Making Monday's Mellow

I got up this morning and still did not feel that great, it was not that I was still tired, but more that I was just sore. My right side has been sore for a couple days not and has really been zapping my energy.

It was an overcast morning so I initially thought that I would try to get the rest of the siding painted, but the more the time passed the more I realized that I really did not feel well enough to paint. To validate my decision the sun came out and I knew that I would not be painting today.

Kathleen came downstairs and asked if I felt lake pancakes this morning and it sounded good to me, so she made some pancakes. They were blueberry, banana and almonds, and it turned out to be a good combination. After breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up.

I decided to go outside and work for a while; I pruned the roses, pulled some weeds, trimmed off the spent lily stems and then took everything off the table that I had been using to store things on. In the process I emptied all the pots of their dirt and put it all into a container. I wound up with about ten gallons of potting soil.

With the pots empty, I stacked them together and boxed them up for future projects and then put them into the garage. By the time I got done it was almost 1500, so I cleaned up and went inside. I was not sure what to make for lunch so I just got out a Boca burger and made a burger sandwich.

I reminded Kathleen that I needed to go to the credit union to deposit some money; finally about 1710 we left the house. Traffic was bad and we got there a minute after they closed. I had loaded Toni's old file cabinet into the SUV so we took that over to her place. She was not home yet, so I left it on the sidewalk by her front door.

We were also going to drop off a pot of baby’s breath at one of Kathleen's friend's house, but it did not make it to the car. So I had Kathleen run by the house and I went out and got the pot and Kathleen took it over herself.

She did not make it home by 1915, so I made myself some salmon and had some cottage cheese to go along with it. Well, my side still bothers me, not quite as much as it did this morning, but it certainly is annoying. I think that I will call it a day and say good night!

Still Zonked Sunday

Before I forget, here is a web site that you might want to visit, it is for the no call registry where you can list you home phone as well as cell phone. Here is the address:

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

I just did our cell phones as well as our house phone. I never use to get unsolicited calls on my cell, but lately I have been getting a couple a week so I thought that I would add it to the no call registry. I think that the registry is only good for a few years, I noticed when I signed up today that it said good until 2012, and so if you have done it before and it has been a while it might pay to do it again.

Now for today: I woke up and was still worn out, but I wanted to get up and go to church as Dr Carl Laney was speaking in church this morning and I always try to make it when he is speaking.

As I went to start up the Wrangler this morning I hesitated before it finally turned over. It has been pretty close to a month since I have driven it anywhere and quite frankly, I would not have been surprised it the batter were dead in it, but it had just enough to kick the old starter over. So the trip to church charged it up enough that it should last another couple weeks anyway.

Now for the reason I was driving the Jeep, Kathleen had not gotten a lot of sleep the night before, so when she did not get up on her own accord, I just let her sleep and took the Jeep, so that if she woke up and wanted to go she would have her vehicle to take. As it turned out she did not get up until after 1100 so it really did not matter that I took the Jeep other than since the battery was almost dead it was good to take it out and charge the battery.

I left the Jeep out of the garage when I got home and I also left it run so as to give the battery a little extra charging. The reason I left it out was so that I could sweep out the garage or at least the side where I park the jeep. So many leaves and fir needles had blown in that I thought that while I had the Jeep out it would be a good time to sweep them up.

I was hungry when I got home so I made myself a half of a pita and stuffed it with some chicken salad that Kathleen made the other day. I also finished the cold slaw and macaroni salad after Kathleen had what she wanted out of them.

It was still overcast this afternoon and would have been a good day to finish painting the side of the house. But since I had no energy today, I decided not to push myself; I did not even take my daily walk, if fact I had all to do to stay awake as I was reading the paper and comics.

When I finally finished the paper, I decided that I would wash the clothes, so I sorted them out and asked Kathleen to make sure she had everything she wanted washed in the hampers. Once she finally got that done I took the clothes downstairs and washed and dried the clothes. Then when they were done, I took them upstairs and folded and put the away.

Just as I was finishing putting the clothes away, Kathleen called me and said that dinner was on the table. She heated up some clam chowder and made some biscuits which we had with Smucker's raspberry all fruit. If you have not tried the Smucker's all fruit, it is really good.

I became familiar with Smucker's while at college, I got to meet one of the Smucker boys and decided to try it. It started out as a small company in Orrville, Ohio and has grown into a fairly good size company; they also make Adam's peanut butter, another one of my favorites.

I think that I was first exposed to Smucker's ice cream topping at my Grandma Roush's house as she use to put Smucker's butter scotch topping on ice cream. I had forgotten about that until years later when I started using their ice cream toppings once in a while on my ice cream.

My how far from the path I traveled on that rabbit trail. Anyway, dinner was good, it was a pretty light meal and since I had not done anything today I did not need much of anything for dinner. Well, that about covers my day, I hope you had a more productive day than I did. I guess a good night is now in order, talk some more tomorrow!

Saturday Sauntering

I was not quite as sore this morning as I was yesterday, but I sure did not feel "normal" whatever that is anymore. I finally got up a little after 0700 made an egg beater omelet and some sourdough toast. Then I emptied the dishwasher and loaded up the dishwasher with the dishes from when the children were here last night, Toni, Chucky, Andrea and Brandon.

Then I poured myself a cup of coffee and headed to my easy chair to read the paper. After the paper decided that since I did not feel up to painting today I would work out in the rose garden as I had not worked out there all week. So I spent a couple hours pruning roses, pulling some weeds and mostly digging out Italian prune suckers that were popping up all over the place.

After coming inside and cleaning up I decided to make myself a salad for lunch, so I got out all the ingredients that I needed, cut them up and then sat down to enjoy it. Then after resting for a while I thought that I needed to get a little exercise in, so I put on my walking shoes and told Kathleen that I was going for my daily walk.

The other day while I was out for my walk, I though that I had not been over to Maywood Park lately, so that is where I headed. I walked all the east west streets first and then all the north south streets and then headed home. By the time I got back I had logged over seven miles...and was really tired. So I sat down and watched the news.

Somehow I managed to stay awake; I was not really as sleepy as I was outright bone tired. After sitting for a while I did feel better and it was about 1900 and Kathleen was not here so I reheated up so salmon and then had some cold slaw and macaroni salad to go along with it. Kathleen finally came home about 1930 after I had finished eating.

Well, that was my day, it seemed to go by a lot faster than what I got accomplished, but so do most of my days. I need to go out and water the rose garden as I have not done that all week either. Andrea just called and she and John are close by so they are going to stop off for a visit. So I will just say good night.

Friday's Frustrations

When I got up this morning I realize that I had indeed pushed myself a little too hard yesterday. My back, which is usually sore when I get up was sore but it was not the sorest part of my body...my thighs were, from standing on the extension ladder too long.

I kind of had that feeling last night, but I was hoping for the best. Anyway I was hoping that after being up for a while I could "walk" it off and feel better...no such luck. So after eating and reading the paper, I decided that I would mow the lawn at a leisurely pace and see if I could get something done today.

The sun was out earlier today so I knew that I probably would not be painting this morning and since I was as sore as I was that was probably a good thing. I got our front lawn mowed my neighbor's front and side lawn mowed and the drive next door on our west side. I was pretty much out of steam at that point so I did not feel too bad that the battery on the mower was pretty much spent.

I took the battery off the mower and put it on the charger and put the mower back where it belonged in the garage. After getting the mail and opening it I took the credit union statement that came today and reconciled my savings and checking accounts, they both came out on the money, as they usually do, so that was a good thing.

I wanted to get a little walking in so I told Kathleen that I was going to try to take my walk. So I changed into my walking shoes and took off. I was a still pretty sore, so I took it at a little more leisurely pace than normal. I wound up walking about four and a half miles when Kathleen called and said that she needed to go to NW Portland to return her old C-Pap machine.

Since I was only about a half mile away, I told her that I would be home in about fifteen minutes.
When I got home, I cleaned up and changed my clothes and shoes and loaded her machine into the SUV. I also took my insurance refund check so that we could deposit it at the credit union on the way home.

After dropping off the machine and dropping by the credit union Kathleen said that she wanted to also stop by Winco to pick up some produce, this time of year we really go through the fresh produce. While we were there we also picked up so fresh wild salmon for dinner tonight. We got enough so that we could have a couple meals out of it.

By the time we got home and unloaded the groceries, I was pretty hungry, so I made myself a Limburger cheese, sweet onion sandwich with a hot dill pickle on top to give it a little heat. Then I sat down in my easy chair in the living room and dozed on and off for a couple hours.

Kathleen made the salmon for dinner and we also had some macaroni salad and some cold slaw. She also made a mango-pineapple chutney to go along with the salmon. Well, I you can see, I did not get any painting done today.

I think that I probably needed to take the day off, hopefully tomorrow I can finish up the siding and then I can do the shakes and then the trim, with any luck before the rainy season set in. Well, I cannot think of anything else right now, so I am just going to say good night!

