3/8/2017

Day 8:
  I got up a little early to get my mind and body ready for a day on the road.  Once a month I drive to our Redmond OR office to service the vehicle there, perform basic routine maintenance and make sure the office has everything they need to run smoothly.  Fortunately for the Redmond office, their supervisor ( the regional manager) is excellent at her job and runs a tight ship.  My duties there are mostly perfunctory.  That being said, the fleet vehicle is a little old and has had some issues lately.  I was glad to get a chance to check it out.  As always on my Redmond days, I take a fleet truck home and get on the road early to get past Portland traffic and up the mountain before it gets too late.  Some people go batty in a car on a relatively long trip all alone.  I love it.  i like driving.  I like seeing the foothills to the Cascades, all of the tall forests and the snow on the mountain.  I love coming down from the snow and hitting the desert east face of the mountain.  Driving through Warm Springs, listening to their public radio station with its Native American language lessons, notes from the community center, adverts for the suicide prevention hotline and the ridiculously eclectic collection of songs they play from the DJ booth.  One of the few stations where you hear Conway Twitty followed by Jay Z.
  As is often the case with routine actions, particularly ones that take you away from an otherwise droll task, there is a certain degree of serenity in it.  In fact, it really borders on ceremony for me.  I think it may have something to do with the fact that my last real spiritual experience was from the time I worked in the Native American Cedar Bough program as a counselor.  My friend Richard, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation was very open with his knowledge and his friendship.  He shared a lot, particularly with the Non-Native staff and clients.  It really meant a lot to me, being so recently bereaved and having no real spiritual outlet for my angst.  These little trips, where I can turn on the radio and hear the drums beat, allow me to experience the present without feeling like I am trying to steal or appropriate something.
  I got to Redmond in good time.  I followed up with some safety measures after the IT server rack nearly caught on fire the previous week and I checked out the work the repair tech had performed.  I inspected the fire extinguisher, took the vehicle in for a lube service and checked in with the supervisor.  It ended up taking a bit longer than I had planned, but before too long I was back on the road, ready to repeat my journey but in reverse.  It is always pretty cool to me, driving from the sunshine, through the snow and down into the hazy fog bank of the east side.  Having a GPS on board my vehicle ensures that if I go over 70 an alert will be sent out to my boss.  It is a great thing to have cruise control and nowhere to be.


I got home at a reasonable hour.  I stopped in at the McMenamins at Oak Hills and picked up a growler fill.  I got home and started making dinner.  Pizza from scratch, one of the family faves.  This time I also tried an America's Test Kitchen recipe for Gluten Free pizza crust.  I made a little boo boo and put too much salt in it.  Lisette noticed but she really liked the texture.  So I think we have our GF pizza solution, I just need to learn how to follow directions I guess.  All in all, it was a pretty relaxing day.  Looking forward to next time.