Memorial Day 2008

Well today is Memorial Day and even though I am not "working" I kind of took a day off. After eating and reading the paper I emptied the dishwasher and then gathered up the towels and washed, dried, folded and put away the towels. Kathleen came down stairs when I took the towels upstairs and made herself some breakfast.

I picked up the kitchen rugs and shook them out and then swept the kitchen floor then put the rugs back down. I had been noticing that the carpeting was getting pretty dirty, fir pollen pods and needles, so I got the vacuum cleaner out and vacuumed the downstairs.

By this time it was time for me to have lunch, so I fixed myself another smoked sausage on a bun with kraut. Kathleen was just finishing her breakfast and complained about the smell; I guess that she just does not appreciate good kraut.

After finishing lunch I gathered up the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher and then sat for a while in the living room to rest up a little. After a little bit I went out to the garage and gathered up the crushed boxes that I broke down yesterday and put them on the front porch so that I could take them up front tomorrow morning for recycling along with the plastic and paper.

Kathleen said that I should refill the bird feeder on the front porch and then she also said that she wished that she could see out of the window better; a couple weeks ago she tried to wash the windows and just smeared the dirt around and made it look cloudy. So I added some ammonia to a bucket of water and took a cloth and a squeegee out and washed the two windows on the porch that looked out at the bird feeder.

Kathleen said that it looked a lot better but the inside needed cleaning as well but she said that she would do it sometime. For dinner tonight she made a chicken breast cut it up and added it to some rice. She also made some peas to go along with it but when we started to eat she felt that something was missing so we opened up a jar of apple sauce and that did the trick.

After we finished eating I gathered up the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher and here I sit. I was just telling Kathleen that I do not understand why my nose runs all day long and at night it is all congested. From the time I get up I start coughing up mucus and blowing my nose and then I wake up in the middle of the night and my nose is all blocked up...go figure!

Soggy Sunday

Last night we had one of the longest thunder and lightning storm that I have seen in a very long time. It reminded me of being in the mountains and having the storm rumble on and on for hours. Last night storm lasted a good hour and probably longer, we lost power briefly four or five times for just a couple seconds each time. I cut my blog a little short last night as I wanted to turn my computer off just in case.

This morning it started raining again fairly early and it rained most of the day. So after breakfast I emptied the dishwasher and then read the paper and comics. Not being able to work outside I decided that I would go out to the garage and move some things around. I have a potting bench that has been next to my Jeep and behind some other things so I have not been able to use it.

It took me quite a while before I could get to it but I finally did. In the process I was able to throw some things out and also recycle some cardboard boxes as well. By the time I got everything back so that I could use the garage I was getting hungry so I went inside, cleaned up and made a smoked sausage on a bun with sour kraut on it. I also had some kraut and a dill pickle on the side.

After resting for a while I decided that I would go downstairs and do a little cleaning up down there. I was able to clean up a little area and also found some things that I bagged for Alyssa and Aaron. I am not sure if they want it or not, but it will either be theirs or it will be thrown away. We have entirely too much "STUFF" and we need to weed through it; throw it our or give it away instead of just storing it.

Tonight Kathleen made some roast beef sandwiches with the pot roast for the other nigh and had dill pickles on them with some sea salt and vinegar chips. So far we have had three or four meals out of it and there is still some left for another meal.

Well, I finally am starting to feel better; I slept pretty well last night and was only a little congested when I got up. I did not make it to church this morning as it took me until around 1100 before I could get my coughing under control. I also feel like some of my energy is starting to come back at least I am getting a few thing accomplished.

If you have not looked Alyssa has posted a couple blogs today with some pictures.

Feeling Better Saturday

I felt pretty good this morning as I got up and so after doing the breakfast dishes I went outside and decided to sit out in the sun shine and soak up some vitamin -D-. I had kind of though about mowing the back yard but it was still pretty wet when I thought about it.

After sitting for a while I decided that I would weed along the east side of the house so I did. When I finished that the sun was going behind some clouds and it looked like it might rain. So I went inside and made myself a sandwich with some cold cuts and provolone and white American cheeses. I also had some sweet German potato salad and some pea and ham salad with a dill pickle to go along with it.

Then I sat down in my chair for a while and fell asleep. I must have slept quit a while and I felt pretty good when I got up so I went outside and weeded trimmed the grass along the whole east side of the front lawn. Kathleen came out with a banana strawberry milk shake which tasted really good. Our neighbor came over and talked with Kathleen for a while, while I finished weeding and trimming.

