March Madness, Softball, and a Puppy

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Jerrie Cate

The games have already begun and according to the bracket I made here I’m already a loser. Well, some may say I was already a loser for various other things I’ve said and done, but I’m thinking I don’t really care about that. But the brackets … Only two games played so far and I missed on both. Now I can only hope that none of my picks win so I’ll still have a nice clean bracket of choices, all with little ‘x’s’ in a circle to indicate the loss. My one consolation with regard to this is that ‘Bing’ lost both of them, too.

I’m guessing that many of you couldn’t care less about NCAA basketball. That’s kind of me, too, until this time of year when things get exciting. It’s way more fun than watching the pros play. My opinion, of course.

It’s still raining here, but we did have one glorious day of sunshine when we drove to Eugene to watch the lovely Maryssa Santi play some fast pitch softball for Eastern Oregon University. It’s like God looked down on us and decided to give us a nice day to sit in the sun and watch the games. They played four games over two days (Sunday & Monday) and won all four. We only got to watch 1 and 3/4 of those games, but it was fun.

Lydia brought her new family member, Kylo, along for the 2.5 hour ride because he’s only 5 weeks old and is hard to put down. He’s kinda cute. This is Matt holding him, trying to keep him calm. Yeah, like that’s a problem because he sleeps about 90% of the time.

On the way, Lydia gnawed on the breakfast burrito she bought at Muchas Gracias before we picked up her and her Mom, Jennifer for the ride. I probably could have eaten one of those, too, but no one asked. I’ve had them before and they are really good.

EOU won the first game 7-4 and they were ahead 7-1 when we had to leave during the late innings of the 2nd game. They won that one, too, 9-5. On Monday EOU won 10-1 and 1-0 (I think). It was a good trip for the girls to win all four games on the road like that.

Now, back to the puppy …

Here’s Maryssa #10, 2nd base … she’s a junior at EOU.

Here’s Steffani, Maryssa’s Mom, Bob’s Wife, My Brother’s Daughter …

Here’s Maryssa and Lydia, Diane (in the hat), and Jennifer …

And that pretty much covers the trip. The puppy slept through the 5 hour trip, interrupted by a couple of softball games during which he was adored, and held, by all the pretty girls who walked by. Guys seem to be more immune to puppy cuteness than girls.

Lucky dog.

Kylo joins Solo (a big dog) and Boba the cat. Perhaps you can sense the ‘Star Wars’ theme for the Walter’s Family Pets.

Diane’s Pantry & Snow Days

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

So … I reorganized Diane’s pantry. What do you think? It’s much easier to find things, now. Before we had to dig through all the shelves to find what we were looking for. Sometimes we just dug around to see what was there. Now, everything is right out there in the open and easy to see. The dogs love it because it’s like wandering around in a grocery store, picking out the things that look good.

It snowed a few days ago and doesn’t appear that it’s going to leave us soon. Watching the news yesterday about all the traffic jams almost made us want to move into Portland. It was an incredible mess. Those “in the know” pointed their fingers of blame at the Oregon Department of Transportation for not using rock salt on the road. Washington does, and they don’t seem to have any difficulty getting around in snowy weather. Oregon uses lots of gravel at intersections, which is good, and lots and lots of chemicals on bridges and main roads. Out here in the country, things are quite good by comparison because most of the drivers have an inherent knowledge that they should drive a lot slower when there is snow and ice on the road. Many Portlanders don’t have that ability. Consequently, they cause problems that all the news stations just love.

Now for some snow pictures, just to prove we actually had some. Not much, this time, but some. Just enough, actually, for the district to close schools for a couple of days.

I think I mentioned on my first posting of this photo that our balls look much nicer with snow on them.

Ozzie either isn’t a fan, or he’s got a problem with Panzee taking advantage of an opportunity to sniff his butt. Or is she just looking at it?

Our snowman even got snow on him. You’d think it would just absorb into him, wouldn’t you?

Regarding Diane’s pantry shelves. This is what I really did.

Right side

Left side. I loaded up all the drawers so, of course, everything is in the totally wrong place. Just just stacked stuff by size, not content. Diane said she’s going to reorganize them one of these days. Right now I’m the only one who knows where stuff is which makes me feel kind of powerful.

I’m going to add a couple more drawers. Just have to build them. Ran out of material for the drawer bottoms.

Golf, Our Furnace, and Golf

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

So, I played another bad 9-hole round of golf today and had a great time with my former classmates, JP and Doug. I also played an enormously bad 18-hole round of golf last Saturday with a fellow named Dennis, and two former classmates, Jim and Doug and had a great time doing that, also. Although I had great fun golfing badly on those two days, I came away with new knowledge that will affect the future of golfing efforts. The main takeaway from those two days of bad golf is that my current body will not tolerate more than 9-holes of golf on any given day. Swinging a club, and looking for my balls for 18-holes, on the same day, is just too demanding for many parts of me. In order of importance, the parts that suffer most are my shoulders, and my egos.