Through Thursday

Well here it is Thursday evening already...I thought that I would not make it through the day I was so tired. This morning was pretty typical; I did not go for my walk this morning as I wanted to start painting before the sun burned through the overcast sky. I finally finished breakfast and reading the paper a little after 0900, so I went outside and set up the shorter wooden ladder.

Then I went to the garage and got out the paint, small paint bucket and changed into my painting clothes, old shorts, old tee shirt, steel toed boots and old long sleeve shirt. Then I went into the mud room and got my paint brush out of the water filled jar where I had it soaking overnight.

I started on the front side of the house which is the other end from where I had been painting. I did this because I knew that the sun would be out soon and I was hoping that starting on the far northeast side would be the shadiest place to be. It was not long before the sun came out and the reflection off the upstairs window was really bright, brighter than I had expected.

I must have been quite a sight as the lady next door was taking some pictures of me up on the ladder. I am not sure why, but she probably never saw a old man thirty plus feet up in the air dressed as strangely as I was, by this time I had gotten my old straw cowboy hat on so I am sure that I looked a little strange.

Anyway I started out with almost a gallon of paint in my bucket and I was determined that I was going to finish it as it was all the paint that was left in the five gallon bucket and I did not want to put it back, nor did I want to open the other bucket today.

I got to about an inch left in my gallon bucket and had to force myself back up the ladder. I even had to trade the shorter wooden ladder for the longer aluminum ladder as I had painted all I could with the wooden one. By the time I finished the paint in the bucket I had painted all but about the middle five feet of the siding.

So tomorrow my challenge will be to finish that section and then I can go back to the smaller ladder and do the shakes which start at about ten feet off the ground. The shakes should paint a lot easier as there is a much better covering of paint on them. The siding was put up twenty years ago and has only been painted two times since I put it up.

I will still have to do the trim, windows and what not, but that should not be that difficult and I can do it at a slower pace. I wanted to get the higher siding done this week as it was suppose to be overcast all week. It pretty much was for Monday and Tuesday, yesterday we had some scheduled appointment, so I did not paint and today the sun cam out earlier than I would have liked it to...did I just complain about the sun shining?

Anyway, I finished painting about 1245 and Kathleen asked if I would like a chicken salad pita, it sounded like a good idea to me so she fixed my one and she had one as well. By the time I got done eating I realize just how sore I was, but I knew that if I did not get out for my walk soon I probably would not make it at all today.

So reluctantly I put on my walking shoes and took off. I started out my walk pretty much the same as I normally do, but about half way through I decided to try a different route, so I took off and walked up and down a couple blocks. I had walked the same streets earlier in the week, but then I just walked the upper sections, today I walked the lower sections.

I would up talking about four and a quarter miles, so it was a pretty good walk. By the time I got back home I was really tired. After sitting for a while I checked my blood pressure and it was 90/61 and my pulse was 60, I did not have any energy left, so I went and sat in my chair and looked at my Orvis fly fishing catalog and somewhere along the way I fell asleep. I finally woke up when Kathleen brought me a frozen citrus drink.

Before I realized it she had dinner ready and called me into the kitchen to eat. She made steaks and green beans, the steaks were only about five ounces apiece so not a lot, but it was enough to satisfy and I really was not hungry when I finished it.

Well, I was suppose to go to a global outreach meeting tonight, but I was just took worn out and did not have any reserve to try to force myself into going. That is one of the most discouraging thing is not having any energy anymore. Well, I probably will be calling it quits early tonight so I am just going to say good night now.

Wednesday's Wanderings

I knew that today was going to be a different day before I got out of bed this morning. Everything was pretty normal to begin with, breakfast, empty the dishwasher, read the paper, going for a walk, read the mail, but that is where it all stopped.

Kathleen and I had our insurance review over in Beaverton today, so we left the house about noon for our 1230 appointment. We made it there just in time and spent about an hour and a half with our agent. We dropped Kathleen's term insurance and cut my insurance by about two-thirds.

Since we do not have children that depend on us now there really was no need for me to have a quarter of a million dollars of insurance and the same went for Kathleen. We also were able to change our auto insurance since neither one of us puts many miles on our vehicles a year. So hopefully we achieved our goal of reducing our premiums and kept our coverage in line with what we actually needed.

We left Beaverton about 1400 and on the way home Kathleen said that she was hungry, so I suggested going to Salty's on the Columbia River. Kathleen had been saying how she never got to eat there; I had gone a couple times when I worked at Boeing as a reward type dinner, so it was never a big deal for me.

We both only ate half of our lunch so we had some take home. Kathleen had a desert which she only had a little bit of so we took that home as well.

After we left there we stopped at Parr lumber's cabinet outlet to look around and see what they had for cabinets. After looking around for a while we stopped at another appliance and cabinet shop and then at a granite/quarts counter top shop and then a sink fixture shop. They were all next to each other so it was really convenient.

By the time we got home it was 1800 so we just took out our take home from Salty's and heated it up and there was our dinner. Two meals for the price of one. So I did not get a lot of work done around the house as we spent the afternoon wandering around window shopping.

I think that pretty much covers my day, so I will just say good night!

Tiring Tuesday

I was a little sore when I got up this morning, my calves especially from standing on the ladder painting yesterday. When I got downstairs I made myself an omelet and then went into the living room to read the paper. It was really misty outside, but I thought that I had better try to go for a walk and stretch out my leg muscles.

So I let Kathleen know that I was going and then started out. I went for about a four and a half mile walk today. I felt pretty good when I got back and the mail had come so I opened it up and sat down and read the mail. I got a couple magazines, which I still have not sat down to read yet, maybe later tonight.

After finishing the mail, I went outside and got ready to pain some more. So I got out my thirty-two foot extension ladder and set it up on the side of the house. Then I got the paint out and changed into my painting clothes. I poured some paint into my small paint bucket and then headed up the ladder.

I got almost half of the east side of the upper part of the house painted. I had hoped to get a little further along, but my arthritis hurt so much that I could hardly hold onto the paint brush. While the cooler overcast weather is great for painting the change in the weather has been raising havoc with my arthritis.

I finally got to a point where I could stop, so I did. I ran out of paint in my small bucket and my body was telling me that I needed to stop, so it was a good time to call it quits. So I took the ladders down and set them along the fence and then pounded the five gallon bucket closed, put it into the garage, changed into my regular clothes and then went into the house to clean the brush and wash up myself.

It was just about 1500 by the time I got into the kitchen to make myself some lunch. I was too tired to think about anything to eat, so I just heated up a Boca burger and pelted some cheese on some toast as I was toasting the bread. I also added a Walla Walla sweet onion and some dill pickles to the burger. I also added a hot dill pickle on the side.

I was so tired that after I finished eating I went upstairs and went to bed. Kathleen came home about 1715 and I woke up. It took me a while to wake up enough to actually get up and out of bed, but I finally did about 1745.

When I finally got downstairs, I managed to look through a couple of the catalogs that came in today’s mail. Then about 1830 I asked Kathleen what her plans for dinner were, and she said that she did not know. She was planning on seeing what was left over in the refrigerator and have that for dinner.

So she found some left over pasta, a piece of pork loin, some corn on the cob where the cob had been removed, some baby red potatoes, and an avocado. Kathleen did not want the pasta or the pork loin, so I took that, she took the corn and the potatoes, she added an onion and some dill relish and made a potato salad and shared some of that with me. Then she cut the avocado in half and we each had half.

Besides cleaning out the refrigerator we also made a meal out of a lot of little bits of left overs. After dinner I cleared off the table and loaded the dishwasher and started it up. That pretty much takes us up to where I am now. I do believe that I will make this another early to bed night, so I will just say good night now and call it a day.

Monday's Morphing

Today was a day that seemed more like it belonged at some other season than the middle of summer. It was overcast all day; I do not think I saw the sun shine all day. Well, after going to bed early last night, I woke up and was still tired and sore and I am not sure why I was sore or tired.

When I got downstairs I watered the plants in the front of the house and then brought the paper into the house. Since this was Monday, I had cereal for breakfast, good old shredded wheat with a ripe banana, a ripe peach and some raisins. That was the last banana, so next time we go grocery shopping we will need to pick some more up.

After eating I emptied the dishwasher and then proceeded to add dishes from last night and breakfast. I still did not feel too good, but I wanted to try going for a walk to see if that might help. So I got my walking shoes on and took off, I did not go as for as I had last week, just three miles and only for about a half hour.

I could have gone longer, but I did not want to press my luck. When I got home I saw the mailman across the way, so after changing out of my shoes I went out and got the mail. Then I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down and read the mail and the paper. Nothing stands out as important in the mail so it went into the recycling. Then I gathered up the recycling: cans, plastic, cardboard and paper and took it out to the front porch to take to the road tomorrow morning.

