Messy Drawers, and Little Kids

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Today was interesting because Diane woke up full of adrenalin and instructions. Fortunately, for me, because I was taking my morning nap during the initial surge, but I was caught up in it when I started to pay attention to the little noises going on all around me.

When I got up, I found Diane in the hall, to the East Wing, staring at a spot on the wall. She had one of our prints in her hand and was trying to determine if where she was staring was a good place to put it. Not being totally awake, I just agreed with everything she said which was the wrong response because she was looking for opinions. Normally I have those, but not when I first wake up, or when it involves hanging pictures on the wall. If left to my own devices, I’d just start hammering nails in the wall and hang everything up. We’ve been in the house for 7 years, now, and not many things have been hung up, yet. I believe today is the beginning of a change. We got one picture hung!

Shortly thereafter, she went searching for something in one of the floor level drawers in the butler’s hall. I like saying that, “Butler’s Hall.” It just sounds all hoy faloy and uppity. It’s really just a hallway between the kitchen and Man Room that really doesn’t have to be there. I think I’ll knock the kitchen wall down and rearrange everything. I’ll do that one day when Diane’s out shopping at Goodwill.

Back to the drawers, we have three of those drawers, and they are extremely hard to open and close. Especially when they’re full of things we really don’t need. Having a knack for dealing with things we don’t need, and having a new-found desire to rid ourselves of at least some of them, I took over the task of pawing through the drawer innards.

Inside I found a couple of small bags of soft, practice golf balls, six golf tees, 40-50 pens & pencils, a set of nice dog trimming shears as well as one for people, dog and cat flea killer, a roll of teflon tape, 8 furniture glides, a crazy ball the size of a small marble, a wrapped package containing six boxes of sparklers from 1995, three unopened packages containing a dog toothbrush and paste, and many others various kinds of things that get thrown into little used drawers with a sincere belief they will be taken care of at a later date. Proving the latter to be true, I took care of it all. The drawer is now all neat and tidy containing far fewer things we absolutely don’t need. The other two drawers are already pretty neat so I will leave them alone. One of them is the repository or about 75 placemats of varying designs to match virtually any occasion.

While finishing that up, Diane made a wonderful lunch composed of small parts of a dead pig, mashed potatoes, and one of the 35 cans of string beans we have stashed in another drawer in the hall that is difficult to open and close. Dealing with that is an entirely different project.

During lunch we watched a bit of the movie “Hangover II”. The meal was finished before the movie but we didn’t finish it because Jeff, Heather, and girls showed up to play in the snow.

The girls arrived at the door with their boots already full of snow which we learned was from the walk up the hill because the car couldn’t make it. They had a really good time of it and were ready to spend some time inside.

Gilligan, on the right, displayed her normal demure self. She’s always on stage.

Then it was time to go, so everyone got all bundled up and went outside to play a bit before trundling down the hill to the car, and home. Getting the entire group to look the same direction, at the same time, without moving, or putting their hands up, is a difficult thing to do, so this is about as good as it gets. Gilligan is winking, Jerrie is trying to get away, and Baylee is doing what she can to get presentable. Something going on all the time, but at least they’re in one place for a moment.

They tried to make snow angels, but simply laying down didn’t work because there’s a crust of ice on top of the snow and they didn’t sink in. To attain this position we got them to stand up, put their hands up and fall over backwards. Even so, they didn’t get very deep, but they had fun.

Jeff even got into the spirit and did the flop.

… and he made a right nice snow angel.

At some point during all the outdoor frivolity, Gilligan decided it would be an excellent idea to bury her perfectly good had in the snow. When it was time to leave, she couldn’t remember where she did it. We split up, following all the smaller footprints, to check for likely burial spots, but we had no luck. I searched a bit longer after they left, but the hat is still missing and will remain so until the snow melts.

Painting, Soccer, and Comcast

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

This is my 455th entry. It’s amazing because you’d think I’d’ve used up all the words I know by now, wouldn’t you? Another amazing thing is that I have over 100 friends on Facebook. I had no idea that I actually know over 100 people. I even recognize most of their names. How about that?

