It’s been a few days since I’ve put my hands to the keyboard and, I know, every time I’m absent for a while, I ask for forgiveness for withholding myself from your presence. I thought about that for a while and came to the conclusion that most of you are probably just fine with my absence, and probably could have gone another couple of weeks without bothering you. I understand. How pompous it is of me to think that by not writing stuff I’m depriving you of something. Sounds like I’m a little full of myself, right? Well, I’m certainly full of something but it isn’t myself I’m full of.

When I was preparing myself to get this started I actually had a plan. Sadly, as I sat in my chair Max joined me, causing me to rearrange myself to accommodate both Max and my iPad. By the time that all happened, my mind was blank causing me to just start writing something that didn’t mean much, which is true for most of the things I write. That’s the truth, it’s not me just throwing a pity pout your way hoping for someone to tell me how important it is for them to hear from me more often.

No, I’m not fishing for credit. I do what I do to make room in my brain for important things like what would be good for lunch, is there toilet paper in the bathroom, when was the last time I weighed myself, should I get gas for the Car, do we have an avacado. Stuff like that.

Lydia is learning Chinese. I applaud her for such an ambition and truly, I’m grateful that she’s giving me the opportunity to also learn Chinese. She doing this by watching Chinese soap opera shows on TV, something I didn’t know we could do. It comes with sub titles and she can keep up with everything that’s going on. I’m not that gifted. While listening to the people speaking Chinese I’m reading the sub titles as fas as I can but it’s impossible for me to keep up with the action. As a result, I have no clue about what’s going on so I have to ask Lydia questions. Lots of them. She’s very kind and I’m happy that she can repeat to me exactly what’s been happening. She amazes me with that talent.

It’s not just Chinese serial shoes, either. She knows everything there is to know about the Marvel series of movies too. There are about 97 of them and she can tell you the whole story about each one of them, in sequence according to when they were first shown. Last night we watched number 20, I think. I lied about the 97. I really don’t know how many they are. There’s just a lot of them. Lydia isn’t the only one in her family who can recite the Marvel saga, movie by movie. Both her brothers can do it also, as can their Dad and Mother. They have an amazing family. I don’t have that skill.

The weather is turning toward spring, a little bit every day. Jeff has been by to mow the lawn a few times already. He keeps it looking really nice. He’s a hard worker. I’m pleased about that because he has all the pieces necessary for berming up the wild acre out back next to the shed. I’m not going to get into that right now so you’ll just have to imagine what you think it might entail.

Now, let’s talk about Lydia’s garden. She spent some long days, in the rain, getting all her plants planted next to the side of the driveway. For a few days it looked really nice, then we had a doozy of a rain storm that beat pretty much all of it flat. When I go out there how I can’t find one thing that she planted. Some folks think the deer got to the tender plants and relieved Lydia from the need to take care of them. The only things that are left are the gladiolus and tulips that she brought home in a bucket. They lived in that bucket for a couple of weeks before planting them. Now that the garden is missing, the flowers are looking really good.

There’s still hope that the garden will pop up. It would be nice.

Two days ago Aunt Carolyn called for help to clean up her gutters. She had all the equipment ready to go so instead of seeking help from Jeff, I thought it was something I could handle.

I was almost done brushing and rinsing dirt off the gutters when I discovered a previously unknown feature of my Apple Watch. This happened when I took a tumble into the flower bed, landing hard on my right knee first, the rest of me followed.

Rolling to my back, as I always do after falling, I laid there a moment to gather what senses remained, and noticed a very strong vibration from my watch. Turning it so I could read I was greeting with “It appears you have taken a hard fall. Are you OK, or do you need assistance?” There were two choices on the watch, as well: 911 and Exit.

Since I could still feel, and move, all my extremities, I selected Exit and the vibration stopped, sending the watch back to normal mode. “WOW” I thought. “That’s a nifty feature.” I was able to attain a vertical position and the knee didn’t hurt all that bad, but I was sure there was pain coming to see me over the next few days. There’s always a delay for some reason.

I think that does it for this post. See you whenever I remember it’s time to write something.

Jeff and Heather made me some fingers.