Then I decided that the house was not going to paint itself and if I wanted it painted I had probably better start doing it. Today looked to be a good painting day as it was suppose to be overcast all day...and it was! So I got out my thirty-two foot extension ladder got out the paint, a paint pail and looked for a paint brush. I finally found a paint brush, but by this time it was almost noon.

Anyway, as I was getting something out of the garage the lady next door came by and asked if I would cut down a couple branches off the tree in her front yard the was over hanging her front porch. So I stopped what I was doing and spent about an hour cutting down the branches and then cutting them up so that they would fit in the recycling can.

I finally got back home and poured the paint out of the five gallon bucket and into my little gallon paint bucket. Then I changed into my painting clothes and boots and made my way up the ladder. I only painted about a four foot strip of siding and then decided that I was really too tired to stand on the ladder any longer.

So I came down and took my ladder down and laid it along the fence so that it will be handy tomorrow when I hope to give it another try. I still had some paint in my bucket so rather than pour it back into the big bucket; I decided to paint some of the shingles on the back of the house. So I got out my scrapper and scrapped the shingles and then painted the area that I had painted.

I scrapped a little more than I had paint for, so that will give me some area to us my left-over paint tomorrow. When I finally ran out of paint, I washed out my brush and put the paint bucket away and then washed up and changed my clothes.

By the time I got all cleaned up and changed it was 1515, so I made myself a salad for lunch. I felt like taking a nap, but Kathleen had some things that needed to be thrown away and recycled, so I did that and then Kathleen said that Andrea and Brandon were coming over, so I did not want to take a nap with them coming over.

They got here about 1730 and stayed through dinner time, in fact they are still here. So I think that I will cut this off, say good night and go visit with them for a little while longer.

So Much for Sunday

I got up earlier than I had for a while just so that I could give myself plenty of time to get ready for church this morning. I really wanted to make sure that I could go this morning as they had "Rescue" singing this morning. The young man who started the group about ten years ago grew up at our church and they sing here about once a year.

The group sang for the whole hour and it was really fun to listen to them. They have one member, I think that he is the newest member of the group that makes percussion sounds and he incorporates it into their music. They are an a cappella male quartet so that is the only "instrument" that there is as they sing.

After church our class had a time of sharing and one of the women had just returned from Florida, the Fort Meyer area where she was part of a team that was giving hurricane relief. It is hard to believe that after a couple years they are still in need of relief...it just goes to show just how devastated that area was.


While she was talking about Fort Meyer, I got to thinking about Aunt Max and wonder if her old place was damaged. Not that it would matter at this time, but I had not even thought about it until now.

Aaron and Tami's class was hosting a barbecue after the second service so after SS Kathleen and I went home for about a half hour and I changed into my trade mark shorts and tee shirt. We arrive back just as they were starting to serve the food.

There was some really good chili, a broccoli salad, a pasta salad, pork and beef that they pit barbecued and then watermelon and cookies. Everything tasted really good, but it always does when someone else is cooking and being outdoors does not hurt either.

When we finally got home I changed clothes again and put on my home shorts and tee shirt., I hate to admit it but that was the forth change of clothes for me that day...and the sad part is that is not all that unusual for me.

Then I went downstairs and read the paper and comics. I must have been really tired because I fell asleep shortly after I finished the paper and I did not wake up until 1730. I wish that I could say that I felt rested, but I was really groggy feeling. Since we had a pretty good size meal at the barbecue Kathleen made me a can of gumbo and she had a can of spaghettio's and she also made a couple grilled cheese sandwiches.

I have a feeling that I will be turning in early tonight, so I am just going to say good night now!

Saturday's Surprise

I kind of just lay in bed this morning when I woke up, I could tell from looking out the skylight that it was going to be overcast for a while. When I finally did get up, I went out to get the paper and decided that I probably should water the flowers and things in the front yard, so I spent a little time giving them some water.

Seeing this was Saturday, I knew that I would be making an omelet, so I got out the mushrooms, Walla Walla sweet onion veggie sausage, and the red and yellow peppers. I sliced the mushrooms, onion and peppers and sautéed them in the frying pan. At the same time I micro waved the veggie sausage and when it was done, I crumbled it up and added it to the veggie mix in the pan.

Once everything was nice and caramelized, I added the egg beaters to the pan and made a nice veggie omelet. I also toasted a couple slices of sour dough bread and made a couple open faced Adam's peanut butter and Smucker's all fruit sandwiches (apricot and red raspberry). A rather satisfying breakfast even if I do have to say so myself.

After loading all the dishes into the dishwasher, I decided that I would try going for a walk. With all the walking around Costco and IKEA the last couple days, I really needed to just walk on the ground. I walked for about four and three quarter miles and I did not feel as bad as I did shopping at the stores. Beside the fresh air was an added benefit.

When I got home I opened up the mail and sat down with a cup of coffee and read the paper and the mail. Kathleen came downstairs and so I gave her the mail that was addressed to her. When I got done with the paper and the mail, I recycled them and then went outside to transplant some of the foxglove that was growing in the paths in the rose garden.

While I was doing that the sun came out and it turned out to be a pretty nice day much to my surprise. After spending an hour or so digging I decided to go in, clean up and rest for a while.
When I got inside it was almost 1500, so I made myself a salad with the usual things, a half dozen different kinds of green, green onions, red & yellow peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, radishes and to top it off I added the left over Jamaican Jerk Pacific snapper from the other night.

Since I could not find the malt vinegar I just used the red wine vinegar as a dressing. It was pretty good and I probably should have used more vinegar because the bottom of the salad was a little dry. After letting my food settle for a while, I went back outside and pruned the roses and as I was doing that I noticed some weeds and Italian prune tree suckers coming up in the rose garden. So I took care of them and then decided that since the garden was not pretty much in the shade it might be a good time to water the gardens in the back yard.

By the time I got done with that, got cleaned up and sat down in my easy chair, I realized that I was really tired. So I turned on the news, watched it and then turned on HGTV and fell asleep. Kathleen woke me up around 2130 and asked if I wanted to eat. As I was getting out of my chair I notice how sore I was, not necessarily a bad sore, just sore from using muscles that do not get enough exercise.

She mad a pork loin and sautéed some Granny Smith apples with some leeks in a rum sauce and also had some pasta to go along with it. It was very tasty. Well, I think that just about covers my day, I hope that you all had a good and productive day and a good night as well.

Fatiguing Friday

Well this morning it was much cooler out and it looked more like a morning at the coast except it did not have the morning mist. Since it was cooler this morning I decided that I would go for my morning walk a little later and have breakfast and read the paper first.

I did go out and water the fuchsia and get the paper before I made my bowl of shredded wheat, banana and raisins and since we got a case of soy milk yesterday at Costco I was able to use that on my shredded wheat.


After emptying the dishwasher, I sat down and read the paper, then just as I was getting ready to leave for my walk, the mailman pulled up, so I went out to get the mail. After bringing the mail into the house I went for my walk.

I have been trying to walk for about forty-five minutes a day or three and a half miles. My back has not been hurting as much as the week has progressed and I kind of think that the walking does help.

After arriving home and cooling down a little I sat down and opened the mail. There was not a lot of anything important other than the verification of my stock buys. I mentioned to Kathleen to see if she still wanted to go to IKEA today and she said yes, so I suggested that we go as early as possible so that it would not be too late when we finished.

Some where along the way she discovered that she had a book or two that was overdue at the library; I never did understand her system of keeping track of what she has checked out. So about 1430 we finally got out of here and off to the library and then to IKEA. After walking around for a couple hours of walking around, we decided to stop by the food court and get something to eat.

I got a salmon plate with a couple baby red potatoes and some vegetables. Kathleen got the meatball plate. The salmon was pretty good, it was not as good as fresh salmon, but it was not all that bad.


With some food in our bellies we were ready for the first floor, there was not as much to look at on the first floor, most of it was the warehouse space for the things on the second floor. Lots of stuff and we were lucky to get out of there for under a hundred dollars.

Well, since we ate around 1600 we probably are not going to have dinner tonight, maybe a big dessert or something later on, right now I just want to put my feet up and let my piggies cool off. There is something about walking on concrete for several hours that really make them squeal.

I am not sure how I use to do that for ten hours a day at Boeing for six or so day a week when I was in management. Maybe that is why my feet grew a couple sizes during that period of time. Well, I am too tired to think of anything else to say tonight except I think Alyssa now holds the record for comments on her latest blog at last count I think that it had reached over a dozen. On that note, I think that I will just say good night!

Thursday's Transitions

For the last couple days I have been going on my walk the first thing in the morning. This morning I was out the door around 0600 and went for a two and two thirds mile walk. It felt pretty good and I was not as sore as I had been earlier in the week.

I was able to go for the early morning walk because I watered the roses and berries last evening. I though that by watering them after the sun went down it would give the plants a chance to get a drink before the water evaporated from the heat. I do not like to water the lawn especially in the evening as it encourages moss, but I figured that the roses and berry gardens are cultivated enough that that would not be a problem.

