Silver Morning; Gold Afternoon

Caught this beauty with my camera in this morning's misty rain and couldn't resist sharing.

Small Washington Town of Ilwaco has Inadequate Emergency Services

The City of Ilwaco at the mouth of the Columbia River is suffering from poor emergency services. Since it is a little out of our Neighborhood, click here if you are interested in the situation in a small coastal town.

Malibu Canada--1

That's right. My report will come in two segments.. the first the site where I had the pleasure of spending Friday evening, all day Saturday, and Sunday until 2:30 pm with a number of teenagers who were enjoying praying, playing, dancing, and singing in the warm, ocean air of this a wonderful teen recreational center high, high up in the mountains.
Young people of different denominations came together with wonderful, loving, inspiring adults to reflect on their spiritual lives.
The site... awesome--- the gathering... awesome



Enjoy this view of the ocean and the mountains

Krispy Kable (Hope this posts!)

Colour the Key frustrated fuschia and confused chartreuse about Broadstripe Cable. We can be very understanding and patient about replacing faulty equipment from the previous company throughout the entire peninsula...hell, we're cheering about that! But Broadstripe didn't move in yesterday and they have been cheerfully charging us full-fare for flaky cable services. Dare to be late or argue the cost for lack of services and you will be disconnected (KAPOW!) like that.

Before I continue my rant, please let me give kudos and a shout-out to the guys who are working out here. Nial, David, Tim, Leon...yes, we're on a first-name basis...we even hug them whenever they arrive. Would you like to know why (other than the fact that they have been working their tushies off in some of the most beastly weather we mossbacks have known) why they have come to mean so much to us? It is the HUMAN contact, the HUMAN concern and understanding. If I am paying you good money for services, this is what I expect to find when I have dealings with your company.

These wonderful guys are the best customer reps Broadstripe has. They have met my daughter and understand just how important being able to connect with the world is when mostly housebound. They have called to give us updates and explain what's going on. They are as frustrated as we are because they are made to pull double-duty, explaining for the company, when they'd like to just get this mess cleared up.

Now...let's visit the people who are actually PAID to be customer reps (custreps, as I've come to call them) for Broadstripe. We'll have to call them, you see, because they are in Michigan. Seeing as my cable-dependent house-phone hasn't worked in months, we'll have to use the cellie. Better make sure it's fully-charged because we are going to be on-hold for a loooooooong time, listening to Broadstripe's enthusiastic, self-stroking advertisements at full volume before hearing a crisp, efficient voice asking how they may help you. This is where it begins to roll downhill like a good wheel of stinky cheese.

We have copies of all the work orders, with details and dates...but each time we call Michigan it's as if we are at the beginning of the movie "Groundhog Day" and riding the redundancy roundabout! They don't "see anything going on at the moment," and their equipment "shows us as being online." My blood-pressure begins to feel the timing of Old Faithful coming close with each try at explaining what they should already know but don't....BECAUSE THEY'RE IN MICHIGAN...and they don't give a flying fanfare at the moon about a customer needing help! Why should they? There's no other cable game in town (though many are opting for Centurytel and Satellite TV) and they stand absolutely no risk of this customer walking up to their desk in calm, assertive, lethal Alpha-mode.

And the bills keep coming like the march of brooms in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. I can sometimes post a blog, send and receive some emails, even get onto some sites (requires dexterity, aluminum foil, and secret incantations) but in a very short time all shuts down and I am told that I'm disconnected from my server...even though my monitor says I'm online...and, more importantly apparently, Michigan's monitor says I am...and to quit my *itchin'! My fellow Blogonias remember that we have had these problems ever since getting the cable installed three years ago, under a different company. All have made money on my community and given caboodle in return for our hard-earned dollars.

On July 30th. testimony was given in Wa. DC on the Lyme Guidelines debate, which was being streamed live online. We were not able to take part in this, after waiting months. I gave a detailed account to the lead engineer, who made it part of his report to corporate. Everyone talks about compensation, further on down the road, for all this mess. Let me say this with enough projection to make it all the way to Michigan...

A few free months of HBO etc. is not going to be enough compensation, Mr. Shadid Butt (CEO), 16305 Swingley Ridge Rd., Chesterfield, Miss. 63017. Oh no. This company owes my community recompense, not because they have to replace shoddy equipment, but because Broadstripe custreps in Michigan have treated us so badly and not kept us informed. Rather, they have led us to believe WE are somehow to blame and annoying for asking for explanations and updates on the service we pay for but don't receive.

Monthly Broadstripe, $114

Customer Service, your sanity

Hard working engineers who update us....priceless!

