THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2019 // 3
SCRATCHPAD
On breaking out of a routine
By ERICK BENGEL
COAST WEEKEND
H
ow easy it is, when
you’ve lived in an area
long enough and the nov-
elty starts to wane, to suddenly
stop exploring it. I am fortunate,
though, to have people in my
life who sense when my routine
may be calcifying into a rut, and
politely pull me out of it.
As our region underwent a brief
bout of ridiculously nice weather,
I found myself hitting several sites
I’ve never seen — places mundane
to others, perhaps, but to me were
small, uninvestigated wonders.
Last weekend, my partner and
coast
I ventured southeast on Oregon
Route 202 to get acquainted with
the Blue Jays’ track — the blue
jewel of the Jewell School District.
We’d half feared it wouldn’t
be as blue in real life as it was
in The Daily Astorian when the
track was fi nished last spring, that
Colin Murphey’s Photoshop wiz-
ardry had maybe deceived us. But
no. That track is seriously blue —
Papa Smurf blue — and though
our multimile run was probably
a one-and-done, it was worth the
45-minute trip.
We then stopped by the Jew-
ell cemetery, located on a shel-
tered hill a short drive off the
main road. A solid layer of snow
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
weekend
arts & entertainment
4
7
8
THE ARTS
The Oikos Collective
was untouched save for faint deer
tracks. The burial ground holds
several persons born in the mid-
19th century; their lives began
at roughly the midpoint between
the last Cascadia Subducton Zone
earthquake and the present. It’s one
of those tucked-away spots of early
settlement where, when you squint
and blur out the traces of moder-
nity (newer tombstones, a random
traffi c cone, litter), you can picture
how the white winter scene might
have appeared to previous genera-
tions of mourners.
As we headed back to Asto-
ria we came upon a white van
that had fl ipped onto its side. The
young occupants were milling
about, apparently uninjured, and,
along with others in their caravan,
remarkably calm. We checked on
COAST WEEKEND EDITOR
ERICK BENGEL
CONTRIBUTORS
KATHERINE LACAZE
LYNDA LAYNE
BARBARA LLOYD McMICHAEL
CARA MICO
PATRICK WEBB
Arts and crafts for all ages
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them, saw they were OK, drove
on and, once we had wireless bars,
called emergency services.
Our last planned stop: the
Olney Saloon (“The Big O”) for
Taco Sunday. But, after the graves
and the rollover, cheap deluxe
tacos didn’t entirely displace my
thoughts of mortality.
I suppose the subject has been
on my mind since my back seized
up last month (many years of
sloppy posture fi nally taking their
toll) and forced me to accept that
my 20s are well behind me.
Years ago a friend said I already
walk and behave like an old man,
somewhat hunched over and prone
to getting trapped in daily cycles. It
was a friendly observation but also
an admonition, one I try to remem-
ber whenever I feel content to
enjoy the same diversions day after
day, month after year. So while I
believe in seeking new experiences
for their own sake, I’m also fi ght-
ing against a natural impulse to get
too settled.
We creatures of habit cling to
the safety of sameness — the same
hangouts and eateries, the same
views and vibes. And, when what
you do for a living requires con-
stant engagement of the gray mat-
ter, there’s a seductive comfort in
not thinking too hard or pushing
yourself too far, especially when
no one’s making you do it. It often
takes, at least for me, great strength
of will to break that pattern, to
escape its gravitational pull.
Luckily, the escape can begin
by fi nding nothing more than a
different road to drive on. CW