Anyone Ready for Spring?

I am more than ready for some nice calm dry weather; this rainy damp cool weather is starting to get to me. Today I started to go outside to work in the back yard, but what I wanted to do would have involved me being on the ground and after I got my tools and pad out and set the pad down I realized that I was too tired and the weather was too damp, so I picked everything up and went back into the house.

Kathleen had mentioned that her shower was draining slowly, so I got out the baking soda, salt and white vinegar and headed upstairs to pour the ingredients down the drain. I poured the baking soda and salt down first followed by the vinegar; the vinegar and baking soda react and cause a nice bubbling action while the salt acts as an abrasive and cleans the pipes. It is just as effective as commercial drain cleaners and it is very "earth friendly".

Kathleen took off around 1330 and shortly after that I went upstairs and took a nap. Little did I realize that my "little" nap would turn into almost four hours. I was still pretty tired but it was after 1800 and we needed to get to church as we were meeting with our candidate for our senior pastor position tonight.

Kathleen had picked up a Mexican pizza for dinner, but the beans did not make me feel comfortable especially after the problem I had with the taco soup we had this weekend. So I made myself something else.

We just got back from the meeting and it is after 2200 so I am pretty tired although without the nap I took I probably would not be able to be up now so it was probably a good thing that I slept as long as I did.

Not Quite this Bad but Sometimes I Wonder

I saw this comic strip this morning and just knew that I had to use it in my blog today. Kathleen has often said that she has been glad over the years that I could eat just about anything. Here is the link: http://www.comcast.net/data/comics/pickles.gif

This morning during a time when it was not raining/hailing I decided to go out and scoop up the grass and dirt that was laying around from edging yesterday. It was nice and sunny out and I though it was going to be a nicer day than the weather forecast was predicting; after all they were wrong about yesterdays weather.

When I finished the front yard I thought that since I had my equipment out I might as well do the back yard. Well, from the time it took me from going from the front yard to the back yard the sky started leaking again, so I put my tools away and went inside.

The mail had come while I was working in the front yard so I opened, sorted, and went through my mail; most of it was catalogs so I made a cup of coffee and waded through them.

While I was sitting at the kitchen table, I noticed that our bird feeder was occupied with three birds and there were more waiting on the power line waiting their turn. There was also a humming bird sitting on the ling, but it was waiting to go back to the rhododendron.

There was also a blue jay that was chasing a couple starlings around. It was kind of comical watching all the different type of birds, it seemed like only the same species could feed at the feeder at the same time and they would not allow another specie to light.

Pretty soon I noticed the room was getting darker and before I knew it, it has started to hail; the ground was pretty white, not only from the hail but also from the blossoms that had fallen as well...almost like snow.

Well we have a meeting at church so I think that I am going to call it a day.

We're Back!

Well it was quite the weekend; the weather was great and we had a good number of people from our class there and we had plenty of time to visit. It was also the furtherest that I have ventured out since my radiation treatments.

Friday night when we got there we took a stroll along the beach and then stopped by to have some dinner at the Chowder Bowl. Kathleen and I ordered a fish and chips and also a shrimp and chips dinner and split them so that we each got fish, shrimp and chips.

After we ate we went back and met with our class for games and visiting; I had decided to walk to the hall instead of taking the SUV so between the walk along the beach and the walk from the motel to the hall we were pretty tired.

I managed to get Kathleen a ride back to the motel with a couple who were smart enough to drive, I still did not realize how tired I was so I left early and walked back. I did not feel too bad that night but the next morning I was pretty worn out.

Saturday morning we had our breakfast at the motel, waffles, hard boiled eggs cinnamon rolls and fruit. Then we had our morning meeting and the afternoon free; we had kind of though about doing something like visit the Oregon Aquarium or something else, but we were both so tired we just kind of took naps until our evening meeting.

Then Sunday morning we had our breakfast at the motel again, checked out and then off to our meeting. Afterwards we had lunch and then cleaned up and off we went for home.

On the way back we stopped at the outlet mall Kathleen found some things that she liked, I found some things as well, but I decided not to get them as I really have too many shirts and shorts. I usually wind up wearing the same ones all the time anyway so I did not see any purpose in getting more.

We had a good ride home but could tell that the weather was starting to change. We got home about 1830 and I gave some thought to trying to mow the lawn as the weather was suppose to be wet the rest of the week. I soon let that thought pass as I realized just how tired I was, I could hardly stay awake.

This morning I thought that if I got outside early enough I could get the lawn mowed before the wetness set in. Unfortunately by the time I got up everything was already pretty wet; I am not sure if it actually rained or if it was just really heavy dew, but it was wet just the same.

Finally around 1030 I decided that I would try to mow as it was suppose to start raining again this afternoon. While I was mowing the front lawn I started to feel moisture on my face; it was not really rain but just a light drizzle so I kept mowing.

By the time I finished mowing it had stopped; I went inside and made myself some lunch. After a while I decided to go back outside and trim the dead wood out of the arborvitae as tomorrow is yard debris day and I had not put much of anything into the barrel.

Since it was still dry I decided to edge the front lawn with my electric edger. I got the front lawn done so I decided to try the back yard as well. After I finished that I put everything away and then pulled the grass out from along the back walkway.

Andrea, Toni and Brandon came over while I was doing that so I finished up the area that I was working on and then cleaned up and went in and visited for a while. Andrea had called earlier and said that they were coming over; I told her that she and Toni both had some mail at the house.

After they left I could hardly stay awake, and found myself dozing several times before I finally woke up enough around 1915 to check with Kathleen to see what she had planned for dinner. She made some O'Brien potatoes and ground beef which were really pretty good.

