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August 22, 2008

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We said good-bye to our company on Friday afternoon. As I mentioned last week, my nephew Mark and his new bride Brenda came down and spent Thursday night. On Friday, we took a hike over to Oswald West State Park (Short Sand Beach) and watched all the surfers in the water. It was really crowded because it was so hot in the valley that everyone flocked to the coast where it was about 25 degrees cooler. The only problem is that when it is hot in the valley, we get a huge fog bank along the ocean. If there are on-shore winds, they blow it into town and it usually doesn't lift until mid-morning.

On Saturday, we had more company. Another nephew (Mark's brother) Jerry and his girlfriend dropped in. They had been camping over at Nehalem Bay State Park and decided to look us up. It was nice visiting with them and we always enjoy it when people drop by.

We also worked some more emptying out the old church. Dave hauled a couple more loads of steel and aluminum off to the recycle center. We still have a trailer-full of wood to take down to the burn pile. We started removing some of the rotten flooring and it literally came up by the handfuls. This is what's left of a floor joist in one corner of the church. We got a building jack set and braced up a beam to help support the building. Hopefully, that will help keep it from falling down anytime soon. We have quite a project a head of us. We have to completely rebuild the one corner of the church that is about ready to collapse. We'll start with the foundation and work our way up to the walls. Then once they are stabilized, we'll redo the subfloor and top floor. Then the roof will need to be replaced and re-shingled. We're figuring at least two years and a whole lot more money than we have! Still, if we do nothing, the thing will fall down and we really don't want that!

The weather turned really nasty by the first of the week with lots of rain and wind. This is mid-August! Why are we having December-like storms now? My poor flowers got drenched and really had the wind knocked out of them. Dave went down to the steamboat to make sure it hadn't sunk and pumped about 10 gallons of water out of it. He had put the side curtains on the boat before the storm hit, which helped keep some of the water out.

On Wednesday, we had made arrangements to drive to Scappoose to visit with Dave's Uncle Dean and Aunt Ramona. Dean was one of Dave's mom's younger brothers. They are getting up in years and are always happy to see us. Of course, Aunt Ramona has to fix a huge lunch for us and it was the middle of the afternoon before we got away. We decided to make a big loop on the trip. We came in on Highway 26, cut over to Highway 30 to Scappoose and then followed 30 to Astoria on the way back. From Astoria, we came home down Highway 101. By the time we made a couple of stops (Costco and Fred Meyer) in Astoria, it was after 6:00 before we got back. It was over 200 miles round trip, but it was well worth it.

The garden club is having a "pot" party today. It's not what you think. We are gathering at the home of one of our members so we can wash flowerpots and other containers to get ready for next year's Garden Club Sale. We are also having a potluck and everyone is bringing a favorite dish. Flower pots, potluck - Pot Party! Get it?

We are in the middle of a period of time when we are being "meeting-ed" out! Dave had City Council on Tuesday and I had a Parks Committee work party yesterday. Today is a SMART get-together to get us organized before the school year starts. Then comes the pot party and a town meeting tonight about spraying that will be happening at the logging operation on the hillside above town. Dave has to be there as a city councilor. Monday we have a Wheeler Emergency Committee meeting immediately followed by a similar regional Tsunami emergency planning meeting in Manzanita.

It looks like the storms have passed - for now. We should have a nice weekend. We don't have any plans, we'll just have to wait and see what come along. No more meetings, I hope!