Poetry and Patriotic Blossoms

Posted on by
Up at 4 to eat, then nap,
gotta feed the dogs and cat.
Lay down for another snooze,
can not get enough of that.
Getting up again at 10,
get a little blogging in.
Gotta let the dogs back in.
Then it’s time for lunch, and then,
I wonder what I’m doing here,
typing drivel with a slur.
It’s odd that words can mean so much,
but lose their punch with just a blur
Fingers typing way too fast,
too fast to think what I should “say”,
So I stop to take a break,
some folks think I’m such a flake
And I should be …

OK – that’s enough of that! I’m not a poet, obviously, so I quit and went outside to clean up the hot tub so Diane can use it. I had to wait for the company to leave before doing it because they might have waned to use it. This is what I saw …

I know, it needs some paint to cover up whatever it was that got splattered around down there, but it’s clean. I vacuumed it then power washed it as well as the tub innards. Diane couldn’t see this from the upper deck … she saw this …

Needless to say, she wasn’t overly impressed and I have to agree, it’s not very pretty. I had to remove all of this “stuff” from the patio before I could clean it. By the time I was done I didn’t want to move it back, so that’s where it’s staying all night – maybe two nights – unless it rains. Then I’ll move it.

Here’s the entire view …

Once I got going with the camera, I couldn’t help but wander around the yard taking pictures of some of our flowers. Doing this, I discovered that we have some sort of patriotic flower … I’ve known it was there for a long time, but I never really looked closely at it before. Turns out it’s pretty unique in my experience … tell me what you think about this …

It’s not really a flower … it’s a bush with blooms all over it like this. This one is pale yellow, but there’s another bush with deeper color that I like, too …

I found this very interesting because I’ve never seen blooms with stars in them before.

Going down another road I have to show you the chaise lounge that I placed on top of the septic tank. Later in the summer I’ll be able to lay on this and eat blackberries from the vines that I’m training to form a cover over it for shade …

The grass was allowed to remain because it adds a country look. Anyone who visits, when the berries are ripe, will be more than welcome to partake of this lovely feature at our home. If you’d rather eat your berries from a vertical stance, there will be plenty of them around the fence line, and across the street from the house. I can’t kill them. They seem to love being ripped out of the ground then sprouting up again three times as bad just to spite me. I have to admit, though it’s a noxious weed, the berries make mighty fine pie and jam.

We missed seeing the Space Shuttle fly over this evening, so will be looking for it tomorrow. Now it’s time for bed.

Living The Dream

Posted on by

Greetings, my Family, Friends, and Assorted Other People …

The initial purpose of this blog was to keep family and friends apprised of current events while travelling around the USA in 2010. That was right after I retired, for good, the second time. This has evolved, however, into a challenge for me to provide humorous updates about our routine life while at home, where not a lot happens except work, work, work.

On a positive not, the work is by my schedule, not the clock’s. I’ve documented a typical day in previous posts that, if anyone was paying attention, wasn’t worth reading at all. If you didn’t read it, I applaud you. It’s obvious you value your time. It’s important to me, however, that everyone acquire this information in order to plan ahead for their own retirement. I think I’m a good example of what retirement ‘looks’ like. My older brother, Jack, isn’t because last week he worked 84 hours, and is going for another 72 hours this week. After that they’re making him take a one day break, then he can do it again. What a life. So, he can work 13 out of 14 days during his old plant’s scheduled maintenance shutdown. I must add that Jack doesn’t normally do this. Most days when you ask him what day it is he’d answer “June”, unless it was May.

Here’s how my day goes, using today as a good example because all the company is gone … when you’re retired and have company, the schedule just goes out the window.

