Not as Hot but Really Muggy

This morning when I got up I left the fan on as the temperature inside and outside were about the same. The first thing I did when I got downstairs was to make a fresh pot of coffee. I had not had any in a couple days because my stomach was so messed up and I did not want to upset it with coffee.

While the coffee was dripping I went outside to pick some blueberries to have with my cereal. After eating breakfast and reading the paper I went outside where I picked up apples, sorted the barrels of branches and fir cones; I kept the fir cones and larger branches to run through the chipper and the smaller ones I put into the yard debris container.

I also pulled out all of the spent poppy plants, I like them when they bloom but they look rather ugly once the petals fall off. I also picked a few more blueberries to snack on before going into the house to clean up.

For lunch I got a frozen pizza and baked it in the toaster oven. They are not my favorite meal but I have pretty much run out of other options as we need to go grocery shopping.

This afternoon Kathleen took off to meet with the lady from church and I kind of dozed off and on most of the afternoon. After her meeting Kathleen went to Fred Meyer to pick up a prescription and she also picked up some salmon for dinner.

After dinner I put the dishes into the dishwasher and then caught up on my e-mail as I had not done that this afternoon. Then I read Zander's and Alyssa's blogs and now I am doing my own.

Too Hot to Do Much of Anything

This morning when I got up turned on our whole house fan and then went outside and watered the vegetables and berries as it was suppose to be in the upper nineties again today. When I got back inside I opened some windows and left the back door open to let as much cool air in the house as possible.

When I checked the indoor/outdoor thermometer it read over seventy-five degrees inside and only seventy degrees outside so I wanted to get as much of the cool air inside before it started warming up.

I made myself some hash browns and egg beaters for breakfast and after emptying the dishwasher I loaded my breakfast dishes into it. Then I went outside and picked up apples and ate some blueberries. I also sorted out some of the potting pots that I have been "collecting" and now when Kathleen comes out we can decide if we want to keep any of them.

It was starting to get a little hot for me so I went inside and cleaned up again. I did not get much done today other than what I did this morning except I did sort through some magazines and catalogs. They have a way of piling up and I need to get a handle on them before they get out of control...if that is possible!

Well, the last temperature high that I heard for today was only ninety-seven degrees, the house only got up to a little over eighty degrees so opening the windows and having the fan on early this morning helped a lot. I had to shut the windows and turn the fan down around 0900 so as not to suck in too much warm air.

Now tonight when the outside temperature get to be about the same as the indoor temperature I will turn the fan on and hopefully tonight remember to open the windows before I go to bed. Last night I was too tired and my brain was not working very well.

I am starting to feel better today and I did not spend nearly as much time in the bathroom today as I had the last couple of days and nights. Well, I am getting brain fog and I need to say good night!

The Day After

Yesterday was the first day for our new pastor and between services we held a reception for him and his wife. Afterwards Kathleen and went home, I had not felt quite right that morning but I wanted to go for his first service so I pushed myself a little. Then at 1330 our class had our annual picnic and croquet tournament.

I did not feel any worse so I went, but shortly after I finished eating my stomach started cramping up on me and I had to leave. Kathleen wanted to stay so I put our stuff into the SUV and went home by myself. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon and evening in the bathroom and by the time Kathleen got home I was really exhausted.

I did not feel like eating anything that evening and went to bed early. When I got up this morning I belt much better but still not really great. Between last night and this morning I finished a two liter bottle of lemon-lime soda.

Since I had not picked up apples yesterday I did that this morning and then picked up some leftover junk and put it into the garbage. Then I went into the house, cleaned up and read yesterdays paper. I felt so awful yesterday that I did not read the paper.

After reading the paper I went upstairs and went to bed and took a nap for a while. Andrea had called earlier and wanted Kathleen to go with her to the doctor's to watch Brandon and Christian. It turns out that she has a staff infection in her leg and so she got several things to try to get it cleared up.

I had just come downstairs when they drove up. The stayed a little while and then Andrea had to leave as John was on his way home from work. So for dinner Kathleen heated up the leftover salmon and rice for the other night.

I am starting to feel better tonight but I am still really tired, I got a pretty good night sleep last night and took a nap this afternoon yet I still feel like I need to go to bed.

