John Day

If you've never been to central Oregon (I mean east of Bend) you must find time to go.  This is Cant Ranch which is right by the John Day Fossil Beds.  The Cant family raised sheep here.  Unfortunately the house isn't open on weekends, but you can still wander around the property, see the shearing shed, and walk a trail down to the river.

This is a view from a lookout on the highway between Dayville and Mount Vernon.  I think the geography over there is fascinating.

Here are some pictures of the Painted Hills.  The different colors are from the minerals in the clay.  There are so many different colors of reds, greens, browns, grays, and even lavender.  It is pretty spectacular.  One sign recommends evening for the best photos.  It was overcast and not evening when I was there.

Getting Framed

I finally got around to framing some things.

This is a doily my mom made.  She may have made it before I was even born, I don't remember seeing her made it so I was either really young or not around.  I think it is way more beautiful framed like this than lying on my end table covered with things and collecting dust.

This is a birthday/graduation card given to me by Julie Lyford, she painted it with water colors.  It commemorates a fly fishing workshop we took together.

And this is my college diploma that I still can't believe I have.

I got to spend the month of May working evenings learning how to work in a hospital blood bank.  It is really interesting and tragic at the same time.  We type blood for people and cross match them with donor blood for transfusions.  There are a lot of people who are sick and need blood products, but we also keep prepared to traumas.  The other night we had a patient who had been in a bad accident and we kept matching blood for almost three hours.  They got between 30 and 40 units of blood products by the time my shift ended.  I hope I get to hear if the patient made it.  It was a tragic situation for the patient and their family, I'm sure, but from my perspective it really feels good to have a job that can help people when they need it most.

Most of my blood bank training is done so I have to go back to night shift.  Evening shift was like a vacation, you get to sleep until you wake up, work around the house or do errands until early afternoon and then go to work.  I think that's how life should be.  Some day.

We went to see the new Star Trek movie in 3D.  Everybody at work was talking about how good it is, but we just thought it was okay.  Maybe we just aren't big enough Trek fans.  At home we watched The Librarian, Curse of the Judas Chalice, it was fun.  It's kind of like National Treasure.