By the time I finished and went into the house to clean up it was after 1900 and I was really tired. I did get quite a lot of mucus out and after I did I felt much better. While I was outside I could hardly talk but as soon as I got the mucus out I could almost talk normally.

Kathleen reheated the scalped potatoes from last night and there is still a little bit left. I could have had more, but I felt full so I decided that the best thing to do would be to leave it for another day.

A Little Better Friday

I slept in a little longer this morning and when I did get up I felt better than I have in several days. On my way downstairs I took a couple laundry baskets of clothes downstairs with me and loaded up dark clothes before I made my breakfast.

By the time I finished eating and cleaning up my mess the clothes were done washing, so I put them into the dryer and loaded up another load into the washer. While everything was either washing or drying I sat in my chair for a while as I started feeling really tired.

I managed to cough up quite a lot of mucous and my throat was really getting sore from all the coughing and all the coughing made me tired. Just about the time I was dozing off the dryer went off so I took the clothes out and put the clothes from the washer into the dryer and turned it on again.

Then I took the clothes upstairs to fold and put them away. By this time it was time to take some more meds for my congestion and after I had taken that I went and sat in my chair. Before much longer the dryer went off again so I gathered the clothes out of the dryer took them upstairs, folded and put them away.

After lunch I noticed that the one bird feeder was just about empty so I took it down and put about five pounds of seed into it. Later on I noticed about a dozen small birds either on the feeder or on the porch eating seed that had fallen out of the feeder.

It has been a couple days since I have been able to talk without a great deal of pain; it seem like from about 0930 on my throat gets so sore for coughing that my throat just gets raw. I have tried expectorant cough syrup and once in a while some sore throat cough medicine and neither one seem to help much.

I have even started taking some pills that are supposed to relieve mucus drainage but they have not made much difference either. Each day when I get up I feel better than the day before but then by the middle of the day I start feeling pretty miserable again. Right now I would just like to have a whole day where I felt good all day.

Tonight Kathleen made some scalped potatoes and that helped my throat for a while, but now it is just as sore as it was this afternoon. I am kind of in between times when I can take any medication for it as I like to be able to take everything just before going to bed so that I can get a little sleep.

Not Quite as UGH as Yesterday!

I did not feel much better this morning when I got up but I did feel better. I learned from yesterday to spray my nose with the decongestant nasal spray and then take some pseudoedrine and that kind of clears up my stuffy nose for a while at least.

After breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher and added the soap and asked Kathleen to turn it on after she put her coffee mug in. Then I went outside and planted some of the plants that we got the other day at Fred Meyer. I only got half of them planted as it took me a while to prepare the soil.

After going inside and cleaning up I took a little nap in my chair and by the time I got up it was time for lunch. I made a veggie burger with a slice of onion and cheddar. As I was looking out the kitchen window I noticed all the walnut pollen pods on the front lawn and decided that I would go out and rake them up.

Once I got them all raked up and disposed of I decided that the front lawn was looking a little ragged; something that usually happens after raking the lawn. So I got the little reel mower out and mowed the front lawn I even mowed the west side of the driveway. I think that I have neglected that part of the lawn for several weeks and it was really starting to show.

By the time I finished mowing the front lawn, put the mower away and cleaned up I was really tired so I took another nap in my chair. I sleep better sitting up as my nose does not get quite as plugged up. I slept for quite a while again, so maybe I am making up for some of the lost sleep at night.

I feel like I got a little more done today and I feel better tonight than I did last night so hopefully I am starting to shake whatever it is that has been bugging me for the last week. My voice is still rather horse and my nose is still plugged up but over all I feel better.

UGH!

I tried some new meds last night and I slept a little better or at least until around 0400. At 0430 I used some nasal decongestant and that allowed me to breathe better again and I slept until around 0630; which is around the time I am usually up anyway. I have also switched to a pseudoedrine, a decongestant to help keep, my nose from plugging up.

I have been waiting too long in between taking it and then by the time I realize it my nose is either running or plugged up. It is a good thing that it has drizzled on and off most of the day as I had not gotten very much done today.

After breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher and ran a load of dishes; then I shook out the rugs in the kitchen and swept and mopped the floor. There was also a sink load of hand wash pots and pans so I washed them as well, but most of the rest of the day I just sat around and read.

Kathleen had her meeting with the lady from church today and I think I spent most of the time dozing. She stopped off at Winco on her way home and picked up a few items that we needed. Then tonight she reheated the pot roast, mashed potatoes and green beans.

Well, Back to a More Typical Oregon Spring

I was awaken this morning to the familiar sound of rain on the sky light around 0430 and I could also tell that it was going to be much cooler today than it had been.

