Drained

Yesterday was highly emotional for me... and I suppose the 90 degree weather didn't do much for me either; last night I felt rather wiped out. Sleep was magnificent, but I woke up at 6:30 this morning anyway. In a burst of activity, I drove over to Carkeek park in North Seattle on Puget Sound to walk on the beach. It's a lovely park, and nice and quiet at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. There's a pretty trail along a salmon spawning creek to the beach over a bridge across the coastal railroad tracks. I only had an hour to spend, but I enjoyed every part of it. Even getting splashed on my left leg by a sea squirt! :) There are lots of little tidal pools there and at one I saw quite a few baby sculpin fish, tiny crabs, inch-long krill-type animals and bunches of feeding barnacles. They had a nice place with lots of florescent green seaweed for a canopy. On my way off the beach I saw a molt of a male red rock crab just sitting there.

I tore myself away from the beach in time to get to the event and reason for driving out here: the Husky Alumni Band was leading the parade for a small community summer celebration in Queen Anne, which is up the hill from downtown Seattle. I had never been there before! Gosh, it's steep getting up there! We had a small band of 17 show up (I was the only mellophone, of course). We stayed in the shade of a tall tree for the hour before the parade started, and the parade itself only lasted 15 minutes... only once through our list of five songs. The community center paid us $600 for our trouble, and that all goes to the scholarship fund for the varsity band.

It's a good thing the parade was short! I forgot to drink water before going, and although I had a glass of orange juice with my eggs this morning, I was seriously needing a drink. I saw a few stars on the beach, once or twice even. So immediately after the gig, I found my way to Safeway and got a cold bottle of water for free with a purchase of a tasty turkey & bacon (and avocado) sandwich. Yum! And they had free Wi-Fi and I got online for a second with my iPod touch that had come in the mail Friday afternoon. I got it for mobile Internet, free digital books and an application called "starmap" that uses GPS to show you what you're looking at in the night sky. So totally cool!

After getting back home around noon-thirty, I read a bit in my War of 1812 book and then slept sitting up on the couch for about 45 minutes. So good. The dog wanted a walk... but we only were out for little bit. It's so oppressively hot and sunny... poor boy.

Mom and I are just now going to go visit the FC at their new place for a bit and then I might lay down again when we return. I was thinking about doing a run just to boast that I could do it, but I figure it's not worth it. There will be better days for that. :)

Jp