Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Oregon State Parks

Pandemic Puttering In Place?

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Thought I’d revisit some favorite Oregon spots we can’t go to right now. This is near Boiler Bay, just north of Depoe Bay. Inhale the sea air!

Welcome to the Middle Ages. This is what happens when new viruses hatch. It’s the ultimate game of keep away.

Hope you all stay safe and distant from each other, try not to wash the skin off your fingers, and don’t breath anyone else’s air.

Given my military and medical disaster background, wanted to offer a few ideas.

If you have shelter, stay there.

Now is the time to inventory your food. Frisk the pantry. Not only does this let you know what you have, but there are bonuses. A friend of mine found a purse she was missing.

Inventorying Spec Ops Cat’s canned food, I found my rum! Score. Gonna need that at some point. I did have to pour out the expired (2007) bottle of Baileys on St. Patrick’s Day, no less. But even I can’t drink chunky Baileys. Zombie apocalypse? I’d chew it. For sure.

I suggest an Indiana Jones adventure if you’ve got a refrigerator freezer or one in the garage, like I do. I checked online to see how long a frozen turkey is good. There is one hiding behind the blueberries. I’m afraid to look at the date on the tag. But, good to know all your assets.

Inventory your technology. Thought my power computer got hit by malware last week, but it checked out okay. In the meantime there are five computers in this house, I think. Most can be used as boat anchors. I bought a used Apple from my friend Carol, to help with manuscript formatting. But I’ve never used an Apple. My tech doctor told me not to start now. I believe he is heading my phone calls off at the pass.

For gold bonus points on the tech inventory, try to locate the matching manuals too. HA!

And now I have all the time in the world to fix all the online tech issues I’ve got with my web site redesign, my WordPress photo upload issue, and trying to remember how to use Instagram.

Which are all reasons why I am actually getting some writing done. Avoidance and procrastination. A two-fer!

Normally I enjoy being home and puttering in place as I call it. PIP. Now we’ve upgraded to Pandemic Puttering In Place, so PPIP.

Since I have a lot of boxes in my house from clearing out my mom’s apartment the end of February, plus my own boxes of papers to sort, I can keep busy for months. Then there are all my hoarded craft supplies.

Used some of my craft paint to make a big sign to wave at mom through her window at the Assisted Living Center. Because we got her moved in just in time for a pandemic lock down. That’s how my family’s luck rolls.

But the staff is doing a great job of keeping her safe and trying to entertain everybody and keep them fed, medicated, and active. Lessons we can all take to heart.

So, since I can’t add new photos to this post yet, I’m going to use old ones and make up new captions. Because I can.

But I wanted to leave you with some fun and calming videos to watch in your spare time. And to possibly save the hair of some parents who now have to teach their kids. All the time.

The Oregon Zoo staff is working hard to take care of the animals while the zoo is closed. But even a flamingo needs a hug. I have not seen an order for flamingo distancing yet. So they’re good.

If you want to go to the beach from your couch, this week the Oregon State Parks is live streaming whale watching on the Oregon Coast from Depoe Bay from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PT through March 29th on YouTube live. Depoe Bay is one of my favorite places on the planet. We had our family beach house there for twenty-five years. World’s smallest harbor located between Lincoln City and Newport. Plus, I Iived there when I worked as a reporter and photographer on the Newport News-Times newspaper. 

If you miss the live stream during the day, you can watch the reruns! Four hours of glorious coastal waves and fabulous Park Rangers giving whale info every day. So park the kids in front and go for it. They even sighted a pod of orcas yesterday! (Time stamp 3:28:20)

In the meantime, I am going to try and find my Scooby Doo postage stamps, which have been missing for eighteen months in this house. Luckily, they are forever stamps. 

P.S. And for those of you who might enjoy ebooks, Amazon KindleUnlimited is free for two months! You could read my two romance fiction books for free! The next book in the Vintage Veterans military romance series is almost ready to go. Doing my best to concentrate and get that out there.

Stay safe, stay inside, stay sane.

Clean if you must.

And eat chocolate.   

Hugs from Oregon!

Sun, Sand, And Spring?

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View from outside the restaurant. Perfect.

Sometimes the best thing to do is leave town. For fun. Just for the day. Last week on Spring eve, the weather folks said it was going to be 74 degrees at the beach. What? My friend, Kathy, and I decided to beat feet to the coast for lunch and a stroll in the sand.

