By Emily Woodbury
Well, for the first time in a long while, I don’t feel like I was just writing this a couple of days ago! That’s because it’s been two whole weeks (miss me?) since I’ve sat down and learned about you.
I’ve been spending a lot of time with my dad (Chuck) at his campsite a few hours north of Seattle these past two weeks. He’s staying in his RV at a beautiful county park while his home kitchen gets remodeled. He’s at a secluded campsite with a Douglas fir canopy and many, many squirrels (his little dog, Archie, is thrilled about that part). Much of the work on this website the last few weeks has been written and posted at that campsite. How lucky are we that we can work, write and post from almost anywhere?
I’m happy to report that the magic of the campground is still out there – the campfire raging (but carefully controlled), the fresh scent of pine, ah, and yes, the click-clack of my computer keyboard.
Last Saturday I learned that 65 percent of you are like me – you would not want to go back to high school again, should time travel ever permit. About a third of you, though, 32 percent, would go back in time and do it all over again (whyyyyyyyyyy?), and 3 percent of you might try doing it again since you never completed it the first time around.
We changed our Daily Tips newsletter around, starting this past Monday. What do you think? Our poll in that issue asked: Have you ever served on a jury in a civil or criminal case? A little more than half of you, 55 percent, answered that no, you have not; however, 45 percent of you have.
“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!” Tuesday’s poll asked you to select the two natural disasters you are most afraid of. Like Dorothy, you’re most afraid of tornadeos, followed by fires, earthquakes, flood and hurricanes (in that order). Reader Kaeleen Buckingham commented: “I really don’t fear any of those natural disasters. We live too close to the mountains to worry too much about tornadoes, too high on the hill to worry about flooding, don’t live anywhere near a fault line, nowhere near a coast for hurricane, and too much in the city for a wildfire to be an issue (although it can happen).” Hey, Kaeleen, mind sharing your address with us? I have a hunch that a few of us (myself included) would like to move in. Thanks in advance. Wink.
We should have included “salted caramel” on Wednesday’s poll (vanilla or chocolate ice cream – which would you choose?), because many of your comments were salty! Let the dairy-free people live, jeesh! Oh, and also, I love salted caramel ice cream, so I would’ve chosen that… just sayin’. It was nearly a tie between chocolate or vanilla: 43 percent of you would pick vanilla, but 40 percent of you would choose chocolate. An indecisive 15 percent of you said it’s a toss-up, and 2 percent of you said “neither.”
I was surprised to read that, according to Thursday’s poll, 57 percent of you don’t have driving to/from Alaska in your RV on your bucket list. I think this would be soooooo neat to do! A good handful of you, 30 percent, do have that adventure on your bucket list, though, and 13 percent of you have already done it. Cool!
Okidokie, I’m off! See you next week. Stay cool this weekend, especially if you’re a part of this massive, disgusting heatwave. And again, Kaeleen, make sure you send that address over. 