Before you get all technical on me, I’m aware that my ego isn’t technical a part of my anatomy. I’m also aware that most people do not have more than one ego. So, the only part of that really hurts is my shoulder – the right one, to be more specific. My ego just gets a bit bruised from doing badly, but the company I keep makes up for that. By doing 18 holes, like Jimbo does on a regular basis, both my should and ego suffer more. By only golfing for nine holes, the damage is halved and far less painful and I heal in half the time.

Sorry. That went way farther than I intended it to go, but think I made my point that I will probably not be signing up for rounds of 18 in the future. Nine is the limit, I’m afraid.

Yesterday Ryan, from Columbia NW Heating, in Scappoose, paid us a visit to give our furnace a once over before the snow starts flying. I’m sharing this simply because I want all those other husbands out there to know how important it is to listen to their respective wives and to pay really good attention when they add tasks to your personal calendar, like “Jerrie Cleans.”

The first time that showed up on my calendar I admit I was a bit concerned about what I was supposed to clean because as stated, it’s very ambiguous, leaving too much room for interpretation which in turn provides too many chances for doing a terrible thing, like cleaning the wrong thing, in this instance. So, ignoring my male instinct to continue forward without asking directions, I asked for clarification.

“It means that’s the day you are supposed to clean the furnace filters,” I was told.

“Oh,” I replied. “But it only says ‘Jerrie Cleans’ on my calendar.”

“Really?” she said. “You really didn’t click on it to see the entire entry?”

“No,” I replied. “I thought it might be a test to see if I would ask for help, so I did. Did I pass?”

“No,” she said, “you didn’t pass,” then turned to her computer and got busy on the keyboard. Presently I heard a ding and a notice that the calendar had been changed. All those entries for the 25th of each month now read “Jerrie – Filters.”

Problem solved. Since then I’ve been faithfully cleaning the furnace filters on the 25th of every month, whether they need it or not. Actually, they always need come cleaning because of the animals that run in and out of our home all the time. In the summer I use my air compressor to blow out all the dust most of the time, but other times I use my power washer. When I do that, I use the compressor to dry them off. There are a couple of pieces of the filter that look kinda like a honeycomb which takes an incredibly long time to dry so I only use the power washer on them on really hot days so I can leave them in the sun to dry.

The main purpose for sharing all this filter cleaning task is to report that Ryan, the furnace technician, told both Diane and I, right out loud so we could hear him clearly, that our filters were the cleanest of any furnace he’s ever serviced. I asked him to repeat it to ensure Diane heard him because I thought that was pretty significant but she heard it the first time. The cleanest filters in Ryan’s service territory. Wow! Diane went right to the calendar on the refrigerator and put a gold star on it. It was awesome because I don’t get many gold stars, just mainly silver and red ones. The last time I got a gold one was when I remembered to take the garbage out every Monday evening for an entire month without being told.

Thankfully, since the furnace was essentially overhauled yesterday, I didn’t have to clean them today. Now I can relax for another month.

To end, I will share a few photos I’ve taken over the past few days …

This is Dennis. When I first saw him it was about this angle and my heart skipped a bit because with just a glance he looked a lot like my older brother, Lyle, God Rest His Soul. Kinda spooky.

This is for Jewel because she likes weird fungi. This is a rare R2D2 fungus that only grows on the Wildwood golf course.

The remainder of the Saturday foursome … Me, Jim, and Doug.

This is what the sky showed us before I left to golf this morning. Looks like aliens are looking for something.

I’ve been meaning to clean out my golf bag for a while because it was getting kind of heavy. That, and I was looking for a bag of tall tees that I used to have. I didn’t find the tees, but I found all of these balls.

Here’s Doug who was so excited about all those leaves that he got out a bag so he could take some home since he doesn’t have many of his own. Actually, that’s a towel and he’s preparing to pick up his ball and wipe the mud off of it. He’s got many acres of trees that drop leaves like this so he doesn’t need to import any. It’s really pretty on the course this time of year, but finding a ball amongst all those leaves is a real challenge. We generally find them.

Just a look at trees on the course. We like this time of year because it’s easier to hit a ball through trees that don’t have leaves.

I suspect that’s enough trees for now.

Day 21 – Maymont Park – Richmond, Virginia

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Today we left the base and embarked on an adventure to Richmond to visit Maymont Park based on the recommendation of the nice lady with the German accent behind the reception desk at our exceptionally nice abode.

