Christmas Eve

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

It’s Christmas Eve and it’s going to be a very non-traditional one for me. Remember that kid-germ virus it was probably the virus that’s going around, a common diagnosis when there really isn’t one. So, to avoid sharing it with all the old folks at church during our annual Christmas Eve Service, I’m staying home. Not that I’m a super singer, but my absence is going to change the dynamics of our choir because I’m the only bass singer who showed up at practice. The only other guy in the choir is a tenor, so he’s going to be all alone this evening and I regret that. But, I’ve decided that at the stroke of 9 pm I will rise from my sick chair and belt out the bass part of Hosianna, the song that we always open with at this service. And, yes, we sound just like choir in the link but we sing it a cappella. We always think it sounds great but that opinion is a bit shaded with self administered communion for spiced wine prior to the service. Not a lot, but just enough.

So, as I sit here, waiting for 9 pm, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and pray that all is well with you wherever you may be. May God bless and keep you in his ever loving care.

Santa Lucia & Snacks

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Today after church service our new friends Angela & Randy treated us to the Swedish version of the Santa Lucia tradition. It was a very stunning event that none of those at church had ever experienced. Let me revise that to say that no one I spoke with had ever experienced. The tradition is steeped in history, beginning in the 300’s, and has understandably changed over the intervening 1600+ years. Being a Lutheran tradition, in our instance, it naturally involves food, tea, and coffee. So, the beginning of this tradition at Bethany Lutheran Church, in Warren, Oregon, was conducted during our normal after service coffee hour.

Cameron, the granddaughter of one of my high school classmates whom you do not know, represented Santa Lucia and served coffee, tea, and pastries to the masses who remained for our after service tradition. The real day for this is traditionally December 13, which was yesterday, as everyone knows. But, it was well received even though it was a day late.

Angel transported her irreplaceable English bone china to the church for use during the ceremony and it was accompanied by a lot of older folks holding their breath while young people carried their drinks and pastries to their tables. Late in the evening, when Mom, Diane’s, was on the way to her car for her trip home, reported that she was very nervous when she saw me helping put the cleaned and dried china back into the boxes they came in. She was especially fearful when she saw me washing a priceless platter. Apparently I have a reputation for dropping and spilling things.

Here’s a little closer look at Angela, Santa Lucia, and her first customer, Declan. After all the china was safely returned to Angela & Randy’s vehicle, and everyone was leaving the building, we spied two bareback riders sauntering down the road by the church. In the field across the road another horse was making her presence known because she knew the riders and their aged steeds. They all live together over there. That would be Ethan and Jessie.

In the typical country fashion, we from the church wandered out into the middle of the road so we could talk with our newest friends, Ethan and Jessie. Every once in a while someone would shout out “CAR” and we would back away into the parking lot to allow the vehicle to pass then we’d wander back into the road so we didn’t have to talk so loud. It was a very nice visit.

Then we came home, ate stew, and watched 3 Christmas movies before Jean, Diane’s Mom, yelled “Uncle” and demanded to be returned to the quiet of her own home.

That’s about it for today. It was a good one. The sun shined all day, and it was beautiful. We all feel incredibly blessed.

MELCA, Wood, Jerry, Work, & Drones

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

MELCA Coffee was at 0900. Although I was right on time, I was late. All the other guys must be on Mountain Time. Once again we solved many of the worlds problems, but no one was listening. Everyone knows what MELCA is, right?

Fireplace Mantel is coming along. I glued a couple more pieces on it today, and sanded the top, again. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be able to put it all together so I can figure out a way to attach it to the wall. My Gorilla Glue seems to be working OK so maybe that’s the solution. That, and some two-sided sticky tape.

Jerry 3 decided that our women should conspire to schedule a group meeting at which we will ingest food of some kind. This is for the group we normally have lunch with about once a month. You know who you are. Hopefully the decision will be made in such a manner that nothing associated with a goat is considered good. Yes, they are cute, generally, but I personally don’t think they taste good.

While I was enjoying coffee this morning, then researching “stuff” this afternoon, Diane was wearing herself out organizing the Big Room In The Basement (BRB). Up until today, it’s been a gathering spot for a variety of things that were never assigned shelf space, or arrived here without warning. Things like that are what comprise a single layer that makes cleaning the floor impossible because we can’t see it. That’s changing now, however. Diane found lots of extra stuff that is going away and we’ve already made arrangements for part of it. The old curtain rod was removed, a new one installed (with new curtains), and the furniture has been rearranged. Doing that opened up access to many more items about which decisions will have to be made. I’m sure that none of you reading this have similar problems. Everything is in the right place, nice and tidy, right? That’s exactly the way our house is in one of those alternate universes I’ve mentioned in the past. I must point out that whenever Diane wanted me to do something, I did it without question. Ask her. I even did some things without asking. Those are the ones that get me into trouble.

Tomorrow the repair guy is paying us a visit to see if he can resurrect our microwave. In Diane’s words, “it’s tits up.” I thought it was just broken but apparently it’s worse than that. So, just in case, I’ve been researching replacements at DISCOUNTMICROWAVESTOREPLACEBROKENONES.COM. They claim to have distribution centers all over the country and can deliver a new microwave to their customers within three hours of placing an order. They use drones, just like Amazon, but bigger.

