Dear Ted and Jody

Good Morning Ted and Jody:

When we got home from our daily sojourn into Longview yesterday, I decided to have tortilla corn chips and salsa.  So, I got out the chip bag and selected a few likely edible ones. Then I got the salsa out of the pantry and shook it up.  I noticed it was a bit watery, and said the same to Nancy.  She suggested shaking it more.  So I did.  The result is I dropped it; it cracked open when it fell; and both Nancy and I, as well as most of the kitchen, ended up with salsa covering us.  It took about 40 minutes to clean up the mess.  Surprisingly, none of the salsa got on the tortilla corn chips.  I was able to save about a quart of the salsa by quickly turning the cracked plastic bottle over.  Eventually, I had my chips. (But at what cost?)

There seem to be two reasons I dropped the salsa.  First I no longer have the strength of grip to hang on to things like I used to have.  Second, I have some loss of feeling in the ends of a couple of fingers, so can’t always feel when things are going haywire.  Or it could be one reason—I am getting too old for salsa and tortilla corn chips.  If so, it is a pity; I just hope it doesn’t impact my ability to handle olives.  That would be a real catastrophe.

I noticed an oil leak where I park the Aztec on Friday.  So, I took it in and Fred put it up on the lift and wiped off some places where there was oil and said to bring it back in a few days to see if it is actually leaking.  So, I stopped by there this morning, but two trucks pulled in ahead of me.  Those guys need their vehicles for work, so I got out of the way, left and will take the Aztec back earlier tomorrow.

Since I was out I shot a couple of photos.  This photo must have a story behind it.  I noticed the white colt down on the south side of WA 504 just west of Toutle.  Since the white colt was still down on the way back, I stopped to shoot the picture with my Samsung, Galaxy, Note 3.  I did hope it was just sleeping.  I checked back later and it was up and about with, presumably, mommy still close to it.

This panorama of Silver Lake just east of the 8-mile marker on WA 504 is curved.  Since this is the first time I have experienced curvature in a finished panorama, and since it is the first time I used the Nikon Coolpix B500; I am guessing it is a byproduct of the camera and/or my technique– the images that went into the composite making up the panorama had too little overlap.  However, I am guessing on this point.  I guess I have to keep learning.

Finally this is an early morning shot is of the bluffs near Castle Rock, WA on I-5at the Headquarters Road Exit.  I got lucky in that I got a break between trucks on I-5 in both directions when I took the shot.  I used the Coolpix to shoot the fog coming up off the bluff.

Warmest regrades, Ed