Too Tired

This was another nice day; almost a little cool this morning as I woke up but I liked it. So after eating breakfast and reading the paper I went outside and picked up apples and then finished chopping up the branches that I had stacked by the raspberries.

I put all the really small branches into the yard debris container and the medium branches I put into an other barrel to chop up in the chipper and the really large ones I stacked to use as poles or cut up for fire wood.

I also pulled the grass that had crept up on my dirt pile where the branches had been and made it loop into the rose garden so that it almost looks like I planned it to be that way.

By the time I finished chopping and taking care of the loppers it was almost noon so I went into the house, cleaned up and got the mail. There was not much there except for a couple catalogs which I have not had time to look at yet.

Finally around 1330 I decided that I needed to eat something as we were going over to Andrea's house to take her to the eye doctor to have her eyes checked. So I made myself a salad with some baby spinach, arugula, romaine lettuce, some sweet onion and some slices of yellow and orange peppers. I put a raspberry dressing mixed with some red wine vinegar on top of it all.

We picked up Andrea, actually took her SUV as it already had the car seats in it and got to the eye doctor's just in time. Andrea was able to get an appointment right away and it usually takes me weeks or months to get one, but the last time I was there I was still working in Sandy.

While Andrea filled out her forms, this was her first time there, I took Brandon over to look at frames as I need to schedule an appointment for myself and get some new glasses. Each time I get new glasses I get smaller and lighter ones; I use to have to wear larger ones when I worked at Boeing because they needed to be safety glasses and most of them are on the large size.

I did not feel comfortable at first with smaller glasses but the longer I have to wear glasses the more conscience I am with the size and weight of the frames. That is one of the main reasons that I am looking at smaller frames, also the smaller ones are not quite as conspicuous as their larger counterparts are.

Andrea did not need glasses so we took her home after she got out from seeing the doctor. We stayed at her house for a while so that she could adjust to having her eyes dilated.

After we left we needed to stop at Fred Meyer so that both of us could pick up a prescription. While we were there we picked up a few items, like muffins and something for dinner. We got a combination mashed potatoes and meatballs; I guess that sounded good to Kathleen as she and Andrea had talked about having meatballs at Ikea.

By the time we got home it was almost 1900 and I could barely make it back into the house with the groceries. For the last couple of days my back has been bothering me; not a much as it did a week ago, but more than it usually does.

Well, I had planned on not even writing to my blog tonight because I was so tired, but I thought that I would give it a try. So I am sorry if this does not make a lot of sense or the spelling is bad but I am too tired and sore to care. I think that I will be turning in early tonight!

Warming up again

This morning when I woke up it was still pretty overcast, but by the time I sat down to eat breakfast, around 0900, the sun was out and shinning brightly. So after I finished eating I emptied the dishwasher and put my breakfast dishes in.

Since it was starting to warm up already I decided not to take a walk this morning besides I think I walked enough yesterday that I wanted to give my legs a little rest. So I went out to the back yard and chopped up some of the branches in my branch pile and put some in one of my barrels to run through the chipper and the smaller ones I put in the yard debris container.

It was almost noon by the time I got back into the house and cleaned up so I went to the mailbox and got the mail. There really was not much of anything worth keeping so most of it went into the recycle pile or the shredder.

While I was outside Kathleen had come out and said that Aaron, Tami and the girls were coming over after stopping off at Subway and wanted to know if I wanted something from Subway for lunch. It had been a while since I had a store bought sub so I had a veggie sub.

While I was waiting for them I went to the west front lawn and raked out the piles of dirt that I had dumped there a couple weeks ago. I finished smoothing it out and went back into the house and cleaned up.

They got here after a while and we all sat down and had our subs and after that the girls and Kathleen went out back to pick raspberries. Tami was watching one of their friends baby and so she and Aaron sat in the shade of the cherry trees and mountain ash.

After a while they left and I went back inside and paid a bill and checked the activity on our credit union accounts. Around 1700 Kathleen asked me to bring her sewing machine and embroidery attachment downstairs for her; I had forgotten that she had a class tonight. So I brought them downstairs and put them into her SUV and then she took off as her class started at 1730.

I was glad that I only ate half of my sub sandwich because that is what I had for dinner. I had though about having it tonight or tomorrow for lunch and I am glad that I had it tonight because it was starting to get pretty soggy.

Well today was much warmer, I think that it got up to the mid eighties and it is suppose to be this way most of the rest of the week. I do not mind the temperature like it was today, but much hotter will be getting a little bit uncomfortable for me.

Fire Fire!!

It was slightly overcast this morning and the weatherman had said that today’s temperature would be in the seventies again today. After I finished my breakfast and reading the paper I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up, then I got my walking gear and went for a walk.

As I was walking behind our house I notice a plume of really black smoke that looked to be four of five blocks away so I cut across the field and headed down the street toward where I thought the fire might be coming from. The further I walked the further away I could tell it actually was but I kept walking; after all it was down hill and the walking was easy.

I finally got all the way down to Sandy Boulevard and 112th and saw a fire engine heading north on 112th and I could see where the fire was; it was a couple blocks north of Sandy, but since my bronchitis was just getting better I decided not to go any closer. Her are a couple pictures of the fire:

I kept walking down Sandy until I got to 105th and then decided that I had better start heading home since Kathleen had a doctor's appointment at 1130. As easy as walking down hill was walking back up the hill was equally hard...but I made it and I did not feel all that bad afterwards just tired.

