Barbara J. Hamby

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Pacific Princess in Hiroshima

The above picture is of the ship we cruised on last month.

Our tired, old air conditioner is huffing and puffing and I hope it doesn’t blow itself up before we get out of here. The weather guy on a local channel was pretty funny. He was reading the high temperatures and came to Portland: 97. The map came up on the screen and next to Portland it read 101. He did a double-take, stopped talking completely and decided to go and check it out. The l01 was correct. It’s the highest temperature in the month of June since Portland began keeping records. I could’ve lived with 91 or even 81.

We are storing the freezer and a patio set and barbecue for the buyers of this place. They put the rest of their stuff in public storage this morning and will be living in their R.V. down by the river near here. For our trouble we get to take out a package of halibut.

The Discovery Channel (No. 7 locally) had it figured out. All afternoon they’ve been showing videos of crab fishing on the Bering Sea, in rain, snow, ice, huge windstorms, and high waves. Watching all that was so cool, I fell asleep twice. I don’t like King Crab as well as Dungeness, but they had impressive catches. I don’t know when the videos were made.

There have already been several drownings in this area since the hot weather started. The snow run-off is keeping the rivers and lakes very cold and swimmers, boaters and rafters don’t take that into account. Many of the boaters and rafters don’t wear life jackets. I don’t remember so many drownings when I was younger and swam a lot. By rights, due to my own stupidity, I should have drowned a couple of times. But we looked out for each other and friends pulled me out. (In one case the kid who pushed me off the raft pulled me out of the Rogue River.) I guess kids have always thought of themselves as invulnerable.

It’s cooling down a bit. Maybe the air conditioner will actually shut off now and then tonight.