Now that JC's daughter Brandy is here to be his caregiver, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. She's keeping track of his confusing prescriptions and driving him to his various doctor appointments here on the coast and in Corvallis.
She's hoping to get a part time job, possibly as a night desk clerk at one of the local hotels, or something similar that will let her have free time in the days to tend to her dad.
Yesterday we enjoyed a sunny day picking up agates and fossils at Ona Beach.
There's nothing like a nice stroll on the beach to get the cobwebs out.
JC, Taz and I went for a nice beach walk yesterday. As usual, Ona beach had changed dramatically. The sand had returned in most places, covering the bed rock and ancient tree roots that the winter storms had exposed on our last visit.
Taz was happy to get out, he was high-stepping all the way through the park, over the Beaver Creek bridge and onto the beach. There were some agate hunters and a few other dog walkers, but not many people for a Saturday morning.
We came across the old redwood stump that has been slowly working its way north with the winter high tides and the south winds. I first came across it 20 years ago about 8 miles south on Tillicum beach where we used to live. It already had countless slabs sawed off of it for coffee tables, and who knows what. Rick and I borrowed a chain saw and cut a gun stock sized slab from it for a gun that I never built. I finally traded it to someone for something, but for the life of me I can't remember who it was or what I traded for. As it works its way up the beach it gets smaller, slab by slab, but it still is impressive. It was high centered on a lava rock outcropping and looked for all the world like a wrecked sailing ship.
There was a weathered sandstone rock face that looked like it had Egyptian hieroglyphics on it, (at least to my imagination,) and we picked up some small agates here and there. There was a good surf and the waves were banging the rocks pretty hard, but we had a hard time getting a picture of it. The four mile walk pooped all three of us out and Taz slept on my coat all the way back to Waldport.
What's that bright light? Up there in the sky! Ow! it hurts my eyes!
The sun actually came out this morning, so JC, Taz and I went for a long overdue beach walk.
As usual, Ona beach has changed completely from the last time we were there, the high surf has uncovered some prehistoric tree stumps along with an ancient peat bog. They've been preserved by being buried in the sand and are thousands of years old, the result of a massive earthquake and tsunami, which dropped an entire forest into the surf and then covered it over.
The sand at the north end of the beach was all gone exposing the bedrock and several agate beds. I forgot my camera but JC took some nice pictures of Taz and I. Taz seemed to enjoy getting out as much as we did, I'm sure he gets cabin fever too.
Carol and I went over to JC's this afternoon to get copies of the pics he took and have a few glasses of wine. It's already clouding over for the next storm system to come through, but it sure was a great morning!