Footfall is on now so I’m going to quit.

Garage Doors, Microwaves, Diabetes, Pintrest, Movies, & Soccer

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Yesterday I played indoors working on the fireplace mantle. It snowed and showered us with freezing rain so I wasn’t allowed to go outside. I was happy about that because it was really cold.

Today was really beautiful – clear and sunny, but still cold. Like 9 degrees or so. I worked some more on the mantle, and we ate lunch of BLTs made with refried bacon. It’s a new treat. Diane found the cooked bacon in the back of the fridge and, since it wasn’t fuzzy, tossed it in a skillet to warm it up. Turns our even refried bacon is good. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me because bacon bits are good. I put them in pretty much everything I eat, except ice cream.

When trying to leave the house, the garage door went TU again. Guess I don’t know how to fix them after all so, at Diane’s urging, I call Metro Overhead Door. They’ll be here next Tuesday.

Went to church to ensure the movie would play for tonight’s event. It was in B&W until I put the video cable in the yellow Jack instead of the green one. Don’t know how long it’s been that way. Before doing that, we went to Columbia Heating in Scappoose to get furnace filters for the church. There weren’t any and the one in use was horribly dirty.

Sadly, I’ve discovered there are things on Pintrest that interest me. Now I have my very own page. As soon as I saved it people started following me which I think is pretty funny because at the time there was only one things there. Now I have one more thing to keep me occupied in my copious free time. I started putting fun projects ideas on it and figure I could do that every day instead of actually doing any of them.

My VA doctor has decided to punish me by making me attend a diabetes class because my A1C is too high. I went to one a long time ago and they gave me a BS Meter and everything. I used to check my BS level once or twice a day and it was always OK so I started checking once a week. That was OK, too. Well, not all the time, but it gave me enough info that I could do something about it with my bad eating habits. Finally, from lack of use I suppose, the meter kind of disappeared. I believe it just up and left the house one day in search of someone who needed it more than I did at the time. Now I’ll go to class and get another one.

We had movie night at the church this evening and Diane & I hosted it with a showing of “Heaven Is For Real.” It’s a good movie. We’ve seen it twice. We don’t see many movies twice. Lot’s of times Diane only sees half a movie so I guess watching this one twice may only count as one viewing. We were at the theater the first time, though, and I’m pretty sure she was awake the entire time. Jeran went with us.

Lydia got all her hair whacked off and now looks like this …

She tried out for a travelling soccer team in Hillsboro so she could extend her playing time and was chosen to join. She’s going to be the only goalie on the team. Being on the league team will get her goalie training that’s not available from the high school coaches. From their perspective, the objective is to keep the ball away from their goal so the goalie won’t have anything to do. If the other team gets by them, then the goalie is pretty much on their own to figure out how to keep the ball out of the net. She finds that a bit frustrating, so this will be good for her.

Now it’s time for bed.

Camp Tadmor, Ducks, and Beavers

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

While writing this, I’m exercising my tiny little brain with a rare attempt at multi-tasking. I don’t try this often because I’ve been trained since birth to believe that only women can do it. With advanced age my thinking processes became muddled, giving me the ability to believe that the “Only Women Can Multi-task” myth was, well, a myth. Over the years this belief freed my brain to accept unexpected multi-tasking opportunities as a chance to dispel the myth thereby giving hope to men, all over the world, that they, too, can do more than one thing at a time.

Sadly, our (a man’s) ability to multi-task is compared to chewing gum and walking, more often than not – as in, we can’t do both at the same time. I beg to differ because I do that quite often. The trick is to chew in time to your cadence which, incidentally, isn’t really an option. It just happens. Still, we can do it. As it happens, I can also be finishing up an email response and begin a conversation at the same time. I have to admit, however, that this particular talent might be considered with a skeptical eye because my hands are like little computers in their down right. I download about thirty words to them at a time so it’s really easy to begin a conversation while my fingers simply empty their buffers. Diane, my lovely bride, has made it clear that not all the downloads to my fingers make sense, but that’s not the point. To the casual observer, I’m still doing two things at the same time. As I type, at this moment, I’m watching the Oregon Ducks vs. Michigan State Spartans football game that was played last Saturday. Even though I know the outcome, it’s fun to watch and it gives me another opportunity to do two things a once. See? I don’t believe I need the ability to do more than those two things at the same time to substantiate the afore-mentioned myth. I suspect there will be more than one person who disagrees with this belief, but I’m willing to go out on a ledge here and add that they will all, most likely, be of the feminine persuasion.

Now that I’ve got this thought process well under way, I’m going to switch gears and get to the meat of this particular posting … why I’m watching a recording of the Ducks/Spartans game. That’s because I wasn’t home, and where I was didn’t afford me the opportunity to watch the game live.

I was a long way from home, with Daniel, Cedric, and Jeran at a Men’s Roundup at Camp Tadmor near Lebanon, Oregon. That’s south of us about 2.5 hours down I-5. Daniel drove which was a good thing because I’d never have made it that far. The reason, or course, is because I’m not conditioned to drive long distances like Diane is. Actually, it’s not really about conditioning. it’s all about permission. Just saying.

