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October 9, 2009

IT'S FRIDAY MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Last weekend was kind of a blur, so I must have not done anything too exciting to write about or else Alzheimer's has set in and I can't recall. I do remember going out to our usual Sunday breakfast and mingling with the locals at the Bunkhouse Restaurant though.

The carpet got it's annual cleaning on Monday. I figured all the summer guests have gone and it really needed to get cleaned. I had the living room, dining room, hall, stairway and office done. It looks so much better. After the cleaning guy left, I opened the doors and turned on the ceiling fan to dry the carpet. It didn't take long as it was a nice fall day.

Dave left on Monday for Portland to get ready for a Blazer pre-season game broadcast on Tuesday. There are always a million things to do at the beginning of the season and he felt he needed an extra day to get it all done. As it was he said he just barely made it on the air in time. That is one thing that I don't miss is the stress of pre-season games. He came back home Wednesday - exhausted from climbing up and down the Rose Garden arena stairs for two days. He did get to spend a night with the granddaughters in West Linn and he reported that the first thing they asked was, they "wondered where Grandma was?" I haven't been in there all summer and I am sure they have forgotten what I look like!

Fall flowers Our garden club had a field trip planned for Tuesday, so I met the bus in Manzanita around 9:00 a.m. for our journey to Fort Clatsop, Fort Stevens and every nursery from Seaside to Astoria on the way. The bus driver we had didn't know where he was going, so we went a lot of miles out of our way to get where we wanted to go. We arrived at Fort Clatsop first and had a guided tour on the natural plants that we saw along the mile trail that we took. After lunch we headed for a nursery that was close by, but we ended up taking the long way around because the driver turned left instead of right. The first nursery we stopped at wasn't very good. The first thing the clerk told us was "we had a 40% off sale last week, you should have been here then". That isn't the right thing to say to a busload of gardeners who are always looking for bargains. Nobody bought anything and we got on the bus and headed down the street to the next nursery where they WERE having a fall sale. After a VERY brief visit to Ft. Stevens (the driver got us lost again and we were running out of time), we headed back to Seaside and found another nursery and then headed back home. It was a lovely day for a field trip and everyone had a good time.

Ready for the barn When Dave returned on Wednesday, we took the Captain Bell out of the water for the season. The weather has begun to get a little cooler in the evenings and we felt Wednesday was the last good time to get the boat out before the weather gets bad. We got it up in the driveway and I cleaned all the oil and slime off the hull and gave it a new coat of bottom paint. Dave drained all the water out of the pipes so nothing will freeze, so now it is ready to be bedded down for the winter in the boat barn. However, there is still more painting and repair work that needs to be done. Hopefully, we can get that done this winter if it isn't too cold. The boat barn isn't heated and it's real hard to get enthused about working on the boat with the temperature in the 30's.

We had a sad day on Thursday at our water aerobics class. We had all heard on the news that they had found a body of a woman who had fallen from the scenic overlook at Neah-kah-nie Mountain and it so happens that she was one of the gals that we had in our class. We were pretty bummed over that and it is really hard to believe that she is no longer with us. We don't know what happened yet as the sheriff is still investigating.

Red Tree The fall is definitely in the air. We had a huge harvest moon the other night and the temperatures are beginning to drop. I put the flannel sheets on the bed and finally turned the furnace on. I love this time of year and enjoy the brilliant colors that the season brings. The little tree by the driveway is changing for the season and all my Autumn Joy plants are blooming. We are leaving today for Sedro Woolley, Washington. Dave has a Northwest Steam Society board meeting and it is combined with an open house at one of the member's place. He has quite a collection of steam equipment - mostly cars in a museum on their property, so it will be an interesting trip. We will drive north of Seattle and spend the night in a motel and then get up early on Saturday for the rest of the trip. After the meeting, we are spending the night with a friend at her weekend place in Belfair on Hood Canal. We should be back home Sunday.