0430 – the dogs woke me up, but that was my fault because I fed them late last night. When I heard them stirring I dragged myself from yet another dream I won’t remember and stumbled to the back door. The cat remained on the bed where she had Diane trapped against the edge of the bed, giving me lots of room to flail in the night, but she finally made it when I opened the door so the dogs could return. While the animals are outside, I fix their food bowls which is their incentive for returning to the house promptly after doing whatever it is they had to do.
Since the cat was outside, I could safely put Ozzie’s in his kennel, his safe place, without fear of it being gobbled up before he got his fill. I discovered this morning, however, that the cat prefers dry food to pouch food because she stuck her nose in Panzee’s bowl, while Panzee was eating, and walked away after a couple of sniffs. Panzee didn’t miss a bite and totally ignored the cat.
0435 to 0436 – Panzee finished eating and laid down for her nap. Ozzie takes his time, and usually only eats half a pouch. I give it all to him, however, because if I put it in the refrigerator it might wind up in a sandwich. Confident that I won’t be bothered for a little while, I reclined on the couch in my normal, daytime position, when I’m on the couch. It didn’t feel right that early in the morning, however, so I went prone, propping my head on the arm. It’s pretty comfortable. Normally, I take a post-breakfast nap but, since I got up so early, I took a pre-breakfast one.
0436 to 0830 – struggled from my pre-breakfast nap, and immediately ate a banana to get my finger joints working. I also made coffee because I could hear noises from the east wing indicating Diane was rousing from sleep. Still, I took the coffee grinder to the garage to eliminate as much noise as possible from invading the interior of the house. It’s a prudent thing to do. If I’m on the couch, asleep, when she awakes, and she makes the coffee, the grinder serves well as an alarm because it is activated within 25 feet of my location. It’s pretty loud. If I was sick, in bed, she would retreat to the garage to do this, as do I every morning that I make coffee.
0830 to 0857 – my BS level was 107. That’s for blood sugar, not what you’re thinking. Coffee made, and first cup consumed. We both had toast and cereal – me Cheerios and her something else. The toast was burned on one side, which doesn’t bother me at all, because we each only had one piece and the toast was placed on the inner slice holders of a 4-slice toaster. Interesting, but logical.
0857 to 0915 – started thinking about what I should do this morning.
0915 to 1000 – decided to permanently install the vent cover I placed over the bathroom vent on the RV.
1000 to 1020 – found the brackets and put them on the RV roof.
1020 to 1025 – back to the basement for my drill.
1025 to 1040 – back to the RV roof with drill.
1040 to 1045 – back to the basement for a pencil.
1045 to 1100 – back to the RV roof with the pencil.
1100 to 1115 – back to the basement for longer bolts because those provided were too short.
1115 to 1158 – back to the RV roof after finding a variety of longer bolts in a pile of random bolts and screws in the pile on the floor. That’s where I keep them because it’s easier to dig around in the pile on the floor than to dig around in a box. If Diane would have been home I would have gone to ACE for new ones but she wasn’t so I didn’t.
1158 to 1200 – discovered that it had rained hard while searching for bolts and that with the vent wide open less moisture than expected actually reached the inside of the RV. I also learned that my cordless drill still worked just fine despite being exposed to a torrential downpour.
1200 to 1215 – Diane returned home and assisted me by opening the vent all the way so I could install the vent cover brackets so I wouldn’t have to go back down the RV ladder because my knee hurts. A lot.
1215 to 1245 – brackets and cover installed. Removed all tools, and leftover hardware from roof. I’m sure it won’t blow off as long as I drive with the wind.
1245 to 1300 – worked on computer while waiting for Diane to make me lunch. She insisted even though I offered to make hers and mine.
1300 to 1415 – post-lunch rest period. Researched cheap little cars on the internet.
1415 to 1500 – post-research rest period. Read a bit in my iPad book selection.
1500 to 1530 – rode with Diane to 1st Lutheran Church where she was going to work Community Meals. She does this regularly. On my way home she called to report they kicked her out and that I should return for her, which I did.
1530 to 1600 – wrote this stupid blog entry which wore me out.
1600 to TBD – post-blog nap. First, however, here are a couple of pictures of the work Lydia and I did yesterday … as well as how good Breezie and Panzee get along …

Family, Goodbyes, and Weeding

Posted on by

Greetings and hallucinations to all my fellow humans in this sector of the Milky Way. I would greet to all the other humans from other galaxies, but they haven’t been talking to me lately, so to heck with them. I’m just going to totally ignore them the next time they call me. Yes, sir! That’s exactly what I’m going to do. They’re all very annoying, anyway.

This morning our lower level relatives, Bob, Steffani, and Maryssa, departed about 1030, heading east on I-84. Their destination was Middleton, Idaho which isn’t quite as sophisticated as Nampa because it’s a little bit west, and everyone know that the further east anyone lives, the more sophisticated people are. I can say this with absolute confidence because of the first hand knowledge I gained from my visit to Connecticut.

Having said that, I’m compelled to clarify, perhaps again, that Lower Level does not mean Lower Class. On the contrary, all levels of my relatives, Very High to Very Low, are High Class … well, most of them … some are suspect, the group with which I identify.

From that last statement, you may construe that I believe I’m related to myself. Perhaps I do. I honestly haven’t given that much thought. Perhaps what I really mean is that I identify with the group of relatives, as viewed by other relatives, to be of questionable integrity. Yes. That’s got to be it.

Yesterday Diane, Jean, Wynette, and I went to observe yet another loss by Maryssa’s team. I suspect she hit it right on the head when Maryssa saw me and said, “well there’s my bad luck.” She was smiling at the time so I’m sure she didn’t mean it. I, personally, thought her team was losing because I was taking all these pictures of her playing. So, I inadvertently left my camera home yesterday thinking, after realizing I didn’t have it, that it was probably not a bad thing, and they would win. But they didn’t. I was crushed because I thought it was the camera, but it was ME! I’m Maryssa’s bad luck person which means I can never ever attend another one of her games … no, wait! Her team lost games that I didn’t attend, so it couldn’t possibly be me. Maybe it’s the umpires. Yeah, that’s it! I should be one of those so these kids can get a fair shake. Maybe next year.

