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.