We went to Kathleen's doctor appointment and then Kathleen dropped me off at home and she went to meet with the lady from church at 1330. I had some of the Trader Joe's chicken and rice from last night’s dinner for lunch and after I finished eating I emptied the dishwasher and put my lunch dishes in.

Since it still has not rained I decided to water the garden in the front of the house, so I went out and did that. After watering I got my broom and swept off the steps and then the walkway. Then I went back into the house and read the mail.

Tonight Kathleen heated up a can of chicken gumbo soup for me and fixed herself something else as she does not like gumbo. After dinner I put the dishes into the dishwasher and here I am writing my blog.

Tomorrow it is suppose to start heating up once again, I will not like it as much but just about everyone else will and I guess that warm or hot weather is what one should expect in the summer.

Unseasonably Cool...but my kind of Weather!

It seemed darker outside than I thought that it should be when I got up this morning, and after I got up I realized why. We had a beach like cloud cover that stuck around most of the day that not only made it cooler but also darker than usual.

So after reheating the pancakes from last night and making a fresh pot of coffee I sat down and had breakfast and read the paper. After I finished eating and reading the paper I emptied the dishwasher and put my breakfast dishes into it and did the hand wash pots and pans.

After I had finished in the kitchen I put on my Birkenstocks walking shoes and took myself for a walk. My hip did not bother me as much as it had last week and so I took a little longer walk than I had in a while. When I got home I changed out of my Birkenstocks walking shoes and then I went outside and picked up apples from the back yard.

I stopped for a while to enjoy some blueberries, raspberries and probably the last strawberry for a while until the next crop come in. Then I went and got my hedge trimmer and trimmed the hedge in the front yard. After I finished with the hedge I got my rake and picked up the trimmings and put them in the new yard debris container.

That new container sure holds a lot more than my old barrel did as I filled my old one up with trimmings and but it on top of the yard debris that I had already collected over the last two weeks. I think that the new one must hold two or three times as much as my old barrel. That is nice because many times I have to use two barrels one to put out front and one to hold the excess until the next collection day.

After I finished I put my tools away and went into the house to clean up. Andrea called and said that she was in the neighborhood and wanted to know if she could come over to pick up a tank top that she had purchased and some how Kathleen had in her SUV and left there.

So she dropped by for a while and we played with Brandon for a while and then I got to hold Christian until he fell asleep and I put him in his car seat. Andrea, the boys and Kathleen went shopping after a while and once they left I made myself some lunch.

While they were out they stopped at Trader Joe's and Kathleen picked up a few items and made one of them for dinner tonight. If the one they went to today was a closer and a little more convenient to get to I think that we would probably do most of our grocery shopping there.

Kathleen said that I seemed to be feeling better today and I think it is because the weather was much cooler and working outside was not a tiring as it is for me when it is hotter. I definitely like this cooler weather but I also realize that the vegetable garden will not do as well when the weather is cooler. I think that it did not make it to eighty today.

Nice Day Today!

When I woke up this morning it was a little overcast but that burned off by 0930 and it was really a nice day. So after eating breakfast I went outside and picked up over ten gallons of apples. I did not do that yesterday and so I guess that was about what I have been getting lately.

While I stopped to have some blueberries a couple honey bees landed on me; I guess they thought that I was a sweet smelling flower or something. My friendly humming bird also buzzed by me on his way to some of the flowers in the rose garden; I probably need to find another name for that garden as it now has a lot of different flowers other than roses.

When I first planted it I had only roses in it; I still have about twenty roses in it but there are also foxglove, lilies, lavender, oriental poppies and a lot of other things. Right now the roses are done for awhile and so are the fox glove; the poppies are just about done but the lilies are just starting to come on as is the lavender.

After snacking on the berries for a while I got out my pruners and finished pruning the roses by the back stairs to the basement and then dumped the clippings into my new yard debris container. Then I went inside, cleaned up and reheated up the rest of the noodles and kielbasa for the other night. Since it was so nice outside I decided to take my food and ice tea outside and sit in my new Adirondack chair and enjoy the fresh air.

It was really nice out and the temperature only got a little above eighty degrees so it was a pretty average summer day in Portland. It is suppose to be in the seventies tomorrow and then stay in the low eighties for the rest of the week…my kind of weather!

When I finished eating I took the dishes into the house and then went back outside and got my mat and hori hori knife to weed the garden directly in front of the house.

I also took the Roundup to the weeds in the parking strip and driveway; I use to just pull them by hand but I no longer have the energy to do that anymore. When I got done weeding I dumped the weeds into the yard debris container and took it and the garbage can up front for pick up tomorrow.

After finishing that up I went inside and cleaned up and then checked my e-mail. Kathleen finally made it downstairs a little after 1600; she had been up since about 1000 but had not made it downstairs. So I asked her to think about what to have for dinner and she said that she kind of thought about pancakes. We have not had pancakes for dinner in a while so that sounded good.

Sunday's Business

Some days are like this where there are so many things going on that one cannot do them all, today was one of those days for us.

I had gotten up early so that I would have time to have an unhurried morning before church, so I made myself some breakfast, had my morning coffee and read the comics. Then I went upstairs and started getting ready to go to church; Kathleen had just gotten up and said that she wanted to go as well.

