A Little Bit of This - 5/24-26/15

Or: And A Little Bit of That

An ordinary life can be filled with the most mundane of things and still, as you sit back in the ease of your living room and ponder on it, be found to be interesting and challenging. In reflection, this ordinary life can be satisfying, even rich, in its simplicity and uneventful routineness.

In other words, life does not have to be high-speed, noisey and filled with emotion in order to be complete. It can be a Sunday morning pancake breakfast at St. Augustine's Catholic Church.

It can be complete while you sit admiring the artwork displayed in a parish hall and enjoying a cup of coffee while waiting for your breakfast. The quiet moments of anticipation.

And it can be complete by enjoying the breakfast and then remembering to get a picture of it for the doggone blog when you're already half-way through the breakfast.

Hahaha, life can be sweet, gentle and easy. 

And, I am learning (again), you find your fun and satisfaction where you want. I mean, we got to enjoy a great breakfast, meet a couple new folks, see some new things and, maybe, open some doors to new adventures. And we did it in quite an ordinary way.

And it was interesting. And a little bit of easy fun.

St Augustine's Catholic Church

And so it goes in an ordinary life. No white-knuckle thrills and spills; no terror-inducing rides and no hair-raising, scream-filled adventures. Hahaha, we're beyond that, for now. 

Because, for now, it's lazy Sunday mornings and dramaless mini-adventures in days filled with peace.

Like this one, the next day, it's off to shopping in Newport and then stopping at the Street Car Village on The 101.

We've passed this unique collection of eclectic businesses a dozen times and I've always wanted to stop; so today we did. 

And we started our mini-adventure here in the North By Northwest.

Both Carol and I are, if you didn't know, explorers. Not that we go out and blaze trails and discover new worlds; well, on second thought, we do. It's just that the new worlds we discover are the ones hidden in plain sight. Ones that we tend to take for granted.  We find adventure in the ordinary. We just go out and see what we've been passing by for most of our lives. Hahaha, and it is fun.

Plus, both of us are incurable window-shoppers. Lookee-Lous to the nth degree. We've almost made it an art.

And so on this gentle day we stopped at the North By Northwest  store and we explored. And we got to meet a very pleasant and friendly woman working here.

Carol found several books for me. A while ago, I ran across an old book written in 1913 about five 'chums' and their adventures with Trapper Jim. It was fun to read and visit that long ago time and it kindled an interest in reading books from those days gone past.

And so, when we hit the thrift shops, we're always on the look-out for some more books in that genre. I've got about 20 or so books now and I am enjoying reading them.

When Carol pointed out this one to me I said that if the Mercer Boys were at a military academy, I'd buy it and, sure enough, the Mercer Boys were at an academy. It's all about the strange disappearance of their headmaster and their subsequent adventures in 1948.

Hahahaha, great fun!!

But this wasn't the only thing from the past that we were able to marvel at. This store has a lot of antique medicines for sale.

I can't even imagine shopping for medicines a hundred years ago.

Anyone want to take a guess at what these Phenolphthalein Tablets were used for? Sure can't tell from the label, can you. Hahaha, and no ingredients list, nothing. 

Give up? Phenolphthalein was used for over a century as a laxative.

Duh!!

Folks back then may not have been able to program a computer, but they were pretty accomplished in taking care of themselves medically.

This stuff was a wonder!!

Fun Facts: DeWitt's was a liquid counter-irritant. A practical preparation for minor sprains and bruises, superficial cuts, non-venomous insect stings, minor burns and muscular soreness of the limbs, side or back due to exertion or exposure. For Man or Beast. it is a practical preparation that can be used whenever a liniment is to be used. Stockmen will find it of value for use on strained muscles, swelling and superficial bruises of animals.

And, it was good for the Rheumatism, too.

Hahaha, it was good for Man or Beast. Can't get much handier than that, can you!!

And this one came with a portrait of the good Doctor, W.D. Caldwell.

Fun Facts: Pepsin is an enzyme that aids in digestion. It was also an ingredient in the early recipe for Pepsi, which gives that soda its name. Hmmmm, Pepsi? Digestion?

W.B. was born in 1839 in Missouri. He was a practicing physician eventually ending in Monticello, Illinois when he bought a drug store in that city. He created for use in his medical practice his senna pepsin laxative and began selling it around 1888.