Jeran and I rode in the third seat and had a real pleasant time. We talked, then he napped and I read part of my book. It was a good trip. It was an easy 2.5 hour trip for all of us because Cedric and Ben had a lively discussion in the middle seat, while Daniel and Pastor James did the same in the front seat.

Upon arrival at Camp Tadmor, early afternoon, we were directed to our designated camping area where everything was unloaded, and tents were erected. Being old, my camping experience was elevated from the ground to the couch in a nearby motor home with a toilet and running water. No sheets, just my sleeping bag on the couch and it was good.

Friday afternoon, before supper, Daniel and I attended our first break out session, “Transforming Fatherhood”, presented by Bill Clem. It was a good start. Directly after that we attended “Sexuality in an Equal Marriage Environment” presented by Dr. Gerry Bershears. It was quite revealing and taught me a lot about what the bible shares about sex. Unfortunately, I can’t share any of it with you because I’m not allowed to talk about sex. Diane said so.

After Dr. Bershears, we got in line with 1500 other men for our first meal of the weekend. Meals, as well as presentations, are what this retreat is famous for. The line went surprisingly fast due to the lively conversations going on all around us and we were soon assailed by the smell of BBQ chicken halves which were being cooked on four gigantic BBQ units. I mean gigantic in that each unit was about 4 feet wide and tall, by 8 feet long. The smoldering coals were suspended a couple of feet under the chicken on a tray and they were extremely hot. Each unit was absolutely covered with chicken and we were each, in turn, given our chicken right off the grill. I know there were side dishes, too, but can’t remember what they were. Beans and macaroni salad, I think. It was absolutely great and I ate it all.

Here are the grills and a peek at the awesome food line …

Next on the agenda was the main event for the day at the Camp Tadmor Forum.

The main event was opened by a Christian standup comic, Bob Smiley, a very humorous man. My favorite story was about when he was in the first grade and the teacher explained that students had to raise their hands if they had to go to the bathroom. He paused, then said, “No, actually, I don’t,” at which point he made the face of someone happy to be relieving themselves. Too funny.

After Bob’s opener we were treated to the first of four presentations by Paul Tripp, the feature speaker. Paul is a prolific author and an excellent speaker with a great message. He spoke Friday evening, Saturday morning & evening, and again Sunday morning. We went to all of them. Friday evening ended around midnight for us after a lively discussion near our abodes for the night. During the 3 hours we sat talking, a guy named Trace Bundy was playing at one of the new areas above our camp site. Very soothing stuff.

Saturday morning I actually got up early enough to eat breakfast by enduring, once again, that enormous line of hungry campers. The rest of the morning was spent at a breakout by Josh Bidwell, ex-Oregon Duck punter, then Trace Bundy, that young man with an enormous talent and a powerful message, put on an incredible performance. Trace was absolutely amazing and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to hear him live and to shake his talented hand.

Saturday afternoon was spent doing manly kinds of things, like a race that included activities like swimming across the lake, crawling through a very large mud pit, running around the lake. I said manly but to put that into perspective, I must report that the young man who won the race was 17. Runners up were in the 30’s and the oldest to finish was 50. I did not compete because I wrenched my back climbing up some of the many steps installed throughout the woods, but it really wasn’t my fault.

Here’s what happened … I was heading back up to our camp site, minding my own business. About eight steps ahead of me an older guy, younger than me, tripped on the last step of the section I was about begin. He did a face-plant in the pine needles, spilling the coffee he was carrying. Being distracted by all that commotion, I didn’t step high enough and did my own face-plant on the stairs. The difference was that I wasn’t carrying anything to spill so was more able to avoid serious injury to my visible parts. On the way down I felt my back tweak a bit, then, just before impact, I wondered what all of those behind us thought about these two old guys ahead of them doing tricks on the stairs. I wonder if they wondered if what happened to us was catching. To my credit, I quickly figured out how to regain a vertical stance and rushed up the stairs and was the first one to discover that the gentleman ahead of me was OK. His only concern was that he’d have to go back down the stairs to get another cup of coffee. I offered to get it for him but he declined. I think he did that because my hair’s white and his wasn’t.

Saturday’s dinner consisted of an enormous New York cut BBQ steak and a few other things that almost fit on the plate. I did good and ate every bit of it. Without ketchup. Just straight off the grill.

The evening service was opened by another Christian artist, Chris August. He had some great stories and was very enjoyable to hear. Afterward, we returned to our camp area and once again sat around and talked until after midnight. Stimulating stuff.

Sunday I got up a little later and made it to breakfast as one of the last ones to arrive. There was no line so it was extra special. Then it was more sessions, the final Paul Tripp sermon and lunch before packing up for the trip home. Though I had a good time, I felt out of my element because Diane wasn’t with me. We’re always together and it just didn’t feel right to be doing something without her. It was actually good for both of us because she got to spend girl time with Jennifer and Lydia while we boys did “manly stuff”.

I must report that at the end of one meal, I don’t remember which one, I turned to find dousing Roger staring at me. It was such a total surprise. He was there with son John, and son-in-law David. We had a nice talk, and agreed that we need to do the “family thing” again soon. I never saw them again though I looked everywhere. Considering the venue, I can only believe that chance meeting must have happened for a reason. I can’t wait to find out what it is.

