This month's calendar Archives
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Well, this has been a week alright.
We had our dear friends; Ed and Diane Avila from Dexter, Oregon come and spend a delightful day with us on Sunday and then stay overnight. We always enjoy their visits as we have known them for over 46 years. We met when Dave and I were first married and lived in Oakland, California while Dave was stationed there in the Navy. They eventually moved to Dexter when their boys were little and we have kept in contact every since. Since the weather was rainy we didn't get a chance to go for any hikes - something we usually do with them - so we ended up playing a new game that Diane brought along called Yamslam which is similar to Yahtzee but played with chips instead of scorecards. She also brought along some homemade cookies (yum) and a couple of mums for my yard. They left Monday morning as it is a 5-hour drive home for them. I planted the mums after they left but they didn't last long - the deer found them and enjoyed them very much! They didn't just stop with the new mums either. Those little stinkers managed to eat my freshly-bloomed geraniums and roses too while they were here - making a clean sweep of almost everything edible that night!
I wasn't feeling very good after Ed and Diane left and by evening I was pretty miserable. My lower abdomen was bloated and very painful. Dave had been at a city council meeting that evening and fortunately it didn't last too long. When he got home about 8:30, I told him I needed to go to the hospital. He didn't mess around because he knows if I say something like that, I'm in bad shape. He drove me to the emergency room in Tillamook where - after several hours and a cat scan - the doctor decided I had a case of Diverticulitis. I have been on pain meds and antibiotics all week and I'm feeling better. But now I am on a low-fiber diet, which means only cooked or processed foods and liquids, no seeds or skins and no raw fruit or vegetables. This has been hard as I am the fruit and vegetable queen and I love my salads. At least they didn't take away my chocolate! (Not yet, anyway). I guess this is just another phase of getting old and I might as well try to accept it. I go back to the doctor next week. I thought it was nice of the hospital to call me back this week to see how I was doing and to make sure I had made an appointment with my doctor.
Both Dave and I perked up our ears this week as we heard that familiar sound of a steam whistle in the background. The steam train from Garibaldi was making a rare trip to Wheeler and it was such an exciting sound to hear. This is a new locomotive and it was the first trip they've made to Wheeler since they placed it in service. They usually travel only between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach. They used to make regular trips to Wheeler before a storm took out the tracks east of us four years ago. Since then, we only see the steam train about once a year.
Boy, when it rains it pours. This coming weekend we have so much crammed into one day we can't believe it. First of all, we have to leave early Saturday morning for Seattle to attend the Board of Directors meeting of the NW Steam Society. We will be leaving home around 6:00 a.m. as the meeting starts at 11:00 a.m. and includes lunch. After that we have to make a beeline for Vancouver to make an appearance at Dave's uncle Nick's 90th birthday party and from there it is into Beaverton to attend a retirement party for our good friend Terrie Boyd who has finally decided the business world can get along without her. We plan on spending the night with Stan and Terrie in Hillsboro as both of us are going to be pretty well partied out after that long day.