So when I finished dressing I went back downstairs and read the paper and then waited for Kathleen to come downstairs. We made it to church a little late but not all that late. After church and Sunday School we stopped by Winco so that Kathleen could pick up a few items for the pot luck at church at 1300. Then we went home and I changed into my shorts and tennis shoes and then waited for Kathleen to come downstairs so that we could go back to church.

While I was waiting I took the chicken and cookies out to the Acura and then waited inside for Kathleen. We finally took off and got there just at 1300 and I put the food on the table and found us a couple places to sit.

While waiting for everything to start Alexis and Becca came up to me and gave me a big hug and Lexis wanted me to pick her up, so I did with much care. Aaron had to work so he was not there so it was just Tami and the girls.

Soon after that the master of ceremony gave the blessing and then we went through the line. Kathleen lucked out and were toward the front of the line so I had the hard task of trying to take a little of things and not taking anything that would cause my bowels to act up. I did pretty well except for some sauerkraut and Cole slaw; the cabbage is something that is not always kind to me but I like kraut and Cole slaw too much.

After finishing the main courses I went back to the desert table and had some Marion berries, raspberries, strawberries, black berries and blue berries along with some cantaloupe and an oatmeal raisin cookie, my favorite cookie.

When I finished that I thought that I would go back through the line and have seconds on some of the things that I really liked but I waited for a few minutes and by then I realized that I was full, so I just satisfied with what I had already.

By the time the elders and the associate pastor said their parting words to the transitional pastor and presented him with several gifts it was 1500 and so we headed home. Toni had invited us over to Alyssa and Dan's this afternoon but we wanted to rest up for a bit before heading out again.

I took a nap on the couch and Kathleen got lost in playing a computer game. Finally around 1830 I decided to go upstairs and see what Kathleen planned on doing and she seemed to be enthralled in playing the game so I went back downstairs and reheated up some of the left over noodles and Kielbasa from last night.

It is now 1930 so I doubt that we will be going over to Alyssa's...just too many things going on today and not enough time to do them all. If we had not planned on going to our transitional pastor's going away pot luck for several weeks we probably would have gone to Alyssa and Dan's but there would not be another time for us to do this as he is heading up to Seattle to pastor a church up there for a while.

My back was still a little sore today, but nothing like it had been last Friday; I think that was one thing that added to my tiredness. I have kind of decided today that I will need to go see someone about my back; it is either getting a lot worse or I am just not able to handle the pain any longer but whatever the reason I need to see about getting something done.

I am going to try to wait until after I get my bowel problem taken care of if I can stand it, but the way I have been feeling lately I may not be able to do that. I do not look forward to the possibility of back surgery, but I also do not see myself not being able to do things either.

Make up Blog

Well, yesterday was a painful day for me; painful in that my back was much sorer than it usually is. Since I had my quarterly PSA check yesterday I did not do much in the morning other than make breakfast and coffee and read the paper. I had to be there at 1015 to have my blood drawn and then my actual appointment was at 1045.

My PSA level was up a little but my doctor said that it was nothing to worry about and told me to come back in three more months to have it checked again. I guess that he wants to make sure that it has settled into a pattern and then maybe I can go into a six month routine.

Andrea had called and asked if we could go over there and help watch the boys as she was getting worn out. So I made myself a Boca burger on dark rye toast with an onion slice and melted pepper jack cheese.

While we were at Andrea's I set up their new play area for Brandon and to her surprise when I put him in he played and had a good time. Andrea and Kathleen took the older one outside so that when Andrea is outside she will have someplace for Brandon so that she will not have to keep chasing him around.

Andrea started making dinner and since I had a headache and my back was making my life really miserable we decided to go home. Kathleen made some potato salad with the little finger potatoes and we also had the rest of the salmon from the other night.

I had loaded up the dishwasher that morning and I should have emptied it but my back was so sore that I decided not to. In fact I only stayed up a little longer and went to bed. I think that I had taken so much pain meds that my body was asleep anyway.

I must have been really worn out as I slept for nine hours which is over two more hours than I normally sleep. My back felt much better, it was still sore, but compared to yesterday it was really good.

Kathleen had a sewing class this morning at 1000 at Montavilla Sewing Center so she got up and ready to go at 0930. So after I finished eating I unloaded the dishwasher and then went outside and weeded along the east side of the property line where I have some shrubs planted and also along the back of the house on the east side by the back steps.

That took several hours and after I finished weeding I watered where I had just finished weeding because that is an area that I seldom water. I still felt pretty good so I finished pruning the tree rose and then did some trimming on the climbing roses that are on the fence on the west side of the driveway.

By the time I finished that and cleaned up it was 1530 so I made myself some lunch; well actually I opened a can of sardines and some dark rye and called it lunch. I did not was to eat too much as I did not want to be too full come dinner time.

Well Kathleen just came home so I think I will see how she is doing and than maybe talk her into doing something for dinner. My wrists are really sore now from weeding so long this morning; I am finding out how inactive I have become and how hard it is for me to get anything done anymore.

Things that I use to do without thinking about now I have to plan ahead and then be careful not to over do so that I can still do something the next day. I think that I need to take some pain meds; so I will call it a day.

Much Nicer Temperature Today!

This morning after getting up I went downstairs and after making breakfast, coffee and reading the paper I went outside and weeded the vegetable garden for a while before I had to leave to meet up with the guys that I meet with every week or so.