Anyway after I got back from my walk, I made myself a sunny side up egg and an egg beater omelet with some sweet onion, mushroom, yellow and red peppers, I put the omelet on a couple slices of dark rye sour dough bread and it was soooo good!

After I ate I emptied the dishwasher and loaded the dishes from breakfast into it. I also did the hand washing pots and pans from last night. Then I went into the living room and read the paper. Then I went outside and pruned the roses and straightened up the grape vines.

I had told the lady next door that I would mow her lawn for her this week, it has been so hot that I had not done it, but the weather is suppose to start cooling down. I used my "new" electric reel mower and she was really impressed with it. She thought that it was probably light enough for her to be able to use it.

The mail had come by this time so I went out and got it, but there really was nothing there worth keeping other than the visa bill. I had wanted to go to Costco this morning or early afternoon but Kathleen was moving a little slowly today and we did not get out of here until after 1500 this afternoon.

While I was waiting for her, I decided to make one of my fab food lunches which I described in an earlier post so I will not repeat it here. I also pulled some more of the ivy from along the driveway. Slowly but surely I am getting the ivy pulled out, I am probably a little more than half finished.

We finally got back from Costco about 1730 and I was really spent, walking on the hard concrete floors really does me in. For the two hours that we spent at Costco we only spent a little over $100, we got several things but nothing very expensive.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made a salad, in our new large bowls and added some of the left-over cooked new baby red potatoes, cooked carrots, the left-over salmon, and some other greens. Then for dessert we had a couple Madeleines cookies (petite French cookies) and a demitasse of espresso. Needless to say I am rather stuffed!

Well, I walked about nine miles today and my feet are letting me know it. They did not start hurting until after shopping at Costco, so I am sure that it was from the cement floors. So I guess that this is it for tonight, so good night.

Bob's Fab Food of the Month

I cannot keep up with Alyssa's "Fabulous Food Friday", so I thought that I do mine on a monthly basis.

For lunch today I made myself a special treat, some might even call it a delicacy.

I started out with two slices of Dark Rye Sourdough bread and liberally added Limburger cheese to each slice. On top of that I added a nice thick slice from a Walla Walla sweet onion and a can of sardines in hot sauce. I had a sixteen once glass of ice water, to assist in my daily H2O count.

Then for dessert I had some chilled mango/peach tofu with a demitasse of espresso.

It all kind of makes ones mouth water just reading about it, doesn't it?

Wednesday's Warm Weather

The first thing I did when I got downstairs this morning was to get the paper and turn the sprinkler on the lawn. With the weather predicted to be in the ninety's for the next couple days, I wanted the grass to get a dose of good old H₂O. A green lawn helps keep the house cooler and is nicer to walk on.

Then I made myself some shredded wheat with a banana and raisins. I had to make powered milk this morning as I did not get any skim milk at Winco the other day and I ran out of soy milk. I was planning on picking up a case at Costco today, but we never made it there today.

After eating I emptied the dishwasher and then went into the living room and read the paper and then the mail when it arrived. I have been in the process of trying to cut back on monthly expenses so that we do not need as much monthly income. Being on a fixed monthly income, I am trying to stretch it as far as possible and still live somewhat comfortably.

So yesterday I did an online request for some auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance quotes and I have gotten about six back so far. I have had State Farm for thirty some odd years and until now the premium amount has really not been much of an issue and I was not concerned whether or not it was the lowest around.

Much to my surprise every insurance company that I got quotes from were higher than what I am currently paying now with State Farm. Some of them were even quite a bit higher... like a hundred or more dollars.

I even talked with my insurance agent today and he was able to lower my premiums by $240 a year for our autos. So that really made my day. He is even trying to get it retroactive to last April, which is as far back as he could go because that is the renewal date. So if he is able to do that I will either get a refund or a $60 credit. Not bad!

This afternoon I had planned on going to Costco, but thought that we would stop at Goodwill, as Kathleen is trying to find demi-spoons for a project she is working on. So we drove out to the one in Gresham to look, we looked at our local Goodwill last week so she wanted to look somewhere else today. Well while we were there she found some bowls that she liked and a couple other things, but no spoons.

Then since we were out that way she wanted to stop at Cost Plus to try to find some Jamaican Jerk (???) of a recipe for fish taco's that she was making for dinner tonight. Again we could not find it, but she did find several other things. Do we see a pattern here?

By this time I was getting to the point where going to Costco was too much for me, I just cannot shop for that long and Costco is usually a challenge in itself. Besides Kathleen wanted to stop by the Barn to pick up some fresh corn and that would really make going to Costco hard on me. We did get the corn and several other things, so out of all our shopping today the only thing we got that we had planned on buying was four ears of corn.

Well, I am writing this before dinner, just because I have the time and it is nice and cool in my office, so sitting at the computer is a good thing. I think that Kathleen is still planning on the fish tacos for dinner tonight, it sounds good so I will have to remember to comment on it tomorrow. So for now I am going to sign off and say my good night a little early!

Tuesday's Treks

I went to sleep earlier than normal last night and slept longer than I had in quite a while. I watered the vegetables and herbs in the back yard and the hanging fuchsia basket on the front porch. Then I made myself an egg sunny side up and also an egg beater omelet sandwich with a veggie sausage patty.

Then I picked up the kitchen rugs, shook them out, swept the kitchen floor and then mopped it. Kathleen came downstairs while I was mopping the floor and she decided to put the rugs into the washer and also the downstairs bath room rugs.

I went into the living room with my coffee and read the paper and then the mail; there was not a lot there that was worth keeping so most of it went into the recycling bin. After a while I went out back and pulled some weeds and dug out some of the Italian prune tree that I cut down last spring.

Digging out the sucker has become a daily task, I am not sure how come there are so many this year; the only thing I can think of is that since the tree is gone the roots are sending up new starts. They are kind of annoying because unlike weeds they are stiff and hurt when one walks on them, so I have to dig down and get as much as the root as possible.

After I came in I put the rugs into the drier and then I had a peach and a nectarine for lunch and then changed my clothes as Kathleen wanted to go to Walgreens, to Eye Health Northwest to get her glasses put back together, and then to a couple other places. On the way home we stopped and got gas for her SUV, and again this time the price of gas was down again...I like that trend.

We did not get home until about 1745 and Kathleen after putting her things away started making dinner...salmon! I could have that every night of the week and not get tired of it.

While waiting for dinner to finish I got the rugs out of the drier and put them back down in there appropriate places. Dinner was really good, too bad that there was no more salmon than there was, it would have been nice to have leftovers for some other meal.

Well, it seems like we spent a lot of time shopping, we did not spend a lot of money, which is a good thing, that will probably happen tomorrow when we go to Costco. With that said, I think I will call it a day and say good night!

Mowing Monday

This morning was so much nicer than it was over the weekend although I really did not mind the weather we had this weekend it was kind of refreshing after hot weather we had there for a while. Anyway, I had shredded wheat with a banana and some blueberries on top.

I felt a little better than I had this weekend, so I took myself for a short, a mile and a half walk and when I got back I read the paper. When I finished the paper and recycled it, I decided to go out and try out my "new" used electric reel mower. So I mowed the front lawn and the back yard.

I had mowed the area by the raspberries Saturday night after I got it, but the battery was really low on it and I could not tell how well it would work or how long the battery would let me mow. To my surprise I wound up mowing the whole lawn and it still had a good amount of power left when I finally stopped.

I put the battery on the charger so that next time I mow it will have a full charge. I thought that the mower did a really good job, in fact while I was mowing the front lawn the mailman stopped me and said that he did not realize that it was a mower because it was so quiet. He was really impressed!

I put it through a pretty good test as I had the Honda mower set at the high limit and it was quiet a lot higher than this one so it had to cut a lot of grass and it did a really good job. I did have to go over some of the front lawn again, in the opposite direction, but I often do that anyway.

After finishing the lawn, putting the battery of the charger and then cleaning and oiling the lawnmower, I was ready to go inside, clean up and have something for lunch. It was almost 1400, so it was close to my normal lunch time anyway.

I made myself a salad and one of those new Veggie burgers that I got at Trader Joe's the other day. We needed to go to Winco, so I kept asking Kathleen if she was ready to go, and finally around 1500 she came downstairs and then we took off for the store.

After shopping for a couple hours we finally got back about 1740 and then I helped Kathleen put the groceries away.

For dinner Kathleen heated up a couple artichokes and some fresh green beans and sliced up a mango. I added a Boca burger to complete my meal, Kathleen does not like them; she is more of a meat and potatoes kind of person, and I think I could almost become a vegetarian without too much of a problem.

Well, that pretty much was our day, I think I will call it a day and say good night.

Stalled Sunday

I felt pretty good when I got up this morning and so I started getting ready for church this morning, but unfortunately it did not last too long. Shortly after I finished my shower and ate breakfast, I decided that it might be a good decision to stay home. Some mornings are just like that.