Well, I am about out of gas and I think that I need to get some shut eye so I am going to just say good night!

Guess What...More Rain!

I had heard rain hitting the sky light off and on most of the night, but when I got up it had stopped so I thought that for sure I would be able to mow without any problem today.

I forgot that this is Oregon in the spring time where rain is always to be expected. Days when it is not raining are the exception and should never be taken as the norm. Sometimes I need to be reminded of that daily; one would think that I would have learned that by now having lived here for thirty-eight years.

I must be the eternal optimist as I always think about how spring was in New York or California when I was younger...much younger. In New York it would rain and clear up and everything would be dry after a half an hour or so.

As I remember in California it seemed like it would rain regularly at night and then the ground would be dry during the day time. Of course I worked in a building with no windows, so I never knew what it did during the day time, but on the days I had off I do not remember too many where it rained.

Anyway as I mentioned in my earlier blog today, Andrea came over and then after she left she went to Wal-Mart and somehow she locked her keys in her Expedition and called wanting us to call AAA to come out and unlock it for her.

Kathleen went to Wal-Mart to call AAA so that if they got there quickly she would be there to sign for it. I stayed home as I had started doing laundry so that we would have clean clothes for or trip to the beach.

I though that I might even get to mow the lawn, but every time I started outside it would start to drizzle again. Finally around 1400 it had stopped raining and I quickly went out and mowed the lawn. It was still pretty wet, but my little reel mower does a really good job even in wet grass.

I will need to mow it again after we get back but if I had not mowed it today it would have been really high. So even though the grass was wet it looks pretty good and unlike a rotary mower it does not leave big clumps of wet grass just individual blades that will soon be returned to the ground.

I also swept off the front porch, the birds have really been enjoying the bird feeder unfortunately they have been leaving quite the mess on the porch. I am having to sweep it about once a day and as soon as I get it cleaned up and go back into the house they dump more bird seed out of the feeder.

Kathleen finally got home around 1845 and when I went out to bring in the groceries the front porch looked like it had not been cleaned in weeks. I knew that she would not feel like making dinner tonight so I suggested that she stop at Subway and pick up a couple full sized subs for dinner.

I thought that we could eat half tonight and half tomorrow on our trip to the beach. That way we will not have to worry about making something for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully we will be on the road before lunch time and we can stop at a wayside rest area and have take a rest and eat lunch at the same time.

Too Tired Last Night

Well it was not really that I was sleepy tired it is just that our fir trees are making everything around them yellow. It is that time of year when they drop an exorbitant amount of pollen and the pollen messes up my eyes and make them irritated and give me a sleepy feeling.

Yesterday it drizzled and rained just about the whole day; during a couple times when the sky was not leaking moisture I went outside and picked up fir cones. I picked up two five gallon buckets yesterday and another one this morning.

It sounded like the roof of our house was being bombarded, and I guess it was with fir cones. One time while I was downstairs I heard what I thought was something falling down upstairs so I went upstairs to look and did not see anything that looked out of place.

Then I looked outside and there were fir cones all over the place; there were some in the driveway and front lawn, but that is not too unusual but there were some in the street and even across the street.

The wind was blowing so hard that it was knocking a lot of the cones and branches down. No large branches came down, but several small branches. Some of the branches were dead and so they probably just needed to come down.

Last night Aaron and Alexis came over for their Wednesday night visit. Aaron asked about Andrea because she usually comes over in the morning on Wednesdays; so we had to tell him that Andrea had not been over because she and Brandon had not been feeling well and did not come over.

Then this morning Andrea and Brandon came over because Andrea needed to borrow Kathleen's Kitchen Aid mixer to make tamales. Andrea called just as I was about to make myself breakfast and they got here as I was cutting up my onions, pepper, and mushroom for my egg beater omelet. I shared my peanut butter and all fruit spread with Brandon and he seemed to like it.

I am hoping that the grass dries out today so that I can get to lawn mowed. When the weather is as damp as it has been lately it really goes into high gear in the growth department. It is suppose to be relatively nice today, so I hope that it stays that way.

The weather forecast keeps changing for the beach this weekend; right now it looks like it may be a pretty nice day, but that could change at any time.

Is it Time to Start Building an Arc Yet?

I could hear the rain on the skylight most of the night so when I got up I was not surprised to see everything wet outside. Since I had forgotten to take the garbage up front last night I took it up when I took the recycling up.

This morning after eating breakfast, I loaded the dishwasher up and started it up and then poured myself a fresh cup of coffee and read the paper. The mail came as I was finishing the paper so I got it after I put the paper into the recycling bin.

So I refilled my cup and sorted through the mail. There was not much there only a bill for my x-rays of my hip; it was only for the amount that the insurance had not covered since I had not met my deductible yet. I think that I have now so I should not have to pay any more the rest of the year.

It is funny as the last three years are the only time that I have ever met my deductible, Kathleen on the other hand usually meets it in the first couple months of the year.

While I was paying the bill online I noticed that I had received my federal income tax refund deposited it to my checking account. It will be kind of nice as it will more than offset the state tax that I had to pay. The rest of it I applied to my home equity loan bill to bring down the principle.

This afternoon after I finished lunch I went outside and pulled some of the vines that are growing in the flower beds in the front of the kitchen windows. The started from a hanging basket we got a few years ago that just started taking over everything in the flower beds.

My time outside was short lived as it started raining after I had been out there about a half hour. I do not have that much more to do, and I should be able to get it done in another hour or so. Part of the problem now is that the hostas and several other plants are starting to come up, so I probably will wait a while longer so that I can see where everything is.

