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October 6, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Man, I am so sore right now I can hardly type this entry. Dave and I have been spending the last couple of days digging ditches. Such is the life of a retiree! Let me back up a bit. Dave had wanted to put electricity out in the boat barn for his workshop for quite a while now and I told him that if he wanted it done before it started to rain, that now was the time. Me and my big mouth! So I salvaged as many of my flowers that were going to be in his way, before he went out and rented a Ditch Witch to make this 50-foot trench from the house to the barn. Unfortunately, the Ditch Bitch (I mean Witch) didn't want to cooperate very well and after attempting to dig a ditch - and since he only wanted to rent the thing for four hours - he took it back to the store with the job not quite completed. By the way, the guy at the store had told him it would only take him 20 to 30 minutes to do the job. Considering he had to drive 25 miles to Tillamook to rent the darn thing, most of his four hours was taken up getting the machine to work right and by traveling back and forth! Well, he did the best he could with the machine he had and when he came home, we got out the shovels and continued where the Ditch Witch left off. After huffing and puffing, we finally made enough progress the first day and so the next day we started installing the wire into the conduit that we wanted to bury and that took the two of us most of that day. He just had to lay one more section of conduit to reach the house and while he did that, I raked the dirt over the ditch. We wanted to get this project done before the rains came. I never thought I would put ditch digging down on my resume! I think it will take me a season of rain to recuperate!

Last Friday, I had to run into town to get my eyes examined and to attend a retirement party for a former officer worker. It was fun seeing everyone again and to welcome Pauline to the new stage in her life as a retiree. I warned her that it would take about six months to unwind from working but it was well worth it and I am so glad I am retired. Even if I get involved in ditch digging!

The rest of this week has been rather normal. I have been going to my water aerobics classes each day and fighting the road construction along the way. The first day I was late to my class because of an unanticipated 15-minute wait. The frustrating part of waiting was that there was nothing going on. I think the crew was just getting off (they work all night and finish up before 8:00 a.m.) and they hadn't bothered to take down all the caution signs. But, I wasn't the only one late to class.

This weekend, we are headed for Seattle as Dave has a board of directors meeting with the Northwest Steam Society. I am riding along as we are planning on spending the night with our dear friend who lives on Bainbridge Island. Then on the way home, we plan on driving up to Long Beach, Washington as it has been several years since we have been up there. I am looking forward to our little get away after a week of hard labor!