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August 10, 2007

IT'S ALMOST FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

I am writing my journal early this week as we are leaving on Thursday afternoon for the NW Steam Society meet on Lake Union in Seattle for the weekend. We pulled the Captain Bell out of the water on Monday night and have been working all week trying to get ready for the meet. The boat has been in the water since we put it in over the 4th of July and it had collected a lot of motor oil and barnacles in that short time. We got her all cleaned up, polished the brass and are ready to go. We will take lots of pictures to show what went on.

Besides working on the boat, I have been pulling weeds in the yard. The lawn needs mowing but it will have to wait until next week when we get back. I got my first mess of green beans from the garden the other day and a bunch of beets. Boy did they taste good. My garden area is only about 5x5 but I managed to cram a lot of stuff in the space. We cleaned out the lettuce and snow peas and I just replanted some more and they should be ready before our first frost this fall.

Saturday night, we were invited to a retirement party for a former neighbor of ours when we lived in Hillsboro. The party was held at his son's home in Banks, which is a good hour's drive from our place. We hadn't seen Rolf and Judy for years and they were surprised to see us. Their son's home was something else. He had bought this old farmhouse on five acres and had spent three years remodeling it. I should mention that the only thing left of the original farmhouse by the time he got through remodeling was the fireplace! The place has six bathrooms and each of his three children had a painted mural in their rooms. It was absolutely gorgeous. They lived in the garage that he has turned into a party house for three years and have only been in the house for six months. Also his black lab had just had a litter of 16 pups about two weeks ago and they were so cute. It was hard to resist once you picked up a little puppy that was snuggling into your neck! But I had second thoughts or I should say I heard a voice behind me telling me "you're NOT getting one" so I reluctantly put it back. They were sooo cute! We decided to drive back to our place after the party. Since Dave had helped himself to just a little of the host's $100 single-malt Scotch, he wanted me to drive. That was fine except there were so many cars coming back from the coast and their bright headlights were blinding my eyes. It was almost more than I could do to keep the car on the road. We counted 25 cars in one bunch and I was glad I made it home in one piece. We never did figure out why there were so many cars heading back from the coast on a Saturday night. It is usually like this on a Sunday night.

I had my first watercolor class on Sunday afternoon. Water coloring is harder than I anticipated but I felt I got a lot out of the class. There are about eight of us and we had to paint an apple and banana. My banana turned out pretty good but my apple looked more like a cherry bomb! I need a lot of practice. There are only three classes in this series, and I'm going to miss the next one on Sunday because we'll be out of town. That leaves one more class on the 19th.

Last Sunday evening, the park committee had invited all the civic members and people who had helped with the Waterfront Park to a potluck. We barbecued hot dogs on the park's new grill and as usual with a potluck we had plenty of food. We had a nice turnout and everyone seemed to appreciate all our efforts in the park.

Monday evening we had a work committee and spent about an hour pulling weeds and cleaning up the Reinhardt Pocket Park which we had built the year before. I came home with a few mosquito bites too. There is always something to be done in this town because we don't have the funds to hire someone.

I also spent a couple of hours volunteering for the Chamber of Commerce. I signed up to be an "alternate" when one of the regulars can't make it. It is a lot of fun and you meet quite a few people from all over the world. I had a lady come in for some information on camping in the area and she was from Switzerland. The Chamber occupies a corner in the antique store and so you see a lot of people coming in to shop for antiques. When it gets slow, I just walk around the store and look at antiques.

You can almost walk across the bay with all the boats in the water. It is definitely fishing season and the fishermen are out there in full force. I guess they are catching a few of them too. We can hear their conversations from our deck because their voices travel up from the river and they have to speak so loud over their boat motors. It really seems like summer when you see all those boats. This picture was taken in the misty cold last Sunday. Since then, there have been even more boats. There are also lots of kayaks in the water.

The other day we were in the house and I heard the distinct sound of a steam whistle. Just as I was trying to figure out where it was coming from, the steam train from Garibaldi came down the tracks. There was a load a people aboard and they were headed for Wheeler. The steam train runs between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach, and never comes this far north, so this was special! We ran out on our deck to wave at all the people. It turns out someone had chartered the train to come up here. That must have cost them a pretty penny! On their way back from town, Dave went down to the steamboat and fired up the boiler - enough to blow the whistle! When the train came by, we had dueling steam whistles! First the train and then the steamboat, then the train, then the boat, tooting back and forth at each other. It was music to my ears!