Our first week in Oregon is drawing to a close and we’re starting to feel more settled.  I feel comfortable speaking for the Bitches in that regard since they’ve been alone for a few hours in the new place without raising hell and really are enjoying the trails.  We’ve seen two squirrels and a handful of actual ducks—Joey almost lost it with the ducks.  I guess the mascot is appropriate.  No beavers, though, but it’s not like I’m into beaver hunting, so all good.

This place is pretty rad.  This place that feels like Endor around every turn.  I’m so used to flat landscapes and being able to see for miles and miles, I can’t quite believe this is really our home.  Maybe it will hit me square in the near future, but a part of me hopes I always look around with a bit of wonder at it and never lose this new appreciation.

One important piece of information I learned this week was that SF means San Francisco and SD means San Diego to people out here.  Sioux Falls, South Dakota needs to be stated or perhaps I need to revert back to So Dak.  Being from So Dak is okay with people here, but not everyone is cool with the influx of Californians.  I’ve met a couple of people who whispered, “I moved here from California.”  Something about people selling houses in CA for piles of cash and raising housing prices here by buying with said piles of cash made them less popular.  Not my circus.

DOGS EVERYWHERE!  This might be the best part.  Plus, people like to meet the Bitches and talk about them, so it’s basically heaven for me.  We haven’t run into any other GSPs yet, so I’m assuming they aren’t very common up here.  One lady asked if they were Vizslas and another commented on how beautifully groomed they were.  Being a terrible liar, I let the cat out of the bag about how much they shed and how little bathing they need.  It may be the one area in which the Bitches are low-maintenance. 

Obviously I’ve been scoping out the Tinder world.  The two emerging trends are poly peeps and dudes with cats.  Since the cats are alive and look to be well cared for, it’s a nice change of pace from the dead animal fest I grew accustomed to in the Midwest.  (I know the dead animal pics probably abound in the rural parts of the state.  But do true patriots even have time for Tinder?)

Also noteworthy:  There is a nail salon called “Finger Bang” in Portland.  I laughed about this for a solid 15 minutes.  Seriously.  It’s a half hour drive from my place and there’s a nice place that’s a 10 minute walk, so I can’t really imagine my frequenting the old Finger Bang, but I like knowing it exists.  The menu lists different types of hand and foot jobs they do.  I would love to see the story comments if one of these were dropped into the south side of SF, I mean Sioux Falls.

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