It’s official. Today the days get longer and nights shorter as we progress through the calendar on our way to summer. It’s important to note that the Vernal aspect of this equinox relates only to the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere it’s called the Autumnal Equinox.

The March 21 date can mark the March equinox, when day and night are nearly equal as the Sun crosses the celestial equator from south to north.

An interesting event happened on this day in 1963 when Alcatraz was closed. That may, or may not, be meaningful to you depending on your individual beliefs regarding capital punishment. I’m not sure what that meant for the inmates who were there when it was closed but I think they were just transported to the San Francisco side of the bay and released into the wild. I could be wrong, of course, because I’m often wrong. I just didn’t see any follow up regarding what happened to the inmates so I made it up about them being released. I’m sure someone reported on what happened to them but I’m not inclined to look that up right now. Maybe later.

No, okay, I looked. At the time it was closed there were only 27 inmates living there. With that few, I think they should have just turned them loose but they were, instead, transported to other Federal facilities in America. If you want more information than that, please look it up and share with the masses.

The bush in the picture below lives on the corner of our lot. I took a photo of it because I wanted to know what it was and it magically showed up where you see it. Since I couldn’t delete it only fitting that I explain it a little.

The app I have dubbed it to be a Swamp Azalea. It’s been in this location for many, many years and there’s not a swamp within 6 miles of it so I don’t know how it got here. Diane’s Mom and Dad must of captured it during one of their historic Sunday rides after church.

Soon it will be covered with those pink blossom. It’s quite magnificent.

My friend, Scott, lives down around the corner and spends a great deal of his time working on his Daughter’s PT Cruiser. Hi Daughter is Izzy. She works at Walmart. I pass Scott pretty much every day walking Max around the block. Normally he’s laying under it to replace one thing or another. I could actually tell you everything he’s done to this car but it would take too long. I’ll just leave this intro at Scott is the neighborhood PT Cruiser Pro Mechanic. If i still had a PT Cruiser, I’d break something on it intentionally just so I could have him work on it. I don’t know his phone number so I can’t give it to you. All you have to do is take a drive around Shore Drive and look for a PT Cruiser with a pair of legs sticking out from under it. That would be Scott.

There’s no smooth ending for this so I’m just going to stop.

Today is Sunday, my day off. Surprisingly, Jeff caused injury to himself that required a trip to the hospital. He did this yesterday afternoon, but thought it would be okay if he waited until this morning. For me, that was a good choice because i didn’t have to spend Saturday night in the emergency room. Instead, I’m spending Sunday afternoon in the emergency room.

In case you’re wondering, he jumped off his couch yesterday evening, after pulling the drapes for the night, and decided to jump to the floor and landing on his knees and elbows. Apparently, his right knee didn’t hold up like the other three and swelled up magnificently.

I took him to to the Good Sam emergency room after an entertaining discussion about which hospital we should visit first. There are many choices. Since I was driving, I had the deciding vote and chose Good Sam.

They took him back for an X-ray where he learned that his right knee bones don’t have any cushion between the separate pieces. Surprisingly, that’s not normal. They’ve probably been that way for years but didn’t make themselves noticeable because he’s never fallen on them previously like he did yesterday. Now we know.

After his X-ray they returned him to the waiting room and let him think about this problem for about 5 minutes before they took him out again for an unknown reason. I suspect it’s to see a bone doctor who wants to tell him he needs surgery to put it all back together again. I’m guessing he’ll have an immobile right knee for 8 weeks before he can drive his car again. That means I’m going to have to find a way to get his vehicle to the emergency room parking area so he’ll have a place to stay during this time. Either that, or I’ll have to take him to all his appointments which will number in the dozens. The obvious solution is for me to transport him as needed.

After a few hours, and 3 MRI’s they determined that he had a bad sprain, put a new super brace on his leg, and sent him home. Now it’s up to his doctor in Scappoose to make the arrangements for him to get the surgery he needs to fix the bones on bone defect.

We were both hungry but decided to go home and eat there. We had a lively conversation on the way home. We reminisced about things we shared while he was growing up. We both found it interesting to discover we remembered old events the same.

