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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Now that the Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie have been consumed, it is now time to focus on the next holiday event. Let's get the shopping, decorating and card-sending underway. There are three bazaars going on this weekend that I plan on attending.

While the kids were here for the feast, Leslie climbed up on the ladder and cleaned out our roof gutters for us. That was really appreciated since climbing up on the ladder two stories high wasn't something that she wanted us to do and we weren't looking forward to it either. The gutters really needed it because they were overflowing during the heavy rain we had last week. It was a relief to get that little chore done. By Saturday, everybody had gone back home so the house was nice and quiet once again. Dave and I got back to our everyday routines. Dave finished putting up the outdoor Christmas lights and I started working on my Christmas card list and Christmas letter. I also was able to get a little "grandkids shopping" done at Fred Meyer with my senior discount (every Tuesday) and coupons that I clipped out of the paper. It was decided when all the kids were down that we weren't going to exchange gifts this year (grandkids excluded) and we are just going to give scratch-it lottery cards as gifts to one another. Maybe one of us will win some real cash!

We have had chilly but sunny weather most of this week and that gave us a chance to clean up the yard from the storms that blew down all the leaves and branches last week. I finished raking the leaves that had accumulated in the front of the property and Dave fired up the tractor and hauled all the branches that had blown down over to the burn pile at Kahrs'. The wind had also blown away one of the boards used to cover an open window on the old church, and Dave managed to retrieve that from down the street and get it back up in the air (it's a second story window) and re-fastened. We are expecting sunny weather all weekend long and I plan to take advantage of it since next week will be the last full week before my surgery on the 14th. I don't think I'll be laid up too long afterward, but if Mother Nature is going to give us nice weather between now and then, I'm going to use it!

We found out this last week that a local resident was badly injured in an accident on Highway 26. She and her husband were returning from Portland in that stormy weather when they came on a tree that had fallen across the road. They got out to see what they could do and just then, a truck came from the other direction and plowed into the tree, knocking it into her. We don't know her, but it seems we're the only ones in the community that don't. She's facing a long recovery and even though we don't know her, we're part of a community that is giving her a lot of support.

This weekend is the Wheeler volunteer and city employees Christmas party that the Park and Recreation Committee has coordinated. We decided to combine all the individual parties that each committee usually gives and have one big celebration. Our committee got together on Thursday and decorated the upstairs at City Hall for the Saturday night party. It is a potluck and the committee is furnishing the ham and refreshments (punch and coffee). We hope that about 40 people will attend.

Thank God the NBA finally came to their senses and decided to play a few games this season. The owners locked out the players last fall in a labor disagreement and it was only this week that the two sides finally decided to settle their differences and get on with a shortened season. The lockout has really put a financial burden on us as Dave depends on the "extra" income that he gets for engineering the radio broadcasts. We lost about six weeks of work - only part of which we'll be able to make up. If all goes according to plan, the preseason games will start in a couple of weeks and the regular season by Christmas. Dave will really be busy as the NBA will try to squeeze in as many games as possible between now and May to make up for the games they missed in November and December.