Jan's Journal

October 1, 2010

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

This week is a little less hectic that last week, but all the weeks seem to go by much quicker than I like whether I am busy or not.

I started last weekend by volunteering for the Red Cross emergency blanket drive. Leanna and I drove to the Tillamook Fred Meyer store and set up our table and chairs inside the entry so we could approach customers as they came into the store. The blanket drive was for victims of disasters and you could donate $4 for a blanket. We got a great response for our efforts, but once we got the hang of approaching people with our song and dance, our shift was over.

Saturday night we were invited to a birthday party for Des and Donna Kahrs' grandson Taylor who turned two. They had a little party for him with barbecue chicken and salads with pie for dessert. Taylor enjoyed all the attention although I don't think he quite has the hang of birthdays yet.

Sunday we got up early, ate breakfast at our local hangout and took off for Hillsboro's Liberty High School to watch Ashtin play her soccer game. We arrived at the field and then waited for Lara to show up with all of the girls. She was taking care of Leslie's two girls as Leslie and Jason had to drive to Fossil for the funeral of his grandmother. Taking on two more along with her three was just about more than she could handle. It was such a joy for me to be greeted at the game by hugs from my five granddaughters just the same. After the game (they won), we headed back home.

We got our flu shots this week. Since we are over 65, they gave us the double dosage that included the H1N1 vaccine. My arm was a little sore but other than that - no reaction. Dave hates needles and I think he would rather have a root canal than a shot in the arm. But he did it for me anyway.

On Monday, Dave had a meeting and couldn't be in two places at once, so I filled in his shift at the Chamber. This is the last week for volunteering at the Visitor's Information Center and then the tourist season is officially over. It is pretty slow about this time of year and I always take something to read when I go up there. As it turned out I am glad I did because I only had a couple people come into the to ask questions.

With the change in the season, we are getting some really nice weather. The temperatures have been in the 70's the past couple of days. That has given me a chance to get outside and do some last minute yard work before the first freeze and rain hit. I fertilized the lawn before I left for our cruise and have had to mow it every week since. I put too much fertilizer on in some places and I have these brown ugly spots in the grass. The grass will eventually fill in, but in the meantime, it sure looks awful.

Speaking of fertilizer, I had cleaned out my garden area and put a couple of buckets of fertilizer on the ground so it can soak in during the winter. I was really disappointed in my garden this year and maybe my soil needed a boost, so I decided to get ready for next year by giving the soil an early shot of that high-powered fertilizer. It probably wasn't just the soil, I'm sure that all of the rain and cool weather we had all summer didn't help either.

We had our first garden club meeting on Tuesday. I am not an officer this year and am enjoying just attending the meetings. We had a couple of gals talk about propagation of plants, which was very interesting. After the meeting, I came home and decided to try propagating some of my geraniums for next year. We will see how that goes. I also volunteered to get the membership roster updated. This is going to be a "major" job with information for about 100 members to compile. I hope I can get it done before the year is out!

This weekend looks pretty good weather wise. I have a couple of things planned. First of all, there is a harvest festival at the local co-op farm that I want to attend and then Dave and I are going to go see a play in Cannon Beach at the Coaster Theater. The name of the play is "A Talent for Murder". A friend of ours is in it and it looks like it will be pretty good.

No pictures this week, maybe next time!