Mundane Life with Sue

Well, it's been a while since I blogged anything so I suppose I ought to fill in the big blank spot. The reason I haven't been blogging is because nothing especially blogworthy has been happening. Mostly just normal day-to-day stuff.

Rick and I have done a few rides on the Harley for my benefit. We're planning on a 3 day weekend in the middle of June with a ride to a town in central Washington called Toppenish. The ride there is about 165 miles so I have to get myself conditioned for that length ride. So this past Saturday we went about 101 miles (one way) to where the kids were camping, a few miles east of Cle Elum. It was a nice place, but no Lily Lake. The ride was ok, I have to get used to taking curves at highway speed, it's a little nerve-wracking. When we hit the summit it got pretty cool, we were dressed down a little since it was in the 70's when we took off. So on the way back I put the liner back in my jacket and wore my gloves. The next day we headed out to visit a coworker at his vacation home on a lake about 35 - 40 miles away. Again, the weather in town was beautiful so we dressed down a little, but this time I left my jacket liner home - oops! As we headed out we could see rain in the distance and the temp just kept dropping off. I was freezing by the time we got there. And there wasn't much to do on the way back to make me warmer. But I sure learned a lot, mainly, don't take out the liner of the jacket unless it's in the 80's!!

When we got to where the kids were camping it was coolish and almost drizzly. Rick and I wandered around with our cameras getting whatever was there to get pix of. Our main focus ended up on the bumblebees visiting the wildflowers. They would let us get right up to them, about 4 inches away!! We got some neat pictures of bee fuzz. The wildflowers were also screaming for us to get them, so we indulged them. Then, of course, there were 3 grandsons. We stayed for a couple hours and then split just as the drizzle began and avoided all the rain squalls we could see off in the distance. It was gorgeous again when we got home, maybe we should have just done that - stayed home! No, the ride was fun and good practice for me.


A couple weekends ago we had planned to go to an automotive swap meet up north in the fairgrounds. It's a huge annual event and we had been looking forward to going for a month or so. About a month previously though, a relative of Rick's died, she was in her 80's and it wasn't unexpected. Well, they chose that particular Saturday for the memorial. The Monday before, though, a friend from the kingdom hall died unexpectedly. She was Dane's best friend's mom and was only 42. Well, they decided to have her memorial on that very same Saturday. So Rick and I each had a memorial to attend, weird. We'll have to try the swap meet again next year.

Last week I got a little gift from Rick. He's been watching Craigslist for a bike for me so we can ride together (pedal-type, not motor). He found a real nice one for sale for only $50 that was $450 new. I swear it couldn't have 50 miles on it. It's a Diamondback Topanga, a nice all-terrain type bike with 21 speeds and the shifters are upshift and downshift! Cool, the neat stuff they come up with!

Other than work, going to meetings and spending time with the kids, Rick and I do a lot of photography. I have a goal of spending a few hours each weekend doing nothing but photography. We seem to have perfected the macro stuff, the close-up bugs, flowers, etc. Good enough anyway (but it's so much fun!!) Now I'd like to work on landscapes where we use a technique called "bracketing" and then sandwich and stitch the pictures together to get a more detailed landscape. We also need to work on indoor lighting, that's a tough one. But necessary if we want to do portraits.

So that's my mundane life for now. I guess I can't always wait for something exciting to make myself sit down and blog. Mundane will have to do.

Don't forget to go check out our picture site!