Tonight Kathleen made the rest of the ham soup that she made a while back. For some reason it was a little runnier that it had been, but it was still good. She also made some whole wheat biscuits and we ate about half of them. Kathleen did not finish her soup, so I will have that and something else for lunch tomorrow.

More Wacky Weather

This morning after eating breakfast I took off to pick up my hedge trimmer head from Stark Street Lawn and Garden. They had called Friday while I was at the doctor's office and left a message that my hedge trimmer was ready to pick up.

I was worn out enough from the doctor's appointment that I decided to wait until today to pick it up. I had also forgotten to bring some checks that I needed to deposit at the credit union so I did that this morning after I finished at Starks.

I had gotten back home again before Kathleen got up so I stayed in my "leaving the house" clothes. Kathleen came downstairs after a while and so I went upstairs and put on my shorts and a tee shirt.

The mail finally got here so I picked it up and poured myself another cup of coffee and went through the mail at the kitchen table while Kathleen ate breakfast. After going through all the mail, I went into my office and reconciled one of my checking accounts and one of the credit cards that had come in the mail today.

Just as I was making myself lunch our neighbor called and invited Kathleen and myself over to her house for some pie and coffee. So when I finished lunch and Kathleen got dressed we went over there and visited for a few hours.

While we were there it started to hail and then that turned into a downpour. It rained for a half of an hour or so and then the sun came out for a while. I needed to get back home and as I was going there it started to drizzle once again.

Kathleen finally made it back home about 1830 and made some spaghetti for me and she reheated up the left-over T-bone that she had not finished last night. She still did not finish it tonight, but there was only a little bit left so I will use it in my eggbeater omelet tomorrow.

The weather is suppose to be warming up as the weekend approaches; I sure hope that it does as it would be nice to have good weather to go walking alone the beach this weekend.

Wow What Wacky Weekend Weather

Just when one thought that the weather could not get any wackier it does. This weekend was suppose to be cold, cloudy and stormy...well it was...kind of. Saturday was probably the sunniest day of the week, it was suppose to be really stormy so when I saw the sun out I decided that I would re-mow the lawn because when I mowed it the other day it was so wet that it kind of clumped together.

So Saturday when I mowed it was not that much longer and it was really pretty dry for this time of year so it really mowed nicely. This is the second week in a row that I have mowed my lawn a couple days apart; that is not too strange except when one realizes that most of my neighbors do not even mow their lawns once a week.

Alyssa said that they had snow on the ground at their place; they even had some snow down on the river as they were finishing their lunch river cruise. The weather folks had said that the snow was suppose to be above 1000 feet so having it all the way down to the river was quite a drop in elevation.

Then this morning I talked to Aaron as I was leaving church and he was going there and he said that he had not gotten a lot of flying in this last week because of the weather and the gusty winds.

Today was cool as well, and this morning was not too bad a day, but this afternoon it really took a change for the worse. It rained, snowed and hailed and even was a bit windy. As we were driving to Andrea and John's this afternoon it was kind of a thick rain/hail sort of precipitation and while we were at their house it hailed pretty good and covered their deck and table.

Then on the way home we noticed that there was snow or hail on the ground by Oregon Trails shopping center, so it must have really done something there. By the time we got home it was pretty dry, in fact under the fir trees it was bone dry.

Well, that was our wacky weather this weekend; I almost cannot wait for next weekend to see what the weather is going to bring. Of course we will be at the beach so I am hoping that there will be some sunshine.

Fickled Weather

Today was suppose to be the worst day of the week so far, but instead it was close to being the nicest. The sun was out longer today than it had been all week so far. So this was nice seeing this was suppose to be the start of "winter" part three or four!

They are predicting that there could be snow both days this weekend; nothing is suppose to stick where we live but where Alyssa and Dan live there is a real good possibility that they will get snow actually on the ground. Poor Zander will probably have his T-ball games canceled because of snow.

I thinks Aaron is suppose to be working tomorrow so at least he will not be flying through a snow/hail storm. The weather has not been too bad for most of his flying and he has gotten quite a lot of fly time in over the last month.

Kathleen's Uncle, her mother's twin brother, is having a 96th birthday celebration this Saturday, Kathleen has been feeling so poorly that she is not going and I do not think Alyssa is planning on going as she has been busy with the children and their activities.

With Aaron working I doubt that they will attend; Brandon is sick and so Andrea and John will not be going and Toni is working also so she and Chucky will not be going. It is kind of too bad as several of them were looking forward to going.

Tomorrow is the monthly men's breakfast and I had kind of planned on going but I have been really tired today and I have been questioning going now. I have not gone to one in several months and would really like to go, but it starts at 0830 and my bowels have not usually settled down that early.

I am usually up and moving around by then so that is not a problem it is just that I usually need to stay close to the toilet until1000 or 1100. While I was at the doctor's today he suggested that I might want to go back to the gastroenterologist that I went to last fall for the colonoscopy and see if he had any suggestions on what to do.

Speaking of my doctor's visit today; my PSA reading was the lowest it has been since a month after my surgery almost two years ago. It was .28 in January and .17 today so that is only .07 higher than it was at the lowest reading. Maybe it has finally started on a downward trend, I can only hope.

I was really glad to that it was going down for a couple reasons: first it means that it is not getting worse and secondly I am hopeful that I will be able to start getting my PSA screening every six month or eventually annually which would really be nice!

Both Kathleen and I took naps this afternoon, she went upstairs, I did not make it upstairs and just fell asleep in my chair. I think just the stress of having to get my PSA taken and knowing that for the last year and a half it has not done what it was suppose to do took more out of me than I admitted to myself.