Usually I start to do better around 0930 or 1000, but today it was not until 1030 or 1100, and unfortunately some mornings are like that as well. I did manage to get three loads of laundry done, Kathleen got to the drier before I did on the last load, but I managed to get the towels, and both light and dark clothes done. So once again we have clean clothes to wear. Although for me I was not even close to running out of clothes.

I primarily wear tee shirts, of which I have plenty, and shorts, of which I also have more than enough. I usually only wear socks when I am going someplace or when I go for my walks, so I sometimes only go through four or five pair of socks a week.

Anyway, I did not get much done today, other than the laundry and I did a load of dishes. Oh and I did clean and oil my "new" used lawn mower. I noticed that it squeaked a little when I tried it out yesterday, so I thought that a little cleaning and oil would not hurt.

I put the battery on the charger last night; I think that it probably needs a full twenty-four hour charge as I do not think that it had been used in a couple years. It will be interesting to see how long it runs on a full charge. As long as I can mow my lawn on one charge, I will be happy.

I did check into what the cost of a new battery was and they are just a little under $100. So even if I had to buy a new battery, I still got a really great deal on the mower.

And I guess I did prune the roses today as well, but that is about all I did outside. I just did not feel comfortable going too far from the house today, so I stayed inside most of the day. It was not that hard as it was overcast most of the day. I wonder how it was at Bar View where the children and families are.

Well, I am writing this early today, just because I have not done a lot and had some free time. I think Kathleen is going to have the rest of the left-over potato/chicken salad for dinner tonight. So I guess that there really is not much else to write about, so I am just going to say good night!

Saturday's Shopping

When I woke up this morning, it looked just like a day at the Oregon coast... drizzly and overcast. I had kind of planned on watering the roses and berries this morning, but it was so overcast and drizzly that I did not need to. Tomorrow is supposed to be kind of the same kind of weather, so I think that I can hold off until Monday to water.

Kathleen got up early this morning and came downstairs just about the time I was going to make myself my Saturday egg omelet, but she wanted to make pancakes, so that is what we had. She made blueberry pancakes and I was surprised that I got as full as I did on only a couple medium sized pancakes.

This week on several occasions I have been dive bombed by several of our neighborhood hummingbirds especially when I got too close to our hardy fuchsias. Then the other day when I went out to the back yard there must have been thirty birds fly away, from the grapes, berries and apple tree.

Then this morning I was looking out the kitchen window, as I though that the street looked wet, and I wanted to see if it was raining out or if it just looked like it was. Out of the corner of my vision I saw something moving and when I looked it that direction I was surprised to see a red-tailed hawk trying to grab a hold of a squirrel.

I had seen them circling above, but I had never seen them actually swoop down and try to grab anything before. I am beginning to think that I may have too much of a bird sanctuary here. I try to have a lot of plants and things that attract birds and butterflies to the yard, but this week has been a little ridiculous.

Kathleen had not been feeling very well all morning, so she lay down on the sofa and soon fell asleep. I read the paper and then got the mail when it arrived. After I finished reading the paper and looking at the mail, I decided that I would go for a walk and leave the house nice and quiet for Kathleen.

I wound up taking about a three mile walk. My hip had been hurting me for the last couple of days and it started acting up on me again about half way through my walk. I could have taken a short way home, but I decided that I would just keep walking, it never did get any worse, but it did not get any better either.

As I was looking on line at Craigslist, I came across a couple Brill electric reel lawn mowers for sale. I had secretly wanted to order a new one for several months, ever since I first saw one on line, but since they cost over $300 new, I have been putting it off until maybe next spring.

One was listed for $250 and when I e-mailed the individual who was selling it, he did not answer the questions that I asked but rather tried to tell me that he had answered it in the ad. I found another one that was a few days old, and I kind of thought that it would have been sold, but I e-mailed him anyway.

This one was only $75, and that is another reason that I thought that it would probably be sold. To my surprise he answered me right back and answered the questions that I had asked. So that is the one I bought.

While we were over in the Beaverton area, Kathleen wanted to stop at Trader Joe's, so we did and bought a few things that we like from there. We also found out that they stopped carrying several things that we liked...too bad!

Anyway we finally got back a little after 1800 and it has been a long day for me. Kathleen made a potato salad for dinner tonight. She added the left-over chicken from last night to complete the meal and it was really good.

I think it would have been good even if I had not been so hungry. Well, that was our day, I think that I will just say good night and call it a day.

Fatigueing Friday

I slept pretty well last night and felt pretty rested when I got up, but when I got up I realized how sore I was. Not only was my back sore, it usually is a little sore but it was really sore this morning. I went downstairs and watered the roses and vegetables and then went inside and put on my walking shoes.

Then I started out on my walk. When I started I did not have any idea how far I would go it was mostly dependent upon how I felt as I got into my walk. It did not take too long to discover that my leg muscles were also pretty sore, so I decided early on that it would not be a marathon walk.

Yesterday my total miles from my pedometer was 13+ miles, right now at 1930 I only have 5.59 miles, so I am about a third of where I was yesterday. Yesterday I not only took two walks but I mowed the lawn and did a lot of walking type activities.

After getting back from my walk I made myself some shredded wheat with a banana, some blueberries and raspberries. After eating I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up. Then I went into the living room and read the paper. The mail came just as I was finishing the paper, so I got it and opened it up.

Unfortunately there was too much junk mail, so I recycled it along with the paper and then went outside and pruned the roses. The roses are not in as full bloom as they have been; they are kind of in between bloomings, so it is not the task that it was a couple weeks ago.

After I finished the roses, I also did a little weeding, blackberry bushes, morning glory and other weeds that keep popping up in the rose garden.

Then I got my electric hedge shears and trimmed the hedge on the east front of the house. It was not as bad as I thought it was once I got to trimming it, but it still needed a trim. After putting the trimmer away, I transplanted a couple small privets to go along the east side of the house.

There is no fence there so I am trying to make my own. I have arborvitaes there as well and they do a good job of blocking out some of the east wind in the winter time.

Then I went inside and made myself a salad and reheated up the left-over Hungry Man TV dinner from last night. Those things have too much food in them for one meal, but I can remember the days when I could eat one and want more, thankfully those days are long gone.


After I finished eating, I emptied the dishwasher and then went into the living room and sat down to rest for a while. Aaron came by for a while, he is kind of batching it this weekend as most of our children and their families are camping out at Bar View Campgrounds this week end.

Aaron is working so he could not go and Kathleen and I are both not feeling too well. Kathleen with her shingles and me the side effects of my radiation treatment are still bothering me.

For some reason I just did not have the energy that I had yesterday, so I did not get much of anything else done this afternoon. For dinner Kathleen made some chicken and fried the left-over rice from two nights ago and cooked an artichoke. I had to put some of my chicken back and I only had a few pieces to begin with.

When I checked my blood pressure this afternoon it was 100/63; which is a little lower than it has been. It has been averaging something like 110/73. While I am glad to see it low that could also be a reason why I am not having the energy that I once had. Of course I do not want to go back to the days when it was 145/105 either, but a happy medium somewhere would be nice.

Well, this is all that I can think about from today, so I am just going to say good night!

Thursday's Tasks

This morning about 0400 the alarm went off for my Wrangler, so I got up and used the remote to turn it off. Then about forty-five minutes later it went off again, so I got up again, shut it off and then turned the alarm off. I tried to go back to sleep, but there is just something about being awakened by an alarm that makes it a little hard to get back to sleep.

So I finally got up about 0530 since I could not get back to sleep. I went outside, got the paper, watered the fuchsia and then went to the back yard to water the vegetables, and herbs and then filled the bird bath. Since I was up and it was cool out, I decided to take myself for a walk.

I only walked about a mile and a half, given my morning problems; I really did not feel too comfortable going any further. So when I got home, I made myself an egg sandwich with a veggie sausage on a toasted English muffin. Not too bad!

After putting my breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and washing the frying pan, I brushed my tooth and decided to take another walk. This time I went for a longer walk, in fact I walked almost five miles between my two walks.

When I got home, I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down and read the paper and then the mail. When I got done I noticed the power company truck pause in front of our house, he did not stop, so I went outside after a while and saw that he was a couple houses down the road.

Being a little anxious about getting our house power sealed I walked to where the truck was and asked the fellow if he was here to check and seal the work done, at first he said no and then he checked his schedule and saw our address.

So he said, well I guess that I am, so he turned around and I went into the house to turn off my computer and then upstairs to turn off Kathleen's, but she was on it. She wanted to try out her auxiliary power supply so she left hers on.

Within about a half hour he was all done and our house is now legal once again. Then I went into the house and finished up my coffee. Once that was done, I went outside and edged the rose garden and the square rose garden. Then I went into the house and took a quick rest.

I had planned on mowing the lawn tomorrow, but it was nice and overcast this morning so I decided that I would mow it today while it was still nice and cool. So I mowed our front lawn, my neighbor's front and side lawn, and the driveway strip that goes along the west side of our property.

