MINDFUL MONDAY~Reflections; Castle Rock-WA

The Plan for today - when we turned in last night: was to run into Longview and grab the yarn skeins needed to complete my little project.

The timeline was extended when we glanced out the front door window, and noticed the fog hugging the freeway:

Very foggy; we can hear freeway traffic, but can't see it passing by.

While passing time drinking my morning joy juice☕️ & scrolling the internet 💻🌐 … a FB Reel came through my Feed 🥩🥘, and it looked so good; when we came back from Longview - the fixin's came with us 😉

I wrote down the recipe as she was talking and pulling it together - and it really was delish! 👍

LILYLOUTAY'S FB STEAK, CABBAGE & RICE Recipe~For 2; Castle Rock-WA: 

 (https://roadgypsiesvalandholland.blogspot.com/2026/05/lilyloutays-fb-steak-cabbage-rice.html)

Posting the recipe on my Blog after Supper - I went back over to FB to visit Friends' Pages & FB Memory came through my Feed: a memory that would have been overlooked if it hadn't danced before my eyes.

I was momentarily startled that the realization that settling into this New Life with a new Husband, I almost forgot this important Day's accounting.

I felt guilty that it had slipped my thoughts until triggered by a Memory notification.

I felt relived joy that Holland's presence in my Life has so soothed the overwhelming sorrow that had been my close shadow from December 2018 to November 2022.

Bob was then; Holland is now.

Bob was my calming influence then - Holland, even with our complicated relationship hiccups, is my calming influence now. He soothes me in a way no one else since Bob has been able to; he is a true blessing to me in so many ways. Perhaps it is a good thing that my thoughts are pretty much fully occupied now with my New Life. My new husband deserves my undivided attention. Our marriage needs to be front and center, now.

But today, when memories are triggered in my thoughts, Mt. St. Helens will always be considered "Bob's Mountain" - and though the timeframe is a relatively short period of time from the winter of 2018 to the winter of 2022 … my life with Bob was another lifetime ago. And I will never share a trip to that mountain with anyone else.

I have not been back to Mt. St. Helens since 2022.

Mt. St. Helens, as she stands now; descent to Coldwater Lake-Loowit Viewpoint Junction~September 2021

But I will always remember that mountain. I will always remember the man who first took me there … and who was one of the first loggers to go into the Red Zone to do salvage logging, following the devastating eruption.

Bob grew up enjoying family camping trips to the Mt. St. Helens area.

Spirit Lake & Mt. St. Helens; pre-1980 eruption

Bob spent many young man days enjoying everything the mountain … and her surrounding regions … had to offer; and he took me to all those areas many, many times during our 44 years together. Every access from Toutle, Cougar, & Packwood. I loved all though Daytrip drives. In the two-toned Ford, and on the back of the Harley. Those were wonderful Days & are now, heart-warming memories.

I remember walking that trail with Bob many times from 1974 until 1980; Mt. St. Helens Timberline Parking Lot; PRE-1980 ERUPTION

I remember the explosive eruption that was felt all the way to our livingroom in Cathlamet, where the ground shook as the news breaks shot out back-to-back announcements of the on-going eruption.

The blast that changed the Past … May 18th, 1980

I remember the kids (Alex 11 & Stacey 6) excitedly watching the ashy "snowflakes!" liter the grassy yard & gravel driveway of our Cathlamet home - 100 miles and more from Loowit's explosive temper-tantrum. I remember Bob taking Alex with him to the forbidden Red Zone ash fields, one morning he had maintenance work to do on the job site - and hiding him in the shovel's cab when helicopters flew overhead: they laughed about that secretive endeavor for decades; even when Bob's life was wrapping up in his final days at OHSU - another State and many hundreds of miles from his beloved mountain.

Mt. St. Helens was - and always will be, in my mind: "Bob's Mountain".

A WALK IN THE CLOUDS: https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-walk-in-clouds.html

BOB'S MOUNTAIN ~Shabbat Mt. St. Helens Outing:

https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2022/06/bobs-mountain-shabbat-mt-st-helens.html

{{Pacific Northwest marks 46th anniversary of Mount St. Helens eruption

~FOX 12 Staff/May 18, 2026 at 6:29 AM

46 years since that cataclysmic event.

SKAMANIA COUNTY, Wash. (KPTV) - Monday marks the 46th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption, an event many in the Pacific Northwest remember from that morning in 1980.

The eruption on May 18, 1980, destroyed everything in a six-mile radius and triggered a landslide that put communities downstream of the mountain at risk of flooding. It also threatened access to the Columbia River navigation channel.

After the eruption, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a dam to trap volcanic sediments from flowing downstream.

Fifty-seven people lost their lives that day.

It remains the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history.

How Mount St. Helens eruption transformed volcanic monitoring in WA

 ~FOX 13 Seattle/May 18, 2026 12:21pm

The May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens remains the deadliest and most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history, fundamentally changing how scientists monitor volcanic activity.

Mount St. Helens eruption 46th anniversary

The eruption, which occurred at 8:32 a.m., claimed 57 lives, destroyed 200 homes and flattened 230 square miles of forest. It also triggered the largest landslide in recorded history and propelled a massive plume of ash into the atmosphere for several hours.

Devastating ash and mudflows

"The big thing was the volcanic ash," said FOX 13 Chief Meteorologist Brian MacMillan. "It surged 80,000 feet up into the atmosphere – it blocked out the sun in some spots like Yakima."

Accumulations of ash were recorded miles away from the volcano, impacting major residential areas. Inches of ash blanketed communities such as Pullman, while Spokane was also severely affected. The eruption additionally triggered destructive lahars, which are volcanic mudflows that swept through the surrounding landscape.

These State Police cars look like something from the moon as they are equipped with homemade air breathing devices to prevent volcanic ash from entering the engines. The vent tubes run from the engine to the interior of the auto where the air is at least 60 percent cleaner than it is outside. Thereby causing as little damage to the engines as possible, they hope. The volcanic ash started falling when Mt. St. Helens had a gigantic eruption on May 18, 1980, spreading across the country.

Advances in volcanic monitoring

In the 46 years since the disaster, researchers have significantly advanced their ability to track activity at Washington state's most active volcanoes.

Today, a dense network of monitoring equipment surrounds Mount St. Helens to detect early signs of volcanic activity. This infrastructure includes 18 seismometers positioned within a seven-mile radius of the mountain.

The increased monitoring capability allows scientists to track subtle underground shifts, with the equipment currently detecting an average of 17 earthquakes per month at the volcano.}}

Pulling my thoughts back into the present, I glanced out the dining room window & saw a fat & sassy Robin, perched on top edge on Betsy's back end.

And I also saw a pretty sherbet colored rose.

Today started & ended good.

I am greatly blessed & highly favored.

My soul is at rest.