Maybe Tomorrow

Today when I got up I was noticing how light it was out, so I thought for sure that I would be able to get the lawn mowed...did not happen! Just last night I looked at the clock and it was almost 2000 and it was just starting to get dark; I had not noticed that it had been staying lighter longer either; I guess it shows how much of a fog I have been in lately.

I took a cup of coffee outside with me this morning and dug out a few weeds, but it was really a little too cool and damp feeling out for me, so I went back inside. As I was coming inside I met Kathleen in the laundry room as she was going to go outside and visit with me, but if it was too cool and damp for me, Kathleen would have been freezing.

Andrea and Brandon stopped by today; Andrea had been to the doctors with Brandon this morning as he has a real croupy cough. She left as Kathleen was getting ready to leave.

Kathleen took off to meet with one of the woman from church, so while she was gone I decided that I would work on the stairs and try to do some more sanding. I now have all the stairs sanded down as much as I can with my belt sander the rest I will have to do with my random orbital sander and palm sander to get into the edges and back.

I had planned on mowing the lawn while Kathleen was gone, but when I checked the grass it was still really wet; the grass was not helped by the fact that it drizzled a few time today. Today was suppose to be the nicer day between today and tomorrow, but now the weather folks tell us that tomorrow will be mostly dry.

I certainly hope that it is as I need to get the lawn mowed; tomorrow would work out well as it is closer to the weekend. If I cannot get it done tomorrow I may have to go and get some gasoline for the Honda mower; I have been trying to not use it but if the grass keeps growing like it has and the weather stays wet I will not have a choice.

Unlike past weeks Kathleen was home a little sooner today as she still is not feeling well. Then tonight Aaron and Lexis came over as they were killing time waiting for Becca to finish Awana.

Almost a Wasted Day

I heard the rain on the sky light about 0400 and I knew that I would not be doing much outside today. When I finally got up it had stopped raining, but it was drizzling off and on most of the morning.

As I went out to retrieve the garbage can, the yard debris barrel and the recycling bin it was not drizzling as I went out but was by the time I went into the house. I also went out a little later this morning and it was drizzling again so I never did get to go outside without it being wet.

I think that the weather is suppose to be dry tomorrow and I will probably try to get the lawn mowed. This time of year I usually mow just about every day that it has not rained just to keep the grass at a reasonable height.

Well other than reading the paper and mail I did not get anything done. This afternoon I discovered a program that would track my investments and download their daily activity for me. Of course I have that already on Comcast but this lets me input the number of shares and the dollar value for each on so that I can better track how well they are doing.

I am hoping that this will enable me to do a better job of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. This will also give me something to go to my financial adviser with instead of just relying on his input.

Anyway after loading all that information into the program I decided that I would look at Quicken; I knew that it was possible to do in Quicken but I just never tried it. It was actually easier than I thought that it might be; now I will just have to see which one does a better job for me.

Well as you can see I did not get a lot done, but then maybe tomorrow!! I keep hoping that one of these days Kathleen will be feeling better so that we can go to the grocery store and also pick out our fixtures for the downstairs bathroom so that we will be able to start on that.

I would like to think that we could have the downstairs bathroom done before that weather gets too hot. I use the downstairs shower mainly because the upstairs shower is just a stall and a small one at that. With my joints as sore as they have been it is hard for me to position myself to soap up and rinse off.

Well I Did It!

As much as I would have like to prolong it a little longer I was running out of time to file my state taxes! So this afternoon I went a head and e-filed. I had them done for almost two months, but just did not want to let go of my money that soon.

The amount that I get back on my federal taxes will more than cover what I owed so it was not a really big thing, I just wanted to hold onto my money as long as possible. This year I am going to start doing a quarterly estimate; so I paid that as well.

Since I am not working and not having any state tax taken out of my investments I need to do that or else I would be charged a penalty. So after I thought about it; I thought that it would be better to pay it quarterly and that way I could keep some of my money a little longer than if I had it taken out twice a month.

Last night as I lay in bed I heard the rain drops hitting the sky light, so I knew that the couple of nice spring weather had officially come to an end. When I got up this morning the driveway was dry, so it must have only rained a short time.

Off and on all morning it would drizzle a bit, not enough to do much good, but just enough that I could not do anything outside without getting wet. Then around noon or so it started to rain, hail and something else that I am not sure about. The hail did not stick much to the ground but it really came down hard for a time.

I had a meeting at church at 1330 but I left early as I wanted to talk to the assistant pastor before the meeting. I did not get to talk to him very much as he took about five phone calls while I was waiting to see him.

The meeting went well and the rain/hail had stopped before the meeting and did not start up again although the sky went from bright and shiny to overcast for the rest of the afternoon. There was even an ominous thunderhead lurking around.

My left knee popped out of joint last night and has done it a couple of times today; I am not sure what is causing it. It is a little frustrating as that is something that has not happened for some time now. I had kind of forgotten about how often it use to pop out until it started up last night.

Other than filing my taxes I really did not get a lot done today; I think that I am still a little tired from this weekends work. I fell asleep early last night because I was so tired, so with a good night sleep last night I should be well rested and maybe I will be able to stay awake a little longer tonight.

Wow What Wonderful Weekend Weather

Yesterday the weather was really great; in fact I could live with that kind of weather all year long. I re-mowed the front lawn because it was so long when I mowed it that there were high spots. Friday when I mowed I mowed north and south and Saturday I mowed east and west so that I would get a nice smooth cut on the grass.

I think that it really looks nice and I have had several people stop me and tell me how nice they thought that it looked. That always makes me feel good as I really try to keep it looking like it was cared for.