This morning after breakfast I broke down several large cardboard boxes and took them out front for the recycling truck. Then I filled three of our bird feeders with sunflower seeds and hung them up. While I was filling one of the bird feeders a squirrel came right up to me and sniffed my foot; a couple minutes later a little chickadee flew up to me and landed only about a foot away. The birds and squirrels are getting so use to me that they do not fly or run away all the time now. The squirrels are getting really brave.

I also pounded a galvanized pipe into the ground and then a plastic rod into it to set up the new bird feeder that Aaron, Tami and the girls gave us. After putting the feeder on top of the pole I went back into the house to rest up.

While it does not sound like I did a lot, I was pretty worn out; partly because I have not been sleeping too well because of my allergies. I sleep okay for a few hours but then my nose plugs up and I wake up on a regular basis.

While I was sitting at the kitchen table talking to Kathleen I noticed a squirrel on the new bird feeder, so went I went outside I noticed that the squirrel was able to climb on the plastic rod. I guess that it is soft enough that they can get their claws into it and climb up it just as if it were made out of wood.

Now I will have to rethink how to keep the squirrels off the bird feeder; I do not mind them eating what the birds knock off the feeder, but I do not want them climbing up and helping themselves.

That is about all I got done today. I have been taking Benadryl every few hours so that has helped keep me pretty drowsy most of the day. My nose is getting sore from using nose spray so much to keep my nose open enough so that I can breath for a while.

Kathleen had a doctor's appointment this afternoon and I was feeling so bad that I told her that I do not think that I should go so I stayed here and just vegged out in my chair.

Kathleen had put a pot roast on before she left and so when she came home we had the roast, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner.

Farmer Bob's Almanac

Today was much nicer than it had been this weekend; it only got into the eighties but it felt much cooler because it was almost one hundred degrees yesterday. I looked at the thermometer yesterday afternoon and it was just about one hundred degrees in the shade.

This morning after breakfast I went outside and planted the rest of my garden. I planted a couple different kind of lettuce, carrots, zucchini squash, and then I also panted single varieties of beets, radishes, push beans, pumpkins and cantaloupe.

I also planted some nasturtiums, marigold, sun flowers, poppies, foxglove, lupine, sweet peas, columbine, and a lot of wild flower mixes. I came across a box of seeds that we have had for a while and I thought that I would just scatter them around and if they grew, great, and if they did not I could always plant something else in a couple of weeks.

This is the earliest that I can remember having my garden all planted in a long while. The last time I planted this early I had to replant as it was too damp and the seeds just rotted. This year it seems to be drier and I am hopeful that I will not have to plant.

The twenty something tomatoes that I planted this weekend look pretty good, I have watered them every day just to give them a good start and I planted them deep enough that they should do okay when it does turn hot again.

Last night I could hardly breathe as my allergies were really kicking in even with taking my allergy medication did not really help. I sprayed my nose about every ten minutes just so that I could breath. Then this morning it started up all over again.

Tonight Zander had a t-ball game, so Kathleen and I went to watch him play and being out in the field did not help my allergies at all. By the time we left I could hardly breathe and I had forgotten my nose spray and it was too early for me to take any more allergy medication.

It was fun to watch the kids play ball, the team on the field would roam around or lay down and they always threw the ball toward first base even when another runner way right next to them. I do not think either side ever got an out; the way they play they batted the side around and then switch from offense to defense. They do not keep score...there is no need to as everyone gets on base and then they all go home when the last batter hits the ball. Very interesting!

Right now our pine tree, the fir trees and the walnut trees are all dropping pollen, so it is no wonder that my allergies are giving me fits. It would probably help if I stayed in doors, but when the weather is this nice out it is hard for me to stay indoors.

Too Early to be this Hot!

I knew that it was going to be a hot day today as I checked the temperature before I had breakfast and it was already over seventy degrees out in the shade. After eating I went out and mowed the front lawn, it was too hot already to try and do the whole yard. After finishing the front lawn I put the mower away and got out my grass shears and trimmed the grass along the edge of the gardens in the back yard.

After sitting down in the back yard for a little while to rest and cool off I went into the house washed my hands and face to get the pollens off and refresh myself a little. The mail was just getting here so I went out and got it, there really was nothing worth opening so most of it wound up it the recycling.

By this time it was getting close to lunch time so I reheated up some of the shrimp gumbo that I made the other day. Kathleen had just made it downstairs and made herself some breakfast. After a while we decided that we needed to go to Wal-Mart for a couple things we forgot the other day.

