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February 3, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

If you like storms, you should have been here this week!! On Sunday night we had a huge wind and rainstorm, the wind gusts were clocked at about 40 mph on our weather gauge. The whole North Coast was without power for about 12 hours because the main line from the valley had been downed by a fallen tree. We finally got our power back Monday afternoon, but we were so edgy by noon on Monday that Dave drug out the generator and started it up so that we could make a pot of coffee. We HAD to have our cup of joe!

We did manage some company in between power failures. A friend that we work Blazer games and auto races with, Bob Akamian brought his family down to the coast to do some storm watching. They stopped by on their way to their hotel at Cannon Beach. They certainly got their wish, because it was raining sideways when they got to our place! I think the power must have gone out soon after they left and I doubt if their hotel ever did have power before they had to leave and head home.

On Tuesday evening, we lost power again and this time it was while I was baking some chicken for dinner. We were about to start up the generator again, but after 10 minutes, the power came back on. We hurriedly got our dinner done and ate, took showers just in time for the power to go out again. So we sat around in our bathrobes via candlelight and with flashlights read our books not knowing when the lights would be back on. You really don't realize how much you rely on electricity until it is taken away from you. I don't know how many times I would go into a room and reach for the light switch.

Then after each storm, I would go outside and inspect the property for missing garbage can lids and tree branches that had been broken off from the wind. We had a pretty good size branch land in the driveway from one of our trees. Then there is watching all the logs and debris going out to sea with the outgoing tide. It's amazing what comes down the river when it's flooding! Our neighbors had a tree fall on their roof so they were frantically nailing a tarp over the damage during a rainstorm, so I guess we should count our blessings. The weather forecast is for another big storm to hit us over the weekend. Enough is enough already! Did I mention I was planning on going to Arizona in March? I can hardly wait!!

Tuesday was kind of a bummer of a day anyway as it was Dave's Mom's birthday and also the second anniversary of her untimely death. We couldn't help but think of her all day and wonder if time really will make things easier. We still miss her very much and plan on putting some flowers on her grave while we are in town this week.

We headed back into Portland on Wednesday and won't be back home until Sunday. We have Blazer games on Wednesday and Friday and Dave has to engineer a couple of college games in Eugene and Corvallis Thursday and Saturday. Speaking of games, while I was engineering the San Antonio Spurs broadcast on Wednesday night, I had my life flash before me. I sit right down on press row, next to the opposing team and during the game one of the players about leaped over me to retrieve a ball. He stopped just in time but did manage to knock over a cup of water. I could just imagine what a 6'5", 240 lbs could have done to me!

My oldest granddaughter excitedly called us the other night. She is six and just learned to ride her bicycle without training wheels. I can remember when her mother was learning how to do that and ended up out of control down the street. She finally crashed into a street barricade before she stopped, but that didn't seem to keep her from getting back on that bike and trying again. It is so much fun to be included in these major accomplishments from Ashtin and the other grandkids, it brings back a lot of great memories.

Well, the Super Bowl is this Sunday and I usually am not interested in football. However, I will be watching it this time because I will be rooting for the Seattle Seahawks along with everyone else in the Pacific Northwest! I do enjoy watching all the commercials during timeouts. Anyway, that's probably what I will be doing on Sunday afternoon when I get back home. Go Seahawks!!