Moving again Monday

Well, I think that I am feeling a little better. I think that last week I must have over done something because I have been exhausted for the last four or five days without having done much of anything. Wednesday night Kathleen and I attended our class desert for our former pastor and Thursday nigh I was out to be part of a political discussion group discussing an upcoming amendment to the state constitution.

By Friday I was pretty much comatose, I was awake...kind of, but I could hardly move out of my chair. I took a short walk, and even that did not wake me up. Saturday I was suppose to go to a discipleship meeting at church, but was worn out and I knew that I needed to be somewhat awake for Hayden's birthday party that afternoon.

I made it through the party okay, but by the time we got home I was ready to go to bed. I forced myself to stay up for a couple hours, just so that I would not be wide awake at two in the morning. Sunday I did not go to church because I still did not have any energy and I wanted to go to a memorial service of someone from church.

Kathleen had someone that she wanted to visit with for a while Sunday afternoon and I thought that they were going to meet somewhere, but about an hour before she was going to arrive I found out that she was coming over here. So I did what I could to clean up the living room and took about ten bags of stuff out to her SUV to take to Goodwill. I also vacuumed the downstairs a couple times.

Then I found out that she was coming with her husband and that they were running a little late. By this time I was too worn out to go to the memorial service and really too tired to be much of a host either, but I did not have much of a choice on the latter.

When they got here, the husband needed to go for a walk around the block, I was exhausted so I did not go, but just sat and tried to stay awake while Kathleen and her friend visited. As an aside, I had not had the time to eat lunch and by the time they left I was ready to eat anything I could get into my mouth.

On top of everything else, I have been having this really annoying pain in my left side as well as in my back area. It was not the usual back pain, but rather something inside; I deduced that it had something to do with my intestines as I was also having a lot of mucus discharge as well. Whatever it was I was totally zapped every day for the last few days.

Then when I woke up this morning, I noticed right away that I did not have the pain in my side, there was still some pain in my back, but this was more of the normal back pain. So I did have a little more energy today although my joints were really bothering me today...but that I think I can attribute to the rain that we are having today.

We did get out and drop the stuff off at Goodwill and then did some grocery shopping at Winco, but now I am pretty worn out once again, not quite like what I was all weekend, but for not having done much today I am more tired than I should be.

Well, it is about 1900 and I think that I will go upstairs and see if Kathleen is doing anything for dinner tonight. So I will just say good night now that I have caught everyone up on my last few days.

Thursday's Traveling

This today was pretty normal, breakfast, read the paper and the mail and went for a walk. After my walk I got out my garden cart and went over to the next street to the north, where they are putting in some new houses. I had talked to the fellow who owns the land and is the contractor and asked him about taking some used brick that had been dumped there.

He had said that he would just have to pay to have it removed and that if I wanted it I could have it. I made two trips, the bricks are heavy and I had twenty-five or thirty in each load. There is probably another load left, mostly broken pieces which I probably will get tomorrow.

I thought that I could use them to create a walkway with them; I had thought that I would have to buy them and this will save some money for very little work. I was a little surprised at how much it wore me out, although by now I should be use to not being able to do much.

After I brought the last cart over I went inside and cleaned up and then made myself a salad. We had some salmon left over, so I flaked off some and topped the salad with it. I also made myself an egg beater omelet this morning with a little salmon in it, so this has been a salmon day for me.

I have spent a good portion of this afternoon researching window contractors; I am still hopping that we can get it done for a lot less than the one bid we got a couple weeks ago. Then tonight I have a discussion group to go to for an hour and a half. I get paid for this and it does not take too much time and the pay is something like $25 an hour, so it is a little hard to refuse.

I am not sure what Kathleen is planning on having for dinner tonight, she has been upstairs most of the day, but that is nothing new. I guess I will have to go up there and see what she is planning and also to remind her that I need to eat and get out of here this evening.

So because I am going to be gone tonight after dinner I am going to send this out early. I know that when I get home tonight I will probably be too tired to write this then, so I will just have to say good night now.

Wednesday's Workings

I actually woke up and felt pretty good this morning; I guess that my body just needed a couple of days to rest up. When I first got down stairs, I turned the sprinkler on the front lawn and let it run for almost three hours. Then after the normal start to my morning I went out back and watered the roses and the berries.

After the ground was good and soaked I worked in the rose garden for a while and then I pulled ivy for about an hour. After going back inside, cleaning up and resting for a while I went for a walk. I had not even felt like taking a walk for the last few days, but this morning I actually felt like walking.

I only walked for about a half of an hour, and stopped and talked to two people along the way to break up my walk. I felt good to go out and walk and I wanted to make sure that I did not over do it today.

When I got back from my walk I made myself a Boca burger and had the rest of the potato salad for lunch. After I while I took a shower to wash all the dust and dirt off my body and also to get cleaned up for the desert that our class was having tonight. Our former pastor was in town and our class was having a get together so that they could visit with as many people as possible.

Anyway, Kathleen made some ravioli for dinner tonight and then we took off for the desert. We did not get back home until about 2100 and I am almost too tired to do this, but I though that I would give it a try and write something even if it were not a lot.

So this is it for tonight, good night!

Tuesday's Trade-in

I woke up early this morning and could not get back to sleep, so I finally got up. I felt better than I had in the last couple of days, but I did not want to push myself by doing something to hinder my feeling better.

I had initially though about going for a walk while it was still nice and cool, but then I thought that walking kind of irritates whatever it is that is wrong with my side. I knew that I made the right decision when I took the recycling out front, as just lifting the bin without the two bags of paper recycling in it was strenuous. So after taking the recycling up front I made myself an egg beater omelet, a veggie sausage and a couple left over biscuits.