Finally a while later Kathleen came back downstairs and then we took off. I got a coupe dozen tomato plants, a dandelion weeder, some Roundup and a pair of Frisker rose shears that have a special section that removes the thorns.

We also picked up some deli cheeses from the deli and some jalapeño bread to make some sandwiches for dinner tonight. We also picked up some baby lettuce, an avocado, lemons and limes and a few other things that I cannot remember.

I think that the temperature today got up into the nineties and it is suppose to do that again tomorrow. This is much too early in the year to have that kind of temperatures. It was kind of funny to see the snow still in the foot hills and having to use the air conditioner in the car to stay cool.

Too Hot Too Fast

I read this cartoon this morning as I was reading the paper after breakfast and just knew that I would have to post it in my blog today. For those of you who do not know it, Kathleen always wears two pair of glasses and the ones that are not on her nose are usually on her head and often times she cannot find them.

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

Our neighbor's son stopped by this morning after I had finished eating and asked for suggestions as her neighbors on the other side of her were really noisy and she was not sleeping well. We talked for a while and I gave him one of the guys cell phone number.

After he left I went outside and dug out some blackberries that were growing just on the other side of the fence. Andrea, Toni and Brandon came over for a while this morning and so I went inside and visited with them for a while, but after about a half an hour I went back outside to finish what I had started.

As I was going inside again Kathleen was coming out with Brandon as they were getting ready to leave. So after cleaning up I went out front to say good bye to everyone. Then I sat in my chair for a while to rest up as I had gotten really hot while working outside. I am not sure what the temperature was today but it was getting close to ninety degrees.

I did not get much more done today as it was just too hot to do much outside and I was tired enough that I just kind of wanted to veg out. It is supposed to be in the ninety's for the next few days, but my body is not ready for that warn a temperature just yet. It usually takes a while gradually building up to high temperatures before I can handle it very well; and even then I do not usually do too well.

This would have been a good time to be at the coast, except neither Kathleen nor I have felt really that well.

Off to a Slow Start

After breakfast this morning I went outside and raked the cherry blossoms from the back yard and then put the fertilizer on the front and back lawn. Then after coming inside and cleaning up I got the mail.

Kathleen was meeting with one of the ladies from the church today and shortly after she left I went into the kitchen and made myself a smoked sausage with some sour kraut. After I had eaten I made a pot of shrimp gumbo.

While the gumbo was simmering I went outside and sprayed the roses and then pruned some branches from the cherry trees , the Rose of Sharon and the arborvitae; but the time I had filled the barrel up I noticed that it was getting really warm out and I was getting tired so I went into the house, cleaned up and then had a bowl of gumbo.

After that I went into the living room and sat in my chair and fell asleep. I think that I must have dozed off and on for a couple hours. Kathleen finally got back around 1700 and reminded me that she had a class at Montivilla Sewing Center tonight at 1830.

Tonight for dinner she made a shrimp salad which tasted really good. After dinner I gathered up all the dishes and loaded the dishwasher and started it up.

Say Sue how was your trip to Grease on Broadway was it as good as you hoped it would be? Jennifer Happy Birthday, I am guessing that you will not see this until Thursday but just in case you look at your laptop Wednesday tonight I know that your birthday is 05/15.

Spring/Summer begins Tomorrow!

This morning was generally overcast and by 0900 it had started to drizzle something that continued just about the rest of the day. Kathleen was up early today and so we made some hash brown potatoes and I poached some eggs for myself and she made some egg yokes to put over the hash browns. Kathleen also had a couple sausages and I had a couple veggie sausages.

She did not finish her sausage so I cut it up and added it to her egg whites so that I can have it for an omelet with some egg beaters Thursday. The mail had come, so I went and got it and did not find anything worth keeping so I took the paper and junk mail out to the recycling bin and brought the garbage can back.

After a while I went outside and washed Kathleen's SUV, I like to do that while it is raining as it saves on the amount of water that I use and also the dirt come off easier. The rain helps loosen up the dirt and it is easier for me to wash the vehicles and I do not use as much energy that way.

I was still pretty worn out after washing the big SUV; there is just a lot of surface area there and no matter how easy it is; there is still a lot of vehicle to wash. So I sat in my chair for a while and dozed off and on until about 1530 or so.

I was going to take Kathleen out to lunch today, but she had not gotten dressed by 1600 and said that she had an upset stomach; it almost sounds like what I had this last weekend.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made some rice; she put some cheese on hers and I added a can of sardines and then cheese on mine. Not the greatest of meals, but neither one of us felt that great.