We promptly got stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway, but we didn’t care. We were off on an adventure. Stopped at the Oregon State Park rest stop at VanDuzer Corridor, one on either side of the road. Besides improving personal comfort, I always like to go and check out the streams close by and watch the burbling brook. (On the South side rest stop it’s a full river)

We made it to Gleneden Beach in no time to have lunch at the Clarion Inn Surfrider Resort, which has great food and a killer coastal view. My halibut sandwich was amazing and I ate the entire thing. I do not apologize.

Warm sand and sun. I didn’t notice my footsteps until after I took the photo.

Next we drove over to the Gleneden Beach Day Use beach access and broke out our flip flops. Due to coastal wave erosion, the excellent path down to the sand ends in a rather challenging climbing access the last seven feet to the beach. I chose to go down in flip flops, but saw the error of my ways and used bare feet on the return trip. A guide wire to hang onto would be an improvement, but we charged on.

Great trail except for the last seven feet. You can see the cliff erosion.

The ocean was topaz blue, the sun knocked your eyes out and a slight breeze let us sniff the fresh sea air. The booming waves reminded us it was still winter water out there and the high waves required respect. I began picking up rocks and treasures from along our walk and after several blocks, we decided to perch on a driftwood log high above the shoreline.

Winter waves require respect. The rest of the year too. Sneaker waves are real.

Back home seemed like a million miles away. We even started to get a little sun kissed. We moseyed back to the parking lot and got rid of sand between our toes, then prepared for the trip back to the valley. We had spied a Joann Fabric store in Lincoln City and then a Michael’s in Tualatin. Stopped at both for bunny booty and unneeded craft supplies.

A fabulous way to spend evening rush hour, shopping the craft aisles. Got home around 6:30 p.m. with Spec Ops Cat waiting at the door for his dinner. A cat waitress’ work is never done.

Some days a girl just needs to get sand between her toes.

Here’s to more spontaneous beach trips for everybody!

On the way home we spotted this quirky forest restoration project. Not too bad a photo at sixty miles per hour through the car window! See the happy face?

 

 

Do You Have The Eye Of A Photographer?

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by Kimberly A. Cook               (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

Spent part of last week on vacation at the beach, Depoe Bay, Oregon, one of my favorite spots on the planet. In the quest to get there we ended up in two traffic jams, so a stop at the Oregon State Park Van Duzer Corridor rest stop in the Coast Range was a great idea and a necessity.

Photo 1 - overall scene setting shot. Photojournalism rule - always make sure you get an overview picture.
Photo 1 – scene setting shot. Photojournalism rule – always make sure you get an overview picture.

I love to visit the stream which runs through the trees by the picnic tables, away from the rest stop building. The sound of the gurgling water is so relaxing. Even with low water at this time of year.

There are two rest stops, one North and on South. On on the way back we always check the river on the South side too, since it runs deeper than the North side stream.

I’ve been travelling this road for 35 plus years so I must have hundreds of photos of this stream. Thought it might be fun to show you the series of photos I took that day, in order. Kinda.

Photography, like writing, requires practice. What better fun for us shutter bugs than to take pictures outside by a forest brook? It was late in the afternoon so the light was still bright, so the green in the left side of photo one fades by being bleached out by the sun.

Next up I decided to zoom in and focus on the larger rock in the stream bed in photo three. Normally the water is deep here any other time of the year, so this was an opportunity to use the rock as a focal point in the lower left of the photo.

Photo 3 - yes I skipped two. I put the rock in the upper third on pic 2, then changed my mind and put it in the lower third to draw in the eye. Better.
Photo 3 – yes I skipped two. I put the rock in the upper third on pic 2, then changed my mind and put it in the lower third to draw in the eye. Better.

Close ups are good, but I also wanted to see what a mid-range photo would look like so I pulled back the zoom and framed shot five. Liked the filtered light coming through the trees and into the water and the better contrast between the water, rocks and trees.

So the last picture is my favorite of the five I shot in this series. I checked the times on the photos and I shot them all in two minutes.

The great thing about digital cameras is you’ve always got pixels to spare; as long as you carry an extra charged battery and memory card.

Spent part of the trip trying to use my new Canon PowerShot Elph 340  HS camera. Somehow managed to shoot video when I hadn’t planned on it, so more time is needed with that camera. It has a much longer zoom and greater pixels, the better to get harbor seal close-ups!

These stream photos were shot with my trusty old Canon PowerShot Elph SD800 IS. It’s so hard to give up an old reliable and move onto the next one. I’m talking about cameras here, by the way, just to be clear.

Have you played with your camera today?

Picture 5 and my favorite. I can count, I just skipped two other photos in between.
Picture 5 and my favorite. I can count, I just skipped one more photo in between.