Susie's Meanderings

Back to School

Day 2 of my Dreamweaver class. Thanks to KB and his insistent prodding about CSS, I'm not completely lost, and in fact, it's doing a marvelous job of pulling things together for me that I've always been confused about. Of course, now my site's due for a complete overhaul, but I'm waiting until I learn about slices first, which I think might be tomorrow.
Anyway, Im armed with my yellow highlighter that has a little post-it flag holder, and thanks to the Sushi place across the way, I now have two free golf calendars (2 lunches = 2 calendars) so I have an extra if anyone wants one. :)

Corvallis Sunrise

Okay, after much foot dragging, I'm trying a flikcr account. I actually dragged myself out of bed and went outside in the cold to take this picture on Thanksgiving day. It rained most of the rest of the day, but this part was nice.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Leaves

Taken today and completely unretouched.....

    

Assimilation

Apparently a week in the fog is all it takes for me to be fully assimilated to lack of sunshine. I was up at 6:30 this morning to begin the drive to Oregon in the dark and the fog, and I actually couldn't tell you when the sun came up, since the only difference was that it was moderately easier to see my coffee cup in the drink holder. As we approached Oregon, though, the fog burned off and the sun shone brilliantly, right into my eyes. My niece (far more assimilated than me) hid from it under her blanket, and I squinted and rolled the window down to combat the burning rays of the sun. Funny to think that just a week ago I was chasing the sun...

Winter

Well, I've spent my week in Seattle, and I'm pretty sure the fog hasn't lifted the entire time I've been here. I keep assuring myself that the sun is still up there somewhere, but it doesn't seem very likely. Anyway, having just gotten the timing belt on my car changed (which should have happened 10,000 miles ago), I'm now ready to drive down to Oregon for the holidays. Thankfully, my brother-in-law noticed one of my headlights was out, and spent the next half hour fixing it for me. It was news to me that one didn't have to change out the entire headlight, but just a tiny little (and remarkably expensive, if you have a japanese car) bulb.

Shopping

Funny how the most mundane tasks are fun again when they're not a part of your normal existence. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and wandered dazed up and down the aisles. It's not that I haven't been to a grocery store recently, but this is the first time in a while I could buy anything I wanted, without having to think first if it could be heated up in a hot pot or stored in my tiny refrigerator. I'm even enjoying doing laundry, because I don't have to watch the clock lest somebody throw my still damp clothes out onto the floor because they need a dryer. I'm trying to enjoy doing dishes, but it's not really working for me yet.

Home

Well, after some two years, one month and 22 days (roughly) of unmitigated summer (except when I was in Alaska, but even then, it was technically summer), I was delighted to step off the plane today into chilly fall. There was a bit of sunshine down by the airport, but it's given way to a thick blanket of grey up here by my sister's house. And in a particularly lovely ironic twist, the guy who drove me up here from the airport just retired from 22 years on cargo and passenger ships as a 2nd engineer.

Last Day

Well, my bags are mostly packed, my worldly goods distributed amongst my friends (you'd be amazed how hard it is to give away a DVD player on the ship), and I'm headed out for one last day on the beach before returning to winter. All my ship friends are convinced I'll come back for another contract... it remains to be seen. Meanwhile, I have three glorious days of vacation ahead of me before I fly home.

Last St Thomas

It's always the way that just when I get really comfortable on a ship, it's time to leave. Yesterday my cabin steward (without my even having to ask) packed up my comforter set for me, so that I could mail it home today. This morning I trotted out to the convenient dockside post office, bought a box, trotted back to the ship, boxed it all up and had it mailed home before 10:00 am, which left me plenty of time to meet my friends for lunch and (finally) take the sky ride to the top of the hill and sit around in the glorious sunshine while looking over the harbor full of cruise ships (all five of them, but ours is the prettiest, and I have the pictures to prove it). And now when I go home, I have to think about packing, and I just heard on the news that Seattle has had some 23 days of rain out of the last 30. Why again am I leaving the sea?

One Week and a bit...

Back in St Thomas today, after a moderately disturbing turnaround in Ft Lauderdale. I went into the grocery store (which nobody was entirely certain would be open) to discover most of the shelves were bare. All the refrigerated stuff was gone, and most of the dry goods. It was certainly easy to choose from the remaining food ... no overwhelming choices here, and then there was the long walk back to the ship dodging storm debris. The ship has never felt so civilized.
Meanwhile, I'm counting the days until I leave. I'm sure the day will come soon when I wake up in the rain, and there's no nice man to come make my bed and clean my room, and I have to find my own breakfast, lunch and dinner, and no huge crew of night workers has contrived a fantastic Halloween display expressly for my enjoyment, that I'll ask myself why I ever left ships... but meanwhile, I have 4 work days left, and 7 play days.