were keeping Xanga just to feel close to me..... go here: http://valeriegeary.blogspot.com/

That is all.

"Nestled at the base of a sloping hill is the asylum where they have secreted Ellie. (This is what I call her; I cannot bring myself to say mother.) The hill butts up against a long mountain range that climbs and climbs finally peaking in a hidden place deep within the low hanging coastal clouds before tumbling back down into the valley on the other side. Ellie was born in that valley. She was the only child of a man and woman that remain unknown to me for the woman died when Ellie was no older than I am now, and the man’s heart was too full of cruelty and grief to love and keep his only daughter.

The first time I saw Ellie she was sitting in a rocking chair by the window, clutching a tattered, stained clump of blanket that she kept calling: Alfred Leland. My name is Alfred Leland. It startled me at first, because I thought she knew me, though she had not seen me for eighteen years, but surely a mother knows her own son. But as I watched her from the other side of the room while she bent over the blanket to whisper that father would be home soon, I realized that she did not notice me, her grown child, standing there in the door; she only knew me as the invisible infant babe, swaddled and hidden in the tired blanket that she clutched in her arms. “We will cook your father pork chops and boiled potatoes,” she said. “His favorite." "

So because it was supposed to be hot this past weekend, we decided to head up to Mt Hood Recreation Area to go camping. Our plan was to camp at Trillium Lake. Normally this drive would take about 1.5 hrs. So we both finished work early and left at 2pm. Plenty of time to get there early, get a good campsite and enjoy the evening. There are several ways to get to Mt. Hood and we definitely picked the WRONG WAY! I took us over 3 hrs to get to Trillium Lake. If it wasn't traffic it was random construction on a very very rural, country road where you wouldn't expect traffic. So we managed to get up to Trillium Lake only to find that it is still CLOSED! Why you may ask? So did we... so did we.... maybe because not all of the snow had melted....
Well... not to worry, Mt Hood rec area has a lot of campsites. Of course by now the rest of Portland who went the right way were already making claims to these spots. Plus for some reason reserving campsites is popular. So a lot of them were reserved. So FINALLY we found a campsite at a place called Little Crater Lake. And then we spent an enjoyable weekend getting eaten by mosquitoes. Okay, so the mosquitoes didn't ruin the weekend or anything, but it was uncomfortable. We rode 13 miles around Timothy Lake, took a quick dip in the cold water to cool off and ate lots of food. So it ended up looking like it would be a just fine weekend, despite its rocky start.
AND THEN....... we were leaving the campsite and preparing to pull out onto the highway. Ryan pulled out and then saw an oncoming car that would have surely smashed us if we had kept going. Ryan stopped short, but this car freaked out and swerved... to the right. I closed my eyes and squeezed Chloe to my chest bracing for impact. Then the car just shook a little. It ended up that the other driver hit our bikes which were tied up on the back of our car. She probably could have avoided us all together if she had reacted differently. Anyway... I freaked out a little bit.... Everyone was okay... some scratching and denting on both vehicles and of course both our bikes had some damage. Poop.
So we came home wondering if we should have just turned around and gone home when the traffic was bad on Friday. But we ended up getting some ice cream to make it all better, taking nice cool showers and then sitting out under our patio cover watching the unexpected lightening storm and listening to the thunder. So good weekend? Bad weekend? I still can't really decide. For now it's hot. Our upstairs has a hard time cooling down, but I'm not going to complain because I've been complaining about the cold for so long now. I will embrace the heat and the sweat and the  cold showers.