Maybe Tomorrow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Almost a Wasted Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well I Did It!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow What Wonderful Weekend Weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Story of an Old Country Church

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a Difference Ten Degrees Makes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things are a Changing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ugh, Another Yucky Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Strange Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More April Showers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Wild and Wacky Weather Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Goes the Best Laid Plans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Found a New Walking Partner Ulysses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INGREDIENTS:

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

PREPARATION:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spring Returns Again Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wild & Wacky Weekend Weather

This weekend's weather was really wacky; it covered the spectrum from sunny and calm, rainy and windy, windy and hail, snow, thunder & lightning and almost every other combination that one could think of. The temperatures were also really unseasonably cool; I think that the temperatures only got unto the low fifties at the highest.

Needless to say I did not get a lot done although I did manage to work out in the yard a little bit Saturday in between storms. I mostly did some light weeding as the soil is nice and loose and the weeds come out rather easily.

I managed to wash, dry, fold and put away a load of laundry and a load of dishes. The dishes I only loaded into the washer, took them out when they were done and put them away...I did not fold them!

Sunday I managed to get up and go to church; taking all that Tylenol is at least allowing me to wake up in the morning without a lot of pain and that makes it easier to want to go. I was pretty sore afterwards from sitting so long, but after I got home I took some more Tylenol and was able to function...somewhat.

Kathleen did some sanding with my random orbital sander and I think the sawdust messed up my head as I was coughing most of the afternoon and evening. I still am coughing from the drainage but it is not quite as bad as it was yesterday.

Today I spent the morning killing ants and then dumping everything out of our knife and odd utensils draw. I then washed the four trays and the draw itself as I could not remember the last time it had gotten a good cleaning. Once I had the trays and draw cleaned and dried I started to put everything back into the draw again.

This afternoon I spent some time whacking away at the hedge on the east side of the front lawn. It had gotten higher than I wanted it to be and it was hard for me to keep it trimmed. I got about half of it cut and raked up and I hope to finish it tomorrow.

I also thought about mowing the lawn, but the grass did not really dry out early enough. If the weather were going to be like it has the last few days I probably would have tried to mow it, but the weather folks say that it is suppose to be dry for the next week or so.

When I got back into the house and cleaned up I made myself a herring sandwich on dark rye for a late lunch. Then I went into the living room and fell asleep in my chair. For some reason I have been waking up around five o'clock in the morning and I have not been able to get back to sleep so I just wind up getting up after trying to get back to sleep.



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Snow, Snow, Snow!

When I got up this morning about 0645 I could hear the rain hitting the sky light and when I made it downstairs I could still hear the rain outside, but about a half hour later when I went out to bet the paper I was snowing. It was snowing lightly but never-the-less it was snowing.

Later on this morning it started to snow harder and the flakes were getting much larger and it was snowing much harder but still nothing was sticking. The temperature was about forty degrees out so it was not surprising that the snow was not sticking but it was interesting to see it snow so hard and nothing on the ground to show for it.

It finally stopped snowing around noon and then the sun came out and was a bright day, so I went out and chopped some wood and pulled some weeds in the rose garden. I also remembered that I had a box full of iris that I had dug up last fall, but no one wanted any then so I put the box in the garage.

So since they would just die if I left them in the garage I decided to put them in the back of the rose garden against the fence. I just placed them on the soil, that way if anyone did want some I could just pick them up and not have to dig some more up.

I came into the house after a while when the sky started darkening and before long it was raining, so this has been one of those days where the weather was changing just about every hour or so.

I emptied the dishwasher and then swept and mopped the kitchen floor. I though about going upstairs and painting, but last time I did that my joints hurt for several days afterwards. I am not sure whether it was from the painting or cleaning up the brushes and rollers afterwards. I suppose that more likely than not it was a combination of both.

So I went onto my computer and paid the bills and matched up my charge receipts with what was on the bills after I paid them. This give me the opportunity to make sure what I am being charge for I actually charged; it also give me the opportunity to review what we did spend our money on.

I finally sat down and promptly fell asleep in my chair. I am realizing everyday that my energy level is so low that it is no wonder that it takes me forever to get anything done.

Tonight on the news they showed pictures of Lincoln City; on the coast; and all the snow that they were having. It is pretty unusual for the coast to get much snow. I think that Lincoln City is where Alyssa, Dan and their children were going to spend their spring break; I hope they are enjoying the "nice" weather at the coast.

What a Wild Weather Day

When I got up this morning the sky was mostly dark but I could see that it was going to be a stormy morning. When the sun finally made it up the sky was all gray and looked like it could start snowing any minute.

Alyssa wrote a comment to my blog of yesterday and said that she woke up to snow covering the ground and Andrea called and said that she was having snow at her house and that she saw a lot of cars covered with snow when she took John to work this morning so I was expecting that we might see some moisture; either rain or snow at any time.

Andrea and Brandon came over after dropping John off at work and stopping at Joann Fabrics and stayed for a while. She wanted Kathleen to show her how to do some knitting.

After she left we had to leave ourselves as Kathleen had an appointment with her sleep doctor. We got there early so we stopped by Lowe's to pick up a couple things. We did not get out of there until 1645 as she was getting fitter for a new mask.

After leaving there we stopped by Rockler to check up on some sanding blocks that Kathleen needed for sanding on the new bathroom cabinets. Then we stopped at Trader Joe's which was in the same shopping center.

We finally made it home around 1845 and my back and hip were really bothering me from being on concrete so much. Kathleen heated up some Costco salmon patties and tator tots for dinner; since I did not have lunch I was pretty hungry and tried not to over-eat.