I programmed our destination into my phone’s GPS, plugged it into the car, and away we went on I-95 North. It was a quick trip because Richmond is only about 29 miles from Fort Lee. Since Columbus Day is apparently a holiday for most folks in Virginia there was very little traffic on the freeway. That was true for the side streets in town that we had to traverse at the insistence of Veronica, our GPS expert. It’s actually SIRI, not Veronica. I was just trying to trick you.

Richmond has some very narrow streets that I’m sure haven’t been widened since they were primarily used for horses and buggys. With the only available parking is on the street for most of the housing we saw, like this, the situation doesn’t get any better. There actually are individual houses around, and we saw some, but row houses like those in this photo are all over the place. These are actually separate homes with about a 5-6 foot space between them, but on first look they appear to be joined at the hip. There are others that are obviously newer, made of brick, that I would call town homes because they are physically joined. I didn’t take a photo of any of those because I didn’t want to. That, and my phone/camera was connected to the car for the GPS. That’s why I didn’t want to.

Getting to the park took us directly through the heart of VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). At least that’s what it seemed like because we were surround by buildings with the VCU logo on them for a mile or so through town. If those were indeed university buildings, I’d hate to have to make it from one class to another across that campus. Maybe they have some sort of underground delivery system for students.

Once we got to the park the first thing we discovered was that the welcome center wasn’t welcoming anyone because it’s not open on Monday. So we followed what looked like a group of Richmond natives down a walk that led waaaay down into a valley on this 100 acre estate.

At the bottom Diane stopped to rest her knees, which hurt all the time, and she was in need of a restroom. Fortunately, Dave was just about to pass us and he was dressed, to me, like someone who might work on the estate. I know his name was Dave because I asked and told me. Before that, however, I asked him if he knew where a restroom might be. He did, of course, because he volunteers his time at the park working in Raptor Valley where the birds live. He said he was heading that way and to follow him. Naturally that led to a conversation about where we were from. When he discovered that we were from out West, he slowed his pace to match ours and gave us a comprehensive history of the Maymont property and its original owners, the Dooley’s. What a guy!

Dave said James Dooley made his millions in a variety of enterprises, including the railroad industry, and built this incredible mansion on a hill in Richmond. When he and his wife died they had no family so left the property to the city of Richmond. Unfortunately, the property didn’t come with money to maintain it. That required a group of wealthy Richmond folks to step up and begin a program for that reason. The result is beautiful Maymont Park that includes the mansion and all of it’s grounds. It’s worth a trip. Oh! and it’s free.

Diane and I wandered around the winding paths and stairways to the tune of between 4-5 miles, depending on whose fitbit you want to believe. Mine came up with 3.97 miles but Diane’s was 5. My fitbit also said that I climbed up and down 15 floors of stairs. That one is absolutely true, I’m pretty sure. We did some ticking up and down hills. Diane’s knees will never be the same after today.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Wal-Mart* super center a little south of Fort Lee to get some required items, then stopped for a Pizza Hut dinner at the facility on base. When we got to the room I was a little shaky because I hadn’t had anything to eat for approximately 6 hours. As a newly crowned diabetic I could feel the need for food and confirmed it when I checked my BS level. It was 73.

The pizza was good and we demolished the entire thing, each eating half. That’s significant for Diane because she normally can only eat 3 pieces.

Now we’re settled in for the night and I need to stop because Monday Night Football is about to start. Since Cam Newton is out with a concussion for the Carolina Panthers our home town boy, Derek Anderson, will be in at quarterback. They are playing Tampa Bay with Jamis Winston at QB. It would be fun to see Derek beat them.

I will terminate this with some photos from today’s trip.

This is a terrific little stone bridge at the bottom of the trail, just before we met Dave.

Wandering through the Japanese Garden.

At the to, near the mansion, we found a large stone barn that has huge bird houses for dormers.

More out buildings with a really pretty fountain.

A comprehensive view of the estate buildings. This was taken from a wicker chair tied to 3 large weather balloons. It’s secured to the ground with a very long rope, thank God. It was still a little breezy up there, but it provided a terrific view of the James River and the estate. Those descriptive words just magically showed up when I imported the photo.

This is the last shot I took as the handlers were hauling me out of the sky.

Inside is the freakishly weird Swan Bed in Mrs. Dooley’s bedroom. I’m guessing this feature of her choice in bedroom furniture was a large factor in their childless marriage. I mean, really?

The kitchen is huge and finely attired. Looks very functional.

The living room is very ornate. Lots of wood that needs lots of pledge to keep it looking like it does.

Outside Diane walks through the arches where the Dooley’s, and guests would access the home from their carriages without getting wet, in case it was raining.