After the game, which started at 1300, we four returned to our house to await the arrival of any other relatives that could make it. We had Papa Murphy’s Pizza. When Jack got off work, he stopped by to retrieve his wife, Wynette. He visited for a little while as he ate his steak … which was one that was left over from our Saturday BBQ about which I’ve said nothing until just now.

This is Bob, Lydia, and Steffani watching Jack eat his steak …

This is Wynette and Jack … notice his nifty fireproof, electrically insulated suit with the fashionable reflective strips … that’s Diane, way in the background getting Jack’s steak out of the fridge …

Daniel dropped off Cedric and Jeran on his way to work. He would have dropped off Lydia, too, but she was already here. She stayed over Saturday night, which is probably the real reason Maryssa’s team lost on Sunday. No, wait! They won the first game, which I wasn’t allowed to attend. They lost the second one!

Jeff and Heather showed up with the three little people who added another element of excitement for everyone. When they got here, the bigger kidlets were out front to greet them. When Gilligan got out of the car she ran to Maryssa like she’d known her all her life when, in fact, that was their first meeting. Baylee ran to me, then to Diane when she got outside. Jerrie can’t walk yet so I took the car carrier from Heather and took her inside and freed her to scoot around the house.

Since it was an extremely nice day, the kids went to the back yard and ran themselves ragged. Ziva and Daisy came to visit, too. Ziva was very happy to see everyone, but just as happy to go home.

At one point, Gilligan disappeared and was discovered relieving one of our pink peonies of all its blossoms, and throwing them into the air. Lydia joined her. This is what it looked like:

Looks like fun, doesn’t it? We managed to salvage a few which were passed out to various  older folks. After letting the petals fly, I finally managed to get all the kids to sit still so they could give me this …

This is Cedric, Lydia, Gilligan, Baylee, Maryssa, Jerrie, and Heather. Jeran would have been in the picture, too, but he’d had enough frivolity and decided to walk home. Jennie was home, sick, and he was concerned. He’s that kind of guy. She did come up briefly, to say her goodbyes to those from Idaho, but kept her distance for fear of sharing her good fortune to catch whatever it is she has.

After everyone left, except our Idahodians, and Lydia, who stayed last night, again, Maryssa and Lydia were allowed to play with makeup and a curling iron. They were in Cedric and Jeran’s room, where Maryssa was sleeping, for a very long time. The door was shut and no one was allowed in until they were done. This is what Maryssa was doing to Lydia …

I guess it’s OK because Lydia is now a teenager and has to practice being alluring. She looked so cute I took this picture, also …

I think the only makeup used was eye liner and maschera. Since Lydia’s hair is normally straight, it obvious what the curling iron was used for.

After Bob, Steffani, and Maryssa departed, Lydia and I worked all day weeding the flower bed under the rhododendron hedge out front. It’s not really a flower bed because there aren’t any flowers unde the hedge … it’s just dirt with a lot of weeds … like this …

Lydia picked up all the weeds and took them to the burn pile … she must have made 5 or 6 trips. I don’t really remember. She stuck with me the entire day, never complaining.

Now I’m tired, and it’s time to go to bed. G’nite.

Alarm Clocks & Opposing Thumbs

Posted on by

I hate alarm clocks, especially the mechanical or digital kinds. They are so invasive when they ignite, intruding into some really good dreams, dragging me back from the edge of a blissful event that I can never remember. It’s just terrible. A solution, of course, is to go to bed when the sun goes down, and get up when it does … like farmers. Those guys all have internal, biological alarm clocks developed from a life time of repetitive hard work and regular hours. Since I’m incapable of timing my sleep habits to the rotation of celestial bodies, I have to rely on something more reliable in order to meet my responsibilities for the coming day. Tapping in to a part of my brain that I don’t normally use, I found there a wee bit of creativity and forced myself to think about alarms clocks, and nothing else, for 5 minutes. The object was to determine which sound would result in someone immediately getting out of bed. I thought of all the sounds that annoy me and came up with the perfect idea … The Puking Cat Alarm … there’s just nothing quite like it. I don’t know about you, but personally, as soon as i hear that sound I’m up and running looking for the source.

Wouldn’t this wake you up?