Well I am really tired so I think I am going to call it a night!

Is this Really Spring

For the first time in as long as I can remember I woke up and got up without a lot of pain in my back. I guess that I have saturated my body with enough Tylenol that I have killed the pain.

Anyway after reading the paper and eating breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher and did a load of dishes. By the time I got the kitchen cleaned up the mail came so I went out and got it. So I made myself another cup of bullion and went through the mail .

This afternoon Kathleen went to go meet with a lady that she meets with every week and her battery in her Acura was dead. Evidently she had left the light on in the back of the SUV and it drained the battery.

I went to jump it with my battery jumper and it did not have enough charge left to turn it over, so I put her battery on my quick charger and within an hour it had charged enough to turn over. In the mean time I plugged my battery jumper into an outlet so that next time it will be fully charged.

By the time I got the battery charged Kathleen was too tired to go, but at least when she needs to go next time the Acura should start. I was kind of tired by the time I got done because I had to do a lot of running around trying to find the right extension cords for the battery jumper and the battery charger.

Since her car is kept outside I needed to watch and make sure that the charger did not get wet if it started to rain again, luckily the rain had stopped and the sun came out it was actually really pretty nice out.

I was watching the steam coming off the garage roof and noticing that it was actually quite warm out. I thought that was kind of humorous as Andrea had called earlier and said that it was snowing at her place. So if it was snowing at Andrea's it must have been snowing at Alyssa's as well.

I must be feeling better as I was just realizing that I had not taken any Tylenol since early this morning and my joints feel pretty good. I also have not taken anything for my stuffed up head since this morning so maybe I am finally getting over that as well.

Results of Blood Test

I got up early this morning as I was having trouble breathing and I was starting to cough, so I decided to get up so that I would not wake up Kathleen.

Since I did not get enough sleep last night I was pretty groggy all day. I worked on my taxes for a while today, but since I felt foggy in the head I did not get too much done as I did not want to make any mistakes.

This afternoon I decided to go upstairs and take a nap; well just about the time I was about to doze off the doctor's office called. Since they cannot give the information to anyone but me Kathleen gave me the phone and I talked to the nurse.

She said that the doctor was pleased with my results and that it looked like the pain in my hip was not from the cancer spreading but from degenerative arthritis as he first thought. He mainly wanted to do the blood work to make sure that it was not from the cancer' just to be on the safe side.

I also got my HDL/LDL, Triglycerides and Cholesterol results; I do not remember what the numbers were, but she said that the doctor said that they were okay. From what I do remember the Triglycerides were a little high, but the rest of the numbers were within the normal/good range.

I never did get to take that nap and after laying there for a while I decided to get up and go for a walk. The walk went well and I did not experience any pain in my hip. I have been taking the maximum amount of Tylenol so that may have something to do with it, but maybe it is just getting better.

I have been coughing most of the day and my throat is really sore now; I cannot wait to see what it is going to be like trying to sleep tonight. I also have developed a headache which I do not understand with all the Tylenol how I can have a headache, but I do. I might have to take some extra strength Excedrin to see if I can get rid of it.

Better than Expected Day

Weather wise that is! The weather today was supposed to be on the wet side, but it turned out to be a really nice day. I wish that I could say that about how I feel.

I actually felt pretty good this morning even after getting poked several times trying to draw blood. In fact I even put some Scott's Turf Builder with Moss Control on the lawn, but this afternoon I sat down in my chair and fell asleep. Then when I woke up I could not stop coughing and my nose was running.

Right now my throat is so sore it really hurts to talk, and even thinking about it causes me to cough. I had intended on finishing up our taxes but Kathleen was using my computer as she needed to get some information so that she could get hers running again so I did not get to do that...maybe tomorrow.

Tonight for dinner Kathleen made some salmon patties and butternut squash. Both tasted pretty good. The salmon patties we got at Costco so they are probably something that we will get again.

I think that I will call it a day, I cannot think of anything else to say and I am too tired to think to hard about anything else.

Happy Easter!

This has definitely been a different Easter for us. Both Kathleen and I had colds/allergies and neither one of us felt very well all weekend. I woke up yesterday and my throat was really sore and I had a lot of congestion, then when Kathleen got up she felt kind of the same way.

I did manage to work out in the yard for a while; pulling weeds and doing some pruning. I also managed to mow the lawn later in the day after the dew finally dried off the grass. I had been taking my Tylenol every four hours so my hip was not bothering me as much as it had been when I would only take it after it was really hurting me.

This morning when I woke up my throat was still sore and my hip felt okay as well; I did take my Tylenol when I first got up. My voice has been almost none existent as I have been coughing much of the day trying to get the phlegm loosened up.

I was going to call Mom and Sue today but I could hardly talk to Kathleen in the same room so I knew that I would not be able to have a good conversation over the phone. Aside from not having any volume it also hurt to talk, so I have tried to stay quiet today; not that I usually say a lot anyway.

We were suppose to have Easter dinner with the children and grandchildren today, but since neither Kathleen or I felt very good we called Alyssa and let her know that we would not be making it. Andrea and Brandon were also sick, so they were not going to go either.

We bought a nice spiral cut ham and were looking forward to having a nice dinner with everyone, but that is something that has become harder and harder to do as everyone is getting older and with more young ones it seems like someone is always sick or working.

So needless to say this has been a really quiet Easter; since we did not go to church either it was just the two of us rattling around here today. Kathleen did not make it downstairs until around 1430 and around 1500 I went upstairs to take a nap.

About all I got accomplished today was to wash and put away a load of dishes and make myself a couple meals. I have to eat dinner early tonight as I have a twelve hour fast for some more blood work tomorrow morning.