Now we’re all home safe, I got to sleep in my bed last night, and Diane made me take the day off from working to let my back heal. The only thing I had to do was help get Ozzie to the vet by 0730 to get his teeth cleaned. His breath has been pretty disgusting for a while so we thought it would be a good idea. He stayed until after 1500 this afternoon. While waiting, I was allowed to watch the Ducks and Beavers play their football games because Diane recorded them on the DVR for me. The #3 Ducks played the #7 Michigan State Spartans and it looked like #3 was going to fall until they took over in the 4th quarter and scored the last 28 points ending it at 46-27.
As a result they moved up to #2 in the nation.

The Oregon State Beavers beat Hawaii in the second game. I have to admit that I wasn’t as engaged in that game as I was with the Ducks. I think it’s all because of the uniforms. The Ducks are awesome.

Now I must sleep but, first, I must show you my steak …

Today’s Lesson & My Finger

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

At church this morning our First Reading, which was listed as the Second Reading, was from Romans 12:9-21. Nancy was the reader which was awesome because I’m supposed to be in charge of getting readers, but I never do it. There’s always someone stepping up to get it done, mainly Nancy and Diane. They save my bacon a lot.

Pastor commented that this reading could also serve as another list of commandments because they share a lot in common. It’s true, they do. I just have one comment, then I will move along.

The lesson starts out just fine with “Let love be genuine; …” then fades right in to an area that I’ve been taught my entire life to avoid when it continues, “hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; …”.

On the surface, the last part kind of evens out, but I’ve been taught to not “hate” anything. So, that’s a really harsh word for me to comprehend during church service. I can live with “don’t like,” and similar words of discontent, as can Diane. She just hates it when I say I hate something so I tend to not use it, when I remember.

The rest of the lesson is filled with flowery words that repeatedly state that we should just like each other, you know? It’s pretty simple stuff when you whittle it all down to the basics.

Yesterday it rained for the first time in the last year and a half. It was really refreshing. Cleared the air and settled the dust next to the garage where I’ve been moving rocks and dirt around for the last few weeks. It caused our new neighbors, Scott & Whitney, a little distress because they’re trying to paint their house. It was grey and they’re painting it a really nice green. Diane and I are really happy that I took down the trees between the houses because it’s easier to keep track of how they’re doing. Before it was all blocked by that huge overgrown hedge. What’s more significant about the rain was that none of it seeped into the old motor homes because I spent some time on the roof spreading around various kinds of sealant to ovoid that nasty mess.

In the process, because I chose to ignore the gloves laying next to my right knee, my right pointing finger suffered a life-threatening injury as I slowly smoothed out the sealant over an area of exposed aluminum roofing that did not want me to do it. It hurt a lot, but I had to do it because I felt the timing was just right for me to alter my finger print a little. Also, I couldn’t quit because I knew the rain was coming … the weather woman told me. Then, after filling all potential access points to the interior, I removed myself from the roof, picked up my tools, and put them all away. Then I went to work on my finger.

As you can see, it wound up a mess because I had to pick up some of the tools from the yard where I tossed them …

You can see the blood seeping through the grass stuck to my finger, but I ended that by scrubbing all the contaminated areas with turpentine. Although it hurt a great deal more than obtaining the cut, it served well to seal the leak in my body. After the first 15 minutes, or so, I was used to the pain of scrubbing the sealant that was clinging desperately to my hand. In all, it took about 30 minutes to make it all go away. In hindsight, I wonder if gasoline would have worked better.

Once I got the turpentine smell removed with soap and water, I was allowed to enter the house and relax a bit. I have no coherent memory of leaving the house again, so I guess I stayed inside and watched football the rest of the day. Being Saturday, I’m sure that’s what I did.

Today my finger is still sore, and it hurts to type but I was compelled to complete this missive so none of you would worry about me continue to leak, in case you heard about my mishap from someone with less knowledge about the incident.

Oh Ya … it really hasn’t been a year and a half since the last rain. It’s more like a couple of weeks. But, considering this is “rainy Oregon”, we’ve received surprisingly little rain. I believe Phoenix, AZ recently got more rain in a couple of hours than we’ve had all year. Interesting.

Jean’s Birthday, Rocks, & Golf

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Today Eleanor Jean, Diane’s Mom, reluctantly celebrated her 87th birthday. I say “reluctantly” because she doesn’t find it necessary to celebrate “just another day.” We do, however, so took her out to dinner at Dockside in St. Helens. It’s interesting that the Dockside is an Italian food restaurant, not a seafood joint. And, it’s right on the Columbia River near where the best Salmon in the world give up their annual upstream battle through the thousands of fish hooks. You’d think they’d have salmon, wouldn’t you? They may, sometimes, but the fare is mainly steak and pasta with some token shrimp and chicken parts thrown in for added flavor.

At dinner were Daniel, Jeran, Diane, Lydia, Grams (Jean), Me, and Jennifer. Daniel is a staunch vegan so had a fancy salad; Jeran had ravioli’ Diane and Jean had Lasagna; Jennifer had fettucine alfredo; I and Lydia had carbonara. Carbonara is my absolute favorite Italian dish. Lydia, I learned, knows how to make it, but she’s never offered to come over and cook some for me.