Today I removed all of the wood trim from the dining room and entry hall, then Diane and I painted the walls. It was such a beautiful day, seriously, that we opened windows, doors, and more windows, to air out the house.

Then we locked the dogs in the house and left to go watch a soccer game at Liberty High School. Lydia’s team lost 5-0 because of some terribly biased calls by the umpires, or referees, or whatever you call them. For instance, whenever a member of each team collided, if they both fell down, he blamed Lydia’s team-mate. If only one fell down, regardless of which team, they blamed it on Lydia’s team-mate who was closest to the mishap. Then, whenever the ball got past the St. Helens goalie, they gave the other team a point. I mean, what’s up with that? How is the St. Helens team supposed to feel good about themselves if they do that all the time. Seems like both sides should get a point, or they should just give the visiting team a couple of points to start with because they had to ride a bus to get there. Fair is fair.

The dogs were very happy when we got home. Just like always.

Some things just never change.

That’s a good thing.

Now I’m going to watch TV with my first wife because our current DVR is full of shows we have to watch before Thursday when a friendly Comcast employee will be here between 10-12 to install the X1 system. I have no idea what that is, but it involves a new kind of DVR that allows the user to record 4 shows at once while watching a 5th show. With this device we are assured of never getting anything done around the house, ever again.

I need to rest up for this.

Diane’s Hair, Fire, Golf, Mechanical Stuff, and Food

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

First, here’s Diane’s new hairdo for those of you who requested it. It’s kinda like the picture I took in Hawaii and included with the tiki torch entry. I like it. I tell her that, but I’m not sure she believes me. What do you think?

Now, about Jerrie the arsonist, the golfer, the mechanic, and elctronical wizard – what a package!

On Thursday, the burn pile was reduced to a pretty flat mess of ashes. That would be the grey matter in the middle of the picture. The raised areas around it are grass clippings, which we are not allowed to burn. Before igniting the pile, it was tall enough, from this angle, to hide the clippings pile, and it was that tall all the way across. I stood out there for four hours monitoring the progress, moving things around, getting burnt here and there, and inhaled more than my share of smoke. It burned my eyes and my nose, but I hung in there and did my job. The neighbors, to the left, lit their burn pile, also, but our pile went away first.

Now, about golfing – Junior, Doug, and I are 1962 graduate of Scappoose Union High School. We weren’t the only three, of course, but we three see each other more often than the other 70+ remaining members of that class. That officially makes us old since we are well beyond the 50 mark, the point where many young people think we should be put out to pasture, so to speak, and we take that literally because we golf in St. Helens on a course that Jimbo would agree would be better served as a pasture. There are mole hills to contend with, and lost balls in the fairway because of deep grass, or simply deep mud, but it works for us. We have fun. Jimbo, by the way, is also a ’62 graduate, but he lives all the way over in Lake Oswego so we don’t get to see him very often.

Doug is the better golfer of the three of us, but Junior can whip him once in a while. I never do that. I’m just out there to whack a ball, and have a nice conversation while looking for it. We almost always find it, but not always. It doesn’t matter because pretty much all the balls I use were donated by golfers who went before me and we seem to usually come out ahead

Junior watches the golf channel all the time and is just full of little tidbits about how to golf better. Just enough to screw up anyone he’s golfing with, me especially. I don’t mind, because I’m not all that serious about golfing. For me, a round of golf is just a nice walk in the woods. Really. If there’s a tree around, I’ll wind up behind it. Because of that, I’ve adopted the attitude that I can hit my ball over, or through, any tree that’s in my way. Sometimes it works.

Here’s a picture of Junior, from yesterday, hitting his ball again from the same spot because he hit the sign you see a little ways in front of him. The sign was in his way and he made an impressive dent in the metal sign at the bottom right corner. You can actually see how it’s bent from the way it sits. We reviewed our rule book and determined that the sign was at fault, so retrieved his ricocheted ball from the middle of the fairway, put it in its original spot, and moved the sign to the right side of the cart path, away from Junior’s projected flight path.. The second effort was much better and I think we agreed that he parred the hole. Our rule book is better than the one other golfers use.

