Well - me & the dawgs TRIED to go see the Perseid meteor showers Sat eve. . . . . drove away from Portland (OR) city lights to countryside south and east. (Molalla-Mulino, for those familiar w/the area). The sun was setting pink in an otherwise clear sky (yay!) as we scouted likely stopping spots.
    Alas - with urban growth creeping rurally, traffic was horrendous!  So even when a dark spot could be found, car lights were a real bother! Add to that the ubiquitous rural exterior quartz security lights & we hit a real snag. Now, mind you, I am somewhat disabled so a hike-however brief-was out of the question.
   But still I kept on, determined to take advantage of this moonless early August sky show. When a spot was finally found, damn if a purplish-black fan-shaped cloud bank wasn't hurrying my way!  The dogs were whining, I had to pee, and there were just way to many cars for "way out in the sticks"!
   So, homeward we headed; with a stop at local "Burgerville" for a Tillamook ice cream milkshake and a short cut thru Fred Meyer pkg lot in Oregon City. I decided to stop & check out the awful noise I had been hearing. If it was that newer muffler I was gonna have to head on in 1st thing Mon morning . . . instead, a very flat tire rear right. Double damn!  This was 11pm. Called a few friends & left msgs; then tow companies. Many don't do flats anymore;  others didn't go to Or.City; the one that did was 2+ hrs out!  And the late nite rabble-rousers made me a wee bit nervous. C'mon, dawgs, BARK - save me!  When I finally settled on one that was 1hr or less, I was wiped out. Down went the bed (hoo-rah for Vanagon campers!) & snooze went the canids & I. Then it took quite over an hr for poor Darryl to change out the tire-seems the spare was never used in it's 26 yrs!  Rust rust rust .... he banged and tweaked and swore and went 'ouch'. I still had to pee. I pardoned myself & zoomed of
f on my scooter to check out the shrubbery for nature's call . . . "how do you spell ' relief ' ?"  It was after 2AM when he finally sent me on my way - home, wind down, computer messages and bed by 0500!
       Next year I'll stay in the Santiam wilderness outside Eugene to catch a star -
- Anna QS
' 86 Blue Mongrel . .  & the dawgs