BPED: 14APR69

For years I regularly saw "BPED: 14APR69" on important papers.

And not-so-important papers also, I suppose.

"Basic Pay Entry Date" was the Army term for what usually corresponded to your entry on active service, though for some folks who had certain types of deferred entry it differed.

I didn't particularly need to be reminded of the date.

For me, April 14, 1969 was the day I got out of bed in Edmonds, got dressed, and went to the Armed Forces Entrance & Examination Station ("AFEES") on 15th West in Seattle, where they examined me & entered me into the United States Army.

Forty years ago this morning.

They piled us on a bus, drove us to Fort Lewis, cut off our hair, gave us some unattractive ill-fitting clothes along with boxes to mail the clothes we had on back home, and things were under way.

Forty years ago today.

Wet Sun

Seattle is famous for its rainy days. There are lots, and many folks find that regrettable.

My opinion has long been that the sun comes out almost every day. Maybe only for a few minutes, and often just after sunrise or just before sunset, but it does shine.

It is worth watching for.

Today it rained moderately for much of the day, and rained hard for most of the rest, but the sun came out for a few minutes in the evening, and I grabbed my camera and went out in the backyard to catch the moss & lichen on the apple and cherry trees, still wet with rain, illuminated by almost horizontal sunlight.

Driving in gray areas

Driving in Seattle often involves driving under gray skies, on streets gray & darkly wet from rain.

This morning was a good example of that.

But I was also driving in a gray area between driving as well as I sometimes can, and not well enough to be safe driving.

Darkly wet from rain.

Seal

This little seal suddenly popped up from behind rocks to the right as we were going by. Getting past us & back in the water seemed very, very important to him.

Snow

We had snow last week. That seemed late but they are forecasting some snow again this weekend.

Melvin says it was his snow dance that brought the snow — that he danced more enthusiastically and longer than those spoilsports doing their no-snow dance.

Beach

Melvin went to the beach.

He wished he had brought his canoe.

He said that he could paddle all the way across to China.

We explained that the other side was the Olympic Peninsula—that China was a lot further.

Then we watched a train do some switching.

Thorp

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I wanted to do something special for my mom for my birthday.

She didn't know what was planned, but when I got there I reminded her how I used to come visit them in West Linn, John's Landing, Lake Oswego, and we would make a birthday trip to Hood River, my birthplace, and beyond to Cellilo or Maryhill. Obviously Hood River was too far from West Seattle, but basically that consisted of getting on the Interstate heading East, and we could do that.

So we headed East on I-90, without much idea how far we might get. In particular, how much driving I could handle.

North Bend was easy.

Mom was enjoying the scenery and reading the names on trucks.

Hyak was not a problem.

Mom was enjoying the mountains and the snow and possibly some memories.

Easton was fine.

Mom enjoyed the changes and my tale of camping there in boy scouts, and trains going by in the night.

Cle Elum was achieved.

We left I-90 at the Roslyn exit, which cuts the corner to the old road from Cle Elum to Roslyn, and followed it into Cle Elum, where we scouted for a lunch stop, but didn't quite decide.

We ended up on the old highway east out of Cle Elum, to wind through the canyon the Yakima River traverses toward Ellensburg. This is wonderful scenery and quite different than anything on I-90 or West of the mountains.

One debouches from that canyon to see the expanses of Eastern Washington opening before you.

There is something about actually getting to that point that is special, and that was probably my birthday treat. Out of Western Washington -- 'The Wet Side' -- beyond the mountains, beyond the Eastern foothills. Sort of "where the West begins." It's always seemed strange taht from where I grew up and live, one has to drive East to get to "The West" of story and film, but there you are.

We turned off old Highway 10 on the Thorp road, and even older version of the Seattle-Montana-"Back East" road.

I don't think I have ever seen the actual town of Thorp before, and it was quite interesting.

Just beyond the town, we returned to I-90, which we took back to Cle Elum for bacon cheeseburgers, fries, and lemonade at Dairy Queen.

Then back on to I-90 to return through valleys and snowy mountains to West Seattle, where I delivered Mom, and then crept home to nap.