Most days, as most of you know, the dogs function as my alarm, getting me up just before they have to pee, or whatever. They are creatures of habit, tied to the rotation of the sun and moon, and slaved to the level of food in their bowls. Lately we’ve been giving them soft food to augment the crunchy stuff they’ve been eating for years, and that’s a real motivator for them to nudge me from bed at the same time each morning. Ozzie is a half a pouch breakfast guy, saving the other half for an afternoon snack, while Panzee is a 2-3 cans kind of girl, if she had her way. It’s a quick breakfast for her and she always wants more, like most big dogs do. Bottom line, they have reasons to be up and moving at certain times of the day and, since they don’t have opposing thumbs, they need someone to open the can, or pouch, and open the door so they can frolick in the field.

Opposing thumbs will be the topic for a future entry here because I find them fascinating and just love those things!

Even though I dislike them, this morning I had to set an alarm. For 0530. My motivation was a promise  to Steffani that I would get up and make coffee before they embarked on another day of softball in Hillsboro. For these times, I use the Church Bell alarm on my iPad. It’s a gentle way to wake up, even if you don’t want to. When we’re on vacation, Diane uses her iPhone alarm, that sounds like a diving klaxon on a submarine, to get us up so the maid can make up the room. Sometimes she pretends we’re on vacation and sets it off just to see me jump from bed in a panic. It amuses her. That’s usually OK because I probably had to go to the bathroom anyway, and usually make it there with most of my bladder’s contents. I have no idea where the bit that’s missing goes. There must be magic involved there.


Softball and Pizza

Posted on by

It’s 5:30am. The house is quiet, except when the big dog barks at a deer, and the little dog barks because the big dog does. It’s full daylight already and will remain this way for the next 15 hours or so. Gotta love June. I’d burst out singing but that would prematurely wake our guests and that wouldn’t be a good thing. No, I’ll just sit here, quietly tap-tap tapping away on my keyboard until someone else gets up. I don’t expect that will be any time soon because none of us got to bed before midnight. That may cause one to wonder why it is I’m up and no one else is. I suspect that’s because it’s a “Dog Rule” … the first one who gets annoyed with them enough to let them out is the winner. So, I always start out my day as a winner. I’ve never looked at it that way before just this minute, so it’s a good thing. I should thank the dogs, don’t you think? I’ll give them treats, later.

Lydia spent the night so she could visit with Maryssa and get as much visiting in as possible. They don’t see each other very often so we were prepared to use severe force to curtail the late night gabfest, but both were so tired they just went right to sleep, no argument.

Last night Daniel took all the kids to ‘13 Nights On The River’ in front of the old court-house in St. Helens. That’s the court-house Wynette worked in for half her life, in an office overlooking the Columbia River. She was a court reporter so when she wasn’t in court, reporting, she was in her office staring out the window because she had nothing else to do.

13 Nights is an event much like a street fair where the streets are closed around the square in front of the courthouse, and vendors take over. At the gazebo, down by the river, professional entertainers take turns showing their stuff. For this reason I strongly feel the event is misnamed because not once is anyone really ON the river, at any time, unless, of course, they’ve spent too long at the beer garden. This “garden” is cleverly elevated above the children’s play ground in order to weed out the truly inebriated, and the truly stupid, as they can easily tumble over the low fence onto the teeter totter below, thereby improving the town’s gene pool. Those who frequent beer gardens are unaware of this benefit for the others who don’t.

I was going through pictures with Steffani last night and discovered that I miss my East Coast Girls and Guys so here’s a “Howdy” to y’all from Out West. Love you all. I’m going to wear my cowboy boots for a little while to keep memories of my visit current. Might wear my string tie, too. I may, or may not, wear underwear so you’ll just have to wonder about that.

Steffani was the first up this morning and interrupted my morning nap, but that’s OK. I was expecting someone to eventually get up. She was happy the coffee was already made and I was happy to learn that she likes creamers, same as me. Her favorite is hazelnut, same as me. I think that’s a genetic connection.

Eventually, everyone filtered out of the bedrooms, Lydia and Maryssa last. At 8:30 Jennie, Dan, Cedric, and Jeran arrived, and we commenced cooking everything in the kitchen refrigerator. I have to designate the ‘kitchen’ because we have a garage refrigerator, too. I cooked all the eggs, and Diane cooked all the bacon. Jennie brought hash browns. It was a good meal enjoyed by all, unless some of them were lying.

About 11:00 Bob, Steffani, and Maryssa departed for Hillsboro to attend the college recruiting ‘thing’ for softball. Maryssa is going to be a junior in the fall. The rest of us, except Jennie, will go in later this afternoon to watch her play in the All Star game at Hillsboro Stadium. Tomorrow is tournament day for both Lydia, in Rainier, and Maryssa at the Hillsboro fairgrounds. Maryssa is also playing Sunday, so we will get to see her play then. It’s going to be a busy weekend for sure.