After I got home I decided to make myself a sandwich before Diane texted me about it. It’s always good when I can beat her to the punch once in a while. The choice for the sandwich was ham and cheese. Not wanting to open a brand new loaf of cheese, I chose to alter the configuration of the little left over cheese chunks, that we cut up for coffee hour last Sunday, by slicing them a little thinner. This is the good Tillamook cheddar cheese which I prefer to the Kraft peel-n-stick American Cheese Food that’s actually pretty good in a grilled cheese scenario.

Here’s a photographic progression of how I made that sandwich …

decided to tackle the broken RV so I could get it back into the driveway. This entailed removing the broken mechanical fuel pump to see if it was at least close to the one that came with the ’73. It was a minor miracle that it was, indeed, exactly like the one I needed. Funny, though, because it isn’t the right kind for the ’73. Funny how things work.

Once it was installed, I removed the electric fuel pump, which I determined just wasn’t cutting it, and was blessed with ignition. From this exercise, it’s readily evident that mechanical fuel pumps suck more than electric ones. It sucks better than the electric one I had, anyway. So, the RV is back in the driveway where it belongs. It’s still not leaking, either, though there were torrential downpours off and on all day yesterday.

Since the motor home was handled more quickly than I had anticipated, we decided to drive to Hillsboro to visit Best Buy and retrieve my new iPad which they reported had been received. I had an appointment with one of their Geeks at 1700 to make the switch. We went directly home from there, arriving shortly before the rains came. Rick and Jodi, and Tom and Linda will probably object to the fact that we were that close and didn’t stop and say Hi. Little do they know that when we visit Hillsboro, we drive by their houses at least twice, to see if anyone is looking. If no one charges out of the house on the second trip, we presume no one is there, and continue on our way. Yes, we could call, but choose to use the visual method of contact which is a bit more of a challenge.

That’s a lie. We don’t do drive bys. We should have called. Forgive us.

The new iPad proved to be an electronical challenge. That was mostly because of the Apple ID’s that are necessary to do back ups and restores. So, the back up I thought I had locked down, just kinda disappeared on me so I set the pad up as a new one instead. That means I had to remember all kinds of passwords and things that will make it work like it’s supposed to. Right now it’s wi-fi only which saves a buck or nine on fees, and I think I’m going to leave it that way.

For supper Diane made a terrific meal of re-purposed chicken parts that were formed into cute little sticks then covered with a lot of breading. Baked in the oven, from a frozen state, they do the job of filling the void and they are simple to fix. She also fixed frozen mac and cheese that didn’t turn out so well. I ate all of mine because I love my wife. I also got two ears of corn on the cob, cooked a few days ago, and reheated in the micro. Tasted just as good as if they were fresh. Here’s that meal …

Yes – both plates are mine. I admit it, I’m a pig.

Today I finished the church newsletter and Diane and I went out and cleaned the church up a bit. Mainly, I scrubbed up all the wine stains around the altar where people seem to have a little problem getting those tiny little cups up to their mouths. I may be guilty, too, but don’t have any memory of dripping wine on the carpet. What makes it more interesting is that the red wine stains are on a red carpet. You’d think the spots would just disappear, wouldn’t you? Doesn’t happen.

Now it’s getting on to dusk and I need to consider packing a suit case. Diane’s already done. She packed our coffee grinder in with her underwear. I told her I’d wrap it up in my skivvies, but she declined. I actually didn’t offer to do that, and I don’t know if it’s with her underwear. I’m just guessing.

Now I’m gonna quit and finish watching today’s football game. While doing this I watched the Oregon State Beavers decimate Colorado 44-11. In a little while I get to watch the Oregon Ducks play the Cal State Bears, I think. It will be interesting to see if Oregon continues it’s march to #1. this will be the Pac-12 opener for both teams.

Phlebotomy, The Garage, and Pac12

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

It’s a dreary day here in paradise, but we don’t mind. We don’t mind, you understand, because there’s really nothing we can do about it. If it’s going to be dreary, it’s what it is. No amount of whining, or complaining is going to change it. That’s what I’ve been told and I believe it. Makes life much more pleasant and it really makes one appreciate a nice, sunny day.