It has been a Year Now

It was just a year ago that we had to put our dog Reggie down. He had kidney failure and arthritis in his hips so it was hard for him to move around very well. This is the longest that I have been without a dog in a really long time.

I got a call back from the doctor's nurse today and the x-rays revealed severe degenerative arthritis in my lower back. I knew that I had continual back pain but did not realize that it was that bad. the x-rays did not reveal any problem with my hip yet although the doctor said that many times it does not show up in x-rays for several years.

They had not gotten the blood work results back yet so I am not sure about the possibility of the cancer having spread. I guess that I will have to wait until Monday to get those results.

Yesterday after coming home from the doctor's office we reheated up Kathleen's left over food from Wednesday night. There was some chicken enchilada and pork tamale and of course beans and rice.

Then today for lunch I reheated up Chucky's left-overs I am not sure what it was but it was almost soup like. It had chicken, rice, mushrooms, onions, peppers and I am not sure what else.

Kathleen had taken off to go to Costco and then to Alyssa's; I stayed home as I wanted to get the report from the doctor's and my hip was also pretty sore.

So I guess that is all the news from here for today...to be continued next week!

Thursday's Doctor's Report

Well, I just got back from my doctor's appointment and thought that I would do my blog now as I do not think I will feel any more like doing it later on and I do not think I will be doing much of anything else today.

The doctor said that my hip pain could either be from degenerative arthritis or my cancer has spread to my bones. Neither one of these excites me very much although given the two I guess that I would opt for the degenerative arthritis...I think!

The doctor pulled, pushed, poked and twisted my leg to see if he could locate where the pain was coming from. After he was done examining me he ordered some blood drawn to do a blood check to see if my blood revealed any increase in the cancer, so I had that done in his office.

The doctor also wanted me to get a series of x-rays so after leaving his office I had to stop by Epic Imaging to have my hip x-rayed. They do x-rays at his office but he said that he wanted some more exacting x-rays than his office could do.

Between the twisting and pulling of my leg by the doctor and then by the x-ray technician my hip is sorer than it has been in a long time. As soon as we got home I took some Tylenol as that is what the doctor said would be best for me short of a prescribed pain killer.

I am trying to avoid the prescription pain killer as long as possible so for now I am taking the maximum amount of Tylenol possible and it is almost doing the job. It dulls the pain to a bearable level but does not totally eliminate it altogether.

Well, that is all the good news for now. It will be a couple days until I get the results back from the blood work and the x-rays so until then I get to wait!

More of the Same

Today was almost a carbon copy of yesterday except without the wind and the rain. Although Andrea was over today and said that she had some rain this afternoon.

I worked out in the yard today, doing a general sweep of the gardens and pulling weeds as I found them. I pretty much have the gardens in good shape, there is one area at the trellis entrance where there is some grass that I need to work on but everything else is in good shape.

Kathleen was gone this afternoon so I went outside and worked a little more; I moved all of my container pots from last years "garden" back to where I have roto-tilled this year. I am thinking about keeping some of the things in containers again this year...like the herbs.

Andrea, Brandon and Toni came over this afternoon while Kathleen was out and Chucky came over after he got off work as Andrea was taking them out to eat for Chucky's birthday. Kathleen came home after a while and decided to join them.

I was just too worn out to want to go out to dinner, so I stayed home and made myself a corn beef sandwich with pepper jack cheese. I also had a couple pickles and some pickled asparagus to go along with it.

In Like a Lamb...Out Like a Lion and then Like a Lamb all in the Same Day

Today has been another one of those days where the weather changed by the minute. One minute it would bee nice and calm and the sun shining; then the wind would really pick up and blow for five minutes or so and then stop. Or the sun would be out and it was nice and clear and then the sky would grow dark and sometimes it would rain and sometimes it would not. One just did not know how to dress or what to expect.

I saw that it was nice outside so I decided that I would pull some weeds since the ground was still saturated and the weeds would pull easily. For the first hour or so it was sunny and alternating between calm and windy. Then I went out front to trim the hedge on the east side of the yard; it started out nice but after about fifteen minutes it started to rain. I gathered up my equipment and put it all away and went inside and cleaned up.

Kathleen said that Andrea and Brandon were coming over, just as she got the words out of her mouth Andrea drove up. She and Brandon stayed for a couple hours; Andrea had said that she was really warm because she wore fleece today and it was too warm, but the way the weather changed it might be too warm one minute and not warm enough the next.

Zander was having a program at school tonight, but between working in the yard and doing a lot of hand washing of pots and pans I was kind of tired. Kathleen's hip was bothering her and my bottom was acting up again so we decided that it probably was a good idea for us not to go.

Before Andrea left I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up, and then I went and sat down in my chair. I fell asleep for a while and woke up as Andrea was starting to take Brandon out to her car.

Kathleen reheated the left over corn beef from last night and we still have enough left over for another meal or two.

Not Quite What I Planned

When I got up this morning I had in my mind to try to finish up my taxes, so after doing my morning computer time I ate breakfast and then did a load of dishes. I opened one of the cabinet doors next to the sink and was greeted by a couple ants.

This was not the first time I had noticed ants there, I usually just squish them as I see them, but today I decided that I would start taking things out of the cupboards and see if I could see where they were coming from.

Well, I emptied the middle shelf; killed a hundred or so, and then scrubbed down the shelf top, sides, back and the shelf itself. While I had the shelf empty I notice several more coming down from the top shelf, so I started taking things off that shelf as well and killed another fifty or so. So I scrubbed down the top, sides, back and the shelf itself.