After dropping Jeff off at his dwelling, I went home down the hill where a little dog was waiting for a trip around the block. He’s such a good little guy. He was home with Lydia and she walked in around the yard, but he needed that trip around the block. I let him lead and allowed him to sniff everything that got his attention for as long as he wished. It took a while for this trip, but he was happy and that’s what pleased me. He earned it.

After the walk I went shopping. I got too much for the small box I chose for my goods and dropped pieces of it all the way to the car. I nice young man followed me and picked them up as we went and helped me get it all in the car. It’s good to know there are still good people in the world.

Now it’s time to go to bed. I’ve been spending the last hour watching a Chinese serial TV show. It has subtitles so while watching the action you have to read what everyone is saying. It’s very difficult for me to do that so I just watch and make up my own dialogue and play it in my head. Kinda weird, I know. With that admission, I must quit before I start revealing all my secrets.

Good night.

To start, yes, Jasper celebrated his 6th birthday yesterday. His mother, Jennifer, adopted the chosen Big Foot theme for the celebration which made Jasper very happy.

I was told that the Bigfoot in this photo was an attendee’s husband but it kinda makes small children wonder, don’t you think.

It was a small party of children, but Jennifer told me there were about 40 people in attendance so it was successful to the extreme. Point of interest, the little girl to Jasper’s left, whose name I cannot divulge, because I don’t know it, is purportedly his girl friend. I believe it’s a mutual attraction.

Walking Max around the block reveals many treasures every day and this is one of my favorite. Max and I have monitored the advancement of daffodils that litter the edges of this yard and proudly announce that Spring is coming. I don’t know if the owners of this yard read this blog, and that’s OK. If they do, then they can rejoice in the joy they give to an old man, and a little dog, as they visit them every day.

I’m happy to see the days getting longer. It’s been dark too long. Cold, too. It was 37 this morning when I got up so Max and I will bundle up before making our rounds.

Rain is a good thing unless you’re out walking in it without your raincoat. Then it gets messy. I’m just talking here, not from experience anyway. I always have my raincoat on if there’s just a remote chance it will rain. Max couldn’t care less. He’ll go outside no matter what the weatherman tells him.

Lydia has a vegetable garden growing on the dining room table. It’s only on the table when the sun isn’t shining.

When the sun comes out she makes me take it to the yard. That’s a lie, of course. She doesn’t make me do stuff I don’t want to do. Taking the farm outside is exercise, and as everyone knows I love to exercise.

That’s another lie. The day isn’t starting out very good here. Maybe I should back up a minute and compose myself before I wind up in deep kimchee.

Here’s the farm inside. Once everything is planted outside, there will be a jigsaw puzzle there.

Here’s the farm outside.

It’d evident that she’s got things growing nicely. Now all she needs it a spot to put them when they crawl out of those little trays. It’s amazing how quickly they grow. Not everything is poking out of the soil, yet, but it won’t be long. Today is her last day off so I expect there will be a flurry of activity to get them in the ground.

One of Jeff’s friends has a mess of railroad ties so he’s bringing some over a few at a time so the wild acre by the shed can be beamed and excavated. That’s the perfect area for the flower garden Lydia wants and which Grandma Diane will love. Diane wanted to put a deck of some sort out there but we never got to it. Lydia has plans to make a sitting area surrounded by flowers where one can sit and listen to Milton Creek sailing by on its way to the Columbia River. That will be nice and Diane will love it.

Only two days left this month then we can turn green as we find our way to the ides of March, then St. Patrick’s day. I’m a tiny bit Irish but I can’t say I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. I looked him up and leaned that he was quite a guy in his time in the 4th Century. I’m going to wear green every day in March just for him. That, and to keep helpless from pinching me just because they can.

I thought our weather was going to change her a little, toward the cold stuff, but it only seems to manifest itself for us in the evening. Once in a while I’ll see a vehicle in town that obviously came down from the mountains surrounding us because of the snow decorating their roofs. We’ve had none, so far. But, Winter isn’t over. Yet.

That’s Max in his red rain coat. He doesn’t like this one much because it has a hood. He’s not a fan of hoods, it seems. So, I button it back so it leaves his head free. I took this on one of our walks down by the river. He likes it down there because I take his leash off and let him run free as often as I can. He’s interesting in that when he;s on his leash he gets very aggressive with mig dogs, but running free he’s everyone’s friend.

