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December 15, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Today is actually Thursday and I am trying to concentrate on writing this as the winds are gusting around 55 mph and all sorts of objects are flying by. We have already lost electricity once. What a stormy day! It is kind of exciting in a scary way. When the wind blows above 35 mph, we can actually feel the house vibrate. I can't even imagine what it would be like to ride out a hurricane or tornado. We have certainly seen our share of fierce weather this year and it isn't even winter yet! It's kind of hard to get a good picture of a windstorm, but here are a couple of pictures of the wind kicking up spray off the water in front of our house.

We have been sticking pretty close to home these past couple of weeks as the Blazers have been on the road playing and there was no need to go into town. It has been rather nice being home for a while. Last weekend, I was invited to the St. Catherine's Christmas tea and it was so much fun. There were lots of sweets and savories to be shared. Each hostess had a table in which she had decorated for her guests. The entertainment was great. A couple of ladies read their stories about a Christmas event in their lives and another gal recited the "Night Before Christmas" while we sang songs and feasted on the goodies.

Dave is still suffering from his cold and it has been almost two weeks. He just hasn't had much energy to do much and I don't know how many boxes of Kleenex and cough drops he has gone through, but he is about ready to get over this thing. I sure hope I don't get it.

I got some Christmas goodies made this week of which I plan on giving away (if we don't eat them all up all first). I finished with most of the decorations, but the outside has yet to be done. If the weather would only cooperate enough so we could do that. I also decided to make this wreath out of birdseed for the critters outside but that didn't turn out so good. The stuff didn't stick very well and I had birdseed all over the place. I think I will just put it outside on a tray and let the birds have had it. After this storm blows over they will be plenty hungry, if the wind hasn't blown them to the next county!

I wrote last week about getting a new propane tank installed. They came out last week and did that, but we still have a slow leak, somewhere in the pipe running in the house. It has to be checked before we can turn on our fireplace. Sooo, this week, the guy came back and rechecked our line and he decided that since the leak wasn't coming from the tank that we needed to install a new pipeline. He didn't have all the fittings to do it at that time, so the first of next week, he will be back to finish the job and then we will be able to light the fireplace and have a little warmth when the electricity goes out. I sure wish we had it today, with this storm going on it won't surprise me if we lose our electricity again.

Dave has been slowly but steadily removing all the tools and equipment from his Dad's old workshop in the garage. Our plan is to make it into a "Costco" room for storage and put bunk beds in there for the grandchildren when they come to visit. He had our friend Ray Hakala come over on Tuesday to help him remove the workbench and cabinets and they put them up in the boat barn where he is going to have his workshop. The garage is mostly empty now and he will start building shelves for storage. Maybe, I will even get to park the car in the garage. What a novel idea!

This is a continuation of where I left off on Thursday during the storm we were having. We lost power so I wasn't able to finish up. We registered the strongest wind gust at 60 mph and had a lot of wind debris come down. Our little smoke tree along side the house is tipped over but the roots are not exposed so I hope that we will be able to set it upright and save that.

Des and Donna invited us down for dinner in the dark. They had a big pot of stew that had been simmering before the power went out, and so we went down there to eat by candlelight! It was a bit of an adventure getting down there as a tree had fallen on the power lines and power transformer was pulled from the pole and was sitting in the middle of the road! We squeezed by, but didn't have much room left over! Des warmed up the stew on the bar-b-que and we had a really great meal! They're headed to California for the holidays, so this was the last chance we had to get together with them.

Friday, after the storm and still without electricity, we decided we had better leave early for the Blazer game that night. We checked the road report and the only road that was open was up north through Astoria and the highway that leads into Portland that way. That is about 75 miles out of our way. The whole northern coast is without electricity and the winds were clocked at some places over 100 miles an hour. We made it to the Costco near Astoria where there ware some lights on and decided to stop for gas. All four lines were 6 cars deep and of course we picked the slowest line there was. Some guy had to fill every gas container he owned and it took forever! I don't know what he was going to use all that gas for, but anyway it really wore on our patience. After leaving there we headed up the Columbia River and stopped for breakfast at this place that was serving food in the dark on paper plates! They had a gas range and we were able to get some scrambled eggs and a cup of hot coffee anyway. There were a lot of downed trees along the highway (we estimated we saw where they had cleared over a thousand trees from the road on the trip), and after 4 hours (which is normally a 2 hour trip) we made it to the Rose Garden to set up the equipment for the game. (Blazers won! That's 4 in a row!)

We spent the night in West Linn were they at least had electricity and a warm house. We hadn't seen Lara's family for a while and it was nice to spend some time with them. The grandkids put on an impromptu Christmas show for us! Saturday afternoon, we decided to come back home, as Dave wanted to get the generator going to keep the food cold in the refrigerator and freezer. The roads we normally take home (Hwy. 26 and 53) were open by then, but there were a lot of big trees that had fallen from the storm. There were also a couple of cars that were badly damaged along the way. But we arrived home safe and sound to a cold and dark house late Saturday afternoon. After we got the generator going, we decided to head south as we had heard that they had restored electricity in Tillamook and we wanted some dinner. We found this great Chinese food place and of course everyone was there. They were telling us that Saturday night is usually their busy night, but with all of us from north county coming south to look for food, they were almost overwhelmed. After we got back home, we decided to go to bed early and just as we were settling in about 9:00, the lights came back on! What a pleasant surprise. I don't know how we ever survived without electricity. Next week, we'll have to post from Portland as we have games on Wednesday and Friday. Since this post takes up a couple of extra days, that one will probably be short. But we'll see...we could get another storm!

I know the politically correct thing to say is "Happy Holidays" but "MERRY CHRISTMAS" just the same. I hope everyone is not getting stressed out over this joyous season. Just have another Eggnog and enjoy!