In Oregon, at least our part of it, car washes are very popular because at the first hint of sunshine, even if it’s for half a day, there’s a lineup at every one of them. Most people don’t want to drive around in a dirty car, especially Diane. Me? I don’t particularly care if my car is dirty or not. I don’t know why that is. Might be because it’s a 1996 Subaru with lots of dents so the dirt kind of hides the damage and lets me forget that I might have to do something about that some day.

Diane’s at the doctor’s office. Actually, she went to the doctor’s office this morning. Right now she’s delivering a stack of magazines to the lab waiting room where she went to visit one of the phlebotomists that works there. Her doctor told her to do this and she always does what her doctor tells her to do, most of the time. So do I. Always.

While Diane was at the doctor this morning, I carved out a spot in the garage so I could get the lawn mower out of the weather for the winter. Last year it lived on the lower patio, but that’s not an option this year. So, it’s going in the garage, next to the player piano. One of these days I’m going to have to get that thing into the basement where I can warm it up and actually work on it once in a while. That was the plan, five years ago, and is still the plan today. Might take the organ to the basement, too. I’ve probably said that before. Maybe one day it’ll actually happen.

When Diane left to visit the phlebotomist this afternoon, I did some more cleaning in the garage, and guess what!? There’s a door in there that opens to the porch outside the kitchen door. I actually knew there was one there because I could see it from outside. But, it’s behind the garbage can so it was never interesting enough to uncover on the garage side. Today I did it and I think I’ll be using it more often in the future. I don’t know why, but I suspect I will.

I don’t think I mentioned that I’m getting a new iPad on Friday. This will be my third one, and it’s going to be the 4th generation unit. Getting insurance on the first one gave me the 2nd one after I discovered the 1st one didn’t float in the hot tub. I’ve had the 2nd one for almost two years without error, but I dropped it a couple of weeks ago, as I’m prone to do, and it dented up one of the corners. Since then, the little button on the bottom, that has a name I can’t remember, doesn’t work consistently. So, when we were in Portland the other day, Diane let me go to Best Buy where I talked with one of the head Geeks to explain what happened. He was sympathetic, and ultimately agreed that it was going to fail worse almost any time soon. Since I had insurance on it, too, it was pretty much a done deal. So, Friday I’ll have to figure out how to set one of those up, all over again. That will be fun.

Just so you know, Lexi, Kristen’s little girl, knows how to dial a cell phone. She called us about 8 times tonight before Kristen got the phone away from her. We knew it was Lexi because she was making baby noises since, well, she’s a baby. A tricky one, too. Kristen, by the way, is Daniel’s younger sister. They have a brother, Ron, who graduated from Oregon State but remained a staunch Duck fan the entire time. Brave man. He’s an engineer, now. I finally called Kristen’s phone and she answered to clear things up with Lexi. Now we can relax knowing Kristen is OK. It was a concern for a while, there.

Tomorrow I may power wash the lawn mower and put it away in the hole I dug in the garage. My fear regarding that evolution is that the sun will come up and cause the grass to grow mega fast which would require me to get the mower dirty, again. But, I’ll do what ever I have to do to keep the grass in check.

I’m also going to make the Winnebago ‘move’ tomorrow and put it back in the driveway where it belongs. That will involve reinstalling the portion of the driveshaft that Bob removed before he towed it home. He was going to put it back, but I told him I’d do it. Should have let him do it, huh? When that’s installed, I’ll figure out the fuel problem so the engine will start. Might take the mechanical fuel pump off, too, and see if the new one I have looks anything like it. If so, I’ll install it, too.

I can’t do this any more. Girls are playing volleyball on the Pac12 Network.

Shoes & Deviled Eggs

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

Today I vacuumed the house while Diane peeled eggs. Other than the fact that ‘it was time’, there was a distinct need for us to suck up all the dog hair that Panzee is spreading around the place. She is much happier when it snows, but she will have to wait a while for that. Rumor has it, from the Old Guy Network in town, that we’re in for a bad winter. We’re not sure what that means because we’ve heard that rumor before and nothing happened. I’m beginning to suspect the reliability of the OGN.