In 1892, Dr. Caldwell's clerk, Charles H. Ridgley, came up with the idea of manufacturing the laxative. Ridgley and John Bell began making the syrup and small quantities, bottling it and selling it in neighboring counties.

The company grew quickly and became a staple in American life. Selling for $5 million dollars in 1925, the syrup proved to be both effective and lucrative.

Evidently, this miracle syrup took care of a lot of common ailments.

Shake well. Always good advice.

Fun Facts: Angier's Emulsion was manufactured beginning in the late 1800's and was sold world-wide throughout the mid-20th century. It was originally compounded and marketed as a 'food-medicine' and as a cure for a variety of respiratory ailments. The principle ingredient of this product was refined petroleum oil. Studies carried out as early as 1884 showed the petroleum oil had no nutritional value so the company reformulated the product and marketed it as a laxative for 'temporary constipation relief.'

I'm seeing a trend here. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that constipation was a big problem back in the late 19th and early 20th century.

I bet these guys were scrambling after 1959 trying to figure out how to handle their name. Hmmmm, may be a reason they went out of business.

Could they work in the word, 'contiguous' somewhere in that name?

OK, I got excited when I saw these. You see, I have one already and, in fact, I just finished it yesterday. The one I have is, 'Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive', and it was a great read as Tom and his trusty man-servant, Koku, battled saboteurs as they raced to invent a new electric locomotive capable of traveling two-miles a minute.

I could see myself getting these three books for my collection until I looked at the price.

Hahaha, $25 a book was a bit out of my league. Still, it was fun seeing them. Oh, BTW, I found my Tom Swift at a St. Vinnie's and got it for $4. That's a price I can handle.

This was fun. I had never thought of it before, but they would have to buy the ink for their inkwells, wouldn't they? Yeah, they would. Those refillable fountain pens just didn't magically refill. And what better ink to get than one that is washable!! 

We have things so good today. We really, really do.

Ah, but some things of today just can't match what they had in the past.

Like The Three Stooges.

Larry, Moe and Curley.

And some classy lamps, too.

The Street Car Village is set up like a horse-shoe with the open end facing towards The 101. On the one side is the North By Northwest Store and a model shop. There's an auction building at the end and on the other side is a store called, 'Second Coming', another antique store.

This one tended towards cultural icons. No medical items for sale here.

For me it is fun going through shops like this. I know I can't afford anything but it sure is fun to look. Besides, the house is full of stuff right now and so there isn't much room to add anything else.

But a pair of clogs would fit in anywhere, right!?!

Hahaha, Jackie Chan!! What an athlete. I admit, I've always enjoyed Jackie Chan movies.

And lighthouses. I swear, I've seen more lighthouses, in every size, shape and presentation, in the past three months than I ever did in the previous 10 years!! They're everywhere around here!!

Aww, c'mon. You knew I wouldn't pass up a shot of a duck. 

And I didn't.

See the coke bottles on the right? When we moved to La Puente, back in 1960, I would comb the field between our house and the Giant T looking for bottles like this that I could take back to the store for the .03 cents refund. That was big money, Honey!!

I can also remember buying these large bottles of coke from Jack, the Ice Cream Truck guy. He would tool around in a truck with a freezer on the back and when he pulled out these bottles of coke from the freezer, they'd be covered with frost, chilly and delicious!! Oh, and they were .13 cents. A dime for the soda and .03 cents for the bottle.

Yeah, I can understand, Bugs.

And they had a lot of old LPs for sale. 

Quick, all you kids, what does 'LP' stand for?

Linoleum Plate?

Ah, the arcana of America. Look at the lamp made out of a lantern on the left, there.

Johnny Cash. 

The thing that got me was the price. While I enjoy these stores, I can't really afford anything in them. Tis a shame.

When I was 11 or 12, my Dad had a call at one of the studios to work a call for the Ray Charles Singers. I got to go with him. It was my first exposure to jazz. They were do-bob, skat-te-wakking all over the place. It was an unusual experience and the only time I went to work with my Dad by myself. 

Hahaha, I was surprised when I learned the Ray Charles Singers did ballads and love songs. I kept expecting some more jazz ... which I do not like. Not one bit.

In 1969, I bought a radio just like this. How do I know? I still have it. Hahaha, I got it shortly after I returned from overseas. It was cool as you could plug it in or run it on batteries. And powerful, too.