After eating I went out to the garage and brought the step ladder into the house and upstairs. The reason behind this was that we were having an energy audit the first thing this afternoon and they needed to get into the attic.

Then I went into the living room to read the paper. The mail came as I was finishing up the paper, but when I went out to get it the only thing there was an advertising flier. The mailman could have just skipped our house if that is all he had for us.

After that I went out to the rose garden and did a little pruning, digging out tree suckers, cutting out blackberry shoots and pulling a few weeds. I knew that it was getting close to the time I needed to go into the house and get cleaned up for our energy audit, so I put things away and went into the house and cleaned up.

The gal that did the audit was here for about an hour and three quarters and I think we changed out about thirty incandescent light bulbs and put in several types of electric florescent bulbs. They gave us all the bulbs and so I took and installed as many as they gave us.

She said that we had reached our limit of free bulbs; I do not think most people have as many lights as we have in this house. Even replacing thirty lights we still have another twenty-five or thirty more to replace. We are hoping that the new bulbs will cause our power usage to go down and with that our power bill.

After she left, I made myself a salad for lunch and realized that we really need to go to the grocery store and get some more salad fixings. After I finished lunch I asked Kathleen if she wanted to go to the credit union with me and she said that she did. So finally about 1630 we took off.

We got there too late last night to make the deposit, so I wanted to make sure that we go there before they closed today. After finishing at the credit union Kathleen suggested stopping at BiMart, so on the way there she passed a "dollar" store, so she stopped and when we parked she saw that it was closed, so since we were stopped anyway we went into the Ace hardware store to look around a bit.

Escaping without spending any money we took off and then went to BiMart. They had flowers outside for a couple bucks each so we bought four, then we went inside and bought a couple more florescent lights, some blueberry fig bars for me, some nuts for Kathleen, some peanut brittle for Kathleen, and a few other things that have slipped my mind for now.

As we were checking out and I was paying for what we bought, Kathleen found a round table for out back for only ten dollars, and so after I paid for the table we took off. It was a good thing we brought her SUV instead of my Jeep, the table would not have fit into the Jeep very easily.

We finally made it home about 1830 and Kathleen boiled some potatoes to make a potato salad for dinner. Besides the potato salad we also had some left over salmon and some celery sticks. Well, the energy audit was very worth while today, it did not cost us anything and we probably got seventy-five dollars worth of free light bulbs.

They also told us how we could qualify for rebates for us getting new windows, insulation and a few other things. I would recommend all our Oregon children check into having an audit. They also have rebates for hot water heaters, furnaces and other things. We just replace our furnace and hot water heater a few years ago so they said we did not need to do that.

Well, I did not get a lot done today, but it was a very worth-while day. So here's to a good night to a good day!

Making Monday's Mellow

I got up this morning and still did not feel that great, it was not that I was still tired, but more that I was just sore. My right side has been sore for a couple days not and has really been zapping my energy.

It was an overcast morning so I initially thought that I would try to get the rest of the siding painted, but the more the time passed the more I realized that I really did not feel well enough to paint. To validate my decision the sun came out and I knew that I would not be painting today.

Kathleen came downstairs and asked if I felt lake pancakes this morning and it sounded good to me, so she made some pancakes. They were blueberry, banana and almonds, and it turned out to be a good combination. After breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up.

I decided to go outside and work for a while; I pruned the roses, pulled some weeds, trimmed off the spent lily stems and then took everything off the table that I had been using to store things on. In the process I emptied all the pots of their dirt and put it all into a container. I wound up with about ten gallons of potting soil.

With the pots empty, I stacked them together and boxed them up for future projects and then put them into the garage. By the time I got done it was almost 1500, so I cleaned up and went inside. I was not sure what to make for lunch so I just got out a Boca burger and made a burger sandwich.

I reminded Kathleen that I needed to go to the credit union to deposit some money; finally about 1710 we left the house. Traffic was bad and we got there a minute after they closed. I had loaded Toni's old file cabinet into the SUV so we took that over to her place. She was not home yet, so I left it on the sidewalk by her front door.

We were also going to drop off a pot of baby’s breath at one of Kathleen's friend's house, but it did not make it to the car. So I had Kathleen run by the house and I went out and got the pot and Kathleen took it over herself.

She did not make it home by 1915, so I made myself some salmon and had some cottage cheese to go along with it. Well, my side still bothers me, not quite as much as it did this morning, but it certainly is annoying. I think that I will call it a day and say good night!

Still Zonked Sunday

Before I forget, here is a web site that you might want to visit, it is for the no call registry where you can list you home phone as well as cell phone. Here is the address:

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

I just did our cell phones as well as our house phone. I never use to get unsolicited calls on my cell, but lately I have been getting a couple a week so I thought that I would add it to the no call registry. I think that the registry is only good for a few years, I noticed when I signed up today that it said good until 2012, and so if you have done it before and it has been a while it might pay to do it again.

Now for today: I woke up and was still worn out, but I wanted to get up and go to church as Dr Carl Laney was speaking in church this morning and I always try to make it when he is speaking.

As I went to start up the Wrangler this morning I hesitated before it finally turned over. It has been pretty close to a month since I have driven it anywhere and quite frankly, I would not have been surprised it the batter were dead in it, but it had just enough to kick the old starter over. So the trip to church charged it up enough that it should last another couple weeks anyway.