Another REally Nice Day

It was still pretty overcast when I woke up this morning, but it was not raining and the weather forecast was for cloudy morning and the sun coming out this afternoon; strangely enough they were correct.

This morning I sliced up a banana and a peach to have with my cereal and the peach was just the right ripeness and was as sweet as could be. After eating I emptied the dishwasher and then put my breakfast dishes in.

Since I had not picked up apples yesterday, I though that I had better get outside and pick them up before they all got squished. It took about twenty minutes to pick them up, it is too bad that they ripen and then get really soft so quickly because if they can be picked and eaten right away they do not taste too bad.

Since it had been a while since I had watered and the little amount of moisture that fell yesterday did not do much good I thought that I had better water today. I not only watered the berries and vegetables but I also watered the roses and flowers in the back garden.

After I watered I did a little pruning on the roses and a little weeding in the rose garden. While I was watering I noticed a blackberry that had started to come through into the rose garden so I also dug it out.

I was all set to go into the house when I saw that I still had not finished weeding around the tree rose by the gate to the driveway so I got my tools and finished weeding that area.

While I was down in that area I thought that I would pull out the violets and the mint that was growing along the fence by the basement stairs. Part of it I got from the back sidewalk and the rest of it I stood in the stairway and pulled them. I really like the idea of pulling the weeds from the upright position...it is much easier on my back.

By the time I put my tools away and cleaned up it was after 1300 so I decided to make myself some lunch. Since I still had some salmon from last night’s dinner I decided to have that along with a sardine sandwich.

About 1530 we got a phone call reminding us about a dinner we were having with some friends; it is a good thing we got the call as Kathleen had next Saturday marked for the dinner. So Kathleen had to rush off to Winco to pick up something to bring.

While she was gone I shaved and showered as I was a little dirty from working out in the yard for over four hours. I normally do that just before going to bed as it is kind of refreshing and relaxing.

That is the reason that I am blogging this early; I do not think that I will be feeling much like doing it when we get home tonight.

It almost Rained Today!

When I got up this morning it was really overcast and when I got downstairs I could see that it looked a little damp outside. Since Kathleen had picked up some bananas the other day I had a sliced up banana with my cereal this morning. After eating I loaded up the dishwasher and when Kathleen finished eating I put her dishes in and turned it on.

Then I tackled the pots and pans; I had not cleaned out the pan that the salmon was cooked in last night and when I came downstairs it really smelt like salmon so I thought that I needed to wash it first. The rice cooker had not been cleaned out other than just the cooking bowl so I took it apart and gave in a little cleaning.

Since I was meeting with the guys today at 1000 I went upstairs and changed my clothes and then took off. It was drizzling a little, but not enough for me to have to run the wipers.

After I left Manny's house I went to Costco as I had a couple coupons that expired Sunday and that place is really a zoo on the weekends. I was worse than I had seen it in a long time and I was lucky in that a line just opened up as I was getting ready to check out.

So when I got home I changed my clothes and then got the mail, not much of anything interesting so I went to my office to pay a few bills. None of them were due right away and so I had the credit union to send them just a few days before they are due. That way I get to keep my money a little longer and earn some interest on it.

After a while Kathleen came down and said that her sewing machine was ready to pick up and she wanted to know if I wanted to go along as well. I thought that since we were out anyway we could stop by Newport Bay and get some thing to eat for dinner.

Kathleen asked me if it had rained today as she heard on the radio that it had but she was not aware of it. I told her that it did not really rain but drizzled off and on for a while this morning, but this is the first time we have had any significant precipitation in a month.

Kathleen had a shrimp Louie and crab salad and I had some Alaskan Coho salmon and a cup of fisherman's soup. I had a good size piece of salmon left over and Kathleen had a lot of her salad left over so we took home three boxes for tomorrow's lunches.

Well I did not get much done today, I am getting closer to getting my computer monitor looking like it should, it is still not quite correct, but it is a lot better than it was last week end.

What Was I Thinking?

First off, Happy Birthday Alyssa and Charie; both share the same birthday only Alyssa is ten years older!