After I mowed I finished planting my garlic and onion sets; I was going to do more but the ground is still pretty saturated from all the rain over the last several months. We really need a couple weeks of warm dry weather for the ground to dry out enough to really be able to do anything with.

After I finished in the garden I went to the field behind us and dug out the dandelions so that they would not blow all their seeds into my lawn. I just did that a short time ago but there were a lot that were showing their pretty yellow flowers.

By the time I got that done I was pretty tired so I went in and made myself some lunch. Since I was too tired to do much of anything else I worked on the poem that I had in my blog yesterday for a couple more hours. I think it took that long because my body and mind were tired.

Today was another nice day, not nearly as nice as yesterday but for this time of year it was a great day. This morning it took a lot longer for the clouds to burn off and even when they did it was still a lot cloudier than yesterday.

After church I went to Fred Meyer to pick up a prescription for Kathleen. While I was there I also did a little grocery shopping; just a few easy to prepare meals and some fruit, bananas and grapefruit. I also got a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups as Kathleen mentioned the other day that she really felt like having some.

After I got home I put the groceries away, changed my clothes and then made some lunch. Then I went outside and got my line trimmer and went to the lot behind us and cut a path about ten feet from our fence on the south and east sides. Then I trimmed along the fence line of the lady who lives next door to us.

After finishing that I put everything away, cleaned up and then sat down and read the paper. I had not done that yet as I wanted to get outside and get some things done just in case the weather changed for the worse.

When I did go in it was starting to cloud up although it did not look like it would rain the weather was definitely starting to turn.

It is a good thing that I got some quick to prepare meals today as that is all that Kathleen could do; she still does not feel very well although she does feel better than she had.

Tomorrow the weather is suppose to be the start of more rain for the week so I am glad that I was able to get as much done as I did this weekend. While the temperature was about thirty degrees warmer this weekend than it was at the start of the week it did not feel uncomfortable like a thirty degree swing in temperature can be.

The Story of an Old Country Church

I have been working on this for quite some time; ever since I saw this picture of an old abandoned dilapidated church.

While the old countryside was lush and green,
As I looked around I saw was a very sad scene.
There was a little country church standing all alone;
It was all that remained of happy times long gone.

It had never been fancy but was only a little wood frame building
Even now one could tell that it had no fancy trim or ornate gilding.
As it had stood there it was such disrepair I could see right through,
Stand outside I could see the inside of the building and the belfry, too.

Most of the boards were blackened and falling apart.
Seeing such a sad sight really tugged my heart as,
I thought of all the people who once must have worshiped there;
They would have come from all directions to gather for prayer.

The bell that once would call all who heard it to come and bring
Their humble hearts and happy voices to come; join together and sing
Praises to God, our Savior and our Lord,
As the offer petitions to the One they adored.

Surely there had been happy times within that setting;
There were baptisms, confirmations and many a weddings.
And yes there were times of sadness, too,
As the saw their loved ones passed on to life anew.

There were sermons that were preached from God’s Holy Word.
As many hearts and lives were changed by what was heard.
And now, this once proud church has nobody in it.
As I stood there I thought for a minute.

Could I shore up those walls and the roof that was about to fall in;
And if I fixed that bell would it sound throughout the countryside once again?
Would the people who lived nearby come to hear;
The Word of God preached again for many a year.

But this church had served God’s purpose and now perhaps it is best;
Just to let time take its toll, and let this old church come to its rest.
Then remembering Christ’s promise: “My church always will be,
Not in some building, but in people as they fellowship and worship Me.”

What a Difference Ten Degrees Makes

I could tell before I got out of bed this morning that this was going to be a nice day. First of all the room was quite a lot brighter than it has been for a while; due to the sun being able to actually shine due to lack of cloud cover and secondly because it was not raining as the skylight was not sounding like a drum from the rain drops hitting it.

After breakfast I got ready to meet with the guys, as I was going out the door I checked the mail and it was here so I brought it in and opened up. While I was doing that Kathleen came downstairs and she looks like she has what I had a couple weeks ago.

We got together around 1000 and did not part until after noon; we had a great time catching up and sharing with each other. There was an extra guy there and that might explain why we went so long.

After I left I took off for the credit union to deposit that check I had wanted to deposit for almost a week. When I got to the credit union the parking lot was really packed and I had to park quite a way away from the credit union. The line inside was also twisting back and forth on its third twist. I also put in that fifty dollar bill that I found last week on my walk, so it added up to a nice deposit.

The trip back home was longer than usual as I ran into two construction zones that closed down one of the two lanes, so traffic was really backed up.

Kathleen still was feeling really tired so she lay down and took a nap. While she was doing that I went out and mowed the lawn. I was really surprised at just how much the grass had grown in the last week. It was so high that the battery wore out before I could finish mowing; it is a good thing that the mower is so light that it is not much harder to just push it manually rather than have the battery do the work.

After I got done mowing I put everything away I went inside cleaned up and then made myself some lunch. I have not had a Limburger cheese and herring sandwich so that is what I did. I also had some Costco Multi grained chips.

After putting the dishes into the dishwasher I sat down and read the mail as I had not had a chance to do that before I took off to meet the guys. It was about 1500 and so I decided to go into the living room and sit down and relax.

Kathleen finally woke up around 1700 or so, since she started her nap around 1330 she got a pretty fair nap in. She still did not feel too well. So tonight she fixed herself some tomato soup and put the left-over beans and rice and I made myself a couple burritos and had the soup that Kathleen did not want.

Things are a Changing

Well we still have not gotten to Winco to do our grocery shopping. Kathleen was up early, early for her that is, but was not feeling well and just could not get herself going.