Now for the reason I was driving the Jeep, Kathleen had not gotten a lot of sleep the night before, so when she did not get up on her own accord, I just let her sleep and took the Jeep, so that if she woke up and wanted to go she would have her vehicle to take. As it turned out she did not get up until after 1100 so it really did not matter that I took the Jeep other than since the battery was almost dead it was good to take it out and charge the battery.

I left the Jeep out of the garage when I got home and I also left it run so as to give the battery a little extra charging. The reason I left it out was so that I could sweep out the garage or at least the side where I park the jeep. So many leaves and fir needles had blown in that I thought that while I had the Jeep out it would be a good time to sweep them up.

I was hungry when I got home so I made myself a half of a pita and stuffed it with some chicken salad that Kathleen made the other day. I also finished the cold slaw and macaroni salad after Kathleen had what she wanted out of them.

It was still overcast this afternoon and would have been a good day to finish painting the side of the house. But since I had no energy today, I decided not to push myself; I did not even take my daily walk, if fact I had all to do to stay awake as I was reading the paper and comics.

When I finally finished the paper, I decided that I would wash the clothes, so I sorted them out and asked Kathleen to make sure she had everything she wanted washed in the hampers. Once she finally got that done I took the clothes downstairs and washed and dried the clothes. Then when they were done, I took them upstairs and folded and put the away.

Just as I was finishing putting the clothes away, Kathleen called me and said that dinner was on the table. She heated up some clam chowder and made some biscuits which we had with Smucker's raspberry all fruit. If you have not tried the Smucker's all fruit, it is really good.

I became familiar with Smucker's while at college, I got to meet one of the Smucker boys and decided to try it. It started out as a small company in Orrville, Ohio and has grown into a fairly good size company; they also make Adam's peanut butter, another one of my favorites.

I think that I was first exposed to Smucker's ice cream topping at my Grandma Roush's house as she use to put Smucker's butter scotch topping on ice cream. I had forgotten about that until years later when I started using their ice cream toppings once in a while on my ice cream.

My how far from the path I traveled on that rabbit trail. Anyway, dinner was good, it was a pretty light meal and since I had not done anything today I did not need much of anything for dinner. Well, that about covers my day, I hope you had a more productive day than I did. I guess a good night is now in order, talk some more tomorrow!

Saturday Sauntering

I was not quite as sore this morning as I was yesterday, but I sure did not feel "normal" whatever that is anymore. I finally got up a little after 0700 made an egg beater omelet and some sourdough toast. Then I emptied the dishwasher and loaded up the dishwasher with the dishes from when the children were here last night, Toni, Chucky, Andrea and Brandon.

Then I poured myself a cup of coffee and headed to my easy chair to read the paper. After the paper decided that since I did not feel up to painting today I would work out in the rose garden as I had not worked out there all week. So I spent a couple hours pruning roses, pulling some weeds and mostly digging out Italian prune suckers that were popping up all over the place.

After coming inside and cleaning up I decided to make myself a salad for lunch, so I got out all the ingredients that I needed, cut them up and then sat down to enjoy it. Then after resting for a while I thought that I needed to get a little exercise in, so I put on my walking shoes and told Kathleen that I was going for my daily walk.

The other day while I was out for my walk, I though that I had not been over to Maywood Park lately, so that is where I headed. I walked all the east west streets first and then all the north south streets and then headed home. By the time I got back I had logged over seven miles...and was really tired. So I sat down and watched the news.

Somehow I managed to stay awake; I was not really as sleepy as I was outright bone tired. After sitting for a while I did feel better and it was about 1900 and Kathleen was not here so I reheated up so salmon and then had some cold slaw and macaroni salad to go along with it. Kathleen finally came home about 1930 after I had finished eating.

Well, that was my day, it seemed to go by a lot faster than what I got accomplished, but so do most of my days. I need to go out and water the rose garden as I have not done that all week either. Andrea just called and she and John are close by so they are going to stop off for a visit. So I will just say good night.

Friday's Frustrations

When I got up this morning I realize that I had indeed pushed myself a little too hard yesterday. My back, which is usually sore when I get up was sore but it was not the sorest part of my body...my thighs were, from standing on the extension ladder too long.

I kind of had that feeling last night, but I was hoping for the best. Anyway I was hoping that after being up for a while I could "walk" it off and feel better...no such luck. So after eating and reading the paper, I decided that I would mow the lawn at a leisurely pace and see if I could get something done today.

The sun was out earlier today so I knew that I probably would not be painting this morning and since I was as sore as I was that was probably a good thing. I got our front lawn mowed my neighbor's front and side lawn mowed and the drive next door on our west side. I was pretty much out of steam at that point so I did not feel too bad that the battery on the mower was pretty much spent.

I took the battery off the mower and put it on the charger and put the mower back where it belonged in the garage. After getting the mail and opening it I took the credit union statement that came today and reconciled my savings and checking accounts, they both came out on the money, as they usually do, so that was a good thing.

I wanted to get a little walking in so I told Kathleen that I was going to try to take my walk. So I changed into my walking shoes and took off. I was a still pretty sore, so I took it at a little more leisurely pace than normal. I wound up walking about four and a half miles when Kathleen called and said that she needed to go to NW Portland to return her old C-Pap machine.

Since I was only about a half mile away, I told her that I would be home in about fifteen minutes.
When I got home, I cleaned up and changed my clothes and shoes and loaded her machine into the SUV. I also took my insurance refund check so that we could deposit it at the credit union on the way home.

