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July 24, 2009

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Let me tell you what happened this week.

Since Dave was off doing his NASCAR race announcing and Donna's husband, Des was off with his Antelope group at Hart Mountain for the weekend; Donna and I thought it would be fun to have a "girls" night out on Friday. However, we got an early start, she picked me up around noon and we headed for Astoria to have dinner, see the latest Harry Potter movie and with stops along the way. I think she showed me every nursery from here to Astoria! She was looking for more plants for her yard. I am through with plantings for the summer and was just along for the ride. I can always look at plants - even though by this time of year there isn't much of a selection. Anyway, it was a warm day and she had the windows partly rolled down until the air conditioning kicked in, then she would roll the windows back up. Unfortunately, one of the times when she had the window rolled down part way, I had stuck my hand out. She forgot to tell me when she rolled the window back up and I got one of my fingers cut! It bled for a while and I ended up keeping my finger on ice the rest of the day so it wouldn't swell up. Donna felt real bad about it and I guess I learned a lesson to keep my hands inside the car!

By the time we got done with all our errands, Freddies, Costco, Home Depot, plus the various nurseries we stopped at, we decided that if we wanted to see the 6:00 p.m. movie that we should buy our tickets early and then go eat. So that is what we did. We had a lovely salad and crab cakes at the Cannery Cafe on the wharf in Astoria and made it back to the movie before it started. The movie was good and crowded with lots of young people there. The movie lasted until 9:00 so we didn't get back home until 10:00 p.m. that night. It was a long day.

Saturday, I spent about six hours working in the yard. I got the lawn mowed and I weeded the property alongside the road that runs up the hill to our second driveway. I couldn't believe how much weeding there was. I was pretty tired by the time I got done and decided to take Sunday off. I went out for breakfast at one of the new cafes in town and while I was eating, some friends came in and we ended up sitting together. I usually don't go out to eat by myself, as I always hate to eat alone so that was a pleasant surprise.

Dave got back home Sunday evening from announcing the race and he was sun burned and dead tired so he went to bed early. We had a lot to do the next day, because he wanted to get the steamboat launched this week. The only day available was Tuesday and we planned to remove the soot out of the boiler before then. We had to take it apart and then use a brush and vacuum to clean it out. And yes, I said "we". Since the heavy parts of the boiler have to be removed, it's getting to be too much for Dave to do alone. So it has now become another of the First Mate's job duties! Dave thought that maybe the soot buildup was the reason for the problem of reduced power when he steamed up the boat down at Siltcoos Lake last week. So we "de-sooted" it. What a dirty job! Then on Tuesday, with the help of our friend Ray, we launched the steamboat. But the cleaning of the boiler didn't help all that much. After Ray and Dave put their heads together, they came up with another solution and it worked! So now the boat should be able to go a little faster.

I had to run into town on Wednesday for a doctor's appointment. I had a few errands to run afterwards and was on my way back home by 2:30. It was getting pretty warm out while I was in town (about 85 degrees) and I was glad to be on my way to a much more suitable 70 degrees at home. Since we moved to the coast, I really can't tolerate those high inland temperatures anymore.

Wednesday was also Dave's sister's birthday so we had Leanna over for dinner that night. The neighbor lady had given her a small Sponge Bob Square Pants birthday cake and she brought it along and shared it with us after dinner.

Dave had cataract surgery on his other eye on Thursday, so we had to get up bright and early to be in Seaside by 7:30 a.m. I sat in the hospital reception area for a couple of hours while that was going on and read my new Sandra Brown book. I had to go to Seaside with him, as he was unable to drive himself after the surgery. Since he hadn't been able to eat before his operation, we stopped and ate breakfast on the way home.

Check us out! Now, in addition to being on Skype, we also have a Facebook account. I was a little reluctant to do the Facebook thing, but we have been getting so many requests from friends to join them on Facebook that we decided to have one for ourselves. We have been communicating with all sorts of people (even one of our exchange students, Sussie who lives in Australia) so it has been quite interesting. A friend of Dave's, Rich Patterson passed on a message from an old classmate who wanted to contact Dave for a class reunion. If that happens, it will be the first one for him in 40 years! So I guess it has been worthwhile to be on Facebook.

Not much else happened this week. Dave had city council on Tuesday evening and the ham radio club last night, but other than that...and the eye operation...it was pretty much business as usual this week.

Today, we have a post-op appointment back in Seaside for Dave's eye and then tonight the steam train from Garibaldi will be bringing a load of passengers up to Wheeler. Dave wants to have the boat all steamed up so he can have a whistle-blowing contest with the train. We have done this in the past when they came to Wheeler and it is a lot of fun to see the reaction from everyone.

We are expecting company this weekend. Stan and Terrie will be coming down. We had to turn away a request from Lara to come down too. No room at the inn this weekend. When it is hot in the valley, we get all kinds of company wanting to escape the heat, and it's supposed to be at or near 100 all week in the valley.