It was a good end to a long day and we all enjoyed the food and the time we had together, visiting. Gathering for these occasions is important to us because it helps us rekindle the family spirit.

Unlike yesterday, and the day before, where I shoveled and moved a couple tons of rocks, today was spent in the church parking lot surrounded by many things we no longer wanted with a sincere hope that someone else would find a need to relieve us of ownership. It was a Parking Lot Sale to help raise funds for the church in an effort to keep the lights on, and a phone with a dial tone. Not many church folks participated in selling things, but lots of folks took the time to stop by for a peek at all the wondrous “stuff”. We were only actively open for 4 hours, 5 counting the early bird yard salers who can’t tell time. The tough part was unloading everything and stacking them neatly on the really heavy church tables I was forced to removed from the basement. After yesterday’s activity with a pick and shovel, moving the tables was brutal. I had help, but it was still brutal. Consequently, my left arm is only useable with a great deal of pain from the middle of my bicep to my wrist. Odd, I know, but that’s just the way it is. I’m not worried because I know it will go away.

Until tomorrow, when we go back for another 5 hours, then have to replace all the tables back in the basement. It will actually be easier to put them back because the stairs are carpeted allowing the tables to slide down quite nicely. Getting them to the stairs is the hard part.

I get a reprieve between 1000 and 1300 when I’ll go help some fellow Lions reattach newly cleaned flags to newly cleaned poles. It’s a project I’ve not had the pleasure of participating in before. These are the flags that we place in holes on the main blvds in town for all holidays. The holes are placed in front of all businesses that donate money to support the project. Everyone ponies up a donation because not having a flag in front of your business is an honor and when the one in front of your business is missing, everyone in town knows you didn’t help out. That’s a lie, of course. Once a hole is drilled in the sidewalk, it will always get a flag, and everyone is very generous with their support. It looks really nice to see all those flags fluttering in the breeze early in the morning.

Last Thursday I went golfing with Doug and JP. Oddly, I remembered most of the rules for golfing and had probably the best round of my checkered life. I had a 48 (for nine holes). Normally I’m in the 60’s, rarely in the 50’s. Getting it to 48 is beyond belief. On top of that, I beat both Doug and JP, something I’ve never ever done before. It was a good day. Then I came home a moved a bunch of rocks and dirt.

Though you don’t know it, just before starting this paragraph, there was a brief pause while I consoled the dogs and explained, once again, that it’s OK for deer to walk through the yard. We have a momma and a little speckled fawn that make regular trips around the neighbor hood eating all the flowers. They are quite popular, needless to say.

Now I must remove the rest of the grime from my body so I can contemplate bed in preparation for another early morning assault on the unsuspecting yard salers of Columbia County. At 1300 tomorrow all that remains will be placed in the church carport, where it will all languish, waiting for the Senior Center Thrift Store truck to show up and cart it all away. Forever. We hope.

Hope everyone had a great day.

Highway 30 Cruisers, & a Reunion

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Yesterday Diane took her Mom, Jean, shopping for groceries at Fred Meyer in Scappoose. On the way, Diane suggested that I go see what’s happening at the car show being held at the Spring Meadows Old Folks Home, which is almost directly across Highway 30 from Freddies. Thinking I might enjoy that, vs. wandering around the store with no direction, I agreed and took over the driver’s seat after Diane and Mom exited the vehicle.

The car show was put on by the Highway 30 Cruisers, a local car club which I’ve been asked to join because I have an old 1968 Chevy truck. Since the truck isn’t a piece of work one would normally display at a car show I’ve been hesitant but after today, I’m not so sure.

“Why,” you may ask, to which I would respond, “because they have a show category right up my alley. It’s called “In Progress”, and here’s the winner for the show …

There was a little history on the old truck explaining that the owner found the truck at the bottom of a lake where it had resided for many years. There was no mention of how it got there, or if he was the original owner, but, considering his age, I would venture to say it may have belonged to his grandfather, or someone in that age category. Neither was there any mention of what it took to render the truck drivable after draining all the water out of it, but I’d guess it wasn’t an easy process. The did report, however, that nothing has been done to the body since returning it to daylight, and a quick peek around the bottom of the doors indicates it has a serious rust issue going on. Mine doesn’t. So, I could enter mine in this category with confidence that I could at least get second place. Now all I have to do is get the transmission fixed, replace the flywheel, and have someone with more knowledge than me adjust the starter so it doesn’t break anything when engaged. Once there, I’ll join the club and share my good fortune as it happens.

Here’s an old 50-something Chevy hardtop that was pretty nice. It’s an interesting color. I talked with the owner for a while, another old guy, as are all the folks who had their cars in the show. He gave me the history on the car, but I can’t remember what he told me. But, it was a nice visit.

The next photo is of a card attached to the inside of the windshield of an old model A (I think) with a rumble seat. I’ve mentioned in the past, many times, I’m sure, that Mrs. Roney picked me up at school in one of these and drove me to her house for my piano lessons. She did that for five years, second through sixth grade. I always rode in the rumble seat. What fun. I don’t think anyone’s likely to ride in the rumble seat on this rig.
The next one is owned by an old friend, Gary, with whom I played drums in the high school band in 1961, or so. It’s a 1936 Plymouth in pristine condition. We had a good time in the back row of the band. When I got to his car I saw Spud & Leonna. That was odd, because Spud was a year ahead of me in high school and I inherited the #1 drummer position when he graduated, and there we were, three old Scappoose High School drummers. Small world, huh? Well, it’s not a large town so it’s not really unusual.

