Tobias

Meant to post this a while ago.

I get to go back to this lookout on Tuesday, through Friday. My body feels like it might be able to do more silks while I'm there.

Fika is our favorite coffee shop in Sisters, a small town in central Oregon, just found out last visit that the owner is from Portland, which makes sense.

These towers are highly competitive to rent and I feel very lucky over the years to be able to snag reservations, they open 6 months in advance at 7am and hundreds of people are all trying to book at once.

I had a strategy that has worked well for me since 2020 (that year, they canceled all of my reservations for covid except a single night, on my birthday. which is today btw). I've had it for my birthday the last three years, and this visit is just a couple days after, so it feels like it counts.

BUT. So far I have not been able to get a single reservation since. No strategies seem to be working. Certain timing strategies seem to fail. Less popular weekday openings are just as impossible as weekends, now. I couldn't get any for June and then also zero for the fall, despite many many many sleepless early morning attempts. I don't have a single reservation for any tower for the rest of the year, which is highly unusual. So, part of me fears that this might be my final visit, here. I'm not sure if it's just gotten too popular or if some sort of system has been put in place that somehow blocks me out? The reservation software is always changing. I can only sort of hope that maybe it updates again and I'm able to figure out how to keep renting. It would be very very sad to lose this part of my life.





































During this trip, Tyler and I relaxed a lot, I brought tons of food so we were well fed. We walked the Green Ridge trail, Tyler studied and I read and doodled in the tower. One night, I was lying in bed unable to sleep, and saw a huuuuge fiery meteor, commonly called a "fireball," clearly visible and super bright even though I wasn't wearing my glasses.

The sky out there is so spectacularly beautiful. And the mountains. And the forest. Lots of birds and butterflies, lizards and squirrels. A couple of ticks but not the dangerous kind, thankfully. I found a single fairy slipper orchid along the Metolius river, and Tyler found the prized King Bolete mushrooms, which I'm still enjoying the fruits of.

The boys are joining me for just one night at the tower, and then have to head home for work and school. I will stay and hopefully get some regenerative recovery time.