After dropping off the machine and dropping by the credit union Kathleen said that she wanted to also stop by Winco to pick up some produce, this time of year we really go through the fresh produce. While we were there we also picked up so fresh wild salmon for dinner tonight. We got enough so that we could have a couple meals out of it.

By the time we got home and unloaded the groceries, I was pretty hungry, so I made myself a Limburger cheese, sweet onion sandwich with a hot dill pickle on top to give it a little heat. Then I sat down in my easy chair in the living room and dozed on and off for a couple hours.

Kathleen made the salmon for dinner and we also had some macaroni salad and some cold slaw. She also made a mango-pineapple chutney to go along with the salmon. Well, I you can see, I did not get any painting done today.

I think that I probably needed to take the day off, hopefully tomorrow I can finish up the siding and then I can do the shakes and then the trim, with any luck before the rainy season set in. Well, I cannot think of anything else right now, so I am just going to say good night!

Through Thursday

Well here it is Thursday evening already...I thought that I would not make it through the day I was so tired. This morning was pretty typical; I did not go for my walk this morning as I wanted to start painting before the sun burned through the overcast sky. I finally finished breakfast and reading the paper a little after 0900, so I went outside and set up the shorter wooden ladder.

Then I went to the garage and got out the paint, small paint bucket and changed into my painting clothes, old shorts, old tee shirt, steel toed boots and old long sleeve shirt. Then I went into the mud room and got my paint brush out of the water filled jar where I had it soaking overnight.

I started on the front side of the house which is the other end from where I had been painting. I did this because I knew that the sun would be out soon and I was hoping that starting on the far northeast side would be the shadiest place to be. It was not long before the sun came out and the reflection off the upstairs window was really bright, brighter than I had expected.

I must have been quite a sight as the lady next door was taking some pictures of me up on the ladder. I am not sure why, but she probably never saw a old man thirty plus feet up in the air dressed as strangely as I was, by this time I had gotten my old straw cowboy hat on so I am sure that I looked a little strange.

Anyway I started out with almost a gallon of paint in my bucket and I was determined that I was going to finish it as it was all the paint that was left in the five gallon bucket and I did not want to put it back, nor did I want to open the other bucket today.

I got to about an inch left in my gallon bucket and had to force myself back up the ladder. I even had to trade the shorter wooden ladder for the longer aluminum ladder as I had painted all I could with the wooden one. By the time I finished the paint in the bucket I had painted all but about the middle five feet of the siding.

So tomorrow my challenge will be to finish that section and then I can go back to the smaller ladder and do the shakes which start at about ten feet off the ground. The shakes should paint a lot easier as there is a much better covering of paint on them. The siding was put up twenty years ago and has only been painted two times since I put it up.

I will still have to do the trim, windows and what not, but that should not be that difficult and I can do it at a slower pace. I wanted to get the higher siding done this week as it was suppose to be overcast all week. It pretty much was for Monday and Tuesday, yesterday we had some scheduled appointment, so I did not paint and today the sun cam out earlier than I would have liked it to...did I just complain about the sun shining?

Anyway, I finished painting about 1245 and Kathleen asked if I would like a chicken salad pita, it sounded like a good idea to me so she fixed my one and she had one as well. By the time I got done eating I realize just how sore I was, but I knew that if I did not get out for my walk soon I probably would not make it at all today.

So reluctantly I put on my walking shoes and took off. I started out my walk pretty much the same as I normally do, but about half way through I decided to try a different route, so I took off and walked up and down a couple blocks. I had walked the same streets earlier in the week, but then I just walked the upper sections, today I walked the lower sections.

I would up talking about four and a quarter miles, so it was a pretty good walk. By the time I got back home I was really tired. After sitting for a while I checked my blood pressure and it was 90/61 and my pulse was 60, I did not have any energy left, so I went and sat in my chair and looked at my Orvis fly fishing catalog and somewhere along the way I fell asleep. I finally woke up when Kathleen brought me a frozen citrus drink.

Before I realized it she had dinner ready and called me into the kitchen to eat. She made steaks and green beans, the steaks were only about five ounces apiece so not a lot, but it was enough to satisfy and I really was not hungry when I finished it.

Well, I was suppose to go to a global outreach meeting tonight, but I was just took worn out and did not have any reserve to try to force myself into going. That is one of the most discouraging thing is not having any energy anymore. Well, I probably will be calling it quits early tonight so I am just going to say good night now.

Wednesday's Wanderings

I knew that today was going to be a different day before I got out of bed this morning. Everything was pretty normal to begin with, breakfast, empty the dishwasher, read the paper, going for a walk, read the mail, but that is where it all stopped.

Kathleen and I had our insurance review over in Beaverton today, so we left the house about noon for our 1230 appointment. We made it there just in time and spent about an hour and a half with our agent. We dropped Kathleen's term insurance and cut my insurance by about two-thirds.

Since we do not have children that depend on us now there really was no need for me to have a quarter of a million dollars of insurance and the same went for Kathleen. We also were able to change our auto insurance since neither one of us puts many miles on our vehicles a year. So hopefully we achieved our goal of reducing our premiums and kept our coverage in line with what we actually needed.

We left Beaverton about 1400 and on the way home Kathleen said that she was hungry, so I suggested going to Salty's on the Columbia River. Kathleen had been saying how she never got to eat there; I had gone a couple times when I worked at Boeing as a reward type dinner, so it was never a big deal for me.

We both only ate half of our lunch so we had some take home. Kathleen had a desert which she only had a little bit of so we took that home as well.