OK, here's an old record player. Alright, kids, what do these numbers represent: 33, 45 and 78? 

Here's a clue ... you're looking at a record player!!

You more mature readers hush. Let the kids figure it out.

Ah, look!! Wow!!

The first ones I went to were some Disney comics that originally sold for .12 cents. Hahaha, I remembered them!!

When we were kids, my brothers and I had a lot of Superman comics. And Batman. In fact, I can remember when Spiderman comics came out and I bought the first ones.

I've whined about this before but I am shameless so I'll do it again. When I joined the Marines and moved out my Mom got rid of, again, boxes of our comics. I mean, we'd buy them, read them and then throw them in a stack in the closet or somewhere so we had a lot of comics!! 

And she threw them away.

ARGH!!!

I'm sure I had the original Spiderman and other gems there.

Back in the late 80's, my son and I got into a baseball card collecting phase. We were overseas in Germany and I can remember buying a boatload of baseball card packs, and chewing the gum while checking to see if we needed that card to complete our set.

OK, so we finally finished up at the Street Car Village. For now. We will be back. But these small adventures must end although they don't go away. We'll be back and it will be just as much fun as the first time.

But, y'know, ordinary lives go on.

And mine led me outside in the pleasant weather to take care of the weeds in the front. On one side. Let's not get too ambitious.

Here's the before -

And the after. 

And I know it's a small thing but, doggone it, I did get a sense of satisfaction from getting down there and getting those pesky weeds out.

I got a sense of satisfaction and a sore back plus my knee went out on me, too.

But I got the weeds out!!

The ordinary lives go on. And time slips by with ease as we move into another day. 

I'm still trying to be a better photographer. In this regard, I am finally making an effort to actually learn what this amazing camera of mine can do. I recently bought the User's Manual for my camera and I've actually been reading it!! 

I know!! I was surprised, too!!

Long way of getting to these. We've been down to the beach at Road's End before but never late in the afternoon and so I suggested we go down so I could play with the controls on the camera and Carol could comb the beach (Hahaha, I got five of the last ten words to start with a 'C'!!).

It's all part of the pace of a life being lived in small spurts and wheezes. Easy going with no rush.

Cascade Head. Using a tripod with the camera set to use some features I've never known about before.

And this one. I was just shooting to try focusing on different objects and got a semi-pleasing composition. I'd have deleted it save for the gull.

Speaking of gulls, I got this fine fellow sitting on a pole about 80 feet away. 

Love the zoom.

And this was an instance where the camera didn't have time to focus before the shutter tripped. You have to have a certain amount of finesse to gently push the shutter half-way so it will focus. If you're too ham-fisted, you trip the shutter too soon ... as I did here.

It's waving grass along the bluff. Semi-interesting.

And a moodier shot of the Head as we left.

Later on that day, Carol suggested we go to the Cape Meares Lighthouse. We'd been there before but it was out of season and the lighthouse was closed.

So, yeah, why not!?!

Let's go!!

And it was a beautiful day for a drive. I think I enjoy the drives almost as much as I do the destinations.

It's a beautiful small park with plenty of views. And plenty to look at, too.

Let's go!!

See what I mean about a beautiful day.

Fun Facts: The Cape Meares Lighthouse was built in 1889 and commissioned on January 1, 1890. 

The tower stands 38 feet high and is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon. 

The Lens is a first order Fresnel lens made in Paris, France. It was shipped around Cape Horn and then hauled 217 feet up the cliff by a wooden crane built form local timbers. It produced about 30 seconds of fixed white light from the primary lens followed by a red flash of five seconds from the bull's-eye lens once every minute. This was the signature of the Cape Meares Lighthouse. The light could be seen for 21 nautical miles at sea.

I selected a filter that is suppose to intensify the color. It's supposed to make it look more like an old-time chrome picture. 

What do you think? I can see it a bit.

That's, from left to right, Shag Rock, Findley Rock and Storm Rock. They are about 2.5 miles from Cape Meares.

Hahaha, I got photobombed.

See the bee that snuck into my shot? Otherwise I probably would have deleted it.

This was more of what I was going for. The scenics so I could see what the color looked like.

And it was a beautiful day. There's Carol coming down the walkway.

And the lighthouse. And this time it was open!!

Welcome!!

There's a small waiting area at the foot of the tower where you can watch a short video highlighting the history of the lighthouse as you wait for the next tour. Here's the window looking out over the ocean.