This Corvair belongs to Dave, one of my classmates from high school. Someone told me he had to push it to the show, but I later learned that was a bald-faced lie. He drove it there just fine. He’s married to Janice, one of Diane’s high school classmates.

I’ve decided that I’m not going to do anything with the body of my truck, but I’ll do this under the hood. The only difference will be mine has a 454, not a 427. Should look nice in a rusty grey truck, don’t you think?As I wandered around, aimlessly, looking at the vehicles on display, I encountered one of Diane’s old boyfriends, Pinky, who still owes me $20 for a pair of chrome rims I sold him. I’ve been reminding him about that for the last 50 years, but he won’t pay me. I think they’re worth more now, but he says he no longer has them so it’s really a moot point because I can’t prove I sold them to him. I will, however, point out his failure to pay whenever I see him. We do, by the way, get along just fine. I just like to rub his fur the wrong way a little. Besides, I got Diane, he didn’t. Maybe he figures that took care of the $20 he owed me, but I don’t see it that way. I’d expand on that a little, but I see absolutely no way I can do so without digging this huge hole from which I would never exit. So, I’ll move along.

This morning we got up early and left the house at 0900 and headed for Big Eddy Park over by Vernonia on Highway 47. Jennifer, Daniel, Lydia, and Jeran spent the last few days there for their Church Camp, when we’ve attended in the past with them, and Daniel was delivering the message at their out-door church service in the park. We made it in plenty of time and really enjoyed the service. There was a lot of singing, a little praying, then Daniel gave us a sermon that was spot on. He explained how he had plenty of time to get his talk all written out, but he put it off in favor of other things … like TV, video games, books, etc. Suddenly, it was time to produce the goods and he wasn’t quite ready until he realized that his actions were the topic … about how we get sidetracked by mundane things instead of focusing on God and the wonders He provides. It was pretty perfect and we’re really proud of Daniel.

After the service we headed for the car while everyone else got in line for the potluck. It was best that we didn’t stay because while walking to the service from where we parked, next to Jennifer, I was carrying a jar of salsa. Jennifer was walking in front of me and just as we got to the table, the lid came off, like magic, and the motion of my swinging arm provided exactly the right momentum to expel a large amount of the salsa all over the back of Jennifer’s legs. It was a mess and I was properly embarrassed for a pretty short time, until another Jennifer got our Jennifer all wiped down, and I was able to kick dirt over the other remaining evidence of the mishap. It was completely innocent, but it’s something I will probably hear about for a long time. Not staying for the pot luck also ensured that we didn’t find it necessary to eat any of the remaining salsa, leaving more for others.

Our destination from Big Eddy was the old Trojan Nuclear facility just south of Rainier on Highway 30. That’s where the 2014 picnic was happening for the class of ’62. We do picnics every year so this was, in reality, our 53rd reunion. Trojan is where I worked for a couple of years for PGE right after getting out of the Navy in 1989, so it was familiar territory for me. I used to take care of all the computers for everyone there. All by myself. For two years. A daunting task for someone with no formal computer repair training. I figured it out, however, and managed to stick around with PGE for 21 years.

There were 25 classmates and many spouses at the reunion, so we had a great time visiting. Here’s what we looked like today …

I’m in there somewhere. And, thanks to my handy little remote, I took this photo. We’re a pretty varied, and ambulatory group of old folks who are all pretty much 70 years old. Considering that we only had 99 in our graduating class, I think we’re hanging in there nicely.

Now, since i didn’t get to finish my morning nap, I’m going to bed.

Independence Day and Beyond

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Here is it, Sunday, July 6th, and I didn’t wish all of you a safe and happy 4th. Now that it’s over, I trust all who are reading this still have full use of their digits and senses. Unless someone is reading this to you, I trust you at least have the use of some of the important parts that you were issued at birth.

Now, the reason I’ve not been around lately is because we’ve had house guests … Bob, Steffani, and Maryssa … from Idaho. I know, I mentioned Idaho not too long ago, but that’s because we were there. Apparently the three mentioned above decided to follow us home after waiting for an appropriate amount of time, hoping we’d forget we just saw them a short time ago, I’m sure. As soon as they arrived I was forced to give up my garage door opener so they could have unlimited access to our home.

That’s not true, of course. They were officially invited. Really. They were. All of them.

Consequently, we spent most of our time waiting on them hand and foot from last Sunday evening through yesterday morning. Sounds bad, I know, but it was totally self-imposed. They didn’t expect that kind of treatment and, in truth, they didn’t really get it. Since they’re related, they don’t get that kind of treatment. They had to scavenge for any scrapes of food they could get, just like I do. Being the oldest, and slowest human in the building made it difficult to obtain the minimum daily fiber intake which resulted in an overall 10 pound weight increase. Without the need to compete for bathroom time, I’m confident I’ll quickly rid myself of the extra weight fairly quickly.