It drizzled and rained just about all day. I went outside for a little while between moisture events and rebuilt the dam out front that keeps the street run-off out of our driveway. I also spent a little time going through the rose and berry gardens pulling weeds.

When I came back inside and cleaned up it was lunch time so I reheated some of the pizza from last night. Then I loaded up the dishwasher and did a load of dishes; even though the dishwasher was not packed there was enough in it that it was worth while to do a load.

While the dishwasher was doing its thing I decided to go upstairs and take a nap. While I did not really sleep I did stay horizontal for about an hour so that I felt better when I got up.

I did not get much of anything else done but sit around and watch Fox news. Around 1815 I asked Kathleen if she were going to do anything for dinner and she said that she was coming down right away. Well, about 1830 I decided that I would make myself something as it looked like Kathleen was not going to be down anytime soon.

I heated up the rest of the left-over pizza and the left-over breakfast pilaf for myself. Kathleen finally made it downstairs as I was eating and reheated up the beans, rice and hamburger that she made several nights ago.

Tomorrow I am meeting with the guys so afterwards I am going to stop by the credit union to deposit the check that I have been holding on to for almost a week. I hope that afterwards we will be able to get to Winco and get some of the items that we are out of.

Everyday I am adding to the list as we are running out of more and more things. We still have a lot of food in the house, but it is things that we do not normally eat. There are a lot of canned goods as well but most of that is vegetables or canned fruit.

Well tomorrow the temperature is suppose to be about ten degrees warmer and dry and then Saturday it is suppose to be ten degrees warmer than Friday, so from the beginning of the week the temperature will have changed over thirty degrees. While I like the warmer weather thirty degrees in a couple days is a little too fast.

Ugh, Another Yucky Day

It continued to rain again last night and into this morning. I rained off and on just about all day and when it was not raining it was not too pleasant outside either. I had gone outside to take out the kitchen vegetable scraps and put them into my composter and while it was not raining it was still pretty dark out.

While I was outside I did a little weeding and also crushed up some egg shells to put around my prim roses and also the strawberries. It is my way of recycling the egg shells and also is a good slug deterrent as the crushed up egg shell slices into the slugs and is not harmful to the birds or other animals.

This morning I also swept under the stove as Kathleen removed the draw so while it was out I thought that it would be a good time to vacuum it out as I cannot remember when it had been done. While I was down on my hands and knees, I also took the grill off the refrigerator and vacuumed under the refrigerator as well.

There was so much dust in the compressor that I am surprised that it was able to breathe at all. So while the draw was out on the stove and the grill was off on the refrigerator and I had already vacuumed under them; I decided to mop underneath them as well.

Kathleen had her meeting with the woman from church this afternoon so I made myself a sardine sandwich on Orowheat crushed wheat and oat bread and also a herring sandwich on crushed wheat sourdough bread. That way Kathleen did not have to make comments about the smell and I got to enjoy something that I really enjoy.

Kathleen did not get back until about 1830 and I was just about ready to fix myself dinner when I heard her drive up. She went to a stamping store and evidently talked to someone for quite a while.

Anyway she made a pizza tonight using a Boboli pizza crust and topped it with artichoke hearts, olives, peppers, and a rushed up Gardenburger with sun dried tomatoes and basil; then topped that with cheddar, Parmesan and string cheeses.

It tasted pretty good and was half-way healthy at least for pizza. Kathleen was surprised at how good it tasted, but it was just a variation of the pizza recipe that I posted a while back. We only ate about half of it so there should be enough for a snack or two and a lunch.

Another Strange Day

This morning when I got up I could tell that it had rained during the night; it was still overcast but at least it was not raining. That would not last long as it started to drizzle as I took the recycling up front.

After breakfast I decided to clean the shelf where we have our oils and spices, Tabasco and other sauces. I started on one side and took everything off the lazy-Susan and cleaned them off, and then I cleaned the lazy-Susan as well.

After I had every thing cleaned that came off the lazy-Susan I cleaned the bottles in the middle of the shelf. Kathleen came downstairs as I was getting ready to do the lazy-Susan that had the spices on it; and she took the lazy-Susan off the shelf and began washing the spices. So as she washed them I put them back onto the lazy-Susan.

I went outside a couple more times this morning for various reasons and I think that it was drizzling each time. A few times this morning it really down poured so I was glad that I was not outside when it did that.

I added a few more items to our grocery list as I noticed a couple more items that we were either out of or just about out of. By the time Kathleen came back downstairs to go shopping it was after 1500 and she still needed to add items to the grocery list, so I knew that it would be another forty-five minutes or so before we got going and that would be a little too late. By late I mean right in the middle of the busy time at Winco.

So another day goes by with out getting to the credit union or grocery store. Tomorrow Kathleen meets with another gal so we will not be going then either. It is a good thing that we have a lot of things here to eat.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made some breakfast pilaf and added some hamburger, peppers and I am not sure what else. It was pretty good and there is enough left-over for a lunch later in the week.

I have been feeling better this week at least my hip has been feeling better. I have only been taking Tylenol first thing in the mornings and then just before I go to bed. I also have not had to take anything for my sinuses; I am still having a lot of drainage but the only time I am stuffed up is when I first get up in the mornings.

A week from this Friday I have an appointment with my surgeon as a follow-up on my PSA. Since it has been higher than it should be I am having to have it checked every three months. I was every six months and was suppose to go to once a year but my PSA has not come down like it was suppose to.

More April Showers

I went to bed early last night so I got a pretty good nights sleep and I felt pretty good when I got up. I could tell by the way that the sky looked like that it was not going to be a good day to work outside. Even though it did not rain all day it was pretty blustery and in generally a nasty day.