I’ve mentioned before that I choose to vacuum for my lovely bride because it absolutely ruins her back. That doesn’t mean she never vacuums, because she does, but she never asks me to do it. I guess that makes me a good guy, in a way, but that isn’t my motivation. It’s just the right thing to do. Ya know?

One of the tasks I perform when vacuuming is to round-up all shoes that have escaped their rightful places. I may have mentioned that Diane has quite a few pair of shoes so it’s not unusual for hers to wind up in various places around the house. That’s OK. It’s good exercise for me to walk around the house collecting shoes before I fire up the vacuum. I took a couple of pictures to show you the results of my shoe search.

If the shoe roundup was a competition, I suppose you could say Diane wins due to shear numbers as you can see from the pictures …

Here’re mine …

Here’re Diane’s …

But, should the winner be selected based on the most, or the least shoes scattered around the house?

So … do I win because I only had two pair of shoes lying around?

While you ponder that, I’ll move along …

While I was vacuuming, Diane peeled a litter of eggs that she boiled to make deviled eggs for her Bunco Group. That’s tonight at another Diane’s house in Warren. My Diane also found a recipe for some cute little pastry things using her cute little pastry pan. It’s really a muffin pan for little muffins. She used a package of those Grand biscuits in a can, that you whack on the edge of a counter to make it explode. She had to peel each biscuit in half, placing each piece into one of the little muffin indents. Then she filled it with a concoction of swiss cheese, bacon, mayonnaise, and some other stuff. I was tasked to mix it all up and spoon it into the exposed muffins. She already had the oven heated up by the time I was done so all I had to do was slide it in for 10 minutes.

After 5 minutes she asked me if I’d put the bacon in, which I hadn’t, because she couldn’t smell it cooking. So, we pulled the muffin pan out, and she closely observed me sprinkling bacon bits all over the fake little muffins. Then she put it back in the oven for the remaining 5 minutes. When she got home, around 10 pm, there were only a few left. She saved them for me, and they were really good. They actually looked like cupcakes once they were cooked, but I didn’t get to see the finished product before she deserted me to go play with her friends.

She also took the deviled eggs I made for her. Remember? She was peeling eggs while I cleaned the house? Well, I made the deviled eggs, too. Again, I volunteered to do it, as I volunteered to help with the fake muffins. It’s easier if I volunteer to help because she won’t ask, and I won’t get into trouble for not helping. It’s a win-win.

There was no work on The Bathroom today, but I have a photo of the back wall tile being installed by Daniel …

I agree, it’s a bad photo, but I was in a hurry and took it with my iPhone … the one with the cracked screen that was reported in a previous entry.

As you can see, Daniel is finishing up the fifth row. This is where I left him last Friday so we could go have lunch with our friends. He completed two more rows before running out of the pre-mix thin set. It was a good stopping point because row eight is where the pattern begins. I think that’s true. Jennifer knows.

After completing my kitchenly chores, I just fiddled around and replaced the cable connections, and old cable, in the RV, to eliminate a lot of short cables strung together. Then I moved the satellite antenna just to see if I could get it lined up again. It wasn’t as easy this time, so I got a lot of practice adjusting it. Right now it’s on a stand Jack gave me that has a compass attached so I can make a professional guess about which way to aim it. Since the antenna is already aimed with the correct rotation and elevation, all I have to do is align the azimuth. Not as easy as it sounds, especially when the antenna is 50-60 feet away from the receiver and you have to make go back and forth to see if it works.

It finally did, and the new cable worked just great. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get the antenna level, and aligned without using sticks and bricks.

As I previously mentioned, Diane arrived home around 10 pm and it’s now 11-venty pm and time for me to quit. I vowed to get to bet early tonight, as I do most nights, so I won’t need my morning nap. I don’t know why that never works out. It just doesn’t.

The Cat, Ants, & The Blue Bago

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

Yesterday afternoon Jeff appeared with Gilligan and Baylee in tow. His goal was to move the play set to the back yard. The girls objective was to ignore him, and run all over the yard as fast, and as often as they could. They would also stop and pick apples and plums once in a while, but they wouldn’t eat what they picked so we had a discussion about that. Then they picked flowers. They had a great time.

