OK, OK, It's not Still Snowing in St. Helens

This winter has been filled with things other than snow.................although for a time it seemed as if that would not be true. After several weeks of snow and more snow the "normal" rain returned and most things returned to what a regualr winter is like here in Oregon.

The different part for me was that, after 35 years, I returned to college in January . I enrolled in PSU as a Psychology major with the ultimate (and far, far away right now) goal of earning my Masters of Counseling. First, though, I must finish my BS degree. I am enjoying school more than I ever imagined possible! I have made some really cool new friends, all of whom are younger than several of my grandchildren. But, it seems as if the classroom is the great equalizer and I am just another student trying to maintain a good GPA. So far my grades are great. We'll see how far that lasts when I take Statistics in the Fall. For the first time in many years I actually looked forward to Spring Break and am certainly looking forward to Summer vacation. Did you know that an almost 65 year old can get by on 5 1/2 to 6 hours of sleep for 10 or 11 weekes at a time? Well, I can if I can sleep in on Saturday morning. Of course, during Spring Break and Summer vacation I still have my "day job" which requires 40-50 hours a week. Bummer!!

The rest of the winter was filled with cutting and stacking (and burning) firewood. There were several weeks at a time where the weather was bad enough and cold enough that I couldn't even get to the coast to see Mike. That was not fun. But Spring has arrived at last and we are beginning to do things again. Last month we drove, in the Jag with the top down, to the Woodburn Tulip Festival. It was a beautiful drive, a long wait to get in, and the tulips were as pretty as ever.

Today we took a hike into some actual forest where, thankfully, there hasn't been logged in many years. It was so beautiful and peaceful we didn't want to leave. Riley came with us even though he had gome on a run with me earlier in the day. Mike found an enormous fallen tree whose roots had been wrapped aroung a volkswagon sized boulder. It had fallen and still had pieces of and imprints of the boulder in the roots. And growing on the ground side of the now up-ended roots was a beautiful Trilium. What a beautiful place we found. I'm sure we'll go back again.

So, I have a midterm exam on Tuesday. But as this quarter winds to an end I will try to be better about keeping up my BLOG. This summer should bring some interesting photos as we plan to retrun to Reds Meadow again to celebrate 50 years since we met. That should be a kick and the roadtrip there should be great as well.