This morning when I got up I felt pretty good so since I had sorted clothes last night I did a couple loads of laundry. Then and after a while I made myself some hash brown potatoes and I used Kathleen's egg whites and some egg beater to make myself and omelet. I used a pretty good size potato and so there were a lot of hash browns, so I did not make myself any toast to go along with it all.

After I finished eating I finished my coffee and read the paper. After that I Put the first load of laundry into the dryer and the second into the washer then I went outside and picked up apples.

After I finished picking up the apples I mowed the back lawn, pulled some weeds in the rose garden and pruned the roses. After adding the yard debris to the container I went into the house cleaned up and then took the first load of clothes out of the dryer.

I took the clean dry laundry upstairs and folded it and put it away. Then I went back downstairs and made myself another salad for lunch. I used up all the baby spinach and arugula and just about all of the romaine lettuce. By the time I finished lunch the laundry was done, so I took it upstairs; folded and put it away.

Then I went back outside and sat in the shade while I did a little reading, I was going to read inside, but it was such a nice day that I decided to enjoy the fresh air and listen to the birds. While I was out there I noticed some birds feeding from my thistle feeder; I noticed that the amount of thistle level had gone down but I had never seen any birds using it.

After I finished reading I decided to mow the front lawn and move some more dirt from the front of the garage to the front of the west side of the driveway to fill in a low spot. By the time I finished all that I was so tired that I could hardly stand up but I managed to get my tools put away and cleaned up.

I had just sat down to rest when Kathleen asked me to help her load the sewing machine into her SUV for her class tonight. I got her machine into the car and she took off for class; I was going to eat but I was too tired so I sat down and watched The O'Reilly and Hannity and Colmes.

In fact I am watching Hannity and Colmes on my computer now while I am writing my blog. I decided that if I kept sitting there I would fall asleep and so I decided to write my daily blog while I was still somewhat awake.

Well, I am getting more tired all the time so I think that I will go ahead and post it and then have some fresh salmon for dinner.

Nice Weather Returns

I did not feel like getting up this morning, but I knew that if I stayed in bed I would be more tired than if I just got up and started my day. So before breakfast this morning I went out and picked some blueberries for my shredded wheat and Cheerios. Kathleen got up this morning as I was getting breakfast ready and so I poured her a cup of coffee as well.

After putting the dishes into the dishwasher I went outside and picked up apples, there were not as many again this morning. I think that it has something to do with not having as many left in the tree. After Picking up the apples I ate a few more blueberries and then watered the berries, the vegetables and then went and watered the gardens in the front of the house.

Kathleen left while I was watering to go over to Tigard and Beaverton so while her big SUV was not in the driveway I decided to get out my blower and air sweep the driveway off. While I was doing that I did the back stairs, the sidewalk and all around the front garden.

After I finished putting my tools away I went into the house, cleaned up and made myself a baby spinach, arugula and romaine salad. Since I used the last of the raspberry dressing I made my own out of some apricot sauce and some tarragon vinegar.

After putting my dishes into the dishwasher I rested for a while and then went back outside so that I could dig out the big apple tree stomp from the back garden area. I had been planting around it for a couple years and it was getting so rotten that I was afraid that it would fall over and crush one of my peace roses.

After getting it down to ground level I got out my good old stubbing hoe and dig the roots and the rest of the tree stomp out. I still have my old wheel borrow over at Aaron's and I did not have the energy to get the garden cart out of the garage so I moved my big reel mower close by and loaded the largest pieces on it and wheeled them over to under the fir trees.

I had to use several five gallon buckets to pick up the smaller pieces but I got most of it picked up. After digging all around the former stump I put all my tools away and went into the house and cleaned up. I had just finished cleaning up when Kathleen came back home so I went out and helped her bring her sewing machine inside and upstairs.

She had also stopped by Fred Meyer's and picked up one of her prescriptions and some groceries so that she will have something to make for dinner tonight. Well, I am feeling a little tired so I think that I will go rest for a while before dinner.

A Different Kind of Day

Well I got a good eight hours sleep last night and when I woke up it looked like it was a lot earlier than it really was. It was really overcast this morning and it never burnt off; the weather man had said that it was suppose to rain today, but I did not see it. I could see things looked a little damp outside but if it precipitated at all today it was not much.