Dan just left to take the boys to a movies, Jennie left to go to work, and Diane just left. So, I’m home alone with serious thoughts about using some of my more dangerous power tools to see what happens. First, however, I gotta mow the yard. I can only do that when I’m home alone. It’s some sort of rule that everyone voted on one day when I was sleeping. Another rule is that I’m not allowed to vote on anything that involves me, so they let me sleep.

It’s now 3:30 pm and I just finished mowing the yard. You need to know that. It took me 3 hours. You wouldn’t think that riding around on a lawn mower for 3 hours would make you tired, but it does because you’re always trying to keep it going straight, except for the corners, so it’s a brutal exercise.

… long pause here …

It’s now 11:11 pm, and we just got home from Maryssa’s ball game at Hillsboro Stadium. It was an all-star event, and some of her old teammates were on the opposing team, so it wasn’t about the win … it was about the experience. Maryssa did OK … she went 2 for 4, I think. One single, and a double off a ball that bounced over the left field fence. She also played short stop and second base. It was fun to watch. Here’s the swing that got the double …

After the game, we all went to Fultano’s Pizza in Scappoose … that’s the new one across from Fred Meyer, next to Les Schwab on the east side of the highway. Diane and I had a turkey club sandwich which was very, very good, and very, very filling. I’m stuffed to overflowing. And tired. A lot of things happened, and were revealed during dinner that I was supposed to remember for this, but I can’t remember all of them. Most importantly, I think, is that Maryssa didn’t realize the that the vice grips on the hot water faucet was something she could turn on. Apparently she’s not allowed to touch tools at home, so that carried over to her visit here. Consequently, she waited a long time for the water to get hot and was finally saved when she caught Diane walking down the hall who explained the significance of the vice grips. She keeps reminding me that it needs to be fixed, but she doesn’t like my quick fix, to make them match by getting another pair of vice grips. That’s a story for another day.

Now it’s bedtime …

Relatives vs. Real Visitors

Posted on by

Today I survived another “scrub-a-dub-dub” evolution to spiff up the house because our niece, Steffani, her Husband, Bob, and one of the fruits of their loins, Maryssa, are scheduled to appear this afternoon. They’re arriving from Idaho, fresh from the potato fields, so Maryssa can participate in a college recruitment event for softball. She’s really, really good at that. And, she’s a really nice person. This is Steffani, Bob, and Maryssa. The picture of Bob is also of Maryssa, but it’s the only one I could find … he’s sitting in the chair in the back ground. The other picture is Staffani’s dad, Jim, watching TV. I’ve shown you that one, before.

Back to house cleaning … I made a sincere attempt to convince Diane that it wasn’t necessary to expend all this energy cleaning the house for them because they aren’t really guests, they are relatives. Everyone knows there’s a different set of rules regarding house cleaning for those distinct groups of people. And, c’mon … they aren’t even high level relatives, which are Uncles and Aunts. But, my pleas fell on ears that would not listen to common sense. Her argument was that the house needed to be cleaned anyway, and I really didn’t have an argument about that, because it was true. It’s just … you know … I didn’t get my after breakfast nap, or anything.

Instead of the nap, and even BEFORE breakfast, I was out on the streets of St. Helens stuffing flags into holes in the sidewalk with fellow Lions in celebration of Flag Day. I enjoy doing that with Bert and Sue, so that wasn’t really a chore at all. I even got a free breakfast out of it after we were done which gave me the energy to deal with the house cleaning when I got home.

As I throw these words on the screen it’s becoming more and more clear that I really don’t have an argument at all. It’s OK to clean up the house for relatives, even lower level ones, because they would probably do the same for us. I think. We’ve been to their house before and I’m sure they either cleaned it really well, or their house never gets dirty. There wasn’t a sign of dirt anywhere I looked, and I’m good at doing that. It used to be my job when I was in the Navy to find dirt the cleanup crew missed. I still have the white gloves.

Diane’s at the pharmacy waiting for a new subscription that is, hopefully, going to ease the pain she’s experiencing in her tummy. This is something that’s been going on for a long time and it’s wearing her out. That’s really why I got involved in the house cleaning evolution … I wanted her to sit down and let me do it, but she had to be there supervising, which probably was a good idea. I do things better, and neater, when I know she’s watching me. Left to my own devices, it would wind up done, but done wrong, or not done all the way, because I have a genetic tendancy to be easily distracted. Usually, the distraction is of the nature I explained a blog or two ago, but it could easily be as simple as spying a pretty bug on a curtain, or a speck of glitter on the floor. It doesn’t take much and most of my tasks encompass a voyage of discovery. I’m getting better at retaining focus, but it takes an effort that sometimes makes my eyes water. Wears me out and makes it hard to see clearly.

