Well, here I am back in Olympia, ending the journey where the journey began.  There is a song about that, written by J. R. R. Tolkien for the book 'The Hobbit' and then handed down to the Lord of the Rings.  The road goes ever ever on, he said, and I suppose it does.  I wonder where it will go to next?
 
I started my job today.  How exciting.  Actually, it will be nice to have some purpose back in my life again.  Vacations can get boring when you're stuck in the suburbs without a car.  I did manage to experience some wonderful things in the last few weeks, though.  There was the trip to the tiny tiny town of Paradise on Mt. Ranier, for instance.  I climbed up above the snow line to get a view south that encompassed the snow-capped dome of Mt. Adams, the shaved off cap of Mt. St. Helens, and the pointy spire of Mt. Hood, just barely visible in the distant haze.  The yellow and white glacier lilies bloomed between magenta puffs of mountain heather in the verdant alpine meadows on the lower slopes.  Across the valley the Tatoosh range sawtoothed it's way through a dense green carpet of colossal old-growth trees.  The Carbon river wound a meandering course down the valley.
 
On the fourth of July, I watched dual fireworks displays from the roof of the Casa del Rey, an apartment building on Broadway in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.  The awesome Lake Union pyrostorm completely outdid the dinky little flash in the pan put on by Ivar's at Myrtle Edwards park.  There were fireworks last night here in Olympia, too, but I was too busy recovering from an allergic reaction to the cat that lives in my new house to care much.  Then I woke up at four in the morning with a hacking cough and a sore throat.  Slept all morning and called in late to work, which was ultimately OK, because my boss has been preoccupied with interviews and hiring processes all day, anyway.
 
The weather outside is gorgeous, and I think I am going to go take advantage of that.  Be well.