This month's calendar                         Archives                            Our Google Calendar                   

April 27, 2007

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Still another week has slipped by and I just don't know where the time has gone. I heard that when you retire, you are busier than when you were working. I can believe that!

Since the weather has turned more spring-like with showers and a day or two of sun sprinkled in (just enough to tease), I have been able to keep the lawn mowed to a decent level. At least it isn't up to the windowsill and I don't have to get a combine to mow it down. I haven't planted any of my flowers as the nights have been a little chilly but did get a load of geraniums to transplant for the weekend. We had such a cold winter that nothing wintered over and I have to start from the beginning. Most of my bedding plants are still safely in the greenhouse.

I have been busy helping with the garden club's plant sale this week. We had our monthly meeting on Tuesday and the election of new officers is coming up soon. I was asked whether I wanted to be an officer and I really hesitate because I don't want to be tied down but I guess if they ask me, I probably won't say "no". I can take being VP or some other low profile position, but not president. I am a follower more than a leader.

We had a work party for the Park and Recreation Committee for Wheeler again this week. We have received a grant to improve Waterfront Park and so we have been busy laying concrete blocks and moving dirt. Since the city doesn't have a budget to hire anyone to help with this project, they rely on the volunteer help from the park and rec committee to do most of it. It can be pretty labor intensive sometimes. We ran out of blocks but should have some more for our work party next week. I think it is coming along pretty well considering the rainy weather we have had. The grant came with a completion deadline of September, but we want to get it done by June for the Crab Festival that is held in the park every year.

Dave has been busy building our storage/sleeping room and has all the insulation and wiring done. He is working on the sheet rock this week and I have been helping when needed, mostly lifting big sheet of wallboard. He gets a little frustrated sometimes when he's working with the stuff, so I try to stay clear of his outbursts. Once in a while, I swear I see blue smoke coming up the furnace vents from the basement. Wallboard has never been his friend and it doesn't help that he has bursitis in his shoulder. In spite of all the little setbacks, the sheet rock is nearly complete and as soon as we get the taping and texturing done, then my part of the job kicks in - painting!
We did have to clean up a big mess down there the other day. In the midst of all the construction, the freezer accidentally got turned off and all the frozen berries I had stored in there defrosted. We had berry juice leaking all over the place. What a mess! It took an hour and several rolls of paper towels to finally get it all cleaned up. We were debating whether we were going to put vinyl flooring in the room, and now we have to...we have purple stains all over the concrete floor!

I have had quite a variety of birds visiting my feeders. We have this chipmunk with a real attitude. He runs off the other chipmunks and even attacked a dove that was three times his size. Feathers were flying!! It is quite amusing to watch all the action out our window. My favorite birds, the Goldfinches arrived the other day and they are so much fun to watch. When they sit in the tree over the feeding grounds, it looks like Christmas with so much yellow and gold in the tree!

Wednesday I had a bunch of appointments all lined up in town so I drove into town bright and early. My first stop was to get a mammogram. That is a procedure that I don't enjoy very much and I swear that "compactor" machine was invented by a man! After that, I had a few minutes before my dental cleaning so I ran out to Costco and picked up a few things and put gas in the car. My dentist appointment was for 11:40 but I didn't get into the chair until after 12:00. This threw me off, as I had to be in West Linn for my hair appointment by 1:30. West Linn is about a 45-minute drive from where the dentist is. So I told the hygienist to give me a "quick" clean so I could be on my way. It was 1:00 when I left and I drove the back roads thinking I could make up some time. Of course, as things go, I got behind some slowpoke and I didn't make up ANY time. It was 1:45 before I made it to the hairdresser. Luckily, she was running behind and I had a few minutes to catch my breath. After that, I had my nails done and then I picked up a pizza and headed for Lara and Greg's place to spend the night. I was tired and felt like I was on the go all day! I went to bed early and the next day I went over to see my mother and picked up a few things at the grocery store and then headed for home. It feels good to be back!

Our friend Stan Boyd, who Dave used to do electrical work with, spent a couple of nights with us this week. He has electrical jobs here at the coast once in a while and stays with us when he's down here. It is always great to have company.