Safeway employees.

I have befriended a lot of them. We laugh together, cry together, when they suffer, we suffer, when they win it's a triumph for us too. Yet the big S has the least healthy food in town. Very little stuff for Olive there. I don't know many folks from the co op, def never cried with them. I think I know why Safeway makes for great friends. I noticed when I got to town that other grocery stores instructed employees to be friendly. I avoided Fred's for that reason. Not Safeway. No fake friendly there. If a Safeway person is having a bad day, ya know it. If an employee talks to you, it's real. If you make a friend, it's also real. I love that math. Love my Safeway peeps.

Hwy99 in the Clackimas mile post 15.

 Hwy99 in the Clackimas mile post 15. I call this "Widowmaker weather" We aren't driving in this downpour for technical reasons (blame the equipment warning) The dome light killed our battery. We have been walking in the maelstrom a lot. The reason I call this Widowmaker Weather is because of trees not rocks. The limbs on some of these old trees get waterlogged and unexpectedly come crashing down. That wasn't a problem where I grew up because the trees aren't as big as dinosaurs. We were looking at some doozies last night. Giant branches that somehow didn't cream anyone or anything. Olive met the neighborhood owl last night. At around 3 am it silently flew right at us and swooped up into a tree above our heads. Olive shrieked "Look an Owl!" I was all "Yeah we've met." She was apprehensive about the owl, I was apprehensive of the branch this cat sized beast landed on.

NOICE! (in Spanish: Orale) The reduced noise pollution in my neighborhood is divine.

 NOICE! (in Spanish: Orale) The reduced noise pollution in my neighborhood is divine. It makes my day as an environmentalist and as a professional observer (eavesdropper.) I collect sounds like a bird watcher and reporting about it keeps my wheels on the ground via people donating to oliveanddingo.com Often I get a note "That post was funny a.f. here is some skrill" That just encourages me. My favorite neighborhood sound ever was hearing a woodpecker, car alarm and truck driving with a profoundly flat tire. Twas the perfect techno song if there is such a thing. It was a wonderful philharmonic experience for me. Just now I got a sonic jewel attached to a lesson. I'm sitting in my bush puffing and researching when I suddenly I hear a familiar sound. I looked up and thought. "Hmm, someone is having a face-melting orgasm in the yard across the street." Good on them. I'm happy for whomever it was getting their "holler on" under the stars. Get them good times in while ya can. I was looking around gathering my detritus. I wanted to give them some privacy but then I saw another couple approaching. I sat back down. As soon as something hilarious is about to happen it's my duty as a fake reporter to get the scoop. I closed the laptop and waited. The O sound persisted despite the people drawing close. I was impressed with the dedication. Soon the couple were right in the spot. I was slack-jawed and unblinking. Then I clearly heard one of them point and say "Noice, look, an owl." Then they moved on now talking about past owlsperiences. Their convo faded away and then we were alone again, me and the Owl. It started making that racket again and I realized "Yeah that is very owlish" The story checked out. I'm grateful to have learned something about myself. I don't know what owls sound like. This was my first owlsperience. Noice!

I dremt I was being arraigned in some kooky emerald green 1950's courtroom.

I didn't see faces but the voice were loud and clear "Do you know the charges for which you were brought before the court?"Me: "Heresy I would imagine. I'm pretty prolific with the heresy." Nope. Thankfully it wasn't a Papal Inquisition. The crime I committed was much more grave. I know because the guy said "The crime you committed was much more grave...Google Chrome was not shut down correctly the last time you were on the internet. The court sentences you to 50 lashes with a wet noodle for malpractice." CRAP! I tried to bargain my sentence down to dry noodles but in the end they decided on whacking me with lasagna noodles. I can live with that. Had they said rice noodles I would have no choice but to be a fugitive on the run.