Before putting the play set back together, Jeff power washed some of the pieces and parked them for drying. Breezie found it and conquered the climbing wall. Here’s proof:

Now she can look over the rhoddie that she usually sleeps under. Funny cat.

In case you’re wondering about the yard, the only thing green are the dandelions I planted. According to the guy I got them from, in a couple of years the lawn should be green year round. I’m looking forward to that. So are the dogs.

Good news about Tom – he’s breathing well on his own, the hiccups are gone, and he wants me to bring him a bed pan. I plan to do that tomorrow. Linda and Coleen both reported that Tom now remembers Linda so she’s going to have to cancel that trip to Mexico. For a while there she didn’t think he would miss her. Now we all suspect that not recognizing her was a ruse, a ploy, messing with her head. That’s the Tom we know and love and it’s good to see him doing so well.

Today I worked almost all day on the Blue Winnebago. Did I tell you that it’s blue? No big deal, but it’s just wrong that someone did that. It will, one of these days, once again be Winnebago Green. The task for today, however, was to get the mechanical fuel pump issue resolved.

Toward that end, I was able to definitively determine that the old pump was, indeed, faulty. I ventured to Car Quest to see about getting a replacement, but they didn’t have one in stock. They had to order it from their warehouse. I was there around 11 am, and they had the part in hand by 3 pm. I don’t know where the warehouse is, but it can’t be all that far away for that kind of service.

While I was waiting for that part to arrive I discovered that I was competing with a rather large group of ants for space under the Blue Bago’s engine. Some of them made their presence known by looking me directly in the face as I sat under the rig with my back against the inside of the right front wheel. It’s pretty roomy under there, but the ants wanted it all. I did my best to ignore them, but it was difficult. This is what they looked like after most of our conversations …

… and, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s the Blue Bago …

I had to stay outside all day because Diane was cleaning the house, top to bottom. It’s the most thorough cleaning the house has had since she had her major battle with shingles. Up to this time, I did the vacuuming, which gives her fits, but I only did it when she asked me to. And, I never did it as good as she normally does. But it was my place to help her because that’s what partners do. It’s taken me a really long time to understand that when she starts doing something that I don’t have to jump in front of her and do it for her. Sometimes she likes to just do things herself. I made that difficult. That’s why I spent all my time outside today. She knew where I was if she needed help. If I had stayed inside I would have taken the vacuum away and made her sit on the couch. Instead, she collapsed on the couch.

Now she’s in the hot tub. It still has issues, but it warmed up the water nicely, to about 107 degrees, and the chemicals are stable. I don’t like using the hot tub so much for reasons I’ve stated in previous blogs. Simply put, hot tubs should be enjoyed naked but our neighbors don’t agree. Actually, neither does Diane.

Tomorrow I have PT w/EB @ the VA again. I don’t think the PT is helping much, but tomorrow’s trip will serve another purpose by getting us close to Tom’s hospital so I can deliver his bed pan.

It’s after 9 pm, now, so I must go.

Jerrie’s tired.

0-Dark-Thirty and Later

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

That’s what time it is. Seems like there’s a book out there somewhere with that name on it, perhaps written by a Navy Seal that validates this as a proper time of day. Of course now, at this moment, it’s actually 0-dark-42. I’ve been fiddling around.

The cat stayed out again last night doing only God knows what. When she spends her nights outside she’s always there to run with the dogs when I let them out. She doesn’t let them out of her sight to ensure she’s there to gain access when I open the door for them, but she doesn’t stay long. I’ve been trained, by her claws screeching on the patio door glass, to make sure that door is opened a bit so she can keep an eye on the outside cat food bowl. Doing this makes it far easier for me to enjoy my morning nap because there is no screeching claws. The dogs like it too, because when it get light enough to see outside, they can go out and bark at random things.

