HAL4NOW

The Pacific Northwest has been plagued by the same behaviors (many of the bad actors are adults. This is a bizarre extension of illegal street racing. Back in September of 2020, a number of spectators were hit by cars doing donuts near the Space Needle. More recently Tacoma's downtown has been the scene of mobs of street racers doing donuts in intersections. When a police officer responded to ask the crowd to disperse, his car was attacked, and he ended up having to drive through the crowd to escape personal injury. He was disciplined for his actions, and the mob continues to rule the streets whenever they choose. Puyallup has also experienced some of this crazy behavior. Because law-enforcement's hands are often tied by the politicians controlling them, not much can be done with unruly crowds.

I drove around the forest service roads just east of Skykomish this morning. I was runing the air conditioner in the car while driving past multiple snow patches. Got out and walked a few miles to stretch my legs and enjoy the views.

My sermon went 42 minutes today, but we followed it up with a great potluck. We were joined by a few nieghbors and firefighters that like the potlucks but don't want to sit through a sermon.

Back on May 3rd, I asked the Daily readers to recommend a can opener that would actually open cans. Thanks to @StLouisCruisers, @Cruising-along, and @canadarocks for their suggestions. After researching the options, we settled on the Starfrit model recommended by @canadarocks: Amazon.com: Starfrit Securimax Auto Can Opener, Silver/Black : Home & Kitchen It works like a charm every time we need to get a can opened. It has already lasted longer than most can-openers we have tried. I am hopeful that we will still be celebrating this purchase on August 24th, when National Can Opener Day rolls around. Love that we can always trust the advice of the readers of the Fleet Report and Daily.

We refer to it as being "voluntold."

You could add the six day Boston to Quebec City (October 2-8) leg on the Nieuw Stantendam and avoid flying into Canada. That cruise is being heavily discounted now.

Forgiveness often eludes us for the wrong reasons. We think others don't deserve forgiveness because their actions are too egregious; and we are correct. Yet, we desire forgiveness from God and others for our own egregious actions. As we realize that we have been forgiven much, we become more capable of forgiving others. Forgiveness is more for our own health and wellbeing than it is for the people we choose to forgive. It doesn't mean that they "get away with it". It doesn't require reconciliation. Forgiveness from us is just a way of releasing the hold that the behavior of others has on us; forgiveness frees us to move on from the pain.

Quite a few years ago, we stayed at the KOA near Devil's Tower. They showed "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" out on the lawn on a very large screen. The best part was when the electrical storm was taking place on the screen a real lightning storm was flashing all around us. I don't think anyone's eyes were focused on the screen the rest of the night.

We had Vacatin Bible School at church all this week and my DW forgot that Siri is always listening to everything. She couldn't tell where the voice was coming from when she was explaining the prospect of salvation based on Jesus rising from the tomb. Each point that DW made was answered from the iphone in her back pocket with, "I'm not sure I understand."

Have you been to the Spam Museum in Austin, MN? I never realized how many flavors Spam produced. Some of them seemed to only be available in Hawaii and at the Museum.

When we lived in Maine, one of our neighbors invited us over for a big BBQ and Lobster was one of the main Maine attractions. He tried introducing us to the Tomalley from the lobster (that green creamy mess in the middle of a lobster). He and others insisted it was the best part of eating lobster. I couldn't bring myself to even trying it and after reading up on what it was, I am glad I didn't.

Morning walk:

We are at Cannon Beach for our annual Conference; I enjoyed a rainy beach walk about five this morning.

You can go to the "Connect" tab on the bottom of the Navigator app, then select "Let Us Know" and you will be able to give feedback.

We lived in Limerick, Maine for a few years, and it was interesting to know how many local Mainers (Maniacs) had never been out of the state. New Hampshire was only a few minutes away, but the locals had no desire to go over the border.

We in Washington state consider ourselves to be on the west coast, but haven't had any real heat. It did hit 70 degrees a couple of days (not in a row). Today, we hope for mid to high 60's, but the weekend will be back to 50's for the high. The atmospheric river has dumped way more liquid on us than anyone deserves and we would love to share with those dry areas that could use more precipitation.

Pierce County Sherrif, Ed Troyer, saw a car that looked like the operator was casing houses in the middle of the night. When Ed blocked the car in a driveway and confronted the driver, things didn't go well. The driver was delivering papers, and Ed Troyer is up on charges for profiling. I used to deliver papers in the middle of the night in California. I had a 500 customer, 75-mile route. I would not have been surprised to have someone come and confront me, and hopefully I would have responded with grace and humility. Driving on the wrong side of the road and swerving back and forth as you throw things at people's houses and into their trucks can look pretty suspicious.

Maybe you are allergic to not cruising 😉

Did Sitka ever get cancelled as a stop because of weather? We had Sitka as a scheduled port in September of 2021, but plans changed because of high winds and we didn't even sail on that side of the island.

@TiogaCruiserI would love to share some rain with you. We got another three-fourths inch today, and it is still raining. I love the PNW, and the precipitation is a big part of why we are so green and have such great hiking and scenery. We can still see snow in the hills around town, because the snowpack this year was above normal. All of the snow works as a reservoir for the greater Puget Sound Region. Our fire danger, west of the mountains, is also quite low compared to much of the country. We do get a little nervous when we have too long of a dry spell (more than a week) because the rain creates a great deal of fuel in forest underbrush. As long as it remains wet, it isn't much of a concern.

I wish we could share some of ours in the Pacific Northwest. We had over 100 inches last year and already have over 60 inches this year. It was sunny this morning when I got up, but after a walk and a little work at the church, we got a squall that came with thunder and lightning. It is a rare day here that it doesn't rain this year.

My grandpa was a dairy farmer, and his brother (named Christ) was a moonshiner. Christ shared a lot of customers with grandpa's milk run.

I don't like coconut, so no macaroons for me; I also do not like nuts, so the macarons with blanched almonds would also be out.

Sounds similar to the cities of refuge in Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and 1 Chronicles.

My DW and I will be donating blood today in honor of those who have sacrificed their blood for us.