After we left there we stopped at Parr lumber's cabinet outlet to look around and see what they had for cabinets. After looking around for a while we stopped at another appliance and cabinet shop and then at a granite/quarts counter top shop and then a sink fixture shop. They were all next to each other so it was really convenient.

By the time we got home it was 1800 so we just took out our take home from Salty's and heated it up and there was our dinner. Two meals for the price of one. So I did not get a lot of work done around the house as we spent the afternoon wandering around window shopping.

I think that pretty much covers my day, so I will just say good night!

Tiring Tuesday

I was a little sore when I got up this morning, my calves especially from standing on the ladder painting yesterday. When I got downstairs I made myself an omelet and then went into the living room to read the paper. It was really misty outside, but I thought that I had better try to go for a walk and stretch out my leg muscles.

So I let Kathleen know that I was going and then started out. I went for about a four and a half mile walk today. I felt pretty good when I got back and the mail had come so I opened it up and sat down and read the mail. I got a couple magazines, which I still have not sat down to read yet, maybe later tonight.

After finishing the mail, I went outside and got ready to pain some more. So I got out my thirty-two foot extension ladder and set it up on the side of the house. Then I got the paint out and changed into my painting clothes. I poured some paint into my small paint bucket and then headed up the ladder.

I got almost half of the east side of the upper part of the house painted. I had hoped to get a little further along, but my arthritis hurt so much that I could hardly hold onto the paint brush. While the cooler overcast weather is great for painting the change in the weather has been raising havoc with my arthritis.

I finally got to a point where I could stop, so I did. I ran out of paint in my small bucket and my body was telling me that I needed to stop, so it was a good time to call it quits. So I took the ladders down and set them along the fence and then pounded the five gallon bucket closed, put it into the garage, changed into my regular clothes and then went into the house to clean the brush and wash up myself.

It was just about 1500 by the time I got into the kitchen to make myself some lunch. I was too tired to think about anything to eat, so I just heated up a Boca burger and pelted some cheese on some toast as I was toasting the bread. I also added a Walla Walla sweet onion and some dill pickles to the burger. I also added a hot dill pickle on the side.

I was so tired that after I finished eating I went upstairs and went to bed. Kathleen came home about 1715 and I woke up. It took me a while to wake up enough to actually get up and out of bed, but I finally did about 1745.

When I finally got downstairs, I managed to look through a couple of the catalogs that came in today’s mail. Then about 1830 I asked Kathleen what her plans for dinner were, and she said that she did not know. She was planning on seeing what was left over in the refrigerator and have that for dinner.

So she found some left over pasta, a piece of pork loin, some corn on the cob where the cob had been removed, some baby red potatoes, and an avocado. Kathleen did not want the pasta or the pork loin, so I took that, she took the corn and the potatoes, she added an onion and some dill relish and made a potato salad and shared some of that with me. Then she cut the avocado in half and we each had half.

Besides cleaning out the refrigerator we also made a meal out of a lot of little bits of left overs. After dinner I cleared off the table and loaded the dishwasher and started it up. That pretty much takes us up to where I am now. I do believe that I will make this another early to bed night, so I will just say good night now and call it a day.

Monday's Morphing

Today was a day that seemed more like it belonged at some other season than the middle of summer. It was overcast all day; I do not think I saw the sun shine all day. Well, after going to bed early last night, I woke up and was still tired and sore and I am not sure why I was sore or tired.

When I got downstairs I watered the plants in the front of the house and then brought the paper into the house. Since this was Monday, I had cereal for breakfast, good old shredded wheat with a ripe banana, a ripe peach and some raisins. That was the last banana, so next time we go grocery shopping we will need to pick some more up.

After eating I emptied the dishwasher and then proceeded to add dishes from last night and breakfast. I still did not feel too good, but I wanted to try going for a walk to see if that might help. So I got my walking shoes on and took off, I did not go as for as I had last week, just three miles and only for about a half hour.

I could have gone longer, but I did not want to press my luck. When I got home I saw the mailman across the way, so after changing out of my shoes I went out and got the mail. Then I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down and read the mail and the paper. Nothing stands out as important in the mail so it went into the recycling. Then I gathered up the recycling: cans, plastic, cardboard and paper and took it out to the front porch to take to the road tomorrow morning.

Then I decided that the house was not going to paint itself and if I wanted it painted I had probably better start doing it. Today looked to be a good painting day as it was suppose to be overcast all day...and it was! So I got out my thirty-two foot extension ladder got out the paint, a paint pail and looked for a paint brush. I finally found a paint brush, but by this time it was almost noon.

Anyway, as I was getting something out of the garage the lady next door came by and asked if I would cut down a couple branches off the tree in her front yard the was over hanging her front porch. So I stopped what I was doing and spent about an hour cutting down the branches and then cutting them up so that they would fit in the recycling can.

I finally got back home and poured the paint out of the five gallon bucket and into my little gallon paint bucket. Then I changed into my painting clothes and boots and made my way up the ladder. I only painted about a four foot strip of siding and then decided that I was really too tired to stand on the ladder any longer.

So I came down and took my ladder down and laid it along the fence so that it will be handy tomorrow when I hope to give it another try. I still had some paint in my bucket so rather than pour it back into the big bucket; I decided to paint some of the shingles on the back of the house. So I got out my scrapper and scrapped the shingles and then painted the area that I had painted.

I scrapped a little more than I had paint for, so that will give me some area to us my left-over paint tomorrow. When I finally ran out of paint, I washed out my brush and put the paint bucket away and then washed up and changed my clothes.

