Occupation of Independence

 It is wonderful to see yourself becoming more appreciative of solid, unspectacular things.  Maybe that happens more and more the older a person gets? Look at this nice thing I experienced at the beginning of summer.  It made a great impression at the time, but I couldn't explain it:  Maybe it was the context and "set up."  It was early summer and I was driving from ID to OR.  Just before leaving ID, I saw people eating outdoors and driving around with their windows down in a way that made them look like they were celebrating the onset of summer.  I was deeply offended. Then on the OR side I saw people practicing predatory parking while looking for the tiny bits of shade available at the Walmart parking lot.  This seemed funny to me.  "Hey, these Oregonians are OK," I thought. As I have done a thousand times during my RV career, I escaped the (low altitude) heat of the 'big city' early that morning, by climbing a steep hill up to some high al...