I have to go (back) to Seattle today. Work. I should be enroute now, 6:33. I spent a week in Seattle the other night. Old joke. It was a day and a half. Three-quarters, more like. I dropped Trish and our daughter off there on a Wednesday. Dru had surgery on Thursday morning and was supposed to come home on Sunday. Nope. Monday. I braved the Sunday retreat from the Olympic Peninsula, the ferry traffic reduced by broken propellers and who-knows what else, the super steep, clutch ruining hills, and confusion a big city can bring on someone so long in the country, and the frustratingly difficult navigation requirements in and between the massive buildings of the Medical-Industrial Complex. We just escaped on a Monday, Dru propped and pillowed in the backseat, Trish driving, me giving navigational tips like, “Just pull a U-ey and get in the fucking ferry lane.” “No. The signs say…” “Okay, maybe there’ll be another boat, like, eventually.” “If I get a ticket…” We missed the ferry anyway. Some sort of 50 car unit pulled into service.

Dru thought it was amusing that she did the ‘double chin photo move.’ Wow, three Pepsis and an unopened container of orange juice. I, no doubt, finished off her hospital food.

With an incredible amount of shuffling and a large number of phone calls, I managed to free up the next day, hoping for a score on the Strait.

If you had to guess, you’d be correct. No score. Following my own advice to at least get a few shots of other searchers, I have these:

Notice the lack of barrelling, spitting waves. One of Dru’s nurses lives in Olympia. I wanted to ask her if she knows surfer Tom Burns. Trish talked me out of it. I was in the water with this guy for a couple of hours, hoping for a couple of waves. He’s from Olympia. “Hell, yes, I know Tom. He’s a wellspring of knowledge about all the wave conditions out here.” “Yeah, that’s Tom,” I said. “And… he remembers names.” I texted ‘Tom Morello’ to myself. The text failed.

SHIT! What also failed is a cool shot of “Hawaiian Brian” Noji, second place finisher in his age group (50-59?) at the recent Cape Kiwanda Longboard Contest in Oregon. I transferred the image from one phone to another and… I did tell him it’d be on my site, and…

…and, as usual, I don’t have time right now. Van to load, ferries to miss.

Sunday.