This morning, the cat came in acknowledged my presence, gobbled half a cup of her dry food, and the three little treats I always put out for her before I go to bed, then promptly gave it all back, reaffirming my belief that a Puking Cat alarm clock would really work. It’s an unmistakable sound that gets everyone’s attention. I always find it interesting that virtually nothing a cat barfs up has a tooth mark in it. They swallow everything whole which makes all those commercials about how tasty the various kinds of cat food are a bunch of hooey. They don’t care how it tastes. I mean, c’mon, they lick their butts. So, perhaps they would enjoy a nice can of gourmet, butt-flavored cat food once in a while. Then we could toss in a spoon of dog-butt flavored food to change it up for them. That would probably make them puke, however. No, maybe not, because cats just puke on a whim, maybe just for the fun of it, or the noise it makes and how we react to it. Who knows?

I’m sorry I went down that trail. Obviously it’s something that has consumed my attention this morning and I had to rid my brain of it before my morning nap, which I’m going to take right now.

I’ll be back later with more Bathroom success stories … hmm … that brings up an entirely different train of thought than I had in mind. Good title for a blog – “Bathroom Success Stories”. Naw. If I did that I’d just have to hire a lawyer and get a divorce because it would make Diane cranky that I did something like that. So, I’ll stick to the mundane bathroom stories, for now.

<><><><> It’s later, now. Like 10:13 pm. In dog hours, that’s 2213. <><><><>

The bathroom effort resulted in the installation of the sheet rock, to cover up the suspect PEX routing, and the installation of the 2nd sink. Next, for the walls, will be the wainscoting. The sinks will have to come down again for that evolution, but at least they are perfectly useable until that happens.

We also installed two sheets of cement board on the back wall of the tub, so that’s moving along, too. We should be installed the tile just any month now.

While I was slaving away with Daniel on The Bathroom, Diane took Jennie, Cedric, and Lydia to Fred Meyer to buy shoes. It’s a tradition that we buy new shoes for all the kids for the new school year. Jeran doesn’t like shopping and threw up so he wouldn’t have to go. So, they had to guess at what size he wears. All of the kids finally wear shoes bigger than all the adults they know so borrowing is no longer an option. They have to have their own shoes.

When we started this tradition, shoes were reasonably priced. Now they aren’t. I think we’re broke again until the Social Security check shows up.

After terminating The Bathroom project I came home and visited with the dogs for a bit before taking a short nap. I actually didn’t nap, I just closed my eyes and enjoyed just sitting here doing nothing. It was awesome.

Diane finally got home around 6:30 pm, with a Papa Murphy’s pizza. I already had the over warmed up to the requisite 425 degrees so I stuffed it in as soon as she got home. It was done in 8 minutes. Then we ate while the church newsletter printed. I assemble and print it every month. I don’t know how I got conned into doing that, but I’ve done it for a long time now. I think I may have volunteered to do it. Instead of printing 80 copies a month, as I used to, I now just print 15 and the rest are delivered via email. Saves ink, and paper.

That’s it for now. Tomorrow we are going to one of my high school classmate’s home in Lake Oswego for our annual picnic. Yes, we have a semi-class reunion every year. We’ve been doing it for years. Usually, we get about 20 class mates, and their spouses. Twenty out of the original 100 isn’t too bad for a class that graduated in 1962. Wow! That’s 51 years ago. I had no idea that I was that old. Go figure.

I’ll let you know how it goes, and will probably include a picture, or three.

Pianos, Organs, and Chimneys

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

I have to tell you, I’m learning all kinds of new things this week. Sadly, I don’t remember what those tasks were, but I’ve documented it here so I can review, if necessary. The thing is, you see, that once I drain my brain into my computer, via the keyboard, my memory of those events are dulled, or simply gone. It’s convenient because it leaves more room for new things. I can’t tell you how many times in the past, when I didn’t have this way of unloading data, my brain got full to overflowing and it was distressing. I had information running out of my ears, eyes, nose, and mainly my mouth. It was absolutely dreadful to experience and, I’m told, not fun to look at. I was a mess. Now I’m not. Now I’m adorable. Ask Diane.

Today I removed pretty much everything from our two car garage, half of which is reserved for Diane’s Buick, in order to vacuum up the accumulated debris that has collected over the past 3-4 years. My ultimate goal, which I attained, was to make more room on the passenger side of the vehicle so I could get in and out, inside the garage, without hitting the piano. Or the organ. Those things are always in the way, it seems. I just needed to move them west a little bit to make room, but that entailed moving everything on the other side of them first. So I did that.