While I had the top two shelves empty I took everything off the bottom shelf as well and did the same thing to it. Kathleen came down while I was "cleaning" the shelves and I asked her to decide what she wanted to put where on the shelves. Over the years we have had help putting things away and since it is just the two of us rattling around the house now we might as well have things where we want them.

I collected two plastic grocery bags of things that had ants in them and I did not feel like messing with them. I also found several items that we had been looking for that we had actually gone out and bought some more.

I finally had to call it quits about 1500 as my body was really aching. Which reminds me; I did think to make an appointment to see my doctor this Thursday to see if he can figure out what is really causing my hip to hurt so much. Kathleen finished putting things away and started the corn beef for tonight’s dinner.

Strange Day

I slept in until about 0800 this morning, I kind of knew that I would not be making it to church or Sunday School this morning. I was pretty sure that when I went to bed last night that I would be running low on energy this morning.

While I did feel like I had gotten a better nights sleep than I had been getting for the last week or so; my hip did not even hurt like it had lately either. My bowels were not quite as kind to me though.

I spent a good portion of my day in the bathroom, so I guess that it was a good thing that I had not tried to go this morning. I did manage to wash, dry, fold and put away two loads of laundry this morning. While I was washing the first load of laundry Kathleen had gone back to bed; I had not realized it until I took the first load upstairs to fold I saw this lump in the bed and since I did not see Kathleen I figured that she must be sleeping.

So I took the laundry back downstairs and folded it on the couch. I put it into the basket and took it upstairs; putting my things away and leaving her things in the basket. I had to do the same thing with the second load except that I did not have to go upstairs until I had the clothes folded.

This afternoon I thought that I needed to mow the lawn since it was not raining and it might be the only time for a while to get it done. So even though the grass was pretty wet I mowed it and it does look much better now that it is all the same length again.

Well, I am pretty worn out now...mostly from running to the bathroom on a pretty regular basis. My hip still feels pretty good even after making several trips up and down the stairs and mowing the lawn, so maybe that problem is behind me...I can only hope!

Sunny/Stormy Saturday

Well if anyone wanted different kind of weather than what we were having at the moment all they needed to do was wait five minutes and it would be different.

Most of the morning it was drizzling off and on, so I went out an pulled some more of the vines in the front of the house next to the house. Since most of it was protected by the fir trees it was not too bad to work out there while it was drizzling, but as soon as it started raining harder, I decided that I would go inside.

Alyssa called later on and wanted some iris for a gift for one of her neighbors, so while it was not raining out I went out and dug several of them up. I also found a couple cardboard boxes that she could use to put them in.

By the time I got cleaned up it was time to start getting ready for Brandon's birthday party, so after I got cleaned up and my clothes changed I made myself a couple of melted cheese sandwiches.

Kathleen came downstairs and we were all ready to go but she could not find her purse, so after fifteen minutes of looking I finally found it. I had slipped down between a chair and ottoman and neither one of us saw it.

We had a good time; all the children and grandchildren were there except Aaron, Tami and their girls. They celebrated Easter with Tami's family as this was the only time that worked out for them.

Brandon was having a good time walking all over the place; Andrea is really going to have her hands full when number two starts crawling. Brandon came walking over to me a couple times and wanted me to pick him up and throw him into the air. I did that for a while, while I was sitting on the couch and he really got to laughing and having a good time.

He was disappointed when I put him back down, but ol' grandpa is not as young as he once was. So when he came walking over to me, I knew what he wanted.

We finally left and Kathleen wanted to stop at the store for a while, I tried it for a while but my hip was hurting too much and I had to go out to the car.

Even though I got about ten hours horizontal time last night I did not sleep all that well, I kept waking up. A couple times I realized that my hip was hurting so I guess that every time I role over my hip hurts and I wake up. This getting old is certainly not as much fun as I though it might be.

Wet Ending to the Week

Yesterday was pretty wet, but the canal that I dug around the front walkway worked pretty well. I did have to use my hoe to increase the slope of the canal so that it would drain a little better. It now drains well enough that there is no longer the puddle in front of the front steps.

Last night Kathleen and I went over to Aaron and Tami's to watch their girls as they went out to eat and over to some friends house for desert. Toni and Chucky joined us a little later on after Chucky got off work. We actually got there for the early shift so that Aaron and Tami could leave when they needed and then we left early and Toni and Chucky got to put the girls to bed.

Today was another wet day so when I got up I was anxious to see if my canal was still working...it was. I also noticed that the dam that I built on the west side of the driveway was doing its job as well. Until I built that area up I would get all the water coming down the hill coming into my driveway. Now it just puddles up in the driveway to the east of us.

Andrea called about 1000 and wanted that to know if Kathleen could help watch Brandon while she made some birthday cakes for Brandon's first birthday party Saturday. Kathleen was not up yet so I told Andrea that I would have Kathleen call her when she got up.

Since it was so wet outside I knew that I would not be able to go outside and do anything, so I picked up the rugs in the kitchen, living room entrance and laundry room; shook them out and then loaded them into the washer. While they were washing I swept and mopped the kitchen and laundry room floor.

Aaron stopped by after he had taken his flight physical; he passed for level one which is for commercial pilots, he really only needed a level three for his private license, but it was nice to see that he was able to get the higher level as well.

After Aaron left I worked out in the garage for a while. Last week when I washed Kathleen's Acura I could not find my car washing bucket so I thought that I would unstack some things to see if I could come it underneath the pile...I did!