When I finished, I went into the house and got myself a nice big glass of water and a couple deep breaths, then I went back outside and set up my shredder/chipper and went to work on my pile of branches. I got thirty gallons of chips from the stacks of branches lying around and a thirty gallon garbage can filled with fir cones and walnut shells.

When I got done with the chips, I spread them out along the paths in the rose garden. By the time I finished, put everything away and cleaned up I noticed that it was 1645, so I had been working outside from about 1000.

I had not worked all that time, but a good portion of it. I surprisingly enough do not feel too bad having worked that long. My back is letting me know that I moved around a lot today, but it does not hurt much more than it normally does. I am really tired, but probably no more tired than I have been for the last week or two about this time.

Kathleen dug a couple Hungry Man TV dinners out of the freezer downstairs for dinner tonight. I have been after her to check and see what things we have down there that we can use and what things need to be thrown away.

I think she said that she threw away two or three things of meat that had been in there too long. I would rather throw it out so that we can use the space for things that we need to put in there and not have it full of things that we will never use.

Well, that pretty much covers my day; I hope that everyone had a good day and a good night.

Wednesday's Work

I think that I am now in a routine with my awakening time. After breakfast I read the paper and then went outside for a while to work in the yard. I could not stay out there very long as Kathleen had a doctor's appointment with her urologist to review her latest test results.

So about 1030, I went into the house, cleaned up and changed clothes then I went downstairs and waited for Kathleen to come downstairs. We got there in plenty of time and only waited in the waiting room about ten minutes.

Kathleen had to give a sample so I waited in the exam room and as I was waiting Dr Winchester walked by and said, "what are you doing here?", to me. I think that we waited in the exam room a lot longer and just as the doctor was going to see her he had to do a "procedure" on someone. So his assistant came in and explained what the test results showed.

As we were making her appointment, for the same day, right after mine, for next January Dr Winchester came down the hall and reviewed what his assistant had told us. I enjoy his joking manner, he always tries to make everyone feel comfortable and I think he also does a good job of trying to make medical terminology easy to understand and in everyday language.

When we got home, I changed clothes and went outside to do some work that I did not have time to do before Kathleen's doctor's appointment. Our new neighbor mentioned to me the other day that she wanted the branches that overhang her front porch trimmed back so that they did not drop too many things into the gutters.

So I trimmed them for her and then cut up the branches into small enough pieces to fit into the recycling barrel. She is gone this week so I thought that I would do it for her before she got back.

Then I mixed up four gallons of weed-be-gone and sprayed my lawn, the parking strip in front of the house, and along the driveway to the house just west of us that goes all along our west side.

By the time I finished that, I was getting pretty hungry, so I went inside, washed up and then made myself a Limburger cheese and sweet onion sandwich. I also heated up the little bit of chili and rice that was left over from last night.

After putting the dishes in the dishwasher, I went into the living room and read a magazine that came today and a free paper that I picked up at the hospital today. Kathleen was watching the television, and when I finished reading I fell asleep. I slept until after 1800, I must have worked too hard today.

Although I think that anymore too much work for me could just be breathing. I absolutely have no energy or reserve, and the slightest thing that I do wears me out, just as if I had really done something. Kathleen made some ravioli for dinner tonight, one of my favorite foods...but then again almost any food is one of my favorites!

Well, I am still tired, so I think that I am just going to wish every one a good night and call it a day.

Tired Tuesday

The sun was out this morning when I awoke, so you guessed it, I got up early. When I got downstairs I emptied the dishwasher and then I made myself a couple sunny side up eggs, a veggie sausage and some toast for breakfast. After eating breakfast and cleaning up my mess, I went into the living room and read the paper. Tuesday’s paper is a pretty light read, so it did not take very long to read it.

I started to go outside, but I saw the mailman across the street so I waited for the mail, again, not much there. So I went outside and worked on the edging in the front yard as I was expecting the city inspector to give his approval on the electric work that I had done last week.

I got my whole yard done and the neighbors side next to us on the east side and then the inspector arrived. He spent a couple minutes looking at it and then put his tag of approval on it. Now I just need the power company to come out and put their permanent seal on it.

After putting my tools away I went inside and cleaned up. It was so nice out that I decided to go outside again this time I took my scythe out and went to the field next door and whacked away at the weeds. I got all of the east side done and about a quarter of the south side.

After that I took my weed whacker and did the fence line of the house next door, our neighbor is gone for a few days, so I though that I would take advantage of it and do a little weed control.

When I finished that I put my tools away and also noticed that Andrea's Land Rover was in the driveway so I went inside and cleaned up and visited with her for a while. After a bit, I made myself a Limburger cheese and sweet onion sandwich and then went into the living room where Kathleen and Andrea were.

Andrea was going to make some spinach pie for Toni tonight and invited us over, but I was tired and sore form working outside all day. As it turned out it was a good thing that we did not go...more on that later.

After Andrea and Brandon left I asked Kathleen if she had any plans for dinner and she suggested chili and rice. That sounded good to me so I said sure. Kathleen started having a pain in her head and recognized it as the start of shingles. She called the doctor's office and got an appointment for 1830.

So just after finishing eating, cleaned up the kitchen, cleaning up myself and changing clothes it was time to leave for the doctor's. Shingles in the early stage is hard to diagnosis so the doctor relied on Kathleen's past experience with it and how she felt at that time. He prescribed a couple things for her to take, so that meant a trip to Fred Meyer and a wait for it to be filled.

Well, that pretty much brings us to right now, I was tired before dinner and I am really tired now, so with out any further verbiage I am just going to say, good night!

Missed Monday

I did not get up this morning until after 0700, and again this morning it was darker than it usually is this time of year. In fact it was pretty much overcast all day. So I guess that my getting up does have a lot to do with just how light it is outside.

Anyway we were having a replacement window sales person come by this morning at 1000 to review our window situation, give us his sales pitch, measure our windows and write up a quote. So after I ate breakfast, I read the paper and then vacuumed the downstairs floors, both the carpeting and also the kitchen floor. My new vacuum really does a nice job of the carpets, of course, but also on the non-carpeted floors as well.

I also gathered up the trash from around the house and put it into the bag to go out to the can for tomorrow’s pick-up. The mail came, but there was not a lot of anything there, so I added to the paper recycling.

The salesman arrived right on time and by the time it was all done it was almost 1500, that's right five hours. It was not a high pressure sales pitch, but rather a lot of information and story telling. We also do have a lot of windows in our hours, probably more than twice as many as the average house so that part alone took well over an hour.

By the time he left I was rather hungry, so I heated up the left-over barley and ground turkey dish from the other night. After that I loaded up the dishwasher, there was just enough space left for dinner dishes, so I did not turn it on yet.

I then went into the living room and sat down and took a nap for about an hour and a half. I seem to do a lot of sleeping in that chair. Anyway, I called up to Kathleen and asked her if she was planning to do dinner tonight. She was trying to stay awake at her computer, so it took her a while to come downstairs.

She had planned on making some rice earlier, but forgot to do it so she asked me about noodles; I like noodles, so it was no sacrifice for me to have the noodles instead of the rice. She put the left-over stir fry on top of the noodles, and it was a pretty good meal. She had some sliced up tomatoes and cranberry sauce on the side which helped round out the meal.

After dinner, I finished loading up the dishwasher and turned it on. Well, I did not get a thing done today, but I feel like I worked all day. I think that I covered all the "exciting" things today, so I will just wish everyone a good night!

Sticky Sunday

I was not feeling very well when I went to bed last night, so I stayed up and watched a Hallmark movie until I was so tired that I could not stay awake. I did not think that I would be going to church this morning because I have been having bad morning for the last several days. I was right!

I did manage to sleep in until after 0700 this morning though. I went downstairs and logged onto my computer for a couple reasons, one it is close to the bathroom and two, I got my morning computer stuff done now instead of later.

Kathleen came downstairs about 0845 and cut up some cherries, nectarines and apricots and then toasted some banana bread and put some blueberries and raspberries on some cottage cheese and that was our breakfast.

After putting the dishes into the dishwasher, I went into the living room and read the paper and comics. When I got done I took my morning shower, but it was hard drying off as it was so humid out.

Since I did not get the screens put into the upstairs windows yesterday, I got the ladder out and climbed up and helped Kathleen on the inside and me on the outside put them back in. Then I put some of our container vegetables and herbs into larger containers and watered them.

We were supposed to get a lot of rain today, but instead we just got a lot of humidity. The rain just missed us to the north, but the north Oregon coast got about an inch of rain.

After doing that I pulled some weeds and ate some berries, but I was perspiring so much that I though that I would go inside and cool off. After a while I reheated some barley and ground turkey from the other night along with some refried beans with lime and added green chili sauce and hot salsa to the whole mess. It sounds bad, but was really pretty good.