While I was out there our neighbor drove up her driveway which is right next to my garden, her house is on a flag lot from the house to the west of ours and their driveway runs the length of our property. Anyway, she walked over to the fence and started talking with me, since I knew that it could go one for a long time I told her that I needed to leave to meet up with some friends after talking for a half hour or so.

I left just a little before 1000, I had to wait a little longer so that Kathleen could call in a couple prescriptions and make sure that they would be ready soon. They told her that it would be about an hour so giving them the benefit of the doubt they should have been ready by 1130.

I broke away from the guys a little after noon so that I could pick up her prescriptions. I got there about 1230 and after waiting in line only to find out that they had not filled it yet. So I decided to go to BiMart to pick up some sunflower seeds for one of our bird feeders. I was going to just go home but I thought that I would go back to Fred Meyer and check on Kathleen's prescriptions.

After waiting on line again I finally got to pick them up. I figured that it was worth it to back track to Fred Meyer again rather than having to go out later on in the afternoon. So by the time I finally made it back home it was almost 1330.

I heated up some of the spaghetti from last night for lunch and then went outside to pick up more apples and have some berries for desert. While I was out there Lexis came out the back door looking for me. Aaron had taken her for a plane ride and they stopped by afterwards.

So I got her a little bucket so that she could pick some berries to take home for Becca and Tami. Aaron had taken some pictures of his flight, some of them were of Lexis "flying" the airplane and some others were overhead shots of Alyssa and Dan's house.

Just before Aaron arrived the garbage folks dropped off a new green yard debris wheeled can and also a new blue wheeled recycling can. I had not heard them but I noticed that Aaron had parked on the west side of the driveway and then I noticed the cans right in the middle of the driveway and the street so he could not pull into the driveway without hitting them.

I just got done loading Kathleen's sewing machine and embroidery hoop attachment into her SUV as she has a class at Montavilla Sewing Center tonight at 1730. I did not realize it until she brought the empty carrying bags downstairs and asked me to bring her machine and attachment downstairs and into the SUV.

Today was really comfortable temperature wise, I think that it only got up to the low eighties which is at the high end of my comfort level but after several days in the nineties it was a welcome relief.

I guess I will heat up the rest of the spaghetti for dinner tonight, and speaking of dinner I think I will be heading to the kitchen to heat up said spaghetti.

Cool Before the Heat Returns

Today was a much better temperature wise as it was only in the low eighties although this weekend it is going to be back up in the mid nineties. I was just getting use to the hot temperatures when we have a couple cooler days and then the furnace gets turned up once again.

This morning after breakfast, coffee and reading the paper I took another walk and just like yesterday my hip started hurting about half way through my walk. I am not sure what I can do about it because everything that I have tried has not worked. I either walk with pain or I do not get any exercise.

Like yesterday when I got back I went out to the back yard and dead-headed the roses in the rose garden. I also cut a couple dozen red and white stripped roses for the house and took them inside and put the in the vase. I also edged and weeded along the rose garden and berry garden and when I finished that I went into the house, cleaned up and rested on the couch; read here fell asleep.

It got to be a little after 1300 so I went into the kitchen and made myself a salad with baby spinach, arugula, yellow and orange peppers, radishes and crumbled up some Trader Joe's sun-dried tomato and habanero tortillas. I topped it off with red wine vinegar and raspberry dressing.

Kathleen had her weekly meeting with the woman from church and left around 1330 so I matched up our cash register receipts with the credit card bill and then paid the bills and reconciled my credit union checking and savings accounts.

Kathleen stopped off at a couple stores after her meeting and did not get home until after 1800. After resting for a while she made some spaghetti with some kielbasa, not as good as hot Italian sausage but when you do not have the sausage it will do.

Still Hot Today!

The weatherman keeps saying that it is suppose to cool down but tonight he said that it was ninety-one degrees today and that is not cool in my book. Forty degrees is getting cool; but for me anything over seventy degrees is getting rather warm.

Anyway this morning after breakfast, coffee and reading the paper I decided that I would go for a walk since I had not done that for a while. I thought that it would be cooler this morning so I thought that I could get away with a quick walk, but like the weatherman I was wrong!

I got almost half way around the block and my hip started bothering me but I kept walking thinking that I could walk myself out of it. While it did not get any worse it also did not get any better. I do know that it did take a lot of energy out of me and I think that fighting the pain really did me in for the rest of the day.

So when I got home I went out back and sat in the sun for a while thinking that the heat might do me some good. I think that it might have helped as my hip did not bother me the rest of today.

After sitting for about a half hour I decided to eat some berries so I picked some blue berries, raspberries and apples. I gathered up another two and a half gallons of apples, unfortunately once they hit the ground they are not very good to eat.

After my snack I decided to do a little pruning on the roses by the outside basement stairs. The tree rose had a lot of spent roses so I spent a lot of time on it and got about three quarters of the tree rose trimmed.

The mail came while I was doing that so I decided to stop and get the mail thinking that I would go back and finish it later on in the day. I went through the mail and just about all of it went into the recycling bin.

Andrea had called while I was outside and since Kathleen was not up when I went outside I took the phone with me. I told Andrea that I would have Kathleen call when she got up, so once I got inside I went upstairs and checked and she still was not up.

When Kathleen came downstairs I told her that Andrea had called so after talking to Andrea Kathleen made herself some breakfast. Since it was around 1300 I decided to make myself some lunch. I had not had a veggie burger for a while so I heated one up and had it on a toasted whole wheat bun with an onion slice, some pepper-jack cheese and some dill relish.