I emptied the dish washer and then dried off a couple of roasting pans and put them away. After eating breakfast, reading the paper and the mail I washed a load of towels, dried, folded and put them away.

Andrea called around 1130 and we talked for a while; but she wanted to talk to Kathleen but since I had just been upstairs I knew that she was not up yet. So I told Andrea that I would have Kathleen call her when she got up.

After lunch I cut out coupons as I thought that we were going to go to Winco today. After cutting them out I filed them in my coupon folder weeding out the ones that had expired and putting the ones that I wanted to use at the store.

This afternoon I washed a load of white clothes, dried, folded and put them away. When it got to be about 1600 I realized that we were not going to make it to the store today. I was hoping to go to the credit union as I had a good size refund check to deposit but I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow to do that.

During one of the drier spells I went outside and pulled some weeds along the east side of the house. That is one of the areas that I am trying to redo but it has taken me too long to get it finished. I am trying to get the grass dug up and plant some kind of low ground cover that will not require much maintenance or watering as it is a rather narrow strip and does not get any use except by the electric and gas meter readers.

Tonight I made a sun dried tomato and basil Gardenburger on dark rye. I added some mushroom slices and cheddar cheese and then toasted them to melt the cheese. Kathleen had the left-over bean and rice dish from last night. I did not have any as it did not agree with my system and I paid the price for it this morning.

Well, it has kind of been one of those days where I did not get a lot accomplished, but there have been more of these lately than I care to think about.

Another Wild and Wacky Weather Weekend

While this weekend was not quite as wacky and wild as last weekend it still had its moments. Yesterday was not too bad; just some rain off and on, today on the other hand went from glary bright out to dark and rainy.

Anyway, yesterday I had a meeting at church from 0900 until 1030 and then Lexis' birthday party at 1400. I was thinking that I might miss the morning meeting as I wanted to be in good shape for the party, but when I got up I actually felt pretty good so I went to the meeting.

But by about 1630 or so I was really starting to feel worn out. By the time we got home I seriously thought about going to bed, but I decided to stay up and fight the urge to sleep. I knew that if I were to go to bed that early I would be up in the middle of the night and then today I would be wasted again.

Poor Aaron and Tami had a house full of little one almost none stop from around 1100 in the morning until I do not know when as we left before most of then did. I think Alexis had a good time and it was good to see all the cousins running around.

I wound up staying up until about 2203 and I think I reached the point where I was no longer sleepy as it took me a while longer to fall asleep than it normally does. It was probably the shower that did it; normally it helps me to fall asleep but not last night. I did get a pretty good nights sleep and woke up about the normal time. Although once I was up and dressed I started feeling like I needed to go back to bed.

Kathleen had gotten up and since she and I had not gone to church together for a long time I thought that I would go even though I was really, really tired. By the time Sunday School was over and I helped clean up the coffee pots and put everything away I was well beyond tired.

As a consequence I spent most of the afternoon just sitting around. I did read the paper and comics but that was about it. I thought about going outside for a while but every time I started to go out it would cloud over and I decided to stay in. Then after a little while the sun would come out and the cycle would repeat itself.

We still need to do a lot of work on our remodel, I do not get much done as I do not want to wake Kathleen up and sometimes by the time she gets up I am running on low and do not want to start something that I will not be able to finish.

One of the next things we need to do before we start on the next phase of our project is to pick out the fixtures for the downstairs bathroom. I thought that we were going to do that last Friday, but we never made it out.

Maybe this week we will be a little more successful in getting something done.

So Goes the Best Laid Plans

This morning I had planned on going out to breakfast with the guys and then coming home and mowing the lawn and feed the roses so when it started to rain a little after 0800 I figured that my plans were going out the window.

Earlier in the week the weather forecast was for rain to start Sunday afternoon and the closer to the weekend it got the closer the forecast for rain to start got as well. The last I had heard it was still suppose to be clear until this afternoon...but then who believes the weather forecast anyway!

Well I did go out to breakfast and when I left to go home it was still raining although not as hard as it had been earlier. By the time I got home it had stopped raining but the grass was still much too wet to mow.

After changing my clothes I went out and fertilized my roses so that I could at least say I got some of what I wanted to accomplish today done. After I finished fertilizing the roses I went into the house and read the paper and mail.

I was getting to be a little after 1300 so I heated up the pizza that was left-over from last night's dinner and shortly after I got done Kathleen came downstairs. I went outside to pick up some fir cones and small branches that had blown down; it was windier than I realized and I was surprised to find that the lawn was a lot drier than I thought that it would be. So I got out the mower and mowed the lawn.

I am surprised at how well my little electric reel mower does, even when the grass is a little wet it still cuts fairly well. It does have a hard time when the grass gets too high; so for that reason I sometimes mow a couple times a week, just to prevent the grass from getting too high.

Aaron called just as I was coming into the house and said that he soloed for the first time yesterday, so he is doing really well. The other day when he was out flying there was a small single engine plane that crashed about a half hour after he finished flying.

He had gotten his flight time messed up and missed the first part of his fly time; he was thinking that it was from 1300 - 1500 so if he had been flying then he might not have been able to land. He was also suppose to do his first solo that day, so maybe it was a good thing that he had gotten his scheduled time wrong.

Tonight was a macaroni and cheese night; one of the staples of life or at least it use to be. It is a pretty simple meal, but still tastes good...especially baked.

Well Lexis was born almost exactly four years ago; as I recall it was at 1817 04/04/04 and she is our fourth grandchild; I am sure that there is some deeper meaning to all of that but I am not sure what it is.

