SEASIDE _ Across from 10th Avenue at Roosevelt Drive on a bald hill in the Coast Range, I was able to see one day, actual loggers using their equipment and this was without binoculars. Often we have loaded log trucks go by once more so its nice to see where they get some of their trees. In another few months the hills will be green again.

Why do people say congraDulations and wimbleTon? How about an exchange of letters? In these days of transition, people who are fluent in Americanese have become a vanishing breed. There are alien alterations, stupid fad expressions, movie contributions, slang and computer vernacular, ham radio shorthand, vulgarisms, bad grammar and other corruptions. We might as well hang a sign around our necks advising English Spoken Here before were extinct. Help!

City grass cutters, just as I had anticipated, have chopped down the pretty Buddleia bush, blooming along the highway. Who knows how many butterflies might have come to call? We need every bit of beauty we can find and a butterfly bush is not your usual kind of volunteer flower. If someone tried to dig it up, I bet thered be a lot of screaming.

The approaching loss of the theater is a reasonable possibility. When it was first built, a lot of people came over from Astoria to go to the movies. I would never go there to see a show. Too bad someone doesnt go back to the Times location. In our heyday the movies were always downtown.

A lady whose name was Jane, claimed to have lost a ton of weight when she was taking some sort of hormone replacement product. What was she before the program? A hippopotamus?

Bob Beckel on The Five TV program, about two weeks ago, cited Oregons fireworks ban to protect the marbled murrelet habitat, somewhere down the coast. It was kinda fun to hear it. Usually when they mention our state, its about something stupid.

I was supposed to pick currants on Wednesday. I hate that job when the sun isnt shining so I didnt work long. Maybe tomorrow. Theyre beautiful, though; big, red and juicy. They make my jaws hurt just to mention them.

Jeff and his wife, Nancy, were in town over the weekend. They took me to the Gearhart Golf Club (McMenamins) for dinner. We really enjoyed our food and all the green out the window. Jeff also showed me my column on his fancy phone or whatever it was that Googles stuff. There were also some remarks there that Gary had written, defending me against some adverse opinions a guy had shared about me earlier. My hero, ha.

Quip: Being injured itself and being unable to jump, the frog is suffering from leap deprivation.

Q: Whats the opposite of a friendly senior citizen?

A: An elder hostel.

Claire Lovell lives in Seaside and can be reached at (503) 738-7215.