And the narrow stairs leading up two flights to the light.

Haha, I snuck in a photo of Carol as she sat trying to watch the video. The walls of this lighthouse were made with bricks fabricated on site and iron plate.

A detail of the light and the housing that holds it. A lot of brass.

Here's the light itself. 

Not-So-Fun Facts: The Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1963 and, essentially, abandoned. By 1968, the Keeper's houses were gone, burned down, and the glass for this light was gone, too. Left to rot, vandals had a field day here.

When they reclaimed the lighthouse in 1978 they were able to recover most of the glass for the light. Then, shortly after, a couple idjits used the glass in the lighthouse as a target for some target shooting. Morons. They were eventually caught and fined a huge amount of money for their stupidity.

You can still see some of the damage they caused. 

Part of the view from the top of the lighthouse.

And the floor around the light. See the circles? They were made of glass to allow light to get down to the base of the lighthouse where the keeper actually worked, keeping records and making repairs.

A view out the front of the lighthouse. Yeah, 21 nautical miles.

Fun Fact: The 21 nautical miles sounds impressive but, no lighthouse can be seen for more than 21 nautical miles because ...

--drum roll--

... of the curve of the earth's surface.

Ta-Da!!

The roof of the lighthouse had to be replaced but they kept to the original design as much as possible.

From my position in front, I was able to look back, towards the park, through the glass. You can see that it's turned the image seen through the glass upside down. Yet the guide, in the red panel to the right, is right-side up. 

As we were leaving the top of the lighthouse, I grabbed this shot of the coast to the south.

Part of the mechanism to rotate the light.

And the stairs down. Dim light and an unsteady hand. Plus my snazzy shoes. I've had them for over 10 years now.

Hahaha, yes. I am frugal.

Here comes Carol. Those stairs were both narrow and steep.

They had a nice little gift shop in the old tool room.

Wha...!?! Lighthouses!!

A pretty view!!

It may be the shortest lighthouse in Oregon, but it is still impressive.

The views are impressive, too.

And I always look down, too. These are impressive as well.

Part of the scenery along the walk.

Love the sunlight. Makes a difference.

It really is a nice park. Plenty of trails to walk around and plenty of views to take in.

And we finally saw the murres.

Fun Facts: The common murre is a large auk. It spends most of its time at sea only coming to land to breed on racks cliff shores or islands.

They look sorta like penguins but they have fast direct flight although they aren't very agile. They are more maneuverable underwater, typically diving to depths of 100-200 feet.

Common murres breed in large colonies. They make no nest, their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge. Some 20 days after hatching the chick leaves its perch and heads for the sea, unable to fly but gliding for some distance with fluttering wings, accompanied by its male parent. Chicks are capable of diving as soon as they hit the water. 

This one looks like a rocky Jabba the Hut, doesn't it?

The views were great.

And we brought a lunch. Hahaha, I think I'll look before I assume that everything will come out in these self-portraits.

We were both fascinated by this house sitting up high on the cliff over-looking the ocean. I wonder about the folks that live there. Regardless, they've got one heckuva view. It's tough getting down to the beach, though.

And then it was time to go home. We headed back along the coast this time. This was the house in Oceanside where we saw the deer feeding in the front yard. I think they've finally sold it.

And just around the corner from the deer house was this guy. He was on the inside of a water treatment facility alongside the road. Wasn't at all concerned with us nor the traffic.

We made a quick stop at Netarts so Carol could check out the jewelry they had on sale here. She bought her necklace here a month or so ago.

And, finally, the road home. See what I mean about not being bored on these drives. It is a constantly changing landscape and it never fails to delight.

There it is. Ordinary days filled with some ordinary adventures. Just the right thing for a couple of old adventurers. We enjoy these simple things and these unhurried times. We get to set our speed and cruise along from one stop to the next at our leisure. And our leisure is set on fun.

We took a little bit of this and a little bit of that and we made something fun. Speaking of fun, do you know what 'LP' stands for?

Haha, it's the abbreviation for 'Long Playing'. 

And the numbers 33, 45 and 78? Those are the speeds of the records as they travel round on the turntable. Haha, live and learn.

There's a great story about these speeds and the stupidity of man vs man. Check out this website for some fun reading:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/228/why-are-record-speeds-33-45-and-78-rpm

It's an adventure.

Life is good.

     Hooah!!