It was so dreary out this morning that instead of having my normal Egg Beaters I decided to have some hot cereal instead. Before I started cooking it I took the kitchen vegetable scraps and put them into the composter and then I picked up apples. There were not as many apples as there have been so that was nice; and after picking up the apples I picked a couple handfuls of blueberries to have as a pre-breakfast snack.

After I got back into the house I emptied the dishwasher as my cereal was cooking and then I read the paper as I finished my coffee. Since this was garbage day I took the bag out to the can that I had brought to the front yesterday so that we would have a full can for them to pick up.

After coming back into the house I decided that since it was suppose to rain today I probably would be better off working inside today so I went into my office and started going through the bookcases on the walls and the small bookcase that I had just moved Sunday. I am now using it to house the shoes that I keep downstairs; like my walking shoes and most of my Birkenstock's.

I even cleaned off the extra desk and now I can actually use it to sort things out on. I got rid of a lot of my old Boeing memorabilia, stuff that I had held onto just because I wanted to keep them as mementoes of about a third of my life.

A lot of what I got rid of was just paper, old catalogs or brochures that I had picked up at some time. I sorted out my computer programs, disks and manuals and got rid of several disks and manuals of equipment or programs that we no longer had.

Other than a lunch break I worked on my office about seven hours, I do not feel too tired but then I did not do anything that took a lot of energy either. Kathleen was tired so I made myself some dinner and then cleaned up my kitchen mess. Well since it is 2000 I think that I will call it a day, so good night!

Almost a Perfect Day

I awoke early this morning and did not get to do back to sleep so finally about 0545 I got up. It was a really nice looking morning out and not overcast like it has been the last few days.

Then this morning for breakfast I went outside and got a couple dozen blueberries to put on my shredded wheat and Cheerios. After finishing my morning coffee I picked up my dishes and put them into the dishwasher.

Then I gathered up the recycling paper and cardboard and put it into the new recycling container outside and then picked up twenty gallons of apples. I think that between the squirrels and birds just about all of the apples have been chewed on to some degree. Every once in a while I seen raccoons up in the tree as well, so it is kind of like a mini wild kingdom.

After picking up apples I decided to go back and work on the garden area that I did not get planted and de-weed it. While I was at it I spent some time weeding around the raspberries. That area was not as bad as it has been in years past but some of the weeds were getting pretty tall.

Since I was working both in the sun and in the shade I was not sure how long I had been exposed to the sun, so I stopped and put my tools away and then went into the house and cleaned up. The mail had come while I was outside so I went and got it and put it on the kitchen table so that I could go through it and the paper while I ate lunch.

For lunch I heated up the rest of that Trader Joe's shepherd's pie and an English muffin. There were more catalogs than anything else in the mail today for some reason; almost all of them said that this might be my last catalog if I did not order anything. Funny thing is that I did not ask for most of them in the first place.

After recycling the junk mail and putting my lunch dishes into the dishwasher I went into my office to see if I could figure out what was wrong with it; I spent most of the afternoon trying to get things back to "normal" to no avail. It is a little better and it is usable to some degree but not as friendly as I had it before and I still need to get it working better but I am too tired to worry about it now.

My leg kept cramping up on my while I was working on the computer and I kept having to get up and walk around to work the cramp out. Finally I gave up and went into the living room and sat in my chair and put my feet up on the ottoman. Of course when I did that it did not take too long for me to fall asleep. All that I remember is that I was watching the Reilly Factor and when I woke up Hannity and Colmes was on.

Today was a great day as far as I was concerned, the temperature was in the high seventies or low eighties and was sunny just about all day. Well, it is after 1900, I have not heard from Kathleen for a while and I am guessing that she is sleeping so I think that I will make myself something to eat for dinner. With that said I am going to call it a night.

What a Weekend!

Yesterday started out pretty good; the weather was nice although not as sunny as t has been, in fact there were many clouds in the sky but still mostly sunny. While I was making breakfast I loaded the washer with a load of towels, then after putting my breakfast dishes into the dishwasher I put the towels into the dryer on my way outside.

When I first got outside I picked up apples and then mowed the back lawn. Still feeling pretty good I decided to do some weeding, only the place I needed to weed was in the sun, I weeded for as long as I could take it and then decided to eat some berries for a while.