Kathleen finally left for Andrea's late this afternoon so I knew that I would be on my own for dinner. I remembered that there were a couple slices of meatloaf from the other evening in some aluminum foil, so I heated that up and put it between a couple slices of dark rye for dinner.

I am tired tonight, I usually get tired every afternoon and I think that I have figured out why. I realized that last night I was waking up about every half hour to an hour, I am not sure why I have been waking up so much, but that certainly could be the reason for my being so tired.

Changing Weather

This morning I went out and pulled some weeds in my large rose garden and then chopped up the lavender bush and the birds nest spruce. I had dug them out a couple weeks ago, but had not gotten around to chopping them up.

Kathleen took off for a while this afternoon and I took a nap in my chair. I probably should have mowed the lawn, as it looks like we are in for a few days of rainy weather and I am not sure when I will be able to mow again.

When Kathleen came home I woke up; she had stopped by the German Deli and picked up some German potato salad which we had tonight along with the rest of the turkey Kielbasa that she cooked in an onion and cream sauce. She also steamed some asparagus spears. This time of year asparagus is so good.

Aaron and Alexis just come over; they usually stop by on Wednesday nights as they take Becca to AWANA and then spend that time with us.

With that said I think that I will call it quits for tonight.

Wondering about the Weather

I have been really tired the last few days even though I have been getting nine to ten hours sleep at night. I have not been doing that much during the day either so I am not sure why I have been so tired.

Saturday I panted for a couple hours and Sunday I did several loads of laundry so none of that should have tired me out. Then yesterday I moved some stepping stones which was kind of hard physically, but I only did it for about an hour. I also did some more pruning on the roses by the back stairwell and that was not physical at all.

Then this I assembled some of my yard equipment that I had gotten delivered UPS yesterday; that took a couple hours, but was not difficult or physically tiring. This afternoon we went to Costco and spent a lot more money than I thought that we would. I was thinking maybe a little over a hundred dollars but it was over three hundred instead. It is really hard to go there and not spend a lot of money.

Tonight Kathleen heated up some of the left-over beef stew that she made the other night. I found some really lean beef stew meat at Winco last week and it really made a good stew.

I do not feel as tired tonight as I have and I only had seven hours sleep last night so I do not know what is up. Today the weather folks had said that the rain would be turning to showers this afternoon, but unless I missed something in did not rain today at all. I did feel a couple sprinkles as we were leaving for Costco but that was it.

I know that it did rain last night but that is all the real rain that I remember today. We have had a really dry month so far; it has also been pretty warm as well, no records but nice days.

A Quiet Day

I made my morning pot of coffee then I let my oatmeal and flax seed soak for a while as I read the paper and drank my coffee. Andrea called mid morning and said that she and Brandon were coming over today. The got here a little after 1100 and stayed until after 1400. I got to play with Brandon while Kathleen helped Andrea fix some of her knitting and then I heated up some left-over noodles, turkey Kielbasa and the sauce.

By the time Andrea and Brandon left I was too late to do anything outside; it also was not that nice a day, not rainy, just kind of damp feeling all day. So with my back and everything else hurting as much as they have I decided to skip a day. I did pay some bills online, just so that I could say that I accomplished something today.

Tonight Kathleen reheated the left-over meatloaf and baked potato and heated up some corn. We still had some left-over and there is still one whole meatloaf that we have not cut into.

The weather is suppose to be a little wet for the next couple of days although they have said that most of the rain might be in the evenings and at night, so that may not be too bad.

A Digging Day

After putting away the dishes in the dishwasher and eating breakfast I washed the frying pans and loaded up the dishwasher with my breakfast dishes. Andrea called and said that she was coming over later in the day, but right now they were in the process of having their old deck, three month old) was being taken down and a new larger deck being put in to take it's place.

After talking to her for a while I gave the phone to Kathleen to talk for a while and I went outside and dug up more of the vines that had taken over the flower beds next to the house in front. Aaron came over while I was working on it with his latest guitar. This one is for someone he use to work with and is all green with shamrocks and a wolf inlays.

My back started hurting too much so I stopped, cleaned up my tools and cleaned up myself and visited with Aaron for a while. He showed me the PDA/GPS combination that he is getting for his flying. Flying has been in his blood since he was a little boy and I hope that he is able to realize his dream. Both his mother and I love to fly so it was no surprise to us that he inherited this desire to fly.

When I worked at Boeing I had several friends who had their own planes and we would go flying quite frequently. There is just something peaceful about being up there and away from the hustle and bustle. It also makes one realize just how small we are when one gets up a couple thousand feet and looks down at the earth below.

I had another friend at Boeing who was a pilot in the Air Force reserve and I took Aaron out to see him and he let Aaron get inside his F-4 (so you can see how long ago that was), and that led Aaron to want to become a pilot in some branch of the military. He was really disappointed when he could not because of his football injuries.

I had mixed emotions about that, as much as I would love for him to have been able to do that I was also glad that he would not have to go into the military. I did not have a bad experience with the Air Force, but I think that my experience was somewhat unusual.

Coming out of an ROTC program I seemed to get special treatment where ever I went. I know that I seemed to make rank quicker than most everyone else and seemed to land pretty cushy assignments...not a typical experience for most people who were in during the Viet Nam War.

After Aaron left I made myself some lunch and then took a snooze in my easy chair as I was really tired. Kathleen just took off to visit one of our friends who has a bad sinus infection. We bought some miniature daffodils the other day and she is taking over a card and a pot of daffodils.

Before she left she made a pan of meatloaf and put some potatoes in the over for dinner tonight. Andrea never made it over here today; she must have gotten busy with the deck rebuild.

