Fidget

Aren’t these pretty? BN got them for me to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. That’s not all - he also made me a wooden jewelry box with embedded magnets to keep the lid on. He used some exotic hardwoods he’d gotten for Christmas - purple heart and zebra wood. I love the way the cross grains and lengthwise grains create subtle contrasting surfaces. Inside was a whole collection of silver earrings - I’d been wanting some hoops to wear all the time comfortably with no posts poking into my head.

We took a weekend getaway to Bend, which is east of Eugene. We stopped for lunch at Sahalie falls. It was a warm day but sitting within sight of the falls was cold! The rushing water really cooled the air.

Our hotel room looked out over the Deschutes river, which had a slight dam to create a calm surface for ducks and geese in Drake park downtown. We drove a short ways into downtown to find some dinner, and discovered that there was a pro bicycle racing event going on right in the middle of town - they’d closed off a several-block area and the racers did laps. Our dinner location was right at the corner of the home stretch and after we ate we watched the women’s race. It was very exciting!

From there we went to watch Wall-e. It was a sweet little movie. I appreciated that the tone wasn’t preachy (it could easily have been, with a planet made uninhabitable by garbage and the human race turned totally sedentary) and I think perhaps we were meant to identify with the robots more than the humans? It was definitely more about Wall-e and Eve than about the cruise passengers.

On Saturday morning we went to Smith Rock. We hiked up to the top of one of the formations and got some great views of Central Oregon, the various Cascade peaks, and a cute little lizard.

Smith Rock State Park is a rock-climbing hotspot, and we observed some climbers on Monkey Face, a huge pillar that’s a signature feature of the park. If you click on the image above you can see a climber right below the shadow on the lower left face.

We were very hot and sweaty after our hike, and we wanted to go swimming in Tumalo creek but we figured we’d go back to Bend first and get some lunch. A short way into our drive back we realized the car was overheating. To make a long story short, we did make it out to the creek to swim, quite a bit later than we’d planned, and after learning several new facts about the cooling system of the car, plus discovering the insider trick of pouring roadside creek water over the engine to cool it off.

When we got back to town after our swim, we cleaned up and went to check out the street fair that was going on downtown. (When we planned our trip we had no idea that Bend was going to be such a happening spot this weekend!) There were lots of booths selling art and crafted goodies, and several live bands. One of them was really groovy and we stayed to listen. The singers reminded us of some girls we’d heard singing down by the creek. I think it was the same girls.

We ate dinner at Typhoon, a very good Thai place. Best Thai we’d had in awhile, and it felt very upscale without being too pricey. Bend as a whole is so much more upscale than Eugene, astonishingly so. After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning we strolled in Drake park and looked at the geese and ducks.

Driving home, we took a detour to Waldo Lake, where we’d been with my family last summer camping in the Cascades. The mosquitoes were just as vicious this year, but we scampered past them as best we could and the lake was cold, clear and refreshing. I’m amazed by how many activities we fit into this trip - besides the ones we planned on, even. It was a lot of fun.

Once again this year, I ran our local Butte-to-Butte 10k on July 4th. I decided my goal for this year was going to be to finish in under an hour. Last year was so, so hot - I wondered if I should carry a water bottle rather than depend on the water stations which can get congested and cause delays. BN offered to wait along the course with a bottle for me, so that worked out well. He didn’t register for the race but ran on a nearby trail and then the last couple of miles after giving me the water. I could see him getting gradually further ahead of me. There’s usually a guy at each mile marker calling out the elapsed time, and mine were hovering at the 10-minute mile mark - 21, 29, 39… the 5th mile didn’t have anyone. But I knew I would be cutting it close if I indeed made it in under an hour. BN popped out from the sideline near the 6 mile marker and urged me to speed up, I still had a chance! Aaaagh! I put on a burst of speed and caught sight of the finish clock in the middle distance. 59:33… 34… 35… ! Another burst of speed and I staggered across the finish line gasping, oh-my-god-oh-my-god! (There are videos of 5-minute increments of the finishes here but my browser won’t let me see it so I don’t know if I show up or whether I look like a complete idiot. You’ll have to check it out and let me know! I’m wearing a green tank top, black shorts and my white-and-green “track town USA” bandana for good luck (from the olympic trials, left behind on a bleacher near us)

While I was trying to get some breaths of air and waiting for the timing chip to be cut from my shoe (hi-tech this year!) a guy next to me leaned over and vomited. Gross! I looked away and edged to the side. I took some more gasping breaths. I looked to the left again just in time to see the vomiting guy hurl again. Great. I finished level with the vomiting guy. At least I wasn’t the one barfing.

My official time was 59:54! Yay! As they would say at the Trials, that’s a PR for me!