The raspberries have slowed down and now I have to look harder for what berries are left. We will get another crop later but for now the berry production is not was it was for the last few weeks. The blueberries are still going strong so I collected a few handfuls and then headed inside.

I was about 1230 so I decided to make myself some lunch. I finished up the rest of the Trader Joe's chicken and some ride that was left over from the other night. After sitting down and going through the mail I decided to go into my office and see if I could straighten it up a little.

I started by putting everything on the desk into a box and then unplugging the wires from the CPU so that I could put it back on the floor. It has been on the desk for over a year and it makes it hard to work at the desk and hence keep it clean.

Once I had everything unplugged I put the CPU aside and then moved the desk about three feet toward the west. This will allow me to move my file cabinet to the east side of the desk so that I can fill things easier. I keep stacking things to file and by the time I get to file them I have three or four updates of the items. Hopefully now I will not have that excuse; that is when I get the stack filed in the first place.

To make a really long story short when I plugged the monitor back in the screen came up differently than it had when I disconnected everything. Kathleen had been helping me as I could not work under my desk due to my back and so she spent a lot of time working on it to try to get it working correctly...it still is not working as it should so I am doing this on the lap top.

While she was working on my computer I decided to take the garbage out and then dispose of an old watermelon. Just as I was picking it up Kathleen called me into the room; well rather than put the watermelon down I carried it into my room. On the way to the computer, I tripped on something and not wanting to drop the watermelon I went crashing to the floor.

I held onto the watermelon until my elbow hit the floor and that jarred it out of my hand and all over the place. When I tried to get up my left side was really aching, from my shoulder on down. I finally made it up and then went into the living room to sit down for a while.

The longer I sat the more I hurt; I could feel my insides starting to not feel too good and my head was really pounding, so I took some extra Tylenol and sat some more. The towels had been dry for quite a while so I took them out of the dryer, folded and put them away.

Finally around 1900 I asked Kathleen if she were going to make some dinner; she heated up some of the left over meatballs and potatoes and rice from another meal. By the time I was done eating I was too worn out both mentally and physically.

Since my computer was still not working correctly I just kind of vegetated in front of the TV until around 2000 when I decided to take a shower before going to bed. I thought that a hot shower might help my aching body, and it did a little.

That was yesterday, last night every time that I move, my body would hurt and I would wake up for a while. This morning Kathleen's sleep machine was noisy so I got up a little earlier than I normally would because I knew that I would not be getting back to sleep anyway.

I still was pretty sore and I did not know for sure if I were going to make it to church or not. Finally after moving around for a while I started to feel less sore so I went upstairs and changed my clothes. Kathleen had gotten up to see how I was but she was still tired so she went back to bed.

I got really sore from sitting so long at church and Sunday School and was really stiff again for a while. By the time I got home I was pretty sore again so I took some more Tylenol and changed my clothes. Instead of resting and reading the paper I decided to work on my office again for a while.

In the last two days I have moved every piece of furniture except the large bookcase. It was a good thing that Kathleen was upstairs the whole time because I had "stuff" in the living room, the dinning room and the hall way, just so that I could move things around in my office.

I still have a lot of sorting to do, but at least now I have some open space in which to do it in. I have been trying to group things in boxes that are similar, i.e. computer cables in one box so that I can sort through the box and get rid or what we do not need any longer. The same for my Palm, Garmin and iTouch. This will hopefully make it easier to find things and get rid of what is not needed.

By the time I had move everything around and got the boxes back into the room it was 1500 so I heated up some left over chicken and rice for lunch. When Kathleen had come down I showed her what I had been working on and what I had gotten rid of already. Kathleen worked on my computer some more and so I went into the living room and read the paper.

Finally around 1730 I asked her what she thought about having for dinner and she did not know so I suggested heating up a shepherd pie that we had gotten at Trader Joe's so she did. She does not like them so I had half for dinner tonight and probably will have the other half tomorrow for lunch.

Kathleen wants me to see the doctor about my back tomorrow, I told her that I will see how I feel tomorrow but I am afraid that I will have to do something sooner than later. Well I am still really tired, I did not get a nap today and I did not sleep all that well last night so I think that I will just post this and call it a day.

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.