Nice Weather Returns

Yesterday was an okay kind of day, not by summer standards, but for an Oregon winter day...not bad! Today was a really nice day by any standard, my iPod tells me that it got up to fifty-nine degrees today, while that is not quite up to summer standards it is still a nice temperature and only about ten to fifteen degrees from my ideal temperature.

While I was checking the temperature I also looked at how my investments were doing and all but two finished in the green and they only finished a total of .82 in the red. For the last couple of weeks they have been up and down like a yo-yo; a little unnerving, but overall they are doing pretty good compared the Dow or even the Standard and Poor's 500 index, so I really cannot complain.

Aaron called and talked to Kathleen for quite a while and then I got on the phone and talked to him. He is excited about starting flying again; I think that he said Monday would be his first flight and that he is hoping to go several times a week. I think he inherited the desire to fly from both his parents so that poor kid did not stand a chance.

This afternoon after the sun dried the dew off the grass I mowed again, and after I mowed I redid the contour of the rose garden...just a little. I made it a little rounder at the arch where the clematis is growing at the entrance to the garden path.

After finishing that up I went inside and cleaned up. Then I made my self some lunch. After eating I loaded up the dishwasher and turned it on then I took a short nap in my easy chair.

Kathleen was out most of this afternoon so I just kind of goofed off this afternoon. Tonight for dinner we had some whole grain noodles and a half of a turkey Kielbasa with a cream sauce and some peas. It must be the German in me because I could eat that kind of thing just about every day.

Working with Wet Weather

This weekend was not too bad, I was able to work outside Sunday for a couple hours edging and pulling weeds around the rose garden and the connecting side of the blueberry patch. My hip had been really hurting for the last couple of days so I thought that sitting out in the sunshine might help.

Well the just sitting part only lasted a little while until I decided to get out my mat and work on the border of the rose garden. It is in pretty good shape now and I hope that I will be able to keep it that way throughout the summer.

I have a few bare areas in the path of the rose garden so I will need to chip up some more branches and fill those in. I also have an area where I changed the direction of the path a little; where I have moved some of the lily's that I will need to add some chipped branches to designate the pathway better.

I finally got my hair cut Saturday; I can no longer put my hair up in a pony tail and I have to take in the slack in the back of my caps so that they fit better. I think that the last time I had gotten my hair cut was sometime last summer so it had gotten slightly ragged and long in the back especially.

I was outside when it started to drizzle this morning, around 0915 and so I spent most of the rest of the day inside. I was going to sand the stairs some more, but Kathleen needed to take a nap, so I worked in my office instead. I got my computer desk mostly cleaned off, so at least now I can see the top of it. I also cleaned off the spare chair next to my desk so that someone can even sit in it now. I also picked up some of the junk that had been gathering on the floor around the stationary bike so now I can even peddle it if I get motivated enough.

The weather is suppose to get nice again, with the temperature getting back into the sixties so I am looking forward to that. I still have a lot of yard work to get done, and if I do not get it done now it becomes almost impossible to do especially when I will be having to mow twice a week.

The Return of the "Normal" Weather

It was more overcast this morning when I got up, and as the day went on the clouds became closer together. After breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up and then went outside and worked on pulling the grass growing in the flower bed on the other side of the sidewalk from the driveway.

After I got the weeds pulled I re-dug the channel to drain the water off the sidewalk into the garden. Once I had that dug I decided that I would start pulling out the vines that have been taking over the flower beds next to the house. I managed to get the west side bed seventy-five done and the other side along the house but my wrists were hurting too much to continue.

After putting my tools away, I cleaned up and then emptied the dishwasher. Then I made myself some reduced sodium soup that Andrea gave me as she did not like the way it tasted. My children know that I can eat almost anything and this was no exception. I actually could not tell much difference in the cream of celery soup that I made today from the regular stuff.

After I finished eating I put my bowl in the dishwasher and then went back outside as I had noticed some ants on the foundation when I was pulling the vines out. So I got my gallon of insect spray out and sprayed the foundation on the two sides and the front. I did not do the back as I need to pull some of the thyme away from the house but I have not noticed any ants on the back side of the house anyway.

After cleaning up I sat in my chair and took a nap for a while. I seemed to have a little more energy today, but still not very much. Around 1600 I heard a car drive by and I could tell that there was water on the street. I had just started raining and so I had to go out on the porch and "smell" the rain.

Even in the "rainy season" it is still nice to smell the rain when it has not rained for a couple weeks. Tomorrow it is suppose to be rainy most of the day; I think that it might be a good thing for the plants that I have transplanted.

Well, I am doing this as I watch Fox News, because I know that if I wait until after we eat I probably will be too tired and it will not get done.

More Nice Weather

This is the forth day in the sixties with now rain either; for this part of the country and this time of year that is unusual. I think it was two or three years ago that we had a snow storm...how times change.

I played out in my garden again today, since I seem to only have a couple hours where I have any kind of energy I might as well take advantage of the nice weather. I transplanted some lily plants that were growing in the new walkway that I have created with the chippings that I made from the branches and other things.

I also pruned the roses a little more, more for making them look better more than any other reason, although a couple I cut just because I could see that they would be growing into the walkway when summer got here.

I also gathered up a couple piles of brush, mostly from the lavender bush that I took out a few weeks ago, but there were also some raspberry stalks as well.

I also fertilized the blueberry shrubs in hopes that we will get another harvest like we got last year. I am not sure if it was the fertilizing or just a good year for blueberries, but I want to do whatever I can to encourage a lot of berries.