This is where he likes to hang out when Lydia is home. He’s her book rest. When she’s eating, he sits on the leg rest and stares at her the entire time she eats. He never gets any of it, but he’s watching, just in case.

Lydia’s garden is growing like crazy. She planted so many things that I suspect we’ll have to buy another lot so she has some placed to plant all of them. There’s 72 little cups in each of the containers and every one of hem has something popping out of the dirt. That’s 360 cups of stuff. She’s ecstatic about being a farmer and can’t wait to get them all in the ground.

You can see that the creek is way up and running hard, sweeping over what is normally dry rock on our side.

Here’s another look at it.

Sorry. I got carried away and gave you two of the same view and I can’t delete either of them. If you click on the photo it should blow up to full screen and give you more detail. If you want, that is.

Now I will stop and get on with my day. There’s a plan in my head that insists that I clean the house. There’s may also be a note on my calendar that indicates I should do that. Diane filled our calendar with stuff like that before she left. Now I must abide.

Have a good day.

The snow hit the high spots, but not our back yard. That’s not a complaint. Just an observation. There were lots of vehicles in the valley with many inches of snow on their roofs that came off the surrounding hills. They do that just to gloat, I’m sure.

The plan for Max was for Jennie and the Littles to accompany us down to the river for our walk. It’s a new Saturday ‘thing’ we started last Saturday. It’s good for all of us, especially me. I think some of the people I meet when I go around alone with Max think I whacko because I talk to him. Sometimes he answers me.

He doesn’t actually use his voice, but he is very expressive with his eyes. Once in a while as we progress I’ll feel a little tug on his leash. When I look to see what’s going on he stands there staring at me with his pitiful look which tells me he doesn’t want to go up the street, he wants to go across the street. Most of the time I bow to his wishes, release the tension on the leash and let him lead. It’s very comical.

Also, when I’m sitting in my chair watching TV, and eating popcorn, he’ll get in my lap and stare at me with his stern eyes that mean he wants a kernel, too. If I ignore him for a little bit, he will lift his left front leg and tap me on the knee to see if I’m paying attention. The first tap is once and if I still ignore I’m, he’ll double tap. Then, of course, he gets his popcorn. It never fails. I’m such a pushover.

Tight now I’m thinking about taking him out for a wet walk. I’ve mentioned before that he loves being wet because that means he’ll get buffed off with a towel. He loves that. I’ll just keep him close to the house for this first one and take him downtown for the finale. I just might stop at the Columbia Theater for some popcorn for later. He loves theater popcorn almost as much as I do. It’ best when fresh, but it’ still good a few days down the road.

Lydia has been busy growing a garden. Well, she’s got all the starts going. Each of those containers has 72 cups that she planted with every flower under the sun, almost, and a plethora of vegetables. Eventually they will be moved to real dirt somewhere around the house. The. The idea was to plant them in the far right corner of the yard that is currently occupied with a very invasive bunch of foliage that Diane would love to see go away. She used the containers to plant them first because she thought she’d have time to get them in the ground down the road. But, they are growing like crazy and she will need to be planted very soon. We’ll see how that goes.

Max had his walk in the rain now I’m going down to meet Jennie and the Littles for another walk. Kids will be playing in mud puddles along with Max. Should be fun.

Depending on which weather forecast you watch, we may get snow sometime tonight. Gresham already got some, and Lydia said it snowed on her when she drove to Portland today. Seems late.

I haven’t got much to share although it’s been 4 days since my last post. You’d think something happened during that time. It could have, for sure, but I could just as easily forgot what it was. It’s times like these that make me wonder why I bother writing a post that has nothing to say. Makes me feel obligated to give you honored readers something to read. To you, I apologize.

The days are cold. I took Max to the river and it rained on us the entire time we tromped around down there. He was happy, though, because I let him run free. He likes that and tends to try close to me all the time.We terminated the trip earlier than planned and he didn’t complain. He didn’t even care if his window was down.

Last night Lydia and I watched the final episode of the Marvel avenger movies. We had to stay up until midnight to do it, but we got it done. I paid for it though. I didn’t sleep worth a hoot. Know that’s true because my Apple Watch told me so. It jingled on my arm and gave me a message telling me what a terrible sleep score I had. I think it was in the 50’s. It also told me that getting to be at. Reasonable time would help. So, today I’m being reasonable. It’s 2200, and that’s reasonable.