After I finished lunch I took a nap on the couch in the living room, not that I had intended on taking a nap but that is how things turned out. I awoke when the phone rang and then got up and walked around a bit. I guess that I had not finished sleeping because shortly after I sat down again I fell asleep and this time was awaken when the UPS man dropped off a package and rang the door bell.

Tonight was clean out the refrigerator night, I finished up the deli salads that we had in the refrigerator, five of them, and Kathleen made herself a spinach salad. I was hoping that we would go grocery shopping today but I realized that we did not have any room in the refrigerator to put anything we might buy.

One thing I did accomplish today was make an appointment with the gastroenterologists who did my colonoscopy last fall to see if he has any suggestions as to what might be causing all of my bowel problems. I could not get an appointment until August 12th but it is nothing that is really of an emergency nature so I guess that that is okay. They did put me on a cancellation alert so that if anyone cancels before then they will call me.

Transitioning Weather

Today when I woke up the sun was not shinning brightly in the room so I could tell that it probably was not going to be as hot as it had been for the last several days. I think that this is the first non ninety degree day in the last four so it is a welcome change for me.

Kathleen took Andrea to the doctor's today to have her blood pressure checked and also to run a few errands; she left around 0800 this morning and came back with Andrea, Brandon and Christian after stopping at Burger King to pick up some lunch.

They all left again after lunch and were going to try to find another play area for Brandon, one with a gate so that she will not have to lift Brandon to put him in. They are going to use the old one for outside use either on their deck or lawn.

I finally got around to writing a note to the Social Security office to see what I need to do to qualify for disability as I am not able to hold down a job at my present condition. Now the next thing I need to do is to make an appointment with my gastroenterologists to see if he has any recommendations as to how to control my bowel problems.

I usually do not have the mental energy to put together an intelligent letter but today I felt somewhat alert and composed one and sent it off. The next I need to do is try to figure out when I might be able to make another doctor's appointment.

Kathleen still has not made it back home so I might have to go ahead and make myself something to eat for dinner.

Sunday's Sunniness

Well, Kathleen got to bed a little over an hour before I got up so I knew that she would not be joining me for church this morning. When I got home about 1130 she was up and dressed so I know that she did not get a lot of sleep.

When I got home it was already eighty-five degrees out so I though that I probably would spend the rest of the day inside as the heat is not something that I deal well with.

Since I had a small and quick breakfast this morning I made myself a couple of raisin bread toast with peanut butter and all fruit on top. Kathleen had me put a couple slices in for her as well. I had kind of planned on having something else later on in the afternoon but I never did and now my stomach is reminding me that I did not really have any lunch.

Well, other than washing drying, folding and putting away four load of laundry the only other things I got done was to read the paper, the comics and going to church. I think that maybe I needed a day to just do nothing and today certainly filled the bill.

It is suppose to cool down a little, to the mid-eighties so maybe I will feel like getting more done tomorrow. I think that tomorrow Kathleen is going to take Andrea and her boys to the doctor's
and then this Friday I go to the doctor's for my quarterly PSA check.

Well, I think that I will see if I can interest Kathleen into having dinner a little early tonight.

Trying to Catch-up!

This morning while eating breakfast, reading the paper and having my morning coffee I could tell that it was going to be a hot one today. So after I finished breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher, turned it on and then picked up the rugs and shook them out. While the rugs were up I swept and mopped the kitchen floor and while it was drying I went outside.

I ran out of energy yesterday and did not pick up the boxes that the Adirondack chairs, stools and table had come in so I did that. I piled them on the side of the driveway so that they will be easy to put out for recycling on Tuesday.

Once I had yesterdays mess cleaned up I started on today’s mess; I got out my hedge trimmer and whacked away on the boxwood hedge in the back yard separating the vegetable garden and the raspberries from the rest of the back yard.

Trimming the hedge was not the hard part; it was cleaning up the clippings that was the hardest and took the longest. After putting clippings in the yard debris barrel I went into the house, cleaned up and then put the kitchen rugs back down.

After drinking some water I went back outside and got out my blower and air swept the driveway. Those fir pollen pods and fir cones had been falling again and I did not have the energy to dispose of them any other way. I also air swept the back and front sidewalks and around the front lawn so that everything looked like someone cared about how things looked.

After putting the electric cord and the blower I watered the front garden as everything was getting pretty dry since we have not had any real rain in several weeks. I thought about watering the front lawn as well but it is still relatively green because I raise the cutting height up and also because I use a reel mower it stays greener longer.

By the time I finished watering I was getting tired and hungry so I went into the house, cleaned up and made myself some lunch. Then I went and took a nap in the living room. When I woke up I felt better so I went back outside and watered the blueberries, and the vegetable garden since it had been a few days since I watered them.

Then I went inside and took another snooze. I just woke up a few minutes ago and though that I better try to blog a little before I fall asleep again. I think I need to go upstairs and check with Kathleen to see what she is planning for dinner tonight. We have some fresh salmon but since it is over ninety degrees she may not feel like having that tonight.

Trying to get back to "Normal"

Well, from Tuesday until yesterday afternoon Kathleen and I were taking care of Brandon while Andrea and John stayed at the hospital. Even though Brandon is a really happy child his energy level is so much more than mine both Kathleen and I were really worn out by the time we got home.