A Day to Recover

Saturday was the day that we celebrated our thirty-ninth anniversary, Mother's Day and Kathleen's birthday over at Andrea and John's. I did not do a lot Saturday morning as I wanted to be somewhat alert when we got together with the children and grandchildren. Even with that said by the time we left Andrea and John's I was really tired and my ankle was really throbbing.

Just about all of the grandchildren came over and sat by me on the couch; none of them stayed too long, because they were having too much fun playing with each other. I felt bad that I did not have the energy to do much else but sit around, but I needed to keep pretty quiet and rest my ankle so that I did not open up the wound.

Then Sunday I was really tired and not feeling very well so I decided to stay home; Kathleen could not get herself ready in time to go either so we both missed church and Sunday School. I had Kathleen call over to Aaron and Tami's to find out if there had been a decision by Pastor Tom to accept our accepting his candidacy and they told us that he had. I guess that he will start the first Sunday in August, so Pastor Mark our transition pastor will stay on until then.

Then today I felt pretty good when I got up so after a while I went outside and pruned off the old growth from the ferns; I did not get them all done, but I did fill up the forty gallon barrel. After I did that I mowed the lawn and by then I was too tired to do anything else so I went inside to make myself some lunch.

Kathleen came downstairs as I was starting to make my lunch and asked if I was up to going grocery shopping. I was really tired and so I told her that maybe after I had a chance to rest I might be able to go. I still was not feeling too great but I changed my clothes and got ready to go to Winco.

We had not been to Winco since March so it had been a while; after a couple hours wandering around Winco and over two hundred dollars we wrapped up our shopping. As I was loading the groceries into the cart I must have twisted and turned incorrectly as I felt a twinge in my back.

It still hurt as I unloaded the SUV and brought the groceries into the house, but after I changed my clothes and sat down and rested for a while my back started to feel better. I was still really tired and could hardly get up out of my chair for dinner, but other than feeling tired I felt pretty good.

I took the bandage off my cut and it looked pretty good, there was just a little blood on the bandage probably just from rubbing off the initial scab. I am going to leave it off tonight and see how it does, if it does not ooze I will probably leave it off.

I can see by how it looks now just how deep the wound originally was as there is now a deep grove just below my inside left ankle. I am hoping that when it is totally healed it will fill in; I am not sure weather stitches would have helped with that or not.

Bad ending to a Pretty Good Day

When I woke up this morning my eyes were almost glued shut. I think that this verifies the fact that some allergens were bothering my eyes yesterday. So when I got up this morning I washed my face with baby shampoo, that way I could really do a thorough job of washing and not worry about making my eyes any worse.

I also shaved this morning as Kathleen and I were going to go over to Alyssa's and watch the grandchildren while Alyssa ran some errands. Unfortunately my bowels were not cooperating this morning so I had to stay home and as it turned out it was a good thing I did.

Finally around 1000 I started to feel better so I went outside and pruned some of the roses that needed some pruning and also some of the blueberries that had not wintered over well.

The sun finally came out and so I decided that I would re-roto till the garden area as it has not rained much in the last week or so and the ground was not like gumbo. By the time I finished roto-tilling and raking out the garden I was getting pretty tired and my wrists were really sore.

So I went into the house and cleaned up then I hot waxed my hands and that helped alleviate the soreness. After taking the hot wax off I made myself some organic roasted red pepper and tomato soup and added the rest of the rice and beans from a couple nights ago.

Then after resting for a while I decided to pick up the rugs in the kitchen and sweep and mop the floor. I had gotten the broom and dust pan out and went to get a couple sticks out of the cookie jar when I dropped the glass lid and it shattered all over the place. So I swept the glass up and dumped it into the garbage.

Kathleen called and said that she was at Fred Meyer and wanted to know if there was anything that I could think of that she needed to pick up. I did not realize that I had gotten cut until I started noticing rather large puddles of blood on the floor. Then when I looked down at my legs I could see where I was bleeding; so I told Kathleen that I had cut myself and needed to get off the phone.

I grabbed some paper towels and tried to soak up the blood on my ankle and foot; my wool clog were soaked and it took five paper towels to soak up the blood that was still coming out of the cut. I must have nicked a vein just below my ankle.

Once I got the bleeding stopped I went into the living room and sat in my easy chair and put my foot up on the ottoman for about fifteen minutes. Once I had gone that length of time without any more blood I soaked up the blood from my clog and then put a clean towel in my clog; just in case it either started bleeding again and also to soak up more of the blood from my clog.

Then I took a couple more paper towels and mopped up the blood pools on the kitchen floor. Then I got the mop out and got it wet and mopped the kitchen floor; something that I started to do about forty-five minutes before. Then I went and sat down in my easy chair.