That’s Diane standing at the top of the steps on the front porch. She thought it was pretty nice, but that it should be screened in. Still, pretty classy.

On the way out, pondering the best route back to our car, Diane stops to consider how long it would take me to mow all that yard. It’s massive.

Lastly, here’s a pretty nice looking tree standing all alone so it could flourish in all directions.

Ta-da.

Day 15 – JBAB Anacostia

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

I didn’t do anything today except help Diane with the laundry. By help I mean I just did whatever she told me to do, of course. After that, she went to the exchange all by herself. I stayed in the room and watched a movie and two episodes of Quantico. I just love our Xfinity because we can watch recorded shows on our DVR from anywhere in the world.

A may have had a nap, too.

Later …

Day 14 – Washington D.C. Chinatown

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

When we got up this morning we didn’t have a plan about where to go. Diane said I was to have made a decision about that last night, and I kinda did, but didn’t tell her. I thought it would be interesting to visit Chinatown. I didn’t have a reason why other than it was on the green METRO line meaning we could get there without changing trains. That was apparently a good enough reason, so off we went to the Anacostia Station.

The train was pretty much empty on the trip, and not many got on at other stations so it was a pretty uneventful trip to the Gallery Place station. The exits for this stop are under a gallery (oddly) of many, many, stores, shops, bowling alley, bars, and a HUGE Regal Theater that has 14 screens. It’s actually right next to the Verizon Center which is home to the NBA Washington Wizards. I’m sure that’s true, but if any of you know differently, please chime in. I’ll do my best to pay attention. It’s also in Chinatown.

The first order of the day, after leaving the METRO stop, was to find a bathroom. So, we went into a handy door that appeared to lead into the Gallery’s innards where we were sure we’d find a bathroom. We went up and down escalators (more up than down) until we finally encountered an access point into the Regal Cinema.

We knew they had restrooms because all theaters have restrooms but, as luck would have it, only customers could use them. So, we bought tickets so Diane could use the bathroom. The tickets we bought were for “Storks” so we thought we may as well stick around and watch it. It as 11:41 am when we got to the ticket taker and she said we had plenty of time because there were 20 minutes of previews before the movie started. It was all good.

We sat in the theater, all by ourselves, and could hear the previews, but there was no picture. So, I went back to the ticket taker and reported this incident. Finally, someone got it going just in time for the movie to start. We really enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it. We used the restrooms both before and after the movie. Then we walked outside and Diane once again asked me what we were going to do.

I struggled for an answer, but didn’t have one, even though I had a map in my hands with all kinds of places we could visit. Finally, we decided to visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery which is directly across 7th Street NW from the Verizon Center. Really handy. While crossing 7th Street I noticed some food trucks parked on the museum side of the street and thought it was a really feeble attempt to match the parking lot full of similar trucks you can find all over Portland.

I had to go back and take a picture of the last one in line because it was a new one for me …

Doughnuts and fried chicken. Who knew?

The museum was filled with incredible paintings some of which are incredibly old. Most of the first ones we viewed were formal portraits of famous folks from history. The only one that really got our attention was this one because of frame …

It’s actually General Ulysses S. Grant. You know, the guy that’s buried in Grant’s tomb?

After walking around for a couple of hours we started getting a little light-headed and, as luck would have it, we stumbled across a snack shop on the inner patio of the museum. Diane just wanted fizzy water and I chose an orange Fanta soda. Total cost was $7.22, the most expensive drinks we’ve had since the last Blazer game we attended. Apparently, if you’re a ‘member’, things are considerably cheaper. Had we only know. Probably doesn’t cost much more than a few thousand bucks to be a member. I’m guess because I didn’t ask.

I loved my soda and nursed it slowly while sitting in this very quiet area. An interesting feature in there are three horizontal water falls. Sounds dumb, I know, but that’s what they are. They are actually three areas of the floor that are slightly depressed, slightly more on one side than the other. Water is forced up on the high side and it flows slowly across the stones to the low side. Very unique. I wanted to run through them, but Diane felt that would be a bad idea. So, I didn’t. In the photo the water is flowing from left to right.

Then I took a photo of Diane, like I always do when I have a chance, and liked it so much I’m going to share it with you.

In addition to some terrific art, the building itself is actually one itself. It’s 3 stories tall and each floor is different. I only took a photo of the Great Hall which is pretty magnificent.

There there was this view from one of the windows that I couldn’t resist. Have I ever mentioned how happy I no longer have to get film developed?

We were in the museum for 3-4 hours and by the time we decided to call it a day we were pretty hungry. Both of us decided that Mexican food would be really good which was handy because Rosa Mexicano was just across the street from the museum, and the METRO stop we needed for our return trip was just across the street from Rosa’s. How convenient.