I had planned on blogging last night but by the time I finished going through two plus days of e-mail I was too tired to even think about what was going on in our lives.

Tuesday we picked up Brandon from the hospital after visiting with Andrea, John and Christian and then headed to their place so that it would not be quite as disruptive for Brandon. Brandon did surprisingly well; he did not fuss at all when we put him in the car seat in our SUV and played really well with his toys when we got him home.

We tried to get him use to the play area that Andrea had set up and he did pretty well for the first half hour. Kathleen had gotten it with him and he played with his toys but pretty soon he realized that he did not have the freedom to wander around like he was use to; I started to play with him and some of his toys and he was good for a while longer.

Eventually we took him out and let him play around the kitchen living room area. Then later in the evening when Kathleen put him down he cried for a little while and then settled down and slept for about twelve hours.

Wednesday was about the same except he did not want to take a nap in the afternoon, but he still slept for about twelve hours that night.

Andrea, John and Christian got home Thursday afternoon around 1330; we had put Brandon down for a nap around 1230 and he was still sleeping. He cried for a few minutes but then settled down and slept for over two hours.

John had stopped and picked up a couple Papa Murphy pizzas and Kathleen had turned on the oven so that when they got here we put the pizzas into the oven and then enjoyed them when they were done.

Brandon was still sleeping as Kathleen and I were leaving and John had gone upstairs to wake him up, but we needed to get going as Kathleen wanted to stop off at World Mart to pick up some chocolate; while we where there we found some new Adirondack chairs, stools and tables so we decided to pick up a couple.

Kathleen got bright red chair and stool while I got a nice looking blue chair, stool and table; they did not have any red tables so we just got the one. It always amazes me that here we are with summer only three weeks old and they are already putting on clearance the summer items.

Anyway when we got home I unloaded the SUV, putting the Adirondack furniture in the back yard and our luggage I lugged upstairs. So after putting away the clothes I had not used and the rest in the laundry I changed clothes and went downstairs.

I had thought that I might try putting together the furniture but I was too tired and even after a little rest I was still too tired. Kathleen had a class at Montivilla Sewing Center at 1730 so I brought her machine downstairs and put it into the SUV for her.

After a while I got hungry so I made myself some dinner and then went back to reading my e-mail. I was still doing that when Kathleen got home. So I took her machine back upstairs and finished my e-mail. By this time I was too tired to think straight and so I just zoned out watching CSI and then got ready for bed.

Today I got up at my regular time and after making breakfast, coffee and reading the paper I went outback and put together the furniture and set it up in the shade canopy of the ash and cherry trees. I had to stop a couple times to go inside and get myself some ice tea and cool off.

When I finished I put my tools away and then went and dead headed the roses. I had not done that in a couple of days so they really needed it. I even cut a dozen peace roses for the house. After dumping the old roses I put the fresh roses into a vase and added some fresh water.

I had a couple checks to deposit so we took off for the credit union. Kathleen also wanted to stop off at Target to pick up some things and also Office Depot to pick up some ink for her printer. While we were in that shopping center we stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up something for dinner tonight.

When we got home I unloaded the SUV and then changed clothes. By the time I got back downstairs Kathleen had opened the items we got at the deli and we had dinner. After eating I put the dishes into the dishwasher and then headed to my computer to blog.

Well, I think I pretty much caught up on the activities of the last few days, I am sure that I probably have forgotten several things but this is all my tired brain can recall. My system is starting to get back to my normal routine, normal for the last couple years anyway.

It's a Boy!

Well at 1229 this afternoon Andrea gave birth to an eleven pound two ounce twenty-one and three quarters inches long baby boy whom they have named Christian. They have not decided on a middle name yet but I am sure that will be coming shortly.

I knew that we would be heading to the hospital this morning so after eating breakfast, doing the dishes and reading the paper I went outside and mowed the front lawn. As I was finishing up the mailman pulled up so I got the mail brought it with me to the back yard. As I was putting the little Brill mower away I notice a nut and bolt from my big McLean mower so I got my wrenches and went and put the bolt back where it belonged.

After that I went into the house and cleaned up, opened the mail and poured a fresh cup of coffee and had a few Fig Newton’s while I read the mail. Kathleen was just having breakfast so I asked her about when she thought she would be going to the hospital. She said soon so I changed my clothes and got ready to go. We got to the hospital a little before noon and Andrea was just about ready to get her epidural, so we went to the waiting room and waited.

Luckily I saw them wheeling her down the hall way so Kathleen rushed out to wish her well. This was about 1220 and a little while later someone came into the waiting room and said something about someone just delivering an eleven pound baby, both Kathleen and I knew that it must have been Andrea so she went to the desk but they would not tell her anything.

A short time later John came out with Christian and he is really a big boy already! John said that everything went well and that Andrea was doing well. After a little while longer Andrea came back to her room so we went in to see her for a while.

We left around 1430 so that Andrea, John and Christian could get some rest. Christian had nurse for over an hour and the nurse was please with that.

When we got home I changed my clothes and made myself some lunch and then went out side for a while. Kathleen came out to join me, but I got tired of sitting so I picked some strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and even a few apples. The back yard has so much fresh fruit in it right now that I could probably eat every meal out there.