After going in the house and making myself some lunch, I went back out and mowed the lawn for the second time this year. I think that my reprieve from mowing has come to an end and I will be mowing at least once a week until the hot dry summer weather stunts the growth of the grass. This time of year the lawn really looks nice all green and healthy.

After cleaning up and sitting down for a while I sat down in my chair and took a nap for a while. Our neighbor called and woke me up, she said that one of my refund checks had been dropped off at her house and wanted to meet me at the back fence to give it to me. I received the first one earlier in the week and when I checked the web site it said that they both had been mailed out so I had been waiting for it.

I did not want to go to the bank and just deposit one of them and was getting a little concerned when the second one had not shown up.

It finally got to be 1745 and Kathleen still had not made it back home today so I reheated the left-over spaghetti from last night for dinner. She called just as I was cleaning up my dinner mess and loading up the dishwasher and said that she was on her way home.

A Day of Digging

Today started out really foggy but as soon as the fog burnt off it turned out to be a really nice day. I think that the temperature got up to around sixty degrees today and there was not very much wind either so that made for a good day. The weather folks are saying that our winter is officially over and do not expect anymore chance of snow of below freezing weather...I like that!

I went outside about 1115 and started puttering around the gardens; I dug up some holy seedlings, and moved them to west of the driveway. I also dug up more fox glove plants and moved some to the west side of the garage and others along the east fence line.

After a while I decided to sit a while in my Adirondacks chair and rest for a while. Even though I had not done a lot of work, I was really tired and I am learning that I need to rest a lot more than I use to.

After resting for a half hour or so I went back to transplanting fox glove plants. Say Andrea you were asking about what you could plant out back; I have several more fox glove plants that I will be moving so if you want any of them let me know.

About 1430 I went back into the house, cleaned up and made myself some lunch. After putting my dishes into the dishwasher I sat down in my easy chair and took a little nap.

Kathleen had come downstairs, so I had her go outside with me to show me which ferns she wanted me to move to the front where I took the Bird's Nest Spruce. So now I have a project for tomorrow if I can muster up enough energy.

Tonight made some Ivar's clam chowder for dinner and added a little hot Hungarian paprika to it to spice it up a little. I only had a bowl as it only made enough for two bowls.

Bye Bye Bird's Nest Spruce

Today is about the eleventh day with the weather in the fifties. The weather has been unseasonably warm and almost dry for the last couple of weeks. I think that it has only rained part of three days and most of that has been in the evenings leaving the days dry and somewhat sunny.

After my walk today; and I cut it short as I could feel my hip starting to get that little tinge to it that usually proceeds it really hurting, I rested a little. Then feeling a little like I needed to be doing something; I decided that I would trim some more off the Bird's Nest Spruce. I reached a point and then decided that I would get my shovel and stubbing hoe out and actually take it out.

It came out rather easily and the roots did not go into the lawn and were pretty small in diameter so that after I chopped a couple of the larger roots I was able to push it over. I think that I will transplant a couple ferns in the spot where it was.

The ferns are smaller and I already have them on the other side of the walkway. I am even thinking about adding another cement stepping stone on the other side of the walkway to give a larger area to come in from the front lawn.

Even though I did not expend a lot of energy digging out the spruce I was tired enough that I needed to take a nap this afternoon. I seem to have just enough energy to complete one task a day...this is getting pretty old.

Later this afternoon I spent some time in the kitchen killing ants; one of the things that I seem to be doing a lot of lately. They seemed to have found an open bag of hard Christmas candy we are talking hundreds of them. So I took everything out of the bottom shelf and wiped everything down and then the shelf down as well. Even after dinner I was still finding a few stragglers but nothing like what I found this afternoon.

A Day at the Doctor's

Last night when we got home, after watching the total eclipse of the moon, around 2000 we had a message on the phone reminding Kathleen that she had an appointment with her sleep doctor. I reminded her that she had also agreed to watch Brandon at the same time, so she called Andrea and Andrea was able to get Toni to watch him.

This morning we took off to Tigard for her appointment. We were there for over an hour and we got home about 1230. I changed clothes and went outside to see about pruning the Rose of Sharon. Kathleen came outside just as I had gotten started and said that she had made an appointment with our G.P., and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her.

So I stopped what I was doing and changed clothes again. We no sooner got seated when the nurse called her in. They did some blood work, a chest x-ray and an EKG and they all looked good. She had been having some pain in her breast bone area and her sleep doctor suggested that she check with her G.P.

After finishing with the doctor we stopped at Home Depot so that I could pick up some Soil Sweet for the lawn and also some ant killer to spread around outside and also some spray for the inside. After that we stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up several prescriptions for Kathleen.

When we got home I put the soil sweet into the garage and went inside and changed clothes again. Then I went outside and put the soil sweet on the lawn and then put the ant pellets around the east side of the house.

We finished the deli sandwiches, cold slaw and potato salad that Kathleen had brought home last night. So we got three meals out of it, not too bad, I can remember the days when we would have finished eating it in one sitting.

Another Almost Nice Day

This morning after making and eating breakfast, reading the paper and emptying the dishwasher I decided that I would try to get the Jeep through DEQ. So I changed my clothes and took off. I passed without any problem but when it came to the paperwork the DMV put the wrong fee on it. I told them that I would pay the higher fee even though they did not have it on the paperwork.

Finally I talked the attendant into having his boss make the decision; so after a little deliberation he agreed that I could pay the higher fee without having to go back to the DMV. It would not be so bad except for the fact that the wait is long and I already had to make an extra trip there because the had not put the correct information into the computer two years ago.

I changed to salmon plates two years ago rather than ordinary plates so I have to pay a little extra every time that I renew them. I do not mind it too much because it does go toward a good cause.