Kathleen came home after a while and had gotten some sirloin tips and mash potatoes for dinner. After she had some time to sit and relax I asked her if she would put some Neosporin ointment and a bandage on my cut so while she was getting those items I took another paper towel, wet it and cleaned of all the dried blood from my foot.

After dinner I gave Kathleen her anniversary present that I had hidden under the dinning room table. I gave her a micro-wave for the upstairs so that she could heat up her hot pad or make some popcorn or hot beverage. It is something that she has wanted for a while and while it is not the most romantic thing and I have never been much of a romantic person but more of a practical person.

It is hard to believe that it will be thirty-nine years tomorrow; it is kind of ironic as this year everything is on the same day as it was back in 1969 only we are a "little" older.

What Weird Weather

This morning it was overcast when I got up and it was suppose to rain off and on most of the day. After breakfast I washed the dishes and then got ready to meet with the guys. We were not having breakfast this morning only meeting together at 0930.

On the way to Larry's house I stopped by the post office to mail my Mother's Mother Day card and then stopped off at Kmart to pick up some Scott's lawn fertilizer as I was suppose to put it on the lawn this last Monday.

There were a couple extra guys there today and we ran really long, in fact I asked one of the guys what time it was and it was 1220, so I said that I needed to take off as Kathleen and I were planning on going to the grocery store today. Kathleen was not dressed when I got home and so I changed my clothes and then went out and mowed the lawn. I thought that I could mow the lawn and then put the fertilizer on the lawn.

Well, I finished mowing and when I got the fertilizer bag out and read the instructions it said that for best results it should not rain for twenty-four hours and the temperature should be above sixty degrees. Well, since it was suppose to rain off and on for the next couple days and it was only in the fifties I decided that I would wait until next week when it is suppose to be in the eighties.

Then I went inside, cleaned up and made myself some lunch. Kathleen finally got dressed and wanted to go shopping around 1500 but by then I was feeling really tired. Part of it was my eyes were really bothering me for allergies and I could hardly keep them open.

I took some more allergy medication and that helped but I was still tired, not worn out but more just plain old tired. Kathleen got busy and made some brownies and never did make it shopping. At first she was going to go to Fred Meyer and pick up her prescriptions, but she was even too tired to do that.

Finally for dinner she heated up the rice and black beans, some finger potatoes and heated up a salmon patty for me. It never did rain today so if it had been over sixty degrees I could have put the fertilizer down.

Kind of a Day of Rest

When I woke up this morning I was not as sore as I was yesterday morning and I was going over the things that I needed or at least wanted to get done today. Yesterday after running the dishwasher I unloaded it and then put in all the dishes in that had been piling up. I had talked to Kathleen about starting it up yesterday morning but she forgot to so I started it up last night and by that time there were quite a few things that did not fit into it.

So this morning after finishing breakfast I had enough dishes in the dishwasher that I ran it again. While it was running I went through the coupons and took out the ones that had expired and also the ones that we need to use this week when we go shopping...at least I keep hoping that we get to go shopping as we are running out of some of the meal essentials.

While I was sorting coupons Andrea called and wanted to drop off the Kitchen Aid mixer and a few tamales that she made. She was wondering if Kathleen was up yet, since she had gotten to be around 0430 this morning and it was only 0930 I told her that she was not up yet.

Andrea stopped by after she dropped John off at his shop and dropped off the mixer and tamales and I gave her the mail that had come for her and a couple other things as well. Kathleen had said after she got up that she heard a vehicle starting up and though that I was going somewhere but I told her it was Andrea.

The dishwasher finished and so I emptied it and put the dishes away and read the mail when it arrived. I got some of my medications today and also an update for one of my software programs in the mail today as well as the credit union statement.

After finishing the rest of the mail I got on the computer and reconciled my credit union accounts. I did the saving and my checking accounts and they both came out right on the money the first time. Sometimes I have to go back and recheck it, but I always get them to reconcile.

Kathleen was fixing breakfast for herself and I made myself lunch; it kind of shows how far off our schedules are; I am usually about a meal ahead of her.


After she finished breakfast, she went upstairs and got ready to go meet with one of the women from church. While she was getting ready she said that I could put up the light fixtures in the upstairs bathroom.

She painted the ceiling in the bathroom yesterday and I had been holding off putting them up until she got the ceiling painted. So by the time she left, around 1330, I had two of them up and shortly after she left I finished putting the cover on the light/fan/heater/night light unit.

I then went downstairs and scrubbed the downstairs bathroom sink and then did a little reading. Kathleen came home around 1630 and talked about going grocery shopping; I suggested maybe tomorrow as I was tired enough and did not feel like spending a couple hours in the grocery store.

She asked what to do about dinner and I suggested using the tamales that Andrea brought over and using the left over rice from the other night and opening a can of black beans and mixing it with the rice. She thought that sounded pretty good so that is what we had. She mashed the beans and added some cheddar to the rice bean mix and heated it and the tamales up in the micro-wave.

Getting Old is not Much Fun

Yesterday I spent about five hours working outside in the back yard and when I woke up this morning I was really sore but I still needed to mow the lawn. Well around 0945 I decided to go outside and mow, the weather was pretty overcast and it looked like it was getting darker outside and looking like it would start to rain at any moment.

While mowing the front lawn it got really dark and I was wondering if I would be able to finish mowing the front lawn. It never did rain and I was able to finish mowing the whole yard. While mowing the back yard I noticed that a mole has been playing in the lawn; this was never a problem when we had Reggie pacing around the back yard.

After putting the mower away I decided that since it was not raining yet; it still looked like it was going to start raining at any time, I got out my line trimmer and went into the field behind the fence and whacked away at the weeds and blackberry bushes that were growing there. It had been almost a month since I did it and I was surprised at how high everything had grown.

I usually try to keep a fifteen or twenty foot barrier between our yard and the tall grass as in the summer time it all dries out and is a fire hazard so I like to keep the grass cut so that there is a fire break so to speak. I also like to keep the blackberries cut down so that they do not wind up climbing into my grapes and then into the roses.

By the time I finished that I went into the house and cleaned up and rested for a while. My body was really sore by now and I could hardly move. The mail came as I came into the kitchen so I went out and got it...nothing really worth while unless you want to count the Costco coupon flier.

I was showing Kathleen the front gardens and she was trying to figure out where some of the plants were; they were covered up by that vine that I had been working on.

For lunch I reheated the left over Mexican pizza from one day last week. There were only three small pieces left, but it was just enough for lunch.

After resting for a little longer I decided that I would go out and try to pull the rest of the vines out and that way Kathleen could at least see where the plants were. It was so bad that one of the hostas was hidden, so I had to be really careful when I was pulling the vines out.

Well it was 1530 by the time I made it back inside and I had spent another five hours out in the yard; yesterday I had to be careful not to get a sunburn and today I had to stay busy as it was only in the sixties and very little sun.

We were going to go watch Zander's T-ball game tonight but Kathleen was not feeling very well and I was really sore and could not drive by myself; I even took an extra dose of Tylenol to see if I could reduce some of the pain. So for dinner Kathleen heated up a couple cans of Progresso soup.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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

Well, it has been a couple days since I blogged so let me catch up with what has been going on.

Saturday morning Kathleen and I went to watch Becca's football (soccer) match; it was really interesting to watch the youngsters play. They would all stand around and wait for just one person to kick the ball, it was almost like they were thinking that I kicked it last time so it must be your turn to kick it now.

Then when they would kick it they would kick it kind of toward the net but would hardly ever dribble the ball toward it. The defense would then run alongside the kicker and whoever got to the ball first got to kick it next. Quite different from the soccer that I remembered in jr. high, high school and college soccer, but since I did not start playing until jr. high I have no idea on how I would have done at that age.

Then on our way home we stopped at the bread store and picked up a few items and then at Western Tool to get some more sanding disks for my random orbital sander and some sanding belts for my belt sander. Then we passed a flooring place so we stopped by and looked around for a couple hours; still trying to pick out flooring for our upstairs and probably the rest of the non bathroom and kitchen areas.

By the time we got home I was ready to take a nap; I had originally planned on mowing the lawn, but the sky leaked just enough to get the lawn wet and since I had just mowed the lawn it really did not need it. I had just wanted to mow it when it was dry, but of course that did not happen.

Then yesterday the candidate for our senior pastor position was preaching so we both went to church to hear him. Then in the afternoon I just kind of took it easy as I wanted to be rested up enough to go to the business meeting to vote whether or not to offer him the position.

After some short discussion we voted and by a little over 97% margin he was voted in, so now we just have to wait to see if he is going to accept it. Early indications are that he will, but he has said that he would not be able to start until the end of July.

Then this morning I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go for a walk; I had not decided on how far I would walk, I wanted to see how I felt. I had an idea that it would be on the short side as I had not walked for a while and I did not want to over due. As it turned out my hip started to bother me so since I was about at the midway point of a place to come home I decided that I would finish going in the same direction rather than retracing my tracks.

