Speedy trip to Canada and back.
Birds – Of the birds commented on during the drive, the most frequently seen was Great Blue Heron. Ashlan will only remember the one that I pointed out to her by yelling, “Bird, bird, bird, bird, bird.” The other two were seen on the trip back, the first sitting on a guard rail, and the other in the grass just behind a guard rail.
The other bird of note is of unknown type. There are a lot of unknowns. We both saw it only for a second, as it passed by Ashlan’s window moving vertically. What was special is that is was moving vertically down. We did not see it “land.” It could have been diving to catch a morsel. That was my guess. But Ashlan thought it was moving too fast too close to the ground, and it didn’t swoop up anywhere that we could see. So – if it was not “flying” any longer, but falling, what made it fall. Carl asked if birds had heart attacks. I wonder if it was a victim of another bird attack.
We started the drive listening to a new CD that I had. We listened to it through twice. [It was the only CD in the car.] After that Ashlan spent time going through the dial trying to find acceptable stations, listen to a song or two and then move on. After the highway goes into Canada and almost into Vancouver proper it goes into a tunnel under a slough. When we submerged Ashlan was in the midst of looking for the next station and we discovered a new game, Radio Roulette. This is where you push the Scan button when you enter a tunnel or other non-radio-friendly location, and see where it lands when you exit the other side.
I think that was about the time we landed on a country station. This after listening to country music through the month of August. The lyric that stands out from todays journey is a pickup line. (The singer and his pickup are having trouble picking up girls as they get older.) These are probably not the exact lyrics. “Are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see.”
The border crossings were quite different. Going up we had to wait for 1 car. But the guard was almost grumpy. Maybe he was missing his Thanksgiving dinner. On the way back the time for both crossings (Peace Arch and Truck Crossing) was 40 minutes, so I opted to stay with I-5 (Peace Arch). My luck, I got to be the first car at the red light that separates those that are waiting with engines turned off, and those that are inching their way up the line. I really was lucky. You get to sit and watch the scenery and not waste your gasoline. When they are ready to turn the light green again they have a 2 minute count down. Then you get to drive up to the back of the lines – about 8-9 vehicles long. This crossing guard was in a good mood, but questioned why my daughter wanted to go to school in Canada when Seattle had a perfectly good school. As I drove away from the booth I noticed 4-5 guards crawling over a car, with at least two of them under the car to their belts.
I drove to work after the trip, and got to sit through a 3 hour meeting.
Tomorrow it is supposed to start raining.
From the description above you can tell no work on the 10 yards spreading adventure, it may have to wait for the weekend unless we want to spread mud.
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