By the time I got all cleaned up and changed it was 1515, so I made myself a salad for lunch. I felt like taking a nap, but Kathleen had some things that needed to be thrown away and recycled, so I did that and then Kathleen said that Andrea and Brandon were coming over, so I did not want to take a nap with them coming over.

They got here about 1730 and stayed through dinner time, in fact they are still here. So I think that I will cut this off, say good night and go visit with them for a little while longer.

So Much for Sunday

I got up earlier than I had for a while just so that I could give myself plenty of time to get ready for church this morning. I really wanted to make sure that I could go this morning as they had "Rescue" singing this morning. The young man who started the group about ten years ago grew up at our church and they sing here about once a year.

The group sang for the whole hour and it was really fun to listen to them. They have one member, I think that he is the newest member of the group that makes percussion sounds and he incorporates it into their music. They are an a cappella male quartet so that is the only "instrument" that there is as they sing.

After church our class had a time of sharing and one of the women had just returned from Florida, the Fort Meyer area where she was part of a team that was giving hurricane relief. It is hard to believe that after a couple years they are still in need of relief...it just goes to show just how devastated that area was.


While she was talking about Fort Meyer, I got to thinking about Aunt Max and wonder if her old place was damaged. Not that it would matter at this time, but I had not even thought about it until now.

Aaron and Tami's class was hosting a barbecue after the second service so after SS Kathleen and I went home for about a half hour and I changed into my trade mark shorts and tee shirt. We arrive back just as they were starting to serve the food.

There was some really good chili, a broccoli salad, a pasta salad, pork and beef that they pit barbecued and then watermelon and cookies. Everything tasted really good, but it always does when someone else is cooking and being outdoors does not hurt either.

When we finally got home I changed clothes again and put on my home shorts and tee shirt., I hate to admit it but that was the forth change of clothes for me that day...and the sad part is that is not all that unusual for me.

Then I went downstairs and read the paper and comics. I must have been really tired because I fell asleep shortly after I finished the paper and I did not wake up until 1730. I wish that I could say that I felt rested, but I was really groggy feeling. Since we had a pretty good size meal at the barbecue Kathleen made me a can of gumbo and she had a can of spaghettio's and she also made a couple grilled cheese sandwiches.

I have a feeling that I will be turning in early tonight, so I am just going to say good night now!

Saturday's Surprise

I kind of just lay in bed this morning when I woke up, I could tell from looking out the skylight that it was going to be overcast for a while. When I finally did get up, I went out to get the paper and decided that I probably should water the flowers and things in the front yard, so I spent a little time giving them some water.

Seeing this was Saturday, I knew that I would be making an omelet, so I got out the mushrooms, Walla Walla sweet onion veggie sausage, and the red and yellow peppers. I sliced the mushrooms, onion and peppers and sautéed them in the frying pan. At the same time I micro waved the veggie sausage and when it was done, I crumbled it up and added it to the veggie mix in the pan.

Once everything was nice and caramelized, I added the egg beaters to the pan and made a nice veggie omelet. I also toasted a couple slices of sour dough bread and made a couple open faced Adam's peanut butter and Smucker's all fruit sandwiches (apricot and red raspberry). A rather satisfying breakfast even if I do have to say so myself.

After loading all the dishes into the dishwasher, I decided that I would try going for a walk. With all the walking around Costco and IKEA the last couple days, I really needed to just walk on the ground. I walked for about four and three quarter miles and I did not feel as bad as I did shopping at the stores. Beside the fresh air was an added benefit.

When I got home I opened up the mail and sat down with a cup of coffee and read the paper and the mail. Kathleen came downstairs and so I gave her the mail that was addressed to her. When I got done with the paper and the mail, I recycled them and then went outside to transplant some of the foxglove that was growing in the paths in the rose garden.

While I was doing that the sun came out and it turned out to be a pretty nice day much to my surprise. After spending an hour or so digging I decided to go in, clean up and rest for a while.
When I got inside it was almost 1500, so I made myself a salad with the usual things, a half dozen different kinds of green, green onions, red & yellow peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, radishes and to top it off I added the left over Jamaican Jerk Pacific snapper from the other night.

Since I could not find the malt vinegar I just used the red wine vinegar as a dressing. It was pretty good and I probably should have used more vinegar because the bottom of the salad was a little dry. After letting my food settle for a while, I went back outside and pruned the roses and as I was doing that I noticed some weeds and Italian prune tree suckers coming up in the rose garden. So I took care of them and then decided that since the garden was not pretty much in the shade it might be a good time to water the gardens in the back yard.

By the time I got done with that, got cleaned up and sat down in my easy chair, I realized that I was really tired. So I turned on the news, watched it and then turned on HGTV and fell asleep. Kathleen woke me up around 2130 and asked if I wanted to eat. As I was getting out of my chair I notice how sore I was, not necessarily a bad sore, just sore from using muscles that do not get enough exercise.

She mad a pork loin and sautéed some Granny Smith apples with some leeks in a rum sauce and also had some pasta to go along with it. It was very tasty. Well, I think that just about covers my day, I hope that you all had a good and productive day and a good night as well.

Fatiguing Friday

Well this morning it was much cooler out and it looked more like a morning at the coast except it did not have the morning mist. Since it was cooler this morning I decided that I would go for my morning walk a little later and have breakfast and read the paper first.

I did go out and water the fuchsia and get the paper before I made my bowl of shredded wheat, banana and raisins and since we got a case of soy milk yesterday at Costco I was able to use that on my shredded wheat.