Once I got everything signed off and got my new 2009 tags I drove off. As soon as I got to a place where I could stop, I stopped and put the new stickers on the plates. I did not want to drive any more than I already had with expired plates. I had passed a couple police cars on the way to DEQ and did not want to press my luck.

On the way home I stopped and got gas for the Jeep, I had not filled up since last July, so it had been seven months on that last tank of gas. At that rate I almost do not care what they charge for gas, although I noticed when I was logging in my fuel consumption that gas had gone up about twenty cents a gallon since I last bought it. Of course it has gone down and back up in the course of the last seven months.

When I got home the garbage truck had just left so as soon as I put the Jeep back into the garage I gathered up the garbage can, the yard debris barrel and the two recycling bins. On my way back with the recycling bins I also picked up the mail. So since I had the recycling bin, I went in the house through the back door so that I could drop off one of the bins in the back porch.

There seemed to be a lot of catalogs and magazines in the mail today, of course there was no mail yesterday so that might explain some of the extra reading material.

After reading the mail, I made myself some of the butternut squash that I got from Alyssa last week and also had a couple pieces of toast to go along with it. This time I added a little cayenne to the soup...well maybe it was more than a little, and it did give it a good flavor.

I did not get a lot done the rest of the day, I had thought about going outside and working in the yard, but since I put the fertilizer on the lawn yesterday I thought that I would wait until it rained again before doing anything in the yard. Besides it was starting to get a little chilly, the temperature did not make it to sixty today; I think that it only got to about fifty-six degrees or so but there was a pretty strong east wind blowing.

I was going to trim off the rest of the branches from the birds nest spruce, but I thought that I would wait as it will be another two weeks before the yard debris gets picked up again. I spent a good portion of the afternoon killing ants; it seems that the warm weather the last couple of days has had the ants out looking for new digs.

I will leave you with this Pickles cartoon; it is rather appropriate only the one with the glasses on their head is usually Kathleen. Unfortunately the Pickles cartoon has more truth to it in our lives these days, but it is still pretty funny most of the time.

Here is the web address as the picture is a wee bit tiny:

http://www.comcast.net/data/comics/pickles.gif

Taking a Mental Health Moment

I thought that everyone could use a little mental health moment!

Enjoy!

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dfdwvqns_0dnz4kgdz#

Springtime in February

For the past three days the temperature has been in the high fifties to low sixties, so it has been really a tease as to what I have been missing for the last several months. Tomorrow the "normal" weather is suppose to return, so that means rain.

I have been doing some things the last couple of days, but today I started out by transplanting fifty or so daffodils and tulips that I had in a couple planters. I put them around an old apple stump that is just about ready to fall over.

After I finished that I decided that I would give my roses their spring pruning, so I got out my good pruners and gave them a haircut. I probably will be doing a little more thinning later this spring, but I want to wait until they start to bush out a little before I do anything too drastic.

After dumping the rose clippings into the yard debris barrel, I decided that I would transplant some of my raspberries that were growing in places where I would rather they not. I put them in the rows where the rest of the raspberries where but were a little thin.

I had just about gone in the house when I thought to myself that the weather was so nice and the grass was dry...so I thought I would see if I could give the grass in the front yard a haircut as well.

I was a little surprised at just how much I was cutting so when I finished the front lawn I did the back lawn as well. It is just about this time of year where the grass can really start getting ahead of me; between the grass being too wet or my not having time to do it.

Just to make sure that the grass grows really well, after I finished mowing I decided that I would put down the rest of the Scott's winter fertilizer from last fall. I thought that I would only have enough to do the front lawn, but I had just enough to do the back lawn as well.

My poor fertilizer spreader is broken, it actually broke last fall, but I thought that I would wait until spring to get another one. I still need to do that as it was really hard on my wrists trying to hold down the stub of a lever that allows the fertilizer to drop at the correct rate.

Well, it is late afternoon, but I though that before I got too tired I would jot down a few notes. So that is all that I can remember from today.

Beautiful Weekend

This certainly has been a great weekend...well at least for the middle of winter. Yesterday I roto-tilled the garden; it took a couple hours; most of it was cleaning out the tines of mud. It really was kind of gumbo like, but at least now it will have a chance to dry out a little so that it will be easier to do the next time.

After I finished roto-tilling I went into the house and took a shower as we needed to go pick up Natalie before going to Andrea and John's. My wrists and fore arms were so sore from rototilling for several hours.

We had a good time celebrating Chucky's twenty-eighth birthday and had lots of good food to eat. The grandchildren had a great time playing with each other and it was amazing that six children can get along so well and play without fighting.

By the time we got home last night I was too tired to do much beside go to bed. It tool me a while to get to sleep as my body was so sore that it was hard to get comfortable, but when I finally did I slept well.

This morning I was still pretty sore and so I did not try to go to church, Kathleen did not wake up until after noon, so neither of us made it today. Then this afternoon I started feeling better so I went outside and transplanted about a hundred fox glove plants a couple roses and one hydrangea.

After digging and transplanting for a couple hours I set up my Adirondack chair out and sat out in the sun for a half hour or so. It sure felt good to sit in the sunshine for a while. There is something that I do not get to do much in the winter.

Then tonight Kathleen made some stir fry using the left over duck from Gustav's the other night and she added some rice, carrots and broccoli. There was enough left-over for me to have it again for lunch some day.

Well, I am sore again tonight from all the digging, but it is a good kind of sore and I would much rather be sore from working outside in the sun and fresh air than just being sore for no good reason. I think with all the fresh air, I should be able to sleep well again tonight.