Endurance part 2

A couple weeks ago I posted this picture that I called "endurance."

Last week I re-visited the park. Here is an updated picture:

Highly appropriate to have named it "endurance" isn't it? Poor thing is sitting waist-high in water and up to his shoulders in weeds plants of some kind.

Our Columbia River is running very high lately. Hannah and I went down to Porter's Pond today and found part of the trail had been under water and several of the view points were nearly submerged. I visited another portion of the trail last week and found the swim area fuller than I have ever seen it.

Hello, Mother Nature? It's June tomorrow, could we please have our 80*-sunny-Eastern-Washington-weather now? Sincerely, Rainey

A few photos

I went on a little creative excursion the other day, back out to the Beebe Natural

Area. The shoes and purple flower (or maybe it is a weed?) are from that.

"Shoe"

Let me tell you about this. Ahhhhh. *Sigh* Ahhhhh. This was the perfect perch for a few minutes. I just sat, thought about a blog post I had read recently and tried to sit and receive. No small feat.

"Honor"

Hannah graduated from pre-school on Thursday night.

Bubba was asked to hold the flag for the pledge of allegiance.

"Fashion"

She is pretty cute, huh? They had four songs that they sang for their Spring program and then the graduates were presented little "diplomas". Pretty cute.

"Spring"

It was just a dang pretty flower (or weed, maybe).

Reeka

I call her "Reeka" somehow its just easier than Dorika or Dori or Dora.

This is last week, she's gaining about a pound a week so far and learning to walk on the leash and PEE OUTSIDE. Oh boy, why didn't someone tell me having a puppy is like having a baby? I thought I was done with potty training! I thought I got to sleep through the night now! Nope.  My new carpet - getting pee'd on. My day-time sleeping - getting interrupted every two hours or so by this little love bucket.

Fear

One thing I forgot to mention, or maybe I just tried to put it out of my mind, or maybe I just worked through it so it didn't seem like as big of a deal, was the fear I had getting back out on the ice Sunday night.

Yeah. Fear.

The last time I played I crashed. Hard. I had actually forgotten about that until I couldn't put my game together. I got my skates all worked out and still felt like I was ... restrained? Holding back? Something. Anyway at some point I remembered crashing last time and it all kind of clicked, or at least reasoned out in my mind. Skating = crashing. Only it doesn't. So I had to talk myself out of the fear and into the game. And I did it. Once I got over that I was a lot more fearless? Yeah, maybe fearless. I acknowledged it and it wasn't nagging in the back of my mind anymore and it made all the difference in my game.

It was good.

Women's Drop In

OOOOh, thank goodness for face book and email.

I got word about women's league or drop-in hockey, so I went! Fun stuff!

The format is kind of like a pickup basketball game (I guess, I never played). You show up, sign in and play. We only had 7 players (and two goalies) so we played 3 on 4. 20 minute run-time periods. Well a 20 and two 15's. That's a lotta hockey. But it was FUN!

I didn't skate so well the first period. My feet were turning in, it was like I was skating on my insole, I remembered the same thing happened during the Iron (Wo)Man tourney, so I tried to remember what I was doing different. How about smart-feet insoles in my skates? Yeah. That was the problem. I added them thinking it would help my feet ache less, but didn't account for the added height which made my skate boot seem too short and not offer enough support to my ankles resulting in skating on the insides of my feet. Once I took the insoles out, perfecto. My skating improved, and my ankles quit hurting. It will probably help my knees too. (Note to self: sharpen skates.)

My team was pretty great. Next time I will ask a LOT more questions. The problem is I need to ask when its happening because I cannot remember what I was doing or how to ask when it's done. I need to find the nearest person and say "Was that what I should have done? What should I do in an instance like that? Where did you want me to be?" or whatever. It was still good to get out on the ice, to meet up with some of my team mates and play. Ahhh.

Today I got a TON of stuff done ... Including signing Hannah up for kindergarten. Can you believe this little thing is going into kindergarten in August? Me either! I signed myself up for hockey classes that start in June. I got some grocery and miscellaneous shopping done and I had coffee with my girl DW.

Strength

"Strength"

Endurance

"Endurance"

Iron (Wo)Man

Okay, one more picture since I just got it in an email:

We had just finished our third game so we kept our helmets on since our bandanna's were sweaty and our hair looked horrible. We're such girls.

Sculpture

I can't get this place out of my mind. We stopped and visited it on our way home from Okanogan with the dog on Sunday.

Beebe Springs Natural Area

I'm not so sure I totally agree with the "natural area" concept since they removed what had been there and planted or placed new stuff, but apparently it is all native to the area which was once an orchard so ... that makes it better?

What I really can't get out of my mind are the sculptures. Once the signage is in place telling about them I think this will be a really fascinating place to visit to learn about the American Indians and how they lived in our area once upon a time.

The artist is Virgil "Smoker" Marchand and he lives in Omak, a couple hours north. I tried to find a website for him but failed. I did find several articles on him stating he is a very talented American Indian artist who paints and sculpts.
 
