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June 30, 2006
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
We're having a heat wave and it has been very HOT around here. It is most unusual for us to be this hot on the coast. It was 100 degrees in the valley over the weekend, so Greg and Lara brought the girls down to the coast and spent some time with us. However, it wasn't all that cool here either, I think the temperature hit 90 degrees. Once in a while we would get relieved with a cool breeze from the ocean but when that didn't happen, we really felt the heat. Jadyn took advantage of the temperature to run through the sprinkler, but it looks like she was spending more time running AWAY from it instead! It has been nice all week but too hot to work out in the yard, that's for sure. Not that that stopped me. I've been out hacking my way through the jungle each day, but only for an hour or two at a time. Just. Too. Hot.
When Dave's dad died, his mother gave the old fishing boat to her nephew. At that time, it hadn't run in 5 years, and needed a lot of TLC. Over the next few years, the nephew was unable to get enough money together to get the thing repaired, so last year, Dave made a deal with him. Dave would get the boat fixed and running if he could use it once in a while. It's been ready for a month or so, and on Sunday, the kids took it out in the bay to give it a try. I swear, Greg had that engine at full throttle and he was going so fast you could probably water ski behind him! They were going to go crabbing, but the crabbing wasn't reported to be very good - the tide was too strong. When everybody is here for the 4th of July, it should be better.
After they came back from their little jaunt, we BBQ'd hamburgers and I cooked some corn-on-cob then they packed up and left for home. It took them nearly three hours to get home because of the traffic. Oh the joys of heading for the valley from the coast on a summer Sunday night! It's just a 75-mile long string of cars! When they finally did get home, their house was sweltering. They said they slept in our bed in the basement that night.
Later on that evening, Dave and I decided to give the fishing boat a little spin up the north fork of the Nehalem River. We started out by me getting into the boat and smashing Dave's hand against the dock, then when we got back, I almost fell into the water trying to get out of the boat. I landed on the same spot on my butt that I had bruised a couple of months back and will probably have another nice bruise. (I'm a landlubber and I do not do well in water situations and always manage to look like the biggest klutz around). The whole trip went downhill from there. We didn't even get the marina out of sight when we went dead in the water. Dave got the engine started again and we returned to shore. The next day, Dave ran the engine and decided that there was some dirt in the line. After the repairs, we tried again and our trip was much more successful. The weather was so much cooler on the water and it was quite refreshing to get away from all the heat that we have been having. We went about five miles up the river, past all the vacation homes and then headed back. We finished our little outing by stopping by the Kahrs' dock and having a beer with Des and Donna before we headed home. I foolishly forgot to put on sunscreen, so I had a nice burn on my face and neck that night.
We had a "homicide" in Wheeler during the annual crab festival, which was a couple of weekends ago. The rumor around town is that one of the establishments was upset because people who were coming to the crab festival were parking in the wrong area. Some knife-welding woman stabbed the inflatable crab "Louie" during the festival in retaliation. We heard that they found a suspect. Boy is she in big trouble. The Dungeness Crab Association, who lends Louie out to promote Oregon Dungeness Crab, owns this inflatable crab. Apparently is owned by the federal government and so now the Feds are involved in the investigation. Wouldn't you think they have better things to do? I guess it is a felony if you destroy government property.
I signed up for the summer session of water aerobics on Monday and boy, were there a lot of people with the same idea. Our instructor gave us quite a workout for the first day back and by Tuesday, the crowds had thinned out somewhat. Just the old regulars stuck it out, which is fine with me because it was too crowded. It felt good to be back in the groove again. I was going to take the summer off, but I'm glad I decided not to.
Dave got our friends Des and Ray over on Wednesday afternoon to help him put the canopy back on the steamboat. It was quite a job and it certainly took three of them to place it back in position. Last fall, Dave and I did the lifting and it took everything we had to get it removed. In fact, Dave had to go see the chiropractor afterwards. We have had the boat back for nearly a month, but we've been so busy that we've hardly had time to look at it, much less get it ready to go in the water. Dave will spend the next couple of days getting it ready, but since we're going to keep in on the trailer for the 4th of July parade, we probably won't launch it until after that. We're going to have a lot of steaming to catch up on!
I'm writing this week's journal a couple of days early, as I am heading into town on Thursday to go see a performance - "Menopause the Musical" - with a couple of friends. It should be hilarious. Then I have an early doctor's appointment on Friday and another blood test. After that, it's a stop at the store and I am on my way back home for the arrival of our family for the 4th of July celebration. We will also be celebrating a couple of birthdays over the weekend - Greg's and mine are both on July 2nd.
