"Seeing is back; people are back, biking is back, driving is back, music is back, cinema is back, the panoramas are back, birding is back. And nothing adverse happens to spoil this glorious glow. I didn’t lose the car, or get hit in my good eye by a golf ball on the driving range, or slip in the mud and spoil my new a blue Pendleton or camera, or wet my pants. Life is back." What else is there to say? Gratitude is powerful.

A have another stolen car story - it's a good one - if long. Indulge me.

We have friends who married late in life. His first marriage at perhaps 40 at the time. At the time of the story, I'd say he was 65, she 55. Phil thinks Ruthie makes the sun rise. He cannot do too much for her. She was car shopping, and found a lightly used Shelby Mustang. It was still quite pricy, and Ruthie decided to think about it while she was visiting friends over the weekend.

Phil knew such a nice car might be purchased by someone else over the weekend, and decided not to take that chance. He would surprise Ruthie by having the car sit in the driveway when she gets home. That sounds like a nice surprise, but Ruthie was so, so angry that Phil had purchased her car out from under her. There was no explaining that 'he' didn't want her car, it was there for Ruthie.

To complicate matters, Phil had traded in his car on the Mustang, with their agreement being he would take over Ruthie's old car. Several days passed. There was no convincing Ruthie that he had good intentions. Phil went back to the dealer and bought back his own car! They did not take pity on him, he was charged the mark up price.

Phil thought Ruthie would come around and drive the Mustang. Nothing doing. She eventually bought a bright yellow VW Bug. The Shelby sat in the garage for several YEARS. Eventually Phil tired of making payments on a car Ruthie wouldn't drive. He went back to the same dealer, and they took the Shelby on consignment.

That's the back story - here's the stolen car story. The car was stolen out of the dealer parking lot! Phil had signed paperwork saying the dealer wasn't at fault for any damage, etc. which meant he had to make a claim on his insurance when the car was stolen. After the appropriate amount of time passed (a month?), his insurance paid off. Phil finally had a happy part to the story, as the insurance paid more than he would have gotten if the dealer had sold the car.

The very end of the story is that the Shelby was eventually found down by the river a couple of times over. Someone had taken it joy riding.

Hey, you read my story this summer of the restaurant employee in Stanley whose car was missing when he got off work. I will never know how that story ends . . . the last I heard, he was reporting it stolen to the police.

Since you are so forthright in describing your glitches on this day, I will describe my glitches on reading it. It began when Dodie excitedly asked, just as I was trying to wake up, if I had read Scott's latest. Looking quickly at Cycleblaze, I declared there was nothing new from you. My intelligence received a critique from Dodie, who declared that anybody (anybody, she said, capable of reading) would be aware that "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" was deliberately out of order.

Next, with all the hype about Canada lately, it took me a moment to realize that the obstinate "Canadians" were birds, and not us. It's a sensitive point, because we are preparing to take to the backwoods with our (imported) Swiss Army knives to defend our homeland.

And tension was high as you left the Starbuck's, in case the Raven was again hiding.

Finally, Dodie felt she had made several comments through the narrative, and I could see but one, at the end. I think she dreamed it (usually reads this stuff in the middle of the night). Anyway, thanks for the many really nice shots, and the story to read before we go out in our own VW, looking for Canadians (in the mall, and everywhere), and if we go to Starbuck's the "Cacklers" that invariably sit at the next table!

Canon (and Shawn) for the win.

Wonderful to read back on and remember, but hard to express how it was to experience on the day itself.

It is so wonderful to read a "good day" blog again. Really wonderful!

Yup. It was too bad to not get a shot from his one unblemished fender, but it’s great to get a positive ID from three blocks away.

The canon is good for finding birds, even very large ones, eh?

So that's how they fertilize golf greens!

Thanks for pointing that out, Mark. I remember reading that years ago too when I could never keep straight the two spellings. I’m sure others have checked me up when it looked wrong to them too.

And hey, it’s great to hear from you again! I’ve always felt badly that I didn’t make it your way when we had the chance, but maybe this summer? There a decent chance we’ll spend a month in Canada sometime this summer, depending on the vision thing.

I continue to enjoy very much your accounts, both the content and your wonderful wordsmithing! A trivial point about spelling: Having grown up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and now having lived in various West Coast locations since '68, I've long been aware of Milwaukie, Oregon, and wondered why the two were different spellings, though similar. I leaned on Perplexity.ai (a terrific improvement on Google, in my experience) and found this interesting tidbit:

Lot Whitcomb named Milwaukie, Oregon after Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1847. At the time, Milwaukee was frequently spelled "Milwaukie", which influenced the Oregon city's spelling. The name itself has Native American origins, derived from indigenous words meaning "meeting place of waters."

Whitcomb chose this name when he established the settlement, deliberately using the alternate spelling "Milwaukie" that was common at the time. Interestingly, the spelling was sometimes politically associated - Democrats tended to use "Milwaukie" while Whigs and Republicans preferred "Milwaukee."

I think you’d even give Al a run for the money!

Agreed! And if we’re to have a national bird, I prefer the Canada Jay.

Well done. I think everyone should cover their right eye and try this. I don't think I could nail it, first try.