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Click for Wheeler, Oregon Forecast
April 19, 2013

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We had a quiet weekend, still getting over the crud that we have been fighting for the last two weeks. Dave is finally getting his voice back and I even got a cold sore and swollen glands out of the deal. But Monday it was back to our usual stuff.

Our daughter Lara had to go in for some touch-up reconstruction surgery on Tuesday so I drove in that morning to take her to her appointment at the surgery center. It wasn't a hospital, but a really nice facility and the staff was so nice. Lara had to report in at 1:00 but she didn't go in for her surgery until 2:45! You know how it is, hurry up and wait. The procedure was to last for an hour and half, so I had a few minutes to grab something to eat and run a couple errands. I was back in plenty of time to be with her during her recovery and since it was almost 5:00 and she hadn't eaten anything all day, we decided to grab a bite to eat before we hit the rush hour traffic back to her place in West Linn. She did really well and with a few pain pills she was in bed by 8:00 and slept like a baby all night long. I spent the night just in case she needed my help and besides it was too late for me to drive back down to the coast. I took off the next morning after we dropped the girls off to school. I made it home in time to see Dave off as he was heading back into town to engineer the final Blazer broadcast of the season. Since the team didn't make the playoffs, they will get an early vacation. I don't think Dave minds (except for losing out on the extra income the playoffs would bring) as he is getting very tired of driving back and forth between the coast and the valley.

Oh, speaking of driving back, on my trip home on Wednesday, I had to stop to let a couple of deer cross the highway. I had just pulled out at the rest area on Highway 26 and was headed west when I spied a young deer crossing the highway in front of me. I had plenty of time to slow down and watch for a second deer. They seem to travel in pairs. Sure enough, a second one showed up while I was stopped. Anyway, I am sure glad I didn't hit them.

I have been able to get out in the yard and do some weeding this week. The weather has been clear but not real warm. I had planted some Marigold seeds and they were ready to be transplanted. I ended up with 50 plants! I had also bought some Fuschia starts and planted them in containers. Everything is in the greenhouse until it is warm enough to safely go outside.

We hired a man to come in a remove a couple of small trees that had blown over during a wind storm last winter. He took the chain saw to them and had them cut up in no time. The trees were out of sight down by the old church but I wanted them out of the way. Now we have another trailer load of branches to take down to the burn pile. It seems like we never get caught up. We are also having the front of our property excavated today so that I can plant the 30 Escalonia bushes that have been in pots all winter long. I bought them last fall hoping to replace the cedar hedge that we had removed. Hopefully it won't rain too hard so that they can get the job done. These are just a couple of the projects that I wanted taken care of before we leave on our trip at the end of the month.

Today, I am supervising a group of middle school kids who are volunteering to help out with maintaining the Wheeler Upper Park. It is service day for the community and the kids that volunteer get out of class for the day. I supervised last year and it went pretty well. I have a couple of projects lined up for them to do to keep them occupied for a few hours.

Old Stanley was under the weather for a couple of days this week. He has a very sensitive stomach and we have to watch what he eats very carefully. But every once in awhile he sneaks into the garbage can and helps himself. Also, the other day while I was gone Dave took him for a walk and while they were out Stanley was offered a pepperoni stick. Dave didn't get a chance to turn it down before Stanley had devoured it. He has such a nose for sniffing out things and I have caught him eating the kitten food I leave outside for them.

I'm writing this using our new computer here in the office. We got it a week ago and Dave has spent most of the week getting it set up. It's nothing fancy, but just being eight years newer than the old one means it is a lot faster and smoother. The old one was beginning to sound like a thrashing machine and I can't even hear this one running. That in itself is a big improvement!

I am looking forward to a nice quiet weekend.