Then I went into the living room and promptly fell asleep for a couple hours. Shortly after I woke up Kathleen came downstairs and started diner. She made some stir fried with flank steak and lots of vegetables. She even added some hot pepper to spice it up a little; it really had a good flavor.

She used the new frying skillet that we got yesterday, it was the same as the one we took back except that it was not flaking and it was not warped. Well, I think that I will have to make it an early night tonight to make up for staying up late last night. Since I had a pretty inactive day there is not much to write home about, so I will just say good night and call it a day.

Sticky Saturday

It must have rained a little last night because when I woke up, I had a hard time breathing, and it was like trying to breathe underwater...a slight exaggeration, but close. Anyway I wound up getting up a little earlier than I would have liked to but I just could not get back to sleep, so it was better that I got up.

Kathleen had three or four egg whites in the refrigerator, so I used them and made one of my omelets. I toasted some dark rye and once I made the omelet sandwich, I had about the same amount left over that I had it on the side. I also heated up a Morningstar soy sausage patty to go along with the omelet.

Kathleen also had a very small amount of salmon left over which I put on the toast before I put the omelet on, so in a way I had a salmon omelet. It really had a good flavor, I will have to remember to leave a little salmon for another omelet next time we have salmon.

After eating, I emptied the dishwasher and washed some of the hand washing items I then put in the dishes from breakfast. Then I poured myself a cup of coffee and then went into the living room to read the paper. Saturday is not usually a high news day, and today was not exception.


After I read the paper, I went out and got the mail, not much of a mail day either. With the mail taken care of I went outside and worked on the roses for a little while, they had not been taken care of for a coupe of days because of the rain. The grass was still pretty wet, but the front lawn needed mowing, so I mowed it anyways.

I was a little surprise that the grass did not clump up any more than it did, which was pretty minimal. The back yard had not grown as much, for a couple reasons. A couple weeks ago when I fertilized, I only did the front yard, and during the hot dry spell, I only watered the front lawn. The back yard, for the most part is in the shade, from the cherry trees, the mountain ash and the apple tree.

Because it had been so dry, there are some spots that have turned brown, but because of the trees it is really hard to use the automatic sprinkler, so it just does not get the watering that it should.

After putting the mower away and cleaning up, I made myself a Limburger cheese and sweet onion sandwich, yum, yum! We had a couple of our upstairs screens re-screened at the hardware store, and they called the other day and said that they were ready to pick up, so I went upstairs to see if Kathleen was ready to go, she kind of was.

We finally got out of here about 1430. We also had a large frying pan that the non-stick surface was coming off so we took that back to La Gourmet Chef and exchanged it for a new one. Since it retails for about $235.00, we did not pay anyways near that much for it, we did not think that the coating should be flaking off the way it was.

After we got that all done, Kathleen wanted to look at a few more things, I was getting pretty worn out, so I told her that I could not hold up much longer, so after one more stop we took off for home, or so I thought.

Kathleen did not feel much like cooking so she stopped at Burger King. We waited on line for about ten minutes, there were about eight people ahead of us and we never did see anyone at there to take our orders. Finally Kathleen asked and she was told that they had to fill the existing orders before they could take anymore.

It made a little sense, but I figured that if we had to wait this long and still not be waited on even after we got waited on we would have a long wait ahead of us, so we left. We stopped off at Burgerville and ordered one burger and an order of Walla Walla onion rings and a couple Black Forrest Shakes...excellent!

We did not have to wait to give our order and the order was delivered to our table in about five minutes. The hamburgers were so much better and the shake was to die for! I think that both of us had enough to eat and even left with over half of our shake.

I have not been feeling very well for the last few days, and maybe that is one of the reasons that I am not sleeping well either. Right now my stomach really aches, not ones normal stomach ache, but more my gut, or probably more specific my intestines. I have been overly gassy as well, which means that I need to stay close to the toilet. Oh the joys of the side effects from the radiation!

Well, I have rambled on long enough, so good night!

Finishing Friday

Well, this morning was anything but a normal morning. After getting up, I got on my computer so that I could check my e-mail before the electrician got here and turned the power off. After finishing that, I made my self a bowl of shredded wheat with the last banana, and I use that term very loosely. The banana probably should have been thrown out, but I hate to throw away food.

Anyway I got the cereal about two-thirds eaten when the electrician got here, so I stopped eating and went to the door. Before I knew it I was helping him do some of the work, just so that it would be easier and get done faster...saved myself some money in the process.

Needless to say, my cereal got left uneaten, needless the shredded wheat had absorbed what little milk that was left in the bowl, but about three hours later, I sat down and finished the shredded wheat. Kathleen just laughed at me!

Kathleen finishes up her urine collection today and we need to take it to the hospital lab to be tested tonight around 1700. So this will be a short note tonight. About 1600 I reminded Kathleen that Andrea had invited us to dinner tonight, so we will be going over there after we drop her bottle off at the hospital.

About 1415 I made myself a Boca burger for lunch with some cheddar, an sweet onion slice then I toasted it and some dill pickle slices when it was done.

I was hoping to hear back from the electrical company as to when the city electrical inspector would be getting here, but it is 1630 now and I have not heard back from him yet.

The electrician was here for about two and a half hours and it probably would have been at least an hour longer if I had not done as much of the work as I did. A lot of it was just easier having two people doing something than doing it with just one person.

Well, I told you that this was going to be a quick one...it is now about 1645 and I need to send this off and get ready to go to the hospital and then on to Andrea and John's. So good night for tonight!

This Thursday Times

I was so worn out last night that I fell asleep in my chair somewhere around 2000 and did not wake up until about 2230. At that time I was so groggy that I just about did not make it upstairs. Once I managed to make the climb, I had all I could do to just brush and floss my teeth and then fall into bed. So I was not overly surprised when I woke up at 0515 and could not get back to sleep.

So after trying for about a half hour, I finally got up around 0545, went outside, got the paper and watered the fuchsia and then made myself a bowl of Chex cereal with a banana for breakfast. Before I added the milk to the cereal, I emptied the dishwasher and then did the pans from last nights dinner.

Now I could add the milk and sit down and enjoy my cereal. The bananas are past the point that I could eat them just plain, and almost to the point where I could even eat them in cereal, but I managed to get it down with the help of the raisins that I added to the cereal to kind of mask the mushiness of the banana.

Anyway, after breakfast, I put my dishes into the dishwasher and went in and read the paper. Thursday's paper is usually the second largest of the week with only Sunday's paper being larger, so it took a little while to get through it.

After I finished the paper I went outside to prune the spent roses, there is something about two days of rain that does not bode well with rose flowers. After dumping the rose prunings into the yard debris can, I decided to go to work on the ivy since the pick up for yard debris is tomorrow and I only had the can half full. I hate to not fill the can on yard debris day because I have so much yard debris, it is usually just a matter of my getting it into the can.

Amway, I started doing the roses about 0930 and finished up about 1130, so I was pretty dirty and sweaty. So after taking the can up front, I went into the house and cleaned up. My hair looked much better after it was shampooed. There is just something not appealing about sweaty matted hair.

My hair can go three or four days without being shampooed if I do not do anything, but whenever I do something it gets really ugly fast. If I had the energy I would have to shampoo it two times a day, but luckily, I do not have that kind of energy anymore.

So after drying off, I made my self kind of a snack/lunch consisting of an open faced cheese sandwich, a little cottage cheese and a dill pickle. Then I went upstairs to change clothes and get ready for out financial advisors appointment at 1330.

Kathleen had not gotten dressed yet, so after I got dressed I went downstairs and waited for here to make her way downstairs. I was hoping to leave the house at 1230, just to make sure we had plenty of time to get there, but we did not get out of here until 1245.

Kathleen drove, as she knows that side of town better than I do and she thought that our appointment was at 1300, so she was racing over there and it was not until we were a couple miles away that I reminded her that our appointment was at 1330. So instead of getting there fifteen minutes late we were actually fifteen minutes early...kind of a refreshing change.

Anyway, our report was good, and they felt that with our new reduced budget our finances should last us okay. Last month they were a little concerned about in not lasting long enough, but with the market doing so well and our cutting back spending wise, we have a much better forecast.

We left there about 1530 and it was almost 1700 by the time we got back home. Traffic was really bad in a couple spots, but most of the way was kind of what one would expect.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made a salmon spread with the left-over salmon from last night and we had it on pita bread with some mango cut up on the side. Our new neighbor gave us some baklava, a Greek sweet pastry, which we had for dessert, yum, yum!

Well, Kathleen is off to a baby shower and I am out of things to say except until tomorrow, have a good night!

Wednesday with Winchester

Another wet morning, I am not complaining, which in itself is a little surprising because I usually like the weather warn and dry. Unfortunately it has been too dry here for the past several months.

Anyway, this morning was pretty much a normal morning, except we left for Doctor Winchester's office about 0945 for my 1000 appointment. Kathleen had to do down to the lab to get the stuff she needed to check on her kidney stones, to make sure that they were gone and to test to see what could be done to avoid them in the future.

