Fire Danger Low

We pulled out of the Oregon Country Fair on Monday afternoon and got to Nancy's house in Eugene around 4pm. By 6 it was raining and during the night it poured! We were all so grateful it never rained like that at the fair. Our loft/sleeping area would have been drenched. So today is Thursday and it's been raining ever since. Summer in Eugene. Fire danger extremely low.

Yesterday was my birthday. Nancy made us her famous waffles for breakfast and Krista and I went out to do some recreational shopping in Eugene--Ruby Chasm, Down to Earth, Antrican, Smith Family Books, a little art gallery for a Venosa showing.
I'm sorry to report that Eugene's downtown continues to shed retail stores and although it has been beautified again and again (and it really is quite beautiful, with nice statuary and huge flower baskets hanging everywhere), it feels empty and sad to me. Every year now more of our old favorite stores are gone.
When we came back from Bali we met folks who would say "oh, you should have been there back in the 70's. It's too developed now". Well, I was in Eugene back in the 70's and it really was the time to be there I guess. Lucky me.

Danny and Vicky had us over for dinner last night and our musical friend Melissa Verbena was there, along with a fellow named Scotty, from the local band The Sugar Beets. The girls played with 9 year old Riley, Vicky and Danny's home schooled, world traveling daughter.

We had a lovely Thai food dinner and lots fun, light hearted conversation. And then Scotty's cel phone rang. It was such a weird ringtone that he ended up showing us how he'd made up these 11 little silly happy birthday songs for a client. They ranged from a magic fairy blessings one to Frank Sinatra, a cowboy one, Marilyn Monroe, WWF, sci fi and so on. He played them one by one on his cel phone and we all laughed and clapped.

After such concentrated happy birthday energy I simply had to tell them that it was, in fact, my birthday. An astonishing coincidence! They all grabbed guitars and piano and started playing a happy birthday jam. Just for me! Vicky singing with her beautiful trained voice. It just blew me away! My cheeks got sore from smiling and laughing so hard!

After that it was song after song after song. Everything from Goodbye Ruby Tuesday to beautiful heart opening songs Danny or Melissa had written. Ecstatic. And Krista, emboldened and encouraged by this group, played and sang her own songs better and stronger than I've ever heard. We only took breaks for coconut ice cream and a game of sardines.

We got back to Nancy's around midnight and she was still up! We got to chat awhile before crashing. Best birthday I can remember.

Today we're planning to climb Mount Pisgah (in the rain?) and have a tofu weenie roast (in the rain?) in Nancy's back yard. Tomorrow we head on home.

I'm still working on my OCF photos. And I'm not quite ready to write about the fair. It was a weird one for sure.