"Chuckie is a Daydreamer": that's what Mrs Carr wrote on my 3rd Grade report card. One of the things I like about my morning walks, besides the fresh air, early rising sun and so on, is how my mind meanders through my memories when I'm walking. I'm an agnostic, and I remembered one of the few prayers I've had since I was a teenager. It was around 2am on the first night of the Tet Offensive (30Jan1968), in Chu Lai, Vietnam. After the first incoming mortars (we called them "rockets") stopped, and we were sitting outside the bunkers waiting for the signal horns telling us to go to our assigned jobs, I said to myself: "god, if you exist, I'm just covering my bases here...thank you" :) I have very few photos from Vietnam. We were in a "Headquarters" area fortunately, and this was the "Fisherman's Gate" guardpost we had down by the water. My fellow soldier's name was Joe DeSapio. He was from New York.

Classic Car shows: headlights

The photos are from my FB Memories folder this morning. Two other memories surfaced when I was riding my bike the other day: riding along canals with carp swimming in them when I lived in Japan, and arriving at work with icicles in my beard when I lived in in Boulder Colorado...

trying my hand at Haiku, at a Classic Car Show - - walking with Mommy - pretty colors shiny cars - little girl thinking

I have to figure out how to format this for 5-7-5 haiku

I posted this photo 4 years ago on this date, 11Jul2019. The bare tree branches tell me that it was a crisp, sunny, Winter morning. It was near our house in Tukwila, where both a small bridge and the Light Rail cross over the Green River. I miss the many walking places in the south end, but I'm a Bothellite now. Our walking/bike riding options up here have made the transition easy...

There's a dense, forested area going up the hill behind our apartment complex. I decided to go exploring the other day, just like when I was a kid. When I was in elementary school, there was a lot at the end of our block we called "the woods". These are some shots of some "woods" I took the other day, as seen through my 77yo eye(s)...

Classic Car shows: wonderful paint jobs, colors and lines

more leaves...silhouettes

I saw Jesse, the Maintenance Guy for our apartment complex, coming around the corner at the far end of the main road. His little golf cart came to a stop, and then it slowly started moving towards me. The man standing under the medium sized tree, looking up into it's branches, was me, with my camera. Jesse did a U Turn, and resumed whatever he was doing...

These shots are from last year's car show here in Bothell. I was focusing on reflections a lot...

Greenwood Car Show 2023 #4 - Tailfins "Tail fins started to appear on American cars in the late 1940s, and while many cars eventually adopted them, most experts credit Cadillac for introducing fins to the public. Although the fins served no practical purpose, they instantly connected Cadillac's luxury brand to the technological wonders that were capturing Americans' popular imagination at the time: rockets and jet airplanes." Most of my photos are of cars from the 60s.

There was a short feature on Bothell's 4th of July parade happening tomorrow when I read the paper this morning. You can see below why I don't take videos. Oh well. I filmed it around 6am this morning when I took my morning walk. I'll try to attach it to this post.

Our extended family used to go to Seaside Oregon every year on the weekend thay had their annual car show. Fun times walking along the beach, exploring the small galleries in town, and cheering for the Classic Cars and Hot Rods parade on Sunday. We celebrated our folks 60th Wedding Anniversary there in 2004. I thought about this memory when I walked by all the empty chairs people have lined up along Bothell Way this morning, all ready for our 4th of July parade tomorrow.

Greenwood Car Show 2023 #3 Interiors #1 I still have a bunch of photos from this show to share, but I have another car show in two days. There's a much smaller show here in Bothell every 4th of July. Yes!