I only waited in the waiting room when they called for me to draw some blood. I was expecting that they would just draw the blood and then send me back to the waiting room to wait for the doctor. Was I ever surprised when they told me to just wait there and the doctor would see me in a few minutes.

Doctor Winchester came in about ten minutes later and asked how I was feeling, so we talked about that for a couple minutes and then the nurse brought in my PSA results. He said that it was down to .24 which was down from .28 about three months ago, so that was good. At least it was headed in the downward direction and not going up again, which is good.

He wants to see me again in six months, so that is good, because it had been every three months. I just hope that in the next six months my PSA continues to drop.

We did a little shopping afterward and got home about 1400, so I made myself a salad for lunch. Since we left before the mail came, I opened the mail and looked at it while I ate. After lunch, I decided that since it has rained off and on for the last two days, I would take advantage of it loosening up the dirt on Kathleen's SUV.

I like to try and wash our vehicles while it is drizzling because the rain helps loosen the dirt and road grim so that I do not have to work so hard. I cannot remember when I last washed her car, but it had started to have a green slim form on the top and in the window scrubbers.

It took two washings to get it somewhat clean. The first washing was to knock out the heavy grim and than another one to get the grim residue off and actually down to paint. It looks much better than it has in at least a year.

Last year at this time I was trying to recover from my surgery and then Kathleen broke her arm and I spent what little energy I had taking her to physical therapy a couple times a week.

Then when she finished that, about a month later I started my radiation and I was not good for much of anything for three or four months. It has been pretty dry since the time I stopped going to radiation and this was the first time that I felt half-way decent in months.

By the time I finished washing her car and got cleaned up Kathleen was starting dinner, so there goes another day. For dinner Kathleen made something called Boo-sotto, it is a barley and ground turkey mixture with sautéed onions and chicken broth. It was really good.

Well, that was my day, have a good night!

Tuesday's Trickle

I slept in this morning, and as I got up I realized that it was drizzling out and the sky was overcast so that the sun was not shining in the sky light. So I guess that the amount of light in the room really does have a lot to do with when I wake up.

When I got downstairs I got the paper in and moved the hanging fuchsia basked down so that it could take advantage of the rain. For breakfast I made an omelet with yellow and red bell pepper, sweet onion and mushrooms. I used a bunch of the egg whites that Kathleen had from something that just needed the yokes for.

It made a nice sandwich and I had some left over to just eat as an omelet. After cleaning up my breakfast mess, I put away some of the hand wash dishes and wiped down the stove. Then I went into the living room to read the paper.

The mail had not come lately, so I went outside and worked under the mountain ash and pruned off some of the low hanging branches. I try to have it so that I can walk upright underneath the trees without having to duck down. If I do it when it is raining the branches hang a little lower than normal so I am sure that I am cutting them at a good height.

After I finished I went inside and cleaned up. Kathleen was eating breakfast, and since it had been about three hours since I ate, I decided that I would have a piece of raspberry cake with whipped cream on top.

I talked to Kathleen about needing to go grocery shopping today as the rest of the week we have other things to do. The mail came as I was snacking so I went out and got it, again not much there, which I guess could be a good thing.

Kathleen was finally ready to go grocery shopping around 1330, most of what we got while shopping were produce items...probably over half of the cart was fruit or vegetables. We finally got home about 1530 and put the groceries away.

Since I had not had lunch, I made myself a Limburger cheese and onion sandwich on dark rye. Kathleen had to leave the room; she just does not like the smell of the Limburger.

Kathleen had to run out again to pick up some baby dill at the Barn, our local produce stand. It is kind of strange, this is kind of a suburban area yet there are three or four pretty good size farms within a two or three mile radius of our house. Anyway Kathleen needed the dill for the recipe that she was using for tonight’s dinner.

It was sweet lemon salmon with mini carrots and dill, it turned out pretty good. While she was at the Barn she also picked up some fresh corn on the cob. So after we finished eating I did the hand washing and loaded up the dishwasher and Kathleen started it up. I still have the pots and pans soaking in the sinks so I will need to finish washing them after they have had a chance to allow the soap and water to loosen up the cooked on stuff.

Well, I think that is about all I can think of for today. Tomorrow I have my appointment with my surgeon, it was suppose to have been today, but they called and rescheduled it as the doctor was out of town today. Well, I guess I will cal lit a day and I will be sure to blog about my test results tomorrow. Until then, have a good night!

A Much Milder Monday

I got up early this morning with the intention of watering the newly planted plants, but when I got down stairs and outside I saw that the ground was still nice and moist from yesterdays watering.

So I went into the house and had some Chex and a banana for breakfast. After eating I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up, and then I went into the living room and read the paper. As soon as I finished the paper I had to get cleaned up, change clothes and head off to the doctor's office to have some blood drawn to check my potassium level, as it was low when I had my physical in June.

On the way I stopped at the credit union to deposit some money and then to the doctor's office. I waited in the waiting room for about twenty minutes and it only took about five minutes to draw the blood.

After I finished at the doctor's I stopped at the library to pick up a book for Kathleen that she had on reserve. While I was there I looked around, but did not find anything that I wanted to read right now.

By the time I got home the mail had arrived, so I brought it in and then went upstairs to change clothes. Then I went back downstairs and opened the mail, Kathleen got a few things, but most of what I got went into the junk mail bag. I did get one bill, so I went on line and paid it.

I had not had my mid morning snack yet so I took a half of a pita, stuffed it with some refried beans with green chili and lime and then put on some hot salsa and green taco sauce on top. It was kind of a multi-cultural meal, Greek and maybe American.

After I ate that I went outside and worked in the rose garden a little bit. I pruned the spent roses and then fertilized them. Kathleen came out and said that she had made some tuna salad and wanted to know if I want some for lunch. So I finished up, went inside and cleaned up and then made a couple open-faced sandwiches on dark rye with a dill pickle on the side. Just like a New York deli.

After I finished eating I did a little reading and then dozed in my chair for a while. I did not get a lot else done this afternoon, I think that I was just tired. I had thought about going for a walk, but I was expecting a call...that never took place.

Kathleen took a couple of the left-over salads from the last couple days and mixed them together, a different taste, but good just the same. After we finished eating I emptied the dishwasher and then loaded it up with the dishes from lunch and dinner.

Today was the mildest day that we have had for a couple weeks, I think the high just barely made it into the eighties, and they are saying that it is probably going to be the warmest day of the week. This is more my kind of weather!

That just about completes my day, not too exciting, but that is how most of my days are. Well before I put everyone to sleep, I will just say, "good night."

Sultry Sunday

Another early get up, I wanted to water the plants that I had just planted yesterday. So once I gave them a quick drink, I went into the house, cleaned up and had breakfast, did a load of towels and then got ready for church. We were not having S.S. today as many families were at the annual church camp out.

After church this morning there was a fellowship time, not as many people stayed for this as where in church, but I guess many people looked at this as a time to have more free time. I thought that it was a good time to see people that we do not often get a chance to talk to.

We stayed for about forty-five minutes and then headed home. After getting home I changed my clothes and then separated the laundry and took it downstairs. I took the towels out of the washer and put them into the dryer and the dark clothes into the washer.

While they were running, I went into the living room to read the comics and the ads. About the time I finished the comics and ads, the dryer went off, so I took the towels out and put the dark clothes into the dryer. Then I loaded the light clothes into the washer and went and folded and put away the towels.

I then went back and finished reading the paper, and before I knew it the dark clothes were dry, so I unloaded them and took them upstairs to fold and put away. By the time I got back downstairs the light clothes were done washing so I loaded them into the dryer. While they were drying I made reheated the spaghetti from last night and had lunch.

After finishing lunch, I loaded the dishes into the dishwasher and then took the light clothes out of the dryer, took them upstairs, folded and put them away. By this time I was really ready to go outside and get my hands dirty.

I pulled some weeds in the rose garden, trimmed the dead rose blooms and other pruning to the rose bushes. I got about twelve gallons of rose bush clippings when I finally finished. By this time I was pretty sweaty and my hands were pretty bloody.

I have a pair of welding gloves that are especially good for working around the roses as they are made of goat hide and rather impermeable to the rose thorns, but do I ever wear them...NO! I usually wear them in the fall or early spring, but I am usually too hot to wear them most of the time, I guess I will have to put away comfort and do the practical thing once in a while.

After cleaning up, I went into the living room and sat in my chair and promptly fell asleep. I woke up just before Kathleen called me for dinner, she made a Greek salad, it was pretty good, although it had more pita bread and less green in it than I would have liked. She was following a recipe and she said next time she will use some lettuce and other things and less pita.

For dessert she made a raspberry cake with freshly picked raspberries, yum, yum! Well, I guess this is all for today, it sure was muggy out. It was not nearly as hot as it had been earlier in the week; in fact it just made it to the low eighties... the coolest day of the week.

They are even saying it might rain later on in the week, I will believe that when I see it. Time to say good night.