Here are a couple of pictures of the newest member of our family:

Something to Think About

"You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.” John Quincy Adams

I have been thinking about this quote over this weekend and it seems to me that a lot of Americans have forgotten what their "freedom" has cost others. They take for granite that the things that they enjoy, freedom to say and do whatever they want is not something that should be taken lightly. Brave men and women have sacrificed their lives over the last couple hundred years to preserve those rights. These are rights or privileges that the majority of people around the world have never experienced.

I get a little tired of people who are always complaining about our government and in particular the money and lives lost fighting wars that they cannot see any reason for us to be involved in. While I do not agree with everything my government does, especially when it comes to having to pay taxes, most of the problems that I have are with the people who are running the government.

I am afraid that I could go on and on about my frustration about this but what I really want to emphasize is that freedom is not free it comes with a price and holidays like Memorial Day, Independence Day (Fourth of July), Labor Day and Veterans Day are days that we should be remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice; if not their lives their limbs and bodies to allow us to continue those freedoms.

Too often today I see people heading to the water, to the mountains, or wherever to enjoy themselves and give no thought to why it is we have a holiday and should be celebrating and not just enjoying ourselves. I am all too afraid that some day, perhaps all too soon we may not be able to have the freedom that we all have taken for granite all too long.

Well, enough of my soap boxing, as I said I could go on longer than most people would care to listen to so I will change gears. I have been asked about my roses a lot lately so I will talk a little about them.

Roses are pretty easy to grow they need fertilizing on a regular basis and dead heading of the spent rose flowers. They also need at least one hardy pruning a year usually in the fall. This last year I really pruned my roses hard and this spring I have been fertilizing them about every six weeks and the roses have had blooms like they never had before.

Kathleen was commenting the other day that she has never seen so many long stems on the roses and I cannot think of a time when we have had such an abundance of roses either. I have to cut off bunches at a time because the roses are so heavy with flowers that they are bending over.

I have probably cut eight or ten dozen roses this week and I have more roses on the bushes than I care to count. In another week or so the roses will slow down a little and only produce a few roses per bush so I am enjoying them while I can.

Speaking of enjoying; while I was out back mowing the lawn I stopped for a while to enjoy some of the raspberries, strawberries and blue berries that are coming on right now. The raspberries especially are heavy with berries. I think that the hot weather we had last weekend really motivated the berries.

Speaking of the weather it has been rather pleasant these last few days but it is suppose to be getting hot again this next week something that I am not looking forward to.

Well tomorrow morning Andrea is heading to the hospital so Kathleen and I will be running back and forth to the hospital and to their house as we watch Brandon this next week.

Sultry Saturday

I was tired again this morning when I woke up; not quite as tired as yesterday, but more so than I normally am. After breakfast and reading the paper I took the kitchen vegetable scraps out to the composer and then loaded up and started up the dishwasher.

Kathleen came downstairs after a while and I went outside to deadhead the roses since I had not done that for several days. I filled up a five gallon bucket of spent roses and I also cut about four dozen roses for the house.

I suggested to Kathleen that she might take some over to our neighbor so she did. Shortly after she left I took off to feed Aaron and Tami's pets; I did not see Jasmine and her food looked pretty full; the rabbit was glad to see me as were the fish. I did not see Archie when I first went outside but as soon as I got outside he came running up to me.

My next challenge was to find his food bowl; I finally found it out in the grass. So once I dumped his water and refilled it I filled his food bowl and then played catch with him for fifteen or twenty minutes. I never did see Jasmine so she must be out and about somewhere.

This afternoon I gathered up some of the dry wall that we tore out during the remodeling. Stan did not have the time or the room to get it in his load last Sunday so I will just put it in with the trash over the next few weeks.

After coming back inside and cleaning up I made myself a Boca burger on dark rye with an onion slice, some sun dried tomatoes and some provolone cheese and then toasted it in the toaster oven. Once it finished toasting I added some potato salad and some pickled asparagus.

Kathleen finally came home just a little before 1700 so she must have had quite a visit. I am not sure what we are having for dinner tonight, but I think that I will wait a little while longer before I ask Kathleen what she has in mind for dinner.

Today was kind of overcast all day; I felt a few drops of moisture on my arm while I was outside working kind of like yesterday. It did not do it long enough or hard enough to get anything wet but it was overcast enough that I did not get to mow the lawn as it stayed damp from the drizzle early this morning.

Happy Independence Day!

This morning I woke up tired but since it was already past 0700 I got up, usually I am up and going much earlier, but today even though I was up I could not get going no matter what I did.

Even after eating breakfast, having a cup of coffee and reading the paper I could not motivate myself to do anything so I lay down on the couch. Since I could not fall asleep I got up and decided that I would try to go outside and do some weeding in the triangular garden in front of the living room between the front walkway and the front lawn.

Before I got started weeding I picked up all the fir branches that the squirrels had chewed off for their nest. Then I started at the east side and worked my way around the north side and then the west side. I had done the north side a few weeks ago and by the time I got there I was pretty sore and tired.

I pulled out five, five gallon buckets of mostly violets but there was also some grass and some broad leaf weeds as well. After I finished weeding I got out my blower and air swept the driveway. It seems like this year there have been a lot of fir pollen pods or maybe I am just more aware of them than I had been in the past.

After I put my tools away I went into the house, cleaned up and then made myself a sardine sandwich with some potato salad and macaroni salad and also had some pickled asparagus to give it a picnic flare. Kathleen came downstairs and made herself some brunch so we sat at the table and talked for a while.