We have an art-film theater in town, the Bijou. If The Fall is playing anywhere near you, go see it. A visual treat, the story is also immersive and the acting is top-notch. A story-within-a-story kind of experience, it reminded me of one of our favorite books, Momo by Michael Ende. It also has hints of Alice in Wonderland and other fantasies where a child is gradually drawn into a story-world and the events in the story mirror the teller and hearer’s real life. A young girl, in the hospital recovering from a broken arm (she fell out of a tree when picking oranges with her displaced/migrant family) becomes friends with a young stunt actor, bedridden after a fall from a railroad bridge during the filming of a silent “flicker.” (it’s 1915.) Roy tells Alexandria a fanciful story, full of exotic scenery and colorful characters. The intensity of the action mounts to a brutal climax (be prepared for violence!). The best part about the movie was the sweet, mischievous little girl. The part I liked the least was the wrap-up - it was quite abrupt. But overall it was a rich entertainment and a refreshing change from the American blockbuster fare we get in the mainstream theaters.

For more than a year, Eugene has been a-buzz with news of the 2008 Track & Field Olympic Trials to be held here at the U of O Hayward Field. Evidently the Trials used to be held here every 4 years and now they are back after an absence - renewing much pride in our title of “Track Town USA.” Finally the big week arrived!

BN and I got to go see the Monday events. He’s teaching a morning class this term so I rode my bike to campus (no parking within a 2 mile radius of the venue!) to meet him there. Before entering we scarfed down the sandwiches I’d packed (no outside food or beverages, you must fork it over for overpriced festival food) and got to the field right as the first event was starting, the men’s decathlon 110m Hurdles. Those went so quickly that I didn’t get any good photos - those guys probably had to count every step to stay in sync with the hurdles, and I couldn’t even get my shutter finger in gear quick enough. Oh, well.

The rest of the daytime session was decathlon events - next was the Discus Throw. This was also hard to capture on film since the throwers were in a small “batting cage” down at the opposite corner of the infield from us. But we had a good view of the distance markers and we were amused to note that they used remote-control toy trucks to carry the thrown discuses (disci?) back to the starting point.

(Click on the pictures to see them bigger)

One of the most interesting and suspenseful events to watch was the Pole Vault. There was some complications around who started at what bar height, but basically how it worked is each athlete had 3 attempts to clear the bar, and if he made it he’d go on to attempt the next height increment. So the decathletes were gradually eliminated until the only ones left were Tom Pappas of the top-3 superstars and Ashton Eaton, a local darling from the UO track team, only 19 years old. TP set a new personal record (PR) and AE cleared almost every attempt, rapidly rising to almost the same height as TP. Yay!

We jammed out of there to grab an early dinner at McMenamin’s, our preferred burger joint about a block from Hayward Field. (no overpriced festival food for us!) When we got back the Javelin Throw was under way.

The evening session started to get a little crazy, with multiple events going on at once - the men’s Hammer Throw which was actually outside the main field; women’s High Jump and Long Jump (we didn’t get a great view of those) and Javelin; and lots of running. Here’s a picture that shows the big screen where we could see some closeups and instant replays that we would have missed otherwise; the sand pits for Long Jump and the High Jump poles with landing pads. The men are lining up for their 400m Dash semifinal.

It was so much fun to be at the trials and see a little bit of everything. We watched 2 semifinal heats of women’s 3000m Steeplechase - the girls have to run about 8 laps with several obstacles consisting of a fixed jump thingy (don’t want to call it a hurdle, not sure what the real name for it is) and a puddle of water. I’ve run across obstacles like these out in the wild while backpacking - downed trees and muddy creeks. Glad I didn’t have to run and jump… (but those girls didn’t have 20 lb loads on their backs, either.)

The stadium really filled up by the time the evening session was in full swing, and the peak of crowd-cheering intensity came during the astonishing finish of the men’s 800m final. Just twice around the track, the top 3 finishers came from behind for a flashy finish - and all Oregon-sponsored. 2 from the Oregon Track Club and one from the U of O. Rock on, home team!

We got to watch our decathletes complete their final event, the 1500m. The top 3 guys didn’t finish first in the run, but their cumulative scores were secured from the preceding events. Those decathletes deserve serious props for their well-rounded skills and stamina. Very impressive! Here they are on their post-awards-ceremony victory lap:

To wrap up the evening we watched the men’s 5000m final. For the first half at least, one guy was way out in front and the rest were in a tight pack. That was kind of a different approach than we’d seen all day. He eventually fell back to the middle-rear but we mused how the race results had been affected - maybe everyone ran faster because of him?

After an enjoyable and inspiring day, I was a bit sore from spending so much time sitting on bleacher seats, but all fired up to run the 10k on the Glorious 4th - thinking that 2008 is a fun year to be a resident of Track Town USA.