After eating breakfast, and before returning home to work, I walked around the local car dealer’s lot checking things out. As i was doing that, the owner had just parked on his way to the office, and tried to sell me a car. I explained that the kind of car I had in mind would never be on a car lot because I wanted one that’s waaaay cheaper than his. We want a really cheap one to tow behind the RV. Cheap, and really light. They don’t have cheap. Still, I followed him into the show room and sat down to talk with Bo for a while. Bo is a young man from whom we’ve purchased more than one vehicle over the years. During this conversation I learned that he’s a long time kite boarder and sometimes spends his lunch hour on the Columbia River. I expressed an interest in gretting some pictures of him and his friends “doing their thing” and he’s all for that. Even wanted to let me use his Zodiac to get around and take the shots. So, there may be some interesting pictues for me to share in the near future.

Gotta quit, now, because Diane is home with an SUV full of groceries. I forgot to mention she went shopping, too. Sorry. Shopping is another task associated with visitors, relatives, or not. Even low level relatives.

You’re Really 15?

Posted on by

Cedric … it wasn’t very long ago when you were a tiny little fake human being. You were only 18 inches long and weighed less than a bag of sugar. My oh my, how you’ve grown.

Love from Grandpa

The Garden

Posted on by

Have you ever had one of those days where events overcome you to the point where you just don’t get anything significant accomplished? If so, please tell me what it’s like to have that happen as something out of the ordinary because that’s the way my life is every day. From the time I arise, to the time I arest.

Let’s look at today, for instance …

I got up at a fairly normal time, for me, and was out working by 9:00 am. Diane’s been wanting me to plant the tomatoes in the little area we have outside the kitchen, but it still needed to be cleaned up. Before I went to Connecticut I had spaded it all up, and that’s where it was this morning, but the grass had begun to grow again so I thought it was going to be a tough job. So, I pulled out the old Mantis tiller and went to work to get it running, but that didn’t work out well. While priming the engine, by pushing that little bulb thingie, I managed to split it open causing it to leak a little gas. But, I did manage to get it started, I just couldn’t keep it running. Thinking it was the bulb, I went to a local repair shop and bought a new one. I also bought an air filter, something the Mantis hasn’t had for about 4 years now.

When I got home I proudly showed Diane the new and old bulbs, but the air filter simply disappeared. Really, it did. I know for a fact I brought it in the house from the car, but I couldn’t find it. Normally losing something like that drives me nuts, which is a pretty quick trip, but today I managed to remain calm as I tried to retrace my steps to find it. That proved to be difficult, because I couldn’t remember where I’d been before I discovered it was missing. Both of us search the house, the car, everything, but it’s gone.

After replacing the bulb, I decided to just run it without the filter since it was running just fine without it before, but it still wouldn’t stay running. So, I got to looking around and wound up dismantling the carburetor. I got it all cleaned up and reinstalled, but it still wouldn’t stay running. All symptoms pointed to a clogged fuel filter, but I wasn’t sure where it was. I finally found it at the end of the fuel line in the gas tank. It was pretty clogged and the fuel line kind of disintegrated in my hand, so figure I’ll need to replace that before I can make it work properly. Everyone should be really proud of me, however, for getting it all back together without destrying it.

Since the Mantis wasn’t going to help me, I decided to just bite the bullet, for now, and get busy with the manual version of getting rid of the grass and weeds. Armed with a handy Polasky, a pitchfork, and a rake, I was making real progress when Diane bid me adieu to go work at the St. Helens Senior Center to serve lunch. She does this once a month. I help sometimes, and offered to help today, but she thought she was OK and would have enough help to get it done. So, I remained in the mud … did I mention it was raining? … plugging away. That was about 11:00 am.

At 11:25 am Jennie showed up to tell me Diane needed me at the Senior Center because no one showed up to help. She needed me. After taking a shower, Jennie drove me and Cedric to the rescue. When we got there, some of the helper folks had arrived, but there was still a need. I was going to help serve the meals, but it wasn’t getting dished up quick enough for 3 servers, so I just sat down to eat at one of the tables. Once I was done, however, things got busy … my job was to scrape all the uneaten food off the dishes and place them in dishwater as a pre-rinse for the sterilizer machine. It’s actually an easy job but I had to keep reminding myself to NOT lick the spatula I was using on the plates. That wouldn’t have been good.

Finally, it was done and we returned home where I re-donned my wet, dirty work clothes, and returned to my garden chores. The tomatoes got planted as well as the cucumber plant. This is our second cucumber plant because the first one died on the porch before we could get it in the ground. Poor thing is still out there, all brown with all of it’s arms hanging over the edge of the pot like someone shot it. It’s kinda sad. I think tomorrow I’ll take it out and bury it next to the new cucumber and put a little cross up for it.

