Where are all the deciduous trees?

This was one of the few 4 day weekends that are coming up, so I should take advantage of my free time. I spent 3/4 of my first lovely 4 day weekend, at lovely Belknap hot springs. This was, of course, to celebrate my mother's birthday. This was a nice get away for her, because she needed some peace and quiet. This was delivered to the extreme at Belknap, they have no phones, computers or TV in any of the rooms, and of course you are at a hot spring, so there's the naturally heated pools, warm lodge, and complimentary breakfasts. In fact, it would be hard not to feel relaxed at Belknap, unless of course, you are me, and are frightened by silence, and sleeping in beds that do not have at least one side against a wall.
The drive to the hot springs was lovely, like any other long scenic drives. We stopped here and there to get out, look at things, and take pictures of things like a miniature donkey farm, a Flintstone house, an all year Christmas store, and things that just looked pretty. The trip even gave me a chance to use a new headphone technique.
I thought of the technique on a trip in August, but at the time did not have the equipment needed. Here is what you will need:
1. Music player of some sort (i.e CD player, iPod, mp3 player)
2. A run of the mill head phone splitter, for two head sets
3. The dumb head phones that come with iPods, or any type you stick in your ear
& 4. Big head phones that provide a space between your ear and the actual phones.
Can you guess what I did next? I bet you can! you got it... Plug both head sets into the splitter, and that into the music player, then put the dumb ear phones in, and then the big head set, and play your music REALLY REALLY loud! Most of the time, this will block out any unwanted noise, to provide a more enjoyable listening experience. If it doesn't, then I'm sorry.

So, other than the drive, and the time actually spent at the lodge, we ate dinner at a log cabin, where no one talked, and a few people actually cried, and went site-seeing in little Oregon towns, we had all seen over and over again. In the little town of Sisters, we went about looking at galleries to ponder as possible place to put my dad's art work. Really, I think my dad just liked telling people he was a "budding artist". We looked at a few more stores, like "the dime store", were I got myself a cap gun, and Lacey a coonskin hat (not real, don't worry), neither of which were a dime. I also bought some buttons from an old man at a used book store. After we had done all we could for the longest time possible in Sisters, we started driving, and I was only informed once we got there, that we were going all the way to Bend, just to go to Ranch Records, for the sole purpose of getting a David Bowie CD for the car ride back to the Lodge. I liked this very much, especially since I have recently decided that once you start compromising fun for practicality, you're too old.
After that, until the time we got home, nothing really happened that is worth writing about in a blog, other then stopping at an all year Christmas store and hearing a very funny, very deep conversation between the two owners, who neither of which looked like they wanted to be running an all year Christmas store in the middle of nowhere. When we got home, I unpacked, read the 7 messages I had in my mail box (I haven't got an e-mail since then), and went back to my life.

Then Lacey came over, and we celebrated daylight savings by watching the Pete and Pete episode about daylight savings (I recommend you do the same), sewing stuff, filming things, and baking at 2 in the morning (we do that all the time, not just for daylight savings). Then we had a nice extra hour of sleep, got up and looked at the computer, and I am still there, at the computer. But I cant do this anymore, tomorrow's Halloween, I want to carve a pumpkin, so I will leave you there.