We entered the restaurant between the lunch and dinner rush hours so the place was essentially ours for a little while. It’s a beautiful establishment and it smelled really good inside. Both of us chose to have guacamole made at the table and that was a treat. Except for the cilantro. I don’t care for cilantro. But that was OK because everything was delicious anyway. And, it looked really good …

I had my standard beef enchiladas and Diane had her standard cheese enchiladas. The rice and beans were served in bowls so we could take what we wanted. Clever. We each had three enchiladas. I ate all of mine and Diane left only about one bite. She did good.

By the time we were finished eating the place had started to fill up which pointed out a glaring error with our timing … people were getting off work meaning that we were going to be riding back on the subway during rush hour. And that’s exactly what we did. Making it more difficult, the METRO masterminds, I learned, send 6-car trains during rush hour but use 8-car trains on weekends. Makes perfect sense, don’t you think? Well, here we are making lots of new friends on our ride home …

We stood the entire trip. It wasn’t bad because there really wasn’t much of a chance we could have fallen down. Everyone on the train was very friendly. I don’t think it was out of necessity. I think that’s just the way they are all the time. Really nice folks.

Finally we got to the car and I was, once again, very relieved to discover that it had been towed. It was still right where we parked it.

I’ve been wanting to report what I discovered across the bottom of Washington DC license places but keep forgetting. Until now. On the way home, at a stop light, I took this photo …

Don’t you love it? I mentioned it at Arlington yesterday to one of the tour folks and was told that’s their motto. Since it’s on their license plates, I suspect that true.

On a side note, with Hurricane Matthew heading for the East Coast, we’re having second thoughts about our trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. Tomorrow we’ll call the resort and see what they have to say. Diane’s checking the weather frequently and her last report was that by Wednesday, the day we’re supposed to be there, it probably won’t be a hurricane. Just a ton of water falling out of the sky. We’ll see how that goes.

Many of you know that our friend Jewel is dog, cat and house sitting for us during this trip. Last week she performed an old person’s trick by falling down and breaking her right arm. In her defense, she tripped over the goofy little fence I helped her install around some new plantings by the front porch. I’ve tripped on that thing, too. Today she had her splint removed and had it replace with a pretty pink cast.

As you can see by her comment, she’s doing much better now. We’re thankful for that. Thanks for hanging in there, Jewel. During her trial with a splint, and pain, Jennifer pitched in to help. Daniel also added his expertise to give Ziva a bath after she decided to, again, adorn herself with eu du deer poop. Regarding that, I have mixed emotions because she’s either rolling in it, or eating it. I don’t like either of those choices, but think I like her eating it best. That way there’s really nothing to clean up. Yea!

Gotta quit now because Dancing With The Stars is on now. It’s Cirque du Soleil night.

Air Filters, Eboards, Haircuts, Soccer, and iPad Pro

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Today I cleaned our furnace air cleaner filters, attended an American Legion Executive Board meeting, got a haircut, had a couple of naps, and watched a fun high school soccer game, in that order. Oh, and I got my new iPad Pro, too.

First, the filters. I have to do this every month because Diane puts it on the calendar. She knows that I check my calendar every day and am pretty good about doing things listed on the calendar, especially when they are preceded by my name. Like, “Jerrie – Cleans Filters”. The first time I saw that I wasn’t sure what filters I was supposed to clean so I didn’t do it. That, of course, resulted in punishment for Failure To Comply. I quickly learned what filters were involved and have faithfully complied ever since. Now, how I clean them is up to me. Sometimes I just vacuum them off, sometimes I use my air compressor and blow all the dirt in the neighbor’s yard. Or, out into the yard. Other times, like today, I hosed them all down and left them to dry in the hot afternoon sun. Everything dried except for the two big honeycomb things that go on the bottom of the stack. So, I left them in the yard, on a chair, facing the setting sun with a soft summer breeze blowing directly into the little damp holes. That was 8 hours ago and they’re still out there. In the cold damp, dark, night. Guess I won’t be putting them in until tomorrow morning some time. I’d go out and get them, but I don’t want to. I can only hope that some weirdo filter thief doesn’t show up and take them.

Our American Legion Executive Board meeting has historically been held at 10 which is just a little late for breakfast and a little early for lunch. Today it was at 11, making lunch more likely. I had breakfast. Now, calling this the Executive Board sounds a little elegant for our small group, but that’s technically what it is. I must attend because I’m the Sgt. At Arms, keeper of the peace. Yeah, I thought it was funny, too, when they voted me into that position. I actually volunteered to do it because I knew it didn’t involve a lot of manual labor or memory recall. That, and no one else wanted to do it. That was last year. No one else wanted to do it this year either, so I still have the little thing on my hat proclaiming my position. Maybe I’ll do it again next year if things stay calm. At the EBoard meetings everyone else conducts actual business. I just eat and vote when necessary. I voted 3 times today.

