HOUSESITTING IN BEND OREGON

POST # 280

This seems like good advice, especially if it's good quality ice cream.  I discovered this sign at the Sandy bakery, in Sandy, Oregon, just a couple of days ago.  My friend Mary and I were en-route to Bend, Oregon to do two separate housesits.  Mary lived in Bend for a while, so this is an opportunity to have a visit with her daughter and son in law, and her two grandchildren.  I on the other hand have only one furball to care for by the name of Sofi.  Sofi was part of the tag team of Sofi and Ziggy until just recently.  Ziggy has now gone to the great furball graveyard, and Sofi is left to fend for herself, with the help of this imported housesitter.  She's the invisible furball, or almost.  The only real way to tell that she is here is that the food gets consumed, and the litter box gets filled.  If it wasn't for those two things, you would be hard pressed to even know that she exists.  Sofi is VERY low maintenance.
Mary will be just down the road at another house with only one bonehead to take care of by the name of Henri.

The drive down to Bend from Bellingham was uneventful, and we had clear weather all the way.  A few short weeks ago it would have been a much different story due to all the wildfires that were burning.  When we stopped at the Sandy bakery, I detected the smell of smoke still in the air.  I mentioned this to one of the staff there, and she said she couldn't smell it.  Compared to what they had been through recently, this amount of smoke was insignificant.  She pointed out the window to an intersection very near by the bakery (maybe only 300 feet or so away), and she told us that earlier in the month, you couldn't even see the intersection.  Now THAT'S a lot of smoke indeed.

We on the other hand had clear skies all along the way as can be evidenced by the two photos below.

MOUNT HOOD 

CLIFFS NEAR WARM SPRINGS

I imagine that these two scenes would have been invisible to the naked eye only a few short weeks ago.  We were fortunate to have done the trip when we did.

And so begins yet another house/pet sit.  Both Sofi, and Henri will be in good hands for the next couple of weeks with two very experienced sitters.  They should count themselves lucky indeed.

On a walk in the woods today, I took a couple of photos.

 A PLEASANT AUTUMN SCENE

EVIDENCE OF AGEING HIPPIES IN BEND

This is the final post for September, and when October 1st rolls around, it will mark the date that The Thoughtful Wanderer said his final goodbye to his sailboat in Vancouver in 2011, and headed out on his life of intentional homelessness.  It has been quite an adventure so far.

living a life of simple acceptance,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer