Follies of Friday

It rained most of the night, but when I got up and went for my walk the rain had stopped. Everything was still really wet, but there was not rain, so I decided to go for a walk and hope that the rain would hold off until I got back...and it did!

Well, I had my last cold cereal for a while; it is officially time to start my hot cereal; more often than not that means oatmeal. I finished off my shredded wheat, so that we will not have a partial box open for months at a time and it will not be taking up room in the cereal cabinet.

After eating, I emptied the dishwasher then went into the living room and read the paper. The mail came before I had finished the paper, so I went and got it, opened it up, read it and then finished the paper.

I had been watching a show and they said that one could fertilize roses one last time this year, so I went out to the garage and got my systemic rose food and spread it around the roses. It is suppose to encourage root growth and prepare the plants for winter. I also took the kitchen compost and deposited it into the compost tumbler and cranked it over a few times.

About two minutes after I got back into the house it started to pour, so that will help the fertilizer disintegrate and get to the roses quickly. I could tell when I went outside that it was going to start to rain, and I wanted to make sure that I got the roses fertilized before the rain came.

Kathleen needed to do some running around, so I went with her, we needed to stop off at our old bank and turn in our safety deposit box, I wanted to stop off at the True Value Hardware store and check if they could order a part for my mower...they could not but recommended that I try the Parkrose Mower shop, which was just around the corner.

They could not order it either, but gave me another suggestion, but I have not had a chance to try there yet. Next we went to Trader Joe's and on the way it got to hailing so hard that one could barely see the road. I think we had about a quarter of an inch on the hood and the wipers at full speed could not keep up with the volume coming down.

The road was completely covered and it looked like it has snowed! The roads were even slick, especially when starting up from a traffic light or stop sign. After Trader Joe's Kathleen wanted to stop off at a fabric shop, so I waited in the car while she went in and looked around. She found some really nice silk, but did not get it because she wants to find something to make first.

We finally got home about 1515 and heated up some of the left-over spaghetti from last night for lunch. Then after a while Kathleen took off for Fred Meyer's to pick up a prescription and a few other things. She also had some other running around to do. I was feeling too worn out so I just stayed home. It seems shopping wears me out faster than just about anything else.

She finally got home about 1900 and cooked a yam and heated up some of the other left-overs from this week. So today was a left-over day and we have just about cleaned out the refrigerator. The is still some left-over salmon cakes, but I think that I will be having them tomorrow morning for breakfast along with my egg beaters.

Well, today has certainly been an entertaining day as far as the weather goes. It has gone from raining, to sun shining, to hailing to sun shining, to raining and back to showers again. Never a dull moment in the weather department here in Oregon. I think that is about it for tonight, so I am just going to say good night and call it a day.

Trudging Through Thursday

I had a pretty good idea when I went to bed last night that I would not be getting up at my usual time this morning and I slept for over an hour longer than I usually do. I had kind of thought that I might not walk this morning, but I felt rested when I did get up so I did go for a walk.

Because I started the day late, I was behind most of the morning, I did not eat breakfast until after 0900 and by the time I finished the paper and the mail it was after 1000. After breakfast I was several pans from last nights dinner and this morning’s breakfast as well as several other things that I did not want to put into the dishwasher.

By the time I got all that done, I needed to get ready for my eye exam, so I cleaned up and changed my clothes. Kathleen had gone back to bed after I took off for my walk and did not get up again until after 1100, so I told her that I was leaving at 1245 and if she was not ready to go I was going to go anyway.

Some how she was ready, so we took off; while I was having my eyes examined she went over to the place where one orders their eye glasses. When I finished with my exam she was still looking but had not found anything. So she will have to try another shop. The doctor told me that my eyes were very healthy, probably the only part of my body that is, and that I did not need another prescription; so that will save us some money.

My vision was really blurry after the exam, from having my eyes dilated, so it was a good thing that Kathleen was there to drive home. I have always driven myself home, and I probably could have done it today, but it was much easier to have someone else do it.

Once home I changed clothes and made myself some lunch, and after that I lay down on the sofa for a while. I did not go to sleep, well, maybe for a little while, but I did feel better and my eyes were not as blurry.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made salmon cakes and mashed potatoes, I think she was realizing that if she did not do anything with the salmon it was going to go bad. I had not grown tired of it, but I know that she had.

Well, today was a really unproductive day, other than doing some dishes; I did not get anything else done. I was either too tired, or my eye sight was too blurry to do much of anything, I guess that I just need to be glad that I did not have to get anything done and leave it at that.

Tonight or tomorrow it is suppose to start raining, we need the rain so it is a good thing; but I kind of hate to see it start to rain this time of year, because it means that it will not stop until mid July next year. Not that it rains everyday, but it means that the days of sunshine are going to be few and far in between.

If that is not depressing enough I am not sure what is. On that cheerful note I think that I am just going to say good night!

Waining Wednesday

I took a shorter walk this morning, only for a little over an hour. For some reason, I have been tired all day and even debated whether to get up when I did to go for a walk. If I am feeling this way tomorrow, I think that I will opt for staying in bed and trying to get some more sleep. I think I have been getting eight or so hours of sleep each night, but I have been getting progressively more tired as the week progresses.

After eating, reading the paper and mail, I went out and raked leaves. It has not been very windy, so there were not a lot of leaves, and it only took about fifteen minutes to rake the leaves that had fallen since yesterday.

After cleaning up, I went inside and logged onto my credit union account and paid my American Express bill. It was for my gold card which is a charge card and is paid in full each month, so I like to make sure that I do that as soon as it gets here.

I also checked the responses from three of the four lenders, the forth one will reply tomorrow as he is off Tuesday and Wednesdays. So hopefully I will be able to make my decision tomorrow or Friday. I have pretty much narrowed it down to two lenders, one of them being the one I am waiting on.

Kathleen heated up a can of chicken gumbo soup for me for lunch and after that we took off to Winco to do some grocery shopping. I was tired when we started out and really tired when we got back.

Unfortunately I started to read instead of taking a nap, so I did not get any more rest. We were suppose to go to church tonight for a business meeting, but we both were really too tired to go. Kathleen just has not been sleeping too well and I am not sure what my problem is.

I have an eye appointment tomorrow afternoon, we probably will leave early as Kathleen still needs to get her prescription filled and I will pick out my frames and everything before I get my exam. That way I will just have to turn in my prescription and be pretty much good to go.

Kathleen made some spaghetti with meat sauce tonight for dinner, I did not feel like I ate that much, but I feel pretty stuffed. Well, I am tired enough that I think that I will just say my good nights now and call it a day.

Tuesday's Turning

The seasons are changing, the hostas leaves are turning yellow, the leaves are falling from the trees, I wish that I could wake up one morning and they all would be on the ground instead of the slow process that they are going through. I almost need to rake the front lawn everyday or else the wind will be blowing them into my neighbor's yards, making me really popular with them.

My morning walks have become a habit now, I look forward to them if for no other reason than it makes my back feel better after walking for a half mile or so. I had a couple days when my back did not hurt, but the general rule is that until I am up and moving for about fifteen to twenty minutes my back is really stiff and hurts when I move (walk).

Today must have been my lucky day; I found a $3 bill on my walk!

I had an egg this morning; it is the first egg that I have cooked for myself in over a month. I have had them when I have gone out to eat breakfast with the guys or the men's breakfast, but I have not cooked one for myself as I usually have egg beaters. I also fried up an egg white from an egg yoke that Kathleen made for herself one morning. I put it on top of the last two salmon biscuits and I also toasted a couple slices of raisin nut bread with PBJ on them.

After breakfast, I loaded the dishes into the dishwasher and started it up, then went in and read the paper. The mail came and I got it, but there really was nothing there, so it and the paper went into the recycling bag. By this time the dishwasher was done, so I emptied it and put everything away.

The hedge out front was getting pretty scraggly so I went out and trimmed it. It does not seem like it was that long ago that I had trimmed it, but it needed doing again. Hopefully this will be the last time until next spring. After finishing trimming the hedge, I raked up the twigs and put them in my barrel to be chipped at a later date.

By the time I got the outside work done, I washed up and made myself some lunch. Kathleen said that she could tell that I had fish for lunch without my telling her...she can usually tell when I have had sardines.

After eating, I decided to take a short nap before we had to head out for Kathleen's eye appointment. While I was waiting for her at the eye doctor's I made myself an appointment for Thursday. It had been a little over two years since I had my eyes examined and at my age they recommend having it done every two years.

After we got home I sat down to compare the home equity line of credit bids that I got and I think I need to send them all an e-mail asking them all the same questions and try to get answers so that I can compare apples to apples. Right now they all are using their own language and it is a little confusing.

They all have told me that I have excellent credit and have offered me some pretty low interest rates, so now it is just a matter of the difference in terms and other options that I might want to choose.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made a couple frozen dinners, not really my favorite, but neither one of us felt like cooking anything from scratch. We have needed to go grocery shopping for over a week, I am hoping that tomorrow will be that day. Well, that is about it from this side of the world, so I think that I will just say good night.

Mostly Mild Monday

This morning’s walk was pretty uneventful, I did pick up a couple bags of trash at the high school, but compared to Saturday's it was nothing. When I got home I made myself some shredded wheat, puffed rice and raisins. I put my dishes into the dishwasher when I finished and then went into the living room to read the paper.

After finishing the paper I went upstairs and gathered up the laundry and started the first of three loads. While the first load of laundry was in the washer the mail came, so I got it and opened it up...not much there other than a couple of magazines. Next I gathered up the trash, took it outside and then I went out and raked the leaves in the front lawn.

After I finished the front lawn, I went inside and put the first load into the dryer and then loaded the washer up again. Going back outside again I pruned the roses and dug out some tree suckers, by this time it was time to take the clothes out of the dryer and put the next load in and start up the last load in the washer. I folded the clothes and put them away and then went back downstairs and watered the gardens in the back yard and the veggies.

Kathleen left to take her SUV to John's to have the oil changed and do some running around with Andrea just after I came back into the house. I folded the next couple batches of laundry and then made myself some lunch.

I had a couple of the salmon biscuits and some yogurt and then went into the living room to read the magazines that came to day. Somewhere along the way I fell asleep and woke up when John called trying to get a hold of Andrea; so I called Kathleen and had her have Andrea call John.

Kathleen finally came home about 1830 and made a pot of rice and cut up an avocado and a couple tomatoes. I had some cold salmon with my dinner, but Kathleen was getting a little tired of the salmon, I am not, in fact I think I am going to have a salmon omelet for breakfast tomorrow.

Well, for a day that started out rather overcast and chilly it turned out to be a really, really nice day. Tomorrow Kathleen has an eye appointment so I will need to go along to drive afterwards, we still need to go grocery shopping, I was hoping to do that today, but it just did not happen. I think that is all I can think about, so I am just going to sign off and say good night.

Snoozing Sunday

This morning was a pretty typical Sunday, we did spend a little more time after church talking to people and so we did not get home until after 1200. That might sound early, but it should have been a little after 1100, so we must have spent over an hour talking.

Once home Kathleen made some biscuits and put salmon, grated carrots and cheese in them. They really tasted good although I thought that she added a little too much salt. Her idea of a little salt is a lot different from mine, so while she thought they tasted just fine, I could not get past the saltiness of them.

Anyway after dinner and putting the dishes into the dishwasher, I went into the living room to read the paper, comics and of course watch Sunday afternoon football. I had thought about taking a walk, but I thought that I would not push myself and give myself a real day off.

Anyway, it is getting pretty close to the time we should be having supper, so I think that I will go see what Kathleen has planned. So good night for now, talk to you more tomorrow!

Saturday's Summer Surrender

I slept in a little again this morning; it was just that kind of morning. It was a little after 0700 before I got out of the house and started on my walk, I decided to go right to the high school and see how it looked and then if it was not it bad shape I could reverse my normal route and still get a good walk in.

Well, it is a good thing I started at the high school rather than end there; I found out once I got there that there was not only a game but also a dance last night so the parking lots and the football field were rather full. I lost track of how many bags of trash I picked up; I would go from one garbage can to the next emptying my bag at each can. Sometimes in the parking lots there was enough trash that I would empty my bag two or three times at the same can.

Anyway I finally got home a little after 0900 and made myself breakfast. The contractor who is custom making our vanity cabinets had called and was going to come over with his bid while I was out on my walk, so I had Kathleen call him back and have him come over about 1030. After breakfast, I emptied the dishwasher and then read the paper.

He called and said that he was running a little late, and finally got her about 1100. We had a good visit and the bid came in very reasonable so we told him that we would go ahead with it and he will start on them in a couple weeks. He was going to tile the floors for us as well, but decided that he did not want to be going up and down the stairs to do the tile work, so we will use the other contractor to do that as well as the other work he is doing for us.

After he left, I called one of the other lending institutions to see what kind of offer they had for us for our home equity loan. The interest rate was a little higher than the first one, but they did not need any closing costs, so I will need to factor that in when we make our decision.

After taking care of that, I went outside, I was going to rake the leaves, but decided that I would do a little weeding and then rototill the section of the side yard just east of the back door. I had been weeding it, but I thought that rototilling it would slow the weeds down a little.

After coming inside and cleaning up, I made myself a Morning Star veggie burger on some toasted bread heels with onion, pickles and melted cheese; I also had the leftover potato salad from last night to finish off my meal. I decided that I was tired enough that I would lie down and take a nap; trouble was that I turned on the Ohio State game and did not get any sleep, just some rest.

Well, we are going out tonight to celebrate Tami's birthday, so we are just about ready to eat, and I think that I will take a quick shower before that, so I am going to say good night a little early tonight.

A Fun Friday

I slept in this morning because I was not planning on going for a walk because I figured that my back would really be sore this morning. I wound up getting almost ten hours horizontal time and actually felt better than I had in a long time...maybe the pain pills I took before going to bed might have helped. Anyway, this morning I was suppose to go to breakfast with the guys, so even though I slept in I still had almost an hour to kill before I needed to meet up with them, so I decided that I would take a short walk.

I stayed away from the high school and so I was able to spent about a half hour just walking, I do not remember having the usual pain that I have for the first half mile or so this morning, in fact I started out walking at a pretty good clip and it usually takes me that half mile or so to get up to that speed...maybe I need to fall more often!

Anyway, I did have a good breakfast with the guys, I had poached eggs, as I felt that they were probably a healthier choice and some hash browns that I put the eggs on and topped with Tabasco sauce. The eggs were not much different than the over easy ones that I normally got, except they did not taste greasy, so that might be my new egg of choice when I go out to eat.

On my way back home I stopped off at the local Wells Fargo office to check on a home equity loan for the remodeling that we are planning on doing. I was able to get pre-approved right there, but I felt that the interest rate was a little high.

The mail and the paper were there waiting for me when I got back, so I opened the mail and set the paper on my easy chair to read later. Yesterday while at Costco, Kathleen had picked up a brochure on home equity financing so I though that later I would go on the internet and fill out the forms.

Kathleen wanted to go back to Montivilla Sewing Center to take back her new machine and bring the boxes and other things from her old machine, so shortly after I got back I loaded up the SUV and off we went.

She had them open up a new machine and set it up in their training class room and did several stitches to make sure that it was working properly, after a loooooong time, when she was satisfied we loaded everything back into the SUV and went home. It was getting around lunch time so Kathleen asked me what I wanted and so I suggested the leftover flank steak and noodles from the other night.

After I ate, I called my insurance agent with a question on my revised life insurance; he was out of the office so I left a note to have him call me. Then I called my financial adviser to ask about taking out a home equity loan or taking the money out of my IRA, but she was out of the office until Monday, so I left another voice message for her to call me back.

Since I had the phone in my hand, I thought that I would call my Mom and see how she was doing. I had a good talk and have to make myself a note to call more often. It does not cost me anything to call, I usually do not think about it until after dinner and that is past her bed time.

After talking with Mom, I went outside and raked leaves, both our front lawn and my neighbor's, as most of the leaves were off my walnut tree. That took less than a half hour and while I was doing it my insurance agent called me back. He said that it was the most confusing thing that he had seen in quite a while and that he would do some checking to see if he could get a simpler answer. He sent me an e-mail later and said it was not much clearer but he gave me an example which kind of illustrated the situation.

After putting the rake and things away, I went to the back yard to prune roses, dig tree suckers and cut out blackberries. Sometimes it seems like I am doing the same thing day after day...kind of like the movie groundhog day!

After finishing outside, I cleaned up and then got on the internet and filled out the on line forms for the home equity loan. Within a couple minutes I got four responses back from different lenders and a couple minutes after that one of them called me. I had not even had a chance to read the information and so I listened to what he had to say and told him that I would need a couple days to digest it all and had him call me back Monday.

I was a little surprised at how much lower the payments were that at the bank I checked with this morning, but I have had several people tell me that they had never seen anyone with a higher credit rating...I guess that is a good thing.

Tonight for dinner Kathleen had some of the left-over salmon from last night, she made a potato salad and some grapes and a peach sliced up. After dinner I loaded up the dishwasher and turned it on.

Overall, I am really surprised at how good I feel tonight, Kathleen said that maybe my fall knocked my back, back into place. Well, I am getting tired, so I think I will just say good night for now and call it a day.

Thursday's Tightness

Well, this morning did not start out the way I would have planned. I got up and started out on my walk this morning and as I was walking around the high school field, I must have stepped on a round stone about the size of a baseball and before I knew it I was picking myself off the ground. It was quite a jolt and as soon as I got up I knew that I was going to be sore sooner or later.

I could have turned around and headed home, but I thought that perhaps if I walked more it might loosen up my back and not get quite as sore. So I kept walking and picking up trash, and it seemed that as long as I was walking it did not feel much different than it normally does/

I was still feeling okay when I got home so I made myself some breakfast; a southwestern omelet with some walnut-raisin toast. After putting my dishes into the dishwasher I went into the living room and read the paper.

I could feel my back start to stiffen up so when I finished the paper, I decided that I would go outside and water the gardens. I did the front gardens and also the vegetables, roses and berries.

After coiling the hose I decided that I would rake the walnut leaves. They were not falling as fast as they did yesterday, but it was not as windy either. Besides if I rake everyday it is not as hard to keep up with and the leaves do not blow into my neighbor’s yard.

I had originally planned on finishing the high painting, but I knew that my back would not respond too well to standing on a ladder thirty-two feet in the air. A good decision, and the way my back feels now I doubt that I will be doing any painting tomorrow either.

Anyway, it only took about a half hour to rake the leaves, so after I put everything away, I went into the house to sit down and rest a while. I felt okay as long as I was sitting but as soon as I tried to get up, I realized that my back was starting to get rather tight, so I walked around the house a bit.

Kathleen came downstairs with her sewing machine, it was acting up on her, and so she wanted to go to Montivilla Sewing Center to have them look at it. We were planning on going to Costco anyway so I thought this would just be a little side trip.

I had to keep moving while we were at Montivilla to try to keep my back a little loose, and as long as I kept moving I was doing alright. It turned out that Kathleen's machine had blown its primary mother board and it would cost over $400 to fix.

She has been frustrated with this machine almost from the time she bought it a little over five years ago; in fact she just got it back from the shop a couple days ago. So the manager of the store made us an offer on a new machine that we could not pass up on. We get to pay for it over three years with no interest, so we went ahead and did it.

This is a machine that she has liked since it came out and we probably would have wound up getting it sooner or later anyway, I just had not planned on it being this soon! I tried to keep walking around while she filled out the paperwork, but I was getting pretty worn out.

So when she finished signing everything, we took the machine home and then she made a couple chicken salad sandwiches on Kaiser rolls. Since it was about 1430 I was getting pretty hungry. After we finished eating we took off and went to Costco. We got out of there and only spent a little over $100, no minor feet!

Kathleen reheated the salmon that she made last night and boiled some red potatoes for dinner tonight. The salmon tasted really good...come to think of it, I do not know that I have ever had salmon that did not taste good. Anyway, I was supposed to meet up with the guys tonight, but I called and said that unless my back felt better I would not make it.

As it turned out one of the other guys needed to pick someone up at the airport and the other was going to be late, so we decided that we would just meet for breakfast tomorrow morning. Kathleen just left for a baby shower for one of the young gals at church so I am left to myself, I might just wind up going to bed early tonight.

With that said, I guess I will just say good night for now!

A Welcome Wednesday

I did get to bed early last night and when I woke up this morning I felt pretty good so I decided to go for my wake. I kept thinking that I would go for a walk sometime yesterday, but it never happened.

Anyway, I walked for about an hour and a half this morning and got a little over two bags of trash from around the high school, most of it was out of the parking lots. The fact that most of it came from the parking lots is kind of ironic as the parking lots have several garbage cans and sometimes the trash is only a few feet from the cans...oh well, go figure!

It has been nice and cool in the morning now, so I was not too worn out or sweaty when I got back. I was going to have cereal this morning, but then I saw the leftover pancakes from yesterday so I decided to just warm them up and have them along with a veggie sausage.

Since there were only four little pancakes, not quite silver dollar size, but only about two inches in diameter, and I knew that Kathleen would not be eating them, I decided to just finish them off. I put my Smart Beat spread on them before I micro waved them and that helped soften them up so that they did not taste any worse than frozen waffles or pancakes.

After I finished eating I emptied the dishwasher, I made myself some coffee and then went into the living room to read the paper. By the time I finished the paper it was nice and sunny out, so I went outside and got my rake and raked the front lawn. It is amazing how fast the leaves are falling now that the nights have a little chill to them.

Once I had the lawn raked, I got out my little Brill and mowed our front lawn and then my neighbor's front and side lawn. By this time the battery was getting pretty worn out, so I put the mower away and put the battery on the charger. Kathleen had gone to the doctor's so her SUV was not in the driveway, so I got out my leaf blower and blew off the driveway.

By the time I had gotten to the front yard I was amazed at the number of leaves that had fallen in just a little under an hour. So I took the leaf blower to them and blew them into the gravel shoulder of the street.

Then I put everything away and went inside and rested for a while. After getting my energy back I made myself some lunch, I had a can of sardines and a couple slices of dark rye bread. One has to get in their Omega 3 somehow.

Kathleen came home and had stopped by Fred Meyer's and picked up a salmon roast and some fruit. So I had thought that we would be having salmon for dinner tonight. Kathleen had planned that as well but got started too late for us to have dinner ready before 2000 tonight, so she made a chicken salad on put that on some Kaiser roles. She also cut up an avocado, a mango and topped it off with a couple lemon slices.

So tomorrow we will be having salmon...it sure smelled good tonight though! Well, that was my day, I am feeling much better than I did Sunday afternoon and Monday, so hopefully even when I do get those spells like I had earlier this week they will not last long.

Over the last three weeks, I have only had one and a half days where I did not feel "good". I hate to say good, because my good today is not the same as my good a year or so ago, but it is really good compared to how I have felt for the last eight months.

Well, I think that it is time for me to say good night and call it a day. I was complaining to Kathleen earlier that I did not feel like I got that much done for as tired as I was, and she asked me just how much would you have to do to feel like you did enough? I really could not answer her, because I am probably getting done as much as could be expected for what I have been through, but for me it is not enough. I guess that I just need to not expect as much out of myself as I do, but that will take so time to overcome.

Well, good night again!

Today's Tuesday?

Wow, I went to bed about 2130 last night, and did not get up until almost 0730 this morning. I had pretty much decided last night that I was not going to go for a walk, so I did not feel badly that I had stayed in bed that long. I probably could have gone back to bed, but I knew that I had a doctor's appointment at 1030 so I did not have a lot of time for more sleep.

Kathleen got up early as well and made apple pancakes for breakfast, she only had two little ones and I only had four, both of us could have eaten more, but neither one of us needed to eat more. Anyway, after breakfast, I put the dishes into the dishwasher, made some coffee and then headed to the living room to read the paper.

After reading the paper, taking it out front to the recycling bin; I decided that I had better hurry up and take my shower as it was almost 1000 and I needed to get to the doctor's office by 1030.

I did not get checked in until 1040 even though I had been there fifteen minutes, they were just really busy. Then I had to wait until 1110 before the nurse came to take my vitals; I did not get to see the doctor until 1145 and we did not get out of there until after noon.

I had a couple insurance refund checks to drop off at the credit union; it is only a few blocks from the hospital and on our way to Montivilla Sewing Center, where Kathleen needed to pick something up.

We hurried as much as possible because the fellow who is going to work on our downstairs bathroom floor, replace the bathtub and toilet was suppose to call around noon. When we got home the only message was from Andrea, so I changed clothes and went outside and dug some tree sucker.

Finally around 1400 I decided to call him just in case he had called while we were gone and not left a message; he had not and said that he was running late and would call when he got done. He finally called a little after 1500 and arrived around 1545. He spent about an hour with us going over different situations and finally said that he probably could not start until the end of October, which is fine with us.

Andrea and Brandon arrived while he was still here and she stayed until a little after 1900. She was heading to Joanne Fabrics when she left our house. So we finally got to eat around1945. Kathleen heated up some pot pies and a Panini.

I did not get a lot done today, just too many appointments spread out through out the day that I did not want to get started on anything. Tomorrow Kathleen has a doctor's appointment so I am sure that it will be another day similar to today. I am probably going to try to get to bed early again tonight, I seem to be needing some extra sleep right now, so I am just going to say good night now and make plans for going to bed in a little while.

Monday's Miseries

I think this is going to be a short one, as I am having my worse day in over a month. I woke up early this morning and rather than try to go back to bed, I got dressed and took off for my walk. I walked around the high school for a couple of reasons, one it was better lit and since I had walked it so many times I felt more comfortable walking it in the dark.

I was a half to three quarters of an hour ahead of when I had been walking so I did not see the sun at all during my walk; in fact it just barely was coming out as I was coming up our driveway. I only picked up a half of a bag of trash today, I probably missed a lot because it was so dark and because the weather was not real great this weekend there probably was not the traffic at the high school.

After eating breakfast, I emptied the dishwasher and then went into the living room and read the paper. I was not feeling well so I was going to go upstairs and go back to bed, but on my way I passed my fly tying room and thought that I would bring the two mattresses downstairs, so I did.

The mattresses were from Andrea and she did not want them any longer, but Alyssa needed a couple for Hayden's bed. Once I had the mattresses out, I thought that I might as well take Andrea's hope chest downstairs as well. So with Kathleen's help I brought it downstairs and then into her SUV.

We put the mattresses on top of the hope chest and then took a couple other things that needed to go to Alyssa's and Andrea's and then took off, first to Alyssa's and then Andrea's. We only stayed a little while as I still was not feeling too well, but I really wanted to get that stuff out of the house.

Kathleen took the leftover flank steak and noodles from last night and added some more noodles and some leeks and that is what we had for dinner tonight. Well, the pain in my stomach is bothering me too much so I am just going to say good night and call it a day.

Strange Sunday

I got to sleep in this morning until almost 0700, because I was not going to take a walk this morning and I did not need very much time to get ready for church. So when I did get up I made myself some dark rye toast and had it with Adam's peanut butter and Smucker's apricot all fruit. I even read the comics and since Kathleen had not gotten up by 0800, I decided that I would just get dressed and go to church myself.

Kathleen had forgotten to take some of her pills last night and so when I went to bed at 2300, she went downstairs and got something to eat so that she could take her pills. I fell asleep around 2330 and had no idea what time she made it to bed.

When I got home around 1130 she was up and had made herself some oatmeal for breakfast. She had left about a spoon full so I ate it and put her dishes into the dishwasher and then went upstairs and changed my clothes.

Then I went downstairs and made myself a cup of coffee and went into the living room and finished reading the paper. Finally around 1330 I reheated the spaghetti from last night and had that for my lunch. Then I sat down and watched some football for a while.

About 1430, I decided that I needed to go for a walk; it had just started to drizzle, so I put on a hat and headed out. I had kind of decided that I would walk around the middle school for a while and see if I could get it cleaned up as well, besides, I kind of needed a change of scenery.

Boy, the middle school was in worse shape than the high school was. I picked up five bags of trash and only stopped because I was getting tired and when I saw how much there was I decided that I would just concentrate on the bigger items.

I think that I managed to walk all around the back of the middle school, I think I must have picked up sixty or seventy water or drink bottles along with several cans of soda and beer. I think a lot of the drink bottles must have been there for a while as many of them looked like they had been mowed and were in pieces. I think that the next time I do the middle school I will have to do the front and the far back side of the track.

I really did not get as wet from the drizzle as I did from the sweat from picking up all that trash. On man with about four children stopped me and asked me how long I had been picking up the trash, and I told him that this was my first visit to the middle school but I had been doing the high school for almost a month.

Well, tonight Kathleen made stuffed flank steak, noodles and fresh green beans for dinner. I cannot remember the last time she fixed flank steak, but I do remember my Mother fixing it on a regular basis.

Well, I am tired today, it must be the change in weather this week; we went from 95 degrees on Monday to the mid 60's today. I cannot think of anything else to write about so I am just going to say good night.

Saturday's Summary

When I woke up this morning I did not want to get up. Normally Saturday mornings I can sleep in a little, but this morning I needed to get up and go for my walk because this was men's breakfast Saturday and if I were going to get my walk in I needed to get up.

I walked for about an hour and a quarter or about five miles...if I had just been walking I probably would have walked six and a half miles or so, but since I was picking up trash along the way, I was not walking at a steady pace. I did wind up picking up three and a half bags of trash. I emptied the bag three times but it was not full each time and then there were times that I had a full bag and carrying some in my hands until I got to the next garbage can.

By the time I got home, cooled off a bit, clean up, changed my clothes it was time to leave. Kathleen was up when I got home, she had awakened just before I got up and could not get back to sleep. So she was making herself breakfast when I left.

I got back home about 1100, changed my clothes and went out to the garage to finish up sorting some of the things I had been working on. I would up throwing out a large garbage bag of old rag/clothes and an old pair of boots that I had not worn for so many years that I cannot remember the last time.

When I came back in I suggested to Kathleen that we might have some lunch before our contractor got here at 1400. She heated up a can of vegetable soup and the leftover tuna stake, potatoes and squash from last night.

After eating, I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up. Then I sat down at the kitchen table with my cup of coffee and read the paper and watched the Ohio State/Washington football game. The first half was pretty even, neither team could do much and both missed scoring opportunities, but the second half, Ohio State really came out and played.

Unfortunately the contractor arrived and I could not finish watching it. It looks like he is going to start on the upstairs bathroom first; I will have to remove the existing vanity, sink, toilet, medicine cabinet, side lights, wall molding, linoleum and whatever else I can. That will save us quite a bit of money, as I work pretty cheaply around here.

Then he will come in and tile the bathroom floor and up the walls, put in the new vanity, sink and upper cabinets. The downstairs bathroom we are going to have to hire someone to fix the floor and perhaps change out the tub, but that we will have to see about. We might even remove the soffit above the tub, but whether we do that or not we will also be putting in a fan and I will have to move one of the light switches and one or two of the outlets to make room for some new upper cabinets.

We also showed him the kitchen and what we were thinking about doing there, but I think that he wants to get one or two of the other projects done first. Kathleen also described what she wanted done in the dining room. She wants a built in buffet and then a cabinet above that. It will be two separate pieces, with a work area on top of the buffet.

He is going to get back to us sometime late next week with some estimates, so that will give us a few days to investigate our financing options. I could take a little out of my ARA, but I am leaning more toward using a home equity loan, but we will probably talk to our financial advisors about it next week.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made some whole wheat spaghetti and some ravioli along with some grapes, peach and orange slices. Well, I am full and tired, I think that I will just take my shower and get to bed early tonight. Have a good night!

Friday's Finishes

I had another good walk this morning; again I took a slightly different route around the high school and covered a different parking lot. It was another three bag walk, although most of what I gathered was from the area that I had not walked before, so I am hoping that now that it has all been pretty much policed it should be a little easier to keep up. I guess that I will just have to wait and see.

I am not sure what to expect tomorrow as I do not know if there are any games tonight, I will just have to find out tomorrow. Today's walk took almost an hour and a half, so I need to try to cut back a little and either walk less or pick up less trash. I would like to keep my walk to right around an hour at the most.

After eating I made myself another cup of coffee and went into the living room and read the paper, the mail had not yet arrived, so I went outside and worked at pulling the ivy out on my neighbor's side of the fence. I did the area in front of the garage when the mail man came so I finished that area, then took my recycling can into the back yard and went into the house and got the mail.

There really was not much there, so I went back out back and pulled the ivy out of the back corner of the garage where the fence takes a slight jog. I also dug up the cement pieces that Toni and Chucky had put down when they lived with us and had a garden in that area.

I have not kept that area up because I had not removed the cement and the weeds had pretty much taken over. Once I had the ivy, the weeds and the cement out, I got out my power mower
and mowed it. I hat to say it but I do not think that I have mowed that area in several years.

I am thinking that now that I have it pretty much cleaned up, I might rototill it and maybe even plant a garden there next year. We tried the container garden this year and it is just not big enough, maybe for just herbs and spices, but I am thinking about more than four tomato plants and a couple squash. We will have to see how I feel next spring, either way, I am going to try to get it rototilled.

By the time I finished all that I was really tired and I could feel my back telling me that I over did. So I put everything away, went into the house, cleaned up and made myself a brot. Kathleen was making a couple grill cheese sandwiches so she made me one as well. I took three Tylenol for my back and then went into the living room and sat down for a while.

That while turned out to be until almost 1900 when Kathleen called me for dinner, I dozed for a while and when I did wake up my back felt better. Kathleen made a tuna steak and we split it, she also made some squash and some baby red potatoes.

I noticed that my back is still a little stiff, but that is pretty normal for me anymore. Whenever I sit for more than fifteen or twenty minutes I am slow getting up and moving around. Tomorrow we are having someone come over to start making some new custom cabinets for us.

We are planning on starting with the downstairs bathroom and when that is done I think we are doing the kitchen and then the upstairs bathroom. We may even have a custom hutch built into our dining room. That is something that Kathleen has wanted for a long time.

Well, I think that is just about all the news that is fit to write about and all I can think about for tonight, so I will just sigh off and say good night!

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, the symbolic anniversary of the creation of the world. The words Rosh Hashanah literally mean "Head of the Year." In addition to being the anniversary of the past creation of the world, Jewish tradition sees everyone as being created anew at this time every year. Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which usually falls sometime in September or October.

The proceeding was a flashback from my childhood, many of my close friends were Jewish and so I got to know the Jewish holidays almost as well as the national holidays. It is almost hard to believe that I hardly know anyone who celebrates the traditional Jewish holidays anymore.

Today was a three bag walk, for the last couple days I have been walking areas that I had not walked before, so there was a lot of trash that had not been picked up for a while. I have also been doing the parking lots and there has been a lot of trash there; it will be interesting to see once it is cleaned up if it will stay that way.

Today I had my famous Southwestern omelet for breakfast, three kinds of peppers, onions, mushrooms, and hot salsa. I have been trying to use up all the peppers that we have in the refrigerator, so I have been having lots of salads and Southwestern omelets.

After eating I emptied the dishwasher, made myself a cup of coffee and then headed to the living room to read the paper. When I finished the sun still had not made it out, but I went outside anyway and watered. The hydrangea plants were looking pretty wilted, partly because it had been so hot and partly because I had not been watering as much as I probably should have.

When I finished watering, the sun still had not come out; in fact it had started misting again. This morning when I finished my walk this morning my hair was really wet from the low cloud cover. So I pruned the roses and did a little weeding, so that I could put it into the yard debris can for pick up tomorrow.

Then I went out front under the fir trees and dug up a half dozen hollyhocks and transplanted them into the back yard. They were not doing very well under the fir trees so I thought that I would try giving them some more sunlight and in an area where they will be getting regular watering.

I also transplanted some columbine plants and planted them throughout the big rose garden. After I finished my transplanting, I cleaned up and made myself some lunch. The mail had come while I was digging up the hollyhocks but I had not taken the time to look at it yet, so I did that while I ate.

After resting for a while after eating I went back outside and did a little weeding in the side yard. Andrea came over after taking Brandon to the doctor's and stayed for a while. I needed to finish some things outside so I went back outside to finish up and when I was putting my tools away I noticed Aaron's car there, so I cleaned up and visited with him for a while. He had some of his guitar stains with him for us to look at. He had a couple samples where he had done some experimenting and they looked pretty good.

Well, tonight was clean out the refrigerator and leftover night, we either eat or threw out most of the leftovers or open items in the refrigerator, it is surprising how much space that opened up. Well I probably should have painted today, but it was just misty enough that I thought that I would wait for a day when it was a little drier.

That looks like it for today, so good night!

What a Wonderful Wednesday!

This morning on my walk, I decided to walk on the front side of the high school, something that I had not yet done. I was really surprised at just how much trash there was in the front of the school. I kind of expected it in the back of the school or the playing fields, but for some reason I expected the front to be a little cleaner.

Of course, part of what I walked this morning was right next to Round Table pizza and across the street from Wendy's. Also there was a path from one of the Tri-Met bus stops, so I guess that helps explains some of the trash. I wound up picking up four bags of trash this morning; I had three of them before I left the quarter mile track around the football stadium.

After I got home and ate breakfast, I read the paper and then went outside to prune the roses and dig up tree sucker and blackberry suckers. After I dug up what I could find, I went to the front yard and raked the leaves and shells from the walnut trees. Then I went around and edged the front lawn, something I had not done in a couple months.

While I was raking the mail came so I took it out to the back yard and read it along with a cup of coffee. Most of what I got was perspectives from some of my investments, a few catalogs, my bank statement and the visa bill for Kathleen's printer. So after looking at all the mail and finishing my coffee, I went inside, cleaned up and then logged on to my computer.

Since I had gotten my bank statement, I decided that I would reconcile my checking account and savings account. It only took about twenty minutes to go through both accounts and everything reconciled the first time through, something that is always a good thing.

After a while I made myself a salad and added some chicken to it to make a really nice salad. That is two days in a row that I have had a salad for lunch, pretty soon my ears will be getting longer and I will be able to wiggle them and my nose as well.

Kathleen wanted to go to Montivilla Sewing Center, but I was too tired and did not feel like getting that cleaned up. I gave her a couple insurance refund checks from our auto insurance to take to the credit union and deposit into her checking account. So I loaded her sewing machine into her SUV and she took off.

She came back about 1730 and had bought a twelve foot 2x4 which I had to unload and take upstairs for her. She asked me about dinner and she said that she wanted to make Mandarin Orange Chicken. It is a frozen dish that we get from Trader Joe's that we really like. We happened to have two packages, one we just bought and one we have had for a while, so we used the one we had for a while.

Well, that was my day, the weather has really been nice today, only in the eighties...much nicer than the nineties that we have been having. With the weather cooling off, I am going to have to get serious about finishing painting the east side of the house. I think that I have an hour or so of painting on the ladder to go to finish up and then there is the trim around the three windows on the second floor.

Maybe in the next week or two I will get it all done. Until then this is a good time for me to say good night.

The Nation Remembers

It is hard to believe that it has been six years since the nations security was shaken, but it has. I still remember I was sitting at my desk at Boeing when I got a news flash on my computer and then doing a search to get a live feed of what was going on.

I guess that I hit me harder than a lot of people on the west coast because I had family and friends in New York. I think I either watched or listened to the news until I went to bed that night. The only other thing that I can remember having as much impact on me was the day the high school caught on fire and both my sister and I were in it at the time.

I was lucky enough to have been on the first floor in the new part of the high school, in a study hall and close to an exit, but my sister was up in the old part on the second floor. WE had relatives calling all night long, and even had the news media interviewing us. We were quite the celebrities at the time.

Anyway, I had a good walk this morning, I even picked up two bags of trash and today the supervisor of the high school maintenance department thanked me for picking up the trash. I was a little surprised at the amount of trash today, but I think a lot of it is from the teams. Items like water bottles and tape, and then there is always a lot of trash that blows in from the 122nd Avenue fast food places.

I got a little work done outside, but it was getting pretty warm, so I decided to just stay inside today. I did a little reading and took a nap in my chair for a while; all in all it was just kind of a lazy day. I think I spent too much time reflecting on how the world has changed in the last six years...and not for the better.

It was too hot to cook tonight so Kathleen just made some more chicken/mango salad. She also cut up a cantaloupe, so it was a pretty light meal. After I loaded the dinner dishes into the dishwasher, Kathleen decided to make some brownies, so she has them in the oven now.

Well, like I said this has been a pretty unproductive day, so I think that I will just say good night and call it a day.

Melting Monday

I knew that we were going to be in for a warm day when at 0600 as I was walking and before the sun came out I could feel the wind blowing hot across my face. I did have a good walk I even picked up three bags of trash at the high school. I did not walk yesterday, but I was really surprised at how much trash was there.

After eating my breakfast, I loaded the dishwasher, turned it on and then went outside to get a little work done before it got too hot. I pruned up the roses, dug up some tree suckers and then watered the roses, berries, hydrangeas and the impatiences. The hydrangeas and impatiences were looking almost dead, but after watering they started to come back to life.

Then I went into the house, and after cleaning up I read the paper and the mail. Then I made myself a salad for lunch and had a couple slices cold of delite pizza to go along with it. After eating I unloaded the dryer, folded the clothes and put it away. I also wound up doing four loads of laundry, Kathleen started the first load, but I wound up doing the rest.

After finishing the laundry I sat down and took a little nap. I missed getting a nap, as we were visiting friends and Kathleen did not think that I needed to leave to take a nap when I said that I did. By the time we got home, after 1800, it was too late to take a nap as I knew that I would not be able to go to sleep when I needed to.

Kathleen took off for a meeting tonight so I made a couple chicken salad pita's and had some macaroni salad and Cole slaw to go along with it. It was just too hot to have much of anything else other than salads.

Well, my naps were not enough to make up for missing yesterday, so I think that I will have an early bed. It has been cooling off pretty nicely at night, so I am hoping that even though the temperature was in the mid nineties today it should cool off to the fifties tonight.

I think that pretty much covers my day, so here is my good night.

Saturday's Somewhat Satisfying

This morning I picked up over two grocery bags of stuff at the high school today. A lot of it was drink bottles and cups from the game last night. It was not really as bad as I thought it might have been.

For breakfast I made an egg beater omelet with onion, mushrooms, red, yellow and green peppers, I also heated up the left-over fish and tater tots from last night, so I started out the day with a pretty hardy meal.

After putting the dishes into the dishwasher I went into the living room to read the paper. After finishing the paper, I went outside and pruned the roses and dug up tree suckers. I also decided to do a little tree trimming to the ash tree in the back yard. It had a lot of dead branches and ones that were low hanging and in my way when I walked underneath it.

Then I went back into the house and checked the mail, there really was not much of anything there, so I recycled it and then went back outside.

This time I decided to tackle the rest of the ivy under the fir trees. I finally have it all pulled out, but I am also sure that I will have to keep pulling up shoots as they sprout from the finger roots that I missed pulling out.

Then I went back inside and made my self some lunch. I used a brot roll and added sardines to it for a nice sardine sandwich. After resting for a while, I decided to go back outside and
get my chipper and chip up the branches that I cut out of the tree as well as the branches, fir cones and other things that I had been storing in one of my garbage cans.

I started chipping about 1530 and by the time I finished it was 1930 and I was really tired. Besides being tired I also slice the tip of one of my fingers and that bleed for quite a while. It is really still pretty sore and I am having a difficult time trying to keyboard.

Kathleen had gone to Fabric Depot and then grocery shopping and she came home just as I was washing up. She was surprised that I was just finishing up as well. After I cleaned up a little I helped her unload the car and then we ate dinner.

She had bought some fried and some baked chicken for me along with some Jo-Jo's, Cole slaw, and macaroni salad. I tried eating the chicken, but it was too greasy and so I just had a little salad and slaw and a couple Jo-Jo's for dinner. I was more tired than hungry anyway.

Well, this brings me to now, and I think I really need to jump into the shower and really get cleaned up, so I will just say my good nights and call it a day.