If it snows at your house tonight, you have permission to remain home from whatever tasks you had planned. Me? I stay home every day. I do that even when I don’t have a reason.

Good night.

Oh, here’s picture of Max sleeping off his wet morning walk.

I’ve been out of touch lately, but had to come back and recognize that it’s time to spread some love around. So, take what little you can from this, and pass it around.

Terry, Carolann, Cliff, and Susie rolled into town yesterday to visit Bethany Lutheran Church’s Annual Quilt Show (BLCAQS).

It’s quite a busy affair and there are dozens of beautiful quilts on display.

Some of the quilts are old heirlooms but most of them are new creations by very talented ladies. Diane has quilts that she always took to share, but I totally missed the need for me to get them there.

There’s always food, too. Chicken Noodle Soup, Clam Chowder, Egg Salad and Chicken Salad Sandwiches, and a vast variety of pies and cakes. I made fudge for the dessert sale. I guess it was good. I made another batch for the 2nd day (today) in case they run out of My Fudge.

I’m sorry I failed to get photos of people eating but I was too busy eating. I did, however, get this photo of Valerie working hard at the raffle table.

After visiting the display, me and our Winnebago Friends returned to our abodes where some of us took their nap while others walked a busy little dog. I missed my nap, but Max was happy to drag me around the neighborhood for a while. He’s such a good little critter.

We found an area above the moor age where he can run willy nilly off leash. I find it funny that most of the photos I take of him are from behind, as he walks away, but rarely of him coming back. But, he always comes back.

Last Thursday I gave Max a bath in the deep sink and he was really happy about that. It’s been a while and he was in dire need of a cleaning. Now he’s nice and shiney again. He tolerates the bath, but his favorite part is getting dried off. There’s something about a towel that really gets him excited and he lines right up for his rub down. Funny guy.

Yesterday, after the quilt show, the Winnebago Folks wanted to visit The Farm On The Roof for supper. This venue is located on top of a building in downtown St. Helens. They started out in a food cart at The Lodge in Scappoose and Diane and I went often for their Smash Burgers. The food cart name is Pig, Cow, Spud which gives you a narrative of what they serve. It’s all good and I highly recommend them either at The Farm, or one of their food carts in Scappoose or St. Helens. They also have a presence at the Wildwood Golf Course. They are popular people.

I’m sorry I didn’t get a shot of Carolann in action, but hers didn’t show up right away. Top to bottom is Susie with her small cup of Chili, Cliff with his Brisket Spud, and Terry with his Plain Old Spud with butter and cheese. I got a bowl of chili that I couldn’t eat and Carolann got a turkey bacon sandwich. It was all good.

Now, as I sit here, Max is making it known that he hasn’t been outside yet and it’s time to get busy,, Therefore, I must go and get busy.

See you later.

Yes, the Seahawks beat up the Patriots quite nicely today in Super Bowl 60. That’s all I have to say about that.

I spent the afternoon at Jennie’s & Daniel’s because that’s where the food was. It’s also where all of her family was. So it’s understandable that we may have missed a few plays due to the noise happy families make. The age range for those in attendance was 4 to 28 for the kids. The two little were very quiet for most of the game before they drained the batteries on their tablets. Then they commenced to race around the house like little maniacs. They are very happy little guys and they made a joyful noise.

At one point in the game, the two oldest participants got into a heated discussion about something I know nothing about because I wasn’t listening to them. But they got quite loud and they were right next to me. They weren’t mad at each other. They were just having fun with their disagreement.

Jennie made a bunch of bread for the event, as well as more than one choice of chip dip for those who abide. I don’t know why but all I had was a couple cups of soda and a piece of pizza. I love her bread, but her bread doesn’t like me so I take it easy on that favorite food of mine.

I take that pack. I had one of these macaroons. It was the brown one which was maple & bacon. I limited my treat to one of those but could have easily gobbled up all of them. I’m sure the colorful one were equally delicious. I believe she said one of her friends makes them.

I went home happy after all that.