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August 25, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

I stayed overnight in Portland and last Saturday I dropped a bunch of electronic stuff off at the drop off in Beaverton. We have managed to accumulate a lot of old computer stuff, monitors and keyboards, a couple of old TVs that don't work anymore, old modems...stuff like that. When I read that there was going to be a free drop-off for that stuff, we started cleaning out! After getting all that stuff out of the car, I met my friend Bernadette Hahn at the Farmer's Market in Hillsboro. It has been years since I have gone to that market and boy has that town changed. They have built this huge civic center in the downtown section with a water fountain and everything. After checking out the market and buying some fresh veggies and fruits, Bernadette and I decided to find a Starbucks for a coffee. While parking my car in the parking lot, a young man from the Les Schwab Tire Center called my attention to the fact that one of my back tires was low on air. So after my chat with Bernadette over coffee, I headed to Les Schwab. Sure enough, I had picked up a nail and my tire was slowly leaking. I could just imagine myself coming home over the coastal mountains and having to stop for a flat tire! I was ever so grateful for that young man's concern for my tire and that I had heeded to his instructions to have it fixed. I finally got underway and back home around 4:00 in the afternoon and Dave got home around 6:00 from his electrical classes in Lincoln City.

I managed to pick up a cold from Lara and Greg while I was in town. They have both had bad colds, so about Tuesday, I woke up with a dry throat and cough. Just what I need, a summer cold!!

I haven't been able to attend my aerobics classes for the past two weeks and boy, do I miss it. Apparently, the pump in the swimming pool broke and they have been waiting for a part to arrive. It has taken two weeks for the part to come in and they should be back in business by today. But now the timing is all wrong because we are leaving on Sunday to go camping for a week with Leslie and Jason and the girls. Then when we get back from that trip we are immediately taking off for Ashland for another week at the Shakespeare Festival. After that, the summer term for exercise will be over. The pool will probably start up with classes again about the middle of September, so that is a heck of a long time for me to go without exercise.

According to Dave, I have been spending far too much of my time helping Leanna get her house in order. I have been up there a lot. Since she came home from the hospital, I have been up at her place every day helping her clean the place up. Once I get started on a project, it is hard for me to find a stopping place. Since she has been home from surgery, she needed someone to care for her, so guess who? We managed to get a lot of stuff cleaned and sorted through and took a few things up to the Hope Chest (that's our local answer to Goodwill). Yesterday, Dave and I took her into Tillamook for her doctor's appointment and she is now free and clear to drive once more. She is also supposed to get in some walking, so we will see how she does on that. I suggested that she try walking the quarter of a mile up to the Post Office each day.

Lara and family came down on Wednesday evening and on Thursday we launched the Captain Bell. Jayden enjoyed "steering" the boat for Granddad. We just launched the boat and took it up to Kahrs' to dock. Of course, Des is putting out the spread of wine, cheese, etc. in celebration of getting the boat back into the water as we are arriving at the dock. The boat is running pretty good now, but Dave wants to tweak it a little more before we go for a ride again. The kids are down until Monday and we are leaving on Sunday for our camping trip. They hope to get in some hiking, crabbing and beaching while they are down here. The weather is supposed to be great too!

The last few nights have been quite noisy around here with all the roadwork going on in front of our house. They are resurfacing Highway 101 and the road crew starts about 5:00 each night and works until 3:00 in the morning. They're working in the middle of the night so they don't bother the tourists. They don't have to deal with so much traffic at those hours, but cars still have to wait 20 minutes to get through. They're grinding up the old surface, and then putting down a temporary road until they finish all the grinding. We have heavy equipment and dump trucks with those irritating back-up alarms all night long. They did one lane on Tuesday night, and then came back and did the other lane Wednesday night. They were off working on some other section last night, but we're still waiting for them to come back and finish in front of our place. Maybe they will be finished with our section before too long and we will be able to get a decent night's sleep!