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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Just an ordinary week - the dog days of summer. We have had such wonderful weather this August that I hate to see fall approach. We even had a couple of days in the 90 degree range and that is just too hot! But then again, the tourists will all be gone! It is hard to believe that September is just around the corner.

We did do a few things this week. There was the annual Fish Fry in Rockaway Beach on Saturday sponsored by the Oregon Food Bank to which we always go. I don't know how they can fix such delicious fish and not only is it for a good cause but it is always fun to see all of our friends and neighbors at these kinds of events.

I finished up with the church cleanup project and at least we have a trail running around the circumference of the building. After hacking away all the blackberry bushes on the north side, I looked like I had been in a cat fight as my arms were all scratched up. It is always a major job trying to keep ahead of the blackberries around here. I have sprayed them in the past but it doesn't help when the neighbor doesn't spray or keep his side of the blackberry bushes cleared.

Dave had to run into Portland on Wednesday and pick up one of his hearing aids which he has been doing without while it was being repaired. THANK GOODNESS he has that back. I always forget that he is hard of hearing and never speak up loudly or clearly enough for him so I am constantly repeating myself many times. While he was in town, he also had an appointment with the Trail Blazers to talk about renewing his contract for this coming season. That was a successful conversation and he'll be working the radio broadcasts for another year. Meanwhile, I stayed here as I had a work party to attend. I didn't want to miss it because I haven't been able to make it for most of the month. We have a work party each Wednesday where a bunch of us gals (volunteers) get together and spruce up the city's parks. This week we worked in the small pocket park which was overrun and needed pruning. I brought along my electric hedge trimmers and gave the Escolonia bushes a shearing. Those trimmers get heavy after a while and my arms sure ached after all that. Then after I was done with the work party, I came home and did some of my own pruning around our place!

The other afternoon we decided to take a walk down the railroad tracks to Kahrs' dock where we berth the steamboat . It was a nice afternoon and we needed to get out of the house. While we were walking, Dave tripped on one of those long stringy blackberry vines and fell onto the tracks. Luckily he didn't break anything but he sure has a bunch of scrapes and bruises. He hasn't felt like doing much as he feels like he was hit by a train!

Our good friends, Stan and Terrie Boyd stopped by on Thursday for a visit. They have been out here all summer from their home in Florida. We had a nice visit and then they took us to lunch in Manzanita. We were all hungry for a nice bowl of clam chowder and wouldn't you know it, the one place that they remembered having good chowder is now a Mexican restaurant! And then the place we ended up going to only serves clam chowder on the weekends. Go figure - they had a whole list of seafood on their menu too. This place is three blocks from the beach. Don't you think they would have clam chowder every day??

I can't believe we're going to be grandparents to a TEENAGER this week. Our beautiful baby Ashtin is turning 13 on Wednesday! I'm not sure what we are going to do to mark the occasion. We usually get together and celebrate birthdays for both Ashtin and Dave at the same time, so that may come in another week.

Ashtin's sister Paige, our ten-year old granddaughter, has been playing soccer all summer and last weekend she was in an invitational tournament. Her team won the championship after Paige scored the winning goal in overtime. I sure am sorry I missed that! We don't call her "fancy feet" for nothing because she can really make some moves.

Not much change to report with our daughter Lara this week. She has her good days and not so good days with nausea and fatigue. She will have her next chemo treatment on September 5th and I will be back there to give her support. She was given a gift of house cleaning from a friend of hers and she was telling me about these three Russian ladies showing up at her doorstep with brooms in hand. They whipped through her house like a white tornado! She said that her stove has never been so clean. What a great gift to give someone who needs all the energy she can muster just to make it through the day - let alone trying to keep house and take care of three kids. People have been so kind and caring during this ordeal. They have also set up a "food chain" to provide dinners for Lara and the family and the family is very grateful that those are continuing.

Dave made a big announcement this week. After much pondering and soul-searching, he decided that he is not going to run for re-election to the City Council. He has decided to empty his plate a little and besides - though he won't admit it - I think he just got tired of dealing with all of the politics that go with holding office in a small town. I'm sure he will still go to some of the meetings and keep tabs on things. He's been involved with the city too long to just quit cold turkey.

Well, like I said, it has been an ordinary week for us.