some stuff

1) Above is some pretty stuff I saw while hiking this weekend near Mt. Ranier.

2) Also, someone I know who was very young just died, so it's sad and also reminds me that it's excellent to be alive.

3) Given #2 above, this scarcely merits mention, but:

Parent night this week at the community college where Sam has just enrolled.

As I'm leaving I realize my laptop's system clock had somehow become retarded by about 35 minutes, so I was going to miss the first 1/2 hr of the 90-minute presentation.

Then I was talking to David on my cell (hands-free, of course) and missed my exit. If you miss that exit, you have to drive approximately to Canada before you can backtrack. Which I did, in rush-hour traffic. At this point, I have missed 55 minutes.

I make it all the way back to where I need to be, whereupon I miss a *different* turn, because there used to be two entrances to the college, and now there's only one. And I am back *exactly* where I was when I had just missed the first exit 25 minutes ago.

I said many bad words, but none of them teleported me to the Bellevue Community College parking lot.

At the prospect of missing 80 minutes of a 90-minute deal, I went to Wendy's instead and ate a spicy chicken sandwich. It was kind of overcooked, but it still made me feel better.

If I had a Garmin or a TomTom, that computer-lady-voice would have told me Turn right in 50 feet... or whatever, but I don't have one yet. I blame society.