The real reason our three house guests visited was so the youngest of them, Maryssa, recent Skyview High School graduate, has a boyfriend, Sage, who is playing baseball on a summer league in Portland. All of the young men playing in the league comprise a pool of new talent for all those professional baseball teams out there. If he doesn’t get drafted, he will go to the University of North Carolina after he graduates next year. Sage is a stellar example of what many of today’s youth lack – manners and respect. Thankfully, he was exposed to our small town relatives who also exemplify that example when he visited our home several times during the past week. I did my best to be the best host ever s there’s a chance I’ll get a ticket to see a pro baseball game one of these days.

July 4^th started early for me. Not only because the dogs got me up early, but also because I had to stay up and honor a volunteer commitment to help place flags around town with other Lions International members at 0700. Since I had an American Legion obligation to participate in a flag raising ceremony in front of the old courthouse at 0800, I just stuck around down town. After the flag, I helped set up the combined American Legion/Veterans of Foreign Wars booth at which some items were being raffled off to the public passing by on their way to the waterfront area. One was a 20’ flag pole and another was a weekend stay at a beach cabin in either Warrenton, Oregon, or Ocean Park, Washington. The Columbia County Humane Society had a booth next to us and they raffled gift baskets. I donated money to the flag pole and gift basket raffles.

I don’t know what time I left during the morning, but I had to be back at 1:30 pm to participate in a bell ringing ceremony. When I returned, my friend Doug gave me the choice of which bell to ring so I chose the one at the marina in front of the old court-house. The bell is in a ½ replica of the warning bell tower located on Warrior Rock a little ways up the Columbia River from St. Helens. The replica is located near the waterfront gazebo where a very loud band was playing right up until the moment of the bell ceremony so I had a rapt audience for this interruption of their afternoon entertainment. The bell ceremony consists of ringing the bell 13 times, for our original 13 colonies, at 2 pm every 4^th of July. All the bells in town had someone pulling their ropes at the same time. It was quite solemn.

I stayed in the area of the information booth until 5 pm at which time I had to leave and attend the family dinner Diane had been working on for the last 3-4 days. In attendance were Diane, Bob, Steffani, Maryssa, Sage, Daniel, Jennifer, Cedric, Lydia, Jeran, Jean, and me. I had to put another leaf in the table to accommodate those in attendance. It was a terrific repast with lots of great food, just like normal for this time of year. After the meal, we all sat around waiting for it to get dark while Sage, Cedric, and Maryssa played catch in the back yard. The ball was missed and lost 3 times in dense bushes. I found it every time because I had long pants on and I’m not afraid of spiders. The last ball went into the hay-field behind the house just about the time Lydia appeared riding Gracie, our neighbor Stacy’s horse. This is the first time Lydia has ridden the horse and it happened about 10 minutes after Stacy met Lydia. Amazing. A demonstration about first impressions and trust, I believe.

While I was diving in the hay for the last lost baseball, my friend Doug arrived at the house toting the 10×10 pop-up I took for use at the information booth. That, and the flag pole I won. How amazing is that? I won the flag pole! And a flag! Now I’ll have to go dig a hole and set it up.

Yesterday we, and our guests, rose fairly early because it was time for them to head back to Idaho. On the way, however, we all attended one of Sage’s baseball games at the University of Concordia in Portland. He was the starting pitcher and I was really looking forward to seeing him hurl the ball. His fast ball is in the 92-93 mph range and he has a wicked curve. Sadly, infield defense wasn’t up to speed in the first two innings, allowing 4 runs on two errors. The pitching was good, but the coach pulled him after two. From there it was a scoreless battle until the 6th when Sage’s team started getting hits and tied the score. In the 7^th “our” team had last at bat and held their opponents scoreless. Then the bats got busy and “we” loaded the bases with one out. Next batter, a lefty, swung at the first pitch and hit a line drive down the first base line in a spot where the first baseman had no chance to catch it. Game over, we wind 5-4. Had that hit happened in an earlier inning, it would have cleared the bases, easily.

Then we said goodbye to our Idaho guests, Sage, and, Jack and Wynette, and went home. Did I mention Jack and Wynette were there? Don’t believe I did. Well, they were and they sat directly in front of us. Jennifer and Lydia rode with us to the game.

This morning we got up earlier than usual and went to church, came home and ate 4^th of July food.

That’s about it to this point.

Oh, ya. I won one of the gift baskets, too. How about that? Also, our guests took my garage door opener home with them. A police report has been filed.

Here’s some photographic evidence of what happened …

FIFA, Rising Star, Dirt Tracks, A Parade, & Dead Chicken

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Soccer has never interested me a great deal, but I’ve watched more than a few games over the years. Mostly, it was little kids learning the game and, more importantly, the value of being a team member and trusting your team mates. I made the last part up, but it makes sense, now.

More recently, I’ve been watching high school soccer because that’s one of Lydia’s chosen sports. Because of that, it’s imperative that I watch every game possible. Lydia is playing goalie, not an easy task. She said she finds it exciting and boring, all at once. But, she gets to wear those really cool Mickey Mouse gloves.

