Rocks in My Head

This morning (Friday) I faced the unusual juxtaposition of a relatively good night's sleep (I only woke up straight out of a sound sleep three times coughing), and relatively good weather (for this part of the country, that means not raining and with temps above about 45). In fact, I think it hit 50, and there was cloud cover that actually broke briefly to reveal a few patches of blue. I still have that cough I mentioned a few blog posts ago, but it is waning, thanks to a trip to the doctor, which got me a diagnosis of asthma, along with prescriptions for an inhaler and an antibiotic (just to be sure). Unfortunately, it also netted me a trip to the phlebotomist, who drew blood so the doctor could check all kinds of things (diabetes, thyroid function, cholesterol, vampiric or undead tendencies). Buggery! My cholesterol was rather high, but since she didn't want to load me up with too many prescriptions at once, she held off on prescribing a statin. In the meantime, I put myself on a low-cholesterol diet, which has had the welcome and unexpected consequence of jump-starting my weight loss, which was at a standstill. Boo Hoo, no more eggs and bacon for me. I'm hoping I can talk her out of prescribing an anti-cholesterol pill.

Anyway, enough about my health. This unusual good fortune of feeling fine (more or less) and good weather (more or less) left me with a dilemma. What to do? Play in the garden? Visit a nursery (or more than one)? Take a nice long walk, for real (rather than an exercise video)? Or --

Drive for an hour (more or less) to look at rocks?

I chose that last one...Hehe. And not because I have rocks in my head. Although I might, you never know. The doctor didn't examine that.

I went to the Marenakos Rock Center, in Preston, WA., an eight-acre stone yard with plenty of rocks, as far as the eye can see (more or less).

Acres....

And acres....

And acres of rocks

Cool ones full of holes

And -- they show you what to do with them.

Water features...

This one had a mister in it -- a device that agitates the water with sound waves to turn it into mist

Fireplaces...

I'm not sure what this guy was doing, but I could hear him chipping away at the rock before placing it. Maybe another fireplace?

You can shape them into orbs, and cubes.

Or eggs

The egg-shaped ones had a depression carved into them, to catch water.

You can carve them into sculptures.

I'm not quite sure what she's trying to do. But it looks like she's struggling with a man who is underneath her, who is still part of the stone. Jacob wrestling with the angel?

This more abstract sculpture rather appealed to me.

You can sculpt them into pots.

And lanterns. This one reminded me of a Mexican man in a sombrero.

You can hang a gate on them.

Make a stone hut out of them.

That opening at the bottom was big enough for a child to crawl through. Or a skinny teenager. Or a middle-aged woman skinnier than me.

The stone was dry-stacked.

You could make your very own Stonehenge.

Of course, you can always just plunk them down in your garden, as is.

I finally headed back to my car, and pointed it in the direction of the closest Starbucks. But on the way, I found something even better.

My favorite!! Of course, this little paper bag holds a high-cholesterol, high-calorie brownie.

But fortunately, I prefaced the brownie with some hot, healthy tomato soup.

And then, I pointed the car towards home.