I Found a New Walking Partner Ulysses

This morning was another really nice morning, so after eating breakfast and reading the paper I decided that I would try going for a walk. I had not been walking for a couple weeks as my hip had been hurting so bad, but I felt pretty good this morning so decided to give it another try.

The last couple times that I had walked I stayed on fairly level ground, but I wanted to test my hip out and try going up hill a little bit. So after going up the hill behind us I went along with the hill for a while and then took a street back down the hill.

On my way down the hill I ran across a picture of Ulysses S Grant; I was kind of surprised and almost walked by, but I decided to pick it up. When I first saw it blowing up the street I thought that it was just a piece of paper, but when I saw what it was I then thought that it was play money. Once I had it in my hands I could tell that it was a real bill; so this has definitely been my most profitable walk ever.

After I got home I went back outside and transplanted some plants in the path in the rose garden. I try to let some of the natural plants grow wherever but I am also trying to keep a path there as well and decided to just move them to a place where they would not get trampled upon.

Kathleen had mentioned wanting to go to George Morlan plumbing to look at fixtures for the downstairs bathroom so I wanted to see if she was ready to go. She said that she was really feeling tired, so I made myself some lunch and went back outside and transplanted some onion set and garlic plants.

I was going to roto-till the vegetable garden again but I decided that the ground was still too wet so I will leave that for another week or two. I was going to mow, but I kind of wanted to wait until tomorrow so that it will look nicer for the weekend. It is suppose to start raining again next week so the longer I wait the less likely it will be too long when it dries up again.

Both Kathleen and I fell asleep in the living room later this afternoon, I thought about going upstairs and taking a nap, but I could not get up the energy to climb up the stairs. Kathleen was just tired.

Tonight we had pizza for dinner; I found this recipe and thought that we should try it as I always like to try new things and this at least sounded a little healthy. It is called Mediterranean Pizza. In case anyone is interested here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 10-ounce pre-baked whole wheat pizza crust (such as Boboli)
• 1/2 cup no-salt-added tomato sauce
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 cup shredded chicken
• 1/2 cup sliced olives
• 1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 small jar roasted red peppers, chopped
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1 cup reduced fat cheese (mozzarella and cheddar blend)

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spread tomato sauce over the crust. Sprinkle toppings on pizza, finishing with cheese. Bake on a pizza sheet or pizza stone for 10 minutes.

Per Serving: Calories 230, Calories from Fat 57, Total Fat 6.4g (sat 2.3g), Cholesterol 25mg, Sodium 696mg, Carbohydrate 27g, Fiber 4,9g, Protein 16.3g

This morning was another really nice morning so after breakfast, reading the paper and the mail I took a cup of coffee outside and started working on the rose garden. There was a small area that I had not gotten weeded yet so I wanted to see if I could get that done before the ground got hard and the weeds got bigger.

I spent a little over an hour but I finally got it done. Just as I was finishing up Andrea and Brandon pulled into the driveway. Andrea had brought a couple hamburgers, fries and drinks for Kathleen and me; for me it was an early lunch but it was breakfast for Kathleen.

I say early lunch for me because it was only noon and I usually eat lunch around 1330 or so. Andrea and Brandon left around 1315 and Kathleen left around 1330 so I went back outside and edged around the rose garden and the berry garden. I notice this morning when I was weeding that the gardens needed edging again already.

After I finished the rose and berry gardens I went out front and edge the front yard. I finally finished that around 1620 and by the time I put the tools away and got cleaned up it was 1630 and Kathleen called from Fred Meyers and asked if we needed anything else from the store.

When she got home she heated up some Ivar's clam chowder. She only had a couple spoons full and I had the rest. Clam chowder is still one of my favorite soups.

Shortly after finishing dinner and cleaning up Aaron and Lexis came over. It was Becca's night for AWANA and Aaron usually brings Lexis over while they wait for time to pick her up. Aaron was saying that he was expecting to get his pilots license early next month.

Well I had a busy day for me and I am feeling pretty tired, but it is a tired because feel like I got something done today.

Spring Returns Again Today

This morning I could tell that the weather was going to be much nicer as there was a lack of cloud cover. It was not much warmer; in fact the news was reporting temperatures close to freezing. But as soon as the sun came out it started warming up and the temperature got up into the fifties.

Today was pick-up day: garbage, yard debris and recycling; so I took the recycling bins up front. I take the recycled paper up front in the morning as there are folks who come around at night and take the paper looking for something to steal people’s identity. The garbage and the yard debris I had taken up to the street yesterday afternoon. About five minutes before the trucks started to arrive I thought that I would take the glass jars up as well.

The three trucks all came within about a half hour of each other so I made another three trips back up front to retrieve the cans and bins. The mail came in the mean time so I got it as well although there was very little worth reading mail wise.

Finally about 1030 I went back outside and finished trimming the hedge. It only took a little while to do the actually cutting and almost as long to rake and pick up the twigs. So now I have my yard debris barrel full and have to wait for two weeks to get rid of it.

This afternoon after resting up a little bit I went out and mowed the lawn. After I finished mowing and putting the mower back into the garage I sat out in my Adirondack chair and rested for a while. That did not last long, as I could see dandelions blooming in the field out back, so I went around and started pulling them out.

I finally realized that I had worn myself out, so I went inside, cleaned up and made myself a late lunch. After cleaning up my mess, I went and sat down in my chair and dozed off. Kathleen just came downstairs and said that she was going to make halibut for dinner. She was going to make some potatoes to go along with it, but I suggested rice instead. I almost cannot believe that I said that, but I have come to like rice with certain things and fish is one of them.