That's Gneiss! #188 ~ Smokin' good times in Yakima
Plus: The exciting space-age future of 1980
Hello friends!
We managed to make it to Yakima and back in one piece, but I’m not going to lie and call it a vacation. We had a good visit with my parents, but the conditions of the trip were less than satisfactory.
The drive normally isn’t too bad, especially since we moved to Everett. With our usual stops along the way it takes about three hours to get there from our house. This time on our way we ran into two horrible slowdowns and it took us closer to four hours. YAY. The first was a grueling slog through Bellevue onto I-90 caused by a car fire in the Factoria area. The second slowdown was just before Cle Elum and by the time we got to the source there was no evidence of what had caused the problem. We drove straight to the hotel and into an apocalyptic hellscape of wildfire smoke and tiny bits of ash falling from the sky.
The Schneider Springs Fire is the culprit. It started back on August 3rd, and has grown to almost 70,000 acres. Through some fluke of geography and air currents, the smoke was pouring into Yakima. MORE YAY. It was at its worst about the time we arrived, hitting a high of 439. Most of the time we were there the AQI wavered between the red and purple levels, but the highest number I saw were in the 200’s.
Smoky sunsets are eerily pretty. I took this photo while we walked the dog in my parent’ neighborhood on the first evening.
The top priority while visiting my parents was getting their wifi password sorted out. Long story short, while waiting on the phone to speak with an actual person at CenturyLink, I figured it out myself. Once that was taken care of I was able to help my dad get his new iPad set up. SUCCESS!
You may have noticed the lack of ground planting in that sunset picture above. The residents of my parents’ neighborhood have truly mastered minimalist landscaping. Many of them have really gone all out with lava rocks, but this house takes the prize. Not only do they have no living plants in their yard, the house is placed on the lot in such a way that the “front” faces the side of the house next door.
Hmmm… I got curious and took a look at Google street view… there appears to be a long-standing battle for bare-rock minimal landscaping supremacy!
According to Google, this image was captured in (are you sitting down?)
June of 2012.
It’s the land that time forgot!
And yes, that piece of wood is still there today.
But I digress.
On our second evening late night walk near the hotel we saw this very cool car!
The smoke was a bit better yesterday, when we were heading for home of course. The hotel we stay at is right on the Yakima River, and it’s really quite pretty.
After a quick stop to say goodbye to Mom & Dad, we got on the road back home. Even though it’s barely after we’ve started, we always stop at this rest area. I have yet to see a rattlesnake. You can see the smoke in the distance on the left, and also the scorch marks of a recent grass fire. It came right into the edge of the rest area.
Is there ever NOT a traffic back up at Cle Elum? I’ve been stuck in traffic here so many times.
A couple of final thoughts. I know I harp on the very poor mask-wearing exhibited by people in general. After our second trip to Yakima I must ask - what is up with people not wearing masks at rest areas? Do they think because it’s just a short trip into the bathroom they don’t need it? Never mind that over the course of the day THOUSANDS of people go in and out of the small cement block structure and expel aerosols which then float around and mingle with everyone else’s aerosols and ewwww.
The statewide mask mandate returns tomorrow. If I was Governor Inslee I would have had it go into effect the next day, but no, there was a five day lead-time, I guess to give everyone more time to spread germs. What we witnessed was surely everyone living it up before them start behaving tomorrow. *eye roll*
Just think if everyone had worn masks last year and gotten vaccinated as soon as they could.
From the maker of Thunderbirds, it’s the exciting new (back then) series UFO!!!
Thanks H.P.!
You know I couldn’t leave you hanging, wondering what has become of the neighbor’s pool…
I think they’re trying to get the last of the water down to the drain plug area. Good thing it rained this morning, so the water level will reach the plug quicker!
WHAT IS THEIR END GAME?!!!
Maybe they are looking for the rattlesnake that lost a watch? Is it a promotional campaign “Watch for Rattlesnake!” “Contribute and put a time piece on every Rattlesnake… because they are always late…or something…”
I dunno. It’s early.
Anyhow.
I’m gonna pop that pool.
I'm guessing whoever is the resident Jethro Bodine in that household will flip it over eventually and forget about it for another week.