Lake Life: June 2010

June Moon

Doubt thou that the stars are fire;

Doubt thou that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt that I love.

Shakespeare (Hamlet)

Kamaldeep, Alisa, Jessica, Peggy, Nancy D, Coleen, Anne Marie, Nancy H, Alex, Clarissa - You guys are the best! This group of students has made me very thankful to have been an instructor at Whatcom Community College. They are smart, intuitive, and high achievers! I have been overwhelmingly impressed with their sense of compassion and respect for each other and the patients with whom they hope to work. Teaching is incredibly rewarding because of you and I'm inspired to do my best each day.

Okay, say it with me... cheaters never win and winners never cheat... failure is not a reason to quit, quitting is a reason to fail... Ahhh, THANKS YOU GUYS, you are the best batch of students ever!

About half the students are done or this close to being done with the Health Unit Coordinator or Medical Front Office or Medical Billing Coding Programs so we decided to celebrate at my house. What fun!

Clarissa, Alisa, and me (watering my gorgeous fuschia tree they just gave me! Wow! I love it!)

Anne Marie and Kamaldeep.

Mike, Nancy's boyfriend, brought the grill and cooked all our dinner. Too bad Crash ate his burger when he wasn't looking! Seriously, Mike, call me, I want to buy you a burger...

Thank You, Kamaldeep, for my beautiful scarves and bracelets from India! I love them and will think of you guys each time I wear them.

Thank goodness men work in healthcare! As the only guy in the class, Alex tolerated a lot of girl talk and showed that he can handle a job in healthcare. I'm impressed!

Alisa! Peggy! I miss you two already!

Nancy D, Thank You for the artistic cards you designed! I will use them to thank my future guests. The back row wouldn't have been complete with you. Hey, no photos of Jessica or Coleen or Nancy H?

Alex and Coleen's husband Steven jumped in the lake! Boys are crazy!

Keegan wanted to swim with his dad...

...even though his mom said No!

Oh wait, girls are crazy? Clarissa jumped in too!

WHEN IS THE NEXT PARTY? I'M READY!!

Cascade Hall, our favorite place...

Remember Fall Quarter 2009 and they put us in Syre...!!

Just Now

W.S. Merwin

In the morning as the storm begins to blow away

the clear sky appears for a moment and it seems to me

that there has been something simpler than I could ever believe

simpler than I could have begun to find words for

not patient, not even waiting, no more hidden

than the air itself that became part of me for awhile

with every breath and remained with me unnoticed

something that was here unnamed

unknown in the days and the nights

not separate from them as they came and were gone

it must have been here neither early nor late then

by what name can I address it now holding out my thanks.

Whales

Going to Walden

Mary Oliver

It isn't very far as highways lie.

I might be back by nightfall, having seen

The rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water.

Friends argue that I might be wiser for it.

They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper:

How dull we grow from hurrying here and there!

Many have gone, and think me half a fool

To miss the day away in the cool country.
Maybe. But in a book I read and cherish,

Going to Walden is not so easy a thing

As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult

Trick of living, and finding it where you are.

Neither Daryl or I have ever been on a whale tour here in the Pacific Northwest and a recent weekend with no plans found me looking for last minute sailings. Being on the water is so rejuvinating! Our whale watching tour left the Port of Bellingham and arrived in Friday Harbor about three hours later. We toured around on foot, then hopped back on the boat and headed out into Puget Sound and found a pod of Orca whales.

I spotted one!

So many boats in the water, looking for whales, as well as planes overhead. This photo does not show the approximately 20 boats that surrounded ours. Even with the heavily enforced distance restrictions, it seems kind of antagonizing for the whales... I don't think I would go again. We've seen whales, dolphins, and giant sea turtles in Hawaii, Galopagos, Gulf of Mexico, Central America, Carribean, Seychelles - and somehow it seems I appreciate them more if I leave them alone.

Sea lions hanging out, just waiting for us to sail by.

Coming into Bellingham

What a beautiful day!

Odd Ducks

Before I saw these two I had never considered a mallard would mate with anything other than another mallard but a couple of weeks ago we noticed that the merganser shows up with the male mallard nearly every time. The merganser never eats the food we toss into the lake, just hangs back a good distance while the mallard stuffs himself. Can't see it so well in these photos, but, the merganser is photographed here on zoom. Learn something new every day out here!