Astoria's Sunday Market

Sunday I went to the Astoria Sunday Market. This market has been going on for years, but it has just never worked out that I could go. Actually, guilt was probably a factor in my not going sooner. I feel guilty if I’m not doing something for my mother or family and just taking a couple of hours to go do something I want to do isn’t easy. Sunday morning I decided the Sunday had come for me to go.

Astoria, Oregon, long a sad town with vacant shops downtown, is coming back into its own with galleries and book stores as well as organic bakeries and grocery stores. Add the Sunday Market into the downtown area and finding a parking place was hard. I drove around for quite a while and was on the verge of giving up when I found one near to the market.

As soon as I began to look at the booths I was instantly rewarded. We have been doing a lot of landscaping around our old Victorian cottage in Ilwaco and I had been looking for a Rose-of-Sharon that was just the right color for a couple of years. The second booth I walked by had a lavender one for $6. I was able to take it to the car and finish strolling (with a ridiculous grin) the market without lugging it around.

Astoria has a thriving art community and so there were plenty of photographs, pottery, paintings and crafts to look at intermingled with plants, fruit and vegetables. Besides the stalls of the market I ducked into Godfather Books where I purchased a copy of Jane Kirkpatrick’s A Tendering in the Storm which is set on Willapa Bay and Gypsy’s Whimsy just to smell the incense. The book has gone to the top of my stack of books to read and seems appropriate since I am staying a few miles from the bay.

In keeping with my New Year’s Resolution of not acquiring so much stuff I resisted the urge to buy anything else, except a peanut butter cookie. I tasted bread from the Blue Scorcher Organic Bakery and then forgot to go back and buy a loaf. Fortunately I know where the bakery is and when we go to do serious shopping I will stop and get some bread.

All in all, Astoria’s Sunday Market was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning. If cooling off at the coast sounds good to you, plan your trip to include a Sunday and check out Astoria’s Sunday Market.

The Plot Thickens

For further reading and a recent timeline posted by an Iranian about the incident below, try this link.

Ugly--or at least very stupid--Americans

Three Americans were arrested by Iranian Border guards yesterday when they did not heed the warning of the guards and crossed over from Kurdish Iraq into Iran. According to the AP, Kurdish officials are referring to the two men and one woman as “hiking tourists.” Has anyone see Gov. Mark Sanford lately?

Allegedly students, I wonder what they were smoking when they decided that hiking in a nation at war was a good idea. “Hey, man, I heard they have some awesome mountains in Kurdistan.” In tourism 101 there’s a section about “What to do if a border guard yells anything at you.”

My money is on the fact that these Americans were not simply innocent hikers or tourists. With so few facts known it would be foolish to point fingers at any American governmental agency. For all we know one of the many ex-pat Iranian groups in the U.S. might have made the itinerary for this trio or maybe they are jounalism students looking for extra credit, but as the protests in Iran continue (largely ignored by American media) the Iranian government is going to take umbrage at anyone illegally entering the country, particularly from a country embroiled in a war that involves the United States, who has a history if interfering in Iranian affairs.

In 1953 President Eisenhower sent the CIA to Iran to overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadeq and restore the Shah to the throne. His twenty-six years of brutal rule set the stage for the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The U.S.’s standing in Iran was further damaged by President Carter’s decision not to talk to the Revolutionary leadership which led to the take-over of the American Embassy, the taking of American hostages for 444 days and the defeat of President Carter in the 1980 election.

Americans as individuals and a nation tend to want to rush into situations without thinking. Troubled American John William Yetta not only is standing trial in Myanmar for his stupid actions in swimming across a lake to the residence where Nobel Peace laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi was under house arrest, which could get him a five year sentence in prison himself, he put the very person he sought to meet in jeopardy. Suu Kyi has already spent 14 of the last 20 years as a prisoner for her nonviolent opposition to the Myanmar government. Just when her parole seemed a possibility Yetta made his midnight swim which sent Suu Kyi from her home back to prison. So far it’s been a good year for meddling Americans.

I am a strong supporter of the Iranian opposition currently fighting for a more democratic society there, but the United States government had best keep out of actual interference when the stakes are so high. The time has not come for President Obama to make overtures to the opposition and it would be just as ill-advised to send in agents, particularly through Iraq. I don’t believe the Obama Administration to be that unwise.

I’m not sure which sounds more ludicrous, spies or tourists hiking in the Kurdish mountains, especially because they’d been warned by the Kurdish authorities not to do so. Whether they are covert agents of the U.S. government, mercenaries of ex-pat Iranians, self-styled freedom fighters, or just very stupid tourists, this incident can materially damage the United States standing in the region because even if they are tourists who lost their Rick Steve’s Guide to Iraq, no one in the region will believe it. This story bears watching.