After emptying the dishwasher, I sat down and read the paper, then just as I was getting ready to leave for my walk, the mailman pulled up, so I went out to get the mail. After bringing the mail into the house I went for my walk.

I have been trying to walk for about forty-five minutes a day or three and a half miles. My back has not been hurting as much as the week has progressed and I kind of think that the walking does help.

After arriving home and cooling down a little I sat down and opened the mail. There was not a lot of anything important other than the verification of my stock buys. I mentioned to Kathleen to see if she still wanted to go to IKEA today and she said yes, so I suggested that we go as early as possible so that it would not be too late when we finished.

Some where along the way she discovered that she had a book or two that was overdue at the library; I never did understand her system of keeping track of what she has checked out. So about 1430 we finally got out of here and off to the library and then to IKEA. After walking around for a couple hours of walking around, we decided to stop by the food court and get something to eat.

I got a salmon plate with a couple baby red potatoes and some vegetables. Kathleen got the meatball plate. The salmon was pretty good, it was not as good as fresh salmon, but it was not all that bad.


With some food in our bellies we were ready for the first floor, there was not as much to look at on the first floor, most of it was the warehouse space for the things on the second floor. Lots of stuff and we were lucky to get out of there for under a hundred dollars.

Well, since we ate around 1600 we probably are not going to have dinner tonight, maybe a big dessert or something later on, right now I just want to put my feet up and let my piggies cool off. There is something about walking on concrete for several hours that really make them squeal.

I am not sure how I use to do that for ten hours a day at Boeing for six or so day a week when I was in management. Maybe that is why my feet grew a couple sizes during that period of time. Well, I am too tired to think of anything else to say tonight except I think Alyssa now holds the record for comments on her latest blog at last count I think that it had reached over a dozen. On that note, I think that I will just say good night!

Thursday's Transitions

For the last couple days I have been going on my walk the first thing in the morning. This morning I was out the door around 0600 and went for a two and two thirds mile walk. It felt pretty good and I was not as sore as I had been earlier in the week.

I was able to go for the early morning walk because I watered the roses and berries last evening. I though that by watering them after the sun went down it would give the plants a chance to get a drink before the water evaporated from the heat. I do not like to water the lawn especially in the evening as it encourages moss, but I figured that the roses and berry gardens are cultivated enough that that would not be a problem.

Anyway after I got back from my walk, I made myself a sunny side up egg and an egg beater omelet with some sweet onion, mushroom, yellow and red peppers, I put the omelet on a couple slices of dark rye sour dough bread and it was soooo good!

After I ate I emptied the dishwasher and loaded the dishes from breakfast into it. I also did the hand washing pots and pans from last night. Then I went into the living room and read the paper. Then I went outside and pruned the roses and straightened up the grape vines.

I had told the lady next door that I would mow her lawn for her this week, it has been so hot that I had not done it, but the weather is suppose to start cooling down. I used my "new" electric reel mower and she was really impressed with it. She thought that it was probably light enough for her to be able to use it.

The mail had come by this time so I went out and got it, but there really was nothing there worth keeping other than the visa bill. I had wanted to go to Costco this morning or early afternoon but Kathleen was moving a little slowly today and we did not get out of here until after 1500 this afternoon.

While I was waiting for her, I decided to make one of my fab food lunches which I described in an earlier post so I will not repeat it here. I also pulled some more of the ivy from along the driveway. Slowly but surely I am getting the ivy pulled out, I am probably a little more than half finished.

We finally got back from Costco about 1730 and I was really spent, walking on the hard concrete floors really does me in. For the two hours that we spent at Costco we only spent a little over $100, we got several things but nothing very expensive.

For dinner tonight Kathleen made a salad, in our new large bowls and added some of the left-over cooked new baby red potatoes, cooked carrots, the left-over salmon, and some other greens. Then for dessert we had a couple Madeleines cookies (petite French cookies) and a demitasse of espresso. Needless to say I am rather stuffed!

Well, I walked about nine miles today and my feet are letting me know it. They did not start hurting until after shopping at Costco, so I am sure that it was from the cement floors. So I guess that this is it for tonight, so good night.

Bob's Fab Food of the Month

I cannot keep up with Alyssa's "Fabulous Food Friday", so I thought that I do mine on a monthly basis.

For lunch today I made myself a special treat, some might even call it a delicacy.

I started out with two slices of Dark Rye Sourdough bread and liberally added Limburger cheese to each slice. On top of that I added a nice thick slice from a Walla Walla sweet onion and a can of sardines in hot sauce. I had a sixteen once glass of ice water, to assist in my daily H2O count.

Then for dessert I had some chilled mango/peach tofu with a demitasse of espresso.

It all kind of makes ones mouth water just reading about it, doesn't it?

Wednesday's Warm Weather

The first thing I did when I got downstairs this morning was to get the paper and turn the sprinkler on the lawn. With the weather predicted to be in the ninety's for the next couple days, I wanted the grass to get a dose of good old H₂O. A green lawn helps keep the house cooler and is nicer to walk on.

Then I made myself some shredded wheat with a banana and raisins. I had to make powered milk this morning as I did not get any skim milk at Winco the other day and I ran out of soy milk. I was planning on picking up a case at Costco today, but we never made it there today.

After eating I emptied the dishwasher and then went into the living room and read the paper and then the mail when it arrived. I have been in the process of trying to cut back on monthly expenses so that we do not need as much monthly income. Being on a fixed monthly income, I am trying to stretch it as far as possible and still live somewhat comfortably.