Right about the time I finished with the garden, it was time to get ready for my monthly Church Council meeting. Weird, huh? Me on Church Council? How, you may wonder, did that happen? Adding to your consternation, I must report that I’ve been involved with our Church Council for many, many years. At one point I was President for 8 years in a row. I initiated the concept of an agenda, and made everyone follow it, unlike all the meetings for the preceding 95 years. They just went off in all sorts of directions making things really confusing for someone like me who thrives on order and discipline.

When I returned from the meeting, Diane was still in the basement where I left her. She’s been watching our oldest TV in the newly reorganized family room area of the basement. It looks like this:

The plan is to remove the big TV from the upstairs living room and put it against the knotty pine wall. Then, if we want to watch TV, we’ll have to go down there … or into the man room where I have one hanging on the wall over Diane’s computer monitor.

Diane did all the work in the basement and it looks really good. One day I’ll have to take a picture of all the stuff that’s behind where I was standing to take the above picture. It’s a mess. Boxes, and boxes of “stuff”, a foosball table, a computer station, a piano, and the laundry room. Stuff just everywhere, with paths to make it easier to get through. Looks a little like one of those hoarder’s places you see on HGTV once in a while, except you can actually see most of our floor. Using that as a comparison, I guess ours really isn’t that bad.

Now I’ll leave you with some pictures. First is Cedric on the roof where he went to retrieve Panzee’s sock monkey … it’s a squeeky toy that she just can’t leave alone. She’s had it for a long time and hasn’t hurt it a bit …

Next is Lydia’s softball team celebrating the end of their season. One of the coaches, Jennifer, gave each girl a gift basket that had a softball in it. Here they are passing them around to get all the girl’s signatures. I think Lydia is covering up because she tossed a ball up and it didn’t make it to the girl behind her. Either that, or someone said something colorful …

Next is one of my favorite sunsets ever. It was taken on the island of Hawaii in 2009 …

And here’s one of my favorite sunrises, taken from our back porch. That Mt. Hood under the cloud in the middle. I think it blew up that day, but I’m not sure.

I guess that just goes to show you that Hawaii hasn’t got anything on Oregon.

Hope everyone is well, or getting better from not being well, or as well as you can be, all things considered. If you’re reading this, things could be a lot worse … you have a computer, and many don’t … you can see … you have a mouse and know how to use it so at least one of your arms and hands work … you’re probably sitting upright in a chair right now without a seat belt … and you have time to waste.

Later …

A Busy Day

Posted on by

Yesterday

Yesterday is gone,
and tomorrow awaits, but
it’s now the present.

OK – I’m bummed. Guess what happens when you create a WordPress entry on an iPad and kill the screen before publishing it … it disappears. I did that twice today, then decided to wait until I got home. I was really in to it, too, making all kinds of sage comments about pretty much everything in the universe. It’s sad that all those words are just whispers in the wind because they’re gone, and I’ll never be able to recreate them, except for all the pronouns and adjectives. And a contraction or two.

Making it even worse, I have the iPad plugged in on my desk and it’s getting all of this direct from my computer. That just doesn’t seem fair. Now I have to remember all the things I did today.

Let’s see … I took Diane to the doctor this morning and a new diagnosis was rendered regarding her stomach pain that may Ruth may find interesting. The doc she saw thinks the trouble may be some exotic bacteria that she got from contanimated water. I call it exotic because I can’t spell it. Can’t pronounce it, either. Coupled with this is some newfound knowledge that Diane learned either on the news or in the funny papers, they are pretty much the same, that leaving a Britta container with the filter on the counter isn’t a good thing because it grows this nasty bacteria. Now, that must be in the really small print on the filter wrapper because that’s not something either of us knew. Actually, I didn’t really care until I found out it might be a bad thing.

Anyway, when we stayed at Moses Lake, guess what? We left that container on the counter for a week, refilling it whenever it got low. Seemed to work OK and Diane thought her innards were dissolving because of all the Mexican food we had to eat up there. But it wasn’t. It was the nasty bacteria from the Britta filter container. The simple cure for that is to put the water container in the refrigerator. That’s OK, if there was room.

Now, I didn’t get sick on this trip like Diane, so it was hard to track down the culprit. After one dose of Cipro she’s already better. That started killing the bacteria and the flagyl she’s going to take will flush it all out like one of those new pressure toilets … whooosh! It’s pretty dramatic, I’m told.

I’m getting way ahead of myself …

After the doctor we went directly to the Rite Aide pharmacy to get the meds. Since it was going to take 30 minutes, we thought we may as well get a breakfast sandwich from Burgerville which was just across the bowling alley parking lot. It was 10:10am. I remember. It was good. Then I got the meds and we went by Jennies to get her and Cedric. They only live across the street from Burgerville so it was a quick trip. Then we went to our house to let the dogs run for a bit before we abandoned them for our trip to Portland.