After the meeting I got home in time to participate in a haircut marathon involving Diane’s Mom, Jean, Diane, Jewel, and me. We were all in line for a touch-up from the Traveling Hair Dresser which is pretty handy, let me tell you. We just do a little Rock Paper Scissors to see who goes first, then the hair cutter gets right to work and hair starts flying all over the place. Logic says we’d do this outside, on the porch, but it actually takes place on the dining room carpet. Diane likes doing it there because she has this incredible vacuum cleaner that sucks up hair like crazy. We know because we pick up tons of dog hair every week and look at them in wonder, like “I wonder why the dogs aren’t bald?” They actually lose 3 dogs worth of hair every month. I don’t know how they do that. So, picking up a little bit of gray hair from some old people once every couple of months is no big deal.

I had the next to last haircut because Diane told me to get in the chair. I didn’t lose much because it was cut pretty short the last time I had a haircut. Like a buzz cut. Really short. After that I was really tired so stretched out on the sofa and took a few naps while waiting for the next event of the day. I had more than one nap because continuity was interrupted by the UPS lady who delivered my new iPad Pro, an email from Jimbo wanting to know when we were going to go golfing again, a phone call from John to arrange a golf date, and various other noises throughout the afternoon. The result of all the interruptions is that I’m obliged to go golfing three times next week. That’s unheard of for me because nine holes a week is usually my limit. Now I’m going to do 36. Should be interesting. Wonder if I’ll get better as the week goes on. I also wonder if I’ll be able to walk by the end of the week. We’ll see.

During some of my awake time I set up my new iPad. Diane said I needed a new one because the screen on the old one is cracked a little from an injury it received from a drop that I have no memory of. Interesting. One I make the transition to the new unit I’m going to set it up for Diane’s Mom, Jean so she can use it. She doesn’t know this yet and we already know it’s going to be a hard sell because she thinks things like the iPad are too complicated for her to use. We think once she sees what it can do she’ll have a changed of heart. She’ll be connected to the world and will be able to follow Diane and me during our travels, getting all the fancy photos we include sometimes. And Facebook! That will really yank her eyes open. Diane will set up a new Facebook page for Mom. She conquered the Comcast remote control so we’re confident she can handle an iPad and all the notifications one gets on Facebook. Should be fun.

In the evening, before the sun set, we headed for the St. Helens High School soccer field to watch our Lady Lions play against the Astoria Fishermen. Now, right away I saw a problem with the Astoria team name. I mean, this is a team of young ladies and they still call them Fishermen. Shouldn’t they be Fishergirls, Fisherladies, or a more generic Fisherpeople? That would certainly be the case if the ACLU ever hears about this. That’s an opinion, of course. The ACLU might not give a hoot. What’s happened with all the PC stuff about gender specific tags? Whatever … our girls played a great game, for the most part, and won 2-0. The score should have been more like 15-0 because our girls kicked the ball over the opposing net about 13 times. In the second half Lydia, our goalie, only got to touch the ball whenever one of her team mates kicked it to her. Oh, there were a couple of close calls, but Lyd fended them off with the help of her best defender, Ceiarra. Morgan, the first half goalie did a lot of standing around, too, and made some good stops to keep Astoria scoreless.

At the game we were blessed with the presence of the lovely Georgie and her lovely Mom Jacqui. I just learned that she reads this stuff so had to name her. Georgie graduated and we miss seeing her play. She’s very good. Just saying. Rumor has it that Georgie and family will be moving to England at some undisclosed future date where she will attend college and major in soccer. We believe this is possible for her because of the uncanny life-like British accent her Mom uses. And, more probably, because her Mom is really British and they have lots of family still in the Old Country. We look forward to their move so we will have a place to stay when we visit England one day.

It’s almost Eleventy PM now and everyone else in the house is already in bed. I’m watching a recording of the Denver Broncos Carolina Panthers game. Looks like the Jags are going to take it home so I can probably just fast forward to the end of the game to see the final score and go to bed myself. After all, the dogs will undoubtedly wake me up in about 5 hours. Yes, they’ve been edging the time back closer to 4 am lately. I can hardly ignore them since Ozzie is on the bed and he fronts for the big dogs by licking whatever isn’t under the covers until I get up. Consequently, I’m careful about what I leave exposed when I close my eyes for the night, which is just what I’m going to do now.

G’nite.