Once I got home I was undecided whether to mow the lawn or pick up the edging; I thought that I would quickly scoop up the sod from where I had edged the other day and then mow. Well as I was picking up the sod I wound up doing some weeding and pulling out some of the plethora of violets that were growing in the back side of the berries and also in the raised garden where the cherry trees are. By the time I got done picking up the sod and weeding I was really tired and it was about 1530; since I went out there about 1030 I thought that I needed to go inside and make myself some lunch.

After eating something I decided that I needed to sit down and rest, so I plopped myself down in my easy chair and went through the Eddie Bauer catalog that came in today’s mail. I realized as soon as I sat down that I would not be getting up to mow, so now I just have to hope that the rain that is suppose to start again tomorrow will hold off until tomorrow afternoon.

I think that I will end this now; I need to see if I can get Kathleen to make something for dinner.

A Nice Day at Last

This morning we had Grandparents day at Becca's school so we left the house around 0915 and were the first grandparents there. Becca's other grandparents were the next ones to arrive so Becca had four grandparents and most of the children did not have any.

By the time it was over about a quarter of the class had someone there, but with the times being what they are many grandparents are still working and many probably do not have their grandparents living close by. So while I was happy for Becca that all of her grandparents were there I felt sorry for most of the children who did not have anyone.

Our own children faced this most of the time as we lived far enough from both sets of grandparents that they could not come to these activities when they were in school. That is one reason that I tried to go to as many of the children's events as I could.

One of the activities for the day was the children had received a five dollar gift from the PTA to buy books at the Scholastic Book Fair; Becca had already spent hers...a true Roush! So each set of her grandparents gave her ten dollars to by a book for herself and Alexis.

After school let out we took the books and poster that Becca got to her house; Becca rides the bus so she went with the bus. When we got to her house there was no one home, so while we waited I got out my garden tools that I keep in the car and pulled clover out of their lawn.

As I was doing that Tami and Becca came walking down the street from the bus stop; Tami had taken Archie for a walk while she was waiting for Becca's bus to arrive. We waited around for awhile while Tami went to pick Alexis up from her school and then we played with all of them for a while. Before long both girls were cuddled up on my lap and probably could have gone to sleep without much trouble at all.

I went outside for a while this afternoon and thought about doing some work in the gardens but I realized that I was too tired and decided to go inside and rest for a while. The rest eventually lead in me falling asleep in my chair and by the time I woke up I decided that I would forgo the yard work as it appeared that I was running on fumes and needed to recharge my energy level.

This afternoon Andrea came over and she and Kathleen went to look at some yarn. The had not come back by 1800 so I heated up some left-over macaroni and cheese that Kathleen made last night.

Finaly an Almost Nice Day

This morning was one of the nicer mornings in a while; I slept in longer than I usually do as I was really tired. I had taken a long nap yesterday and was wired enough last night that I did not get to sleep until almost midnight. I was not really wide awake this morning when I got up but I was suppose to go have breakfast with the guys this morning so I needed to get up.

I was still too tired by the time it was time to leave that I decided to stay home. Around 1030 I felt well enough to mow the lawn, I knew that I needed to get it done this morning as Kathleen had a doctor's appointment early this afternoon over in Tigard and I knew that I would not feel like mowing the lawn when we got home.

Tomorrow they have been predicting more rain, so it seemed like it was this morning or nothing. After mowing the lawn I really felt worn out and dozed off for a while before we left for Tigard. After we got back I was glad that I had mowed the lawn this morning as I was really tired. In fact I dozed a little bit before dinner; I sure am getting tired of being tired.

When we got home I called Sue and talked to her and Mom for a while; I had a Mother's Day packaged sent to Sue's house and saw online that it had been delivered and I wanted to make sure that the got it okay.

Sue has a busy day tomorrow she has to take Jennifer to the airport early in the morning and them Bill to the hospital as he has some lumps on his back that his doctor wants to check out to make sure that they are not malignant.

Well, tomorrow Becca has a Grandparents day at her school so I am hoping that I feel well enough to go and that Kathleen can get up early enough to go as well.

Anyone Ready for Spring?

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

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

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

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

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

Not Quite this Bad but Sometimes I Wonder

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We're Back!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guess What...More Rain!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Too Tired Last Night

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is it Time to Start Building an Arc Yet?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Wacky Weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow What Wacky Weekend Weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fickled Weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe Tomorrow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Almost a Wasted Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well I Did It!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow What Wonderful Weekend Weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Story of an Old Country Church

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a Difference Ten Degrees Makes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things are a Changing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ugh, Another Yucky Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Strange Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More April Showers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Wild and Wacky Weather Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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