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May 23, 2008
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Sorry if some of you had problems reading this over the past couple of weeks. We thought there might be a problem when we went to another hosting company, but after we made the change, we thought everything was OK. Then we found out that we were the only ones who could read it. The problem has been repaired and the last two weeks have been now been posted. Everything is back to normal.
So goes another crazy week! I have been complaining about the weather for some time now because I am so tired of all the rain, but does it have to go from one extreme to the other? Last Friday, when I left to come home from babysitting, the temperature reached 100 degrees! And not only was it 100 degrees in Portland - it was 100 degrees down here on the coast too! Nothing like going from 65 degrees to 100 degrees in less than a week!
When I left West Linn, Greg had just purchased a new plastic pool for the girls and I helped him blow the thing up so the girls could take a swim. It is huge, with a slide and everything. They were so excited and could hardly wait to jump in. When I saw them this week, they have already started with their bikini tan lines!
I had stopped in Tillamook on the way home Friday evening to pick up more bird seed at the farm store and I about fell over when I got out of the car because it was so HOT! The first thing I did when I got back home was to replace the flannel sheets on the bed to something a little bit cooler. Then I opened up the house and dragged a couple of portable fans out of storage. It was still too hot to sleep that night. The weather finally became bearable by Sunday when the clouds began to return, but by then I was headed back to West Linn. Now Dave tells me that it is so cold and wet at home that he's ready to dig the flannel sheets out again!
Since I was in West Linn an extra day last week, I needed to take advantage of every minute during my short visit home. By the time I got through cracking the whip to get some of the yard work done, Dave was probably glad to see me leave again. I had him mow the lower part of the property as the grass was getting high enough to rent a combine to mow it. The riding mower still isn't working, so he had to use the push mower. That just about killed him! I worked on pulling more weeds and decided that I could risk putting in my vegetable garden. I planted some beans, carrots, beets and cucumbers. I put a child's toy windmill out in the garden to scare away that darn squirrel that keeps digging up my seeds. Last year he managed to misplace a whole row of carrot seeds that I had planted. I have already found some sunflower seeds sprouting in my flower boxes from his sowing earlier this spring.
A friend of mine who has a local nursery has just opened a retail plant shop in Nehalem. I wanted to give her all the support I can, as she is really great with plants and flowers. Since I was in the mood to plant more stuff, I dropped in on her new establishment on Sunday and she helped me pick out some flowers for my boxes. There is nothing like creating more work for oneself!
I also had to paint some trim boards as we had ordered a replacement window for one of the windows in the living room that had a broken seal and was all fogged up. The trim boards had to be painted before the window could be replaced because otherwise you would be able to see the raw edge of the board from the inside looking out of the window and there wasn't any way to paint it once the window was installed. Dave and our local handyman installed the window before I left on Monday. This is the second window that we have had to replace because of a broken seal.
You'd think that since this is such a small community that there would be no problem with communication. And sometimes that's the case. It's hard to keep a secret around here. Other times, however, the lack of communication really puzzles us. During our hurricane in December, a number of the power poles in the neighborhood started leaning to one side because of all the wind and rain. As a result, some electrical wires are now alarmingly close to the ground. A couple of weeks ago, Dave finally called the PUD and told them about the problem on our street. They came the next day with a half-dozen trucks and tipped the pole that sits closest to us back upright - or at least straighter than it was. That helped, but the wire crossing the road to our house is still pretty low. Then, two days later, another fleet of PUD trucks came up the hill and when Dave went out to ask what was going on (he can't just leave them alone!) they asked him which pole had the problem. When told that another crew had come out and worked on it, they were surprised. They had no idea anyone else had been there. So they looked around for a while and found some other problems with other poles in the area - and then left without doing anything. Tuesday, a project supervisor came up to look at our pole. Dave (of course) went out to see what was going on. This guy knew that our pole needed additional support, but had no idea of the problems the other crews had discovered and repaired! So he walked around for a while, made some notes in his notebook - and left! It will be interesting to see when the next PUD truck arrives - and if they know anything at all about the previous three trips!
While I was in town this week, I visited with my Mom. She isn't doing very well and the doctor will evaluate her to see if she will need to enter hospice care. I try to see her every time I am in town, as I know her condition is getting worse.
I am sorry I don't have any photos to share this week. I was hoping that we would have some pictures of the girls in their new pool but I didn't have my camera with me this time.
