Saturday, November 13, 2010

Three Beautiful Things 11/12/10: Eastern Oregon Splendor, Pure and Crooked, Hiram's Visit

1.  A perfect visual day from Pendleton until the Cascades and the rain forest intruded at Hood River.  I love how open and panoramic the view is from Pendleton to Hood River and in the early afternoon November light on under the pale blue November sky the golden humps on the Washington side of the Columbia seemed to change colors from purple to green to yellow to golden to gray and the Poplar Farm out between Hermiston and Boardman . . . man. . . those trees have matured and now, on November 11th and 12th, those thousands of poplars have mature leaves and they'd turned, as if tree were a campfire, blazing with orange, making it hard to drive straight. 

2.  Back in about 1990 Annette and I bought a CD player and subscribed to Dirty Linen and a free CD came with that subscription:  Iain Matthews' Pure and Crooked.  I played that CD over and over back in 1990-91 and go back to it every once in a while to see if it still moves me.  It does.  I popped it in the player today and played favorite songs like "Rains of '62" and "New Shirt" and "Perfect Timing" over and over again, my chest quaking, singing along, a big smile, memories and thoughts flooding me.  It was a fine I-84 concert.

3.  The visit was brief, but it was great to see Hiram and I enjoyed seeing him have some time with Olivia, feeding her, reading to her, holding her, being a good dad.   I feel for him having to go back to Virginia so soon, but I have to believe the short visit and some time with Molly and Olivia was good for them all.

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