About the time I got everything out, Diane reminded me that we were supposed to visit her Mom so I could ensure the chimney was properly secured to the roof, and sealed around the flashing because she found bits of what looked like caulking on the ground after the guys were done washing her roof to remove the moss.

So, I started moving everything back into the garage, although it would have been perfectly fine to leave it outside because no one bothers us up here in the sticks. Being on a dead-end street doesn’t hurt, either. But, I moved it all back in, anyway. At least most of it. Before moving it back, however, I moved the piano and organ over to the new spots I had selected. Then I just started hauling things back in and stacked them all around the west side of the garage. Now there’s plenty room for me to get in and out of the Buick.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why is there a piano and an organ in the garage? That’s a very good question which I will attempt to answer in a manner that makes sense.

The piano was given to us by the renter we had in our old house. That’s the house we sold in 2008. We waited until then to ensure we would get the absolute least amount of money possible for our investment. When the renters left, we chose to not be landlords any longer and sold it. In the basement of that house sat this player piano that was to be a restoration project. Long story short, it didn’t work out and the renters didn’t want to move it so gave it to us. And we moved it to our garage as a project for me because I thought it would be a challenge to make it work. All the parts are there and I’m sure I can restore it. It shouldn’t take more than 15 years or so at the rate I’m going. So far all I’ve been able to accomplish is to not scratch it. I’m sure sitting in the garage all this time hasn’t been good for it, but won’t know until I get it into a place where I can dismantle it and shine up the innards. One of these days …

The organ was a gift from a family who received it as a gift and found it necessary to give it away. The deal is, if we get rid of it, it will be as a gift to someone else. It’s final destination was supposed to be our basement, with the other piano, but it weighs about a ton and isn’t something Diane and I can move. I’m absolutely positive it would tip over and break if we tried to move it. So, it sits in the garage, back to back with the piano. Unplayed. That’s in part because the dismantled pool table, which is another story, is taking up most of the free basement space. That, and a whole bunch of computer parts. And dead printers. I don’t know why I keep those things.

Also in the garage are three rather large tools that I bequeathed to Jeff, but he doesn’t have room for them. So, I’m thinking about asking Dan & Jennie if I can move them to their garage. They don’t know that yet. Probably will after Jennie reads this, but I’ll ask tomorrow, anyway. I’ll be there working on The Bathroom some more. Should be able to get the 2nd sink installed so Lydia and put a plastic bag over the first one and officially claim it as her very own. That will make her happy. It will also make the boys happy because it will save them about one step, each direction, when they are forced to go wash their hands before a meal. That, and brushing their teeth. Stuff like that.

So, back to our garage …

After putting almost everything back, we went to Mom’s and I climbed on the roof to inspect the chimney flashing. It looked OK, but the bricks looked like someone had passed a pressure washer across the front, but didn’t finish. So, with a bucket of suds, and a sturdy brush, I set about scrubbing it clean. Diane and Mom sat in the yard, in lawn chairs, watching me work very hard and getting the bricks clean while at the same time make a concerted effort to remain on the roof. There were a couple of “touch and go” moments, but I didn’t fall. Didn’t even get dizzy like a sometimes do when I realize I’m in danger.

The end result was a clean chimney and a happy Diane and happy Mom. Because of that, I was also happy.

Then we came home and Diane made me spaghetti for dinner. I love that stuff. Especially with most of my baguette remaining from yesterday. As you probably know, if you don’t eat those things within a day of purchase, you can take them to your shop and use them to hammer nails. They really get hard.

Speaking of the baguette … I mentioned yesterday that I was going to make a 3 foot long ham and cheese sandwich. I couldn’t do that because the loaf was only 25 inches long. So, I chopped off about 8 inches for my sandwich and we ate the rest this evening. It was still soft.

Now I must quit and think about going to bed. Diane is watching ‘All My Children’ on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) and will be busy for a while so I may be able to get to sleep before her for a change. That rarely happens because she is able to be completely asleep within seconds of deciding that’s what she wants to do.