I was pretty tired as I had been weeding from about 1015 until 1445 when I got back into the house and cleaned up. So after I put my dishes and silverware into the dishwasher I went and lay down on the couch again. I still could not fall asleep, but when I finally got up again I felt a little less tired. The arthritis in my hip and back were really bothering me from the weeding maybe because I was on the sidewalk for several hours.

Well it is now 1915 and I think that I better check with Kathleen to see if she is going to do anything about dinner, if not I will probably make myself something.

Long Day

Kathleen woke me up sometime in the middle of the night when she ripped open the hook and loop closer on her sleep apnea machine, but I went right back to sleep. I also woke up sometime later when the rain started hitting the sky light but again I went back to sleep pretty quickly. I guess that I just got disturbed enough last night that I did not get the best of sleep last night.

So when I got up I made breakfast, coffee, read the paper and unloaded the dishwasher and as I was finishing up Andrea and Brandon pulled up. We were watching Brandon today so that Andrea could get her pre-hospital stuff taken care of, so that Tuesday she just has to show up in the morning.

So from a little after 0900 until around 1130 when Andrea got back we were trying to keep up with Brandon and all his activity. A couple times I would pick him up and hold him in my lap and he would put his head down and just about go to sleep but then something would catch his attention and he would be off and running again.

That boy has too much energy for me, I am sure that is the main reason that most people do not have children at our age. Brandon was chatting with me for a while, I am not sure what he was trying to say or if he was just making sounds, but he sure was having a good time doing it.

As Andrea was getting ready to go I put the half of the cheeseburger and the Yukon fries into the toaster oven and heated them up. Andrea and Kathleen were talking in the driveway so I excused myself so that I could eat while it was still warm as I did not want to toast it again because it would be too dried out.

Then after Kathleen and I caught our breath we took off for Costco and Flooring Depot. We had ordered a bull nose for where the new flooring meets the stairs and it came in yesterday so we stopped by there first. Then we went to Costco as or kitchen TV went belly up the other day, I guess after twelve years it gave all it had to give.

We bought a twenty-two inch Samsung LCDHD TV which is bigger than the old one but it does not take up any more space and the picture is much better. It is similar to my monitor in that they both cam be used for TV or computers only mine has the ability to do both at the same time. I have picture on picture capability on mine and usually while I am on the computer I have the TV on for background noise.

We also picked up several other things and when I checked out it was almost six hundred dollars which shocked me at first but I had forgotten about the TV which was over half the total. When we got home I put the frozen items in the freezer down in the basement so that we could put some of the things we bought into the one upstairs.

Tonight Kathleen reheated the left-overs from Tuesday night and there was just enough left. Before she made dinner she changed the table setting and I set up the new TV. This is one less TV that we will have to replace before next February. We do have boxes for two of the other TV’s but we still have four others that we will either need to replace or get boxes for. Most of them are old enough that a new TV would probably be the best way to go.

Wednesday...Run Around Day

This morning when I got up I planned on not getting very much done, so I had a slow breakfast, read the paper, washed a sink load of dishes loaded the dishwasher up and then started it. The mail came a little early today so I went and got it, there was not much there other that one of my Jeep magazines and a few things for Kathleen.

Kathleen had an appointment with her sleep doctor at 1130 and then at 1300 we had an appointment with our financial advisers so I started to load up the washing machine with towels and then realized that Kathleen was not up yet. Just about the time I was going to go upstairs I heard her moving around and then I heard the shower so I waited until she finished and then gathered up her towels and put them into the washer.

I had already put the detergent, a little softener into the tray but it was too late to start it up as we needed to leave in ten minutes and I do not really like to have the washer run while I am not at home in case something goes wrong.

We left the house a little after 1100 and got there about five minutes early. We were there for a little over an hour and when we left we just had enough time to make it to the financial advisers in time for our appointment.

We spent over two hours with them and even though the stock market is not doing so well my investments are doing much better than the market although this month I am not doing much better than the market. We agreed to move some of my small cap stocks to mid cap and some of my international stocks to some large caps as they seem to be doing better and are not as volatile.

After we left there Kathleen wanted to stop off at Montavilla Sewing Center (Beaverton) to see if they had done the work on her sewing machine. The person who use to work over on our side of the river is now the manager at the Beaverton store and that is who Kathleen was having do the work.

After she finished there we walked into the mill end store and looked around for a while. Then we were off to Rockler, as Kathleen wanted to get some stain for the stair rail. Since Trader Joe's is in the same shopping center we had to go there and pick up some items; five bags worth.

Since it was commuter time we decided to stop and have something to eat; there was a Burgerville across the street, so we stopped there and had a Tillamook cheese burger with a couple fresh strawberry shakes and Yukon fries. When we finished we headed into town; the traffic into Portland was not bad, it was not until we crossed the river that the traffic started to back up.

Evidently there was an accident not too far from where we get off the freeway. So it took longer to get from the I5 interchange as it did on I84 home; it was stop and go all the way. That is one
reason that I dislike going across the river so much traffic is always so bad either on this side of the river or the other side.

When we first moved to Portland it was not bad at all, but today it is almost as bad as Los Angeles and the freeways are not nearly as good as they are down there.

When we finally got home I unloaded the SUV and helped put things away. Then I started up the washing machine. Well, I just heard it go off so I need to put the towels into the dryer so I think that I will just say good night for now.