Sports, Crab, Cod, & 54248 Kalberer Rd

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Soccer in Warranton – Most of the victorious team. That’s our Lydia in front.

The Lady Lions varsity team won all three of their assigned games quite handily. They are always fun to watch. I’m sure glad I figured out some of the rules so it makes sense to me. Off sides was the tough one to get the handle on. Now they will shortly be on to league play when school starts.

Diane and I got up fairly early Saturday morning and took a walk on the beach. In spite of all the volley ball nets strung up, and people smacking their balls back and forth, it was a quiet, uncrowded walk on which we got to me some nice dogs and their people on the beach. I even found a rather normal rock, very similar to many I’ve found digging around in the back yard. I kept it anyway.

Seaside Beach Volleyball, as I mentioned, was the deal of the week and the entire town was hopping. People everywhere. Parking places hard to find. But, the mood was always festive and we didn’t encounter any unhappy people to ruin our day. After Saturday’s game Diane and I went to Dooger’s in Warrenton to get our normal fare on trips to the coast. I had my crab louie and Diane had her fish and chips. It’s always good.

We got home late yesterday afternoon to a fleet of barking dogs. Apparently we pulled in just after Scott & Whitney returned from their weekend away as they were working on backing their trailer into their yard. As we stood talking, Kiah & Brooklyn backed their pink jeep out of the garage and headed on down the street, toward town. Whitney said no, she just sent them down to get the mail. How handy. Kiah is 5 and Brooklyn is 3. This is Kiah preparing to park her jeep back in the garage.

Diane and I are thinking about having them get our mail, too. How handy is that?

This morning I woke up at 0250 and couldn’t go back to sleep so took my little self to the recliner and read for a while. I’ve been reading “Inferno”, by Dan Brown, because I just learned they made it into a movie. I forgot that I already read it, but that’s OK. I’m reading it again. Fun stuff. When Diane got up I pried myself off the recliner and prepared to do some yard work for a little while. Couldn’t do it for long because it got hot fast and I don’t do well when it’s hot. I run out of sweat way too fast. Besides, we had a lunch date with Jack & Wynette after going to view their home. Their empty home. It’s listed for sale and they hope to sell it quickly so they can move along down the road to Surprise, Arizona. So, if you know of anyone seeking a secluded home, pass this along.

After the viewing, and some visiting, we headed to Scappoose for sustenance at Ichabod’s where we ate and visited some more. Tom Anderson, from Wynette’s class stopped to say hello so we had him sit with us. I don’t remember him but, then, he was an upper class man. That means he’s older than me. It’s hard telling who you’ll run into at Ichabod’s. Sit there long enough and you’ll usually see three or four old class mates.

The heat is finally going away for the night so we can open some windows and doors for some fresh air before we head for bed.

My Ear, and DISH Satellite

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Here it is August 4th already, and the days are noticeably shorter and the nights longer. Longer nights haven’t yet confused the Little Black Dog (Ozzie) because he still wakes me up promptly at 0500. He either has a terrific internal clock, or he can read Diane’s alarm clock.

Yesterday I spent a few hours with my dermatologist who concisely excised a 10x15mm piece of skin from the top of my right ear that was home for a herd of basal cell carcinoma things. It was done using Mhos Surgery. I believe I mentioned a couple of days ago that this was going to happen. I was prepared to spend the day because the process involves taking small bits of flesh, biopsying it, then taking more, if necessary. The biopsy part takes about an hour so requiring multiple scoops, as Diane calls them, could take a while. I was lucky as my doc got it all with one scoop and we were hope by 1030, not quite three hours from the 0745 check-in time. Now I an adorned with an impressive mass of what was called a “pressure” bandage but is, in fact, not putting much pressure on the wound. Diane had to augment the nurses efforts with the large piece of tape because it was almost flapping in the wind. This is the way I went to coffee this morning with my friends Larry and Larry.

After coffee I went to ACE for some things Diane put on a list for me then came home and fiddled with the DISH receiver in our trailer. Diane, Jennifer, Lydia, and Jewel shopping in Portland, leaving me unsupervised but with stern instructions that I was not allowed to do “anything” in the way of labor that involved exertion of any kind, doctors orders. Apparently there’s a mild possibility that one or more of the 12 stitches might give way allowing my ear to spurt blood all over the place. I don’t think that’s something the dogs would clean up for me and it would certainly create a bad situation for me once Diane got home. So, I remained in my Coffee Clothes, boots and all, and mosied back and forth to the trailer getting our DISH receiver set up as a DVR. All I had to do was add a hard drive to it and have the service activated. I called the first time and thought I’d made myself clear, but the service wasn’t activated. So, I used their handy CHAT feature and accomplished the task.

