HELLO DAYLIGHT!

It will be so nice to get home while the sun still shines!  Of course for the next few weeks it will be dark again when I head to the bus stop but if I don't work past 6 I should walk home in the light.

I was going to sleep an extra hour yesterday to make up for last night (not that I had anything pressing to get up early for today!) but ended up sleeping two hours and having to rush to my hair appointment.  Then I figured since I was half way to the outlet mall why not go the rest of the way!  I wanted to see what Clark's had on clearance for winter shoes.

I'm not a shoe horse nor am I rough on the outside of shoes but since I wear custom orthodontics for the broken arches I got in the Air Force I am rough on the inside, plus they get stretched out and don't fit the heel after a while.  I found a couple of pairs of boots and tennis (hmm I'm not playing tennis in them) or athletic (I'm not playing sports!), ok casual shoes.  I hit up Christopher and Bank for a few tops and can you believe it...I DID NOT GO TO THE COACH OUTLET!  Got enough purses.

One of my friends commented that I don't like the freeway.  It isn't that it is just that it is so boring...concrete wall, industrial park, back of strip mall, concrete wall, strip mall, parking lot, etc, etc.  If I take the surface streets I see store fronts, houses, yards, people (panhandlers).  Going to the mall I took the street in front of the beauty shop until it dead ended.  Then it was either go south a while, east a while, north a while to get to it jump on the freeway and get off at the next exit.  Which I did, plus that took me by a Micky Dees so I could grab a McChicken sandwich and cup of water (since I hadn't eaten).

Leaving the outlet mall  I could take the freeway (boring) or head toward Boring (Oregon) then go west to home.  I took the scenic route.  I was on a street that I usually take a right turn off of but decided to stay on it and see where it went (I had just filled up at Costco so I had lots of gas).  When I got to the community of Orient there was a nursery on the right side I wanted to check out but missed the turn so I drove on.  On the left was a junk store, something else to check out.  I drove on for a few more miles toward the mountain (Mt Hood that is) looming large before me before I turned around.

The junk store was amazing, and a maze.  I felt like I needed to drop rose pedals as I wandered through it so I could find my way out.  "The Worlds Largest Antique and Collectable Show" (wonder how they figured that out?) is being held this weekend at the Portland Expo center but I liked this place better.  I asked the owner about why he wasn't there and he said a lot of his stuff was there.  There had been two couples in buying when I arrived, one local and one not.  I commented that I bet a lot of the vendors came to visit him while they were in the area and he say yes.  I didn't need anything, had nothing in mind when I stopped to ramble but did find two pepper mills for Cara (we had looked at a Tuesday Morning and a couple of other places but couldn't find any a few weeks ago).  Paid my $10 bucks and as I was leaving asked him if they really had auctions there and he said every Tuesday...something to check out later.

Down the road to the nursery.  They didn't have the Passion Flower plant I was looking for but he had me leave my name and number and will call me when they come in.  Their prices were great!  Being in the middle of nowhere and Clackamas county to boot their overhead is probably way low.  I drove through their tree fields as I left to see where that road went.  Beautiful blooming trees on both sides (I'll have to check those out later).

That narrow hairpin turn road took me out to a main (5 wide lanes) highway and I headed back west. I took some other twists and turns to see what was new on roads I used to drive to and from work when I lived out that way.  Finally I hit town and stopped to pick up a few groceries.

A 10 mile 2 hour beauty shop appointment ended up being a 6 hour and 60 mile trip of discovery.