First up was a trip to Olive Garden for lunch. That was Cedric’s choice, and a good one. I ate spaghetti and didn’t get any on me. It. Was. Amazing. I normally wear a red shirt so no one can tell, but didn’t know I was eating spaghetti today and had on a light brown one. It was OK, though, because Diane sat next to me and watched me like a hawk, snatching splatters right out of the air before they hit me. It was quite impressive and drew moderate applause from customers at nearby tables. As a result, my shirt remained spot free until we got home and our at, Breezie, jumped on me with muddy feet. Really nice, but totally in character.

After lunch we went to Costco. Jennie wanted something but we didn’t really need to go but bought a camping lantern out of guilt because it’s illegal to go to a Costco, anywhere, and not buy something. It’s a rule. After the purchase we decided we hadn’t spent quite enough so went to the Costco gas station for a fillup. Rounding up, we met the $85 minimum and were able to leave the area with a clear conscience.

From Costco we went directly to the Target store that was the furthest away. The main reason we went there was so Jennie and Cedric could get slushies. Apparently Target makes the best ones. I declined to exit the vehicle, choosing instead to remain behind and capture the days events on my iPad, which I lost twice, as I previously mentioned.

Finally, we departed for home, arriving about 5:00pm. I was coming down from a sugar high from the lunch, and couldn’t stay awake so sat on the couch waiting for 6:00pm for Jeran’s fly up ceremony from sixth to seventh grade. It was also a pot luck so we got supper. A twofer. Jeran’s class put on a fun little skit and we had a good meal.

From there I took Diane home then met Jennie and Cedric at Campbell Park for Lydia’s softball game. Her team played a 16U tournement team and beat them 7-5. Lydia pitched the last two innings and the girls played awesome, blanking the other team. Then, I was allowed to go home. Cedric came with me and I loaned him a pair of jammies  and I did this. If you read this far, I’m sure you feel cheated unless you are really, really interested in what I do.

Tomorrow I’ll edit this and add pictures.

Haiku And Other “Stuff”

Posted on by

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that is normally composed of three lines. The version I’m most familiar with is where the first and last lines are 5 sylables, the center is 7. It’s kind of interesting how things come out when you do this. Since three lines are not enough for me, I use the Zen approach and just continue until the story is done. For example, here’s some I just made up, just now …

Animal Alarm Clock

Today I awoke
to a dog licking my hand.
His tongue is real soft.
The cat, however,
has a tongue made like a rasp.
It leaves marks on me.
They do this each day
because they are both hungry.
I feed the dog first.

I know … it’s not elegant, but it’s descriptive. Like this one.

 Monday

Today is Sunday
and it’s likely tomorow
is no doubt Monday.
I am retired,
so I no longer car pool
and get to sleep in.

OK … I’ll stop. It’s goofy, but doing this is a good exercise in making sense of pretty much any situation using small words. How convenient is that? Ooops, here’s another one …

Lyle

Lyle is my brother.
I went to his funeral,
But he is still here.
Dwelling in my mind,
he will be with me always
He is with me now.

OK – that’s it, no more, please!

Today I did nothing of consequence except take Diane’s Mom, Jean, shopping for food. Turns out she hasn’t eaten for the last 3 days because she ran out. That’s a lie, of course … she only ran out yesterday. And, she only ran out of milk. I also shopped for us, not something I do much of because Jean’s daughter, Diane, takes care of me quite nicely. It was interesting to roll the cart up and down the aisles at Safeway, trying to get only the things she had on the list, but I couldn’t help myself. I bought a piece of never frozen salmon, and macaroni & cheese because it looked good. Diane called while I was in the store and asked for tomatoes, where weren’t on the list so I was able to get permission to buy the salmon and macaroni.

We’re going to try a vegetarian diet for a while and see if it helps with Diane’s diverticulitis. Maybe it will do something good for me, too. Either way, I’m all in to help Diane shed this “stuff”. Ruth knows what we’re dealing with, here. It’s no fun.

I just talked with brother Jack who is working 86 hours a week at the old plant where he used to work. He’s done this a number of times to help with their annual scheduled shutdown for maintenance and upgrades. One of his responsibilities in the past was scaffolding and he got this really neat hat from the company that put them up. Their motto was “Erections are our business”. Cute. That should be Hooters motto. I am speaking out of turn here because I’ve never been to a Hooters so have no frame of reference for that comment. But, I’ve seen pictures. This time Jack is in charge of everything. He’s been promoted. That’s why he gets to work so many hours each week. He has four of those to go so pray he makes it.

Now I’m going to quit and watch TV with my first wife. She’s been here for a while.