Reflections on Rain and Raccoons

We have now been in the Pacific Northwest for a week and a half. I feel like I have been here long enough to have some observations about the area. I almost always feel like I am in the woods (good). Even driving on the big base which is, essentially, a city, there are dense trees and it's almost surprising to see the buildings when they come up. The base is an interesting place. It is basically a town with everything you could ever want, including various chain restaurants like Starbucks and McDonalds (neither of which help us but both of which are ALWAYS full of people!), entertainment like a movie theater and bowling, and a nice recreation area complete with two small ponds (and a heron!), trails through the woods, a picnic area and several baseball fields, which are usually uninhabited and are a good spot for puppies to play off their leashes away from traffic. Here are some pictures of Ruby's first trip to the recreation trail with us and some pictures of the trees that I have already grown to love.

Another interesting aspect of the terrain are the mountains. It's amazing to see these huge mountains showing up on the horizon. I don't know the area well enough yet to know when to expect them so it is always a fun surprise. The BEST surprise is Mount Rainier. We saw it last when we went to pick up Ruby because she was on the other side of the sound. All of a sudden, there was the mountain, floating ethereally in the sky completely disconnected from the horizon. The mountain is bluish and the snow is white (of course) and it just hangs in the sky. I don't really like to hike but I want to go to that mountain and do SOMETHING just to see it up close. It is enormous. The picture doesn't do it justice but I tried. As I have posted previously, the Olympics are great too. Jagged, snow-capped peaks. Not as looming as the Tetons but more pronounced than the more triangular shape of the Rockies, which I saw in Colorado. I love to take the dogs out around sunset for their evening stroll and see the sky changing colors behind the outline of the mountains.

The weather has been interesting too. Because our apartment is partly underground (our windows look out at ground level), it is always chilly in the morning when I wake up. Luckily, I have nowhere to go and the only clothes I have are the camping clothes I brought (sweatpants, t-shirts, and a hoodie) so I just change from one set of comfy clothes to the next and stay pretty warm. It is usually cloudy and often misty in the morning but I have finally stopped being fooled. By lunchtime the clouds have moved on and it becomes a beautiful, clear, sunny, warm day. I open the windows and the warm air comes in and heats up the apartment for the night. Ruby and I have been sitting outside on the sunny grass for half an hour or so every afternoon (she chews on pine cones but I already learned that lesson, so I don't!) and enjoy the sun.

I think I have touched on everything now except for my visitors yesterday. Our porch has this retaining wall around it (which Rich and I have to hop over to get to an easy place to take the dogs out...we'll be ready for 2012 but I'm not sure if it'll be pole vault or high jump). Anyway, I was sitting on the floor with the dogs yesterday morning and I looked out the sliding door and saw a HUGE raccoon playing on the ledge of the wall. Two thoughts flashed into my mind: 1) please don't let Otis see him, he'll plow right through the glass and 2) PLEASE don't let that thing fall onto the porch area and be stuck because Otis will then see him and plow right through the glass. Luckily, I was able to get over there and scare him with a shout and he ran off down a path right outside the window. Whew, adrenaline! So you can imagine how I felt when I looked up two minutes later and there he was again! Only...he had magically lost about ten pounds in the two minutes he'd been gone. Or, perhaps, it was his mate. Anyway, I scared that one off too. Luck was with me, Otis the Watchdog was so busy fending the puppy off from his treasured rawhide that he missed the whole thing. I was jumpy each time I went outside after that, of course, but they were long gone and I haven't seen them again. Wonder what today will bring!