Observing the game with a more critical eye to positioning, and passing, and asking a lot of questions of those around me, I’ve developed a new appreciation of the sport and felt compelled to watch the entire 95+ minutes of today’s game against Portugal. I even got excited! when goals were scored and the USA surged ahead 2-1. Then, just as easily, I was dashed back to earth when Portugal’s #7 made a pretty awesome kick to one of his team mates who head butted it into the net, during the last-minute, I think, to end the game in a 2-2 tie. It was a bit disappointing, but no one lost. I have no idea what happens next other than USA plays Germany, I think.

Considering the outcome of the game, and that most soccer matches are very low scoring, I’ve made the following conclusions about the game.

Games are scheduled for 90 minutes to make sure only the fittest make it to the end.
The first 85 minutes are used to test defense and offense.
If goals are scored at any time before the last 5 minutes, it’s a bonus for that team.
Super Star players can retain their status with a 1% success rate on kicks & passes.

Now I’ll have to find out when the next game is scheduled and watch that one, too. But, I’m going to record it and only watch the last 5 minutes.

Rising Star, the new “Look At Me I’m A Singer” show, made it’s debut this evening. In preparation for the big event, Diane loaded the app on her iPad so she could help make decisions about who would win. Sadly, all the hoopla about this program is totally lost on those of us who live on Pacific Standard Time, because all those decisions are keyed to the program being aired at 8 pm East Coast time. Since it aired here at 8 pm PST, what Diane got on her iPad app, when the program started, was who all the winners were. It was a done deal. What a total waste. We didn’t watch it, and won’t even bother looking the next time it’s on. The hype is totally not for our time zone.

Dirt track racing has been going on here in River City (St. Helens) for as long as I can remember. Diane’s cousin, Don, has been associated with it for as long as I can remember, too. He’s a huge promoter and, at age 67, is still giving the young drivers fits on the track. He’s raced all manner of vehicles over the years and is currently piloting a modified rig that moves along just as fast as all the other vehicles out there. His nephew, Johnathan, also drives. He, and his sister, Victoria, got started at a young age thanks to Uncle Don. Johnathan started at 13 and is currently running his own 4-cylinder hot rod, having a lot of fun. Victoria has moved on and is currently married to an active duty sailor. We had the pleasure of sitting in the stands with them yesterday afternoon to watch Don and Jonathan see how many laps they could make in their respective races without destroying their rides. Don did real good. Jonathan did, too, most of the time, but wound up totally destroying his right rear tire as he passed a car on the last lap. The two cars were smack up against each other coming out of turn 4 on the 1/4 mile oval, and Johnathan was moving a little faster. End result was the car on his right got his left front bumper into Johnathan’s right rear wheel, causing the tire to disintegrate. He kept going forward, however, and managed to rip most of his opponent’s front end off as he went by.

What fun. Here’s part of the fun …

Jonathan’s #2 …

Uncle Don’s #0 …

Fun in turns 1 and 2 …

Kayliah, Alec’s Sister, and Victoria’s only Sister-In-Law, giving me her sultry look. I think she had a different name for it but I can’t remember it. She did say that it works best with a little flick of her hair.

Jennifer was in attendance …

… as was my first wife, Diane …

… and in the sunglasses are Pam, Alec, and Victoria

Lydia with one of the many little girls she entertained during the race. This one was trying out new hair styles …

A fun moment for Jonathan just before he attempted to relocate a very large, very heavy, yellow tractor tire. I actually think he missed it head on and didn’t move it much, but I bet it was pretty exciting for him.

KC will be sad because we had planned to make a trip to Cannon Beach to see her yesterday, but there were a lot of things going on in town that we normally attend with Diane’s Mom, Jean, plus falling in the driveway kinda tweaked my back making the prospect of 4-5 hours in the car unattractive. Yes, it was an exceptional day at the beach and there was an annual sand castle contest, and we’re sad we missed it, but my body is better off for passing it up. Sorry KC.

Instead, we went to the Kiwanis Parade, an annual event, after which we went to the Methodist Church for a dead Chicken BBQ, another annual event. Funny how they both seem to occur on the same day. Probably planned.

Here’s Diane, Mom Jean, Jennifer, and Lydia poised to watch the parade come down the hill …

We were all sitting across the street from the mortuary, and people were arriving for a funeral as the parade went by. You can see them in the back of this picture I took of Mikela driving her Dad’s tractor …

This is her Dad, Henry, driving a pretty nice Mustang …

… and this is her Grandma Doris driving one of the CC Rider buses …

I have no idea where her Mom, Pam, was. To remove the funeral home from the shots, I moved to the other side of the street during a lull. That way I had a chance to talk with folks who were going into the home. I don’t know who’s funeral was … only that he was a WWII guy who learned to fly at the same time as one of the Navy vets who was going to see him off on his next journey.

This is what my truck is going go look like some day. Really, it is.

This Star Wars guy made some threatening gestures, but it was all in fun …

Two of the Columbia County Fair Rodeo princesses …

After the parade, we went a little ways to the right on this street and ate chicken at the Methodist Church. Sorry I didn’t take a picture. I ate an entire half of a chicken and it was pretty awesome. Greasy, but awesome.

The pictured events are not shown in the order in which we attended them, but that’s OK. Just know we had a pretty good day and we all went home happy.