This month's calendar Archives
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
It's been a wicked week as far as the weather goes for us down here at the coast. The first thing Saturday morning the phone rang and woke me up from a deep sleep. It was for Dave from the City Manager informing him that an 8" water pipe had broken up at the water reservoir and one tank of city water was completely empty and the reserve tank was going fast, only 1/4 of a tank left! Dave immediately got out of bed, threw on some clothes and headed out to help. It's a small town and it seems that the city councilors are among the first ones to get called. I also got dressed and did my part by making the rounds in the neighborhood asking people to conserve water. By mid-morning the leak was fixed but it took another 24 hours to fill both of the reservoirs with water. It was rather ironic since - at the time - it was pouring down rain!
We watched the Nehalem River rise on Sunday and by the time high tide came in around noon, the island in front of us was completely under water and the main street of Nehalem was flooded. Someone suggested that they use a boat to haul people around and call it the "flood stage". The police had everyone using a detour to go around the mess. Once the tide started to recede, the water was still high, but the streets were passable again. This happens every time we have high tides combined with a lot of rain, but it still makes for some pretty spectacular photos!
On Monday it was really windy and cold. I took off first thing in the morning for my aerobics swim class and ended up slipping all over the place. The roads were really slick and the road crews hadn't had time to put any de-icer on the pavement. My knuckles were so white from gripping the steering wheel that it didn't dawn on me to put the Jeep in four-wheel drive! It was only later when Dave asked me why I didn't that I made a mental "head slap" and said "duh". After all, that IS why we have a Jeep! Anyway, I made it okay but it wasn't a pleasant drive. We only had 6 people show up for our class that day. Later, it was nice enough outside that I decided in the afternoon to do some weeding as the Bitter Crest was starting to take control of my flower beds. That weed is a real problem around here and if I let it go, after it's done flowering, it forms fragile pods and then with the slightest touch the seeds go everywhere. It is also known as a popper weed.
I drove into Tillamook on Tuesday to mentor the new students that had signed up for the Master Gardeners classes. As the class was about to start the instructor announced that there was a truck on fire out in the parking lot. Everyone rushed to the windows to see all the smoke and flames pouring out of the truck and guess whose car was parked right next to the burning truck? I didn't want to go out and move my car at that moment - who knows if the truck was going to explode or not - so I waited until after the fire trucks arrived and the flames were put out. On my break, I walked out to see if there was any damage and to get insurance/owner information just in case there was. I didn't see any damage so I rolled my windows down just a tad to air out the car. Well, that was a mistake because at 12:30 when I got ready to leave class and come home, my seats were all wet from the rain pouring in the windows! So I sat on my jacket to try to keep my pants dry while I drove to my next meeting. I had to be in Manzanita by 1:30 to attend the Garden Club meeting because I had signed up for snacks. So off I went to do that, wet pants and all!
Dave had a couple of Blazer games this week. He left on Monday morning and didn't return home until very late on Tuesday night. We were having quite a storm on Tuesday evening and we were even without lights for a couple of hours. I texted Dave to report the situation of pelting rain and heavy winds and wanted to know if he really wanted to come home that night. He decided to give it a try and by the time he was on the way home things had pretty well settled down, although he did have to weave in and out around some fallen limbs from time to time. I didn't mind the storm so much because we have these really handy halogen lights that stay charged in the power socket and when the electricity goes off, they come on automatically. I also lit my oil lamp and fired up the propane fireplace so I was nice and cozy reading my Kindle by candle light as the winds howled and the rains poured. Still, I was lucky that the power was only out for about two hours.
By Thursday, I was getting a pretty serious case of cabin fever so I talked Dave into driving me to Hillsboro to attend my class luncheon. A bunch of us from my high school class meet on the last Thursday of each month at Elmer's Restaurant in Hillsboro. We had about a dozen people show up this time - including two of my old classmates that Dave also knows. The three of them attended Pacific University together, so Dave wasn't stuck at a gathering where he didn't know anyone. I had a good time talking with a bunch of people that I don't get to see very often. This was the first luncheon since the holidays so there was a couple of month's worth of news to catch up with.
We are headed out for the weekend. I have to mentor a Garden class in the morning in Tillamook and then Dave will be picking me up and we will head into town as he has a broadcast on Friday night. Saturday night we are going to attend a fundraising dinner that is helping our oldest granddaughter, Ashtin towards her trip to Washington, D.C. in June. She just about has enough money for her trip. Then on Sunday the family is all getting together to celebrate with our youngest granddaughter Jordyn, who is having her 4th birthday. It sure is hard to believe that our baby granddaughter is going to be four! For that matter, it's hard to believe that Ashtin will be a teenager in August!