I don't know if you noticed or not, but in the horse sculpture I posted Sunday there are cutouts in the mane and rump. Also the eyes, nose and hand. I don't know why or what they all mean, that's why I can't wait to go back once the interpretive signs are up. I did find an article that talked about another horse sculpture he created as a fundraiser for his sister's medical treatment. In that article he says that the horse has a spiritual connection that American Indians came to regard as an "extension of their own beings". He added three cutouts that transmit the background of earth and sky through the sculpture. The cutouts are of important creatures: the coyote which represents "a trickster who taught us the ways of the animal people." The buffalo who "provided everything except water." And finally the eagle who is "the all seeing who flies closest to the Great Mystery."
 
The next time, I am going to get a picture of that sculpture transmitting the background of the earth and sky through the cutouts! Luckily the other sculptures throughout the natural area are good to use for our photo activity this month:
 

"Clean"

It looks to me like this guy was doing dishes.

In fact, that weed almost looks like water being thrown from the pan.

"Field"

This sculpture looked like a group of workers in a field.

A few more pictures

"Eyes"

"Mountain"

"Sculpture"

Four

"Growth"

Three

My girl DW and I talked about doing a spring photo challenge/activity to get us out and behind the lens. We have 35 words to choose from and were going to try and post a photo every day. ... oops. So here are a few for the first three days of May.

"Retro"

She reminds me of a Hippie Girl

"Festival"

Pretty self explanatory. Its Festival time 'round these parts

"Sweet"

MMMMM, lemon cupcakes for a 60th birthday celebration I hosted at my house Saturday.

Each one had a different design on the sail boat.

Still hurts!

Man, oh, man! I am still sore. My inner thighs, my low back, my right hip and my ass where I fell. My shoulders, under my arms and my neck. Throw in a little foot pain, I'm pretty much a mess! Thankfully, I was able to get into my chiropractor and they just happened to have an appointment for a massage available right after that so I am not as bad as I could be!

I was at the grocery store last night and I saw the tournament director who says "I'm glad to see you're up and walking today" (yeah, it must have been quite a crash) and then said I'm on her email list for the next tournament. YAY! I can't wait. I'm going to go sign up for some over-speed and power skating classes this summer. Interesting, I just realized it's the same grocery store where I saw her the DAY I started playing hockey. (Wow, that old post made me cry.)

It's our big festival weekend coming up. I'm working 6pm-6am on Friday and Saturday nights, it should be a lot of fun! I can't wait. Then on Sunday we are going to pick up our new puppy. I am still voting to name her Zsa Zsa, but I think Dorika (Dora or Dori for short) is going to win. Too bad me.

Oh my aching ...

Game three was a total loss. We got clobbered!  Their team was stacked though, two of my coaches, the tournament director, her brother and an ace-in-the-hole player from our Banshees. We didn't stand a chance. Not only that, they have all played together before so they had a better rhythm than our team and me. No, I don't feel bad about my performance at all, but I could sure use some ice time with the co-eds. I need to look into it and see what I can work out. Oh, but there is that matter of a stick. Must. Get. Stick. Soon!

I played better for the third game, note to self: EAT SOMETHING between games. A granola bar was not enough. Ribs, yogurt, and a PB & J sandwich were nearly enough. One of the guys even commented about how much better I played. Definitely need food.

They tried, but I didn't score. They did try though. And I crashed. Holy crap did I crash. Me and a dude from the other team, head to head and then to our knees. I think. Thankfully there were only 20 seconds left in the game, I really don't know if I would have been able to go for 5 minutes! I would have tried tho.  "Freaking Awesome" is what one of my co-workers that came to the game said. Yeah, it was. I am sure it will feel freaking awesome tomorrow too. I am nursing myself with Advil, cold beer and ice tonite. I will call the chiropractor first thing in the morning.

Another note: three-game sweat is rank! Totally gross! Some things just don't dry out.

The awesome thing? I didn't quit during the second game when I was nearly in tears from the pain in my shins and back. I really couldn't quit, but I found a voice in my head that just kept encouraging me on. "Work through it. Breathe into the pain (thanks Yoga). Only (insert number) minutes left."

Iron (Wo)Man

Yeah. So there is this hockey tournament this weekend. The First Annual Spring Thaw Iron Man Tournament. A one day event, guaranteed three games. I signed up, I got placed on a team... HOLY CRAP!

First, I have not been on the ice since March 25th. Second, I am playing with a too-short stick. Third, and this is the most important: an Iron Man tournament is where you play straight through, one two-minute rest period, no switching out. I guess that's what "Iron Man" means. HOLY CRAP!

I am loving it though! There is one other Banshee player on my team and three guys. One I went to high school with, (but didn't "know", I might have had a crush on him though ...) the other two I don't know. The dudes have played together before and, bless their hearts, keep trying to set me up to score a goal. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Our first game was at 9:00 and we won 5-2. I didn't get the puck much, but that's alright with me. Our second game was at 10:55, we won 2-0. I got all suited up, got onto the ice for our second game and nearly buckled from the pain in my shins and knees. My knees are sore from the too short stick, my shins are sore from the skating (I wonder how they will be for the third game?) but I am having a blast. The dudes are very patient, playing for fun and, like I said, worked hard to get me near the net to make a goal. I had a couple shots but nothing took. Maybe in game three?