40 boxes in 40 days

I have been delighted and inspired by Flylady.net for years and this year she sent out an email with a special challenge for lent.

The following post is in her words.

"

40 Boxes in 40 Days 

Dear Friends,

Every year at this time New Orleans Fat Tuesday is the kick-off for the Lenten season. We are going to focus on getting rid of our clutter for the next 40 days. We got this great testimonial once about getting rid of a box of clutter each day. Imagine that 40 boxes of clutter removed one day at a time. "

 Having grown up with a self proclaimed pack-rat as a Mother, and Grandmother and great aunts and uncles, I was definitely on the road to caring more about the clutter in my home than about the people in my home, and I'd get down right rude to anyone who threw anything away.  So I needed the reminder from flylady that people matter, things don't and I dealt with that want even wrote a blog about turning my clutter into a scrapbook filled with memories and then releasing it

three years ago this month, I posted this  http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/2010/02/self-storage.html

 Well, old habits die hard, and I have looked around my house and decided it can do with a refresher decluttering of the treasures that I needed three years ago with two high school boys at home - but have no need of now as an empty nester.  So I got rid of three boxes of stuff yesterday and did a couple things on my procrastination list as well.  Wish me luck on the rest of the 40 boxes and help me turn it into a 40 day flood of space filling my home.

One Year after the Tsunami, we shared with Japan

 Most everyone knows that the Tsunami was major and that the impact of it upon Japan is inconceivable on so many levels.  Our Small, Northern California and Southern Oregon harbors had a bit more than sympathy pains for our Japanese brothers and sisters.

Starting between 7 and 8 AM, we began to experience our own Tsunami, and the waves cycled through the commercial boat harbor, destroying boats and docks and peoples incomes, but most devastatingly of all, Pulling two people into the sea, in Southern Oregon at Pistol River (They managed to get ashore) and destroying the life of one young man who was pulled out to sea in Northern California, but who's body was found long weeks later in Washington.

 His Father, Jon Weber, is hiking the route from where his son's body was found, to here where his son was pulled into the sea, that story in the Del Norte Triplicate at

http://www.triplicate.com/News/Local-News/Trek-makes-good-progress

There were several crabbing and fishing boats left shattered on the harbor floor, so this big crane was bright in to help raise the broken boats from the harbor.  

This is a picture I took of my TV screen when they were showing how the water from the harbor was being sucked out of the harbor and then came flooding back in in 10 minute cycles

My Aunt sent me this paper with our hometown on the front page news, from her home near Pittsburgh PA

Although surviving the Tsunami is not a free card other, this sailboat survived the big tsunami, only to lie broken on the rocks in the spring rains and flooding of January 2011

 This smaller crane was here just last month to help fix the channel markers which were broken and moved and have caused a headache for boats coming in and out ever sine

 This dredge loaded up barge after barge of the silt which had been deposited in the harbor and filled the boat basin during the tsunami

Crescent City won one of the $10, 000 prizes from Reader's Digest in the We Hear You America Contest to help with the rebuilding, but as the Curry Coastal Pilot said

"Visitors to Crescent City Harbor this week will find a port that is a shadow of its former self, the surviving boats in the fleet crowding around a handful of new docks. 

Emergency funds to repair and replace docks and other facilities have been hindered by state and federal bureaucracy. Crescent City’s port was one of three California ports to be damaged by the tsunami, while Brookings’ port was the only one in Oregon.

Still, the work completed so far is impressive: the removal of 61 pilings, the dredging of 83 barge-loads of silt deposited by the tsunami, and the repair of about 500 feet of protective rock slope, all at a cost of around $5.1 million. 

“It’s been kind of a remarkable year for what we have accomplished since the tsunami,” Young said. "

To see that whole story go to

http://www.currypilot.com/News/Breaking-News/Tsunami-one-year-later

water, water, everywhere

Battery Point Lighthouse

Lake Earl

Today I am lazing in my robe, looking at pictures from this weekend, feeling lucky to live where I do.  Knowing that there are many beautiful things in other places in the world too, I still find the variety here where the redwoods meet the sea to be stunning and speak to me.

There are days the poverty and mold and overwhelming number of grey days really get me down and make me long to be anywhere warm, but this was the kind of weekend that fools tourists into packing up and moving here, deceptive in its mildness, relaxing in the warmth, even ugly and poor looks beautiful in the mid winter break from cold.

Mary D. Hume at Gold Beach, Oregon

See the faint line of light at the horizon?

This was the kind of light that gave everything a peaceful quality and made feeling blue a particularly good thing to feel.  Staying indoors, glued to the computer, writing and blogging and hanging around facebook is the tempting route through the winter here, but getting dressed and  breathing the air outdoors leaves a strength that lingers through the week.

The outdoor places here are empty, the playground only had out family, the beaches were deserted. Does anyone else get outside with their family, and when you do, where do you go?