June | 2025 | Temporary Sanity ...

It’s been a while since I’ve ventured forth with a new post. I have to admit that I’ve started new ones a few times but for some reason my heart just wasn’t in it. Today is apparently different because I feel like sharing something. What that may be has yet to emerge but I’m confident something will reveal itself during the course of this episode.

It’s almost noon and I’ve actually accomplished a few things, unlike what’s been normal for me lately. It was easy to just lay around, reading my books, or just taking an afternoon nap with Max keeping my legs warm. That may still happen but I’m seriously going to see how long I can hold off nap time.

Diane is gone to see her doctor at Good Sam, leaving me all alone with various sharp instruments that have previously been responsible for emergency room trips. The worst one isn’t here at the Cricket House. It’s still residing peacefully at the Hill House, out of my reach. That would be my table saw. I’d love to have it close to me, but so far it isn’t one of Diane’s favorite tools for me to have handy for two reasons: 1) There’s no room in the garage for it, and 2) She doesn’t trust me alone with it. So, I’ll just have to earn her trust doing other things.

Like today. I walked around the north side of the house and found a really tall rose bush (tree) with beautiful, fragrant blooms. Though I’m not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination, I felt confident in my ability to cut the flowers and plant them in a bud vase without harming myself. Considering that bud vases have very narrow openings, I took it outside to fill it with plant soil so I could keep the kitchen counter clean. There was bound to be spillage. Thankfully, I couldn’t find any appropriate soil so I just filled the vase with water and called it good.

Yesterday, I think, Jeff stopped by to help me remove a dangerous bird house from our patio. It wasn’t dangerous until a bunch of wasps decided it would make a great home.

Most of the critters were hiding inside, doing a serious makeover, while a few of those remaining worked on covering the exterior, one thin layer at a time. I thought it was unique and didn’t want to disturb their efforts, but it was hanging about 7 feet from our patio door, hanging from a hangar, under the patio cover. I’d been walking past it for a few days without harm before Diane told me about it. The worker bees were kind of friendly, actually, and didn’t bother me at all until I was made aware of their proximity to the door. That’s when I started exuding fear pheromones which the bees detected right away. That made it difficult to walk past the nest, so I revised me exit strategy from the house. It didn’t work. No matter which door I used to access the back yard they new I was there and immediately attacked. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that 1 or 2 bees could make me run leaving the remaining 6-700 bees to keep working.

Not being able to leave the house made walking Max difficult. The bees didn’t bother him so I just let Max out on his own, hoping he’d get safely back in a reasonable amount of time. He did really well until the deer showed up. It turns out he can almost outrun deer, especially the little ones. What he can’t do is jump fences like they can. But he can run around them via the creek.

By now I’m sure that you’ve figured out that I’m lying about most of that. Some of it’s true but I’m not sure which parts.

Last week we spent a few days in our trailer at Ocean Shores, WA with our Winnebago friends. Cliff brought his scooter which pleased Max because he’s been begging me to take mine out so he could have a ride. I guess he’s tired of walking around the block and would rather ride from one pee-spot to another. I didn’t think that was a good idea. When he saw Cliff in the parking lot, he took advantage of us both and just jumped on for a ride. Since he was so insistent, and Cliff was willing, I took his leash off and turned them loose.

Turns out he’s a pretty good little scooter rider. Who knew?

While I’m out here on the back yard patio, near the previous home of the bird house bees, a different Jeff (not our son) has been working hard to clean up the RV. His business is Cascade Auto Detailing (503) 476-2311, and he works out of his SUV. Being mobile is necessary since someone demolished his brick-and-mortar facility which is why we had to call him. The building was just gone.

He’s got pretty much everything he needs to do a great job. It’s great because I don’t have to do it. I’m sure our Jeff would have done it, but I value his safety above the other Jeff.

I just noticed that Diane’s on the move so her visit with the doctor is apparently done. Looks like she’s stopped at a McDonald’s near the Hillsboro COSTCO so I’ll have a little time to clean up the house before she gets back.

Hope all is well with all of you. Stay safe.

Today is May 18th. the day Diane, and other branches of the family who have opinions, and decision-making authority. decided that it’s time for another family get together. Another factor, overriding all opinions is that this is the 3rd Sunday of the month. It’s become a tradition that Diane started. We all eat together on the 3rd Sunday every month. That makes it easy for me to remember.

I’m not aware of any celebrations that are planned. Yet. I just took Max for his first walk of the day at noon. In his honor, it rained cats and dogs. We got pretty wet but I at least had a raincoat to protect most of me, but Max forgot his. I don’t think he even knows where his might be. I also don’t think he really gives a rip because he’s just fine walking in mud puddles. He seeks them out. He likes being wet because getting that way normally results in someone vigorously dries him off so he won’t get water everywhere he goes. He loves that part.

The date has changed since I started this. Today is now May 31st. Since I’ve ignored this for the past 13 days you can readily see that I’m a little lazy. Actually. I prefer to view it as a profound demonstration of my procrastinating skills. I’m really good at that.

During that 13 day delay many things have happened. If it wasn’t for my inability to remember ‘stuff’, I’d share it all with you. The best I can do is do start typing and see what happens. My upfront disclaimer is that, if you read this, and disagree with something I share, please feel free to point out the errors. Doing that will do no good because we’re dealing with my reality here and everyone knows it’s sketchy. Most of my lucid moments are spent in an alternate universe.

OK, here goes. I’m pretty sure that Diane and I had a visit from our Winnebago friend recently. They stayed at the St. Helens Elks’ lodge RV Park. We had a great visit and enjoyed a couple of excellent meals at the lodge. One was a steak; the other was clam chowder. I have photos somewhere.

While our friends were visiting, two guys installed Diane’s new bathtub. It has a door so she doesn’t have to make that high step over the side. The old tub was working OK but I’m at the point in my life where bending and picking her up is beyond my ability. We discussed the tub at great length before making our decision, so we were ready to make the change. It didn’t take long for the bank to pony up some 2nd mortgage money so we could pay cash for it. Those two guys did the job in one day, just like the guy on TV said they would. We just stayed out of their way and let them have at it. We took a peek once in a while just for fun to see how things were going, but we didn’t talk with them for fear of derailing their progress.

I’ve spent the last day or so looking for photos to share that relate to whatever I’m writing about, but they just aren’t on this computer. So, in order to put this post to rest, I’m just going to find photos that has nothing to do with this post. Then I’m posting it.

This is me with a beard from 2019.

Here’s a photo from somewhere in Nevada (I think). Maybe it’s from New Mexico. That’s probably not true because I don’t think we’ve ever been to New Mexico for vacation.