The external hard drive I used the one sitting behind my computer that used to be my back up drive. It was originally installed in an Apple Time Machine that had an electronical problem that occurred well after the warranty period. So, I ripped it apart and installed the hard drive in a case that I purchased somewhere and continued using it at my Time Machine drive. Worked great until I got a Western Digital 4TB MyCloud device. Then it just sat there. Ignored. Until today.

After getting the DVR service activated I plugged the drive into my 211z DISH receiver and it went to work formatting the drive for me. I’ll be curious to see how well it works. Seems to have adapted to its new job OK so far.

You needed to know all that.

Now I must stop and watch Olympic Soccer.

If I get in trouble, for any reason, once Diane returns, I’ll be back to share it with you all.

Later …

Diane and Jewel returned home safely with a really good sandwich for me from the Virgina Cafe. I’m afraid I gobbled. The I talked Diane into removing all that padding from my ear which I was quickly beginning to dislike immensely. It still hurts, but now I can get ice closer to the offending area. Relief is in sight. If necessary, I know where the rum is.

My Burn Pile, “Jason Bourne”, Dirt, Hamburgers, and Dog Greetings

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Today I donned my Dickies and worked in the dirt for a while after feasting on toast and Cheerios, with brown sugar. I ate first because I know Diane would have told me to do so had she been home, but she was in Portland with her Mom, Jean, who had a doctor’s appointment. She would have been proud that I thought about eating all by myself. Most of the time I just wait until I’m told to go wash because lunch or dinner are ready. It’s something I’m used to what with having two ladies living in the house. One of them is always cooking something, which works great for me. Also, when one cooks, generally, the other one does the dishes. I know that, having shared that, I will certainly be put on the rotation for dishes. Truth is, I do the dishes quite often. I also cook once in a while. I’m “that” guy.

The sum result of my morning was to remove all the piles of yard debris from the edge of the yard, where Jewel stacks it, and transport it to the burn pile. Unfortunately, the burning season won’t start again until October so it’s going to be pretty large by then. It’s pretty large now.

Actually, I emptied a yard of bulk potting soil from the pickup, too. One shovel full at a time.

This afternoon, we watched “Jason Bourne” at the Scappoose Cinema 7 because it was Cheap Senior Day. Actually, it was cheap for everyone because all tickets were $5. We got there a little later than desired because I had to clean myself up after working in the yard, pulling stumps, and such. That resulted in the need for the three of us to sit closer to the screen than our little eyes liked. If you’ve seen the movie you know there’s a lot of action going on and the fast camera motion when you’re up close makes my eyeballs wobble around too much.

Although the movie only cost $5 for everyone who attended, most of them were old folks. One of them appeared to have brought they grandchildren to watch this R rated movie which we thought was a bit odd. Wonder if Mom & Dad knew. Maybe they will find out when the kids get home and start ratting out Grandma.

Another reason for getting to the theater early on old people day is to ensure you get a seat in the middle of the row you select because that’s generally where the old folks with small bladders sit. If you’re on the end it’s quite probably that you will be treated to an overweight person sliding their butts across your face as they step on your toes in their hurry to get to the bathroom. That only happened once. On the way back-end that lady just took her time.

On the way out of the theater we encountered a frenzied group of theater employees frantically working to stem the leak in the women’s bathroom. It must have been a couple of inches deep on the floor. It’s my theory that the lady who rushed that direction in the middle of the movie tried to flush her depends down the toilet without success. Just guessing, of course. There was no proof that I could see, but I didn’t look long.

For dinner Diane took us to Burgerville in St. Helens for some nutritious hamburger meat from Venezuela. That’s a lie, of course, because everyone knows that Burgerville only uses cows who used to live in Oregon and Washington, and maybe Northern California. We ate there so the dogs wouldn’t know about it. If we had taken the meal home they would have been harassing us for little bites of meat and french fries. They always do that.

It didn’t matter because when we got home all they wanted to hear about was the movie and when it would be on HBO so they could watch it. There was no talk about hamburgers at all. All they did was greet us in the same exuberant manner they use every time we’re gone from the house more than 5 minutes. Ziva has the need to put her hands on me which sometimes results in damage to my exterior. Here’s the results of one of her hello’s:

She did that with just one foot. It was a double tap that she just couldn’t control. If my skin wasn’t so crepe papery I may not have bled at all. I would have just had a bunch of hematomas.

Since I had to put the old truck in the back yard to facilitate removal of the dirt we purchased, I decided it’s just as well that I leave it there. That way I can just use it to jump-start the lawn mower when I need to use it. Logic says that getting a new battery for the mower would be the more expedient solution, but logic doesn’t necessarily factor in to many of the decisions I make day in and day out.