Month: August 2021

Mima Mounds

Given that it doesn’t take much time to drive to Tacoma, I planned two side jaunts on the way up. The Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve was the first.

The interesting thing about the Mima Mounds is that there is no clear answer about why the mounds are there. We hiked through the site and also came back with no clear answers. But it’s fun to see them undulate across the landscape.

As you can see, the mounds are not very high. But when seeing them rise across the landscape (see this picture) they make an impression.

We also saw some scat. It is apparently a very seedy time for this animal.

Door Before Becoming the Orange Door

One thing about our house, the Orange Door? It doesn’t have any doors that are orange. The front door is white and the box built around it is orange, so that’s why we call the house the Orange Door.

But that’s about to change. When they repainted the house a few years ago, they didn’t consult us on color, so we ended up with this light mint color. They also didn’t paint the doors, so you can still see the original green. The second of these things always bugged me more than the first, though I do like the original green better.

I have procured a very bright orange paint that will make these doors orange. The goal is to have them done before the Big Party.

Spartan Race 2021 in “Portland”

We headed to east-of-Vancouver, Washington, so Matt could do a Spartan Race. Here he is on the way to the start.

Here was my first glimpse of Matt after the starting point. As you can see, they get muddy early. He usually wears a blue shirt for races and it was much harder picking him out of the crowd with the black shirt.

And here he is at the finish time. The clock is a general time clock. It didn’t take him three hours to finish.

The victor with all his spoils.

We were at the end of the day—I think the very last race, and you can see the many people who came before Matt grabbed a lot of protein bars.

There were a ton of people. More than I anticipated, and I felt a little uncomfortable. I wore my mask, even though we were outside. Not many people had theirs on.

We parked in a big field and I noted where the American flag they had flying was, so we could find the car after the race was over. But by the time Matt was done, they had taken down the flag.

And this guy was collecting all the tape that corralled people.