So yesterday I did an online request for some auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance quotes and I have gotten about six back so far. I have had State Farm for thirty some odd years and until now the premium amount has really not been much of an issue and I was not concerned whether or not it was the lowest around.

Much to my surprise every insurance company that I got quotes from were higher than what I am currently paying now with State Farm. Some of them were even quite a bit higher... like a hundred or more dollars.

I even talked with my insurance agent today and he was able to lower my premiums by $240 a year for our autos. So that really made my day. He is even trying to get it retroactive to last April, which is as far back as he could go because that is the renewal date. So if he is able to do that I will either get a refund or a $60 credit. Not bad!

This afternoon I had planned on going to Costco, but thought that we would stop at Goodwill, as Kathleen is trying to find demi-spoons for a project she is working on. So we drove out to the one in Gresham to look, we looked at our local Goodwill last week so she wanted to look somewhere else today. Well while we were there she found some bowls that she liked and a couple other things, but no spoons.

Then since we were out that way she wanted to stop at Cost Plus to try to find some Jamaican Jerk (???) of a recipe for fish taco's that she was making for dinner tonight. Again we could not find it, but she did find several other things. Do we see a pattern here?

By this time I was getting to the point where going to Costco was too much for me, I just cannot shop for that long and Costco is usually a challenge in itself. Besides Kathleen wanted to stop by the Barn to pick up some fresh corn and that would really make going to Costco hard on me. We did get the corn and several other things, so out of all our shopping today the only thing we got that we had planned on buying was four ears of corn.

Well, I am writing this before dinner, just because I have the time and it is nice and cool in my office, so sitting at the computer is a good thing. I think that Kathleen is still planning on the fish tacos for dinner tonight, it sounds good so I will have to remember to comment on it tomorrow. So for now I am going to sign off and say my good night a little early!

Tuesday's Treks

I went to sleep earlier than normal last night and slept longer than I had in quite a while. I watered the vegetables and herbs in the back yard and the hanging fuchsia basket on the front porch. Then I made myself an egg sunny side up and also an egg beater omelet sandwich with a veggie sausage patty.

Then I picked up the kitchen rugs, shook them out, swept the kitchen floor and then mopped it. Kathleen came downstairs while I was mopping the floor and she decided to put the rugs into the washer and also the downstairs bath room rugs.

I went into the living room with my coffee and read the paper and then the mail; there was not a lot there that was worth keeping so most of it went into the recycling bin. After a while I went out back and pulled some weeds and dug out some of the Italian prune tree that I cut down last spring.

Digging out the sucker has become a daily task, I am not sure how come there are so many this year; the only thing I can think of is that since the tree is gone the roots are sending up new starts. They are kind of annoying because unlike weeds they are stiff and hurt when one walks on them, so I have to dig down and get as much as the root as possible.

After I came in I put the rugs into the drier and then I had a peach and a nectarine for lunch and then changed my clothes as Kathleen wanted to go to Walgreens, to Eye Health Northwest to get her glasses put back together, and then to a couple other places. On the way home we stopped and got gas for her SUV, and again this time the price of gas was down again...I like that trend.

We did not get home until about 1745 and Kathleen after putting her things away started making dinner...salmon! I could have that every night of the week and not get tired of it.

While waiting for dinner to finish I got the rugs out of the drier and put them back down in there appropriate places. Dinner was really good, too bad that there was no more salmon than there was, it would have been nice to have leftovers for some other meal.

Well, it seems like we spent a lot of time shopping, we did not spend a lot of money, which is a good thing, that will probably happen tomorrow when we go to Costco. With that said, I think I will call it a day and say good night!

Mowing Monday

This morning was so much nicer than it was over the weekend although I really did not mind the weather we had this weekend it was kind of refreshing after hot weather we had there for a while. Anyway, I had shredded wheat with a banana and some blueberries on top.

I felt a little better than I had this weekend, so I took myself for a short, a mile and a half walk and when I got back I read the paper. When I finished the paper and recycled it, I decided to go out and try out my "new" used electric reel mower. So I mowed the front lawn and the back yard.

I had mowed the area by the raspberries Saturday night after I got it, but the battery was really low on it and I could not tell how well it would work or how long the battery would let me mow. To my surprise I wound up mowing the whole lawn and it still had a good amount of power left when I finally stopped.

I put the battery on the charger so that next time I mow it will have a full charge. I thought that the mower did a really good job, in fact while I was mowing the front lawn the mailman stopped me and said that he did not realize that it was a mower because it was so quiet. He was really impressed!

I put it through a pretty good test as I had the Honda mower set at the high limit and it was quiet a lot higher than this one so it had to cut a lot of grass and it did a really good job. I did have to go over some of the front lawn again, in the opposite direction, but I often do that anyway.

After finishing the lawn, putting the battery of the charger and then cleaning and oiling the lawnmower, I was ready to go inside, clean up and have something for lunch. It was almost 1400, so it was close to my normal lunch time anyway.

I made myself a salad and one of those new Veggie burgers that I got at Trader Joe's the other day. We needed to go to Winco, so I kept asking Kathleen if she was ready to go, and finally around 1500 she came downstairs and then we took off for the store.

After shopping for a couple hours we finally got back about 1740 and then I helped Kathleen put the groceries away.

For dinner Kathleen heated up a couple artichokes and some fresh green beans and sliced up a mango. I added a Boca burger to complete my meal, Kathleen does not like them; she is more of a meat and potatoes kind of person, and I think I could almost become a vegetarian without too much of a problem.

Well, that pretty much was our day, I think I will call it a day and say good night.